Platinum sword aura was the dragons' reverse scale.

Merlin had once told him that.

Platinum sword aura that resembled starlight. In all human history, only one person—Arthur—had ever wielded it. A thousand years ago, Arthur had used that aura to cut down countless devils and bring down dragon after dragon.

["I don't know whether he gained platinum sword aura because he drew Excalibur, or whether he could draw Excalibur because he had platinum sword aura. But which came first isn't important."]

What mattered was the nature of that platinum sword aura.

["Arthur's sword aura resisted Mystery."]

["That means it resisted things that defied the natural order."]

["Almost as though it were telling them to obey the rules of the world."]

The world's established rules. Things called the natural order, or providence.

["Witches, devils, dragons, fallen stars, the cursed things of the Abyss. Do you know what they have in common?"]

["They exist outside the natural order."]

["They cross, break, and twist established rules however they please. Their very existence is like cheating."]

["You see what I'm getting at now, don't you?"]

Arthur's sword aura punished those who disobeyed those rules, as though demanding obedience. Arthur cleaved through their Mystery, tore their scales apart, and made beings that did not bleed shed blood.

["Your sword aura is fundamentally different from Arthur's."]

["But it shares that quality."]

["You remember fighting that dark mage, don't you? You hadn't reached the Seeker rank yet... but you withstood a Masterpiece's Mystery and tore dark magic apart."]

Merlin had laughed as she said it.

["Then what about now, when you're a Seeker?"]

It was time to find out.

Najin poured his sword aura into the echo Roselin had created, unleashing the greatest output he could muster. The white star was still stronger within him, so pure white light burst forth first.

Gold followed it, mingling with the brilliant white flash. Together, they formed sword aura infinitely close to platinum. Ordinarily, he would have concealed it, but Najin had no room for that now.

His life was on the line. There was nowhere to flee, and stalling for time was not an option. Faced with an enemy he had to crush with everything he had, Najin revealed the full strength he had kept hidden.

A brilliant flash blazed forth.

Rumors that Najin wielded white and golden sword aura had already spread, so others might mistake the flash for a variation of those. But not Roselin Ascalo.

"Hah."

Roselin felt the sword aura riding her echo. It made half her soul scream. Her skin stung, and her heart pounded. The sharp, aching pain left her marveling.

This would definitely work.

A smile formed on her lips.

Roselin gritted her teeth and swung her twin swords. The reverberations spreading from her Masterpiece, Echo, took the form of a net. Following the sweep of her sword tips, that net of sword aura engulfed the dragon's wings.

EEEEEEEEEE!

Najin's and Roselin's sword aura clawed at the dragon's wings. Its scales disrupted the aura, but they were being shaved away faster than the aura could unravel.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!

The scales began to split.

『ROOOOOAR!』

The red dragon shrieked and beat its wings, tearing the net apart with a raging gust. The sword aura scattered. But Roselin's echo had already served its purpose.

It had split the scales to create footholds.

It had opened gaps into which they could drive their sword aura.

Braving the howling winds, the two clung to the dragon's wings. Humans were insignificant beside the dragon's enormous bulk. Yet the radiance on the blades in their hands allowed humans to hunt monsters while remaining human.

Roselin and Najin climbed onto opposite wings and began sprinting across the scales. They drove their swords between them and unleashed sword aura wherever they could.

EEEEEEEE!

Sword aura resembling a beast's fangs reverberated, while sword aura resembling a constellation blazed with flash after flash.

A dragon's wings were meant for flight. Because they had to generate wind and ride it, their membranes were not entirely covered in scales. The outer surfaces were armored, but the inner surfaces were not.

RIIIIIP!

Roselin and Najin relentlessly targeted those exposed areas, hacking and tearing the dragon's wings apart so it could not fly. Blood sprayed, and the wings grew ragged. Their plan was working...

But the red dragon did not simply stand by and watch.

Bending its long neck to look at its own wings, the red dragon opened its jaws wide. Fire swirled inside its mouth. Breath. To dislodge the humans clinging to it, the red dragon breathed fire onto itself.

The flames unleashed by the completed red dragon were closer to a blinding flash than ordinary fire. The fierce heat melted the surrounding stones into a shapeless mass and softened the ground.

Roselin and Najin kicked off its wings and withdrew the instant it opened its jaws, but they could not escape the heat. Soot coated their skin, and their melted flesh stuck to their clothes.

"This is insane. It's setting itself on fire?"

