Looking at the dragon that appeared out of nowhere, Zephyr slightly wondered what was currently going on when he was just fighting with Eliazar.
"Yo! It's been a while, how have you been?"
Zephyr offered a light greeting.
(You're awfully calm even in this situation.)
Hyrkan murmured as Zephyr's face didn't even change and remained emotionless even he was wondering what is happening. Noticing the first words that Hyrkan spoke after their reunion, Zephyr replies.
"Well, to be honest I'm surprised..."
(But your expression doesn't say so.)
Hyrkan interrupted Zephyr before he could he could finish speaking.
(Fufuhahaha! Hoho, I'm just joking. It's really been a while my BFF!)
Hyrkan then burst out in laughter. Looking at the excited Hyrkan, Zephyr thought he was quite an airhead but immediately dismissed it in his mind.
(You might be wondering where we currently are so let me tell you.)
Without making Zephyr ask the question, Hyrkan voluntarily stated as he wanted to give his friend an idea on where he was currently at.
"Okay."
Zephyr nodded as he listened to him.
(Kuahahaha! This place is inside your consciousness.)
"Consciousness?"
Zephyr was intrigued hearing the term 'your consciousness' inside a virtual game.
(Yes your consciousness! Do you remember when you devoured me with the help of the Soulstone of Gluttony?)
Hyrkan then explained to Zephyr in detail after he was devoured. After being stored inside the [Stomach] together with the barrier, as the Soulstones were bounded to Zephyr, Hyrkan was able to stay inside his consciousness.
However, as the barrier was still not fully digested by the [Predation] of the Soulstone of Gluttony, Hyrkan was unable to contact Zephyr even he was connected with him through the Aetherius Dragon Slaying Sword as he designated his Alter Ego in there.
Listening to Hyrkan, Zephyr calmly stated his conclusion if he understand the situation correctly.
"So for short, because of the barrier you are still restricted however things have changed when a demon has entered here allowing you to weaken the influence of the barrier and speed up the [Predation]."
"Because of the acceleration of the [Predation] it resulted to weaken the barrier. Due to the weakend barrier, you can now partially contact me which you were unable to do before?"
(Kufuahahahaha! As expected of my BFF! Nobody can really contend with your intelligence!)
"Hey-old geezer. Where did that confidence of yours came from?"
Zephyr wondered why Hyrkan sounded so confident in his intelligence when it has not been so long they had met.
(Kuafuhahaha! The thing is, I was bored so I decided to read and analyze your memories!)
Hyrkan said to Zephyr with a smug look on his face. Zephyr on the other hand became confused as he wondered how was that possible for a Super NPC like Hyrkan to read and know the memories of a player when this is all just a game.
"Tsundere-dragon, did you really read my memories? I mean...how did you do it?"
Zephyr tried to ask Hyrkan for him to have a certain conclusion as if Hyrkan really did it, Zephyr was impressed to the tech of Atlas Corps on how they were able to do it.
(I am not a tsundere!)
Hyrkan immediately rebuke Zephyr. Zephyr became interested how Hyrkan was able to know the meaning of Tsundere when he knows it was not a common term in Tensura however he didn't pursue the matter.
(Fufukuhahaha! ! ! I could say that no one other than me knows you any better.)
"So?"
Seeing how smug and confident Hyrkan is, he decided to just listen. However instead of hearing the reasons, all Zephyr heard was Hyrkan flexing himself.
(Kuahahaha! Who do you think I am? Such thing is very simple to I! The strongest dragon! ! ! Fufuhahaha! Such a simple thing is not hard at all.)
Seeing that it was treated as a trivial thing by the self proclaimed strongest dragon, Zephyr decided to ignore the matter and leave it as an incomprehensible game logic.
(Well your childhood is very interesting though. I've seen what you have achieved in the facility called Pandora. You truly are an extraordinary child.)
(Now your just over 17 years old, but your ability is definitely abnormal. Even the adults in your world and in this world can't match you in anything. Even among the gods, dragons and any other transcendents in Tensura, you're out of reach for them.)
With a very proud expression, Hyrkan continued.
(However the best thing among your memories were not those! Fufu...It was no other than those masterpieces called games, anime, manga, manwha, manhua ang light novels. I'm very satisfied with how creative the humans in your world is.)
Seeing how excited and satisfied Hyrkan is, Zephyr casually asked something.
"If you have truly read my memories, are you aware that this is just a game?"
Hyrkan immediately became silent for a while then replied.
(Does that really matters?)
'Oh, interesting.'
Seeing the confused Hyrkan, Zephyr became interested as he expected Hyrkan to became enrage about it as far as he knows from the novels he had read before, NPCs who became self aware that they were just in a world of entertainment for the humans would be enrage about this.
Those NPCs would do anything they could to escape the game world or sometimes ruin the players as much as they could but Hyrkan was not showing any of those.
(I don't really care if this world is just a game because...it make's things more interesting.)
Hyrkan grinned after saying those not bothered at all even knowing he was just an entity created by a data or more in fact, he was simply treating this world in a genre called 'Isekai!'
Reading the memories of Zephyr, he had became a cultured otaku dragon after analyzing his BFF's memories related to those.
"Oh? Could you tell me your reasons were?"
Hyrkan the gazed at Zephyr. After a while, he sighed as he knows that this was one of his characteristics to pursue things that interested him.
(Fufufu! It's simple, who would want to live in that boring world unlike this world full of wonders and infinite possibilities?)
"Makes sense."
Zephyr nodded and didn't argue about it as he himself truly found the real world very boring. Now he didn't found it strange why Hyrkan wasn't bothered at all.
Seeing that Zephyr was satisfied with his replies, Hyrkan then changed the topic.
