Editor : Amethyst00



Looking at the dragon wielding the black flames before her, Rena tightened her grip on the sword in her hand.

It was an ordinary-looking longsword.

Yet it was the very image of someone else’s blade.

A sword bearing the name Future.

Back in the Age of Calamity.

It was used by the Hero of the Beginning, and later inherited by the King of the Beginning.

Of course, this was not the original.

It was a replica created by Drianna, successor to Dweno, the Divine Blacksmith, to commemorate the end of an age.

But even if it was only a replica, it carried the essence of the Great Blacksmith Drianna, and could unleash the exact same performance as the original.

At the sight of the sword clenched in Rena’s hand, the man who wielded the flames of calamity let out a mocking sneer.

“Is it not truly strange, Princess Rena?”

“……”

“That someone as wretched as you—the most worthless among all who bear the bloodline of the King of Beginning—should have inherited that sword.”

His manner was courteous, but beneath it lay unmistakable mockery.

Looking at the Dragon King, Rena replied in an even, measured voice.

“I know that too.”

Rena fixed the dragon before her with a hard stare.

Dragon King Belian.

After Erebos was defeated, it was Enkinas who succeeded Melina as Dragon Queen.

But Enkinas could not remain in that position for long, burdened as she was by the lingering effects of the wounds she had suffered in the final battle upon which the fate of the world had hung.

In the end, it was the dragon standing before her—born in the new age, blessed with the power to wield three supernatural gifts—who succeeded Enkinas and became Dragon King.

“I know that perfectly well.”

Rena bit her lip.

“That among all those who carry the blood of the King of Beginning, I am the most inadequate.”

Rena did not deny Belian’s words.

Because it was the truth.

Among all those who had inherited Leo Plov’s bloodline,

Rena was the least gifted.

She had been slow even to sense mana, and slower still to refine that mana into magical power.

While the other kin who bore the blood of the King of Beginning pressed steadily ahead,

Rena alone was forever left marking time.

That was why it was so deeply ironic.

That Rena’s mother, King Arhi, had passed down to her Posteritas—the blade that was all but a symbol of Leo Plov.

And even now, nothing had changed.

Within this loop, repeated so many times she could no longer even count them,

Rena had never once managed to hold Belian back.

If Belian had failed time and time again throughout that repetition of time so relentless it was hard even to remember, it was thanks to the great predecessors.

The heroes who had achieved mighty deeds alongside the King of Beginning.

Even against the absurdity of the loop, they had gone on stopping Belian without end.

Rena bit her lip.

'I have to stop him.'

Rena knew Belian’s purpose.

To carry the calamity of the past into the future.

An act anyone would call mad.

She could not permit such a deed, one swept along by an incomprehensible frenzy.

'I… am Leo Plov’s… his granddaughter.'

If she truly bore the blood of the King of Beginning, then she had to stop it—even if it meant throwing everything away.

The ember of calamity must not be allowed to spread into the future.

In the present moment, there was only one person who could stop Belian completely.

That was Rena alone—unlike Belian, she was not bound by the loop.

Fwoosh—

Clutching her sword tight, Rena kindled an aura of flame.

Wrapped in crimson flames, Rena closed the distance between herself and Belian.

Watching her, Belian let out a faint, mocking laugh and unleashed golden spiritual power.

“Ugh!”

Rena flinched.

The summoned spirits of light conjured radiant spears and hurled them at her.

At the sight of the hundreds of spears, Rena ground her teeth.

Fwoooosh—!

Flames erupted.

Flash—!

A vast flaming slash incinerated every one of the spears of light.

“Oh? So even you are capable of growth after all?”

Belian sounded genuinely impressed.

“Then again, with a bloodline as exceptional as yours, I suppose that much is only natural. Still… what a pity.”

Belian shook his head.

“To think that, in the end, all you amount to is a pale imitation of Celia Jerdinger.”

Rena bit down hard on her lip.

In that same moment, Rena’s shadow began to move as though it were alive.

Sensing the movements of the elemental of darkness, Rena swiftly brought her sword down across her own shadow.

Fwoosh—!

Watching Rena break free from the binding, Belian applauded.

“At last—you’ve overcome shadow-binding completely.”

Rena fixed Belian, who sounded openly impressed, with a fearsome glare.

