I can’t be happy.
Not me, ever.
Thanks to Glen and Fafnir, who made me accept that, I was able to wake up from my dream instantly.
— I opened my eyes.
My field of vision was a solid purple.
I was surrounded by an eerie, glowing purple.
Every direction was like the surface of the sea.
It was a purple that continuously flowed like ripples.
For a moment, I almost mistook it for being swallowed by a torrent.
However, I noticed my body was warm, comfortable, and free, and reconfirmed the situation.
Thick “Purple Threads” were concentrated on me, forming a cocoon and trapping me.
It was likely a magic that cradled the target and showed them pleasant dreams.
It didn’t just hijack the brain through neural connection and induce dreams. Inside the cocoon, the dimension was clearly different from normal. It had a high possibility of controlling the target’s time, life, and everything else according to the caster’s will.
It was a terrifying sealing magic.
However, when I looked closely at the connection points between the countless “Purple Threads” and myself, my skin trembled in kind, emitting a dull black light.
— My “Dragon Person” body was trying to “adapt” to this gentle environment. And more intensely than ever before.
I was bewildered by my vibrating skin.
My “adaptation” should have been weakened to its limit when Kanami defeated me a month ago. It was practically gone. Did that “adaptation” return now? No, far from returning, it was much more powerful than before. Was it thanks to the “Black Threads”? Was it because the stalled ritual progressed? However, I still haven’t killed God. I only denied it in my “dream” —
No, it’s fine.
It doesn’t matter.
It’s fine if my body trembles.
There’s only one thing I need to do now.
“I want to be like Fafnir too—”
I reinforced my “Dragonization,” which was about to be undone, and sharpened my claws.
Then, by twisting my body and swinging my arms, I cut through the surrounding “Purple Threads.”
They snapped easily.
However, they were incredibly thick.
Even after cutting through a thousand “Purple Threads,” my vision remained a uniform purple.
The situation was like struggling in a whirlpool.
There were simply too many “Purple Threads.”
However, the answer is simple.
“More…! Eat more…! Devour your traumas and overcome them…! Eat more and more, and become bigger, stronger!!”
I put the severed “Purple Threads” into my mouth, chewed, and swallowed them.
The trembling of my skin intensified, and the dull light grew stronger.
My “Dragonization” accelerated, and a dense red fog began to fill the “Cocoon of God.”
My limbs and soul continued to swell, transforming the consumed sustenance into flesh and blood.
“—’Sipping the sinful blood,’ ‘the wicked seed is hungry,’ ‘vomit forth, O vibrant soul’—!!!”
With my “Incantation,” I wished to evolve beyond even this “Purple Thread,” to something greater. Not just to get used to this environment. But to go even further—
“Eat more and ‘adapt’! More ‘adaptation’! Because this isn’t a ‘curse’! This!! This is for everyone that everyone left for me!! For everyone—!!”
My voice trembled because I knew the pain of “adaptation” better than anyone.
Losing interest was truly terrifying.
Losing its fresh taste, life becomes a tasteless and bland “Nothingness.”
Even the fusion of science and magic, which I loved and looked forward to so much, was “boring,” so there was nothing enjoyable left in my future life.
My life might be meaningless. The more I “adapted” and became stronger, the more I suffered and became “unhappy” — and ultimately, I would become like Kanami.
But still.
Because I can do exactly what that idiot is doing.
I will never give up.
Because I am the only one who can show that I won’t give up —
“So!! It’s not ‘someone else’! It’s me!! I, who devoured everyone!! This ‘True Hero,’ Seldra Queenfyrion—!!!!”
No matter how unpleasant the “Purple Threads” tasted, I would keep eating and eating and eating, and keep “adapting.”
I would continuously devour all illusions and infinities.
As my intake increased, my “Dragon Tail” grew longer, my “Dragon Wings” spread wider, and my “Dragon Scales” hardened.
— The “Half-Corpse” state progressed.
At that point, I flapped my “Dragon Wings” to my fullest.
Anywhere was fine.
Recklessly.
Higher and higher. Higher, higher, higher—!
Snow could do it.
It would be shameful if I couldn’t. I would soar higher than my descendant and break straight through.
No matter how much the “Purple Threads” entwined me, I would —
“Soar—! I will soar—!!! Aaaahhh!!! Gaaaaaaahhh!!! Aaaaahhh!!!!”
I soar.
I “adapt,” I devour, and I soar.
I “adapt,” I devour, and I soar.
I “adapt,” I devour, and I soar.
I continue to soar—
— I pierce through.
Beyond the solid purple was solid black.
I broke the cocoon and succeeded in returning to the other side of the 100th floor.
I was enveloped in a sense of liberation, as if I had broken through the clouds.
It felt like flying through the dark clouds of my homeland.
And in the center of those familiar dark clouds stood a man clad in black robes.
The man looked up at me, having broken free from the cocoon, so much so that he seemed about to collapse backward, and called my name in surprise.
“… Seldra? How—”
Finally.
Kanami, who could see the “future” and the “past,” said, “How.”
I don’t know the exact reason myself.
