Hard Carried by My Sword

Chapter 254

The destructive force rampaged wildly, erasing everything in its path. The sky split open, or so one might have thought, as the sheer magnitude of the power warped space itself and the trajectory twisted in a jagged pattern before it plunged straight toward Rodrick’s head.

There was no avoiding it. Even slowed down by being fixed into the form of a breath attack, the light still traveled far faster than sound. Rodrick made his decision the moment he saw it.

“Every time I see a dragon’s Breath, I can’t help thinking...” he muttered, raising the Holy Sword directly in front of him and stepping forward.

His body did not move ahead so much as the world fell away behind him, showing the absurd mastery of his footwork technique. Heaven and earth moved in harmony with him. Mana in the area reversed its flow to follow the direction of his step. It was the very essence of the state of Naturality, the pinnacle of formlessness, where every slight motion was echoed by the world around him.

He continued his thought. “For something that’s supposed to be a transcendent kind’s ultimate attack, it’s awfully crude.”

With that simple dismissal, Rodrick thrust the sword. It was a basic thrust, nothing more. A strike aimed at a single point, not even something worthy of being called a secret technique.

To pit such a simple motion against the mountain-breaking force of a dragon’s breath was madness. Even a novice could guess how such a clash should end. Who measures a mountain and an ant against each other?

However. The tip of Rodrick’s sword dissolved into the air. He had elevated the strike to a realm that even a dragon’s perception could not track. Beyond physics, beyond the visible world, the blade crossed into a dimension that brushed against truth itself.

From nothing came form; from form it returned to nothing.

“All Things Return to One: Single-Point Blade.”

In that instant, the Breath that could pierce a mountain vanished as if it had never existed. He hadn’t blocked it or redirected it. The very notion of its existence had been negated.

Given its force, even the aftershock alone should have ravaged the land for a hundred years, rendering the area a lifeless wasteland. Even if Rodrick survived, everything around him should have suffered cataclysmic damage. However, with that single sword strike, he denied all of it.

“With enough mana to fire off half a dozen ultimate spells, you’re projecting elemental destruction based on natural law. Efficient, sure. If it were millions of small fry rushing you, you could have wiped them out in seconds.”

Rodrick walked forward from the spot where he’d thrust his sword moments ago. He looked as though only a breeze had passed through. There was no fear in him, no excitement either. It was simply the natural stride of someone moving toward an obvious victory.

“But that efficiency and that power are nothing but lumps of brute force. The moment you face an opponent who can interfere directly with conceptual domains, you get neutralized without being able to do a thing.”

From the murky haze of corruption, Albion remembered how her Breath had crumbled under a mere gesture from the Demon King. Rodrick was right. Against an entity that surpassed even the transcendent, a Breath that merely discharged physical force was little more than a neat trick. The mocking glint in the Demon King’s eyes had branded itself onto her pride.

Rodrick finally stopped moving. Albion, hovering hundreds of meters above the ground, met his gaze. Her instincts locked up in the moment her breath was nullified.

“That was ten seconds,” he said. “Now for the last twenty.”

A flash burst from Rodrick’s grip. Albion couldn’t understand what was happening next. She didn’t know why she was falling or why her instinctive flight ability had suddenly vanished.

It took her two full seconds to realize the truth. Her wings were gone.

A dragon’s wings did not function like those of birds. They were magical organs that generated lift. Having them severed at the root meant only one thing: she fell.

Impossible...! At a speed I couldn’t even see, he cut my wings...? Albion thought in utter disbelief.

A dragon’s body was powerful beyond reason. From head to tail, there wasn’t a single scale that could be called a weak point. Even the wing membranes were protected by condensed mana, strong enough that three or four ultimate spells might tear them at best. But Rodrick not only pierced that durability with one strike—he did it so fast she needed two seconds to notice.

Even so, the dragon’s body withstood the impact. A fall of nearly a kilometer wasn’t enough to break her. Albion dug her four limbs into the ground, found her balance, and glared up at the one who had felled her.

Loss over her severed limbs and the madness born of corruption briefly overwhelmed her fear and fueled her strength. With an incomprehensible roar, she charged.

Unlike the typical dignified posture of a dragon, Albion sprinted like a beast, tearing into the ground with four limbs. Magic-lightened or not, a dragon’s mass still measured in the dozens of tons; boosted by mana, her speed approached the sound barrier.

Hard, heavy, and fast—such a charge could flatten a fortress. A lone human wouldn’t even leave a smear behind.

Rodrick looked at her wild rush and snorted. “How sloppy. Even the doggy I’ve been playing with could do better than that.”

Perhaps Sirius, the secret technique of Hakapel, the beastkin later known as the Beast King, could trouble him a little, but a reckless charge like this? Hardly. He didn’t even need the Holy Sword.

Rodrick let the blade hang loosely at his side and curled his left hand into a fist. Then came a loud, deafening sound.

A blast loud enough to be heard several kilometers away erupted as Albion’s massive body lifted off the ground and was flung back like a stone skimming over water. The fifty-ton dragon bounced across the earth again and again before crashing into a distant ridge.

