Chapter 485

As it drew closer in a straight descent from the sky, the full form of the magical beast gradually came into view.

Its size was that of a slender child around one meter tall, humanoid in shape. It wore a green robe and a green pointed hat.

From its back sprouted green fairy wings, and one of its insect-like, lidless eyes - the right eye - bore what appeared to be scratch-like marks, leaving it one-eyed. Looking more closely, the right sleeve of its robe swayed and fluttered in the wind, suggesting it was also missing one arm.

"A lot of wind-colored skills - so this would be a wind fairy type of magical beast. I should probably confirm it's not human first - Hey! Are you human!"

"Keeee - Keeee -"

"If you understand language, then - actually, it doesn't seem like it does."

While Tatsuro was speaking, the creature launched blades of wind at him from across the distance. But he analyzed them and used the magical power of Life Magic in inverse phase to nullify them before they could connect.

After repeating this several times, Tatsuro landed atop the mountain of bones and held his ground in the air, about five meters away, glaring back at the magical beast that stood glaring down at him.

"I think you understand from just now, but I believe I'm stronger than you. If you're pretending to be a magical beast, please stop immediately."

"Keeeee!"

It was clear the creature understood none of his words; magical power surged through its body as it shifted into a combat stance. It didn't seem to have grasped the full difference in their strength, but it had at least recognized Tatsuro as a formidable opponent.

"Then I can treat you as a magical beast?"

"Ki!!"

Wrapping what could only be called a wind drill around its left hand, it lunged at Tatsuro with a high-speed thrusting strike aimed to pierce straight through him. But Tatsuro analyzed that too and nullified it with Life Magic's magical power in inverse phase to wind.

Simultaneously, he used Spacetime Magic to stretch the space between them and bought himself time, using those precious seconds to rain down earth bullets - born of a mixed Shoot and Earth Magic - in a continuous machine-gun barrage.

"GiGiGiGiGiGiGiGi -"

"Fall"

"GiyeH!?"

He then transferred a bolt of Lightning Magic directly above the wind fairy, raining down a lightning strike that sent it crashing to the ground. But just before it hit the earth, it snapped out of its daze, and despite being covered in bruises from the earth bullets and scorched black from the lightning, it landed cleanly and took up its stance once more.

"That's resilient. Or rather - does it have high Magic Resistance?"

"Ki..."

Tatsuro landed a short distance in front of it and extended his left hand, offering the wind fairy - which was glaring at him ready to charge at any moment - a Tame Contract.

"How about it? If you come with me, I'll even heal those wounds - rejected, was I? Stubborn thing - watch it."

"Ki!"

The Tame Contract was voided, and the taming failed. Not only that, as if to say don't underestimate me, it launched wind blades while thrusting forward with its left hand in a drill-wreathed charge. But Tatsuro blocked both the wind blades and the drill-spinning left-hand thrust with a wall hardened through mixed Dark and Earth Magic.

"GiyaH -"

Perhaps it had expected to smash straight through - it had swung with such force that its left hand was crushed against the wall. From there, Tatsuro's counterattack began: spikes shot out from the earth wall, aiming to skewer its entire body.

However, when the spikes had barely pierced a few millimeters in, it leaped backward and escaped - or so it seemed, but Tatsuro, who should have been on the other side of the wall, had used Transfer to circle behind it.

"It's over!"

"Giyi"

Three lasers struck the left shoulder, right thigh, and left thigh directly, vaporizing what remained of the left arm and both legs. Thinking that was the end of it, Tatsuro took a step forward - but the wind fairy beat its back wings and lifted into the air. Was it trying to flee? he wondered, but apparently not. It reversed immediately and turned back to face him.

Both legs and the left arm had been burned away, so no blood was spilling from the wounds - they weren't immediately lethal - yet Tatsuro could only feel a grudging admiration that it could still stand to fight in that condition. And then, magical power unlike anything before began erupting across its entire body.

