“Looks like I knew what kind of island this was.”
Floating above the sea was Dragon God Shakallim.
No, now it’s not really appropriate to call him a god, so let’s just say lizard grandpa Shakallim.
“Is he dead?”
“If he’s going to die this easily, I’d wonder if it was worth coming here.”
Peeking out from atop a wyvern, Jane checks the situation. The wyvern was quite exhausted, so she cautiously lands on the dragon.
“Thanks, that was tough.”
While Jane gently strokes the wyvern’s cheek, I quietly step onto Shakallim’s head and gaze towards the sky.
My sword still firmly embedded there.
“If I take this out, will he break?”
If I pull it out right now, he’d wake up and cause a ruckus again, so it seemed best to leave it as is. It’d probably take quite a while for him to wake up due to the shock of the fall.
“What should we do? Should we wait?”
“It looks like we’ll have to wait a while. Let the wyvern rest a bit, then we can head back to the island. He can’t escape without wings anyway.”
“Got it, so that means it’s somewhat over.”
With a sigh, Jane plops down. In the past, she would have yelled at the god from atop the dragon, but now she seemed rather indifferent.
“Sigh, but if the god… I mean, Shakallim wakes up, will he listen to us?”
“He’ll probably listen. He knows he could really die this time.”
I was about to sit down to rest too, but Jane patted the space next to her, signaling me to come.
“I’ll give you a massage or something. I mean, I did push the dragon’s wings aside, so I should do this much.”
“What? A massage?”
“Hurry up.”
Reluctantly agreeing, I take my position beside her. Starting from my shoulders, she diligently digs in, though it’s obvious she hasn’t done it much before.
Still, she seems to be putting in her best effort.
“Your body is sooooo solid!”
“Go harder.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have offered!”
While receiving Jane’s massage, I think about Shakallim lying beneath me.
He held the grand title of god, and was esteemed by the dragonkin, but.
In his second death, he couldn’t have been more pitiful and pathetic.
Kneeling before Sharcarl and Kurika’s ambush, Shakallim was finally brought to his knees.
In the end, with all his wings torn and both front limbs blown away, he bowed his head before Lin from the second round, begging for his life.
Of course, Lin had killed Shakallim to regress me.
He had been mistakingly diluted his desire to survive over his long life. But in reality, it was the opposite.
Living for such a long time meant, in essence, having a stronger obsession with life than anyone else.
It revived the fact that he could die.
It also corrected those glances that had looked down on him.
Though it was a bit extreme to cut off his wings, otherwise, who knows when Shakallim might escape.
“We’re finally able to talk properly about the end.”
Considering just how much effort went into getting to this conversation table, it felt like a win.
And now, I truly felt the end was gradually in sight.
Eris had tried to persuade Yggdrasil and if she succeeded, it would be fair to say that we were almost fully prepared to face the calamity.
“……”
“What are you thinking about so hard?”
Jane softly rests her chin on my shoulder.
It felt strangely like our sense of distance had closed up, but since we fought for our lives together, it seemed the brotherhood was sprouting strong.
“I was just thinking about what we need to do next. Now that we’ve knocked the god down, it feels overwhelming thinking that it isn’t over yet.”
“Overwhelming?”
“I just feel like the end is really approaching.”
“……”
“What about you then? You’ve lost the title of dragoness and learned the truth about the god. Honestly, isn’t the most troublesome person here you?”
At that, Jane slowly leaned back. The blue sea in the background blended with her flowing red hair, creating a picturesque scene.
“It’s liberation. I like the cool feeling. I don’t even know how to tell the dragonkin this, and honestly, I’m a bit worried.”
Jane glanced at me, saying softly, “But that’s not my responsibility, right?”
I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at her surprisingly carefree answer. Was she really changing this much in such a short time?
“So I guess I should just think about it for now. Well, I think I had some dream-like thoughts when I was young, so I should recall those.”
“That sounds fun.”
Honestly, I was a bit envious.
“Right? So for that, you must properly stop the end of the continent.”
At those words, I momentarily fell silent. Jane peeked at me to see if she’d misspoken, but I just smiled and nodded.
“Of course I will.”
*
After returning to the island riding the wyvern with Jane, we were greeted by people. Especially Eve and Sen who ran directly towards me.
The Chokugen faction members following close behind and the elders who were awkwardly standing back.
It didn’t seem like much time had passed, but their expressions weren’t all that good.
“Uh, what happened?”
