‘Activating [Fire Ice Fusion Core] for extra vitality. I’ve got our mana surrounding our neck, activating our barrier, but… arghk! I-it’s breaking, Hestia! We lost all feeling below our head. We can only move our mana, but our muscles aren’t responding!’

The woman’s scales were shredding into my skin like a chainsaw’s teeth, all while her slim hands crushed my neck like a dainty twig. That crack I heard was no illusion, as even the System told me my neck was completely broken. Her fingers pierced into my throat, taking blood just as much as my own neck bones were digging into my flesh with their shattered shrapnels.

As Hikari said, I had lost all control below my head. I could still feel, but my limbs wouldn’t listen to me as all of them lifelessly slumped down. As I gurgled on the remaining air I had left, I could feel my solar core and mana surging to protect me, either by healing my wounds or keeping my brain from going into shock from all the sudden damage. [Absolute Pain Tolerance] and [Tranquil Mind] were, once again, a godsend as they prevented me from going unconscious.

Yet, if I didn’t do something soon, it would be all for naught. I could regrow my limbs, but there was a limit to how much I could heal myself, even with [Miraculous Grace]. I didn’t need to have experienced that if I were to lose my head, it would be a death sentence, even if my health somehow managed to stay above zero.

Asphyxiation was still a threat to me. People might joke that I was similar to a plant, but my solar core couldn’t actually produce oxygen for me. I could hold my breath for a while, but I would eventually run out of air for my brain to survive. Not to mention, if I were to end up as a head, all the mana from below my body would disappear, not to mention my solar core’s function.

So, the solution to this conundrum?

Transform back into a dragon, now, Hikari!

“Oh, for a whelpling, you are surprisingly durable. Your head should have popped off your body already. I guess I should have given Melloxtressa’s spawn some respec—” However, before my aggressor could finish her sentence, her left arm jerked up to defend herself from an incoming punch that flashed into existence next to us—it was Nong! “Fast. But enough bloodlust to lure even sharks on land. Hunt from below in calmness like dead water.”

The wind around Nong was raging like a raging tornado, slicing everything around him, even me. His green and black hair was set ablaze by green flames, flaring like neon lights as his handsome face was distorted into the face of a wrathful demon. His [Battle Frenzy] released that bloodlust he showed during the Elemental Emperor battle, and like a breeze bringing a dying ember back to life, his emotions caused even the wind around him to turn into a scorching inferno wall.

Yet, the levianewt—no, leviathan woman simply smiled as her scales flew off her arms, blocking the flames meant for her. She only gave Nong a chuckle before she tightened her grip on my neck, crumpling it up like a tissue paper as I yelped once again. The air was out.

“SCAMP!” Nong yelled as the scale wall grew in size and number, quashing his flames and pushing him to the side as they mummified him. The green-yellow scales of the leviathan woman would break as he struggled, but more would simply take their place, rendering my brother too occupied to help me any longer.

[Foresight], are you serious? I screamed in my head after activating [Foresight], seeing only one possible future outcome if I were to activate [Humanize] now—the hag would crush my neck immediately before I could transform. She was still playing with me like a killer whale tossing a seal into the air like a play toy. Gotta make an opening. Spells take too long. Just fucking choke on some corrosive gases, bitch!

I pleaded with all my heart as flames burst from my body with [Dreadflare Aura], but similar to Nong’s flames, they were all blocked by the hag’s scales. Sure, unlike his, mine couldn’t be so easily killed and would keep on burning, but unlike his, mine were probably weaker since he was a damn rank higher.

“Futile. A young scale should—Oh!” Once again, thankfully, her attention was drawn away from me as she snapped up, watching an icicle the size of a dagger pierce her scale wall. Although it didn’t actually penetrate them, it stuck to the scales as ice started to form. “True ice? I can’t smell Melloxtressa thou—”

And just like Nong, Vifi flashed into existence with a lightning gauntlet covering her right hand. She punched at the icicle, crushing it before hitting the scale wall with, probably [Voltaic Red: Bunker Breacher]. The frozen-over scales instantly broke, creating a small hole in the leviathan’s defences, but the red lightning wasn’t enough to actually destroy everything Shay’s icicle froze.

