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Chapter 107.1: Dragon’s Awakening
◆Dark Knight; Kuroki
「HOW’S THAT, DARK KNIGHT?!! VICTORY IS MINE AS LONG AS YOU CAN’T GET CLOSE TO ME!!」
Alphos fired an arrow while shouting at me.
「WOAAAAAH!!」
I dodged the arrow in a hurry, making it strike the floor instead. Once it lodged itself in the garden, the arrow exploded, sending a tremor to my feet.
Just how much mana did he pour into this one shot?
I’m definitely done for if I get hit by one of these arrows.
Alphos changed his tactic, he didn’t charge from the front anymore, now he bombarded me with arrows from afar—truly a cunning tactic. This was the right tactic to choose considering he won’t be fighting me close range, which is my strong suit.
Now, I had no other choice but to somehow try to close the distance. This was easier said than done though as he was heavily protected by the Snow Maidens. They were all clad in crystal & ice armors, flying around him and brandishing ice spears to keep me away.
When I tried to eliminate them, Alphos would use his arrow to distract me.
Yeah, I was in deep sh*t.
After that superficial attack, Alphos and the Snow Maidens regrouped again.
The only way to win this battle was to destroy this barrier. I might be able to do that if I awakened the Dragon’s Power in me, but I couldn’t control that power yet. Using that in this situation was a really dangerous bet.
「TAKE THIS ARROW OF MINE, DARK KNIGHT!!!」
Alphos spouted such nonsense while firing his arrows from the air.
Did he think I would stay still and let him kill me with that arrow?
I ran around the Crystal Garden, dodging Alphos’ arrows.
「STOP RUNNING DARK KNIGHT!!」
「STAY STILL AND GET HIT BY THE ARROW!!」
「STAY STILL YOU STUPID JERK!」
「STAY STILL AND LET ALPHOS-SAMA WIN!」
Even the beauties were shouting like brainless women.
LIKE HELL I WOULD LET MYSELF GET HIT BY THAT!!!
「What?!!」
A giant ice wall suddenly appeared to block my path. I had no idea if this was done by the Snow Maidens or not. But, this barrier gave an advantage to Alphos. There was nothing strange about a wall appearing out of nowhere in this kind of situation, so I guess I was a bit too careless.
「THIS IS THE END, DARK KNIGHT!!!」
Alphos fired his arrow as he spoke. I couldn’t dodge this one.
「GOD DAMMIT!!!!!!!!」
I loaded a lot of mana into my Demon Sword, and struck the arrow back to Alphos.
「NO WAY, HE STRUCK BACK MY A—RRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!」
This time, Alphos was the one who raised a pained scream. The arrow that I struck back hit his left shoulder. This was the skill I created to counter long range attacks, and it made its debut in this place. But, against my pessimism, it was surprisingly effective.
Alphos, who got struck by his own arrow, fell down on the floor, writhing in pain.
Seriously, just how much mana did he load into his arrows?
Just thinking about the consequences of me getting hit by one of these arrows was enough to send chills down my spine.
The beauties’ screams resounded again from the flying ship. The arrow seemed to have inflicted a great deal of damage to Alphos. This blow should be enough to stop him from firing his arrows again.
My posture had crumbled because I had struck back the fired arrow towards Alphos, but I bent forward at once and started closing in. In just a moment, I was already near Alphos, using the ground shrinking skill I had learned from Kyouka’s maid, Kaya.
However, suddenly, a powerful blizzard came in front of me, stopping me from getting any closer to Alphos.
「WHAT THE?!! SNOW QUEEN!!」
The aurora-colored blizzard fired by the Snow Queen blocked my path. During that time, Alphos was already trying to get up.
「AS IF I’M GOING TO LET YOU!! DIMENSION SLASH!! SPLIT MINE ENEMY! SWALLOW FLIGHT BLADE!!」
It was a flying slash with plenty of magical power. This skill was short range, but it should be able to reach Alphos.
The flying slash cut the storm and flew straight toward Alphos.
「KUAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!」
Blood sprayed down from Alphos’ right arm. But, that wound was too shallow to defeat Alphos.
Alphos took even more distance from me as his blood kept dripping.
