The Chaos Dragon’s Scream

Liricia and I went down the spiral staircase and arrived on the thirtieth floor of the dungeon.

The corridor was wide and the ceiling was high. It felt like a far grander dungeon than anything we’d seen so far.

—Feels like there could be some really big monster down here.

On top of that, an eerie clatter of rolling metal echoed throughout the entire floor.

And the moment we stepped out of the stairwell room, we heard a strange cry from somewhere far off: “Pigya.”

It sounded like stepping on a frog.

—A monster, maybe?

As I was wondering that, Liricia came to my side, grimaced, and spread her white wings.

“I sense… an unbelievably evil presence…”

“You do? I don’t feel anything, but that’s an angel for you. —First off, find Edgar.”

“Yes, Master! —Dark Mana Detection (Aura Detect)!”

With a whoosh, her white wings spread wide, and waves of white light rippled out from Liricia as the center.

White feathers rode those waves and vanished.

She closed her eyes for a while, as if listening for sounds, then suddenly opened her violet eyes, now sparkling.

“There’s a human presence over that way! Badly wounded, but still alive!”

“Got it! Let’s move—any traps?”

“There were none!”

“Good!”

Liricia and I broke into a run.

We sprinted down the broad corridor, taking several turns.

It felt like we were heading toward the edge of the floor.

I drew my sword as I asked,

“So where exactly is this evil presence?”

“Well… that’s the thing. The wicked aura is still there, but the enemy itself is no longer on this floor.”

“What!? No Mithril Golem?”

“There were golems, but which one was mithril, I’m not sure…”

“Okay. We’ll save Edgar first, then pull back for now.”

“Yes—ah!”

We rounded a few more corners, and Liricia suddenly cried out.

Edgar was slumped against the wall, covered in blood and on the verge of death.

Keeping her wings out, Liricia rushed over, poured a potion directly into the hole in his abdomen, and cast healing magic.

“We’ve come to get you, Mister Edgar! —Full Recovery (All Heal)! Please, stay with us!”

A powerful white light wrapped around Edgar.

But he collapsed right there as if he’d finally run out of strength.

Liricia gasped.

I hurried over and lifted him up.

Checking his breathing and pulse, I found he’d only passed out.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“Looks like we made it in time.”

“Thank goodness… He’s the children’s savior, after all.”

Liricia pressed a hand to her ample chest and smiled, tears of joy shining in her narrowed eyes.

After that, I hoisted Edgar onto my back and headed back the way we’d come.

Liricia carried our gear. Her wings were put away.

When we climbed the spiral staircase, the children were waiting for us.

Seeing Edgar covered in blood, they burst into tears.

“Captain Edgar!”

“Captain!”

“Mister Edgar!”

“He’s fine. He’s alive. We got the healing magic off in time.”

“Thank goodness…!”

“Mister Alec, thank you so much— uwaaah!”

“Uwaaaah!”

“Tank you sho mush, Mishter Awek!”

“I’m so glad, Captaaaain!”

The kids clung to Edgar, bawling their eyes out.

I shrugged and turned toward the spiral staircase.

“Okay, cry time’s over. I’m going to go take down whatever did that to him.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“Please be careful!”

“It was really, really strong!”

“If it’s too hard to get back to the forward base, just stay here and wait for us to return.”

“““Okay!”””

Even through their tears, the children answered Liricia’s words with bright voices.

And so, we headed back down to the thirtieth floor again.

As we walked the wide corridor, I drew my sword and Liricia spread her wings.

“All right, where’s this mighty Mithril Golem of ours?”

“When I looked earlier, I saw a treasure chest, several monsters, and something round in the back on the left side. Most likely the golem and the dungeon core.”

“Okay, we move carefully. You’re on trap duty.”

“Yes, Master!”

There were almost no traps, so we steadily cut down the golems.

Clay, stone, and rock golems had their legs smashed first, then we severed their torsos.

We pulled out their cores and destroyed them.

We took out the Iron Golems by destroying their cores and had the drone absorb their iron bodies.

We also found the Mithril Golem with the fully silver body.

I’d expected a tough fight, but its elbows and knees were already making strange noises and its movements were slow.

On top of that, as long as I used my Hero sword skills properly, they worked just fine.

I shaved away at the area around its chest where the core was, having the drone absorb mithril bit by bit, and once the chest plate was thin enough, I destroyed the core and brought it down with ease.

And really, there were only golems.