“You can hide it well, but you do not have the strength, humanoid. Know your—”

“Really?” Vifi smirked as she stepped to the side as an ice beam was shot through the hole she created, almost grazing the leviathan as she stepped back to avoid the projectile. Her grip finally loosened for me to breathe!

Hikari, take my place. Humanize!

Hardening the [Dreadflare Aura] around my neck into obsidian, I widened the leviathan’s hand away from my throat to allow my drooping body to fall like a broken marionette. Thanks to my heavy tail and wings, the weight pulled me backwards, giving me the space to transform back into a dragon.

The mana cloud burst from my body as bones, muscles, and skin grew, though I could feel that my injuries remained… although, who cared about that now? Even if I couldn’t move my body, I was still a damn large dragon, and that was the whole point of transforming back!

The praying hall’s entrance shattered as my body grew larger than a bus, pushing not only Vifi and the surrounding basilica guards away, but also the leviathan woman. My head crashed unceremoniously on the ground as my neck was still broken in my dragon form, but at least [Danger Perception] finally stopped ringing. I escaped the immediate threat.

Fucking hell, why did that—

LEAVE ME ALONE!

With [Humanize (Moderate)] cutting my health in half, I was at 3890 health before I transformed into a dragon. Technically, I was still healthier than a rank C adventurer… but those guys could get instantly squashed by a high ogre’s mace. Considering how I could, well, crush the necks of monsters a rank below me as well, this leviathan really was just playing around.

“Hiehie.”

And it doesn’t seem like she cared that much, with how she’s still giggling—shit, [Danger Perception] is active again!

[“I’m safe. I’m casting [Room]!”] I telepathically said as Hikari finished the cast. As the portal opened up for me to squeeze inside, I cast [Unheiliger Engel] to create a pair of arms to drag me further inside.

Damn! However, before this could resolve itself, I felt something tug on my tail, dragging me outside as a chill ran down my spine.

“Little dear, you really are just precious. My sons would have enjoyed playing with you if you were just a leviathan. However, I really must insist that you die, so your mother can come out of her nest to die herself in a bath of suffocating gloom.”

You wish, ha—hrk? My eyes widened as I saw the leviathan’s arm molt a few scales held together by an elastic-like water droplet. As she waved her arms down, the scales and water moved with her command, only for Beth to fly in its way in her wyvern form, blocking the attack from hitting my head.

She managed to deflect the blow as the scales glided along her [Hoarfrost Scale], fortified by [Drifting Silver]. I managed to avoid death at the cost of my tail being sliced in half despite how much my mana was fortifying my scales. [True Draconic Barrier] was com—right, [Fire Ice Fusion Core] wasn’t done just yet. I was still weak to water.

Just as the leviathan ripped off a portion of my tail, my scales all turned pure white, causing [White Flames] to heal my wounds by covering them in ice.

“If true ice can freeze anything it touches and not be melted. If true fire can burn everywhere, even when it has no fuel to sustain it. Then what is true water? Simple. True water allows mana to flow through it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Only the purist elemental mana may prevent itself from being dragged along the waves, but how many people have true elemental mana? In essence, true water steals and absorbs mana like water dissolving salt, imposing a dreadful emotional loss that will sap the willpower of even the most illustrious beings. Hehe… Melloxtressa is truly blessed. To fight her, I am required to manifest true water, and to achieve that, I must evolve. What is the best way to level at this point?”

Not cutting my tail, that’s for sure! I’m a fucking rank B, killing me won’t even give you a speck of experience, you idiot rank S!

“A war.”

Huh? Who said that?

“Hehe, you would understand, Wendriosa.”

“Begone. That is my little sister.”