「YOU’VE DONE IT NOW, DARK KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!」
Alphos glared at me with an enraged look on his face. There was no trace left of the young noble expression he showed me in the beginning. His wounds do heal immediately, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t feel the pain.
His handsome, little white face was twisted in pain.
「SINCE I CAN’T BEAT YOU WITH A SWORD OR ARROWS!!! I SHALL BURY YOU IN THIS PLACE WITH MY MOST POWERFUL MAGIC!!!」
Alphos’ body rose even higher in the air and shone with prismatic light.
Or not, Alphos wasn’t the only one who shone. The aurora of the barrier was also shining even brighter.
The mirror-like surface of the ground of the garden was shining too as it reflected the aurora’s light.
「W-WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!!!!!!!!!!」
The aurora started coiling around my limbs, freezing the parts of the armor it was latched to. I mean, this was supposed to be impossible since this armor was made and enchanted by God Heibos himself.
Moreover, I felt an overwhelming amount of magical power coming from the front as if trying to squash me to death.
It was as if the space had shrunk.
「TAKE THAT!! THIS IS THE ENTIRE MAGICAL POWER OF THE CRYSTAL GARDEN!!! THE POWER THAT CAN EVEN BREAK AND FREEZE YOUR SOUL!!! NOT EVEN SOMEONE WITH COLD RESISTANCE CAN SURVIVE FROM THIS GREAT MAGIC OF MINE!!」
Alphos cackled as he floated high in the air.
The space had shrunk, and the aurora was converging with me at the center. It was as if I was fighting against the entire crystal garden.
The ground beneath my feet had frozen and I had been shivering non stop since a while ago. As if both my flesh and soul were frozen at this very moment.
The moment I received an attack to my soul, I knew that it stirred my dormant dragon power.
Oh, cra*p.
「NOW SLEEP FOREVER INSIDE THIS ETERNAL GLACIER, DARK KNIGHT!!!」
My body froze rapidly along with Alphos’ laugh.
===
BGM
◆Princess of Hell; Polen
The aurora that covered the sky had vanished, returning it to its original blue color. What stood right in front of me now was a giant pillar of ice, or maybe an ice tower.
The crystal garden conjured by Alphos-sama had vanished after it used up its entire magical power to seal Master Kuroki in that ice tower. Even the Snow Queen and the Snow Maidens look really exhausted and slowly vanished, returning to their realm.
Amidst such a spectacle, Alphos-sama was the only one left.
「HAHAHAHAHA!! I WON!! I PRAISE YOU FOR FORCING ME TO USE THIS MAGIC, DARK KNIGHT!!! BE PROUD AS YOU SLEEP IN THIS ICE PRISON FOR ETERNITY!!!」
Alphos-sama’s laughter resounded in the sky. Hearing that, the beauties started laughing along with him.
「YAAAY!! YAAAY!! ALPHOS-SAMA WON!!!」
「YEAH!! THE ONE WITH THE LAST LAUGH IS ALPHOS-SAMA!!」
「YEAH!! UGLY THINGS SHOULD JUST BE DESTROYED!!!」
「ALPHOS-SAMA IS SO COOL―――!!」
Unlike those beauties who felt elated, I was depressed instead.
「Ah… Your Highness… His Excellency… His Excellency is…」
Poh-chan got flustered.
It was an obvious outcome, I mean, I got flustered too.
「AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWA!! SHISHOU!! MASTER! MASTER KUROKI IS IN DANGER!!!」
I also spoke to Kuna-shishou with a flustered voice.
And yet, Shishou was surprisingly calm about this situation.
「Fufu, it seems Alphos is still the winner in the end, Witch. The Dark Knight has been frozen by Alphos’ magic. You guys have lost.」
Muse said so to Shishou with a triumphant look on her face. Following behind her was the army of beauties who seemed like they couldn’t wait for the chance to look down on us.
They wore triumphant looks on their faces too, by the way.
I’m really vexed now.
「Humph. Bunch of idiots, do you really think that you’ve won already?」
And yet, Shishou said the most unexpected remark in this situation.
「WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, WITCH!! ALPHOS’ STRONGEST MAGIC NOT ONLY BREAKS THE FLESH, IT DESTROY ITS TARGET’S SOUL TOO!! YOUR DARK KNIGHT HAS BEEN FROZEN FOR ETERNITY IN THAT ICE PRISON!!!」
Muse couldn’t help but raise her voice as she spoke.
And yet, Shishou just looked at Muse with a composed smile on her face.
「Are you sure? Can’t you hear that? The dragon roar that’s echoing inside that crystal tower? Kuna’s ears can hear it clearly though.」
The moment Shishou said so, Muse and the other beauties looked at the crystal tower in a hurry.
「What’s… that…?」
One of them muttered.
Thus, I also looked in that direction.
The crystal tower had been shaking non-stop. And then, something akin to roar could be heard from within every time the tower vibrated.
「I-IMPOSSIBLE! ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT HE’S STILL ALIVE AFTER RECEIVING MY GREATEST MAGIC?!!」
Alphos-sama exclaimed with a shocked look on his face.
Numerous cracks appeared on the surface of the crystal tower.
And then, that very moment.
「GROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!」
The roar shook the atmosphere and destroyed the crystal tower to pieces, the very next moment, black flames burst out from within.
「I-IMPOSSIBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!」
Alphos-sama, who was floating in the air, shouted with disbelief upon seeing the lump of black flame rising up from the broken crystal tower.
When the black flame rose high in the air, it dyed the azure sky into black.
「WAIT A MINUTE, WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT?!!」
The beauties screamed.
A giant silhouette could be seen from within the black flame that covered the sky.
It was the silhouette of a giant black dragon.
The giant dragon was so big that this flying ship looked so small in comparison.
When the black dragon spread his wings, the black flame that was unleashed from his entire being dyed the sky in a jet-black color. The flying ship shook greatly with each flap of the black dragon’s wings. It felt like this ship was a tiny little human ship sailing in the greatest of storms.
The beauties screamed to the top of their lungs as they held on to the railing on the deck of the ship.
「THIS MONSTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!」
Alphos-sama shouted as he fired his arrow toward the giant dragon.
But, the arrow got erased by the black flame even before it arrived at its target.
The Black Dragon swung his forelimbs as if swatting a mere annoying bug.
And that light swing was enough to send Alphos-sama flying.
「GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
「ALPHOS!!!!」
Alphos-sama and Muse’s pained screams resounded almost at the same time. Alphos-sama, who got blown away, then crashed right on the ground.
「W-WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT DRAGON?! ANSWER ME, WITCH!!」
Muse asked while glaring at Shishou.
「What are you talking about? That’s clearly Kuroki. This is the unleashed power of dozens of dragons who sleep inside Kuroki. This is also the first time for Kuna to see it unleashed like this. Kuroki doesn’t want to use this power since he still can’t control it, but to think that it’s so powerful! HAHAHAHA! THIS IS AWESOME, KUROKI!!! 」
Shishou looked like she was really into the role this time—the role of the evil witch.
「NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ALPHOS-SAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!」
I looked outside upon hearing the beauties’ screams; the Giant Black Dragon didn’t stop with just planting Alphos-sama into the ground, he followed it with a stomp of his rear leg to where Alphos-sama fell.
Alphos-sama tried to get away from that place, but alas, he failed.
That stomp was so powerful that Alphos-sama’s body bounced back in the air and got smacked to the ground once again by the Giant Black Dragon.
It was as if the Giant Black Dragon was toying with Alphos-sama.
The beauties raised a scream and cried upon seeing such a situation.
「PLEASE STOP HIM, WITCH! YOU GUYS HAVE WON! PLEASE STOP ALREADY, ALPHOS WILL DIE!!」[TL: Why didn’t they stop Alphos from trying to kill Kuroki? These women’s brains must be rotten already]
Muse went as far as kneeling in front of Shishou.
Yeah, I want to stop this too.
Handsome men were the treasures of this world. I didn’t want to see Alphos-sama die too.
But, Shishou just laughed mockingly as she looked down at Muse.
「Hah, what kind of nonsense are you talking about? Why do you think that Kuna will go out of her way to save your useless man? YOU SHOULD START WORRYING ABOUT YOUR OWN SAFETY!!」
After saying so, Shishou stood from the sofa and kicked Muse right in her face.