Editing Unlimited Fafnir:Volume 4 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 2===

"No choice—I'll protect you!"

I grabbed Kili's arm and ran back to the hall. The calamity was probably known already. It was a bit noisy in the hall and the orchestra had stopped playing too.

I looked around and found Mitsuki then I brought Kili over to her.

"Mitsuki!"

"...N-Nii-san! What happened to your hand!?"

Seeing my blood spattered right hand, Mitsuki asked shrilly. Originally a bit farther away, Iris, Lisa, Ariella, Ren and Tia all gathered to see what was going on.

"Oh, my wound is fine, it's already healed. What's more important is this, look."

Saying that, I showed Kili's dragon mark, which had turned yellow, to Mitsuki and the girls.

"What—"

They all stared at Kili's arm, too surprised to speak.

"Hraesvelgr is here."

Then I summed up the current situation. Mitsuki immediately showed comprehension on her face.

"I see—So this is the situation."

Swiftly figuring things out, Mitsuki glared at Kili.

"Indeed, this is the situation."

Kili nodded nonchalantly to concur.

"Although I have things to say... I will put them aside for now."

Mitsuki remarked bitterly then turned her gaze to the viewing balcony on the second floor where we were taken to earlier.

"Shinomiya-sensei, Level A alert! Type Yellow! We will intercept, Sensei, so please lead the ordinary people to evacuate!"

Perhaps to avoid the chaos to spread further, Mitsuki used Midgard's alert jargon to report the situation to Shinomiya-sensei.

"—Understood."

From the balcony, Shinomiya-sensei nodded. Next to her, Firill also leaned out.

"I will head over immediately!"

"No, Firill-san, please remain in the hall! Someone needs to protect Kili-san and the people here."

"...Got it."

After hearing Firill's response, Mitsuki called to us.

"Everyone, let us move out. First go outdoors to confirm the target visually."

We left Kili in the hall and ran outside.

"Eh? Eh? What's going on?"

Iris still seemed unsure of the situation. While running, she asked in puzzlement.

"Yuu, what does 'this is the situation' mean?"

Because things developed too suddenly, Tia had not caught up either.

"You just saw the dragon mark whose color had changed, right? Hraesvelgr's target is Kili. To prevent Kili from turning into a dragon, we must intercept Hraesvelgr."

"Ehhh!? We have to fight now? What if I get the dress dirty..."

Hearing what I said, Iris looked down at the white dress she was wearing. Although something was off with her worries, since she still had the luxury of worrying about something like that, there was no problem.

What concerned me more was Ariella who seemed occupied in her thoughts.

"—Hraesvelgr."

As though squeezing out her voice, Ariella murmured the name of the invading dragon, then gritted her teeth hard.

Passing through the door leading to the corridor, we then rushed into the courtyard. Immediately, we were greeted by strong wind blowing straight at us.

I looked up into the sky to see the giant golden bird that happened to fly past. Its body looked bigger than before.

Although it was difficult to get a sense of distance, it looked like Hraesvelgr was descending from quite a high altitude.

"That is Hraesvelgr. Although it frequently passes near Midgard's territorial waters, this is my first time seeing it from so near."

Lisa commented while looking up at the giant bird flying in the night sky.

"Hraesvelgr is infamous for rendering all kinds of attacks ineffective. However, we have no need to be pessimistic, because we possess what has never been tested before—Powerful means of attack."

Saying that, Mitsuki instantly issued orders to us.

"Lisa-san and Ren-san, cooperate to fire a positron cannon of maximum firepower. I will borrow Iris-san's dark matter to fire an extra large antimatter missile. Nii-san, please attack with anti-dragon armaments with Tia-san's assistance! Ariella-san, deploy barriers as necessary!"

"Affirmative!"

We all answered in unison then taking positions some distance apart from one another, we looked up at the sky.

"Gungnir!"

Lisa generated her fictional armament of a spear then Ren enlarged it.

"Brionac!"

Mitsuki borrowed Iris' dark matter to create a fictional armament of a bow, several times larger than usual.

"Tia, I'm counting on you."

The amount of dark matter I could generate at a time was extremely small. To create gigantic anti-dragon armaments, I needed to borrow dark matter from others.

"Great! Tia's power is all yours, Yuu."

Tia nodded and held my left hand.

I raised my right hand and materialized the weapon from an ancient civilization.

"Special artillery—Megiddo!"

Borrowing the dark matter flowing from Tia, I constructed a giant cannon pointing at the sky.

Controlling the cannon that was linked to my consciousness, I aimed at Hraesvelgr in the air.

"—Aegis."

Ariella equipped her gauntlet-shaped fictional armament and stayed on guard against attacks from Hraesvelgr.

