Leviathan:Volume 7 Chapter 3
Chapter 3 - New Town in Turmoil
Part 1
At Kogetsu Academy, Year 1 Class F was having second period.
Attendance was roughly down by 20% from the beginning of the first school term, due to the frequent dragon strikes in recent months.
Futhermore, three regular attendees were absent today.
Haruga Haruomi, Anastasya Rubashvili, and Juujouji Orihime—
To Mutou-san and Funaki-san, they were friends and "colleagues." Though they did not know the precise reason, the two girls realized vaguely that something big must have happened seeing as three important members of Tokyo's defense line, involved in the field of fighting dragons, were absent at the same time...
Perhaps because of that...
In the middle of second period, when the speakers installed all around town suddenly broadcast an emergency evacuation alarm, Mutou-san and Funaki-san were not surprised at all.
'Citizens, please remain calm and head over to the designated shelters—'
The female voice announced the approaching of dragons and the need to evacuate. Notifications for guiding citizens to evacuate also arrived one after another on their cellphones.
During this time, most of the people in the class were quite calm.
At most, there were a few anxious students. After all, they were living in the twenty-first century, an era when the existence of dragons had become taken for granted.
Just as they were preparing to evacuate in an orderly manner—
"Kyahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
Noticing something alarming outside, a female student near the window screamed.
She pointed outside. Two giant creatures were flying at low altitude—around a hundred meters. One was crimson, the other was silver-white.
Of course, the two creatures were dragons, but both were much larger in size than Raptors.
In addition, both were giving off pearly glows that looked like barriers.
The silver-white dragon held onto the crimson dragon tightly, even using its right forelimb to choke the opponent's throat, dragging the crimson dragon towards the Sumida River!
"Isn't that the dragon from last time!?"
Seeing the silver monster, Mutou-san stood up.
Before the summer holiday, she had met a handsome young man by chance. Before parting ways, he had transformed into that silver dragon, in the same manner as space warriors whose color schemes chiefly consisted of red and silver.
"These two would both be categorized as elite dragons."
Through her classmate Haruga Haruomi, she had learned a great deal about dragons. That power and gigantic body, as well as the glint of intellect in their eyes. Unmistakable.
"I never thought I'd see this in person one day..." murmured Mutou-san, utterly moved.
However, the surrounding people were not as laid back.
The two elite dragons had flown past extremely close by, almost brushing the edge of the school yard. Furthermore, their bodies seem to be releasing magic-like energy, causing the classroom windows to suddenly shatter all at once.
"Kyahhh!" "Wahhh!?"
Girls screamed again, followed by that of boys.
Fortunately, class was in progress, otherwise, students next to the windows would have gotten hurt.
Thanks to lesson time, everyone were at their seats and nobody was injured by the broken glass. However—
Instead, chaos broke out. Students and even the teacher rushed out of the classroom in panic, fighting towards the stairs, trying to leave the school as quickly as possible.
The students running in the corridor were not limited to those of Year 1 Class F.
The other homerooms—no, the entire school—were doing the same. An astounding number of students were congesting the corridors completely.
That being said, around a quarter of the students still remained calm.
They were calling to the other students, telling them to calm down, but to no avail.
Naturally, Mutou-san was among the calm minority.
"...Listen to me."
Someone tugged at her uniform sleeve. It was the twintailed girl, Funaki-san.
"Judging from the situation, we won't be able to evacuate for the time being. Wanna go see what's up with those two dragons?"
"Oh, good idea."
Funaki-san pointed at the classroom ceiling and Mutou-san immediately understood.
"Then let's go?"
"Yeah. Say, once we find that silver dragon, does that mean we'll be able to see that handsome guy again?"
"Assuming he—that dragon—is willing to transform for us."
The two of them left the classroom.
Shoving and squeezing, they made their way arduously to the stairs. Year 1 Class F was located on the fourth floor of the five-story school building. Compared to the school entrance on the ground floor, going up was an easier destination of course.
Furthermore, everyone else was moving downwards.
Hence, the two girls arrived at the roof relatively easily.
"Eh? It's the prez!"
Seeing someone already on the roof, Mutou-san jumped in surprise.
It was the senior student and president of the UFO Research Club—President M.
"It appears that you and I thought the same."
A hundred and twenty kilograms by visual estimates, the president was standing there with Old Tokyo's scenery as a backdrop.
The Old Tokyo Concession was actually less than a kilometer away from Ryougoku where the school was located.
