Regressor, Possessor, Reincarnator

In an instant, the earth was as bright as day.

The sun’s light aimed its glow toward the wings of the hawk in the sky. The light exploded forth, bleaching the world white, as the sun devoured the black shadow.

Bang, bang, bang.

For a blink of time, the monster disappeared as the light expanded, enveloping its figure. Allen opened his eyes that had instinctively shut. As the remnants of the attack faded away, the ancient monster re-emerged.

It was still flying, unharmed.

As if Allen’s attack had not ruffled nor damaged a single feather, the monster proudly boasted its appearance, its title as the ruler of the sky. 

No, the attack hadn’t been entirely ineffective.

Allen squinted his eyes. The monster staggered for a moment. It had absorbed some damage.

Vedrfolnir, too, was a creature of flesh and blood. It was just pretending that the attack had been useless, making a show of it so as not to appear weak before its enemies. It had been sealed away for thousands of years, so it wouldn’t be at full power, surely. Otherwise, they would have stood no chance against it. 

The only monsters of the ancient world were giants and dragons.

Thus, the conclusion was a simple one.

Jotunnsverd Ljossol.

A series of bright suns arose. His dragon's core screamed. It had been a while since he’d felt his heart squeezing in such a way. However, the pain was a familiar one.

"Vestla, you said you knew that monster. What are our odds?”

Vestla's voice cut through the noise of the battlefield. ⟬Considering that it has just been released… If you fight alone, Allen… maybe thirty percent.⟭

"And if I join forces with Julius?”

Vestla scanned their surroundings and answered quietly, ⟬If you join forces with your brother, it's a fifty-fifty shot… Maybe.⟭

Allen was satisfied with that. Why would he insist on fighting Julius? 

If it was an option that would increase their odds, he’d take it.

“Ugh, this is so annoying. Argh!” Julius shouted.

The imprint of the lightning bolt embedded on his lower abdomen burned hot. Dark blue lightning darted together in the form of a spear.

"Come on! Get down here, you little fucker!"

[Astrapi (A)]*

(PR note: [Astrapi] means “lightning strike” in Ancient Greek.)

His lightning condensed into a single bolting streak.

Crash!

The monster’s wings spewed out black blood as they were torn even further, having already been hit several times. When the black droplets finally reached the desert below, the blood melted the sand.

Vedrfolnir crashed to the ground.

Yet even in that moment, the monstrous hawk fought back. The white storm enveloping its body now finally shook off the chain that had hindered its movements.

Already struggling to maintain their small grasp of control over the beast, the Minima and Arachni tribes fell back and dispersed.

Landing on the ground, Vedrfolnir spread its wings wide and cast its enemies a mocking expression. The white whirlwind began to blow everywhere.

“────────────”

Allen lost his footing in the raging wind. Second form. Ylfaskadus. Behind each step, a dazzling shadow followed. Allen burrowed through the veil of the black night.

Julius used a flurry of blue flashes of lightning to draw the monster's attention. Between them, a shadow crept in. The one who had melted into the shadow stabbed the monster in its blind spot.

The perfect attack for putting all accumulated anger into use as fuel. 

First form. Managarmr.

His red blade accelerated, aiming for the base of his opponent’s wings.

Thwack.

However, Allen's blow failed to penetrate the monster's thick skin, deflected by the durable, slippery feathers.

Vedrfolnir’s eyes burned with a ferocious glow, a biting wind bursting outward in all directions.

The sharp gust tore through the shadows. Allen was out of striking range before he could register it.

So ordinary attacks wouldn’t work?

Allen laughed. That attack could even fell a giant. But somehow, it couldn’t cut through feathers?

"How did the era of these monsters come to an end?"

⟬…I don't know. Maybe the giants and the dragons killed each other off?⟭ Vestla pondered in a vague way.

The magic from his dragon's core gathered into a thread and wove throughout the space. There was no need to be discouraged just because one close-quarters attack didn't work.

Long-range attacks were his specialty, after all.

His thread gradually grew longer and longer, entangling back onto itself. In the meantime, thunder and lightning continued to rain down.

Crash!

“FUUUUCK!”

Julius's eyes turned bloodshot when his attack didn’t land. He was dumbfounded. His quest was to kill this?

There was no need for Allen to surrender. His first priority should be to get help and kill the monster.

