novelDragon Child Meets the Spirit
| ← Ch.058 | Ch.060 → |
Far away from the Academy, Aru was burning the tentacles of a monster that was crawling all over him.
Following the trail of monsters, he arrived at the edge of the forest and slowly started to descend.
But since some of the tentacles tangled with him really well, he was unable to land properly and instead fell on the nearby trees.
And even though his magical reserves were still good, he was somehow forced and turned into his human form.
Human limbs, much smaller and more unreliable than those of a dragon.
It was just as El-senpai once said, human being is fragile.
But still, he had to manage somehow.
Even though he was trying to send messages to Mother, he was unable to get to her.
Every time he was wondering if she was okay, something would squeeze him violently inside of his stomach.
It was the same kind of feeling that he got when his Senpais went after the Spirit Eater earlier.
You can see only dark in front of your eyes, and your chest feels awfully cold.
Just remembering that made him tremble.
(Aah, I see. This what humans call "fear". )
It felt as though his heart would stop.
It looks like the new generation of demons were awakened.
And the other dragons wanted to see if he, together with his family, would be able to repair the damages that such demons would cause to the leylines.
While trying to inform him of that, his mother was captured.
Mother, thank you so very much for trying to help me.
But, right now, in this very moment, he needed to do what needed to be done.
"Aru, focus on what you must do and leave the reparation of leylines to me. Also, we are going to teach those other dragons a lesson once this is all over!"
The usually kind and nice Father seemed to be really angry.
He was scary. But, at the same time, a little bit cool.
Aru was feeling exactly the same.
They have put El-senpai, everyone at the Academy and in town in danger.
It would take a long time for him to calm down after something like that.
This was his right to be angry.
In front of his eyes Aru could see the magic sucking demons released by the dragons, swarming the air like locusts.
One of them was much bigger than all the rest, so big that he was raising its body above the forest's surface.
Suddenly. Aru saw a black tentacle coming out of the ground.
Aru, who was able to sense the flow of magic, realized that the demons began to tinker with the local leylines.
No. This. Mother worked so hard to restore all of those leylines.
Aru stood up on his feet while holding his aching chest.
If he lets that demon live, it will eventually come to Signos Academy.
It will come, and it will eat away all of his friends.
In order to prevent that, Aru decided to use himself as bait and lure the demon away.
It's okay to be angry.
He was sure that he would be able to fight this thing.
Oh, but his body was not working as well as he would have liked it to.
He wondered why?
Aru also knew the memories of all the former dragons that were before him.
He also knew the memories of his Mother.
Humans tend to be afraid of those who are stronger than them.
Even if you were good-natured, they would still be afraid of you.
That was not always the case, but most of the time it was exactly like that.
It will be impossible for things to go back to how they used to be.
「That it why, you should always suppress your power. 」
He promised Mother that he would do just that and hide his identity from humans. But, Aru exposed his true identity in front of his friends.
He didn't regret that. El-senpai and others were not bad people.
However, he then remembered El-senpai's surprised face.
What did El-senpai think about at that moment?
Maybe he was afraid. Maybe he wouldn't want to talk to him anymore.
He said goodbye to them because he thought that was it.
It means that they might never meet again.
Thinking about that made tears flow out of his eyes.
「El-senpai, Io-senpai, Marca, Miko-san...... 」
It felt as though the back of his heart was going to burst.
It was tough. So tough that he thought his heart might break in half.
(Ahh, so this is what feeling "sad" means. )
Mother, Father, El-senpai, Marca, everyone.
Everyone is living with those feelings inside of them. With so much pain.
This was the first time Aru understood why dragons would ever want to get rid off of their emotions.
Thinking about it like that, it's only natural you would want to get rid of something like that.
But was being all alone the only solution?
In addition, the monster's tentacles began to crawl their way towards Aru.
He couldn't move at all.
He was completely immobilized.
His field of vision was completely dark.
He didn't feel well.
His body floats in the air, surrounded by a bright light.
Then he realized that he was in fact being held by someone.
"Are you okay?"
When he opened his eyes, he saw a humanoid spirit surrounded with lightning.
However, something was wrong.
It was unstable, or something to that effect, but he couldn't be sure.
Its presence was weirdly strong.