Tokyo's former city center—the Yamanote Line, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Roppongi and other urban areas had become a wasteland of scrap iron and debris, silent and desolate.
However, Old Tokyo's landmark remained intact to this day.
The Monolith, a triangular prism of pure black, stood at the land that used to be called "Ginza." Towering at a height of a thousand meters, it could be seen very clearly from the school.
"The two dragons crashed over there."
President M pointed north—towards Komagata and the Azuma Bridge.
It was near the Sumida River. This first-class river served as a boundary between Tokyo New Town on its east and the Old Tokyo Concession on its west. Komagata was clearly on the east bank...
Mutou-san was stunned.
"Meaning that there are two dragons in New Town, hostile to us..."
"In my opinion, I don't think both dragons are hostile."
"What do you mean by that!?"
"The red one is probably Haruga's dragon."
"Really!? Then things might not be as serious as they seem!" Funaki-san exclaimed happily.
President M's superpowers—or rather, psychic abilities—seemed capable of seeing into the future. Not only Mutou-san but Funaki-san too were aware of President M's prowess, but—
"However, his situation does not look good either. I feel... that Haruga is fighting alone, apparently separated from his companions."
"Ehhh!?"
"At this rate... It might be over for him."
President M exhaled solemnly with a "mm-hmm."
The two first-year students held their breaths and stared at the weirdest weirdo in the school with uncertainty.
Part 2
"O wisdom of Ruruk Soun, grant me power!"
"What he said. Grant me power too! Please!"
The two Tyrannoi recited incantations for using magic.
Pavel Galad was using the magic of High-Speed Flight to soar the sky. This was magic allowing dragons to increase their flight speed dramatically, breaking the sound barrier.
However, Hal also invoked the magic of Telekinesis.
This was to use an invisible force to impede the enemy's supersonic flight.
The silver dragon's speed was supposed to be able to reach Mach 10 or even Mach 20.
Hal's telekinesis was limiting the speed to fifty or sixty kilometers per hour. However, Galad was using his own telekinesis to counter Hal's, causing their speed to become comparable to that of an automobile on a highway. Moving from off the shore of Urayasu to Tokyo New Town, they crossed the Sumida River—
Finally, they crashed somewhere in the Asakusa area in the Old Tokyo Concession.
Asakusa was an urban area famous for tourist attractions such as Kaminarimon and Sensō-ji. The two elite dragons, one crimson and the other silver-white, both slid across the wasteland of former Asakusa like baseball players.
Smashing into a high-rise building near Asakusa Station, they finally stopped.
Pavel Galad happened to end up on top of the Crimson Queen. At that instant, Hal ordered the queen, "Kick him!"
"Take that!"
"Hohohoho. Your strength has increased!"
Galad was sent flying, kicked by the queen's left hind leg.
However, the kick that should have sunk into the silver-white belly was blocked by imperishable protection, leaving the dragon hero completely unscathed.
Still, the queen was likewise unscathed too.
The queen launched seven runes of Ruruk Soun like a restraining device to seal off the opponent's movements. Since this did not inflict physical damage, imperishable protection could not be used to defend against it.
However, Pavel Galad was all too familiar with handling this type of magic.
Extending his left palm, he blocked the seven runes shot out by the Crimson Queen.
"O shield for purifying vicious magic!"
Two runes of Ruruk Soun appeared on his silver-white palm.
Signifying "shield of the sacred spirit," it was magic for sealing away evil curses. The queen's immobilizing curse clashed with this runic arrangement and vanished without a trace.
"So the enemy holds the upper hand in mage technique, huh?" Hal remarked quietly.
Using two types of Ruruk Soun magic simultaneously and instantly selecting appropriate incantations as counters, the pureblooded elite dragon was still the better mage.
However, Hal had his own advantage.
"Solomon-senpai—Lend me your power."
King of ancient Israel and great sorcerer of old, Solomon.
During the summer vacation, the Crimson Queen had swallowed his soul together with the Rune of the Ring. The great king's soul was currently akin to Haruga Haruomi's servant.
By allowing the queen's heartmetal to unleash its full power, combined with Solomon's ring and spiritual energy—
"Oh?"
"This move was able to oppose Hannibal at least...!"
Hal had been in this same state during the decisive battle against the red dragon king in New York.
Back then, King Solomon was helping him with ulterior motives, but now, Hal was had the great king and the ring's power under his full control.