It made no sense. Destructive force scales with mass, and nothing short of a miracle should have allowed a human fist to overturn something hundreds of times heavier. The old saying about a hundred grams toppling a thousand kilograms might sound nice, but overcoming a gap like this should have been impossible.

“Reversal Fist.”

Rodrick spoke the name of the technique that had knocked Albion out with one punch and even snapped one of her horns. It was a counterblow that inverted the direction of incoming force and sent it back, using the opponent’s own momentum to amplify the impact. Taking a direct hit from Reversal Fist was like colliding head-on with one’s own full-speed charge.

“I carved away the wings because that’s where the rot was rooted the deepest, but I did leave one horn intact as a kind gesture. Now. That just leaves the heart, huh?”

Rodrick said it casually as he strode toward the unconscious dragon. Strangely, space compressed with each step he took; four strides were enough for him to cross several hundred meters and stand before Albion.

In Albion’s eyes, the human looked full of openings, yet there wasn’t a single gap she could pierce.

Rodrick said, “With the horn that was burrowing into your brain destroyed, you should have recovered some clarity. Don’t you have anything to say?”

At his prompting, Albion let out a faint murmur. “Kill... me...”

“Hm?” Rodrick tilted his head, then answered, “Admirable resolve, but there’s no need. I already cut out the corrupted wings and horn. If I extract only what’s left near your heart, you’ll live.”

“Don’t... want... to...!” Taking advantage of the brief lull in the corruption’s influence, Albion forced her mouth to move and cried out in blood. “I’m... a shame... to my kind...! I... killed... those I was... meant to... protect...! A sin... that can’t be repaid... alive...! Then I’d rather... die... by the hero’s... hand!”

“I see.”

“Please... kill me...!”

Her plea cast aside even the pride of the dragon race. To that, Rodrick responded simply, without a moment of hesitation.

“I don’t wanna.”

The blunt refusal was so devoid of sympathy that Albion’s pain-twisted face went blank for a moment. He continued, “I wasn’t born a dragon, so I don’t know how big a deal this was for you. But don’t throw your life away over something so trivial.”

“Tri... vial...?”

“Everyone makes mistakes. Even if you’ve disgraced yourself, as long as you’re alive, you can make up for it someday. And you’re a dragon, aren’t you? You’ve got thousands of years ahead of you. Or are you just trying to run away because you’re scared of taking responsibility?”

Rodrick raised the Holy Sword. Its tip aimed directly at her heart, where the core of the corruption was embedded. Normally, destroying it would cause the remnants to surge through the bloodstream and rot even a dragon’s body from the inside out.

“Your wish is none of my concern. As a hero, I’ll save the life I can save. What happens to you after is up to you.”

Albion felt anger rising at his callous words, yet it was also strangely liberating. For the first time, after casting aside all pride and duty as a dragon, she had to confront a single question.

Do I want to live, or die?

She didn’t even have time to fully accept her own answer. A beam of holy light pierced straight through the center of her heart.

***

“Ah...”

When Albion finally came to, the sky that had been bright earlier was already dark. She no longer had the strength to maintain her true form, so her body had morphed into a humanoid form.

Her mind, which had been hazy as if wrapped in thick fog, had also cleared. Remembering how she had begged Rodrick to kill her just moments ago, she let out a long sigh. At the time, she’d thought there was no choice but to die, but now, a sense of embarrassment washed over her.

“Huh? You’re up?”

Albion turned at the voice behind her. Even in the dark, she could see his blond hair and the cross-shaped gleam in his eyes. Instinct honed by the senses of a transcendent being told her the truth of the power behind that gaze, and she shivered without meaning to.

How could this man truly be human? He felt stronger than the godlike being she’d glimpsed in the past and far more overwhelming than even the Demon King.

“What’s wrong? Did getting smacked around make you timid or something? Not very dragon-like of you,” Rodrick said.

“W-who are you calling timid!” Albion snapped back.

“Oh, you’ve got enough strength back to be mad. Good.”

Completely unfazed by her irritation, Rodrick started butchering the boar he’d hunted a moment ago. Lacking anything resembling reverence for the goddess, he simply dragged the Holy Sword across it a few times, slicing flesh from bone with casual precision. Even a veteran hunter would’ve gaped at the skill.

He laid the cuts of meat onto a stone slab over the fire. Before long, the fat melted, releasing a mouthwatering aroma. There were only a few hundred grams since he’d picked out only the good parts, but it was enough for a simple meal.

He sprinkled some spices from a subspace artifact, making the taste just right. Committing sacrilege without hesitation, he used the tip of the Holy Sword to spear a piece and toss it into his own mouth.

“Mm. Not bad. Fancy cooking’s fine and all, but sometimes I just crave this,” he said.

“That is... barbaric. Are you sure you should treat the Holy Sword like that?” Albion asked.

“I call the goddess a ditz to her face. You think she’d care if I’m rough with a sword?”

“E-excuse me? A ditz?”