And as my eldest sister said that, the leviathan’s smirking face disappeared as a giant water beam about my size crashed against her, sending her flying out of the basilica through its front door and wall. Left stunned by this attack, I then saw Nong flying after the leviathan, transforming back into his dragon form once he was outside. Neill did the same, galloping past me along with Vifi right behind her.

With the threat mostly gone, Beth turned to me, wincing a bit as I saw that her right wing wasn’t left untouched from that water-laser-blade attack. A few scales were cut off, leaving it bare of her ice armor, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t heal later on.

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As she was trying to push me inside, Shay hurried over to me, now in his rank A wyvern form.

“Push her from the legs, Bethlieranha. I’ll carry her in with her front legs,” Shay shouted as he started helping his sister, giving her the extra oomph needed to push my, frankly, heavy body. “Urgh, come on! Lady Hikari, you need to help out a bit here.”

[“You think I’m not trying to heal myself here?”] Hikari replied for me, as I was facing a massive medical complication. [“Something’s stuck in my neck; needles or whatever. I can’t open up my neck with [Unheiliger Engel] after accidentally healing over the wounds. I need my claws to pierce my scales.”]

It was like having a bullet stuck in my body, essentially. I wasn’t exactly sure what the foreign body was, but I could feel it stinging whenever I tried to readjust my neck. I had to perform a proper surgical procedure to really fix my shattered neck, whether in my humanoid or dragon form. Who knew where all the bone fragments were located at this point, and I had no interest in accidentally blocking my mana paths, again.

“I understand you worry, but I meant helping us with a few spells. Music even! Your limp body is pushing all the weight down, and with these wings of mine, I cannot get a proper grip before you—shield, Sister!” Shay shouted, commanding Beth to let me go and jump in front of my body to cast [Fimbulvetr Wall].

As the true ice wall was constructed, a powerful water blast came from outside the basilica, probably from that leviathan hag, as I could still hear her cackling as Nong and Neill engaged her. Beth’s wall protected us from the initial watery explosion, but a giant beam came flying in, cracking the true ice to Beth’s dismay. The intelligence difference was too massive.

Seeing this, Beth rushed back to my legs and started helping her brother again, seeing as she wasn’t sure if her second [Fimbulvetr Wall] would stop the attack. With the ice cracking getting louder and more frequent, the cyan-colored magic circle placed in front of the damaged ice wall was about to be cast, only for it to dim as Tasianna and Wendriosa jumped in front of me just as the wall broke down.

Clouds on her tail? I noticed before the clouds started to “rain,” creating a layer of water around Wendriosa’s tail.

Of all my siblings, I was only fully aware of Neill’s and Ryra’s full skill set, as I had asked them to see their Profile when we sparred. Circumstances allowed me to see their skillset with ease, but I never took the chance to ask my older siblings about theirs. Even Nong, despite our over one-month glacial expedition, never revealed it to me, but to be honest, I never asked him about it. I only knew the basics that he could use [Aerokinesis] and was super fast. Furthermore, he dwarfed even Vifi when it came to strength, a testament as he easily took care of the second warbringer when it took me a while to even wound that guy back in Aureolis.

All I knew about Wendriosa’s and Kahalameet’s powers was that they were both mutated leviathans, due to their mother’s lineage, and possessed the flaming bloodline of Father. Neither of them had any wings, but could fly due to the unique skill they inherited from their mother—[Nebulization]. Cloud creation and manipulation through evaporation, meaning it was a type of [Aquakinesis], since the skill was one of the former’s components.

And as if to show off, Wendriosa displayed her skill in full as she turned her long, whip-like tail into a watery sword. Swinging it as the water blast bulldozed the ice wall, she sliced it in half on the spot, allowing Tasianna to freeze the twin blast with her icy breath. As the wall touched her true ice, it naturally started to freeze, allowing my friend to erect a giant dome around us.

“Here! Push!” As those two protected us, Krim and Graz both grabbed my front legs as runes activated on their armor. They heaved me up, allowing Shay to place his body under mine, carrying me forward like a huge backpack. “Go, go!”