With a body length close to twenty meters, the queen was shrouded in a platinum glow.
"The Rune of the Bow—" Hal muttered, feeling deeply that this very moment, the queen had obtained magical power surpassing Pavel Galad's.
"I'm leaving the rest to you!"
Spreading out the pair of crimson wings, the crimson dragon took off from the ground again.
The dragonslaying bow manifested in the left hand while a fireball appeared in the right. The queen placed the fireball on the bowstring, drew the bow, and fired.
"This power rivals that of the vaunted dragon kings... Splendid!"
"Here goes!"
The fireballs multiplied into nine and crashed towards the ground.
Every fireball was targeting the massive silver-white body. A full burst technique of assured annihilation. The dragonslaying sword suddenly manifested in Pavel Galad's hand too.
"O sword, immolate..."
The familiar longsword began to change.
Like yesterday, the body of the blade burned with blue flames, together with fourteen runes of Ruruk Soun encircling the blade...!
The arrangement signified "I am the user of the sword of divine alacrity."
"Sever with haste the inauspicious instruments that begrudges dragons!"
With lightning speed, Pavel Galad swung his sword nine times.
The blazing longsword instantly pierced the nine fiery projectiles. The entire process might have taken less than a tenth of a second.
Furthermore, the fiery projectiles instantly vanished after being pierced by the tip of the sword...
Nine consecutive thrusts executed with miraculous speed of the sword. However, what Hal noticed was something else.
"The Rune of the Sword—hasn't it become more powerful than before?"
The Bow and the Sword. Two powers of dragonbane, their techniques of assured annihilation clashing, erasing each other.
This was the exchange just now. However, a draw could not occur unless both sides were virtually equal in power. The weaker side would have been blown away. When invoking the technique of assured annihilation, the Crimson Queen had used dragon king-class magical power.
The fact that Galad's sword could stand up to her implied that his sword had dragon king-class power too, right?
"In that case, here I go again!"
"The outcome is not going to change. Bring it on!"
The queen fired nine fireballs again and the silver dragon pierced them all with nine consecutive thrusts.
The same pattern of exchanges repeated like a replayed video. In other words, the power that Pavel Galad demonstrated earlier was not coincidence...!
"It appears that neither you nor the Flame Emperor noticed that—"
The silver dragon began to speak. The Flame Emperor was how dragonkind addressed Hannibal the dragon king.
"I sent minions specialized in stealth to the North American continent to record the battle between you two. Haruga Haruomi has come to possess power approaching that of the dragon kings. This is a fact long known to me."
"Here you go again, using little tricks that don't match your image."
Hal frowned and casually mocked Galad.
"This sort of stuff should be left to small potatoes like me. You should keep maintaining your dignity as one of the strong."
"Hmm. I am precisely imitating what you would do."
Galad's response was unexpected. Then he said something even more surprising to the stunned Hal.
"In order to surpass you, I studied and analyzed the man named Haruga Haruomi, as well as the race called humanity. In the end, this is what I think—As a human, you have many ways of doing things that are worth learning from... Want to try imitating?"
"W-What are you talking about?"
"Fettered by the ways of dragonkind, it is impossible to become king. In that case, the only solution is to change myself. Hohohoho, you taught me this, you know?"
Pavel Galad seemed to be thanking him.
Hal was dumbstruck. The dragon hero proceeded to give him an even greater shock.
"However, I am not the only one who changed, you know? Speaking of which, you are the first to transform into a non-human creature."
"Huh?"
"You were no longer human the instant you absorbed a dragon king's heartmetal."
"......"
"Then after that, you kept growing as a non-human practitioner of magic, obtaining sufficient power to outclass us Zizou in such short time—In fact, I was quite touched yesterday to witness how much you have changed."
Pavel Galad's voice was trembling with excitement.
Evidently, despite his shift in mindset and pragmatism, his hot-blooded personality remained wholly intact. However, Hal noticed something.
The whole time, this Galad bastard was not looking at Hal when speaking to him.
"Acquiring a heartmetal and magical power beyond human has led to gradual changes in your physical body. From what I have heard, this happens to the majority of human Tyrannoi—Will Haruga Haruomi follow the same path, I wonder?"
Currently, the silver-white dragon was gazing at the Crimson Queen.
The silver dragon was staring into the eyes of the giant red dragon as though conversing to Haruga Haruomi himself while holding the dragonslaying sword in his silver right hand.
—Hold on a sec, where the hell am I?