He felt as though he knew that face, and he thought about it.
Sharp brown eyes. Dark brown hair.
He was so large that he could easily hold Aru in one arm.
And looking through Mother's memories, he could also recognize the staff he was holding in his hand.
「Kyle, -san?」
"You know my name? You truly are a son of a dragon."
「But, but, why?」
The person holding Aru laughed, but then his expression turned into a serious one in an instant.
In addition to the giant monster, many smaller demons were gathering around.
"It seems that your magical power attracted them here."
Aru's draconic power is superb, after all.
Like that, Aru thought he might draw them away from Signos Academy.
And it was the right thing to do.
Because if he didn't do it, the demons would invade the Academy and desolate the place completely. Just imagining that was making Aru sick.
While he was all depressed, his back were patted lightly.
"You did good. I would have done exactly the same if I were you."
「I, really?」
"Yeah. You saved us. It seems that the demons gathered around the Academy are heading this way as well. That works well for me."
Said the humanoid spirit as he raised his staff and chanted a spell.
"Lightning's Invitation!"
As soon as he said that, the sky became dark and a whole lot of lightning came crashing down towards the ground.
Aru could see the demons around the forest burning up and perishing because of the lightning, the same happening with the forest itself.
"I wanted to see if I would be able to cast a grand spell like that. AS you can see, I pretty much can."
Said the humanoid spirit more to himself than to Aru, while coming to the ground.
"No, look there. I will clean it up in a second."
「Wait!」
Aru tried to chase after the spirit, but he was unable to, because he was still weak.
The giant monster was hit with a vast majority of lightning that burned a huge portion of its body, but that didn't slowed it down.
It shook its giant body, opened its huge mouth and began to suck the magic from the atmosphere.
"Its huge motion might be a problem."
The lightning spirit didn't get upset in spite of the situation, only kicking the ground lightly before focusing his mana again.
He raised his staff again, completely covered in threads of lightning.
「Volt Distraction. 」
In the next moment the monster's giant body shook, as a huge strike of lightning came down from the sky with a roar that echoed throughout the area.
There was also a harrowing sound that could be heard through the roar, like a scream of pain.
Even though the Spirit Eater managed to restore its body by absorbing the nearby magic, his body became visibly smaller.
"It seems that even though you can absorb magic and digest it, you can't use magic yourself."
The Spirit Eater began to lash about its tentacles, but the spirit man was able to easily avoid them as he readied another spell.
"Sorry, but unfortunately for you, this is something I'm quite good at."
The spirit man gathered his mana in an instant, throwing his staff forward and striking the monster with another lightning strike.
Spirit Eater's body was covered in a net of lightning.
Aru was shocked to see that the spirit man used spell after spell to slowly but surely overwhelm the Spirit Eater.
Still, even though it was taking some serious damage, it was still coming closer towards Aru.
But its size was already reduced to less than half of its original size.
Since its size became smaller, the speed at which it was lashing its tentacles increased.
The spirit man was almost caught by the tentacles several times, but managed to evade them every time.
"As expected, its size makes it rather persistent."
After casting so many spells, the spirit man was looking really tired, and his breathing was ragged as well.
Aru noticed that, too. That his body was beginning to turn more and more transparent.
"My time is almost up. Oh well, at least I manage to do something."
The spirit man noticed that as well, and smiled wryly.
This person was fighting while using his mana reserves.
Aru understood that well.
He had to stop him. He had to stop him. Otherwise that person will... The person who is important to both Mother and Father is going to disappear forever!
But he was unable to do anything about the man, as he was becoming more and more transparent with every spell he cast.
「Kyle-san!」
Hearing Aru call his name, the spirit man turned around, looking completely astonished.
"Run!"
Aru looked in the direction in which the spirit man was looking, and saw a huge black jaw right in front of him.
Thanks to the high density of magic around here, the pieces of the Spirit Eater which happened to splatter all over were turned into their own demonic entities. Aru failed to notice that just until now.
The battle between the spirit man and the monster distracted him.
He wouldn't be able to dodge it in time.
And so, Aru was prepared to be eaten.
"Aru, duck!"
Aru reflexively did what he was told, and just then a huge shockwave passed over his head and hit all of the smaller demons.
