Chapter 74
Tatsumi rushed into the house carrying Calcedonia. Sighing in relief, he let go of her.
Of course, while trying not to look at his wife’s bare chest.
And, Calcedonia was changing her clothing. Though, she somehow looked a little disappointed.
“…In the end, what was that?”
“Well…of course it had to be…Husband’s heaven magic, maybe?”
“You sure? The heaven system specializes in mobility…so I don’t think it would be possible?”
The couple had finished changing and were now in the living room, talking about the earlier phenomenon and drinking tea.
Like Tatsumi said, the Heaven system mainly had spells like Instant Transition.
Among the spells that he could use, there was Mana Strike, an attack magic. He would imbue mana into his sword or fists and attack for a burst of power and an explosion.
However, in other words, he didn’t need to use mana from the Heaven system. It was possible for him to use mana from any system in his attack. Just, directly using mana was rarely done, so there actually wasn’t a lot of users of raw mana. There were more people using the more efficient aria magic.
The Heaven system was a mythical system, but it wasn’t really as powerful as the fairy tales would say. And, Tatsumi had asked Giuseppe about it before.
In the words of his magic teacher, the Heaven system hasn’t had any users of it for a long time, so there were a scarce few who could describe it well. Although, it was known that the system was much stronger facing Devils than the Holy and Light systems.
But, that saying probably evolved from the ages of holding the system of magic sacred in legends and myths.
“Because of that, I don’t believe that the Heaven system can directly injure someone else,” Tatsumi gave his thoughts.
Calcedonia then said, “In fairy tales, there are many cases where an offensive magic from the Heaven system appears, but they’re only fairy tales…still, we don’t know everything about Husband’s magic, so maybe it’s a new spell revealing itself?”
“Hahaha, wouldn’t that be great? It’d be nice to use attack magic like you.”
Certainly, Tatsumi could already use some strong magics. Even so, it’s every man’s fantasy to say “fireball!” and have things explode.
He continued, “Though, if the jo was really cut by Heaven system magic…I have to be more careful about using mana from now on.”
Luckily, only the jo and some clothing were cut. However, if it just cut a little bit more, Calcedonia herself would have been hurt.
Tatsumi had gotten better at controlling his mana, but that didn’t mean he was close to Calcedonia and Giuseppe’s levels. If the earlier happening was caused by the Heaven magic system and he didn’t get better at controlling his mana, a similar thing might happen as before.
Tatsumi reminded himself to keep up his vigor in practicing the sword and magic.
“To eat.” That which resided in the flying dragon greatly wished to fulfill its desires.
A satiated hunger would only lead to an even larger hunger. The something which resided inside constantly enhanced the desire of hunger, so it could never feel the happiness of a full stomach.
However, the flying dragon was a very greedy monster in the first place.
Eat everything that can be eaten. The flying dragon didn’t care if it ran on the ground or soared through the sky. The flying dragon didn’t care if it was alive or if it was dead. The end of all those that were captured by the flying dragon was to be eaten to the very last breath.
Voracious feeding. That was the flying dragon in its purest form.
The flying dragon had just hunted a fairly large bird in the sky, and hungrily devoured the prey, still flying. With its sharp teeth and strong jaw, it could eat anything.
The possessor was delighted at the new hunger boiling up from inside the flying dragon.
More, more. That something’s desire only called it for more, and itgave the flying dragon more hunger.
The flying dragon let out a deafening roar and took to the sky to search for a new prey.
The possessor smiled, feeling the new desire in the flying dragon.
But, it had to be careful. As the flying dragon fed, it must not approach the creature called a “human.”
“Humans” were its natural enemies. However, the something and the something’s brethren were also the natural enemy of “humans” too.
Anyhow, these “humans” had the power called magic. The something’s race, a race without substance, had but one power.
There were demonic monsters that had abilities that resembled magic, but most didn’t.
But, “humans” could use magic, and they had centuries of experience in fighting.
And so, no matter how strong someone in the something’s race became, they would not approach the habitats of a “human.”
“Humans” certainly had more desires than monsters and beasts did. However, possessing beasts didn’t expose themselves to such danger.
It didn’t even need to approach these “humans” to get its food.
The possessor continued to make the flying dragon hunger.
This was all to savor the desire again and again.
Tatsumi put the top part of the sliced jo on the table.
“It wasn’t as if I thought we would find an answer, I guess.”
“Then, shall we consult with my grandfather?”
“I guess so. That’s probably the best idea.”
Giuseppe, with his boundless knowledge, might know what happened, and if he didn’t, he could use his connections to better figure out the answer.
Even only in name, he was a man who stood at the top of one of the four churches. In the area of information and connections, Tatsumi could not possibly have the advantage.
