Chapter 400: Ryuu's [Wish] (Patreon)

After returning to the city, Isagi's life quickly settled back into its usual cycle of "adventuring" and "resting."

Many days passed that way. Before he knew it, autumn had come again.

*

Under a high, clear sky, in what was yet another year of good harvests, Isagi and several of the girls set out once more. Their destination was the northern wasteland where Dragon Valley lay.

He looked up at the dark, oppressive sky, and strangely, it almost felt like coming home.

He'd been to the gates of Dragon Valley far too many times. But with the strength he had now, if he wanted to cut loose and fight with everything he had, this was the only place left to do it.

As always, they began setting up camp atop the Great Wall.

The girls who'd come along this time were mainly Ryuu, Haruhime, and Miss Heith. All three had leveled up recently, so the trip was to test their new abilities.

Ryuu was Lv.8. Haruhime was Lv.6, and Miss Heith was Lv.7.

Ryuu was naturally the main subject. All three had gained new Strength, but the biggest changes obviously came after reaching Lv.8.

It wasn't the first time he'd done this, either. Isagi went about it with practiced ease: he found a good spot on the Great Wall, lit a fire, and started on dinner while pitching the tents.

Ryuu seemed unbothered by the surroundings, but Haruhime and Heith were fascinated. They kept gazing out at the pitch-black wilderness beyond the enormous wall, and a complicated look crossed both their faces.

The fox-girl was a little dazed.

She had never once thought of becoming an adventurer. Even after she followed Isagi and the others into the Dungeon, she'd only been chasing that "feeling" of being together with her companions. She wanted to repay their kindness and be of use to her older brothers and sisters, and for that she didn't mind stepping into danger.

Haruhime wasn't afraid. What she had always feared was her childhood, and the life after she was sold into Orario: always alone, confined to a tiny world, with almost no future.

The girl had already resigned herself to that fate. She had never imagined there could be another kind of future for her.

Even less had she imagined that one day she'd stand beside Heroes and take on the Three Great Quests, tasks that once seemed as distant and legendary as a fairy tale.

Me? I'm going to fight the Black Dragon too?

A future this much like a dream was almost impossible for Haruhime to believe. Yet it wasn't fear or dread that spread through her heart. It was something steady and warm, like anticipation for a reality that had arrived all at once.

"Someone like me can actually do something like this."

That was what the girl thought.

Heith, beside her, felt much the same.

She surely never expected to become part of the party that would fight the Black Dragon. It was just as unbelievable to her.

Unlike Haruhime, who had never really been an adventurer to begin with, Heith was an executive of the Freya Familia, though only second-line, and one might even say a rear-support member. She might have imagined that Ottar and the others could take part in the Black Dragon's subjugation, but her? Surely not.

The failures of the Zeus and Hera Familia were still fresh. A woman who had never even managed to reach Lv.5, and who was likely stuck at Lv.4 forever, claiming she'd take on the final Three Great Quests? No one would have believed it.

Yet here she was, right now. No…

It had been decided long ago. She was a member of the "Hero" team. She certainly couldn't call herself a Hero, but at the very least she was a companion standing at their side.

That certain fact left Heith a bit dazed as well.

What on earth is going on here?!

The two girls stood on the Great Wall, looking out over the black, deathly wasteland in the distance. Had they never met Isagi, they probably wouldn't have set foot in a place like this in their entire lives. Both wore a faintly entranced look, as if they were still dreaming.

Until the smell of cooking meat drifted over from behind them and finally pulled their thoughts back.

After all, even the mightiest adventurers have to eat.

Isagi had made a big pot of thick, rich stew. In a sense, you could call it hot pot: radishes, potatoes, onions, and tomatoes all thrown in together, followed by pork, sausage, beef, and chicken…

Since they expected to stay at the Great Wall for a while this time, he'd stocked up generously. And from past experience, a little waste didn't matter. If supplies ran short, they could always resupply at one of the nearby villages.

Still, the people living among the ruined walls of the far north had a hard life, and it was unlikely they'd have anything good to sell. They could barely fill their own stomachs.

Beyond the deadly wasteland behind the Great Wall, the countries and cities it was built to protect had long since turned into endless ruins. It couldn't be helped. The Visiting Dragon problem had grown so frequent that survival in the area was nearly impossible.

That was why the problem of Dragon Valley had to be solved. Never mind the Black Dragon breaking its seal and destroying the world. Even now, more and more Great Dragons were escaping from that seal, and there was no telling how many people they would bring disaster to.

After dinner, they rested a while. Then Isagi and the girls gathered around the campfire, and he began telling stories of the past: when he, Ais, and the others had come here, and even entered Dragon Valley.

Ryuu and the others had heard all of it before, of course. But that's how conversations go. Often you just go over the same thing again and again, and that's perfectly normal.

Before they knew it, two or three hours had quietly slipped by.

None of them felt sleepy. The girls were probably too excited, and Isagi was still wound up from the bumpy journey. This time they'd come on Wyverns borrowed from the Ganesha Familia.

As usual, once they neared the Great Wall, the Wyverns wouldn't go any farther, so the rest of the way had to be covered on foot. It wasn't exhausting, exactly, but it was certainly less comfortable than the carriage rides of the past.

That made this a perfect moment. With everyone, Ryuu included, in high spirits, they might as well test the girls' "strength" right now.

"Let's go."

"Mm!"

Following close behind the boy, the three girls stepped into the legendary land of death that no one was ever supposed to enter, for the first time in their lives.