Mana gathered at Julius’s lightning bolt mark. Another thunderstorm gathered. When he kicked off the ground, the sand underneath hardened into molten glass, then shattered.

Bang!

Through his peripherals, he could see Allen preparing his next attack. Julius gathered the lightning in his hands, sending off another quick strike.

[Keraunos (A)]*

(*PR note: [Keraunos] means “thunderbolt” in Ancient Greek.)

The long whip cut through the air at a rate faster than sound, wrapping around the monster's body. For an instant, its movements halted. A downpour of lightning shot out from the sky.

Boom! Crash! Bang!

The earth bowed as the sky let out a thunderous roar.

"Allen—!"

At Julius's call, Allen finished his creation with cold eyes. One side of the thread remained between his fingers. The side of the thread that dragged on the floor chained it to the ground.

At Julius's call, Allen finished his creation with cold eyes. One end of the thread remained grasped between his fingers. It swooped down, dragging along the sand below, then chained itself to the ground.

The other end of the thread turned into a black sword and shot toward the monster.

"Brother, I can…”

Allen shook his head.

"I'll give you a little break."

Allen flicked his fingers, popping the chain out from the sandy expanse and tangling up the monster's legs. It was clear from its flapping wings that the monster was embarrassed from being caught off guard.

All the while, the black sword struck the monster's body in the sky. Even if they couldn’t take it out immediately, they could still chip away at it little by little.

“────────────”

Vedrfolnir shook in response to the attack and screamed.

Allen had completed his rough analysis of Vedrfolnir.

An ancient monster somehow related to the wind. It instinctively manipulated the wind, and was now in an unreasonably powerful state. Its body could not be penetrated by most attacks, and its blood was highly acidic. It could fly, and there was a strong possibility it possessed recovery abilities of some sort.

‘I don’t know what abilities it’s still hiding, but… based on what I’ve seen so far, we aren’t the best suited to deal with it.' 

Considering the type of magic he used, it would be difficult for Allen to inflict meaningful damage on it unless he went toe-to-toe with it in close combat. He didn’t currently possess the skills necessary to single-handedly take down this opponent.

"Oh, I see!"

Greed flashed through Julius's eyes. No matter how difficult the task, he wanted to complete the quest. His reward would be a fragment of truth—of course he was curious.

He couldn’t resist the opportunity to get in a powerful strike.

"Brother, please hold it steady for a moment!"

"Alrigh—"

Allen cut himself off.

A spell of overwhelming magnitude had begun to strike. The spell originated from within Julius's bag. Julius took a large jar out of the bag he had thrown onto the ground.

'…Did he go back into the ruins to get that?’

Allen’s expression didn’t hide his exasperation at Julius’s greed. Had he really gone back down and risked his life for treasure?

He hadn’t even thought up a way out of the ruins.

"…Ah, geez. I was gonna do this later. And I’m not the best with spirits, anyway."

He murmured a few more words and began to focus his lightning into the jar. It began to tremble as the lightning was injected in, and soon began to break.

“I’d have been able to sign a full contract if I’d gone to the real Spring of Spirits, fuck.”

Julius grimaced as if recalling something, and then concentrated even more on the lightning when the jar finally appeared to crack.

* * *

* * *

At that moment, his entire field of vision flooded with light.

Bang!

The jar shattered open.

From the broken jar emerged the upper body of a giant, its body translucent and features obscured. At the giant’s core, the lightning that Julius had injected into the jar was gathered into a ball.

Vedrfolnir began to glow blindingly bright as the giant appeared.

A violent gust of wind blew and honed in on Allen, who still held the monstrous hawk bound in his chain.

"Brother, please hang in there!"

Julius concentrated his thunder onto the giant. As he pointed his finger at Vedrfolnir, the giant nodded.

Dark clouds began to gather over the giant's head.

Crash!

Thunder shook the air, and lightning began to converge on the giant's arms.

Allen wove his threads together with one hand to form a copper-green sword, and with the other hand, he sent out a shockwave. The wind collided with Allen’s attack that manipulated space itself, and missed Allen again and again.

A few minutes passed like this.

Allen kept the monster in check, using his mana to continually deflect the oncoming waves of wind. Chains arose repeatedly from underfoot, ensnaring the monster and limiting its movement.

"You ready yet?"

"One minute! No, just 30 seconds!"