"KiiiiiiiiiYYYYYEEEEEEE!!"

"Whoa"

In that instant, eight enormous wind dragons surged forth from the wind fairy's body and came crashing toward Tatsuro. Even as his eyes were drawn to them, he raised the corner of his mouth as if to say then I'll match you with wind too, and activated Wind Magic at maximum output, conjuring a tornado centered on himself. Since he wanted to tame it, he needed to make it recognize his strength, so it was necessary to perform in a way the magical beast could clearly understand.

The eight wind dragons collided with the tornado from eight directions, and the howling gales that spilled outward blasted away the surrounding vegetation and the mountain of bones. The winds reached all the way to where Ai, who had been watching from high in the sky with Far Sight, was standing.

"Not bad. Even setting aside that this is wind magic alone, the fact that even a Level 20 spell can't erase them is something else. - Then I'll go even flashier!"

"Ki!?"

When he mixed Light Magic at maximum output into the Wind Magic, five of the wind dragons that had been biting deep into the tornado burst apart. Only three remained.

"KiiiiiYYYYEEEEEEE!!"

"That's an interesting skill."

It immediately withdrew the remaining three wind dragons from the tornado and fused them together, transforming them into an even larger and more powerful wind dragon. By simple calculation alone, the output was now three times what it had been.

Furthermore, this magical beast had, just before using its skill - Eight Wind Dragon Control - which summoned eight wind dragons to command freely, activated its trump card: Self-Transcendence, which temporarily raised all Stats and skill power by an enormous amount.

Self-Transcendence was a double-edged sword - the moment its effect expired, all Stats and skill power would suffer an enormous decrease. But thanks to this skill, the wind fairy had managed to overcome opponents stronger than itself time and again despite its low grade, growing powerful enough to reach where it stood now. Of course, that was also because it had been born with a competitive nature that refused to lose, a fierce survival instinct that would not accept death, and a tireless work ethic and tenacity that far outstripped anything around it.

And so it placed absolute faith in this skill, and the combo born from Eight Wind Dragon Control - which it had mastered around the time its level surpassed 80 - had never once been broken by anyone.

That was why, even now, it held no doubt that the triple-power wind dragon enhanced by Self-Transcendence would kill Tatsuro. - And yet.

"Then I'll copy you!"

"........Ki?"

Tatsuro condensed the mixed Light and Wind Magic he had been using in the tornado, shaping it into a radiant wind dragon. And it was ten times the size of the wind fairy's triple-power wind dragon.

"Take this!"

"......Ki..........KiKi - KiiiiiIIIIIYYYYEEEEEEE!?"

It was over in an instant - a single gulp.

The wind dragon it had staked its absolute confidence in was swallowed whole by the even wider maw of the light-wind dragon, and completely obliterated.

To make matters worse, the effect of Self-Transcendence expired at that very moment, and its Stats plummeted enormously.

Even in that state, the dragon that had devoured its own wind dragon was bearing down on the wind fairy hovering in the air.

"...Ki-ye"

Its spirit broke.

Not when its right arm had been bitten off. Not when its eye had been torn apart. Not when its body had been slashed to ribbons. Through all of that, not once - not once - had it ever given up, right down to the very last moment.

But its instincts understood now: before absolute power, it was utterly powerless. The powerful opponents it had faced until now, every last one of them, were nothing - mere trivialities - before the existence standing before it.

It prepared itself for death.

But the light-wind dragon swallowed it whole, and just as it was about to be driven into the depths of the throat where everything would be reduced to nothing by the roaring torrent of wind - it vanished without a trace, right before its eyes. As though every sight it had just witnessed had been nothing but a dream.

The wind fairy was left dumbfounded.

Not understanding what had happened, the tension drained from its rigid body, and its limbless form began to fall toward the ground. But just before it struck the earth, it was enveloped by a cushion of wind that was not its own, and it was gently laid to rest.

