Daichi and Ikari trot down the hill they stood atop, keeping a careful eye on Ryunosuke.
His body lays motionless on a slab of scorched rock, it's surface still emitting scalding hot steam.
"Are you sure he's not dead?" Daichi asks skeptically, "that spell Akane casted should've been rank 7 level's of power."
"It's faint but his mana is still there, he's not dead, yet." Ikari's eyebrows furrow, he notices Ryunosuke's right foot seem to twitch.
"He's alive, definitely." Upon hearing Ikari's serious tone, Daichi feels his chest tighten as he readies his wand.
They each take a final step at the edge of the rising steam, Daichi's voice dries up as he remarks, "uwaah... I can really feel the heat here, although it's probably only a fraction of how hot it is inside."
They both wipe beads of sweat off their foreheads using the wrists of their robes.
The grass around them has long since burned away, all that remains around the rubble is a wide white patch of ashes.
"Daichi, can you cover him with a dome?"
Daichi ponders for a moment, "it'll be harder but using the rubble, maybe." Ikari places a hand on his shoulder, "good enough, make it as thick as you can."
"Yes sir." Daichi says in a calm manner, his body lax.
'From what I've seen of his strength, it only seems to be strong when he builds up power.' Ikari keeps his eyes on Ryunosuke as Daichi closes his eyes.
'Even Akane couldn't kill him, our only option now is to put him somewhere tight, where he can't move.'
Ryunosuke continues to remain still as the rubble around him begins to deform and rise.
"Almost there..." Daichi's focus is abruptly interrupted by Ikari yelling beside him,
"MOVE."
He feels himself being shoved away as he opens his eyes.
Ryunosuke glides towards them, his arms horizontally stretched wide like a capital T.
Daichi falls to the ground, his right arm hitting its rough surface.
For an instant he recalls the same thing occuring during training back at the academy.
The only difference being his teacher wasn't out for their heads.
Ikari's face gets blown back into his skull as Ryunosuke's right hand smashes his head.
He grabs his face and they both go flying into the side of the hill behind Ikari.
Daichi feels a sharp stinging pain in his right shoulder when he tries to get up, causing him to fall forward before catching himself with his left hand.
'Where is he...!' Despite the constant sting, he frantically looks for Ikari, he soon notices the plume of dust expanding outwards from the hill behind them.
As the dust clears, Daichi's eyes go wide when he sees Ikari, still alive, with his forehead clutched in Ryunosuke's right hand.
Ryunosuke's voice changes, it becomes deep and twisted. "That hurt goddamit..."
Ikari's eyes are covered by his hand, all he sees is darkness, all he hears is a voice, one belonging to something grand but sinister.
"You'll all make it up to me by dying."
It's grip begins to tighten, slowly, and slower.
Ikari feels fragments of his skull cracking on all sides, his breathing hastens, quickly becoming desperate gasps for air.
'Stop!!' A voice resounds from deep within Ryunosuke's mind, it pounds on the rusty iron cage within.
He wasn't in control of his body, but this voice was his own.
Ryunosuke releases Ikari, or so he thinks was Ryunosuke. "Well that's surprising, this kid has more willpower than I expected."
Whoever is in control of Ryunosuke's body combs through his hair with his hand. "Usually they'd be in despair right now, not even knowing where they were, just what kind of life did you grow up with?"
Ikari slumps to the floor, his head bleeding and eyes still closed, 'what the hell is he talking about...?' He opens his eyes slightly and an eyelash pokes his face.
Inside Ryunosuke's mind, he speaks, "a hard one. Now I'm not sure who exactly you are, but could you let me out?"
"Not scared at all, are you?" The blurry entity appears before Ryunosuke within his own mind, it looms over him, casting a massive overarching shadow.
Ryunosuke takes a step back whilst turning upwards, he feels his right foot step on something hard.
"Oops, my bad." The entity shrinks down until it's face to face with Ryunosuke. "So? Who are you? Or should I be asking what are you? Although you seem like just some human to me."
"Haha..." Ryunosuke nervously laughs, although it comes out awkward.
Back in the outer world, Ikari lifts his head with great effort.
' ...! '
Ryunosuke's eyes have rolled back into his head, and behind him is Daichi limping towards them whilst holding his right shoulder.
"Don't... Come here..." Ikari takes a shallow breath, "Daichi...!" Blood spurts out from his mouth and leaks from his nose.
'I don't know why he's not moving but it's now or never!' Daichi raises his wand.
Meanwhile inside Ryunosuke's mind
"I'm huma-"
"Wrong answer."
"You should've lied, human. Then I might've considered sparing you for a while." The entity paces around Ryunosuke who's trapped in the rusty iron cage. "Then again." The entity pauses in his face and leans closer.
"I don't care who you are, what you are, or even why you are. You see, all I care about is having your body, teehee!" It mocks him, "your memories are most intriguing indeed, mmm." A hologram-like panel appears in front of the entity.
'Is that a tablet? Wait how am I thinking in my head, inside my own head?'
"This anime stuff kept me entertained for awhile after I awoke, I kinda liked 'Reincarnated in another world as a capybara, now I have to save the animal kingdom.' And those 'Nya~' Noises that the cats made."
"What in the world are you...?" Ryunosuke steps away from the entity, the iron cage begins to close in on him. "What do you mean? You've been standing on me this whole time."
"Huh?" Ryunosuke looks down at the white scale-like plates he stands on, he turns around and sees them stretch on endlessly, the sky and surrounding area are completely white. "What kind of liminal space is this?"
