The Gaun Grand Arena match stage.
At that moment, Dahak felt pure terror, a shudder. Gordiana’s right arm lit up with aura, casting a pink light into the dome submerged in darkness. The man-eating plants she had created in all four directions attacked without hesitation, but under Gordiana’s single powerful blow, they were all crushed.
“Her beauty is incomparable…!”
From the prior information Kelvin had given him, Dahak knew that his junior disciple, Glostina, used a similar technique, and that this aura held special power. With Glost, the aura enhanced the defense of the part of the body it wreathed and added the effects of her unique skill, “Venom Stash.” It seemed to be a martial arts technique called “Gordia,” and Dahak naturally predicted that his senior disciple Gordiana would also use it. Or rather, he had been wary of it because he had heard that Kelvin and the others had seen it before, certain she would use it. However, it held more power than Dahak had anticipated. Now, a light of faint crimson, a mass of energy, lit up Gordiana’s left foot.
“Here it comes…!”
His own voice resonated in his heart. Should he counter by creating more man-eating plants? Should he try to escape until Gordiana was exhausted? Or should he face her head-on? Numerous options flashed through Dahak’s mind, only to be instantly rejected. Dahak, whose beauty and strength seemed to be directly linked from birth, intuitively understood. That none of those options would be meaningful. Then, the only remaining choice was—
Gordiana kicked off the ground, gouging the stage, and her form vanished. No, she was right before Dahak’s eyes, raising her fist. A powerful kick that seemed to mock the concept of distance; a single graze would scatter his five limbs and reduce his consciousness to nothingness. In the sliver of an instant, their gazes met. It felt as if Gordiana had said, “Is that all the thought you have?”
***
Meanwhile, outside the dome, silence had fallen. The audience, unable to stir up excitement with the uneventful match, could only stare at the dome that Dahak had created. It was the same for Ronowee, Jereol, and Yujil. Despite the fierce battle taking place within the dome, the match’s development offered little for commentary.
“Ah, um… there’s no change…”
“It’s been perfectly contained by the stage’s barrier, and the dome has blocked our view.”
“It’s probably Dahak’s ability, but we can’t hear anything from inside, so we can only watch how it unfolds.”
“Watching, yes, but this is the block final, it’s lacking excitement— huh?”
As if to drown out Ronowee’s grumbling, cracks suddenly began to spread across the dome. The entire arena was captivated by this first change in the stage since the match began—
“Whooooa! The dome is cracking!?”
Ronowee, seizing the opportunity, rode the big wave. The epitome of live commentary.
“No, this is—”
“It’s breaking!”
Immediately after Jereol cried out, the dome began to collapse. The seemingly immovable outer shell of iron, which had not shown the slightest sign of movement until now, crumbled along the cracks. But it wasn’t just falling apart.
“W-what is this, a dragon!? Where is Dahak!?”
A pitch-black dragon emerged from within the dome, absorbing the crumbling fragments into its black scales, transforming them into armor that clad its body. Facing the dragon stood Gordiana, one arm and one leg dyed in faint crimson. The light she emitted swirled dazzlingly.
“I’m surprised. To withstand a single blow from me in this state.”
“That’s what I should be saying. I quickly transferred my surrounding defense to myself, which caused this to collapse, but to shave away this, which I know to be the hardest thing in existence, is going too far, even for an angel. You, Pritia-chan.”
Naturally, the dragon was Dahak, transformed into his true form. On Dahak’s abdomen, the traces of his destroyed earthen-colored armor were visible, and he was bleeding, albeit shallowly. The dome had completely collapsed, and its fragments were being converted into the man’s damaged armored abdomen. When all the rubble had been converted, Dahak’s armor repair was complete.
“Mmmph… The air is still delicious. It’s been so long since I’ve had such fresh air.”
The poison that had been sealed by the dome was dispersed and rendered inert by the barrier. He had barely survived by becoming a dragon and enveloping himself in the outer wall, but his plan for a war of attrition, which aimed to steal Gordiana’s vision with darkness, had been thwarted. However, dragonification was Dahak’s trump card; there were things he could only do in this form.
“Oh dear… Aren’t those even more ferocious than before?”
From Dahak’s back, near his wings, grew two pairs of man-eating plants, which Gordiana had defeated countless times. The bud-like parts had bloomed, becoming mature with hundreds of fangs.
“My “Black Soil Scales” are the best seedbed for plants. You’ll regret mistakenly equating them with the ones I forced out from under the stage, you know? Like this, see!”
The plant bodies, which stretched and contracted, had a momentum incomparable to the mass-produced ones from the stage, spraying even more potent miasma as they advanced towards Gordiana.
What Dahak had cultivated within himself was known as the “Calamity Seed.” It originated from the demon land, the Underworld, and was a special plant that could only grow in darkness. Once it sprouted, it would devour anything that opposed its master, whether human or demon. It was said that mature specimens could even consume high-ranking demons, and there were demon countries that had been annihilated by these plants. Its cultivation was incredibly difficult, and it was not uncommon for the cultivator’s life to be taken in the process. However, Dahak’s “Black Soil Scales” bypassed such a process, instantly nurturing the Calamity Seeds into mature specimens in their prime, and doing so with two at once.
“I can’t afford to be taking deep breaths anymore. The poison these children are exhaling seems to be exceeding the barrier’s processing capacity…”
Due to the purifying effect of the barrier covering the arena, the miasma that was exhaled did not cross the boundary. However, if the purification rate could not keep up with the toxicity, the residue would remain within the barrier. In other words, the inside of the barrier would be filled with miasma, and while there was a light source from the sun, an environment mimicking the dome would be recreated.
The surrounding situation was dire. Gordiana fought against the two man-eating plants, but her flesh would bleed whenever the plants’ fangs touched any part not wreathed in aura. From behind, Dahak unleashed a continuous breath attack, leaving her no room for error. The power of the breath, released from his dragon form, was far greater than that from his human form; the stage it touched melted, and the surrounding grass withered. Even Gordiana, upon receiving a direct hit, would not escape unscathed.
“It’s been so long since such passionate love was shown to me… Dahak-chan, I offer you my utmost respect. Behold my ‘Benevolent Celestial Cow,’ and engrave it upon your eyes.”
In this situation where she could not even catch her breath, Gordiana slowly opened her mouth and smiled. To Dahak, it was the smile of a goddess. However, to ordinary observers, Gordiana, wreathed in aura from head to toe, would appear differently.
“Pink Ogre, is this the first time since my match with Father last year…!”
Jereol’s whisper seemed to permeate the air. The final match of the block finals would conclude shortly thereafter.