When it looked up, the being that had unleashed power like a god's and radiated an oppressive aura like a god's was looking down at it. And once again, it offered the wind fairy a Tame Contract, asking it to become its Familiar.

"Kiyi"

In that moment, the wind fairy felt it with certainty: this was the lord it was meant to serve.

And so, without thinking about anything at all, it found itself accepting the contract before it even realized. The bond with Tatsuro being woven within it was something it could feel.

"Kiyyi..."

In that instant, the overwhelming oppressive aura that had felt ready to crush it transformed into a warmth that enveloped it completely.

Its heart trembled with emotion, and it tried to rise and swear its loyalty - only to realize both of its legs were gone. Crestfallen, it let the face it had lifted fall back to the ground.

"Sorry, that must have hurt. I'll heal every last bit of it right now."

"Kiyi? Kee-Kee-KiKee-Kiye-"

Through the contract, it understood the meaning of those words - but even if this was its lord, surely that was impossible. It conveyed that through the bond.

Tatsuro let out a soft laugh.

"If you consider me your master, I'll heal every last part of you, root and all. My first order is this: trust me."

"KiyeE!!"

Still lying on its back, it raised only its head and nodded, and Tatsuro used mixed Light and Life Magic at full power to cast healing magic over the wind fairy.

What followed was nothing short of astonishing.

The legs and arm it had just lost regrew in the blink of an eye - and though older wounds should have been far harder to regenerate, the right eye it had lost dozens of years ago began to swell back into existence within the empty socket, like a balloon inflating. That alone was staggering enough, but then the right arm it had lost even longer ago grew back cleanly as well. And every old scar carved into its body over the course of hundreds of years - every last one, down to the tiniest mark - disappeared entirely.

"Ki - Kiyi..."

Unable to believe it, the wind fairy opened and closed its right hand, surveyed the world with the right eye alone that had long since rotted and fallen away, and lifted the hem of its robe to look itself over.

Watching that scene with a smile, Tatsuro asked:

"Is there anywhere that hasn't healed?"

"Kee-Kee"

It shook its head from side to side in denial with a very human-like gesture - and then suddenly noticed a third party approaching and snapped a sharp gaze skyward, stepping in front of Tatsuro to shield him.

"Ah, she's fine."

"Kiyi?"

"Taaatsuroooo"

While the wind fairy tilted its head in puzzlement, Ai descended carrying a bird-like magical beast roughly three meters long with a snapped neck, utterly dead.

"What's that?"

"I was watching you two from above and it attacked me. So I turned the tables on it. Might make tonight's dinner."

Ai performed a kicking motion with her right leg, reenacting the moment. It seemed that when she had been set upon in the air, she had killed it with a kick to the neck.

"So is that fairy over there the new one?"

"Yeah, this might be the first time I've taken in a fairy-type magical beast as a companion."

"Kiyyi"

Still wary of Ai but staying at Tatsuro's side, the wind fairy let out a cry as if asking who she was.

"Ah, sorry about that. She's my girlfriend... though I suppose that might not translate, hm - in your terms, you could think of her as my mate."

"Kiyi!!"

With past wild magical beasts, no matter who Tatsuro's mate was, those that hadn't acknowledged the relationship wouldn't let their guard down - but this magical beast readily accepted Ai and gave a bow. He had been noticing it for a while now, but the sheer humanity of its mannerisms left Tatsuro wide-eyed.

"...I mean, aren't you quite a sharp magical beast? You're probably top-tier in terms of intelligence among all the magical beasts I've ever met."

"Kiyi?"

"Maybe creatures like this are the ones who eventually become human someday."

"That's a little worrying in terms of the Tame Contract expiring, but I'd still want to see that moment."

"KiKee"

Not entirely sure what was being said but sensing it was a compliment, the wind fairy grinned and gave a loud, happy cry.

Faced with such a guileless, childlike wind fairy, neither of them knew whether it would truly reach humanity someday - but the two of them felt, all the same, that no matter what future came, they wanted to get along with it well.