Whatever image she’d had of the Hero shattered, and Albion’s mind nearly went blank. Rodrick, of course, kept eating.

Noticing her staring absently, he finally spoke. “Hey, don’t just watch. Eat some.”

“I don’t need it. Dragons don’t require...”

Rodrick cut her off. “I know transcendent kinds don’t need food. But there’s this thing called reading the room. You should try it. It’s awkward if I’m the only one eating.”

“Well, since you are my saviour...”

Albion relented. She picked up a piece of meat, hesitated several times, then placed it in her mouth. Then, her eyes fluttered at the richness of flavor. It wasn’t that she’d never tasted fine cuisine. There was a time when she indulged in it for centuries. But the taste she felt now was different, something that stirred her beyond the tongue.

I’m alive.

She could feel her heart beating, her blood flowing. The life she had thrown away had returned, and emotions that had withered before death began burning again.

“Eugh.”

She didn’t know why. She wasn’t happy, nor was she sad, yet she found herself wiping the tears gathering at her eyes, head bowed so Rodrick wouldn’t see her losing composure. Thinking that only made her heart pound harder.

Ah.

Unfortunately for her, she was intelligent. A dragon’s mind and instincts were sharp enough that the moment she felt a reaction born of emotion, she analyzed its cause.

Hero Rodrick. The man who had even earned the title “Holy King,” the greatest hero in human history. And she was feeling a certain, unacceptable emotion toward a man who was now sitting cross-legged, chewing on boar like a delinquent.

Unable to stop herself, Albion let out a shrill scream. “Kyaaaa!”

“What the?! Is the corruption still not gone?”

“That’s not it!”

She recoiled from Rodrick the moment he lifted the Holy Sword, covering her head as she stumbled back. Her porcelain-white face had gone red like fire.

Before Rodrick pointed that out, Albion glared at him and shouted, “This is all your fault, so you take responsibility!”

“Responsibility...? For what?”

“You cut off my wings and snapped my horn! With this incomplete body, I cannot ascend to Heaven! That means I must spend the rest of my life in this world!”

Rodrick’s expression turned bewildered. “I knew dragons were thick-skinned, but I didn’t think you were this brazen. I pull you out of the water you were drowning in, and this is how you repay me?”

“You ignored my wish to die and saved me anyway! Take responsibility! Be accountable for the rest of my life!”

“What is going on...?”

Albion knew she was being absurd, but once the words were said, she couldn’t take them back. To her surprise, Rodrick actually wavered. Perhaps he pitied her for being left alone in a world where all dragons had departed. After thinking it over several times, he offered his compromise.

He replied, “Tch. Fine. But I can’t do anything huge for you. I’ll probably live for a few more centuries, so until I die, I’ll at least keep you company. That enough?”

“Is that a promise? Are you forming a contract with me? Break it, and I’ll chase you to the heavens and kill you myself!”

“Why am I getting death threats from someone I saved...?”

Rodrick looked irritated about being saddled with a promise he’d never intended, but Albion seemed delighted after having secured a relationship and happily picked up a few more pieces of boar. It didn’t taste as transcendent as the first bite, but the grumbling man in front of her felt like the perfect seasoning.

This was the moment it began. This was the day the Gold Dragon Albion fell in love with him.

***

What a heartwarming story... Leon nodded to himself, quietly moved by what he’d heard.

Albion hadn’t told Leon and his party her feelings outright, but her bashful reactions had been more than enough for everyone to pick up on it. Only El-Cid was howling inside the Holy Sword.

—Heartwarming? My ass! I was the one who got forced into making a stupid promise, and I’m supposed to sympathize with her? It should be the other way around!

What would I even expect from you, Leon replied inwardly.

—What is that supposed to mean?!

Leon was about to shut him up when something caught in his mind, and he paused. El-Cid had said earlier that Albion “owed him a debt.” But that part never came up in the story she’d told.

El-Cid.

—What?

He sounded irritated.

What happened after that? You said she owed you a debt, so there must be more to the story.

—Of course there is. The fact that she didn’t mention the rest just shows how shameless that yellow lizard is.

As if he’d been waiting for the question, El-Cid launched into the explanation with obvious glee. —You wanna know what she said after wringing that promise out of me?

Yeah.

—Out of nowhere, she started going on about repaying her debt, saying she’d follow me around, that she would do me the honor of appointing me as her personal knight. I told her I didn’t need any of that crap. What good is someone that much weaker than me supposed to do? She’d just get in the way.

A chill crawled down Leon’s spine as he asked for an elaboration. So...?

—A Gold Dragon has this image, you know? Precious as gold itself, right?

And...?

—What’s with all this ‘So...?’ and ‘And...’? What else would I have said?

What did you say?

El-Cid answered with absolute confidence. —I told her if she was really that grateful, she could pay me back in money.

Leon stared into the middle distance at that answer.

Oh... My... You are one piece of shit...

Albion’s rage made perfect sense now. At a loss for words, Leon looked down at the hilt of the sword. And this was supposed to be the Hero? Far above them, the goddess watching from the heavens silently agreed.