He really was in serious trouble now.
Cid narrowly brushed past Vritra's black-flame tentacle attack, rolled several times across the ground, then watched the sword he had casually picked up get swallowed whole after merely touching the black flames. Clutching his forehead with a headache, he began to think.
"Vritra, what are you trying to do?! Didn't I say you weren't allowed to hurt Cid? I told you to knock him out and send him away!"
Sherry glared angrily at Genshirou Saji, holding a controller in her hand as she shouted at him.
"Well… Doctor, isn't that asking a little too much? This bug in front of me has at least some skill. It's pretty hard not to hurt him."
With a nasty, roguish grin on his face, Vritra raised a hand and made a gesture with his thumb and index finger, speaking in a leisurely tone.
"If you don't want to get tangled up with the Red Dragon Emperor in that state, then you'd better obey my orders. Don't forget who pieced that body together for you!"
"I don't mind using what I prepared for Shadow on you instead."
Speaking coldly, Sherry raised the controller in her hand and placed her finger on one of the buttons.
"Hahaha, fine, fine. I'll do my savior a favor and go all out."
At the sight of that, Vritra's entire body stiffened. A bright smile spread across his face as he turned to Cid, who had picked up a table leg to use as a weapon.
"Looks like this is as far as I go."
Cid spoke with regret, and his entire aura suddenly sank. There was no helping it. He really could not think of a way out…
Forgive him. With his stats, techniques, skills, and Magical Power all sealed away, leaving him to rely purely on combat wisdom against a nasty monster with at least a mini-boss stat sheet, how was he supposed to fight?
Dragons naturally had scales for defense. Even opponents at the same level struggled to break through them. For a small fry like him… even if he fought for a year, he might not leave a single scratch. What was he supposed to use to fight it, his head?
If Vritra had not been playing around with that earlier attack, his speed as an extra would never have been enough to dodge it. Now that the other side no longer felt like playing, he was done for.
"Mm, you're absolutely right. The great Vritra is going to finish you off. I have to admit, Cid, your concealment ability is impressive. Too bad it's completely useless in the face of absolute power, hahaha…"
Vritra laughed wildly and waved his arm. The black flames covering the tentacles spreading from his body vanished, and with another wave of his arm, those vine-like tentacles began dancing through the air.
"Whoosh!"
Something long and thin sliced through the air with a sharp sound. Cid raised the table leg in his hand to block at his side, but a tremendous force slammed into it and sent him flying.
Well, that's that…
"Boom!"
He crashed through several shelves in a row, scattering experimental equipment and books all over the floor. A large black sphere fell down, while Cid lay sprawled in the middle in a starfish pose, staring blankly up at the stars.
"I didn't expect you to block that, Cid. What a pain. Forget it…"
Vritra's face showed visible surprise that Cid had actually reacted in time to block the blow, but in the next second, that surprise turned into dismissive disdain as he strode toward him.
That's that, then…
Cid stood up from the ground and patted off the dust that had stuck to him after being sent flying, staring straight at Vritra as he approached.
"You still want to resist? Wouldn't it be better to obediently let me knock you out and send you away?"
As he listened to Vritra's persuasion, the Magical Power in Cid's body began to flow, yet he held it back without releasing it. Pitch-black slime liquid seeped out from the surface of the skin on his back.
Fine, then. I'll slaughter this dragon in front of me, let Sherry know that I'm Shadow, and then…
"Tick, tick, tick…"
???
The sudden ticking sound made the Magical Power flowing through Cid's body stop abruptly. At the same time as Vritra, he looked toward the source of the sound. It was the large black sphere Cid had knocked off the shelf earlier, with a digital screen installed on it that was counting down. Dense waves of Magical Power radiated from the sphere.
"Where did this bom…"
"BOOM!!!"
Before Cid could finish, a huge explosion cut off his voice. Powerful Magical Power swallowed the top floor almost instantly, and with the center of the explosion as its origin, an incomplete circular gap appeared at one corner of the building.
"Whoosh…"
A fierce gust rushed toward Sherry, who had been shocked speechless by the sudden change. Seeing this, Vritra had no choice but to reveal his true form and block it in front of her.
"This isn't real. This isn't real…"
Invaded by the wind that slipped through the gaps around Vritra's body, Sherry stared blankly at the firelight of the explosion and at Vritra's enormous dragon body. Her body swayed slightly as she muttered to herself.
