A man who looked to be around two meters tall.
His rugged, muscular body moved with explosive force.
With a shout, he threw a punch.
…And from that punch, a storm soon erupted.
Damn it, that muscle-head…!
It was a sudden attack.
The storm came crashing down on me without even giving me a chance to dodge.
To make matters worse—
Fwoooosh!
The approaching gust of wind turned red.
And then, enormous flames began to wrap around the storm.
The storm, now right in front of me, radiated scorching heat.
In an instant, the temperature inside the lair which I had thought felt rather dull soared dramatically.
There was no way to dodge it.
Then, could I at least block it?
I raised both aura and mana at the same time.
Without any time to hesitate, the burning, intense impact struck my raised arms as I put up my guard.
Kwaaang――!!
“Khuhk…!”
A groan escaped me at the shock that far exceeded my expectations.
My body that was swept away by the storm floated up and was hurled backward just like that.
I bounced across the floor like a skipping stone on water.
A stinging pain shot through me. Did my arm break?
Still, I guess he did hold back a little.
If he hadn’t, it probably wouldn’t have ended with just a broken arm.
Even so, the fact that this was the result only showed me just how vast the gap between our levels truly was.
…Haah. Damn this worthless body.
Right after the attack ended.
I didn’t let my guard down and kept my eyes fixed straight ahead.
The figure beyond the blazing flames left in the aftermath of his attack.
The test wasn’t over yet.
“Wow. To think you only ended up with that level of injury after taking a hit like that. Tougher than you look, aren’t you?”
His voice reached me from beyond the flames.
A huge black silhouette loomed over the fire.
And soon, that silhouette burst forward, tearing through the flames.
Tap.
It took him only an instant to close the distance and appear right in front of me.
The fiery will to fight burning across his face told me he was about to launch his second attack.
I still hadn’t gotten back on my feet.
He lifted one of his muscle-bound legs.
And I was right beneath that very foot.
What happened next was something anyone could easily predict.
His foot, suspended in midair, came crashing down on me like a bolt of lightning.
Boom—!
The ground shook from the force of his strike.
The floor of the lair, black all over, rippled from the impact.
And once again, because of the flames that erupted from his attack, the area around us was engulfed in a sea of fire.
“Huh…”
Tarhen tilted his head.
There was no sensation of a hit from the foot he had stomped down with.
There definitely shouldn’t have been any room for me to dodge.
“…How did you avoid that, Ain?”
“Whew… I seriously thought I was gonna die.”
The floor where he had stomped down. And the sea of fire nearby.
I was catching my breath from a distance, far away from them.
Perhaps to prepare for the next attack, he was staring intently in this direction.
That sight made me let out a hollow laugh.
To think I actually lost track of his movements for a moment.
By human standards, without a doubt—
My level was far inferior to his.
And yet, what on earth had that movement just now been?
“…This is amusing. Truly amusing!”
“I don’t find it amusing at all.”
As if things weren’t bad enough already, my condition had been at its worst lately.
Dodging that last attack had pushed me way past my limit.
…It would’ve been nice if he held back just a little more.
Still, I’m lucky I managed to endure.
In reality, that second attack had been my last real hurdle.
The final strike from the trial I had seen countless times in the game.
But that attack wouldn’t work on me.
“So, it’s the final move now, huh? It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen a trial, but someone like you… you’re especially interesting.”
“……”
Slowly.
He walked toward me, crossing through the sea of fire.
Flames flared up in his right hand.
At a glance, it looked like an ordinary small flame… but there was something distinctly unusual about it.
Within the burning red flame, I could sense an alien energy.
“You were called Ain, weren’t you? Do you know what this flame is?”
“…The Unquenchable Flame. One of Sir Ignis’s Authorities.”
“You know it well, don’t you? This will be the final attack. If you can withstand this and stay standing, I’ll let you pass beyond.”
Crazy bastard.
He might as well have just said he didn’t want to let me through.
Was it even reasonable to borrow his master’s Authority just to conduct a trial like this?
And yet, he told me to withstand that attack as if it were nothing.
How many times did I have to reset in the game because of that third attack?
The moment it hit, it was an instant-death move, no exceptions.
To overcome that attack, imbued with the Authority of the Fire Dragon, there was only one solution. That was to avoid the attack itself.
…But with my current condition, dodging is impossible.
Because of the recoil from dodging his second attack earlier, I could still feel pain pulsing from my heart.
Doing it twice was out of the question.
In the end, I had no choice but to take that attack head-on.
Fwoooosh—!
As expected, in the blink of an eye, he was right in front of me.
His flame-covered hand reached out and touched my face.
.
.
.
BOOOOM!!
It was the largest explosion of flames out of all his attacks so far.
It raged with the force of wanting to burn down everything it touched.
***
“…Huh. Well, I really didn’t see that coming. Are you sure you’re human?”
“I am human, so just hurry up and let me through already.”
“No, seriously. This doesn’t make any sense, you know? Sure, it’s weaker compared to my master, but that was still a real Authority!”
