The Three Great Quests, the Black Dragon with the Single Eye.
It was a living disaster. An apocalypse in the shape of a dragon. The sole survivor of the Three Great Quests in the original timeline, and the monstrous tyrant that brought the final act of Dungeon Oratoria to its close.
The monster that should have remained coiled in a deep sleep deep within the Dragon Valley rose to its feet.
As if to punish the hero who had come to a standstill.
The Black Dragon's awakening. Merely that was enough to shake the entire world.
"Summon the adventurers!"
"Guildmaster! Complaints are flooding in!"
"There are too many people asking whether it's even safe to stay in the city! We need a clear answer from you, or this is going to be a problem!"
"How the hell should I know?! What the hell am I supposed to do about this, huh?!"
The Guild was overwhelmed with complaints, and the city was filling with unease and fear.
Some of the more anxious people were already thinking of leaving the city and relocating elsewhere. The troubling part was that such behavior was by no means an overreaction.
"Ha ha..."
At the center of that chaotic street, I stood alone, letting out a dry laugh.
"This wasn't supposed to happen in the original timeline."
In the canon version, the Black Dragon's battle began when Zeus Familia and Hera Familia joined forces and invaded the Dragon Valley.
Of course, I'd heard they were utterly annihilated after that... but that was just the fate of adventurers, so I'd let that part go.
"Why did the Black Dragon wake up all of a sudden?"
The fact that it had awakened was one problem, but the bigger issue was that its destination was Orario. A clear course, set with purpose.
If my guess was right, then the Black Dragon was probably aiming for...
"Me...?"
It might sound like I was being full of myself, but this wasn't arrogance. It was simply the conclusion I reached by following the facts.
The ancient covenant of the Dungeon and its final settlement. Because of my existence, that covenant had become meaningless at this point, and if that had brought the Black Dragon's awakening forward, then everything fit.
"This is bad..."
Even if I figured that much out, there was nothing I could do about it. No matter the reason, overwhelming force would simply sweep everything away in the end.
At this rate, Orario would be swallowed by the Black Dragon's black wind. Orario was far too fragile to endure that wind.
"Nothing ever goes right."
Was it my mistake to try to pursue ordinary happiness in a situation like this? With a hollow smile, I immediately ran toward Hera Familia.
I cut through the cold spring wind as I ran. It was already spring by the calendar, and yet the air was somehow colder than midwinter, making my body tremble as I headed for the place where the heroes had gathered.
The end is approaching. The end of every story.
As expected, when I arrived at Hera Familia, it was already in ruins.
"Gather the weapons!" "How many potions do we have left?!" "Collect every spare stock from the other Familias too! We'll deal with the aftermath later!"
A third battle had broken out without warning. And yet, perhaps because they were all veterans, no one looked panicked even as they rushed about.
They probably had confidence. They had killed Behemoth and Leviathan, so they must believe they could ride that momentum and kill the Black Dragon too.
They would think it would be hard, but not impossible. They must believe that without a doubt.
As someone who knew the ending, I couldn't bring myself to agree with them.
"Get all the weapons ready now! Even the spares..."
Hera-sama, who had come out of the mansion to direct the preparations, met my eyes. She froze for a moment, then quickly looked away and continued giving orders.
As if she had never seen me at all. Was Hera-sama planning to pretend she hadn't noticed me?
I could understand it. Everyone had something they would rather protect than their pride, even if it meant throwing that pride away. Gods were no different. They just had slightly different priorities.
I desperately wanted to run over to Hera-sama and speak to her right away, but it was obvious that if I approached now, she would make one excuse after another and refuse to talk to me.
For now, I had to wait until the preparations were finished. And once everything was over, Hera-sama would no longer be able to avoid my gaze.
The Black Dragon was an existence that held no small meaning for me, too.
Before the battle, and even after it.
Whenever people told stories of heroes, there was always a monster standing opposite them. The hero would slay the monster, save the people, and arrive at a happy ending.
That was a heroic tale. That was what a story was.
The Black Dragon was a monster that did not belong in such tales at all.
The monster that should have been defeated by a hero instead brought the hero down.
A monstrous strength that could move mountains, a fleetness faster than sound, a divine bow that pierced a thousand leagues, a swordmaster who could cut down anything, and all manner of one-man armies called heroes fell helplessly before the Black Dragon.
The sturdy shield that protected everyone, the giant greatsword that had taken countless monsters' lives, and the sharp spear that could pierce anything—all of them were useless.
The shield melted away. The greatsword bent without resistance. The spear snapped like a strip of dried candy.
Absurdity, irrationality, overwhelming mismatch.
A cheat so outrageous it felt forced. Ridiculously strong, ridiculously tough. A terrifying monster no one knew how to bring down.
The symbol of despair. A living apocalypse.
Every heroic tale with the Black Dragon in it ended the same way.
[Ah, how tragic, hero, to have died!]
No matter how many people gathered, no matter how many hopes they carried on their backs.
The Black Dragon's black wind swept everything away. Everything, without exception.
Ah, to be precise, not everything. I was still alive even after meeting the Black Dragon.
Truly, by some incredible stroke of luck. Or perhaps I should say by bad luck.
In any case, that was what the Black Dragon was. An inescapable end in the shape of a dragon.
Since ancient times, fear of it had been etched into the human bloodline.
No matter how brave one was, no matter how strong.
How easily the heart that had never broken before any monster shattered before the face of the end.
That was probably true for every hero. Which was why the Mercenary King was praised as the greatest hero.
The only one to land a meaningful blow on the Black Dragon. The man who proved, with his own life, that the Black Dragon was not invincible.