“Take care of my sister, Sir Priest!” Wendriosa ordered as Tasianna created a hole in the dome for her to leave. “And you…”

Huh? Turning my eyes to Wendriosa, I saw her speaking to a le… no, the smell was exactly similar to that of a hag. Old, bitter like the elder scales, but it lacked any sense of sweetness to enthrall a whelpling like me, meaning that “levianewt” was showing a whole lot of bloodlust and animosity.

“You and Quasdrakeen being here isn’t some coincidence, right? Why?” Wendriosa spoke to the “levianewt” man as Tasianna closed the dome, before turning to me to ask if I was okay.

Before I could answer, though, Master Kush suddenly came rushing at my neck, touching it before he started to frown. “Apprentice, I can feel the water needles inside your throat as you said. Quasdrakeen evolved differently from her father, and that also includes her skill set. Those ‘water needles’ you feel came from her injecting venom into you.”

Venom? No [Poisoned], though, so was it just a small dosage?

‘Probably, but instead of turning into liquid, it hardened up. Maybe its main effect is blood coagulation? In any case, that hag injected the venom when her nails bit into our neck. Probably not intentionally, since she could just crush our neck, but it still happened, so let’s get it out of our bodies already. I can analyze it once we eat it.’

“Tasianna, I found them,” Master called, prompting Tasianna to come over, having already prepared her rapier. “You… may explain the silver scales later, but I can already feel the chill from being this close to them. I presume you need a sharper blade to cut in, compared to your crimson scales?”

“Correct. My lady, prepare for the surgery now!” Tasianna said as she stabbed into my throat, piercing through my silver scales with her true ice blade. Once she opened a hole large enough—all while I was coughing up blood that entered my mouth—Master Kush pried out the “water needles,” confirming his guess when I saw how yellow-reddish the needles were.

Mana Eyes.

‘… It’s not special. We can synthesize better coagulation venoms, so let’s avoid that. ‘Salt water’ requirement is a bit too annoying when we’re mostly fighting on land,’ Hikari said as I started using [Unheiliger Engel] to start my surgery, as I was finally fully inside the [Room]. Once Beth pulled my sliced tail in as well, I closed the subspace to fully concentrate on using [Major Heal].

“Make sure to stand guard! If my dome breaks and the magic circle with it, we’ll be ejected out,” Tasianna yelled, looking unnerved as she looked over at the closed entrance. “Lady Hikari, how is the progress?”

“Her bones were almost pulverized,” Master explained, helping me with his own surgical skills. Something he probably picked up in the last two years.

[“Reordering all of them into the correct position, including fixing blood vessels, nerves, and assuring the mana paths aren’t messed up in the process; I wish I could actually see it directly, instead through this mirror you made for me,”] Hikari answered.

“Hikari?” Master mumbled. “Ah, so I presume this silver body of yours is something more than just an acceptance of your mother’s lineage, my apprentice? Then the one I am talking to is—”

[“My other half, yes,”] I answered, probably confusing Master since Hikari and I sounded the same through [Telepathy].

“Hmm! Then it is a pleasure to finally meet you eye-to-eye, Hikari. I know you’ve been watching us through Hestia’s for a while, but this is my first time actually meeting the past self of my apprentice,” Master said, smiling widely just like when he accepted me as his apprentice. “Have you been enjoying your time in Peolynca, my apprentice?”

[“That’s what you… ah, I think…”] Hikari turned silent, momentarily thinking through all the progress she and I had made after we accepted our situation with [Split Soul Autonomy]. I turned away from her flashback moment, giving her some privacy as I continued working. [“It’s… been hard, hehe.”]

“Mhmm? I see. Then let us make sure to make some memories that aren’t as harsh, yes?” Master said before slamming his hands together, holding his catalyst amulet in a prayer. “Let us speed this up. Focus on reordering your bones and organs. I’ll handle the healing.”