Tarhen stared at me with a blank, dumbfounded expression.
Feeling a small sense of satisfaction at that look on his face, I brushed myself off and stood up.
There were no flames left around me. Only blackened remnants remained.
Despite being called an Authority, his final attack had fizzled out rather quickly.
“And you didn’t even dodge it; you took it straight on. How are you still perfectly fine?”
“It’s just my constitution.”
“…What? Your constitution?”
“Yes.”
Authority was the power to impose one’s own laws upon the world.
It was a power typically reserved for those called gods.
Ordinary mortals struggled even to withstand a mere fragment of that power.
But there were exceptions.
Rare as they were, there existed a few among the dragonkin who also possessed Authority.
Authority was the power to create laws that interfered with the world.
The Authority known as the “Unquenchable Flame” was no different.
A flame that would continue to burn until its target died. Because it was a power engraved with that very law.
Anyone struck directly by an Authority had no choice but to be swept up by the law contained within it.
…However. The beings who were bound to obey those laws were only those who belonged to this world.
I am an outsider.
Because I was an outsider, I could defy fate.
I could ignore the laws of this world.
Naturally, Authorities grounded in those very laws had no effect on me.
That was also the reason I had been able to escape so easily from the temporary lair created by Lily’s Authority back then.
…Of course, this method wasn’t foolproof either.
This world was overflowing with dangers far too numerous to rely solely on this advantage.
Letting out a long sigh, I found myself once again reminded of my current pitiful state.
“What kind of ridiculous constitution blocks even an Authority…?”
“Enough grumbling already. I passed your test, so open the door for me.”
“…Tch. Fine. A promise is a promise.”
Once again, we stood before the enormous door.
When he pressed his hands against it, the tightly closed entrance slowly began to open.
Through the slowly widening gap of the huge door, light from beyond began to pour out.
It was distinctly different from any of the lairs I had seen so far.
Instead of black, the entire space beyond was dyed in a deep red.
The heat too was incomparable to anything I had felt before.
“This is the lair personally managed by master. There are treasures outside as well, but the things in here are far more valuable.”
“…Just looking at it, I can tell.”
Beyond the door stretched a single long path.
On either side of that path were items that were clearly on a whole different level from those in the outer lair.
…Should I grab a few and sell them? I did pass the test, after all.
Of course, passing the test didn’t mean I could just take whatever I wanted.
I suppressed my greed and walked on, using his back as a guide.
And before long, I saw it.
The end of the long path.
There, standing tall like an altar, was something that looked like a shrine.
At the very center of that altar sat something red.
“Oh, so that’s the Dragon Heart.”
“…Hey. I let you in since you passed the test, but what exactly do you plan to do with that heart?”
“…? I told you earlier.”
“And I’m supposed to believe that? Like you said, that heart is practically nothing more than an empty shell now. What could you possibly do to restore it?”
“You’ll understand once you see it for yourself.”
“I’m telling you now. If anything seems off, I’m stopping you immediately.”
“Understood.”
At last, the long-awaited moment had arrived.
As I stepped onto the altar, I immediately stood before the heart placed at its center.
It was faint and barely noticeable. But I could feel a weak pulse.
It’s really on the verge of dying.
Carefully, I lifted the Dragon Heart with both hands.
From behind me, I could feel Tarhen’s anxious gaze boring into my back.
Seriously, talk about pressure.
…Now, all that’s left—
—was to separate my own heart.
More precisely, a portion of the energy contained within my heart.
I had to extract it and infuse it into the Dragon Heart.
At present, this Dragon Heart was still linked to Ignis.
And because Ignis, its original link, was gone, the Dragon Heart had no means of replenishing its power source.
What I intended to do was redirect that link to myself.
It was pure madness.
The amount of energy the Dragon Heart consumed was insane.
After all, dragons possessed near-infinite magical power flowing from their hearts.
Up until now, Ignis had effortlessly supplied it with energy.
But for an ordinary human, the moment they linked with something like this—
—they’d probably have all their mana and aura drained dry by the heart and die on the spot.
Which was why, under normal circumstances, this method would never be an option.
In the game as well, this heart had only been a means to trigger the quest that led to meeting Lily.
There had been no way for playable characters to revive this heart.
…I never thought a day would come when I’d be grateful for the power contained in my own heart.
I let out a small chuckle and brought the Dragon Heart to my chest.
To establish a link, it had to be done from as close a distance as possible.
Thump.
Thump.
Now that I was holding it like this, I could feel the faint pulse of the Dragon Heart vividly.
But there was no time to get lost in sentiment.
I tore off a fragment of the power contained within my own heart.
And immediately pushed it into the Dragon Heart.
Wuuuuung—!
The two hearts resonated.
A powerful vibration echoed throughout the lair.
“You… crazy bastard…! Hey, you lunatic! Are you out of your mind?!”
The gatekeeper’s voice shouted from behind me.
But that voice gradually grew more distant.
It felt like my consciousness was slowly being sucked away somewhere else.
And just like that, I lost consciousness.
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