Looking at Rena, Belian spoke.

“But it is no more than a foolish act of defiance. Hand over the key to returning time to its proper course—now.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! That peace was something our predecessors barely managed to win! I won’t let someone like you destroy it!”

“You still do not understand.”

Belian clicked his tongue.

“I do not desire the world’s destruction. Had I wished for that, I would have put Leo Plov down long ago.”

Belian curled the corner of his mouth.

“What I desire is the world’s progress. Only when there is an enemy that must be brought low… can the world finally become one.”

Wooooom—!

A vast surge of golden magic whirled violently through the air.

“So it seems every last one of the King of Beginning’s bloodline is incapable of understanding this grand purpose.”

At the sight of the vast magic circle embroidered across the empty air, Rena’s face hardened.

“If you use Extinction here, the people living in Seiren won’t survive!”

“It makes no difference. All I need do is ‘turn it back’ afterward.”

Belian smiled faintly.

“If you were to watch this space be destroyed over and over again, Princess Rena, you too would give up and meekly accept your fate.”

Grinding her teeth, Rena charged straight at Belian.

'He can’t erase me!'

She meant to stop the magic of Extinction with her own body.

“A noble spirit of sacrifice? No—merely a foolish struggle.”

The instant Belian clicked his tongue and moved to unleash the spell—

Snap!

With the sharp sound of fingers snapping, Belian’s magic of Extinction was dispelled.

Belian’s eyes twitched.

Rena gave a start and looked up at the sky.

There, seated with her legs crossed atop a white pegasus, was a beautiful woman.

With that arrogant expression on her face, her head tipped ever so slightly as she gazed down at Belian, she looked like a work of art in her own right.

“The Empress?”

Belian, stricken with shock, hastily summoned a spirit in that instant.

At his sword, a horrifying slash came screaming in—its aura suffused with a warm evergreen glow.

Mana imbued with the boundless power of life.

And yet, to an enemy, it was power without mercy.

“Fairy Blade.”

Seeing Eiran fix him with that icy stare, Belian hastily withdrew.

“Empress… Hm. I don’t much care for that epithet.”

Elena twisted a lock of hair lightly around her finger, her expression tinged with irritation.

Hearing that muttered complaint, Eiran tilted her head, then called out to Elena in a brighter voice.

“It suits you wonderfully!”

“Oh my? You heard that?”

Though she had meant it only as a mutter to herself, it had reached Eiran’s ears, sharpened by Hypersensory.

“Don’t tell me you’ve got some voyeuristic streak or something? Why are you eavesdropping on other people?”

“I-I don’t have anything like that! I just happened to hear it!”

Watching Eiran protest with a tearful, aggrieved look on her face, Elena clicked her tongue and propped her chin on her hand.

“I was expecting something more like Queen of Beginning as an epithet.”

Elena grumbled under her breath, then cast Belian a sidelong glance from above.

“More importantly, I suppose life in the future must be comfortable enough? From what I hear, you’ve been spouting all kinds of lunacy.”

Belian’s face hardened as he looked at Elena, openly mocking him.

“If you had lived in a future that had lost all possibility, you would not speak so lightly.”

“Oh, spare me that nonsense about ‘possibility.’ You’re really going to spout that cushy drivel to someone who lived in an age with a giant bomb hanging over the world?”

Watching Elena smile with cynical amusement, Belian let out a scornful snort.

“Say whatever you like. I will simply carry my conviction through to the end.”

“There’s always one like that, isn’t there?”

Lightly twining a lock of hair around her finger, Elena muttered in a voice thick with boredom.

“I may not have a shred of real ability, but I never break. I have conviction. I am not wrong. I am working for the greater good.”

Belian’s expression hardened.

“It’s always people like that who go reaching for things way beyond them. And then the moment you give them the slightest push, down they go—without even a scrap of conviction left.”

Resting her chin on one hand, Elena let out a long, weary sigh.

“Leo must be sick to death of it too. I’m already sick of it myself. Isn’t it always the same? The ones who cause the mess are never the ones who have to clean it up.”

Elena looked at Belian as though he were beneath contempt, then turned her gaze to Rena.

“Right?”

“I’ve heard enough.”

“Mhm. The truth hurts when it hits home, after all.”