And thankfully, nothing happened after that wild encounter. I managed to heal myself back to full health with no medical complications, thankfully. Honestly, I knew enough from that first encounter that I wouldn’t be able to do anything to a rank S, but that was also why I was a support when facing stronger enemies. With Nong, Neill, Vifi, and Wendriosa on our side, we have the firepower to punch up. With Tasianna, we even had somebody who could just ignore normal mana compatibility.

We couldn’t win, I believe, but at least we could settle this somehow… okay, I had no bloody idea how to get out of this situation, considering Quasdrakeen—that was what people called that hag, I believe—wanted me dead. Sadly, if I had entered my subspace instead of this separate [Room], we could have just fled.

Though even if that was an option, my family and friends were fighting outside. I had to at least see if they were safe.

When I opened the subspace, Beth, Krim, and Graz left first to see the state of Tasianna’s ice dome, noticing how it had been destroyed. Though it wasn’t the only destruction today, as when I looked outside, I winced as I saw only ruin and rubble. Holes littered the basilica grounds, with puddles of water having mixed all the dirt together into a messy swamp. I could already tell that the building had been demolished, but what really ruined my mood was the scent of blood.

… N-Neill? I whimpered as I saw my older sister floating in one of the puddles. Her unicorn horn was broken with her face, oozing blood through her mouth as she didn’t move or twitch. Multiple water clerics were already surrounding her to take care of her, with depth guards trying to pull her out of the hole. Yet my heart still dropped as a word dominated my thoughts.

Death.

“I-I’m okay! Take care of the prince first!” I heard Vifi shout, shooting my head to the side to see her manatech arm reduced to metal and wires. Her legs were littered with holes that didn’t seem to bleed; instead, they looked like they were already festering or clotting up… as if she was poisoned.

Right next to her… Nong was right there. However, instead of that peacock-like attitude he would usually do, or that bloodthirsty attitude he had just a moment ago, his dragon form was lying motionless. A hole was drilled through his torso with three of his four wings violently torn off as if somebody had cut them off with a serrated knife.

J-just what happened when I was fucking gone! NEILL! VIFI! NONG!

I dashed out of [Room] without looking for any threats, terrified at even the thought of losing any of them, just like I did Akasht. [Ruby Star] activated as I cast all my various healing spells. This time, I would—

“HESTIA!” The air boomed, stunning me for a moment as a giant blue arm crashed before me, blowing me away with the shockwave just as a water beam was shot at where I stood.

“Oh! My apologies, I still had water stored in my scales. I had forgotten about it, hehe…” I stared up, seeing that leviathan hag floating in the air with a whirlpool of water. She was still in her levianewt form, only showing a single gash on her scale-less arm as proof that she was even hurt.

“Kiedaceus!” the leviathan standing before me shouted once again to my ears’ agony, prompting me to notice they had the same colors as Wendriosa. Even her horns were the same.

“Haha, fine, fine! It was just a mistake, haha! I’ll hold onto the deal you made, little princess,” the hag cheered as the whirlpool subsided, lowering her back to the ground as she turned around. The “levianewt” man I saw Wendriosa talking to was walking next to her. “Hey! Dear! I applaud your will to live! However, if I see you next time without your mother latched onto your sides, then do prepare to just die on the spot. Your siblings already learned the hard way that challenging a rank S isn’t so easy as you might have thought, ha. I will see you when the fighting begins, young scales.”

inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

The threat… was over. For now.

However, I couldn’t even move. This wasn’t similar to my encounter with Maustoovaka, where he had no intention of actually killing me. He terrified me ‘cause he was strong, but this fear I felt for this hag was different. It reminded me of when I first met the garm matriarch. A paralyzing horror that froze my body in place, stealing any will to fight as I fell into a need to run away. Far away from here.

Yet… I could tell that I wasn’t the only one who felt this fear. Wendriosa… my big sister, her eyes showed fear for the leviathan just now, but it was nowhere as willpower-crushing as what I felt. No, she shared the same emotion I just felt a moment ago. A horror that ruptured your heart—the fear of losing your family.