But it probably started with a small accident that happened on the ground.
It might have been a small deviation at first. But Snow, Glen, Fafnir—everyone lived with all their might towards a single goal.
Everyone, without fearing failure, believing that even if they fell, they would connect to someone else, continued to cause accidents during the “Final Festival.”
All of it connected, overlapped, and expanded, and now—
Even Kanami, who could be called the administrator of this world, finally made an unexpected mistake, however trivial.
— The name of that mistake was Seldra Queenfyrion.
Now.
It’s only me now.
I unleash a “Dragon’s Roar” at the only chance I have.
“Kaaaaaaa, Naaaaaaa, Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii—!!!!”
“…………──Replace Connection.”
Kanami must have sensed my grasping desire.
To allow no flicker of a chance, he constructed a magic to move to a different dimension.
The black space on the other side of the 100th floor was being rewritten by the magic “Replace Connection” as if a bucket of ink had been overturned.
Kanami’s figure was about to disappear from my sight.
A boundary, which could be called a dimensional wall, was forming between Kanami and me. But I will not “escape.”
“—Magic Ixwind—!!!”
I chanted wind magic to pursue and cling to him.
It was a “Dragon’s Step” while flapping my wings.
It was a flight that surpassed speed, lightning, and divine speed—but it didn’t close the distance.
I covered a thousand miles in an instant—yet Kanami’s receding figure grew further away.
If this continues, he will escape to another dimension unreasonably. Against that god-like power—
— I “adapt” to the unreasonable power of a god.
I “adapt” to that dimensional difference.
I “adapt” to that spatial distortion.
I “adapt” to that time manipulation.
While flying, I opened my jaws wide, ate, chewed, and swallowed to get used to dimensional magic itself, and then—
“—GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH—!!!!”
I bit into the empty space before me, tore through the dimensional wall that had become the boundary, and emerged into a new space.
However, the place I emerged into was not the other side of the 100th floor. Nor was it the front side.
It was the place I would fall to if “Replace Connection” failed, as Kanami had once warned me—
— I reached the same dimension as Kanami.
In a strange space called the “Interdimensional Gap,” I continued to chew.
In a place where a living being cannot live as a living being, I chewed thoroughly on the peeled dimensional walls.
It had a fresh taste.
I felt new energy filling my body, using the dimensional walls as sustenance, and tears streamed down my face with a hollow laugh.
“Kuh, kuh HA! Kuh HAHAHAHA! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!”
Now, Kanami.
I’ve eaten and gotten used to it.
That boring escape method will never work on me again.
No matter how high you raise the dimension you escape to, I will cling to you, again and again.
Kanami, who was met with my appetite, asked again.
“Why… Seldra…”
“Kuh, kuh HA! Why, you ask…?”
If you ask why I could reach the “Interdimensional Gap,” it’s nothing other than because I “ate.”
I fought Kanami and “the Cocoon of God,” “the Principles of the World,” and so on. To borrow words from my favorite books, even “outer space” and “future science.” I chewed them up, and they were all useful. However, I didn’t think any of them were the answer to “why?”
Everything became my sustenance.
If you think in terms of food chains and ecosystems, I undoubtedly became the apex.
“Gods,” “the World,” and “Dimensions” are now beneath me.
So, to answer “why?” in a single word, it’s already—
I spat out the poison I had been consuming for a thousand years.
“Because I am the legendary… cool Dragon.”
As soon as I said it, something settled in my heart.
I could finally swallow the dimension I had contained.
“Dragon…? That form is already… No, you are a ‘Dragon Person.’ You’re a hybrid.”
“No. By birth, I was the ‘Strongest,’ the ‘True Evil Dragon.’ If I, the ‘Strongest,’ am a Dragon, then it stands to reason that Dragons are the ‘Strongest.’ … Right?”
I’m saying absurd things.
However, if there’s a reason, “because I am a Dragon” is the most appropriate, I truly believe.
Up to this point, there have been many words. Above those grand concepts like “God,” “World,” and “Dimension,” there was a greater “Dragon”—that’s the only way I can express it, and even if it’s wrong, I will believe it completely.
I’ve always thought about it.
Even as a child, I earnestly thought about it.
It was written in the books Kanami lent me.
It has been passed down through generations of “Dragon People” in this world.
My parents and friends, everyone said the same thing.
Dragons, which have existed long before fairy tales and myths, are at the apex of all living beings. And the pinnacle within that pinnacle is the “True Evil Dragon.”
— That’s what I believed, and the ritual continued.
“Don’t make that face, I’ll show you soon… Everyone, watch over me… Listen… And never forgive me again… This is the real me—”
And then I chanted.
In front of Kanami, the “final page” of that ritual.
It was not the “Writing” of anyone else.
It was the “Incantation” of a life I “wove” and “lived” as a “young dragon of the village.”
“—’Killer of humans, spitting out killers’—”
I ate while spitting out, and grew while crying.
Such was my life.
“—’Body continually poisoned’ ‘I want to kill myself and the world’—”
That’s why I’ve always wanted to kill myself.
