──Ancient Ruins “Dragon’s Agito”, Douglas──
The transfer magic circle emitted a strong light and then disappeared.
Confirming this, I let out a sigh of relief.
Good, this is fine.
The wonderful beautiful girls who cherished me were no longer here.
What remained was an old adventurer and a colossal, myth-class Monster.
No, that wasn’t quite right.
One swing, perhaps, still remained.
“…Sorry, Lombardia. I made you see this through to the end.”
As I said that, thought filled with exasperation returned from my partner.
“My liege. At this point, can you still not believe in yourself? I told you when we first met. You underestimate yourself.”
“Ah, you did say that. It feels like a lifetime ago. …But what does that have to do with this?”
“…Haa, well, that’s fine. What I mean to say is, it is my happiness to be embraced by you in this place. When you apologize with ‘Sorry,’ I can only wonder what you are talking about.”
“…I see. Thank you, Lombardia. I love you.”
“～～! W-Why are you so cool in only those moments!”
“Hahahaha. Lombardia, you’re cute even when you’re flustered.”
I thought it would be a little lonely to stay here alone, acting cool, but that wasn’t the case.
I feel bad for making Lombardia indulge my selfish desires until the end, but thanks to him, I was filled with warmth.
Well then──
“──Shall we begin, Your Majesty?”
I looked up at the Dragon Queen──the ten-headed Dragon King Sephiroth.
The colossal, myth-class being looking down at me had, for some reason, stopped its attack.
It replied to me, saying,
“Truly, why are humans so foolish… You likely intended to sacrifice yourselves to let your loved ones escape, but it is meaningless. All the humans spreading across this world are destined to perish by my power.”
As arrogant as ever.
But I responded with a snort.
“Hey, hey, don’t misunderstand, Your Majesty. It’s true that I sacrificed myself to let my wives escape, but I never said I would lose to you.”
“…What are you saying? At this juncture, uttering nonsensical words? Truly… It matters not, insect. You shall perish.”
The ten-headed Dragon King took a stance for a breath attack.
The insides of its ten dragon heads were filled with the brilliant light of breath attacks.
Meanwhile, I activated a trump card skill that I honestly didn’t want to use.
“This is my special move. I’ll give you my life, Your Majesty──[Life Burn]!”
Along with it, golden Fighting Spirit engulfed my entire body.
My body filled with an unprecedentedly intense power.
“No matter what you do, it’s futile──Die.”
From the ten mouths of the Dragon King, a barrage of breath attacks was unleashed.
With neither Absolute Defense nor the Magic Severing Axe available, complete evasion was impossible.
In that case, then──
A torrent of energy enveloped my entire body.
Since the Queen had not fully revived, the power of each individual breath attack was not that great.
However, the combined power of all ten far surpassed that of an Ancient Dragon.
Eventually, the breath attacks ceased.
Amidst the thick smoke, the Queen laughed triumphantly.
“Ahahahaha! You were just a powerless insect, all talk and no substance. It seems you put on a final show, but it was all meaningless──”
“──No, not entirely.”
The smoke cleared.
As expected, I was still standing there.
The stone floor around my feet was heavily gouged from melting and corrosion, but the spot where I stood was unharmed.
The Queen let out a cry of surprise.
“Wh…!? Why aren’t you turned to dust and blown away, insect! You should have taken direct hits from my ten breaths…!”
“Ah, I did. It’s just that their power wasn’t particularly great.”
My body had indeed sustained damage from the breath attacks.
My skin was burned and blistered by the fire, my flesh frostbitten, scorched by lightning, and corroded by poison and acid, leaving me battered.
But it wasn’t fatal damage.
Not by a long shot.
The skill [Life Burn] has the effect of granting me explosive Fighting Spirit by burning my life.
The increase in Fighting Spirit from this far surpasses even Demon God Transformation.
Coupled with the defensive power from the immense Fighting Spirit gained, I possess all resistances: Poison Resistance, Fire Resistance, Ice Resistance, Lightning Resistance, and Acid Resistance.
It’s as simple as surviving because of that.
Incidentally, although [Life Burn] is an extremely powerful skill, it is a completely flawed skill in that you cannot deactivate it midway.
It is a skill that burns away my life to the last drop.
In other words, that’s what it means.
“Now, this is an exchange, Your Majesty──[Avenge]!”
*Snap.*
As I snapped my fingers, an anomaly occurred on the body of the ten-headed Dragon King Sephiroth.
As if burned by fire, frostbitten by frost, scorched by lightning, and corroded by poison and acid, the Dragon King’s entire body became battered.
“──GYAAAAAAAHHHH! What, what is this damageeeeeee!”
“What do you mean, Your Majesty? It’s the damage from your breath attacks.”
The skill [Avenge].
It is a skill of karma that returns the damage I just received to the opponent.
And then, I taunt the Dragon King.
“By the way, what happened to your boasted regeneration ability? Like how you regenerated your neck, why don’t you heal that damage quickly?”