"Right, it's an illusion. It's just an illusion. As long as I rush over, Cid-kun will still…"
She spoke faster and faster, as if she had convinced herself. Unsteady on her feet, Sherry hurriedly pushed aside Vritra's wing in front of her, her eyes full of tension and hope as she looked toward the direction of the explosion.
Flames, broken bricks, glass…
Unfortunately, what appeared before Sherry was a corner of the building that had been blown away. From there, she could see the burning floors below, the people trapped outside, and Fallen Angels setting off explosions everywhere.
"Why…"
The pink-haired girl's eyes went empty. Her body swayed slightly before finally falling forward. She collapsed to her knees, her trembling mouth opening and closing, while two streams of clear tears slowly slid from the corners of her eyes.
"Why… Why?! Mom, Father, Cid-kun, why does everyone around me leave me? Ahh, ahh…"
Heartbroken sobs spilled from Sherry's mouth. She spread both hands and pressed them tightly against her pink hair. Her beautiful eyes, once filled with gentleness and wisdom, the same color as her hair, now held only a dazed, unfocused light.
"Hahaha, looks like Cid was blown to nothing just like that. Dead without even ashes left behind. Thinking about my former friend ending up this way really does make me, Genshirou Saji, feel sad. But having your grief to comfort me, Doctor, eases that sadness a little…"
Vritra's mocking words by her ear made Sherry's crying stop. Kneeling on the ground, she clenched her fists, then slowly stood and looked at Vritra, her voice icy.
"Why… why didn't you save Cid…"
"Why? What a funny question. Because I'm an Evil Dragon, hahaha…"
Vritra pressed one hand to his face and laughed wildly, but the eye hidden behind his palm stared at Sherry through his fingers with icy cruelty. From behind him, a tentacle silently crept along the ground, slowly making its way to Sherry's back.
"Just for a ridiculous reason like that? Ha, ha…"
As if she felt nothing at all, Sherry let out a few cold, hollow laughs. Completely unaware of the pitch-black tentacle that had already reached her back, she opened her eyes, her pink gaze coldly fixed on Vritra with rage pressed deep inside it.
"Then you can go with…"
"I heard someone was looking for me…"
A flat voice interrupted what Sherry was about to say, and the pitch-black tentacle, now only a few centimeters from Sherry's heart, stopped.
Clenching her fists, Sherry bit her lip hard and turned toward the figure standing on the highest platform, clad in a black coat and wearing a mask.
With no time to mourn Cid's death, the one who immediately entered the battlefield… was Shadow!
"Why?! Why, Shadow?! Why did you have to come now, of all times?!"
A hysterical scream tore out of Sherry. The anger she could no longer suppress exploded as she shouted and pressed the controller in her hand toward Shadow.
"It's all your fault! Your fault!!!"
"Roar!!!"
The moment Sherry pressed the controller, strange symbols appeared on Genshirou Saji's head and spread across his entire body. Sherry's violent hatred toward Shadow surged into Vritra's mind, forcing his dragon body to open its mouth, let out a roar, and charge toward the black figure in the sky.
"Cid-kun, wait for me. I'll send Vritra and Shadow down to join you right away. Then I'll follow them too."
Watching Vritra charge toward Shadow, a smile appeared on Sherry's face, but the next second, tears spilled from her eyes uncontrollably.
At this point, it was already impossible to say that Cid was Shadow.
Watching Vritra charge toward him, Cid silently thought to himself.
The moment the explosion happened, the familiar scene, combined with the flow of Magical Power inside him at the time, had made him hide and change clothes almost by instinct.
By the time he came back to his senses, he saw Sherry kneeling in front of that huge crater, crying her heart out. With the mood like this, it would be hard to wrap things up unless "Cid" was dead. He could not exactly jump out and say he had not died. Would that not turn the whole thing into a comedy? There was no helping it. Cid would have to die.
Thinking this, Cid raised a hand and pressed it against Vritra, who was charging at him with all his might. The black flames burning fiercely over Vritra's body continued spreading, yet they could not damage that utterly ordinary palm in the slightest.
"I don't have time to play with you right now. Could you do me a favor and die?"