I wanted to put myself out of my misery.
That killing intent is my true “Magic.”
“—Magic: God-Slaying Evil Dragon.”
My vision turned bright red.
The weight of my body increased rapidly. Inside me, a boiling sensation continued. There was a strong sense of being alien and repulsed as a living being—but I calmly accepted it.
I had already understood what kind of “Spell Formation” it would be.
I’ve heard of various “Magic” up to this point.
Offensive Magic, Defensive Magic.
Support Magic, Recovery Magic.
— Seldra Queenfyrion’s true “Magic” is transformation magic.
Of course.
Because it’s been like this from the start.
I’ve been living towards this, all along.
From the very beginning, I knew.
I would fear, tremble, flinch, and “escape”—but someday, I would inevitably be forced to perform a full-body “Complete Dragonization” for the first and only time, with all my might.
Everyone knew it too, which is why they raised me so carefully.
Since I was a child, always.
Ever since I was born in the Dragon village.
No, ever since my ancestors, long before I was born.
The “Dragon People” had been conducting experiments and verifications, passing down a dark history of desire, because they knew that this true “Magic” lay at the end of the soul-eating.
Therefore, the effect of the magic “God-Slaying Evil Dragon” is exactly as the name suggests—
— It becomes “God-Slaying Evil Dragon.”
Since I knew the result, I was not flustered even when my vision cleared from red.
I moved my eyeballs slowly.
— I confirmed my own appearance, which I had been avoiding for so long.
First, my chest.
It was very broad and large.
However, I could no longer describe it in terms of meters or units of people. The chest I looked down upon was as vast as a continent, a plain of flesh stretching to the horizon.
It was enormous.
It exceeded common sense.
It was no longer just huge.
My arms, located next to my chest, were equally vast, far surpassing the height of the world’s greatest mountain range— I couldn’t see their ends.
Naturally, I was no longer wearing clothes.
My body was simply an endless expanse of black “Dragon Scales.”
— The transformed “Strongest” Dragon could no longer be measured by ordinary “human” scales.
It was far too large.
I re-recognized my impossibly long arms as “Dragon Forelegs.”
While briefly reflecting on my life, my body’s growth had reached its extreme.
No, it had transcended the concept of “growth.” It was a rapid development that surpassed gods and dimensions, and my existence had transformed into something completely different.
Now a Dragon standing above gods, I moved my eyes while drifting in the “Interdimensional Gap.”
Let’s call them “Dragon Eyes,” distinguishing them from “Human Eyes.”
I turned my “Dragon Eyes” downwards.
It was a magical shift in vision.
My “Dragon Sight” could perceive a small point far below, unreachable by ordinary “humans.” It was a point smaller than a grain of sand at the end of an endless dark cloud, but I, being a “Dragon,” could see it.
It was small.
It was the tiny figure of Kanami.
Kanami was looking up at me, so much so that he seemed about to fall backward.
The situation, like a scholar in a white coat peering through a microscope, brought a hollow chuckle from the depths of my belly. … How many billions of times taller am I than Kanami now? No, how many billions of times? More? It might no longer be measurable by numbers, let alone astronomical figures. It’s a strange sensation. Well, anyway. Truly, ah…
I’ve grown large.
I ate too much.
But thanks to everyone, I was able to grow this big.
I was able to break out of the cocoon of God and emerge, like a fledgling.
From now on, I will continue to grow even larger.
Endlessly, larger.
Infinitely, larger.
— I can’t go back anymore.
Naturally, I don’t think I can live or die as an ordinary “person” anymore.
Thanks to Glen and everyone.
I wanted to express my gratitude, so I tried to let out a “Dragon’s Roar.”
However, it was too large. I adjusted the vibration in the depths of my “Dragon Throat” with “Dragon Magic” and shaped it into human speech.
And then, from above, I declared to the diminutive god, as if in thanks.
“『— This is the 80th floor, the ‘Interdimensional Gap.’ This is the domain of Seldra, the ‘Thief of Nothingness.’ I have named it the dwelling of the ‘Evil Dragon’ due to its comforting sky. Again and again, I will repeat the ‘Eightieth Ordeal.’ It’s a truly boring ‘Ordeal,’ but I want to continue imposing it upon you.』”
It was a vibration that transcended dimensions.
From high above, I bestowed a floor of the labyrinth upon Kanami.
…
It’s good that I could say it properly…
Now, I too have followed in the footsteps of the ‘Thief of Principles’…
My body still feels heavy, but in this 80th floor, the “Thief of Nothingness,” I feel like I can soar infinitely high and coolly, just like a “True Hero.”
Because this 80th floor is so vast, so high, so void, it’s a good sky…
Despite having killed everyone, I can freely soar and swim comfortably here…
I am no longer sad.
From a young dragon to an adult dragon, I have been completed.
However, tears still flow.
Dragon tears, each one deeper than the sea, continue to fall upon this 80th floor.
Ah…
It truly is a good sky…
When I was a mischievous child, I also…
I flew freely in such a dark, cloudy sky…
All this time, I… I was flying…
***
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