It was just after the Duel, I was allowed to ask for what I wanted, so the queen came to the arena. I feel like I should have gone to meet her but… I wonder if this was how the dragons did it.
"Tell me, what do you want, you even spared my daughter…." It was easy. I had already decided what I wanted when I got the challenge from Fett. although I made a lot of bluff back then, but I never revealed my true intent to anyone.
"I want you to kill me." our voice was being amplified by magic, so our conversation was understandable to everyone in the arena. My answer was so out of the blue, it really silenced the arena like they saw a UFO…. I feel like I saw this type of expression on that jolly old man once.
"Y-you… want me to kill you?" the queen got herself composed first, I had to say many were still too shocked to even close their mouth, even Princess Stella… I could see her dropping to her knees just hearing my proposal, now wasn't she a kind girl?
"I want you to try to kill me. If I don't die, then everyone will know that I can't be killed by the strongest being in the world, so everyone will probably avoid any conflict with me, isn't it a great Idea?" as only the queen heard my reasoning, she looked flabbergasted.
I felt proud, like this, I won't have to fight the queen or be the strongest around. And everyone will avoid fighting me. Since the dragon queen can't even kill me, it would be futile. Ahhh… maybe dying all those times was useful.
[ku ku ku! I love this idea so much!!] Amanori was over the moon with my plan.
On the other hand, the princess practically held her head with her hand like she was trying to find some common ground here… well…. I am going to ignore her for now. Still the queen looked at me with a wry expression.
"Boy, I know you are strong…. Even the potential of you being stronger in the future stands… but you think you can survive a killing blow from me? Being able to fight my daughter without your sword is worthy enough, if you value your life, think again." she said it quite casually but it had an intense pressure to it… I felt the pressure of her words… she looked like she didn't like the way I wanted to do things. she wanted to bend my will and make me change my words.
"Think of it like this, as a reward, I want to see if her majesty can kill me, it would only cost you a day of rest at most, so please find in your heart to grant my request." I guess I needed to be a bit humble so I tried saying this…
.....
"Haaah!.... After hundreds of years…. I feel like I got into a mess I shouldn't have." the queen sighed while standing in the arena. Her golden long hair gracefully fluttered in the wind. Her attire was a battle uniform for dragons. And right now, I was feeling dominated as those golden eyes looked at me, they had a distinct wildness to them. As if I was the most troublesome existence to her, It was kind of overwhelming really…. Not her strength no….
To me who saw the old man and that goddess of love… those two were overwhelming, so the thing was, Like her daughter, she was someone breathtakingly beautiful and when a girl like that looks at you so daringly, any man would get a bit overwhelmed.
"Come on, I have a lot to do after this. And of course hit me with the strongest attack you can." I said to agitate her a bit. I mean she had to hit me with all she got or my planning would fail. Also I want to get away from this worldly beauty. My Leila and the others were enough for me.
"Yeah yeah, I know, you've shown your physical might… since my daughter wasn't able to kill you with a punch, so I will hit you with fire magic, how is that?"
"OOh… that is a good Idea, I won't dodge it, so attack me straight. Also, I would be using any and all I have to defend myself, unlike last time, I don't have to show that I am strong myself.``
As I said that, the Queen looked at me getting even more mad, did she think that I was underestimating her daughter all this time? But that wasn't the case, I had planned meticulously and even gauged her strength, speed and technique while we were fighting then I had taken action.
"Ugh… I hope you turn into dust..." Saying so, a great amount of heat started to form around the Queen's hand. The small ball of fire had so much mana concentrated in it that it's heat was even scorching the surrounding.
I looked at my clothes… they burnt out. I was glad that my pants were made of miasma and had magic nullification on it. This also shows just how peculiar Miasma is.
"Ooh… that is a great way to concentrate magic…."
{System has found a new subject. Now commencing to analyze.}
Whoa, you want to analyze? Even dragons?
{Answer: system has found a unique way to materialize and use mana from the Queen of Dragons. Analysis of the queen's body has finished. Adjusting the master's body to help with Spirit magic usage… caution, large changes may damage the body.}
Whoa.. the hell! I feel like it!...
My body got heated for a second and then I felt like it was going to burst from the sudden feeling of being under pressure. I felt like I was an egg in a microwave. The pain was overwhelming. As I suddenly dropped to my knees from not being able to stand up anymore, the queen still didn't falter.
But then a second later, it was normal again… I feel like something is different. At that moment, the queen released her attack. The ball was concentrated to a fist size but the heat had already turned the ground into molten lava. if the Arena wasn't covered in a barrier, then many victims would rise.
{System has found a great amount of mana. Does the master want to use it or store it?}
Eh? But I wanted to get hit by that….
{Acknowledged, the System will ignore the current attack.}
As that happened, the ball hit my gut. The sudden heat was suddenly gone. The queen looked at me with shocking eyes….. I am sure I activated Miasma to block it… but it just went inside me!
