Editing Leviathan:Volume 1 Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 4===

The girl was making light breathing noises through her nose. Hal recalled that her name was something like Shirasaka Hazumi.

She was wearing the uniform of Kogetsu Academy's middle school division. Even when Hal was standing next to the pillow, she still showed no signs of waking up. Hal tried to shake her shoulders hard but there was no response at all.

"Asleep... No, hypnotized?"

Soth had probably cast sleeping magic on her.

Deducing that, Hal reached into his waist bag to search among his "tools of the trade." He planned to confirm the situation by putting on a monocle to obtain magical sight&mdash;

However, he stopped before he took it out.

Shirasaka Hazumi was asleep, lying face up. Her entire body was enveloped in faint white light.

This was the glow of magic. Clearly he did not see it earlier, but now he was suddenly able to see the light.

"Magical sight manifested because I wanted to see...?"

There were apparently more secrets to his special constitution. Hal muttered with heartfelt emotion.

"But carrying Sleeping Beauty using pure arm strength seems a bit laborious. If only there was a stretcher somewhere."

The sleeping magic cast by an elite dragon was impossible for someone like Hal to dispel.

But right now, time was at a premium. Even searching the building would be a waste of time. Besides, the beautiful girl before him was petite in stature and looked quite light. Hence, Hal gave up on the thought but just as he intended to carry her on his back&mdash;

(Why do you believe that you cannot rouse her from slumber?)

He suddenly heard the whispers of Hinokagutsuchi by his ear.

(As long as you call out, your voice will surely reach the heart of the priestess&mdash;the girl of the sacrificial serpent.)

"..."

Hal could come up with many reasons to refute this baseless proposition.

However, he found himself wondering "Is that really true?" while beginning to imagine.

Prompted by Hinokagutsuchi's reminder, Hal sensed it too. Indeed, this did not seem to be difficult&mdash;

Hal gazed into the girl's delicate and proper face.

She was someone who shared her life with a "dragon" or its close relative. In that case, surely she must be able to hear his voice.

Because for dragonkind, I am&mdash;we are&mdash;their natural enemy, a tyrant and a hated existence as well as being the target of their fear, loyalty and betrayal.

Since the girl was listed in the lineage of dragons, there was absolutely no way for her to ignore his call&mdash;

Driven by an inexplicable sense of certainty, Hal reached out lightly to touch the girl's face. At the same time, he also reached her heart.

"You... Can you get up?"

The instant he called out, the girl suddenly opened her eyes. Hal hastily withdrew his hand.

Just awoken, the witch stared blankly with her sleepy eyes for quite a while. Then she turned her glazed eyes to the male stranger by the bed and froze for ten-odd seconds.

Then she emitted a brief and sudden scream.

"Kyah."

"Umm, I'm not a suspicious person."

(What are you talking about? You have already sneaked into a young girl's bedroom and peeked at her unseemly state of slumber...)

Hinokagutsuchi's whispers were correct this time.

But stupid as Hal was to overlook this point until now, he tried his best to put on a harmless look and made an overconfident attempt to pretend to be a "reliable older brother," nodding to the witch who was younger than him.

Fortunately, the girl&mdash;Shirasaka Hazumi&mdash;could not hear Hinokagutsuchi's voice, apparently.

"O-Okay. Sorry, I screamed too loudly. By the way, why am I here...? I remember going to the courtyard, then... I met a transformed dragon."

"Yeah, you were captured by an elite dragon named Soth."

Confronted with Hazumi who seemed to be remembering what happened before she was hypnotized, Hal answered, "I am your cousin Juujouji-san's... acquaintance. My family name is Haruga."

"I've heard about you."

After Hal brought up Orihime's name to reassure her and gain her trust, Hazumi sat up straight in seiza posture.

She was sitting formally on the bed, gazing at her cousin's acquaintance. Feeling such an honest gaze, Hal instantly felt a little timid.

Her eyes were even more vigorous than what the photo showed. Hal felt as though he might get sucked into them involuntarily.

"I heard that you belong to SAURU and you're Orihime-neesama's new friend."

She brought up the title that Hal had deliberately avoided.

Hal did not deny it. Somehow, he could not find a reason to deny.

"Juujouji is busy right now, so I came over to check things out."

"I understand now... Excuse me, Haruga-san, may I ask you a question?"

Shirasaka Hazumi seemed like a sheltered classy young lady.