“What nonsense!”

Fwoooosh—

Black flames surged up from Belian’s body.

Seeing that, Elena stroked Alty’s neck.

“Can you dodge for me?”

[Yes, my queen! But—]

“Hmm?”

[Later… could you scold me too, the way you did that bastard?!]

“……”

Elena let out a sigh inwardly.

'Leo must have his hands full worrying over his summons too. Not a single one of them is normal.'

“Would it help if I brought out a whip as well?”

[Kyaung~! My queen is the best!]

Flash—!

Alty moved with a speed too swift for the eye to follow, genuinely delighted.

Even at a pace fierce enough to make one’s vision spin, Elena calmly began her incantation.

“Hmph. As if I’d ever be struck by this kind of outdated spell—”

Boom—!

In that instant, crushing pressure slammed down upon Belian’s body.

“To think you can’t even respond to something as simple as gravity magic. People from the future really are hopeless.”

[My queen!]

“Yes?”

[That old-fashioned scolding! You sound just like Master!]

At that, Elena jolted and clapped a hand over her mouth.

'Wait… surely this isn’t how Leo sees me, is it?'

bl

Clang—!

With emotionless eyes, Leo tracked the arc of Belian’s sword as it cut through the air.

'So the world regressed because I failed to pass down the Great Hero’s will and teachings to later generations.'

Recalling that accusation from moments before, Leo let out a short, dry laugh.

From Leo’s point of view, it was an utterly absurd grievance.

'There’s no value in lending an ear to a conviction that trifling.'

The real problem, however, was that the dragon before him had come back through time—by one means or another.

'So he means to carry a fragment of Erebos into the future…'

Of course he would stop it.

And yet, there was something about it that did not add up.

The other side had revealed his purpose with a willingness so unnatural it was unsettling.

'As if it simply didn’t matter.'

As though he were certain he would win.

And…

'He knows my movements too well.'

It wasn’t merely a matter of feeling like his opponent had seen through his moves.

Movements as though time itself had been ‘turned back.’

And the fragments of déjà vu rising now and then through his mind.

By the time his thoughts reached that point, Leo’s lips curled upward.

'I see. A loop, then?'

Given the swordsmanship of the dragon before him, that was the only possibility.

An enemy who could challenge him under the same conditions, endlessly.

It was, in the truest sense, a battle warped by absurdity.

Because every one of his attack patterns would be seen through.

And yet, if the loop was still repeating, then it was obvious the opponent had still failed to bring him down.

The moment he reached the answer—loop—the pieces fell into place at once.

'Which means this bastard can’t control the loop perfectly either, can he?'

Leo’s lips curled upward.

'And the loop must have conditions attached to it.'

Clang—!

Blade struck blade and knocked it aside.

With each clash of steel, the déjà vu that had been flashing through his mind vanished.

Leo sneered at Belian as he closed the distance between them.

‘A loop, then.’

In that instant, Belian’s eyes flew wide.

Slash—!

Leo cut cleanly across Belian’s shoulder without the slightest difficulty.

Crash—!

Belian, having barely evaded Leo’s blade, hit the ground in a roll and hastily pulled away to widen the distance.

“Oh?”

Leo lightly brushed the tip of his sword.

Until now, Leo’s blade had failed to touch him—not even through complex movements and meticulously layered feints.

And yet, with a single simple cut, he had managed to wound his enemy.

The movements that had seemed to see straight through the future vanished all at once.

'So the condition of the loop is that someone not bound by the loop’s time realizes a loop is taking place? And judging by that reaction…'

Looking at Belian, who made no effort to hide his shock, Leo let out a short, dry laugh.

“Looks like no matter how many times you loop now, you won’t get a different result anymore.”

Seeing Belian frozen stiff, Leo gave a small nod.

“Looks like the save was forcibly set to a point just a moment ago.”

Even now, it seemed Belian was still trying to trigger the loop.

But no matter how many times he repeated it, he no longer seemed able to produce a different outcome.

Leo could not read his thoughts, but his expression was enough.

The moment Leo realized it was a loop, every possible result had been fixed.

“Nothing else left?”

Looking at the dragon who could no longer flee beyond time, Leo gave him a mocking sneer.

“Then I suppose this is checkmate.”