Tatsumi had forgotten the influence Giuseppe held in the face of his friendly old grandpa personality.
“My grandfather would know of folklore about the Heaven system, so surely he knows something.”
“Come to think of it, there was a time when Giuseppe-san doing a research on the Heaven system, wasn’t there?”
“Yes, I heard about that, too. Since my grandfather was a child, he was attracted to the Heaven system, and there was a time when he did a little bit of investigation here and there by himself. Though, you can call it something like youthful passion, I believe.”
Remembering the tale, Calcedonia giggled.
Tatsumi, another student of Giuseppe, also heard stories from his past.
In many myths and legends, Thiet “The Grand Mage” Zamui (temp. name) made his appearance. Giuseppe studied the Heaven system to be just a little closer to his idol, Thiet.
Giuseppe had extensive knowledge about the Heaven system, and he was the patriarch of the Savaiv church, but he had that kind of past.
“Then, I will tell Giuseppe about what happened today at his next class.”
“Well, let’s put an end to this matter. I will prepare breakfast.”
“Yep, as soon as possible, please. Since there was a training before breakfast, I’m really hungry.”
Tatsumi exaggeratedly stroked his belly, and that made Calcedonia softly laugh.
“Please wait for a little while. Today’s breakfast will be delicious.”
“Your food is never bad, you know? Every single time, my expectations haven’t been let down.”
With those words, Calcedonia smiled broadly. If you were to ask why, being praised by Tatsumi was a bliss for her.
“Then to meet my Husband’s expectation, I will go all-out.”
With acting that might have been a bit over the top, Calcedonia made a deep bow, leaving to the kitchen after.
A savory aroma started to come from the kitchen. He wouldn’t have to wait long.
Desire slowly welling up. While slurping that feeling of desire, the something got a slightly weird feeling.
A desire called “hunger” steadily welling up. That was, good. To that conclusion, it would keep inciting the flying dragon.
However, this hunger was not strange in any way.
No matter how much the flying dragon ate, even if its hunger was never-ending, there was still a limit to what a single living creature could eat. In any case, it would someday replace the feeling of hunger with that of a full stomach.
But, it did not know when to stop creating the feeling of hunger.
Desire steadily welling up. While greedily slurping that feeling of desire, the something got a feeling of confusion.
Too much. Too much desire welling up. If this continued, it would be swallowed by the desires of the flying dragon.
It feed on the desires of living creatures, but it was possible for their positions to be reversed.
When a living being’s desires were over-incited, the desires would instead consume it.
The creatures that leave the control of the something’s race would merely turn into dangerous things that live only for the sake of their desires.
A thing that was neither a demonic monster nor a demonic beast.
While greedily slurping the steadily overflowing desire, the something had finally realized what it had possessed.
A dragon. One of the strongest beings in this world.
That which was called a “Devil” among humans─the something─was only on the bottom of its race’s food chain. It did not know what kind of creature a dragon was.
If it waited a bit more. If it had a bit more knowledge and power.
It would have never, ever, possessed a dragon.
The desires of a dragon were just too strong. To the point of devouring the devourer.
As it consumed the desire called “hunger,” as its very self was fading, the more it wanted to scream, the more it understood.
Yet, its understanding was much too late. It had already lost most of its consciousness.
The enormous hunger residing within the flying dragon would not disappear along with the devil.
To be exact, the devil was still residing within the dragon. Before, the devil was controlling the dragon’s consciousness, but now, it lost that control.
In other words, it was like a person driving at full speeds along a highway, but that person lost consciousness for some reason. Since nobody was driving the car, the car would continue to drive at high speeds and cause an accident.
A normal flying dragon had it’s own instincts and intelligence, so it wouldn’t recklessly put itself into danger or stray from its territory.
But, this flying dragon was different. It was now like a car with a drunk driver─except the drunk driver wasn’t drunk at all and was a serial killer who relished in the feeling of crashing into people.
The crazed dragon’s eyes shined with an ominous red light, and it went to search for something that could satisfy its hunger.
And in its eyes reflected a new meal. This new meal being the nest of a certain species. While the species wasn’t very large, they were very grouped up, almost as if they were meant to be eaten.
Hunger in its eyes, it attacked the nest. Yet, despite ravishing each and every creature in the nest, it barely took any time at all.
The nest of the creatures it ate. In the creatures’ native language, that nest was called a “village.”
Author’s Note:
This is the last update of the year. I won’t be writing during the New Year’s Holiday, I guess it’s something like a hibernation XD
I’ll start writing again on the fifth. Hopefully, I can finish a chapter by the seventh or eighth?
You guys have really supported me for this past year, so here’s for another good one!