Chapter 118
Psssh—!
Shio’s boasted barrier shattered with a crash and collapsed entirely, and through the gap, claw-shaped black whips surged upward.
Shio and Teiti knew very well who the owner of those whips was.
‘Lady Daphne.’
‘Crazy dragon.’
Shio and Teiti’s eyes met.
Confirming they were thinking the same thing, they quickly leaped into action.
“Eek!”
“Ugh!”
Moving faster than anyone else and differently from the rest, they began knocking out all the mages and Guardians around them.
Thud!
After felling everyone present, Shio wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and muttered.
“Phew. Did we finish them?”
Teiti, who had just knocked out the last human, looked at Shio with a pitiful expression.
“Finish them? We just knocked them out. You’re really getting weirder by the day.”
No matter how much he thought about it, it seemed like the only sane one left around Daphne was himself, so Teiti evaluated himself quite highly.
In any case, now that everyone had fainted.
Since there was no one left who would be shocked enough to faint at Daphne’s bizarre behavior, Shio and Teiti could finally relax and watch the scene unfolding before them.
Boom boom boom!
Thick, massive whips raked the earth and surged wildly, and the tremendous shockwaves forced Shio and Teiti to shield their eyes with their arms and grimace.
“Wow, it’s miraculously avoiding the building. Must be because there are kids inside.”
“Why does she care so much about humans? I don’t get it.”
Shio bristled and opened his mouth toward the muttering Teiti, but soon judged that arguing wasn’t important right now and turned his head back toward Daphne.
Kuuung!
Having shattered the barrier and risen into the air, Daphne now floated in midair.
Her tiny body and short, chubby limbs were merely cute in contrast to the situation, yet her fierce gaze was utterly terrifying.
“Ugh!”
“Wh-what is this? Has she gone mad?”
The black mages, who had underestimated Daphne from the start, were greatly flustered and thrown into disarray, but the killing intent in their eyes did not fade.
They spread out in a triangular formation around Daphne and summoned the aura of death.
“With the flame of fire, the heart of night, I shall burn everything!”
“By calling forth the warmth of the sun, I shall scorch everyone’s future!”
Whoosh!
As their flashy chant suggested, a massive fire blazed right in front of Daphne’s nose.
The flames surged forward as if to swallow her whole at any moment, and the black mages sneered, thinking Daphne would burn to death by now.
But.
“Does spouting such difficult words make your magic stronger?”
Daphne emerged boldly from within the flames and swept the black mages with an indifferent gaze.
“Humans these days are pathetically weak. Trying to compensate for lacking mana with long chants. You could just build up your mana, yet you take such a complicated path. Utterly foolish.”
“This crazy little brat……! Hey! Aren’t you coming down?”
“No.”
“Hey!”
Daphne spread her palms wide, and immediately a tremendous wind blew around her.
“You foolish beings who possess great power yet prey on the weak instead of protecting them, who lack proper conviction and only rush to follow those ahead.”
Dozens of claw-shaped whips sprouted from behind Daphne and spread in all directions.
The moment they saw them, the black mages’ faces began to drain of color.
“Th-that…… that’s……!”
“No way……?”
They were black mages close enough to be called associates of the disaster’s leader, Yan, and thus they could not fail to recognize the thick aura flowing from Daphne right now.
“The disast—”
“Yes.”
The surging whips pierced through the black mages’ bodies.
“I am the disaster.”
***
“Lady Daphne. Be honest. You’ve given up on hiding that you’re a dragon, haven’t you?”
“At this rate, it’ll be exposed soon anyway. Why not just brag about it?”
Shio and Teiti spoke to Daphne in slightly scolding tones, but Daphne — whose mana had filled up after absorbing a great deal of the aura of death from the black mages and was now in a good mood — didn’t bother getting angry at them.
Mana: 630
“Are those guys dead?”
Teiti asked while looking at the three black mages collapsed motionless on the ground.
Daphne finally withdrew her satisfied expression, furrowed her brow, and looked up at Teiti.
“Did you forget I said I do not kill?”
“Ah. Right. I keep forgetting.”
Teiti shrugged.
But he didn’t stop there and kept chattering.
“But honestly, isn’t it impossible not to forget? Isn’t it because of what lady Daphne does? Think about how lay Daphne acts and talks! Anyone would think lady Daphne could kill people left and mmmph! Why cover my mouth!”
“I stopped you because I was afraid Teiti would get hit…….”
If Daphne’s other name was disaster, then wasn’t Teiti’s other name the disaster’s mouthpiece?
If he stayed quiet, he’d get hit once, but by talking he ended up getting hit three times.
Shio looked at such Teiti and vowed never to become like that, while also pledging obedience to Daphne, who had shown tremendous power despite her body not being fully recovered yet.
“Anyway, those guys aren’t dead. I’ve made them like before, so Shio, go dump them somewhere in the middle of the mountain range.”
“Understood, Master!”
“Good. I’m pleased.”
Daphne grinned and jerked her chin toward Teiti.
“And Teiti, you go into the building and treat the kids.”
“……What a hassle.”
“You’ve been getting awfully cheeky lately, slave. Do you really want to get beaten?”
“I’ll go right now!”
Teiti hurriedly ran into the building.
Thinking he was quite persistent, Daphne sat down cross-legged.
She planned to organize the absorbed mana inside her body.
“But, Lady Daphne.”
At that moment, Shio quietly asked.
“Today was a bit dangerous. What if it really gets exposed?”
“Why?”
Daphne tilted her head as if she didn’t understand.
“With you two here, why should I worry?”
“……Huh?”
“I thought you two would cover for me appropriately. I’m not the kind of dragon who acts without thinking.”
“…….”
That’s exactly what acting without thinking sounds like.
Shio swallowed the words he couldn’t say out loud and lowered his gaze.
Then he noticed the sprawled bodies of the black mages, and something strange caught his eye.
“Hm?”
Frowning as he examined them, Shio’s face paled slightly.
Lady“Daphne. Look at this. Why do they have so many tattoos on their bodies?”
“Eh. They just wouldn’t stay still.”
Daphne scratched the back of her head and stood up, then waddled over on her short legs to the black mages foaming at the mouth and collapsed.
“……Hm?”
Tattoos that hadn’t been visible earlier now covered their bodies.
They were grotesquely bizarre geometric patterns whose meaning was hard to guess, but the moment Daphne saw them, she narrowed her eyes.
Because she knew what those patterns meant.
“Oh dear.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Sssip…….”
Daphne repeatedly rubbed her face dry and bit her lower lip.
She let out a sigh mixed with weariness and tilted her head back.
Then, looking up at Shio’s upside-down face, she spoke.
“The disaster wants to conquer this world.”
“Right?”
“But do those guys truly believe it’s possible?”
“Don’t crazy people think that way?”
“No, no. Humans are beings who always seek a corner of despair and never see complete hope. They dig into what can be achieved within despair.”
“……Huh?”
Shio tilted his head in confusion, and Daphne let out another sigh before grabbing one of the black mages’ arms and pulling it.
“This is.”
Daphne said while chewing her lip.
“A sacrifice mark.”
At that moment.
BOOM!
A tremendous explosion erupted from the base of the mountain.
Daphne and Shio looked at each other without needing to say who first, and at the same time, they felt the same thing.
This aura is definitely……!