(Well you're truly a reckless one. Challenging a demi-god when your just a tier 2 is really unheard of before. Not like I dislike it though.)
Now that Zephyr think of it, he immediately remembered that he still had a fight to attend of. Before Zephyr could Zephyr could say something, Hyrkan immediately spoke.
(Don't worry, I had froze the time in the entire world before I pulled you hear in your consciousness. Even the Nephilims who had the power of time and space would not be able to resist it.)
Hearing that, Zephyr now had glimpsed about the fractions of the power of the so called 'Strongest Dragon' as all his Time Magic skills were not effective against Eliazar yet Hyrkan was confidently saying not even him were immune to the frozen time casted by Hyrkan.
'Now that I think about this, what element does Hyrkan have?'
All dragons have a fixed set of racial skills which already make them extremely strong. This includes [Absolute Defense] and [Dragon Breath]. They also can have an elemental specialization, which allows them to dominate and release skills of that element. The element is directly tied to a dragon's color.
Seeing the color in the scales of Hyrkan, he wondered if Hyrkan's element is related to time but didn't asked and just waited for Hyrkan himself to confirm his element.
"So? what do you think about my fight?"
Zephyr asked a random question to Hyrkan.
(Fufuhahaha! It's more than just amazing. The surprises in his face when you did something unexpected was a sight to behold!)
(However, you might end up losing at this rate.)
Zephyr tilted his head in confusion as far as he know, a Tier 5 is still an insignificant for Hyrkan when he previously called many Tier 6 entities as just so-so.
To say that he might lose, Zephyr wondered how he was able to say that. He then remembered that he was just a Tier 2 and there was a massive gap against a Tier 5. Now it made sense why Hyrkan was saying he was bound to lose.
"Don't worry, I'll win."
However, even with this all, he was confident to win this match against Eliazar. Seeing the confidence of Zephyr, Hyrkan smiled as this was the friend he knows.
(Knowing you, there might be a miracle you would win by using and utilizing all of your trump cards but the possibility is very low. So let me help you about this.)
Zephyr heard the eagerness and intense excitement in Hyrkan voice.
"Interesting. How will you able to do that?"
Zephyr became interested on what Hyrkan wanted to do when he was still trapped inside the barrier and should be unable to do anything at all.
As if knowing what Zephyr was thinking, his loud laughter was then heard.
(Fufukuhahaha! Did you remember that we are bound in an equal contract?)
Zephyr then remembered that it was still sealed until he would reach Tier 4 as knew it was balance breaking that could ruin the game.
(Even it was sealed by the Law of Casuality, because of the weakened barrier, I can partially release the seal on it and you would be connected to me.)
Zephyr didn't spoke and interrupt him from speaking as he remained silent.
(Well if based in history, there was no Dragon Contractor before so I don't know what the contract can do but I had an idea because of a certain anime in your memories.)
Hyrkan then paused for a while as Zephyr could sense that he was trembling with excitement.
(Fufuhahaha! Maybe we could even do the Jinchuriki stuff. Fufufu...I could lend you my power to make you stronger...How fantastic is that! Kuhahaha!)
'That may be a good idea.'
Zephyr thought as he also found it interesting.
"Now that you said it like that, probably I wanted to test this too."
Seeing Zephyr didn't deny his idea, Hyrkan was very satisfied for coming up with a brilliant idea.
(Kuahahaja! I am amazing, perfect and genius!)
Emmersing with his joy, Hyrkan immediately said with enthusiasm.
(Now let's put this into test!)
"Hmmm, now?"
Seeing Zephyr's confusion, Hyrkan casually replied.
(Hehehe...Don't worry my BFF, we could still communicate with each other even you would leave your consciousness as I had awaken my Ego in the Aetherius Dragon Slaying Sword.)
(What matters now was for me to lend my power and imitate what's in the anime.)
"I see."
Zephyr didn't bother to destroy the joy of Hyrkan and let him be.
(Now let's start! ! !)
With the loud shout of Hyrkan, a system prompt appeared in front of Zephyr.
[Due to the intervention of the Arcane Dragon, the seal of the title, 'Dragon Contractor' has been partially released.]
With that, Zephyr left his consciousness and saw the grinning Hyrkan in the last moment.
****
After regaining his consciousness, Zephyr immediately saw the incoming attack of Eliazar. Zephyr then calmly casted...
[Chronosphere]
A dome of voilet space-time appeared which frozed the attack incoming towards Zephyr along with Eliazar with it. Eliazar was surprised that he was frozen by Zephyr with the power of time that he should be able to resist.
'This is chronosphere? No wonder he was able to freeze me.'
Nephilims were an ancient transcendent race that was born between the primordial demons and angels.
The magic they used were entirely different from the magic the angels and demons. As a demi-god who had entirely lived his life controlling the power of time and space, he naturally knew what the skill [Chronosphere] could do.
Aside from trapping all units caught in its sphere of influence and causes the caster to move very quickly inside it. Only the caster of the skill and any units he controls are unaffected. However, he also knew the counter of this skill.
He was only surprised as he didn't expect for the human called Sword Saint to cast a skill that was related to time and the skill [Chronosphere] was also not easy to access to.
Regaining Eliazar's composure, Zephyr then heard a crackling sound and then his [Chronosphere] immediately broke into pieces. He was surprised as the skill he used for the first time immediately broke not even a second has passed but knowing a Tier 5 Nephilim was in front of him, Zephyr didn't dwell on it.
Without hesitation, Zephyr's aura that has both [Sage Art's] and [Hollow] combining with it immediately changed. Aetherius Set immediately appeared replacing the Leather Armor of Maximuf set.
Zephyr immediately felt the intense rise of his power but ignored it as he immediately casted...
[Dragonification].