At Eve’s question, I gave a thumbs up, and Eve and Sen smiled while giving me a thumbs up back.
“I completely cut off one of the god’s wings. He’s currently fainted, floating in the sea, so we can take our time.”
A few elders behind us seemed to go wild, frothing at the mouth as they collapsed.
One of the more aggressive elders pushed past people and grabbed me by the collar, yelling angrily.
“You! You’ve truly done something to our god, haven’t you! As his representative, we shall judge you…!”
Slap!
The elder’s cheek turned harshly.
He blinked a few times in shock before looking at Jane who had slapped him.
“You’ve also gone mad…!”
Slap!
Another smack landed, this one much harder, sending the elder tumbling back.
Jane stepped forward, ready to charge.
“There was never a god. The god we worshipped was just a lizard living however he pleased.”
“Goddess! Do you know what you are saying right now? Consider your position…!”
“I’ve told you several times, I’m not the goddess.”
Jane kicked dirt at the elder who had fallen down.
“For you, it’s not the god that matters. You’re afraid of the power acting freely with the god’s influence disappearing.”
Jane glanced over at the newly picked dragoness, clicking her tongue.
“A dragoness who can’t even handle real magic? Look at how they chose a woman that fits their tastes. What do they think a dragoness is? And honestly, I’m way better looking.”
The woman they selected as the new dragoness was, in plain terms, rather vulgar. Her outfit and the apparent personal preferences of the elders were clear.
The new dragoness blushed and lowered her head, as if she knew.
“But still, she can’t beat Eve.”
If I knew she’d think like that, Eve would definitely say something, but what could I do?
Eve had been winning continuously today.
“Right?”
Suddenly, Jane poked me from the side.
I wondered what on earth she was talking about.
“I’m better, right?”
“Uh…”
Honestly, my preference was a bit different from Jane’s bland style…
“Ahem.”
Feeling guilty, I turned my head, but Jane’s gaze followed quickly, and I awkwardly pretended not to see.
“Oh! What is it? Speak up.”
“Uh, I mean, you’re much prettier.”
“I’ve thought this since earlier, but you really suck at comforting or complimenting.”
Jane grumbled and walked away towards the wyverns. I shrugged, feeling a familiar pressure behind me.
Since I had felt it several times before, it was easy to recognize it was Eve.
Her gentle voice wrapped around me.
“Don’t forget your promise, okay?”
“Promise? What promise?”
“Well…”
Boom!
Eve’s words were cut off by a tremendous explosion.
Startled, we hurriedly headed towards the beach.
There, dozens of pirate ships surrounded the island, preparing to fire cannons.
At the center, from a gigantic pirate vessel, a man unleashed a cry filled with mana.
“This island now belongs to me, the Pirate Lord!”
*
Before the Pirate Lord reached the island, they were of course searching for the source of the suddenly massive wave.
If they hadn’t cast magic to block the waves across the pirate ships in preparation for a storm or whirlpool, they would have sunk, and the ships would have turned into ghost ships.
Anyway.
When the colossal dragon god’s body was seen from a distance, it looked like just a small island.
It was only after approaching that they could open their mouths in shock.
It looked like a dragon with its wings severed, floating on the sea!
The Pirate Lord felt a thrill and pleasure as if gold was raining down from the sky.
So he intentionally left a few of the pirate ships behind and headed toward the island while the others were capturing the dragon.
“Wow, how much is this worth?”
“But is there someone who’s going to buy this?”
“No idea. Still, it’s a dragon, so it should fetch a good price, right?”
The pirates hung hooks on the dragon’s scales, enjoying it like a farmer reaping their harvest.
“But it’s definitely dead, right?”
“Does it look like it’s swimming here?”
With Shakallim deep in unconsciousness, and the pirates seeing a dragon for the first time, they didn’t properly check out of fear.
Then, one pirate decided to muster up the courage and approached the dragon’s head.
“Is it really dead?”
A strangely gusty breeze blew, but the pirate discovered something even more conspicuous.
“Wow, what’s this?”
A sword.
And not just any sword, but one that seemed to pierce the dragon’s eye, like a legendary hero’s sword.
Honestly, the sword itself wasn’t anything special, but the fact that it was piercing the dragon’s eye made it feel of immense value to the pirate.
A dragon-slaying sword.
Well, that seemed fitting to name it, right?
He glanced around stealthily.
No one knew the sword was stuck in the dragon’s eye.
So he planned to secretly take it and pulled the sword out.
GRAAAAAA!
The dragon awoke, screaming in agony.
