Leviathan:Volume 7, page 4
part #7 of Leviathan Series
The peak where Pavel Galad had appeared was a few kilometers away from Hal and Hazumi's position.
Spreading his silver wings in leisure, he flew slowly towards them.
"It has been a while, Haruga Haruomi, successor to the dragonslaying Rune of the Bow."
Despite the distance between them, the silver dragon's youthful and beautiful voice reached Hal and Hazumi's ears with great clarity.
A type of sound transmission magic must have been used. Pavel Galad's voice was as clear as if he were speaking while standing in front of them. Hal responded normally since Pavel could hear him regardless.
"So it seems like you've been skulking around Tokyo lately?"
"Have I been discovered? You are truly a man not to be underestimated."
Despite having more than a kilometer betwen them, they could converse normally.
"So the reason why you've entered the stage openly... It's for that, right? This time, you're going to have a showdown against Princess Yukikaze for real?"
"Oh? How rare to see you asking such a question."
"What do you mean?"
"Given your intelligence, I would expect you to know without needing me to explain."
"......"
"Needless to say, I returned only to cross blades with Princess Yukikaze. Nevertheless, Haruga Haruomi, you are an important rival too. I regard you as one that I must defeat..."
"I wish you could be more friendly to me, if possible."
Pavel Galad's gigantic body was flying straight towards them.
Slowly and carefully, he lowered his altitude. A double-edged longsword suddenly appeared in his right hand. It was a rugged silver sword.
Hal had seen this sword before. It was the manifestation of the Rune of the Sword...!
"Hohohoho, I hereby swear that I shall defeat you this time. No matter what obstacles I must surmount, I will be victorious against you!"
"Damn it! I don't want to see that sword ever again!"
An additional layer of pearly light surrounded the silver dragon that was wielding the dragonslaying sword.
Imperishable protection. This was the defensive barrier that Hal and others regarded as a valuable treasure too. Fully armed, Pavel Galad approached by air—And that was not all.
"I offer prayer to the seal in my possession, that of the Divine Sword of the Heavens. Let the thunder god's sword manifest here and now!"
"Uh, a finishing move right off the bat!?"
Nineteen magical symbols appeared along the blade of the dragonslaying sword.
All runes of Ruruk Soun. Hal had some recollection of this arrangement, which signified "I summon the thunder god's sword to unsheathe in haste"—
In the next instant, the dragonslaying longsword flashed with electrical radiance—
Together with the dragon wielding it, the sword descended upon Hal and Hazumi swiftly from above!
"Let my mystic sword serve as the signal to herald a new war. Here I come, Haruga Haruomi!"
"You're hot-blooded as always, never stingy with the big moves!"
Hal grumbled, looked at the witch beside him and requested, "I'm counting on you, Shirasaka!"
"Yes! Minadzuki—Protect us!"
Hazumi's order was quite vague, but for her partner, this was enough.
This leviathan was not only intelligent, but among Hal's comrades, the power she had mastered was also the most special and rare.
The serpentine dragon leviathan, Minadzuki, had been waiting ready behind them the whole time.
She charged head on towards Pavel Galad who was flying at them. Held in Minadazuki's right forelimb was a white jewel.
Inside that glowing orb, a magical symbol similar to a half moon appeared.
It was Hal's seal, the Rune of the Bow. After a long absence, the sword was finally reunited with the bow. These two powers of dragonbane—did not clash.
"Thanks, Minadzuki!"
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
The prayer of Hazumi and the howl of Minadzuki, a sacred beast rather than a demonic beast, resounded in all directions.
Fourteen runes of Ruruk Soun appeared behind the serpentine dragon leviathan's back. This arrangement signified "armistice," abandoning the use of force.
The runic arrangement for the lowering of weapons—enacted a miracle!
"Oh!?"
Pavel Galad was very shocked.
This was because the dragonslaying sword, enveloped in lightning of maximum power, had vanished from his hand.