"It is still outside attack range. Please wait until it approaches before attacking! If Hraesvelgr's target is Kili-san, it will surely land in this castle."

Mitsuki shouted to us after we were all ready, then nocked an arrow of dark matter onto her fictional armament.

Hraesvelgr was gradually circling over a smaller area. It was probably searching for Kili's location while descending.

Due to its figure getting nearer, I figured out why it was so hard to pin down the sense of distance.

Its outline was unsteady without a specific size.

Despite being bird-shaped overall, Hraesvelgr did not have a fixed form. It was almost like it was enveloped in a layer of golden steam.

Flying in the night sky, Hraesvelgr looked very noble and sacred, almost making me forget it was a dragon, the enemy of mankind. The wind gradually grew stronger and started to carry glittering golden particles.

"Its movements are changing. Everyone, get ready!"

Perhaps certain that Kili was in Erlia Castle, the circling Hraesvelgr started to descend. The giant golden bird made a rapid descent straight towards our direction.

"To confirm whether the various attacks are effective, we will attack in waves. Lisa-san, please fire your first shot!"

"Understood—Pierce, flare!"

Gungnir's tip glowed brightly. The flash of positrons, magnified using Ren's dark matter, instantly reached Hraesvelgr's location.

"What...?"

Lisa exclaimed in shock.

Despite getting struck by positron blast, Hraesvelgr tore through the flash of light and continued to descend. Instead of slowing down, it sped up.

Seeing what happened, Mitsuki drew Brionac's bowstring.

"My turn! Terminating Arrow—Last Quark!"

Mitsuki shot an arrow of antimatter. This was Midgard's trump card.

Hraesvelgr made a beeline for us without choosing evasive action, taking Mitsuki's antimatter projectile head on.

The explosion—did not happen

Bouncing off the surface of Hraesvelgr's body, Mitsuki's arrow disappeared without trace.

"No way... Why—"

Mitsuki was at a loss but quickly came to her senses and turned to face me.

"Nii-san, please fire!"

"Understood!"

I nodded then gripped Tia's hand tightly.

Using the dark matter flowing from her I transmuted it into the ammunition's energy to fire Megiddo's boundary-incinerating blue flames.

"—Fire!!"

The projectile, a sphere of blue light, rose in the night sky. Aimed accurately, it struck Hraesvelgr right on the mark. The exploding light engulfed Hraesvelgr's body.

Due to the blinding light, the stars and the moon in the sky vanished.

—Whoosh!

The sound of wings flapping could be heard amidst the light.

Breaking through the blue sun in the night sky, the giant golden bird flew towards us.

Exactly like Lisa's attack, it did not work.

"Gah... I'm not done yet!"

Holding Tia's hand I left Megiddo, which was gradually melting from the heat of firing, then constructed another anti-dragon weapon.

I felt a sharp pain in my head and my consciousness grew hazy. Consecutive construction of anti-dragon armaments caused massive strain but I had no choice but to take the gamble.

"Marduk, main cannon—Babel!"

A giant barrel, split into two, gradually appeared. Tia closed her eyes and transmitted all her dark matter to me.

Hraesvelgr had descended to a height where details of its body could be seen clearly.

With golden feathers, Hraesvelgr's entire body was enveloped in dazzling particles of light. The reason why its size and outline fluctuated unsteadily seemed to be due to the particles' oscillation. The actual body was roughly ten meters or so. Compared to other dragons, Hraesvelgr seemed rather petite in size.

We were out of options if this failed.

"This must succeed—Fire!!"

The lens-shaped device inside the barrel glowed while pitch-black light extended towards Hraesvelgr.

This was a supergravitational spatial discontinuity which devoured and crushed all creation. Apart from neutralizing it with a repulsive field of antigravity like Leviathan's, there was no method to resist this attack.

At least, it should halt Hraesvelgr's movements.

However, the supergravity's beam of light stopped unnaturally just before making contact with Hraesvelgr.

As though the space occupied by Hraesvelgr rejected all interference, the supergravitational field could not reach it. Thus, only swallowing the night wind, it vanished.

This was not an issue of effectiveness. Instead, it was an issue on a completely different dimension.

Most likely, our attacks could not interfere with Hraesvelgr at all.

Understanding this was already too late. Descending with fierce speed, Hraesvelgr charged into Erlia Castle.

"—Pressure barrier, deploy!"

After Ariella's shout, I heard a giant noise and the ground shook intensely.

Dust flew up and the ancient and beautiful castle collapsed.

Debris of various sizes scattered, falling like rain.

"Yuu!"

Tia screamed and hugged me.

The flood of dust and flying debris was blocked entirely by Ariella's barrier of wind and did not reach us.