The entity closes the panel and sighs, "hah... You don't seem to comprehend where exactly you are."
"Then tell me, where am I?"
"Right now, you're surrounded by my physical body. From the earth's core to the sky and possibly beyond, I dunno I lost count hundreds of years ago."
"Excuse me?"
"The king of dragons, god, creator. People call me many things, now if I recall correctly, those indigenous monkeys summoned my core and I somehow wound up in your body."
The entity fades away as Ryunosuke hears a thunderous creaking from behind, "dragon?"
Ryunosuke feels a cold sweat run down his back and head, yet he hasn't even turned around.
A booming voice responds to him, "Ouroboros."
Pulling together the courage, Ryunosuke quickly turns his body around, but the overwhelming presence he'd felt was now gone as if it were never there.
He stares at the quiet empty space, the air itself begins to feel overwhelming, as if an invisible force is tightening a noose around his head.
Ryunosuke gulps before taking a deep breath.
Calmly, he turns back around.
Calmly...
A ginormous plain white eye stares at him, too large for him to even fully see, and much too horrible to comprehend.
It begins moving to the left, at least, Ryunosuke thinks it is. Flashes of individual scales the size of cities fly past his eyes in a blur, yet he feels no wind blowing, a mind numbing sensation wrap itself around his head.
Ryunosuke slams his eyes shut and falls to the floor on his rear. He covers his ears, trying to make some noise, any noise would work and so he screams but hears nothing.
Like a black hole closing in on its event horizon, Ryunosuke opens his eyes and there's nothing, just the same plain white scenery he'd seen when he first arrived.
Soon he begins to wonder, how long has he been here? An hour, maybe two?
Ouroboros hasn't spoken a word during that time, until...
"I'm impressed you're still sane, human." Ryunosuke feels a presence as Ouroboros manifests before him in his miniature form. Ryunosuke runs to the bars of the cage and grabs them, "what are you doing to me, its been hours!"
"Wrong again, you've been here for a year, not that I care." Ouroboros pulls out the tablet again.
"What do you mean by that?" Ryunosuke reflexively tightens his grip on the bars, his voice serious and concise.
Ouroboros pauses his scrolling, at the same time Ryunosuke feels a piercing gaze direct to him and he takes a deep breath, "sorry." He backs away from the bars.
Ouroboros starts to scroll the tablet again, "you're just experiencing time as I do. I'll be nice and tell you that you have nothing to worry about, since I've paused that world."
He sees something on a website and taps on it, "reptiles are cold-blooded?"
The tablet floats through the air and into the cage, stopping just in front of Ryunosuke's face.
"You seeing this? Doesn't that 'rattle tail snake' kind of look like me?" Ryunosuke tries to press on the tablet and his eyebrows raise when it works, he starts to read the writer's article on rattle tail snakes.
"Most reptiles are cold-blooded, aren't you?"
"No, I'm warm-blooded, I think." The tablet floats back to Ouroboros and Ryunosuke's arms fall limply to his sides. "While you were sitting there screaming at nothing, I read that warm-blooded animals shiver when they're cold, apparently rapid muscle movements can warm them up?"
"And the thing is, I'm constantly shivering you know? It's cold out here." Ryunosuke sits down, crosslegged, he starts to rock back and forth with his arms holding his legs.
Ryunosuke suddenly pops a question to Ouroboros, "when can I go back?"
"You could go back now, matter of fact you could've left whenever you wanted." Ouroboros answers, to Ryunosuke's surprise. "How? I don't see a door, portal, or anything."
"Well hold your horses, before you go there's something I need to explain to you." Ryunosuke's posture stiffens and he leans towards Ouroboros.
"When I was summoned, my core fell into a mostly empty pocket dimension, where you bumped into it." Ryunosuke's eyes widen, his eyebrows raise and he asks, "was it that white orb?" Though he is unsure of this.
"Yes and now my core along with your soul, are fused together. I guess that makes you a dragon-human monster hybrid, or something, teehee!"
"You know I think you need to stop watching so much anime."
"How hypocritical of you Kobayashi Ryunosuke, you should be grateful that I kinda like you, otherwise I would've made you rewatch alllll those times you were staring at a screen with anime on it." Ryunosuke shifts uncomfortably in his position.
"The way you yelled at the climax of every season and felt emotionally devastated at the end was entertaining though~ Maybe I will make you watch again."
"That's enough!" Ryunosuke stands up angrily, he feels a piercing gaze fall upon him again, "sorry."
"No need to get so upset over a joke, looks like someone's a drama queen."
Ryunosuke suppresses a bulging vein on his hand.
"It's also some payback for when you ignored me earlier, when I told you I was nice enough to pause time on that new world of yours." Upon hearing the news, he excitedly runs up to the bars, "I'm sorry, you were changing the topic too fast for me to keep up. Anyway, how do I go back?"
"You'll have to do something for me once you're back though, I might pull you back here if you don't." Ryunosuke kneels down and sits in the seiza position. "Anything you wish, mi'lord."
"Kill those four mages for me will you?"
Ryunosuke's enthusiastic demeanor fades away, he speaks shakily, "why?"
"Obviously, so that I can call you a hot-blooded killer! The usual description is cold-blooded killer right? I think it'd be fun to call you that!" Ouroboros puts away the tablet and turns to Ryunosuke for the first time, "you have my core, my power, it's only right to consider us two beings fused into one."
"Now go kill them. My hot-blooded friend."
"You'd do that much for me, won't you?"