"Holy shit this is amazing!" cried Haru as he saw first hand the experience of riding a dragon.
"It is isn't it," I replied
"I never thought you would get this far Daiki, tell me what the hell happened to you, how did you come back?"
"Many things Haru, many things… you will hear all about it once we are done with all of this"
"What do you mean done? You seem to have forgotten our deal, Daiki," said Haruna
"You promised to let me be, alone and freed from control, you have yet to keep that promise"
"I know, however, the demon king has a magic that can send us back home or did you forget?"
"AH!" she replied in shock
"So that magic is real?" asked Haru
"I guess it is, but something is telling me otherwise, it is like if this magic is too good to be true… but I don't know, I might be mistaken" I said in a bit of a dismissive manner.
"Well let's hope it is, after all, I grew tired of this word, much senseless killing and nothing to entertain myself with, no tv, no games, no mangas to read, and especially no fucking air conditioners… "
"You seem to be quite lax around the Herald, mister Haru," said the elven princess in a questioning tone
Once he turned around he had his mouth opened wide agape from shock.
"A-An elf!" he said
"Yes, she is…"
"And she is with you?"
"Yes."
"Can I touch her ears?"
"NO!" replied everyone in a single voice.
"Damn it…" said Haru.
"You seem to have lost some weight, were you working out?" asked Haruka
"Yes, you noticed?"
"Yes, you were a lot… rounder than what you look like… you must have leveled up quite a lot."
"Yes I did, and it was quite easy actually, the leveling up part, I had no will in all of it, my body was doing all the work and slaying all the monsters relying on my memories and knowledge of such designed world. I should probably be the highest leveled up person in here, after you probably, what is your level?"
"Am 1388, hmm it seems that I leveled up a bit after having killed the pontiff and the few knights in that war…I didn't pay it attention, Huh I even got a new title… The blasphemer…"
"Come again? I think I mistakenly heard you speaking about a level beyond one thousand."
"Yea…, 1388…"
"The hell man, you are god like if that was your level, I barely reached level 220…"
"Well, I am sorry to tell you that you are actually the weakest in this bunch then…" said Haruna.
"No… what are your levels?" Asked Haru.
Haruka spoke first.
"462."
Misaka followed
"395"
Then Haruna
"381 here…"
Out of desperation Haru turned around hoping that the elven princess would be lesser level than him but her answer was
"281…" followed by a silent "I am sorry."
"758 here," said the dragon as if adding salt to the wound. Haru then dropped and wallowed in self-pity
"Damn… How did you manage to get such high levels… and I thought that my speed was decent enough that I had managed to keep up with the Hero, I took me a year to get here with the constant slaying of monsters and doing missions… you must have done something great to have such high levels guys."
"Actually this only took two fights to get to this level… one day at most" said Haruna.
She seems to have become quite chatty today, probably have another one to speak with other than her enslaver was a breath of fresh air for her to release some pent-up frustration that was somehow aimed at me.
"Come again? Two fights? What did you guys fight to get to this high of a level?"
"Just your regular demons from hell and some over powered soul eaters, nothing much really," I said in a cynical manner.
"Your usual demons from hell… why do I feel like you are trying to mock my efforts…"
"Because I am," I said taunting the man a bit.
"And that armor? Can I see its characteristics? It looks nice"
"You should ask the girls for that," I replied the armor they were done is theirs now
Haru turned toward Haruka looking at her with puppy eyes, enough that she felt awkward and gave him the helmet she wore for him to see. Though I doubt he has the ability to inspect, he can still do so if he just touches an item for the first time.
"Holy fucking shit! The stats on this helmet is fucking awesome! And dragon slayer? How did you do that? I mean… we are riding one, shouldn't it be a bit pissed off after having killed one of its kin?"
"Euh… actually, it was made after having killed this very dragon…"
"come again? It is clearly still alive"
"He!" I corrected "And his name is Nemu. Dragons don't die, they are resurrected after having reached the end of their lives, like the phoenix from our world"
"Pheonix resurrect in your world Herald?"
"We don't have phoenixes in our world, they are only mentioned in tales and stories, hang on, there are phoenixes here?"
"Yes, there are, though the bastards are quite haughty and narcissistic by nature, they are truly strong, but once they die, they die for good… however, to kill one is the same as killing a god, they are strong beyond strength and would rarely fall in combat. Once a Phoenix dies, the world shall know of it…"
"Are they stronger than dragons?"
"NOTHING IS STRONGER THAN A DRAGON!" roared Nemu, as his pride was hurt.
"Except an undying Herald," added Miaka with a smirk on her face.
"I was not in my right mind, otherwise I would have easily won…" said the dragon, while sounding a bit embarrassed.
Moments later, we reached the borders of the demonic kingdom and into the capital, Nemu left us near the gates and headed out for some hunting. The dragon needed sustenance and some time alone.
"Wow, this looks big…" said Haru
"True, you should check out the library, it has many interesting books for you to read. I actually found many interesting titles I have in my inventory that you can read later." I said
"Sure thing, I would always welcome a good book, especially about magic… The wind and ice magic, it gets damn hot here sometimes…" said Haru, probably still reminiscing about the unavailability of air conditioning in this world.
"We will need to get to the palace first. Lilith should have some news for us about the magic to take us to our world."