The jewel held in Minadzuki's forelimb also disappeared at the same time. This was a mystic rite for sealing away the weapons and dragonslaying powers of both sides.
Only Hazumi and Minadzuki, a "serpent" that had awakened this kind of goddess power, were capable of using such a spell.
Seizing this opportunity to attack was Hal's job—
"Queen! Use a technique of assured annihilation!"
The giant dragon, standing twenty meters tall, instantly appeared.
It was Hinokagutsuchi's form in the past—The Crimson Queen. Enormous and dignified, it even made Pavel Galad look inferior in contrast.
The giant dragon, akin to Hal's avatar, was holding a bow in its right forelimb.
A crimson longbow. The dragonslaying bow. The queen nocked the arrow—an arrow of light and flame—drew the bow and shot it.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
Attacked by the arrow and the scorching blaze, Pavel Galad howled loudly.
Currently, twenty-one runes of Ruruk Soun had appeared overhead of the archer, the queen.
The arrangement signified "I will fire the sun-shooting divine bow at the sky, to exterminate the sun."
This was Hal's most powerful trump card. The result of mastering even King Solomon's legacy, the Rune of the Ring, meant that he was finally capable of firing the sun-shooting divine bow on his own.
—Sealing away both the enemy's and one's own power of dragonbane, then unleashing the most powerful attack.
Hal had chosen to bring Hazumi with him in order to execute this surprise attack.
Just as planned, the crimson arrow struck Pavel Galad directly. Wailing while scorched by intense flames capable of even burning dragons to ash—
"H-Hohohohohoho."
"Senpai!?"
"No way..."
Seeing the silver dragon laughing to himself despite being immolated, Hal muttered to himself.
Next to him, Hazumi was speechless. She knew better than anyone that the holy mystic technique of a goddess had definitely sealed away Galad and Minadzuki's powers of dragonbane.
However, the dragonslaying sword reappeared in the silver dragon's hand.
In addition, the sword was pointed straight at them. Using the tip of the sword, he blocked the arrow—the divine bow's arrow.
The arrow, capable of shooting down the sun, shattered that very instant.
Pavel Galad extended his longsword and seventeen runes of Ruruk Soun manifested on the body of the blade.
The arrangement signified "O blue sky, I beseech you to grant the sword god's favored affection unto my blade."
Hal widened his eyes. Blue-white flames surrounded the entire dragonslaying sword.
The flames were imbued with extremely powerful magic. Presumably because of the flames' effects, the dragonslaying sword's potency and magical power had greatly increased.
In the next instant, the ground underfoot shook violently, accompanied by a thunderous "BOOM!"
The Tyrannos who had defended against the surprise attack and technique of assured annihilation—Pavel Galad—landed on the ground.
"I thought we'd made that sword go away..."
"Do not underestimate me. For the sake of fighting you again, I too have made many preparations."
"Here you go again, doing things that dragons don't normally do..."
"What are you talking about? I learned all this from you. Precisely when you cannot match a formidable opponent in strength do you have to rack your brain and struggle with every power at your disposal. Hohohoho."
Having effortlessly countered Hal and Hazumi's surprise attack, Galad laughed with satisfaction.
If one were to use an RPG analogy, Pavel Galad would undoubtedly be a "hero"-class dragon and larger-than-life character. Hot-blooded and possessing excessive righteous fighting spirit.
However, in the case of the Road to Kingship where the dragon king's throne was the goal—
Confronting enemies head on, fair and square, could lead to death.
Now, Galad had finally grown accustomed to this excessively challenging and unfair game.
"You don't have to use me as a strategy guide..."
Every dog has its day.
Hal recalled this idiom—How uncharacteristic of his style.
During the battle against Princess Yukikaze before the summer break, Hal and allied temporarily with Pavel Galad. Perhaps what he had seen and experienced back then had changed him.
No matter what, this crisis must be resolved. Hal switched mindsets.