{Notice, the attack was formed to damage the master from the inside. As it happens, master has Amanori's Miasma inside master's body; it has automatically converted the attack to master's energy… Energy is being compressed, because of the adequate amount of energy being supplied, the body will continue evolving in a short while.}
"What did you do?" the queen asked, coming near me…. As I ignored the system to talk to the queen who looked at me like I was some unknown alien.
"It seems your attack was something that burned you from the inside…"
"Yes, it was pure fire spirit mana. It would roast from the inside. Fill you with overwhelming mana and heat you up to the core making you self-destruct..."
"Ugh… that is a hellish attack…. I am glad it was no use to me.." I heaved a sigh…
"But how can this happen?"
"Well you see, I have miasma inside me and Miasma is something that sucks any and all spirit energy out there…. If you would have attacked me head on, I mean on my outer body, it would have damaged it since I don't have miasma outside my body but my inside of the body is filled with miasma so the attack was ….. Sucked in I guess?"
Still the mana was huge! I feel my mana storage overflowing… and it already had the capacity to store Ridges full mana two times over. This queen had surpassed even the pillar spirits out there it seems…..
"But that was years worth of mana…. How can you just suck it up? Do you know what you just did? If you can control that amount of mana… then..." Now that was a big discovery, so she means she had a way to store up mana over time surpassing even her own mana capacity…
"I have a large capacity then I guess…. So that was your best?" ignoring the queen looking at me like I was someone's worst nightmare I said.
"Yeah, do you want me to hit you with a punch too!" Now the queen looked angry…
"Come on, don't be angry with me. This was a request you wanted to grant me. Moreover I sent you my best desserts too. Since I am still alive, you can have all you want."
"Ha ha.. Ha ha ha ha….. My attack was… nothing... I will commend your strength… boy I hope I never see you as my enemy." saying so the queen declared she couldn't kill me.
By physical might, the queen should have had the upper hand, since dragons were more hard to kill, their body held strength beyond any. But it seemed that the queen wanted to make this a magic oriented attack… since to the world, using magic to attack was the strongest attack known to everyone. Especially in dragon's cases.
But even she hadn't realized that I could control that much mana and just suck it in… she probably thought that even if the miasma sucks in that much mana, I would die of too much overdose. but doing that did get me into trouble…. As I looked up I felt myself getting hazy….
"Whoa… I thought I would hear some cheers at least?" The arena went quite like it was empty…
Trying to cope with my haziness, I started to talk. I just won, I better not show any weakness, standing firmly after taking her attack was the only way to show the world I was an irregular.
"Well think of it like this, they don't even know what to cheer for." as the queen said so and we got out of the arena together… I couldn't hold it in any longer, as if my body felt like it had been poisoned.
"Ugh…." I suddenly started to vomit blood. And fell unconscious...
...….
"Stella…. This human would probably surpass my strength in the future… who knew someone you choose would be like this…" as the queen said, she looked at Rekka.
His body had vomited so much blood that it felt as if all the blood in his body was gone. As he lay at a bed inside the castle he looked weak. his skin looked so pale, as if there really wasn't any blood inside him. but even so. the amount of mana inside him made the queen grimace...
After suddenly falling after exiting the arena, the queen had quickly brought him to the castle not letting anyone see what was happening. For someone who wanted to stand firmly in front of the world to prove a point, betting on his life not once but twice, the queen felt she should do at least this much.
"Mother… what happened to him…" Stella who sat beside the bed looked worried sick…
"He changed his body…. I didn't know he could do that… I would have advised him to at least be cautious… such a drastic change should not be done nonchalantly… now his body has rejected all the blood he has… so probably it is his blood that has changed properties… the next time he wakes up… I really might not be able to kill him…."
As the queen said that, she looked at Rekka with blood lust.. She wanted to kill this guy… It had taken her countless years for her to get to this level. Her body that had changed over thousands of years from countless training was fit to be called invincible.
But this guy being a human was only a child compared to that… still… he had only taken a taste of her power to suddenly gain a change enough to get her to doubt herself… The queen wanted to avoid future troubles and destroy this irregular who could reach her without even living a century…
"Mother! What are you doing!" as Stella said that feeling her mothers blood lust, the queen looked at Stella… her eyes were moist… Stella… She liked Rekka… she knew him for quite a while now… no matter how she got to know him, her daughter had suddenly gotten interested in the man a few months ago.
"He is a threat… if he acts out of order with his strength increasing… the world won't stand still." As the queen said that, she tried to attack Rekka without looking at Stella's concerns. Her daughter was naïve. She was sure that in the long future, there would be others she would come to like.
Just as the queen moved and attacked with her fist containing the same amount of mana as before, the fist went right through his chest, crushing his heart. the small amount of blood that still was inside his heart, burst out.
"Noo!" as Stella looked in horror at not being able to move fast enough to stop her mother, she dropped on her knees.
