When Layla heard the dragon's answer, she sighed and pressured him with her aura. Fafnir frowned as he bore the intimidation. "Why?"
"Because you're too dangerous to be left alone," Layla replied and her aura was then imbued with her power over emotions. "And the dragon you talked about is the man I fell for, so do you really think I will let you go so easily?" As she said that, Karma, who was behind, made a smug face and Jorga whistled and would've clapped if he had hands.
"Also, you dared to call me strange girl," when she added that, both Jorga and Karma stiffened.
Meanwhile, Fafnir's confusion spiked. "This is the Goddess of Worldly Emotions' power… Is that why I can't seem to get angry at you even when you spoke to me like that…?" He mumbled and glared at Layla. "Just what are you? You're using the power of a Goddess but you aren't one."
"You appear to be half-human and half-god, but you're not a child from the union of both since those kinds of children don't have divine mana… I cannot understand," Fafnir straightened his body and squinted his eyes as if he wanted to dissect Layla with them. "Your entire existence is a mystery."
Layla smiled and tapped Deva's back with her feet a few times. Fafnir blinked and when his eyelids were lifted again, what he saw was Layla's rapier trying to stab his eye. His mind panicked as he didn't expect that. Layla's aura had calmed him against his will and lowered his attention without him noticing.
He immediately reacted and shifted his head to the side as he deviated the blade of the rapier with telekinesis by merely staring at it. He managed to avoid having one of his eyes plucked out but Layla didn't let him go so easily. She fired with rapier and spun with the recoil and punched Fafnir's temple with the momentum. Fafnir didn't think much of that strike before it actually landed.
His entire body was lighter in space and it pushed him back for quite a distance. His mind blanked for a second as he felt the pain rising to his brain. He gritted his teeth and flapped his wings to retreat and used his tail to strike Layla. But she was swift in transforming into a small dragon of light. She dodged the tail and retreated as well.
'What was that?' Fafnir was shocked. It's not like they were fighting a hard battle already but he was honestly astounded. 'Even if we're in space, the rebound and equivalence of masses still apply. How the hell did she push me back without even moving? How strong is her body?'
His surprise was justified. It wasn't a matter of life force level or overall strength. Layla's physique was just way smaller than Fafnir's and it would be normally impossible for her to push back a creature as big as him. And even if you have enough strength to do so, it should still have some repercussions.
For example, back when Arima fought with Errastas, he managed to block a single palm from the giant with the sacrifice of both of his arms. That simply meant that their physical weight, strength, and resistance were worlds apart.
This time too, it should've been the case. Layla and Fafnir were both technically at the Third Divine and had essentially the same advantages. But Fafnir was a dragon, one of the strongest races in the world.
"There's only one explanation," Fafnir muttered as he stared at Layla. "You're not human anymore. I'm not talking about those paltry scales and wings. You turned into a higher species," he declared and Layla scowled.
"Magic power, life force, enchantments, theory… all of these are different for everyone and don't concern race or species. But the body is a different story. It's something you get at birth."
"Humans, Gods, Therianthropes, Ranians, Jelorians, Kiarions… any of these races cannot keep up with my body. And it's something you can't change no matter what. You can strengthen your body but it won't become stronger than what it is capable of without consequences."
"We dragons are not only bigger; our muscles can hold much more power than humanoid species," Fafnir snorted. "Your muscles have mutated. If there's a silver line to how much you can change before being considered as a different race, you already crossed it."
What he said was completely true. The world is not fair and every living being in it has different abilities and some are more blessed than others.
Physically, humans are one of the lowest while dragons are the highest. For example, if Arima had done what Layla just did in his human form, he would've most likely lost his arm, even if he was resonating with Night.
The only exception was the 'Kind Demon' form and the 'Final Resonance'. Arima managed to attain those two transformations as if it was in his DNA. With them, he can surpass humans and dragons alike. But for Layla, it was something way different.
"You've become an even bigger mystery. Although I have mutated myself, it was because I was cursed and it only actually happened after I merged with draconic essence," Fafnir smirked and said. "What could create something like you? From what I can see, I've concluded that something or someone acted on your genes and soul to create you."
Layla's expression twitched. "I guess I'm right then," Fafnir nodded. "That's an important thing to know actually. Now," he paused and stared daggers at her. "I know that I have to kill you today. Your power may become unreachable for me in the future."
