Instant Death

Volume 7, Chapter 2 I thought in order to get back to the original world we had to defeat the Sages to get the Philosopher\'s Stone, but that wasn\'t the case!

The dragons depicted in Japan and China are chimeras, a mixture of various animals.

The dragon body of Kouryu almost followed the characteristics of a camel\'s head with deer horns, a snake\'s body with carp scales, and a tiger\'s palm with eagle claws.

That Kouryu is flying over the sea with two humans and a mechanical doll on board. The altitude is not so high, just a few meters above the sea.

Yogiri and his group escaped from the sinking ship.

"Is there some kind of Japanese folktale like that?"

Tomochika, who was sitting in the second position, asked.

"Tatsu no kotaro, I guess?"

Yogiri, sitting in the lead, answered.

"That\'s it! Is that Taro? Is it Kotaro?"

"I guess it could go either way, if you ask me?"

"Maybe Kotaro. I\'ve heard anecdotes about Kotaro Izumi."

Says Enju, who sits in the very back. Of course, it was Mokomoko who was operating the body.

"In the opening of that anime, you see the kid flying astride the dragon, right? I was wondering what that was like, but it\'s not a very comfortable ride."

"That\'s right. The scales make me prickle and hurt."

"It\'s a little big to straddle"

"I would have preferred a western type if I was going to ride. It would have looked more like a dragon rider, wouldn\'t it? This one is almost like a snake. No wings, so it\'s a mystery how they fly."

"Well, if you want to put it that way, the wyvern that the little boy defeated when you first came to this world. That one, too, is structurally doubtful to be able to fly, you know? It must be assisted by some kind of mysterious power."

"You guys! Aren\'t you complaining too much after being given a ride!?"

Kouryu who had been silent up to this point, barked.

"Even if you say so. If you are a mysterious creature anyway, why don\'t you distribute a little more status to rideability?"

"I don\'t make the assumption that I\'m going to have people on board."

"Since you can do such a crazy thing as transforming from human form to dragon form, can\'t you be flexible enough to transform into a form that is easier to sit in?"

"You\'re asking too much of me for a ride!"

"Take a ride, or rather, if we sink into the sea, you\'ll be in trouble too, right? You want us to defeat the Sage, don\'t you?"

"Not really… I didn’t say you must do it."

The manner of enunciation of Kouryu was bad.

"The death of the Sage does not change anything now. Wanting to see the Sage die is just a distraction."

"Well, we collect the Philosopher\'s Stone on our own. I don\'t care what happens to the Sage in the process."

"Come to think of it, didn\'t you say something about there being another way to return?"

Tomochika asks as if she has just remembered.

Indeed, Yogiri also recalled that he had said something like that.

"Yes, there is. That way, you don\'t have to defeat the Sage and you don\'t have to collect the Philosopher\'s Stone."

"Seriously !? That means I thought in order to get back to my world, we had to defeat the Sages to get the Philosopher\'s Stone, but that\'s not the case! That\'s what you are saying!"

"It\'s like some kind of canceled manga."

"Of course, I\'m not going to tell you right off the bat because I want you to defeat the Sages!"

"Oi!"

"No, I don\'t mean that in a mean way. It would probably be easier to collect the Philosopher\'s Stone. And, besides, how can you be sure that I\'m telling the truth?"

"Hmm, that\'s true, but…"

"So you guys continue to defeat the Sages as you have been doing."

"Even though they said the world was in danger if we defeated the Sages?"

"Ahaha. That was a mistake."

"I think we should just listen to what he says only half of it. Indeed, we can\'t put all our trust in this guy, so we\'ll just have to find our own way back home."

"Well, for now, we\'ll just have to trust that he\'ll take us to land."

Kouryu kept going in the direction the ship was headed.

＊＊＊＊＊

"So, is this really going to the destination?"

It has been about half a day since we escaped the ship.

If it was flying in the sky, it must be faster than a ship, but the scene was still the same.

There was no land in sight, only the sea.

"I do not know?"

Kouryu replied easily.

"Oi!"

"For now, we\'re just moving forward in the direction the ship was going."

"The ship was headed for the Ent, so there is no mistaking it, but…"

But it was not always the case that the ship was headed straight for Ent, an island nation to the east.

"Which way is east!? Ah, just look at the sun! Wait, it\'s cloudy!"

"No, even if we could see the sun, would that give us a direction? We don\'t know the relationship between the sun and the direction in this world?"

"Aah! I took it for granted that the sun rises in the east, but it wasn\'t always that way! How about that, Kouryu-san!"

"Hmm? Is there a specific direction in which the sun rises?"

"Useless, this person!"

"If we increase our altitude, won\'t we find land?"

Kouryu was flying several meters above the sea.

There are no obstacles, so there is no need to venture to higher altitudes, but this does not allow seeing far into the distance.

"No, we can\'t do that. If we fly too high, we might get caught in Sage\'s defense grid."

"Well, you said that flying in the sky will cause interference with the Sage. Are you saying low is good enough?"

"It\'s just a painful measure, though. I guess that makes us harder to find."

"If they haven\'t found it so far, it must be okay, right?"

"Who knows? If we get close to the Ent, that\'s Yoshifumi\'s area of jurisdiction. There\'s a chance it won\'t work like it has so far."

Since Yogiri had disabled Ryza the Sage, they were able to fly in Ryza\'s jurisdiction. Perhaps that is why they were safe so far.