Her choice of words was very polite but the generous tone of voice made her very approachable.

"This building should be quite dangerous for ordinary people to enter, but why are you...?"

The Mansion was still filled with a curse of Death.

Hal's magical sight could see this deadly magic swirling in the air as tiny gorgeous silver scales. As a witch, Hazumi should be able to see the same thing.

However, why was Hal safe and sound? Confronted with this most natural question, Hal replied, "Simply stated, my constitution is a little special."

"A special constitution!?"

"But I just don't have any inclination to use this constitution for secret activities as a masked hero. Since the future is still undecided, I'd like to keep this a secret for now. I'd appreciate it if you could help out with that."

"Oh..."

Since he had no intention of explaining in detail and there was no time either, Hal decided to just gloss over things.

Hazumi tilted her head with an incomprehensible expression but did not question him. Evidently, she was the obedient and reserved type, unlike her cousin.

Feeling fortunate, Hal was about to end this embarrassing conversation when...

"I see, so something this unbelievable actually existed..."

However, Hazumi was murmuring to herself with an impressed expression and kept staring intently at Hal's face.

Her gaze was forceful indeed. Perhaps due to a guilty conscience, Hal was unable to avert his eyes. Then Hazumi suddenly chuckled, surprising him.

"W-What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing much, it's just that I find this quite interesting. Please do explain in detail next time if you don't mind. I will be very glad..." said Hazumi with a faint and staid smile.

Although Orihime was also a girl akin to a "princess," her cousin was no less suited to the same description.

Hazumi's generous honesty and distinctive pace made "a princess who grew up in a sheltered boudoir" an apt description of her. Furthermore, her laughter exhibited both cheerfulness and what could be called ''genuine'' purity&mdash;

Just as Hal could not help but stare, mesmerized...

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

The sound of rupturing was heard from overhead. An explosion nearby had apparently happened.

Hal and Hazumi exchanged a glance then went to the balcony together.

"So many dragons!? And there are two 'serpents'..."

"Those are the leviathans of Juujouji and Asya&mdash;my friend! They are currently fighting the elite dragon that captured you. But it seems like they're having a bit of trouble..."

The night sky above the redevelopment zone had turned into a battlefield between dragons and serpents.

The Raptors numbered roughly thirty.

Driving them away was the nine-tailed fox-wolf, Akuro-Ou. Orihime's leviathan was controlling nine giant fireballs while dashing back and forth freely across the night sky at the same time.

As soon as Akuro-Ou caught up to a Raptor, she would attack using her horn counterpart.

Using the nine tails as whips, she inflicted heavy blows on the Raptors' faces and chests. She also used the claws on her four limbs to tear enemies apart and bit them with her wolf-like jaws.

The result was that whenever Akuro-Ou or one of the fireballs moved&mdash;

The number of Raptors decreased surely and steadily. The battle was completely one-sided.

The problem lay on the other side where Rushalka the blue wyvern was dueling Soth.

The "serpent" had currently turned her body into holy water, rendering flames and physical attacks ineffective.

But over the head of Soth while he was holding his "spear"&mdash;

Five runes were giving off radiant blue light. Was this also due to his special constitution? Hal was able to decipher the runes' nature with just a single look.

"Magic symbols for Telekinesis!"

Soth was currently releasing telekinetic force that could be described as an invisible hand, trying to capture Rushalka.

He was probably trying to stop his opponent from escaping before casting Dispel on the holy water transformation.

"Th-That is magic that only elite dragons can use, isn't it...?"

Nodding in response to Hazumi's question, Hal said, "Yeah. Those are the Secret Runes of Ruruk Soun. Although elites seem to know many different kinds of magic, only these runes are effective against the leviathans and their strong magic resistance."

Finding Hazumi quite unfamiliar with knowledge in this area, Hal decided to explain.

Speaking of which, the incidence of the magic-wielding elite dragons was relatively low in East Asia.

Hence, it was only natural for her not to have crossed paths with such knowledge.

"The runes of Ruruk Soun are on the same level of power as the pseudo-divinity of 'serpents'&mdash;but differ in the number of times they can be used. Asya is Level 5, meaning she can invoke divinity five times at most, but those elites seem capable of using runes many more times..."

Then Hal discovered something.

The mini-Monolith, originally standing on the reclaimed land that had turned into a battlefield, had disappeared at some point!

"Oh&mdash;Minadzuki!?"

Hazumi cried out, causing Hal to follow her gaze.