But that was an ancient story. The heroes of the divine age could not bring it down.
The black monster was the god's assassin.
Even my Black Dragon robe had the insane ability to evade a god's intuition, didn't it? Even if the heroes of the divine age were stronger than those of antiquity, before the Black Dragon that strength would only become poison.
"Then does that mean subjugating the Black Dragon is impossible?"
"That is..."
At Ouranos's residence, I was left speechless by the deputy's question as he sat on the throne.
I could neither confirm nor deny it, and all I could do was work my mouth uselessly.
Based on everything I had said so far, subjugating the Black Dragon was impossible. But...
"The situation has changed..."
In the previous round, Zeus Familia and Hera Familia had joined forces against the Black Dragon and been completely crushed, annihilated without resistance.
The order had been wrong. As long as the Dungeon's covenant remained, the Black Dragon could never be defeated. After the Mercenary King shattered the Black Dragon's eye and made that covenant, the Black Dragon gained immortality in exchange for not destroying the world.
Because they didn't know that, Zeus Familia and Hera Familia were utterly ravaged and wiped out.
But now?
Now that the settlement had been made, couldn't they bring the Black Dragon down?
"I don't know."
I wasn't certain. Thinking of them as I had seen them until now, I felt it might not be completely impossible.
They didn't seem like they would lose.
But they didn't seem like they would win either.
The covenant had been settled, but the one at the center of it, Ais, was in that condition.
And I, the one who had brought the settlement about, was hardly normal either.
A half-finished settlement... no, less than half.
It was obvious without even looking that the immortality was gone, but a power frighteningly close to it still remained within the Black Dragon.
"If Ais and I went..."
No. Ais would struggle just to endure the aftermath of the battle, and in my current state I couldn't use the same method as before.
To begin with, trying to take down the Black Dragon right now was absurd. It wasn't that we lacked strength; it was simply not the time that had been ordained.
The battle with the Black Dragon was supposed to happen more than ten years from now. But the Black Dragon, which should have still been asleep, had already risen and was heading for Orario.
Toward the land where the greatest number of heroes had gathered.
Because the hero race that should have taken place in the future, the race that would decide the final hero, was happening now.
And at the center of all these changes, I stood.
I had twisted everything.
"I..."
So the one who had to take responsibility would also be me.
"I'll handle this."
"Don't be ridiculous!"
"!!"
The moment I said that, the tightly shut door was kicked open and a new goddess appeared.
Hera-sama glared at me with a hysterical expression.
How long had she been there... no, more importantly, why had she come here?
She had looked as though she intended to avoid speaking to me at all.
"I couldn't see you, so I went looking for you... and you were spouting this nonsense?"
Apparently, she had no intention of talking to me, but not being able to see me had still made her uneasy.
She was more troublesome than I had imagined. I could almost understand why Grandpa had told me to be careful around yanderes.
"Nonsense...? I'm serious. I'll go—"
"Why the hell would you go there?!"
"Because I have to take responsibility..."
"What exactly are you taking responsibility for? What exactly do you think you can do?!"
"Ugh..."
"Only those who can actually bear responsibility are allowed to say things like that! You can't take responsibility for anything!"
The blade called language pierced deep into my heart.
Every word was right, so I couldn't refute it. Everything Hera-sama said was completely correct.
I couldn't take responsibility for this situation. I would just collapse without being able to do anything at all.
I hadn't tried it, but it was a fact I could know without trying.
And if someone like me could understand that much, then of course the gods could see it too.
"But... even so, I still have to take responsibility."
"What responsibility are you talking about?"
A cold voice rebuked me.
"The Black Dragon coming to Orario? Monsters like that act however they please; you can't predict them. Fighting the Black Dragon? That was what we were planning to do in the first place. Casualties in battle? The moment we picked up weapons, we all accepted that. There's nothing for you to take responsibility for!"
"B-but still..."
"I've just heard about the covenant, and I know the Black Dragon is heading here because of it."
"...Then—"
"Even so, it was something we were going to do anyway."
Hera-sama's voice grew calm. But I found her calm voice even more frightening than when she had been shouting in anger.
"What you did actually helped us. Besides, didn't it create even a sliver of possibility for something that should have been impossible?"
That was true enough, perhaps.
A battle that should have ended in annihilation. Now that the settlement had been made, even if only imperfectly, the odds of victory were no longer zero.
"But still..."
"You stay right here. That is what you need to do."
"I don't agree with Hera, but... I do agree that I want you to stay here as well."
"Ouranos-sama..."
"Don't look at me like that. I'm not as extreme as Hera."
"Who are you calling extreme, you rotten old man?"
"...In any case, if a battle with the Black Dragon is to be established, then it is because of your existence, is it not?"
"...Yes, for now."
Because I was the one at the center of the settlement, the effect of the covenant had faded a little.
That was why the Black Dragon, which should have been immortal, had lost that status.
And since I was the one who served as its basis, saying it that way was not wrong.
"Then if you die or disappear, no one knows what will happen to the covenant, do they?"
"...!"
"Indeed, that is true as well."
I strongly agreed with Ouranos-sama's words and Hera-sama's words.
I wanted to object, but no objection came out. My momentum was cut off by a flaw I had never considered.
Without missing that opening, Hera-sama pressed on.
"If the battle can only take place because you exist, then you absolutely must not leave this place."
"But if the one who made the covenant and the one who brought about the settlement are both absent, then the battle..."
"My children are not weak. There's nothing for you to worry about."
Her voice was firm. And what supported it was her boundless goodwill toward me.
"Bell. Do nothing and stay here."
And so, in the end, I was once again left unable to say anything.