The sight before them wasn't all that remarkable. There was simply nothing there. They could have pictured it from the descriptions alone, and now that they'd arrived, they could only sigh and think, "So it really is just like this."

Barren ground and a sky overcast day after day. The place gave the illusion of being inside the "Dungeon." There was no sky, no life, only a sense of oppression and emptiness.

They walked for a long time. At last, in the distance, a huge black cyclone came into view, reaching straight up to the heavens. And with it came the sound of a Great Dragon breathing.

"It's clearer than before."

Isagi could already tell that the Black Dragon's seal was slowly weakening. When he first came here, he could only faintly make out that sound. Now, accompanied by wave after wave of snoring, the once-massive black cyclone had begun to twist and warp slightly.

That's not good.

"This spot will do."

If they were lucky, they might even run into a Visiting Dragon that had just slipped out of the seal in Dragon Valley. That would help Alise and the others back in the city, too. These days, the Visiting Dragon problem was mostly handled by them, along with the second-line forces of the Freya and Loki Familia.

With that in mind, Haruhime and Heith, shielded by Isagi's Soul Teardrop, withdrew to hide behind a jutting pile of rubble in the distance.

That left only Isagi and Ryuu, standing face to face in the middle of the wasteland.

The Elf girl still wore her dark green cloak. But beneath it she was no longer in the "plain" adventurer's outfit of old. She wore a finely made blue-and-white Familia uniform, and on the chest, embroidered in golden thread, the emblem of the Astrea Familia glimmered faintly even beneath the gloomy sky.

She drew the wooden sword at her waist.

But it was no longer the former Star Sword: Alf's Justitia. Built upon it, it had been infused with part of Goddess Astrea's own Arcanum. Reforged by Cecil's own hands, it had been fully upgraded from a first-tier armament to a zeroth-tier armament.

These were the wings of justice soaring through the heavens, and the scales that judge all evil.

Its name was:

[Astrea: Streaming Starlight].

Once the Elf girl entered battle mode, the wooden sword in her hand began, as before, to "peel away" and "shatter," scattering into drifting specks of stardust. From within, a blade made entirely of stars was revealed.

It was even more dazzling and splendid than Isagi's Moonlight Greatsword. Perhaps this was the brilliance the stars themselves could now display.

At that very moment, even the thick clouds of the death-land, which had been overcast for who knew how long, were pushed back a little. Points of starlight broke through the deep night sky as if answering the sword in the girl's hand, and the very "heavens" above changed.

Sometimes Isagi truly felt that each thing Cecil made was more outrageous than the last.

Amid the starlight falling from the sky, a profoundly sacred Arcanum swirled around the Elf girl. It was genuinely the Arcanum of the Goddess of Justice. Isagi could even sense in it the presence of the "Sword of Judgment" that the goddess so often kept at her side.

Of course, Cecil hadn't been so unreasonable as to melt down the goddess's actual weapon and hammer it into the sword Ryuu now held. But as always, carrying even a part of that power was more than enough.

What's more, Ryuu and this power fit together perfectly. Even from where he stood, Isagi could feel the sacred power coating the blade rejoicing the first time it was unsheathed. It wasn't bloodlust. It was the giddy excitement of showing itself to its "master" for the first time.

Right now, he honestly wouldn't doubt it… no, he wouldn't even be surprised if a "sword spirit" popped out of Ryuu's blade.

And that was only the power she showed after drawing her weapon.

Next came the power that belonged to Ryuu herself, the power named "Wish."

Ryuu held nothing back. Knowing this was a test of her abilities, she went all out. And in that moment, the girl truly became a "star."

A blinding light nearly swallowed her body whole, and within that radiance, only the faint outline of a human form could be seen. Ryuu had vanished. In her place stood a living being born from the pure power of a "star."

It resonated with the weapon in her hand, almost fusing with it, and in an instant it was right in front of Isagi.

"!"

This was the first time Ryuu had shown her post-level-up power. Before coming to Dragon Valley, Isagi hadn't even known she'd take this form. He'd only estimated her strength from experience, based on his past tests with Ais, Lefiya, Ottar, and the others.

But even so, it far exceeded his expectations.

Ais hadn't fully mastered her own ability. Ottar had lacked the backing of a proper weapon, so something was missing. Ryuu had no such flaws. The power she displayed now was truly "perfect." No, it went beyond that!

Isagi realized that what she was showing now wasn't her original strength. It was at least two or three times that, or even…

So this is Ryuu's power of wishes?!

A Wish cannot be controlled.

It's like the skills and magic each person has. It's decided the moment one receives a Falna. No, more precisely, from the moment one is born into this world, everything one has experienced, every thought, every judgment and understanding of things becomes part of the adventurer. That is what's called the Soul.

The power of wishes is the embodiment of one's own Soul.

Lv.8 is like the key that unlocks it. Without a body, or a "vessel," of that strength, one cannot contain or withstand the power the Soul brings.

In theory, this power is limitless, because it has no end. That was why the Empress of the Hera Familia, once the highest-leveled of all adventurers, said that the path ahead comes from the adventurer's own "imagination." Imagination is limitless too, and only it can match the extension of the Soul.

And now Ryuu's Soul was stirring in just that way.

The girl who had once been held back by her past still hadn't found a goal or direction to move toward. But that was fine. She only had to keep moving forward.

Whatever justice she chased.

Whoever's back she followed.

As long as she kept going, along the right path, someday. Someday…

The girl, tireless, never giving up, would forever, forever…

[Stride Forward].