I guess they don’t bother deploying weak goblins on the deepest floor.

The corridors were also strangely littered with still-usable swords, armor, shields, and staves.

—Probably stuff adventurers tossed aside.

We gratefully scooped it all up and had the drone absorb it for materials.

The treasure chest held a rusty sword.

No idea what it was worth, but it was probably junk. We fed that to the drone too.

The dungeon core under the eastern capital was a fake, according to Kou, but I smashed it anyway just in case.

Since Kou had already taken it over, all the dungeon passages that had invaded underneath the capital were erased.

And with that, the dungeon was cleared.

Honestly, it had felt about as monotonous as tackling a serious housecleaning job.

Looking down at the shattered dungeon core, I asked,

“Was it really okay for this to be so easy?”

“Most likely because we outflanked the dungeon and came in from the mountain range side.”

“Right, good point. Thanks to Kou, then. —All right, let’s go home.”

“Yes!”

Liricia narrowed her eyes happily.

And we strolled back along the route we’d come, cool as you please.

Back a short while in time, to just after the battle with Edgar—

The Chaos Dragon, its left eye crushed, was seething with rage.

But the instant it licked the blood on its tail, a shudder ran through its entire body.

—Exquisite. This is exquisite meat!

The flesh was taut as forged steel, and the magic overflowing from it was like a full moon.

A body and spirit honed to their absolute limits.

Just picturing the bite resistance made it tremble all over.

—With such magnificent power, I can definitely molt!

No matter how badly injured it got, molting would restore the Chaos Dragon completely.

Even the ruined eye would return.

And though it was on death’s door, its opponent was also wounded prey.

—I can eat him. For sure.

All that was left was to corner him so he couldn’t escape.

The Chaos Dragon began to walk.

By now, the thought of the five soft children’s bodies had completely vanished from its mind.

It moved to cut him off ahead of time, sealing off any escape routes.

At last, it found him, shambling along slowly while leaning against the wall.

The scent of blood hanging in the air made his meat seem all the more delicious.

Drool dripped from its cruel, fang-lined jaws.

—Ahh! I want to shove my face into that hole in his body and gorge myself on his steaming entrails while he’s still alive!

Tongue flicking in and out, the Chaos Dragon crept toward its prey.

The prey seemed to have resigned himself and stopped, closing his eyes.

Now it could see nothing but the prey.

No matter what this man did to it, there was no way he could land a fatal blow.

I am strong, after all! I’ll devour him and take back my—

—Don!

Suddenly, searing, molten agony like having magma dumped over it ripped through its body.

“Pigya.”

A pitiful scream burst from its mouth before it could stop it.

That single blow stripped away almost all its life force.

The Chaos Dragon’s eyes went wide as it gasped, mouth opening and closing.

—This pain! This torment! It’s him!

Why!? Why was he here!?

And just popping out of nowhere like that!? This was bad, this was really bad!

The Chaos Dragon tried to think about running, but its body was already beyond moving.

It no longer had the strength even to lift its head.

And yet the waves of pain just kept crashing down on it without mercy.

—T-this… this continuous holy damage… that’s cheating…

The Chaos Dragon’s vision blurred as tears of frustration welled up.

—Why… Why!?

It was the Chaos Dragon, damn it! The very name of fear, born once every ten thousand years!!

To be killed like some insect, by someone no one will ever even know about—that’s just cruel!

Stop it!!

At least… at least let it be the kind of being they say could only be brought down at the end of a desperate life-or-death struggle!!

Let it at least leave its name behind in legends and myths…!!

To have its life mean nothing—that had to be a lie…!!

But then the Chaos Dragon realized something.

Its claws and tail were crumbling away from the tips into powder.

Its consciousness was fading.

It could no longer deny the truth.

—No good… I’m dead. I finally managed to reincarnate after ten thousand years, only to die right away…

Yet in that fading awareness, the Chaos Dragon noticed it actually felt relieved.

—I see.

With him around, even as a fully-grown SSS-rank dragon, I’d just get taken out easily anyway.

He looks human.

In ten thousand years, he won’t still be alive.

-This time, the luck just wasn’t with me.

-Next time I’ll wipe it all out, for sure.

-Humans, the world, the stars, the moon, the sun!

-I’ll devour everything…—

The Chaos Dragon died. It crumbled away into dust.

Never even realizing that the karmic reincarnation sigil carved into it had been blown away by the overwhelming density of Serâge.