He was being too greedy. Allen bit his lip. Even at this very moment, student casualties were still mounting.

It was a mistake to think that Allen and Julius could deal with the massive hawk on their own, or even that they could with the help of other students. Add in to the mix the monsters flocking toward them, and the situation was obviously not a good one.

‘If you're going to do it, you have to do it right.’

Julius was gathering up his strength to kill the monster in one shot. Things would have gotten dicey if Allen accidentally killed it.

When thirty seconds had passed, Julius exclaimed, "Okay, I’m ready now!"

The storm of thunder and lightning gathered in the giant's hand. The electrical storm transformed into a giant hammer half the size of the giant's upper body.

The giant swung the hammer.

For a few minutes, Julius's all-out mana attack was carried out by the hands of the spirit.

[Mjollnir(A)](Temporary)

Immediately after the attack, the spirit faded away and seemed to vanish into Julius’s lightning-shaped mark.

A sound rang out. In the blink of an eye, the hammer struck the hawk in the chest.

Bang!

The lightning flashed, scorching the hawk’s glossy, black feathers. The bolts of electricity finally ceased once the hammer had dug into its chest.

However, that was not the end.

"Let’s wrap this up."

Julius smiled as he lowered his hand, numerous lightning bolts crashing down upon the hawk's head as they had only been waiting for his signal.

Crash!

The lightning struck again.

Boom!

The monster, defenselessly hit by numerous lightning bolts, appeared winded.

‘But why…’

Something was off. Each of his five senses were blaring at him in alarm.

Vestla hurriedly cried, ⟬Allen, get back! Come on!⟭

Allen did not ignore her. He immediately kicked off the ground and backed away.

Julius opened his Quest Window. Now, all that was left to do was collect his reward and return to the Academy. 

「Kill the ancient monster sealed in the ruins and prevent disaster yourself! Time limit: 3:31:18.

Reward: Fragment of truth(???)」

"OK, Brother, let's go back…”

Huh?

"Why is the Quest Window still…”

Julius turned his head to answer his own question

A black shadow fell upon him.

Rumble.

That was the last thing he saw before losing consciousness. 

* * *

Julius's body flew through the air like a toy.

The sight of him in that moment, his equipment all instantly smashed to pieces, looked too absurd to be real. Allen's gaze did not leave the monster that attacked Julius.

It was still in the air.

Right above the spot where Julius had fallen.

Pondering whether it was he or their shared opponent who had attacked him.

The suspiciously gigantic hawk—too large to confidently identify as a bird—had an otherworldly appearance.

All of its wounds had long since disappeared.

The monster stared straight at Julius for a while, then turned its head again.

Allen locked eyes with it for a moment. He could not see the same ferocity as before in its yellow eyes.

"It can’t be…"

It took but a moment.

He missed his chance.

Clang!

“Cough…”

He was able to stop it due to Vestla’s assistance. 

Allen scrambled to his feet. In front of him was a long furrow in the sand, plowed along the path his body had dug.

Vedrfolnir tilted its head again. It looked at Allen with questioning eyes, as if doubting the sight before it, and raised his wings again.

His vision went black.

Crash!

It wasn't something he could have stopped.

The giant's eyesight, his five amplified senses, and his great perception typically helped him in predicting movement.

None of these things could detect Vedrfolnir’s movements.

Allen was unable to react to the attack on his own—not even once. It was only because Vestla moved first that each attack was parried.

Counterattacks were still impossible. However…

Behind the monster’s eyes, past the relentless attacks targeting him, a hint of sadness surfaced.

Vedrfolnir gazed longingly at the pouring stars, as if it wanted nothing to do with the earth at all.

"─────The glory of an era long past. The same goes for the one who received the protection of the God of Lightning… And you as well."

A look of astonishment crossed Allen's face.

In an instant, the monster cast aside its emotions and turned its head, heading for Allen.

“─────I had some expectations, sensing the blood of a giant… What a disappointment. You must have acquired that swordsmanship by chance.”

It spoke with a tone of disappointment.

The Vestla's blade began to tremble.

"─────There's nothing more to see here. Thank you for waking me up, but…”

The intelligent, yellow eyes looked around.

"─────I was woken up by force. Thus, the price shall be paid."

Again the monster moved.

Its wings sprawled-wide raced beneath the glittering night sky, heading away from him and towards the others.

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