"—Thank you, we're saved."

I thanked Ariella but she was showing a grim expression while glaring at the place where Hraesvelgr had charged into. There was intense hostility that her eyes normally did not show.

Due to the cloud of dust in the surroundings, it was almost impossible to see anything, but there was no doubt that Hraesvelgr had charged into the vicinity of the hall.

"...Anyway, let us hurry to Kili-san! We fight while protecting her!"

Mitsuki issued orders and took flight, taking Iris with her. The door to the hall had already collapsed, so she probably intended to enter the castle from the place where Hraesvelgr had crashed through.

"Tia will fly with Yuu!"

Using dark matter, Tia created her fictional armament of red wings, then transmuted air to hover. Wrapped in her wind, I flew and pointed to the large hole appearing in the dust cloud.

"Enter from there!"

"Got it!"

Taking me with her, Tia rushed into the castle that was shrouded in dust. The rest followed us in.

Inside the great hall whose ceiling opened up to the third floor, screams and sounds of chaos could be heard.

Hraesvelgr's figure could be seen vaguely in the center of the hall which was filled with dust and golden particles. Perhaps because the golden particles covering its body had dispersed when it charged inside, Hraesvelgr seemed smaller than when it was landing earlier.

For some unknown reason, Hraesvelgr had stopped moving.

In such poor visibility conditions, I focused and looked, searching for Kili and Firill who was supposed to guard her.

Only after looking did I realize that the damage to the hall was unexpectedly small. Perhaps Firill had deployed a barrier to protect people from getting harmed by the debris.

"Yuu, over there!"

Kili discovered Kili and Firill faster than me. They were on the deep end of the hall—where King Albert's coffin was kept.

Firill was holding her book-shaped fictional armament. Just as I thought, she was the one suppressing damage to the hall.

"Over here, everyone!"

I called Mitsuki and the others then we all headed over to Firill.

We landed nearby and Kili smiled with resignation.

"From the way you look, the battle seems to be going badly."

"Yeah..."

I answered bitterly then looked at Firill.

"Are you okay, Firill?"

After hearing me, she seemed to relax her expression. Her shoulders also became less tense.

"I'm okay, it's good that you guys came back... I really wouldn't know what to do on my own..."

"After entering the castle, Hraesvelgr just stayed there without moving the whole time?"

The using her fictional armament's spear tip, Lisa pointed at the giant golden bird in the middle of the hall and asked Firill.

"...Yes, it turned its head to look this way and that, like searching for something, but didn't discover us yet, apparently."

"Could it be that it cannot find Kili-san due to the poor visibility...?"

Lisa murmured with a troubled expression but I could not agree.

From Hraesvelgr's behavior, I could sense hesitation that the previous dragons lacked.

Unlike Leviathan and Basilisk that had pursued in a straight line as soon as they picked their targets, Hraesvelgr circled many times in the air as though scouting before charging into the castle.

And right now, at the center of the hall, its gaze was wandering as though indecisively.

During this time, all the people in the hall had escaped outside.

We should escape too but the nearby entrances had collapsed and were blocked. Even if we could evacuate to somewhere else, the chances of escaping the winged Hraesvelgr were very low.

After the hall settled down, Hraesvelgr's gaze shifted towards us. Most of the smoke and dust had dispersed. With golden particles hanging around it, Hraesvelgr's figure was clear to see.

"Ugh..."

Kili frowned in pain and held her hand against the dragon mark. Bright light escaped from gaps between her fingers.

Hraesvelgr finally recognized Kili as its mate.

"We have no choice but to do everything we can to stop it. In any case, we must try all possible ways of attacking, to find a solution to this predicament!"

Under Mitsuki's orders, we readied our fictional armaments and stood in front of Kili.

Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Before we could attack, Hraesvelgr spread its wings with an acute cry. Golden particles were released from Hraesvelgr as the center, drifting towards us.

"Air Wall!"

Firill instantly deployed a barrier of wind but the particles engulfed us, ignoring the wall of air.

"Gah!?'

The instant the particles surrounded me, my body became unable to move. Despite a very clear consciousness, my body did not follow orders. That feeling was like having spirit sealed inside the body.

—What is this? What the heck is happening—

Surrounded by golden particles, all of us stopped moving. Since Kili was in my blindspot, I could not see her situation.

Damn it! Was there no solution?

The dark matter generated using my mind alone were destroyed by the particles as soon as they appeared.

Hraesvelgr approached us leisurely.

However, I was powerless, unable to lift even a finger.

"I thought perhaps you might be able to defeat Hraesvelgr—But in the end, it's still too hard."

I heard a voice of despair.

Kili went past my immobile body and walked over to in front of Hraesvelgr. Perhaps because we were acting as shields, she was the only one who was not covered by the particles.