"...Huh?"
There was a strange feeling in his chest.
His heart—or rather, his heartmetal—was scorching. His entire body also heated up. Furthermore, something was also happening to the Crimson Queen.
The red body of the former dragon queen was entirely covered in flames.
The intense blaze instantly expanded.
Using the sun-shooting divine bow had pulled some kind of trigger, as though turning heightened fighting spirit and magical power into burning flames—
Crap. At this rate, the Crimson Queen was going to awaken for real!
Hal was utterly terrified.
"S-Senpai? Are you okay...?"
Probably noticing the color was off in Hal's face, Hazumi inquired in concern.
As expected of the angel on earth, she was considerate and attentive. However, Haruga Haruomi was currently too preoccupied to answer. All he did was touch his chest—the area near his heart—in surprise.
The next instant...
"Fufufufufu. I, Yukikaze, smelled a fight and came to look. Surprisingly, it was you two."
An adorable and gallant voice descended from the sky.
Hal looked up. Just as expected, a girl dressed in a white one-piece dress entered his view. She was standing confidently on top of her "flying surfboard" of a magic wand, looking down with amusement at the silver dragon and Haruga Haruomi who were facing off on the ground.
"Hello again, both of you. I see that the two of you have taken great pains to prepare a venue worthy of receiving my presence. This place is not half bad!"
A nostalgic voice entered Hal's ears.
During the summer break, he had met Princess Yukikaze at Izu.
Watching with delight at the desperate struggles of the two lower-ranked Tyrannoi—This was the confidence and composure of the current queen.
The elusive dragon king, Princess Yukikaze, had arrived.
Part 2
"We didn't work together to make this special arena," said Hal to Princess Yukikaze, putting aside his strange feeling and crisis awareness for now.
Now that even Princess Yukikaze had shown up, who had time to deal with that kind of stuff?
"That guy over there seems to be responsible, though I don't know the details either."
"Yes. I devoted a fair amount of effort for the sake of eliminating my fated rival and the white dragon king at the same time. A mighty fine job, if I should say so myself..." Wielding the dragonslaying sword, Pavel Galad declared proudly.
Present here was the Crimson Queen, armed with the dragonslaying bow, and Pavel Galad with his prided massive body of metallic silver. In appearance alone, both of them looked stronger than Princess Yukikaze.
However, the young girl who was stronger than everyone here smiled in leisure.
"Well said, silver dragon! In that case, I, Yukikaze, hereby command you."
Perhaps because she was standing on a flying surfboard, roughly thirty meters off the ground...
Princess Yukikaze was "in a higher position" both physically and mentally, looking downwards at Hal and Galad, issuing a royal decree.
"Defeat Haruomi first then call for me. You must redeem yourself for your past defeat and prove that you have the ability to challenge a king."
"That was my intention all along. O Princess, thank you for accepting my challenge."
"Do not thank me so hastily. It appears that you have learned plenty, but petty tricks of that sort belong more in Haruomi's domain. Whether the dragonslaying sword can reach the same heights as I, Yukikaze... I certainly look forward to finding out."
"Uh, excuse me—"
Galad looked all fired up with hot blood while Princess Yukikaze brought up Haruga Haruomi's name as though showing off her own toy.
Hal still had self-awareness as a mortal, more or less. He cautiously suggested, "I'd rather join forces with one of you to take out the other opponent first..."
As "members of a warrior race," elite dragons could not possibly agree to such a request.
Hal was merely saying it as a test. Princess Yukikaze scoffed while Pavel Galad showed no reaction, completely ignoring it.
Oh dear. Hal shook his head and changed the subject.
"Then at least postpone the battle until tomorrow. You suddenly asked me to fight, but I'm not mentally prepared yet."
"Oh?"
Pavel Galad's reaction was quite mysterious.
He first stared at Hal then shifted his gaze to the Crimson Queen. After some thought, he muttered "I see now" to himself.