Hal finally discovered that he had started hovering above ground at some point!
He was floating in the air, roughly ten meters away from Galad and the queen.
While clothed, his body was exhibiting translucence.
(This isn't corporeal... Am I in a state similar to a soul!?)
He immediately corrected himself. Not "similar to" but he was in fact a spiritual entity.
All the things he had said to Pavel Galad just now had been transmitted out from the Crimson Queen's heartmetal.
Most likely, the silver-white dragon did not even see Hal's spiritual entity.
(Or rather, it's possible that my real body is about to turn into the queen.)
This terrifying possibility occurred to him.
Were he corporeal right now, he would most likely be trembling all over. Meanwhile, Pavel Galad grew more and more elated.
"I isolated you from those imitations and witches in order to secure my victory. Now that you are alone and unaided, together with my minions, I shall take care of you."
He pointed the tip of his dragonslaying sword to the sky.
Hal guessed that runes of Ruruk Soun would appear and he was right. However, Hal paled in alarm when he saw the massive rune in the sky.
The Rune of the Sword in the air, consisting of three inequality signs of "<" in a series.
Its size was frightening. If one were to draw a circle around this dragonslaying rune, the circumference would probably reach forty kilometers.
That would be comparable to the length of the Yamanote Line encircling Tokyo in the past.
The excessively large Rune of the Sword began to descend, scattering tiny golden particles across Tokyo New Town as though it were snowing.
No way—Hal gulped.
Was Pavel Galad intending to conduct some kind of large-scale magical ritual on all of Tokyo New Town?
Through the Crimson Queen, he transmitted a message to Galad.
"I heard you've been lurking all over Tokyo for the past two months... Sure enough, you've set up that crazy looking magic, right?"
This was not confirmation. Hal was already certain.
"What exactly did you do?"
"Anything too obvious would have been discovered by your faction. I simply synthesized some steel and mixed it into the large amount of stone and metal used in the construction of this city of Tokyo, thereby allowing it to react swiftly and sensitively to my magic."
"Speaking of which, alchemy is your specialty too..."
Synthesizing all kinds of enchanted metals according to their purpose then imbuing them with magical power.
Alchemy magic was Pavel Galad's specialty. Doing all this singlehandedly, and only requiring two months, this was impossible for any ordinary human.
However, if one applied the skills of elite dragons—
This would be nothing difficult. What exactly was going to happen next?
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The instant Hal wondered, he heard a thunderous crash.
"!?"
The two of them were at Sumida Park on the shore of the Sumida River.
A fairly large park in Tokyo New Town, this was a famous spot for flower viewing. Next to it, parallel to the Sumida River, was the New Town Expressway, previously called the Shuto Expressway.
A portion of this highway suddenly exploded.
The raised section and the massive supporting pillar underneath it exploded without warning, sending concrete debris of varying sizes flying in all directions.
...In addition, what looked like steel rods could be seen mixed among the fragments and debris of the explosion.
The steel rods began to twist and deform, turning into the shape of a creature's skeleton within the blink of an eye.
Concrete fragments adhered to it one after another.
"Is this a type of golem...?"
Hal witnessed the birth of a magic creature formed from concrete and a steel skeleton. Its size and shape was quite similar to a Raptor.
And there were more than one. The scattered fragments were all combining, transforming.
At a rough estimate, there were two hundred?
Their shapes were not identical either. Most looked like Raptors, but others resembled serpents, insects, fish, etc...
Featuring a body length of around seven meters, every golem flew into the air.
"Rune of Ruruk Soun..."
Hal immediately used magic. The single rune for Eye appeared.
This rune rose into the sky, offering an overhead view of the scenery below, a type of magic to facilitate the gathering of intelligence.
Just as he suspected, the same calamity was happening all over New Town. Hal was not surprised at all, but a little speechless.
"In other words..."
The explosion of the expressway in front of Hal and Galad's location at Sumida Park was not the only one.
A large number of golems were emerging from Horikiri, Mukoushima, Ryougoku, the Kiyosu Bridge and dozens of other locations.
Hal now understood Pavel Galad's plan.
"Using steel and concrete from buildings all over Tokyo as materials, you're trying to make a huge number of golems—An army under your command!"
In contrast, none of Hal's companions were by his side.
The witches and leviathans aiding him were all absent.
Isolated without reinforcements, did Haruga Haruomi have a chance of winning? A battle with dismal prospects was about to begin.
Part 3
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Part 4
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