After saying that, pitch-black Magical Power poured out from behind Cid, swallowing Vritra in an instant like a wave.
Having dealt with Vritra, Cid turned toward Sherry, who was smiling as she stared at him from the ground. Then he suddenly frowned, reached inside his black coat, and after searching for a moment, pulled out a necklace.
The necklace Eta gave me… was it destroyed by that Evil Dragon's attack just now?
The thought flashed through Cid's mind, but he threw it aside in the blink of an eye. He had something more important to do now.
"Bang!!!"
A violent impact rang out from Cid's back. Feeling a strange sensation behind him, Cid turned his head and saw a massive black sword stabbing into his back, rotating as it attacked, only to shatter the instant it touched him.
"Boost, Boost, Boost…"
This sword… why does it feel so familiar?
As the thought crossed his mind, Cid looked toward the direction of the voice. A huge red Dragon was flying in the air, staring at him with the exact same gaze Vritra had used when attacking him earlier. The emerald gem in its chest kept flashing, but several rounds of enhancement only caused cracks to appear across the Red Dragon Emperor's body from overexertion. Nothing about him seemed to have strengthened at all.
So what exactly was he enhancing?
"Roar…"
A gigantic lion several hundred meters long, with strands of electricity crackling around its body, appeared out of thin air. Its bloody maw snapped toward Cid from the other side and swallowed him whole.
So he was enhancing this golden lion…!!!
Cid raised his hand and crushed the golden lion's body with his overwhelming Magical Power. Bathed in the sparks of starlight left behind as the golden lion was torn apart, Cid stood in midair, the eyes beneath his black mask looking at the Red Dragon Emperor with an eerie gaze.
Why is it you again, Kojou?
That familiar feeling appearing twice in a row had finally reminded Cid who the owners of those two abilities were.
"Pff…"
The destruction of the golden lion caused the Red Dragon Emperor before him to spit out a large mouthful of blood. With Boost interrupted, his body split apart completely and fell to the ground in pieces.
"…"
Watching the lifeless remains on the ground fuse back together at incredible speed, once again becoming that terrifying red Dragon at the height of its power, Cid could only sigh.
"The life force of a Primogenitor Vampire, huh!"
"Boost, Boost, Boost…"
Ignoring Cid's remark, the Red Dragon Emperor simply stared at him with a brutal, bloodthirsty gaze as the emerald gem on his chest flashed.
Following the flow of the Red Dragon Emperor's Magical Power, Cid looked up at the sky. At that moment, the air above Itogami Island was covered by more than a dozen black swords ten thousand meters long, each one carrying tremendous power.
As for the cost… it was probably just that the Red Dragon Emperor had been killed by that power a few times.
Cid looked at Sherry, then at the Red Dragon Emperor still strengthening himself on the ground, and let out a breath.
"I'll give Sherry a little time to calm down. But before that…"
Slowly raising his arm, pure and powerful black Magical Power surged out of Cid, forming a pitch-black sword of light that pierced through heaven and earth.
"Let's clean this up first."
As he said that, Cid turned his wrist. A black line cut across the sky, and in the next second…
"Boom!"
The dozen black swords, each ten thousand meters long, exploded one after another. The Magical Power blades vanished, and the powerful surge of Magical Power struck the whole of Itogami Island at once.
After dealing with the black swords in the sky, Cid appeared before the Red Dragon Emperor, who had been killed by the backlash once again and then revived once more.
"Roar…"
Before the revived Red Dragon Emperor could attack, a lion identical to the one he had used earlier, except with its entire body turned pitch black, charged forward and sent him flying with a single blow.
Standing coldly in place, Cid aimed one palm at Kojou Akatsuki. Behind him appeared a silver siren standing in the water, a magma phantom with bull horns, a two-headed dragon twisting space…
These were all Kojou Akatsuki's abilities. Do not ask why he knew them. Counting this time, this was already the third time. Three times. Three times… Even if he were stupid, he would have learned by now.
There was no need to wait for the opponent to show his full power anymore. Today, as a third-run player, he was going to speedrun the Fourth Primogenitor. After farming him three times already, what new tricks could there possibly be?
With that thought, Cid aimed at the Red Dragon Emperor flying wildly through the sky, made a finger-gun gesture, and the Beast Vassals behind him charged at the Red Dragon Emperor as well.