Aru couldn't believe it, but when he turned around he could see Elvie standing at the edge of the clearing.
「El-senpai!」
Aru's feet began to move all on their own.
Soon enough, he could see Mikoto as well, as she run up to him.
「We came, to help, glad to see you are okay ––––...... 」
Elvie looked at Aru's face and smiled, then closed his eyes.
「It's alright. I have six bullets left before I'm out of magic, so gotta make sure that every shot counts. 」
Hearing Elvie and Mikoto say that, Aru felt relieved on the spot, although the two were tired and wounded all over.
He wanted to get closer to them, but the next explosion of thunder made it pretty much impossible, as the spirit man was making a short work of all of the smaller demons.
The compressed magical power erupts all at once, sending waves of hot air all over the forest area.
The three of them watched as the storm of tree splinters flew through the air before eventually settling down.
Then, the spirit man walked to Aru and sat down on the ground.
「!!!」
"Phew, that surely was tiring."
His body right now was so transparent that you could see the view behind his back.
But, the spirit man looked at them as though he failed to notice that, and said to Elvie:
"I was thinking, but are you perhaps one of my descendants? Are you doing well?"
Elvie was unable to say anything, and even if he was, a giant hand was placed at the top of his head and stroke his hair.
"Please take good care of him, you two."
Aru and Mikoto were asked something like that.
「Oh, please don't go away! I'm sure that once Mother gets here, she'll be able to do something for you!」
"You say that, but I'm not sure that I can hold on for much longer."
Although troubled, the spirit man tried to make the situation sound a little less serious by scratching his head. However, he already had no hand to scratch himself with.
「I'm, I'm so sorry!」
Unable to bear it any longer, Aru began to cry.
Seeing that tears fell down his cheeks and dropped onto the ground only to turn into magic crystals, the spirit man got somewhat upset.
"H, hey now, those are magical crystals, so please don't waste them like that. Oh, shit, that's not what I wanted to say. It's alright. I did it because I wanted to. Don't need to feel bad."
He tried to stroke Aru's head, but his other hand was also gone. He looked troubled by that fact.
Even though it was him who was having a hard time, the spirits still wanted to help him. This made Aru feel even sadder, and his tears flown even more.
This was not right at all.
Even though he was unable to properly defend himself, this man decided to do that for him.
「Mother, Mother! Please, come here soon!!」
Aru screamed desperately. Right now he was only able to do that.
He had no idea how to help that person at all.
Please, make it on time!
It was Mikoto who finally asked.
「Is this man a spirit?」
"I won't be one for much longer, since I run out of magic trying to protect this kid here."
Mikoto's tail swayred in response to the spirit man's words, and next she walked over to one of Aru's crystalized tears and picked it up.
「Purify. Protect. Cleanse. Bring good fortune. 」
She closed her palms around Aru's tears, and after she said those words the light of magic began to shine from her hands.
「Aru, can I keep them?」
「Eh?」
Aru was stunned to hear Mikoto say something like that, but he reflexively nodded his head.
「But only a little bit!」
「Sure. This person is our benefactor. I don't want him to disappear. 」
Said Mikoto, and then she turned towards the spirits that were surrounding them and spoke to them in her native language, making a prayer to them.
「In the name of Amagi Mikoto, the one how humbly serves the eight million pillar gods, I beseech thee with a prayer. Bestow thy blessings upon us and cleanse this world of the evil that soils thy names!」
Along with the words of mysterious incantation, Mikoto's magical power suddenly begun to surge.
Then, as soon as the threads of magic began to connect the disappearing spirits, the two were engulfed in a strange whirlwind and surrounded by a wall of strange magical light.
"Wha...... !?"
「Now then, here I go!」
When the wind ceased to rampage and the strange light finally subsided, Mikoto, fell to the ground with her ears dropped to her head.
Not knowing what exactly happened, Aru could feel a source of great magic somewhere nearby.
Additionally, his most beloved person appeared out of the portal, making tear well up in his eyes and fall to the ground.
「Sorry to keep you waiting, Aru! Something at work held me up!」
「Mother!!」
In the next moment, Aru was hugged tightly by Lava who softly came down to the ground.
| ← Ch. 058 | Ch. 060 → |