"Ah! Then, I wonder if Mokomoko should fly! Since you\'re a spirit, they won\'t find you, probably. Didn\'t you once fly high above and find a city?"

"No, I can\'t do that while we\'re moving fast. It\'s a matter of coordinates."

"You\'re useless!"

"Lord, you really have no respect for your ancestors…"

"Ah, then why don\'t we just have Kouryu-san slow down?"

"If we slow down, we will fall off."

"This one is useless too!"

"Then we can stop now. You said you could build a ship with sawamaru. Let\'s take a break."

Sawamaru is an abbreviation for the flexible material.

A mysterious substance obtained from an invader robot, whose shape can be freely changed. Mokomoko also said it could be used to build a boat.

"Yeah. That\'s possible, but now\'s not the time for that."

Yogiri\'s proposal was softly rejected by Kouryu.

"Why?"

"Look at the sky"

Yogiri and others looked up at the sky as they were told to do.

The weather tends to be cloudy.

But there is a light coming through a break in the clouds.

"Sun? Considering it\'s…"

"Is there some kind of glowing person coming down?"

Tomochika must have seen it.

After a while, Yogiri also knew what it was.

A group of winged people. They are coming down toward Yogiri and the others with weapons in their hands.

"Angel!?"

"It\'s not that superior. It\'s just a vigilant defense mechanism created by a bunch of fools pretending to be God."

If you look closely, you can see that their skin is shiny and glossy. Perhaps their entire body is covered with armor, or something made of such material.

"Perhaps just happen to be on the ground for a picnic and don\'t intend to do anything to us or anything like that?"

"With nothing but ocean as far as the eye can see, the chances of anyone but us being the objective here are extremely small."

"I know, right~! Uwaah!"

Kouryu suddenly changed course, and a little later the nearby ocean made a loud splash. Something had fallen into the position where they had just been.

"Eh?"

Tomochika\'s face hardens in surprise.

"Eeeeeh! Whoa, hey!"

Something resembling angels throws spears in their hands one after the other.

Kouryu began to dodge it left and right.

"Kouryu-san, you\'re a god, aren\'t you? Isn\'t there some kind of barrier that can easily defend against an attack of this magnitude?"

"I have used barriers. The only reason you\'re not blown away by wind pressure is because I\'ve put up a barrier that blocks the effects of the surroundings."

"But are attacks going to be hit?"

"I can handle a small attack. But if we get hit by one of these, it\'s bad."

"E~tto! If they just throw spears, the attack is over when they throw them all… Wait, where is that spear coming from!"

"They are angels, even if they are just a little. They can at least create matter."

The next moment the angel-like people threw their spears, and the next moment they had them in their hands again.

"It\'s going to be tough if this keeps up, so I\'m hoping Yogiri-kun can do something about it!"

"Well, it looks like some of the orbits are going to hit."

The lines of killing intent visible at Yogiri are gradually converging.

It was becoming more and more accurate, and was beginning to catch Kouryu.

"Die"

Yogiri mumbled.

Immediately, the angel-like people lose their power and begin to fall.

They slammed into the surface of the sea and one after another began to make a splash.

"Somehow, I\'ve seen this scene before… I wish you had done it sooner!"

"Even if you say so. If Kouryu can continue to dodge attacks and escape, there\'s no need to bother killing them."

"Fumu. In the end, they appeared even without us changing the altitude. So, there must be no problem when the altitude is increased, right?"

Mokomoko says. We had killed all the angels, so now we should have been able to gain altitude.

"That\'s true. And the reason they showed up was because we were getting close to Sage\'s territory."

"…The altitude doesn\'t change, though?"

"Yeah. I\'m almost at my limit, too. The high mobility I just had was a bad idea."

The altitude was beginning to drop rather than rise.

"Eh? What\'s going to happen!?"

"We will fall"

"Hey~!"

It was gradually dropping, and the belly of Kouryu was touching the surface of the sea.

"Mokomoko-san! Ship! Make a ship!"

"Ou!"

Enju spits out a black mass from her mouth.

It spread thin and formed a boat. Not so big, a boat-like object appeared on the back of Kouryu.

"It\'s an awful look!"

"It\'s quicker to keep the sawamaru inside! Now get on board quickly!"

Yogiri and the others, the three hurriedly boarded the boat.

"Hmm. What am I supposed to do?"

"Can\'t Kouryu-san revert to human form!?"

"I can\'t do that while flying"

"Let\'s go!"

The boat jumps off the back of Kouryu and lands on the water.

The ship continued on with the momentum of its flight, but Kouryu had sunk most of his body underwater and almost came to a halt.

"Kouryu-sa~n!"

Turning around, Tomochika calls out.

However, Kouryu sank as it was, and soon disappeared.

"Eh? What should we do!?"

"Well, I guess former God can handle this much, can\'t he?"

Yogiri wasn\'t too worried.

"Takatou-kun, your reaction is too dry!"

"But there is nothing we can do about it, right?"

"Indeed! Let\'s stay positive here! Believe in the potential of Kouryu!"

"Are you switching too quickly, too, Lord?"

"Frankly, he\'s just a shady person who popped up out of nowhere, so I don\'t want to keep worrying about him…"

"Let\'s not let his sacrifice be in vain, we\'re going for land. Mokomoko-san, please go check from the sky."

"If I may say so myself, what is it with these two…"

Despite her grumbling, the spirit Mokomoko, which had left Enju, flew up into the sky.

『Umu! There was land!』

Whether that was the destination place, Ent, they don\'t know, but that\'s where they were headed anyway.