The leviathan in the form of a serpentine dragon, Minadzuki, was currently lying in a corner of the reclaimed land. Possibly affected by the Blood Drinking magic that Hinokagutsuchi mentioned, she was unable to move at all.

"Since she's still materialized, she shouldn't be dead yet, right!?"

"Y-Yes, but she has become quite feeble at the moment. I must hurry and release her material form...!" said Hazumi with worry as she clasped her hands together before her chest as though in prayer.

Then closing both eyes, she whispered in a gentle voice, "You don't need to suffer any longer... Hurry and escape from here!"

Lying on the ground, several hundred meters away, the serpentine dragon responded to her partner's prayer.

Turning into particles of light, she disappeared from the ground surface. Opening her eyes to confirm Minadzuki's retreat, Hazumi exhaled with relief.

&mdash;Once the partner witch issued the order, a leviathan would instantly disappear.

Fearful of that happening, Soth probably placed Hazumi in deep sleep to prevent that.

The reason why she was not killed was because the leviathan would perish once the covenantee died. Also, Soth was uninterested in the lives of witches and the like&mdash;

"Was it because that guy wanted to use Minadzuki's ''blood''...?" whispered Hal softly.

Soth's target was Rushalka in holy water form, flying all over the place.

But at this moment, the bronze-colored elite dragon suddenly turned his back to the blue wyvern as though he had lost interest in the battle and flew in this direction&mdash;towards the Mansion!

I see. Hal realized.

Making the "serpent" disappear was the partner's special right. Then who could have released Hazumi from her unconscious state&mdash;?

Minadzuki's disappearance would surely alert Soth to the arrival of his "target." As expected, this acquaintance of a dragon landed in the heart of the Mansion's grounds and stared intently at the balcony.

"D-Dragon...!" gasped Hazumi next to him, shrinking back in fear.

Hal stepped forward to shield her behind him. No, of course he knew clearly that as a witch, Hazumi was a million times stronger than him, but this frail girl was completely different from his inordinately durable childhood friend.

At a time like this, Hal could not possibly hide behind Hazumi's back, right?

While Hal made this decision with slight resignation, Soth spoke to him in excitement, "Rousing the priestess from my coffin of slumber&mdash;I knew it was you, Tyrannos."

"Don't decide on your own to address others by weird names..."

"Temporarily though it may be, I still wish to express respect towards the wielder of the dragonslaying bow. Although I would have liked to have subjugated those ''imitations'' to suck their blood dry first&mdash;Now that the two participants of the promised rematch are present, delaying the duel on account of entertainment would be too boorish..."

Soth snickered to himself.

"Bathed in the blazing flames ignited from the blood of female dragons, my Heartmetal is currently aroused in excitement. If it is right now, I can even manage to emulate the techniques of dragonbane... Fufu, heaven ordains that I shall become the dragonslayer to challenge you today!"

Kuohhhhhhhhhhhh!

The white fox-wolf roared and flew over. Akuro-Ou.

Taking a closer look, Hal discovered that all the Raptors spread out in the night sky had been destroyed. Scattered on the empty land in this redevelopment zone were the remains of the petrified lesser dragons.

Struck down by Akuro-Ou, they had crashed down at various places.

Like someone who had defeated swarms of foot soldiers and was finally about to slay the general, Akuro-Ou pounced ferociously at Soth from behind.

As agile as a wolf, she attempted to bite Soth's throat.

With the speed of bestial reflexes, Soth swept the "spear" horizontally. The sharp spear tip slashed open Akuro-Ou's flank.

This sent Akuro-Ou's massive body flying away, causing her attack to end in failure.

However, the fox-wolf's fur apparently possessed toughness on the same level as dragon scales. The wound inflicted by the "spear" was not very deep. Moving so rapidly that she did not seem injured, Akuro-Ou began to fly again.

The sharp lupine eyes displayed the willpower to attack again.

However, the target did not regard her heroic posture as a threat.

"O ''imitation'', you are too boorish. I was just starting a revolt by challenging the Tyrannos. This is dragonkind's most noble crusade, so do not interfere!"

Roaring arrogantly, Soth's entire body instantly began to burn.

As a bronze dragon, his giant body was enveloped in white&mdash;platinum-colored&mdash;flames.

Hal had seen this type of flame before. A few days ago when Hinokagutsuchi had saved Hal in Tokyo Station, these were the same flames that had surrounded her remains.