“Silence, insect…! This much damage is not enough to make me suffer! I am not like you, a fragile insect!”
“I see, thank you for the valuable information.”
I smirked.
“Valuable… information…?”
The Queen replied with a puzzled voice.
Since she still didn’t understand, I decided to explain, with great generosity.
“Ah, yes. First of all, the fact that you speak that way confirms that your super-regeneration ability is not limited to when your neck is cut off, right? And on top of that, you’re holding back, which implies that ability has a usage limit──is what I can deduce.”
“Wh…!?”
“Furthermore, when you regenerated just one neck, the injuries inflicted by Biner and Tifereth did not heal, so it’s not like a full body recovery with a single use. It seems to be a Healing Ability per neck, doesn’t it? You wouldn’t want to use it on damage inflicted all over your body.”
“W-Why… that far…!?”
“Your Majesty, you’re not used to fighting. Before your sealing, you might have ravaged the world with overwhelming power, so you may not have needed or had opportunities to think about tactics.”
“Ggggrrr──Damn you, damn you, damn you, damn youuuuu! How dare a mere insect get so cockyyyyyy!”
The Queen, her blood boiling, tried to tear me apart with her ten dragon heads.
However, due to the effect of [Life Burn], I now possess speed equal to or greater than God Speed, even without using it. I easily evade the Queen’s attacks, sometimes by a hair’s breadth.
And when there’s an opportunity, I swing Lombardia, crushing the attacking dragon heads one after another.
This also, due to the effect of [Life Burn], has attack power equal to or greater than Holy Smash, even without using it.
It is enough to crush a single dragon head with one blow.
However, on the other hand, the Queen is also formidable.
As soon as I crush them, she regenerates the dragon heads one after another.
At those times, the damage inflicted by [Avenge] is also completely healed for those dragon heads.
I somehow manage to evade the continuously incoming attacks and grumble at the Queen.
“Tch…! How many more uses of that Healing Ability do you have…!”
“Ahahahaha! I won’t fall for the same trick twice, insect!──Now, despair at the overwhelming difference in power and perish!”
Unfortunately, this time she didn’t leak any information.
Even though I knew there was a usage limit on her super-regeneration ability, I didn’t know how many uses were left.
And──another breath attack was unleashed.
Complete evasion of this was impossible.
“Ngh…!”
I dodged sideways, narrowly avoiding direct hits from all the breath attacks.
However, even so, I could not escape damage equivalent to about half of a direct hit.
“Haaa… Haaa… Haaa…!”
My body was battered.
My Healing Ability was completely unable to keep up, and if another breath attack came, I likely wouldn’t be able to withstand it.
Although the life burned by [Life Burn] is something more fundamental than, say, the durability to withstand external damage, my physical durability is at its limit.
Seeing my battered state, the Queen laughed.
“Ahahahaha! You’ve become a pathetic sight, just like an insect. You’ve fought hard, but it’s over. With that appearance, it must be difficult to even dodge attacks──Now, be obediently bitten to dust!”
“Hah, I refuse──[Instant Regeneration]!”
I activated the skill I had saved.
It healed all the damage I had taken so far, allowing me to evade the attacking dragon heads.
“Wh…!?”
“What’s wrong, surprised? Did you think instantaneous super-regeneration was your exclusive patent?”
“Guh… Damn you, damn you, damn youuuuu! You insecttttttt!”
And then, it became a pure exchange of blows.
The enraged Queen and I, a struggle of strength to the utmost.
A battle of attrition to see who runs out of regeneration uses first, or whose durability runs out first.
The Queen and I fought a relentless, deadly battle.
I don’t remember how long we fought.
Was it ten minutes, twenty, or over thirty minutes?
I gave up counting the number of heads I crushed partway through.
I’m sure I destroyed more than twenty, but was it thirty, forty… I don’t think it reached fifty.
For me, it was a chicken race between whose durability would run out first, or whose Life Force would extinguish first──
But before that happened, the Queen’s dragon heads stopped regenerating.
As I crushed them one after another with Lombardia, ten became nine, nine became eight, eight became seven──
The Queen finally began to scream in earnest.
“Don’t fool me, don’t fool me, don’t fool me…! I, who am the Queen of the Dragon race, will be… by a mere insect like you…!”
“Haa… Haa… Shut up, don’t be so demanding…! I’m doing this for you, abandoning my harem of the world’s most beautiful girls…! Be grateful, you idiot!”
“What nonsense are you spewing…! To a mere insect, this Queen… I, the Queeneeeeee…!”
Crushing heads, crushing them, until only four remained, then three, two, one──
“Honestly, you were a stubborn one until the very end. See you, Your Majesty. …And, I’m sorry I couldn’t let you live.”
──Gagooooon!
Lombardia’s blade crushed the last dragon head.
The colossal body of the ten-headed Dragon King Sephiroth finally stopped moving.
And then, I too──
“Haa… It’s over…”
My Life Force extinguished.
Feeling my body crumble into sand, my consciousness came to an end.