Hal shuddered.
He felt a wave of unease as though he had been stripped naked completely.
"I do not mind. If you have such a need, would you like to change the duel's venue too?"
"......"
How surprising. This small island that had suddenly appeared on the surface of the ocean must have been land created by Galade through magic. In other words, this was completely enemy territory.
It was anyone's guess where the traps were located on this island.
Hal originally thought Galad would naturally want to fight here.
Apparently seeing through Hal's thoughts, the silver dragon said nonchalantly, "We are capable of soaring the skies. After the battle commences, we could fly to wherever we want."
"Well, that's true."
"Then let us set the duel to begin tomorrow morning. Anywhere in Tokyo is fine with me. Just call my name at your preferred location and that would be where the battle begins. Will that do for you?"
"...Nah, this place is fine."
It looked like Pavel Galad intended to treat Tokyo New Town as a battlefield without any restrictions.
Realizing this, Hal rejected the suggestion. Though this small island was suspicious, the fact that it was uninhabited was pretty convenient.
Also, since the day of the duel could be postponed to tomorrow, there was time to come up with countermeasures...
"In exchange, I want to investigate this island and see if you've cast weird spells or set traps. If I find anything, I'll decide whether I eliminate them or postpone the battle further."
"Very well. Investigate as much as you like."
Still the same as always, Galad answered with full seriousness.
Spreading his pair of silver wings, he flew south.
Investigate as much as you like—True to his word, it looked like Galad did not intend to get in Hal's way. For an opponent demanding a personal duel, he was quite fair and upstanding.
As for the other dragon—
"Fufufufu. The day of our duel is drawing near... The assumption is that you must defeat that silver dragon."
By the time Hal noticed, Princess Yukikaze had lowered the altitude of her surfboard.
From five or six meters above Hal, she gazed down upon him.
"Do your best, Haruomi. We are the ones who hold the bow and the arrow forming a pair. Muster your full power, bearing in mind that I, Yukikaze, desires fervently to fight you."
Leaving these parting words, Princess Yukikaze flew away too.
She went west—making a beeline for the Old Tokyo Concession.
Even a randomly tossed comment had such a poetic quality to it. This princess was full of personality as always. Feeling nostalgic while finding her too dazzling to behold, he muttered, "Everyone just talks without listening."
Staring off into the sky where his foes had disappeared, he recalled Funaki-san's report.
Eyewitnesses had spotted Pavel Galad's human form at a number of locations. In addition, the use of investigative magic across New Town resulted in the detection of strange signals recently—
Was this island actually a red herring while the true trap was hidden in Tokyo New Town?
If that was the case, then sure enough, fighting inside Tokyo would be very risky. Declining Galad's suggestion had probably been the right decision.
"Dragons are clearly battle maniacs, yet they still cause me such headaches..."
Unable to put his mind at ease, Hal thought to himself.
In many ways, the silver dragon Pavel Galad had changed from before. Hal had to wage a great decisive battle tomorrow against such a monster—What a burdensome feeling.
Three hours later, Hal left the island after conducting various investigations.
In addition to investigative magic—SAURU's magic—Hal even made use of Ruruk Soun's magic to investigate carefully. The leviathan Minadzuki also used her sense of smell and a sacred beast's super sensitivity to help search for anything unusual or dangerous.
Other than the surface, deep underground was also included as part of the search.
However, nothing suspicious was found anywhere. It was merely "a small island raised up from the seabed by the magic of dragonkind."
"Anyway, I asked Luna to go over there and take over the investigation in our place."
To return to Tokyo New Town, they had asked the JMSDF to send a small transport ship.
Inside the seventy-meter-long ship, Hal was speaking with Hazumi in a cabin.
"That being said, I'm guessing the investigation won't come up with anything."
"What about Nee-sama and Asya-san?"
"I asked them to investigate New Town because I heard that Galad has been wandering all over the place for the past few months. However—"