Roselin grumbled, coughing and choking as she struggled to breathe. Najin brushed the lingering embers off his clothes and looked ahead. The red dragon stood engulfed in flames.

Its wings were burning away.

The scales protected the rest of its body, but the wings Najin and Roselin had shredded could not withstand the flames. The red dragon had retaliated as though willing to sacrifice wings that would be torn apart anyway. Najin steadied his breathing.

The first step was complete.

They had torn its wings apart and robbed it of its mobility. The red dragon could no longer fly. What came next?

"You have to pierce its heart or sever its neck."

Najin nodded. To seal away an immortal dragon, they first had to kill it once. They had to strike its heart or neck and bring death to it as a living creature. Najin adjusted his grip on his sword.

"Whew..."

Najin had no way to withstand the dragon's attacks. Taking one head-on would only crush his bones, just as before. Yet dodging attacks that made full use of that enormous body was no easy task either.

If he only evaded, the distance between them would grow, and distance would favor the dragon. He had to evade and close in at the same time.

'It won't be easy.'

But it was not impossible. A method came to mind: the chain stake. With his sword in one hand and the chain spinning in the other, Najin began to run.

Roselin was charging toward the dragon from another direction, apparently with a method of her own.

They approached from opposite sides. Rather than intercept one of them, the red dragon chose to sweep them both away, spinning its body and lashing its tail like a whip.

That was the blow that had shattered Najin's bones. But he was not foolish enough to fall for the same trick twice. He kicked off the ground, leaped high, and hurled his chain. It wound around the dragon's tail.

TWANG!

The chain snapped taut, and Najin's body was dragged violently along as though hurled by some immense force. With the chain hooked around the dragon's tail, he swung with it like a stone in a sling.

The chain creaked. The arm holding it felt ready to tear apart. But Najin endured. His instincts told him this was the right approach.

He withstood the centrifugal force until it reached its peak, calculated his trajectory, and released the chain. Like a stone launched from a sling, Najin shot toward the red dragon.

WHOOOOOSH!

Cutting through the air, he reached the dragon at top speed and took his sword in a reverse grip.

THUNK!

Najin's sword sank into the red dragon's body.

Acceleration from centrifugal force. A strike carrying the weight of his hurled body. Platinum sword aura wrapped around his blade. Combined, they pierced the dragon's scales. But this was only the beginning.

Though the pain that had wracked his body upon landing still lingered, Najin forced himself to move. He twisted the embedded sword and ran along the red dragon's body.

His sword aura burned wildly, scattering flashes of light. Maximum output. Without a thought for what came afterward, Najin unleashed all his sword aura and swung. The attacks he poured forth, pushing his body beyond its limits, were clearly working.

RIIIIIP!

Scales split, and blood sprayed.

Knowing his attacks were working, Najin moved even more fiercely. He swung his sword as though to tear his own arms apart and ran across the dragon's scales, heedless of his broken ankle's screams. He did not even care that the heat lingering in the scales scorched his skin.

Najin immersed himself in the sword.

It was a state he had learned in his last battle against the witch.

His blood seethed, and his heart hammered. His vision narrowed until all he could see was what he had to cut and the sword he swung. Forgetting even to breathe, Najin wielded his blade in a trance.

In this state, Najin moved faster and more efficiently than usual. His blade cut deep into vital areas, and his sword aura gleamed with boundless sharpness.

"...! Na...jin!"

The dragon's scales split, and blood sprayed.

A mere human was tearing apart a dragon dozens of times his size. Every flash of white and golden sword aura sent blood spouting high into the sky.

"Hey, hey! ...!"

Najin's sword moved faster still. Before a single second had passed, he swung it ten times. From a distance, he almost looked like a ghost.

"Hey!"

A trance. Complete immersion in the sword.

Only a handful of swordsmen could attain that state. Swordsmen strove to reach it, yet Sword Masters who had achieved transcendence often warned against it.

Do not become intoxicated by the sword. It was a double-edged blade, with drawbacks as pronounced as its advantages.

Najin did not know that. So focused was he on the fact that his attacks could hurt the dragon, so intent on making it bleed, that he did not hear Merlin's voice. And so he noticed the change too late.

The dragon's scales were trembling. Since when? Perhaps for the past few seconds. In that instant, his concentration broke. Najin's eyes widened, and his field of vision opened abruptly. Merlin's voice echoed in his ears.

"Dodge! Get off it! Now!"

She had probably been shouting for several seconds. Najin moved, but by then it was already too late. The trembling scales shot toward him—dozens at once, each the size of a forearm.

THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!

The scales beneath his feet, where he would step next, where he could flee—scales in every direction shot upward. To Najin's eyes, the scene unfolded slowly. But there was no way to evade it. He was already too late.

If only immersion in the sword had not narrowed his vision.

If only he had listened to Merlin's voice.

If only he had noticed the warning signs—or at least had not broken his leg—he could have reacted to the attack.

THUNK.

The dragon's scales buried themselves in Najin's body.

It was human blood, not dragon blood, that sprayed into the air. Najin's vision turned red.

His body was hot. His vision was blurry.

A high-pitched ringing filled his ears. Only belatedly did Najin realize he had briefly lost consciousness. After pushing his body to its limits, he had suffered a critical wound, and his awareness had simply cut out.

Najin choked and coughed, retching up a mouthful of blood. Only after blinking several times did his vision slowly return. He realized he was lying face-down on the ground. But hadn't the dragon's scales impaled him?

"...finally...awake."

A voice rang in his ears.

Najin slowly raised his head. A man stood there with his back to him. His sight returned, followed belatedly by his hearing.

"You finally seem to be awake."

Richard Paulsen stood before Najin, his greatshield planted in the ground.

"Thank Roselin. The instant those scales pierced you, she threw you over here."

"... How long was I unconscious?"

"About three minutes."

Three minutes. It was not a long time, but it was not short either.

"Hah, haah..."

Breathing hard, Najin barely managed to lift himself upright. He opened his eyes and looked ahead. The red dragon was rampaging, and White Horn adventurers were charging toward it. Three White Horns, led by Roselin, were fighting the dragon.

He was sure it had only been him and Roselin.

At some point, the other White Horn adventurers had joined them.

"Watching you, I began to think it might be possible. I don't like fighting battles with slim odds, but with you two running wild like that, fleeing didn't feel quite right either."

Noticing Najin's gaze, Richard shrugged. He had stopped being a knight because he hated being bound by duty, but he was not so far gone that he would flee even after someone called him a 'gutless loser.'

Breathing hard, he pushed his greatshield forward.

Though made of rare metal, its edges had melted, as though it had blocked the dragon's Breath. Najin looked around. The ground had melted in a radiating pattern—everywhere except the spot where he had been lying.

'... He protected me?'

Roselin had thrown him here the moment the scales pierced him. Judging by the scene, the red dragon must then have breathed fire at him. And Richard must have been the one who protected him from that Breath.

"Thank you. I owe you my life."

"Don't mention it. I'm the one who should apologize for joining late. I spent too long debating whether to act."

Richard smiled bitterly, then looked back at Najin and asked,

"Can you move?"

"I think I can manage somehow."

Najin staggered to his feet.

"It's absurd to ask this of a wounded man, but it looks like you're probably the only one who can deal that dragon a fatal blow."

Richard pointed at the red dragon.

The White Horn adventurers were attacking relentlessly, but it had suffered no significant critical wounds. Its only injuries were those Najin had inflicted while on its back. Blood still streamed down from them.

"Will you go?"

"I have to. We need to kill that thing, don't we?"

"In that condition?"

"I can still swing my sword."

Najin raised his arm.

His fingers were broken, but his melted skin had stuck to the hilt, so holding the sword was no problem. Seeing his condition, Richard marveled at his tenacity.

"You're insane. Do you have a plan?"

A plan. Najin looked to the side.

Merlin was there, beside herself with worry.

"Y-you, you really..."

'I'm sorry.'

Looking close to tears, Merlin dragged a hand down her face and sighed in relief. Her fingertips were trembling. Of course they were—he had nearly died. Breathing hard, Najin brought a method to mind, almost as though asking Merlin's permission.

His thoughts flowed into Merlin.

Reading them, she glared at him.

Her eyes seemed to ask whether he was mad, whether he was out of his mind. But Merlin did not say those words. She merely exhaled and nodded. She, too, believed it was the only way out of this situation.

The measures they had prepared had fallen apart.

Conventional methods were impossible.

His body was already at its limit.

But Najin had one means of overturning all of that. And there was only one way to use it.

"There's one thing I have in mind."

Najin answered Richard's question and pointed at something.

Following his finger, Richard blinked. Then he frowned and asked again.

"You're out of your mind. Are you serious?"

"It's the surest strategy."

"People don't usually call suicide a strategy. It's madness. Who in the world would..."

"Don't you have to do what no one else in the world would do to accomplish a great feat?"

Richard let out a hollow laugh.