"Damn!... I was too late…" as the queen said that while she took out her bloody fist, Rekka laid there still full of life…. And again, the mana that was at the queen's hands were gone.. Sucked inside Rekka's body only to get him the energy that he needed.
"What?" Stella, who saw the wound getting fixed on his own, and then Rekka looking like he did just before the attack, didn't get at all what was happening. he regenerated his heart in a matter of seconds.
"He already reached that point… he probably doesn't need a heart to live… ha… to think his body only changed this morning…" as the queen said that, she slumped down on her chair… she was too late to kill this guy… only the future could tell what he was gonna do... now... only he could tell what he is gonna do to the future....
...
As I woke up from the slumber, I looked to my side to see my 3 maids were sleeping while slumped beside my bed. They looked like they really had been crying… those faces that always glowed with delight felt as if they had been crying for a long time.
{Body has Reached a new level of Spirit base.}
Was that why I lost consciousness?
{Masters blood has been changed. Body has reached a point where Amanori's miasma cannot do long lasting damage anymore.}
I see….
[You were out for quite a while]
I was?
"A month, Rekka, I am so glad you woke up!" As Ridge suddenly appeared from somewhere, she hugged me with great force.
"Did I worry you guys?" as I patted Ridge on the head, she kissed me in delight. she sucked on my lips, my lips felt dry compared to Ridge who had such luscious lips, maybe after a very long time, I took in something sweet, I don't know how long I hadn't drank anything, but I didn't hold back from sucking her lips...
"I knew that you weren't in danger, but it was still worrisome" as Ridge said that while barely holding back her tears, she finally let go of me, I felt that the maids were up. They looked at me while their eyes started letting out water like a fountain!
"Master!" oh yea… I was feeling it alright! This feels as if I came back from the dead…
"Sorry, you guys… don't cry, okay? I feel bad.. To see you guys like this." as I patted them too, they sobbed like kids… man… last I remember I coughed out blood while I felt as if I was dying from pain… I guess they had seen it…
"Master, I was so worried, you didn't wake up or moved, no matter how we slept around you, you never grabbed any of us, It felt as if you really were dead!" as Seri said that with droopy eyes, I felt as if that should be the case… one shouldn't grab onto things in his sleep after all.
After they all calmed down… I got word from the queen.
...
After all that hassle was done, I was summoned to the queen. It was hard to meet her but I guess she was too worried to leave me alone…
"You have increased my worries a lot." the queen said bluntly, the look on her face satisfied me, this was what I was going for, if she looked like this, then the world I wanted has finally been made. Maybe she only thought of me as someone troublesome but now after seeing what happened, she probably thinks of me as a real threat. She saw me change my body. I know that she thinks of me as trouble...
"Your majesty, I feel like my worries are gone though?" On the other hand, this is just what I wanted, if she thinks I am troublesome, she would avoid me and so will others. If the dragons avoided me to not get in trouble just who would have the balls to get involved with me then?
"I know that, looking at that happy face." she said looking even more irritated.
"OOh… sorry, since I was certain no other fool would try to mess with me, I was planning on going on a world tour you see?"
"Sigh…. You really are young… anyway, something changed in you before I attacked… what was it?"
"That was…. After experiencing your strength, I felt as if I could use magic like you too.." that was what brought most of the change, the other was that System had gotten a lot of info on making the body stronger after it analyzed the queen.
"You say that like it was so easy….. Listen, only spirits are supposed to do that… since my body already has half spirit properties, I can do that… but you…. How can you do that?"
"I… don't know actually…." the system did all that.. I can hardly explain. then again half spirit... he he... wasn't that related to what my body was too? the first modification that the system did to me... it seems the system took the most luxurious body transformation there was.
{System has let the body stay normal but the master's blood has been changed and now has spirit energy in it. As such, you are now half spirit with a mortal body. Making master's body into a semi-spiritual body would cease; masters need to copulate, eat and sleep, as such, this was the only way the System could power up master's body without losing such worldly desires..}
Can anyone else do that my dear system?
{Apart from the system a god should be able to do that easily.}
We are in the mortal realm you see? Anyway, thank you.
{The system appreciates the compliment}
Ooh? You changed your answer again… I like it! Appreciating your greatness is truly good!
"Now then…. Before I see any weird individual stick to you…."
"If you are trying to give me something, I want it dead or any other ingredients that I can use to eat."
"Tsk! Damn! You annoy me…." the queen slammed her hand on her throne as she clicked her tongue. the aura that she hit me with was overwhelming and it wasn't even her killing intent.
As she looked like she was in a dilemma, I felt all my worries vanish, no matter what happened from now on, I had earned a place in the world that could not be shaken anymore. And didn't even have to fight the queen for it. I just had to survive. as long as the queen stays supreme in this world, I can be worry free.
If this isn't called meticulous planning then I have no idea just what was. As I thought that my gramps would be so happy to see his grandson's accomplishments, I looked at the queen to see just what she wanted from me now. This conversation would tell the future if we are allied or not…