Smiling sadly, Kili looked back and asked me:

"Or perhaps the reason 'to protect me' is not enough to make you go all-out?"

Since my mouth could not move, I was unable to answer.

But I was serious and I was prepared to fight to my last strength.

However, there was something in my power. I had not tested out all possibilities.

To avoid thinking of that option, I had placed it last. But by this point, I could not even choose that option—Because it was too late.

"Never mind, but I still want to express my gratitude to you. Thank you for protecting me. Also, I had a lot of fun today. This was probably the second time in my life to experience such a fun day."

Saying that, Kili turned to face the front and walked towards Hraesvelgr on her own.

"If this is destiny... then it can't be helped. Perhaps I should feel thankful that I could become a true dragon, being nothing at the moment."

Kili spoke in self-deprecation, halting her steps in front of Hraesvelgr.

Hraesvelgr stopped as well and looked at Kili below.

"Come—Do as you please."

She lifted her right arm with the glowing dragon mark, waiting for the moment to arrive.

Hraesvelgr slowly bent down, bringing its beak towards Kili's hand.

Stop!

I could not make a sound even though I wanted to yell.

But just as it was about to touch Kili's fingertips, Hraesvelgr stopped moving.

Clad in a coating of inviolable light, the dragon quietly stared at Kili's shining dragon mark then left her as though losing interest.

"Eh...?"

Kili's voice was hoarse.

Immediately, her dragon mark lost its brightness.

The change in color reverted?

Walking past the shocked Kili, Hraesvelgr approached our immobile group.

The giant golden bird looked at each of us in turn then settled its gaze on Firill.

What was it going to do—?

A bad premonition surged.

Its interest piqued by something, Hraesvelgr bent its body and approached Firill's face.

Then the golden particles filling this vicinity became even more concentrated.

But just as the particles covered King Albert's coffin, I witnessed an unbelievable scene.

Amidst the particles, a human silhouette appeared ambiguously.

Like a dot drawing, the tiny golden particles traced outlines.

I recalled what Ariella had said about Hraesvelgr possessing the ability to materialize souls. Reportedly, a scholar had also proposed that Hraesvelgr's ability was generating ether particles that caused souls to materialize.

Then the figure gradually taking form in front of King Albert's coffin, could it be—

The ambiguous golden human silhouette moved as though gliding, arriving in front of Hraesvelgr that was staring at Firill up close, then swung its arm that was made of particles.

—Thud!

Hraesvelgr's beak shook slightly while the the particles of the human silhouette's arm scattered from the reaction force.

That action was like the figure wanted to protect Firill.

Due to a higher concentration of particles near Hraesvelgr, the figure's face gradually became possible to discern.

In other words, these particles were ether particles... And that over there was King Albert's soul?

If that was the case, covered by golden particles, Hraesvelgr's body was also—

I was just about to discover Hraesvelgr's true form, but my thoughts were interrupted by acute cries.

—Kuehhhhhhhhhhhh!

Hraesvelgr opened its beak towards the particles that seemed to be King Albert's soul.

Instantly, there was a strong gust of wind. The golden particles filling up the hall stirred, restrained by the wind, they were sucked into Hraesvelgr's mouth.

Even the particles making up King Albert were no exception.

Rustle—Like a sand castle collapsing, King Albert, manifested through particles, lost his outline.

The magical bird that devoured souls.

Just as in legends, Hraesvelgr devoured souls.

Before Firill's eyes, it devoured the soul of the gradually disintegrating King Albert.

But in this state where even using our voices was impossible, no one could stop things from happening.

Just before vanishing, King Albert seemed to turn his head towards Firill. However, even his expression could not be read—All of him vanished.

Perhaps satisfied from eating a soul or for some other reason, Hraesvelgr left Firill and turned its back to us.

Spreading its golden wings, Hraesvelgr took flight.

Then exiting the large hole it had opened in the wall, Hraesvelgr departed by flying through the sky.

Immediately, the golden particles filling the surroundings thinned out and my body became able to move again.

Inside the quiet castle, the sound of debris collapsing emptily could be heard.

"Really? I guess an imitation like me cannot become a dragon either."

Staring at the giant hole where Hraesvelgr had departed, Kili laughed dryly.

"Fufu... Ahahahaha! What a shame, mother, looks like I'm even more useless than you imagined!"

Then—Having regained her freedom, Firill collapsed on the floor and cried.

"...Sob... Sob... Ahhh... Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"

Kneeling at the spot where King Albert's soul had stood, she cried with sorrow.

None of us were able to say anything.

The crisis was over for now and we had avoided the worst-case scenario. However, the trauma left behind by Hraesvelgr was far too deep.