He uttered and disappeared from his spot as a golden light flashed. Layla's eyes narrowed and flew away to the right to evade the dragon claw that suddenly emerged from nowhere.
"You dodged, huh?" Fafnir's voice resounded and before Layla could even register what happened, he was already back to his original position. "The Unblinking Eyes? Indeed. A troublesome technique, as always."
The dragon casually remarked while Layla was having cold sweats. She had managed to predict that attack but she couldn't even understand how it happened.
"…What was that?" Karma asked as she watched from afar. Deva had retreated even more since the fight began.
"It wasn't teleportation, nor was it near-instantaneous displacement or fast movement," Jorga muttered. "This was far more complex than that… it was at the level of a-"
"A Manifestation," Fafnir heard Jorga and finished the sentence for him. "You see, when I was still a simple dwarf, I specialized in stealing," he laughed. "I'm a confirmed robber and assassin. This is my passive Manifestation, 'Lone Bridge'. I can 'appear' behind anyone. There are no signs, magic fluctuations or time delay, the only way to counter it is by looking at the future or obstruct it head-on."
When they heard the word 'passive', Jorga, Karma, and Layla shuddered at what it meant.
Fafnir grinned. "You can only use one of them and you can just dodge but the other is impossible for you. Now that I know about your strength, you won't take me by surprise again," he said and vanished one more time.
Before Layla could react, a golden tail had already hit her flank which she barely managed to shield with her rapier. This time, she was the one to be pushed back, but in contrast, she flew away like a cannonball and even took more time to stop because of the lack of air resistance.
She deployed her wings and, without losing time, pressed the trigger of her rapier to turn around and dodge Fafnir's claw that had suddenly appeared. Fafnir was now in front of her, preparing a fire breath.
Layla didn't have the time to chant so she used her sigil to the maximum. She had an idea that might work. She understood that Fafnir wasn't using the space-time dimension to move. But he was still using it to manifest in this world. It was obvious. Fafnir's Manifestation basically could create a path out of the space-time surface and reappear somewhere else.
Lanya's sigil glowed on her hand and cast two magic in one. The first one exploded into a giant light ball. It radiated with great energy that would atomize most matter if it touched it. Fafnir didn't even blink and used his displacement again to get away.
But when he saw where he had reappeared, his eyes narrowed in shock and he roared as fire burst out of his mouth to consume the devastating light around him. Just after, a silver light flashed and Layla's rapier managed to pierce Fafnir's eye.
The golden dragon's voice thundered again and he used his wings and tail to create a powerful wind that pushed back Lanya. He then finished destroying the light magic with his fire. He gritted his teeth and locked on Lanya with his remaining eye.
He tried to use his Manifestation again but emerged somewhere else once again, at the perfect spot for Layla to attack him. He scoffed and parried Layla's sword with his tail but still had to get rid of the light arrows that fell from above just after.
His crimson eyes contracted and a golden aura consumed the arrows as his aura was unleashed to another level. Layla was taken off guard by the sudden increase in pressure and froze.
"I'll admit that I may have underestimated you a little too much," Fafnir spoke as his eye finished healing. His golden scales started becoming even shinier and his aura was continuously rising.
"That was an interesting strategy. You didn't try to hinder my Manifestation since you couldn't affect it. So, you thought of disturbing it," Fafnir said. "To be exact, you focused on controlling the place where I would appear."
"That's indeed possible. I may teleport without the space-time layer but I get back to it no matter what. In theory, if you 'catch' the place where I'll appear with Space magic and then displace it, it will change my destination," he explained.
"I see now. That's incredible," Jorga immediately understood and praised Layla for her tactic.
"But how did she know where he would appear?" Karma was a bit confused.
"Have you already forgot? She saw it," Jorga responded and Karma exclaimed in realization.
"A strategy that only someone who can see the future can use," Fafnir snorted. "Interesting. But now, I'm slightly mad. I won't go easy on you anymore. If you have a Manifestation, use it now because you won't have the opportunity to do so later," he declared and the dark blue color of outer space turned golden as if it was put behind a filter.
"I have many treasures," Fafnir said and Layla's draconic eyes trembled. The golden salamander smirked. "You saw it, didn't you?" He uttered and deployed his large wings. "[Open]."
Golden lights instantly shined behind him and continued to grow in number. They also seemed to change shape at the same time. Fafnir laughed, "[Vault of Greed]."