Chapter 5

Dragon vs Demon General, Ice Queen

-Victoria-

Ravaglia threw three fireballs at me. I created a water barrier, shielding myself from the attacks. All three were extinguished when they hit the barrier. But at the same time, Ravaglia charged towards me at a breath-taking speed. I dodged his right hook towards my head by ducking and swung my claws at him. He caught my claws with one hand. This guy, he's on par with my strength?

I released a water breath at him, which was a sharp pin-pointed jet of water, with the ability to cut anything in this path. But, he jumped backwards at the last second, barely avoiding my attack. The forest behind him was destroyed, leaving a long road in the dense pack of trees. His left leg was grazed. Ha, this should slow him down.

"Gagahahaha! You are more interesting than I thought!"

He then summoned two fireballs on his hands. Wait, they changed to swords? Also, white coloured?

"Time to get serious!"

He threw himself forward with the power of his kick in the ground. Nittoryu?

"Take this!"

I clashed his sword with my claws, however, my claws were cut off cleanly.

"GGGAAAAWWWRRR!!!!"

That hurts, dammit!

My claws had a burning sensation, as if fire was directly applied to it. I retreated back a few steps and flew into the sky.

"Hah? What are you gonna do now? It's useless you know?"

He threw one of the swords at me, hitting the base of my left wing. Itte, this burning sensation. I circled around him a bit and came with a nose dive towards Ravaglia. I generated a water barrier in front of me as I dived, creating a miniature meteor.

My barrier clashed against his twin fire swords. But, my barrier started to boil in mere seconds and quickly turned to vapour, removing my protection. Crap, If I don't change direction...

I turned my body in an awkward matter to avoid the twin swords. It sliced off my left wing and cut my left cheek. It hurts, but I have to endure this. I unleashed another water breath, but he jumped to my back before I could notice his movements.

"Now, die you dragon!”

He stabbed my back, the place where Nebula always sits.

"GGGGGGAAAAAAWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

IT REEALLY HURTS!!!!!

But, just as within my expectations. I unleashed my strongest attack.

Come forth! [Water Shredding Destruction]!

A burst of water appeared around me as thin, sharp blades, slicing and dicing everything around me. Of course, Nebula put up a water barrier when she noticed I was going to use this skill.

"Gaaaghh!"

Ravaglia groaned in pain. He had cuts all around his body.

"Not, yet!"

It was then that I felt my heart had burst.

Huh? What is this feeling? It's so hot.

I looked down to find a flame appearing from my chest. This...I am defeated?

"Hahaha, that'll teach you to mess with me."

Ravaglia jumped down from my back, shaking the ground. I looked at Nebula with the strength I could muster. She had tears falling from her eyes.

To her, I spoke the final words I thought of.

"I'm...sorry......Nebula........."

I tumbled down into a nearby lake, splashing the water everywhere. I let out my last breath, swallowing the lake's water.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Victoria died.

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-#-

"Vickie...san?"

Nebula was horrified at the scene shown to her. The fight against the demon general had ended in his victory. It was a reality that she couldn't accept.

When she saw Victoria tumbled into a roll and dropped into the lake, it was when she realised, she had lost everything. The one that picked her up, the one that took care of her, the one that trained her, the one that she admired, the one she loved, the one she would never leave from her side.

She, the one Nebula regarded as her mother, had died in front of her eyes.

Her mind started to cloud with confusion and had lost any sense of reason.

"Ah..ahh...ahhhhhhhh!"

Her mind finally broke and she dropped to the floor, holding her head with her hands.

"Now that that's over with, time to kill this little girl! Gagahahaha!"

Ravaglia looked towards Nebula with killing intent.

"...ver...give..."

"Huh? What's that Missy? You gotta speak up!"

"I'll never forgive you!!!"

A bright blue light shined around her.

"Wh-what is this!"

"You will pay, for killing Victoria!"

Ice Queen mode activated

A huge number of water balls appeared around Nebula and shaped themselves into spikes. The spikes slowly turned into ice, creating icicles. One by one, the icicles flew towards Ravaglia.

"Very interesting, young lady!"

He dodged almost all the icicles, but a few grazed his body, creating more wounds. Some ice froze the wounds on him, but he ignored it as he focused on Nebula.

"Gagahahaha! This is fun!"

Ravaglia sidestepped to Nebula's side and threw a left punch, but Nebula caught his fist with her hand.

"Wha..."

Water flowed from Nebula's right hand onto Ravaglia's left hand, covering his entire arm. And then...

His left arm turned to ice.

"YAAAOOWWW!!"

Ravaglia screamed in pain and reflectively retreated backwards. However, because Nebula was holding his fist with an iron grip, his left hand was torn off at the elbow.

"Ha..ha..ha..You sure are formidable, Missy."

"Shut up."

Nebula increased her grip strength, crushing Ravaglia's torn off arm into small bits.

"Oi oi oi, don't do that to my arm!"

"Why do you care if you are going to die anyway?"

She stared at Ravaglia with cold eyes.

"Hey ojou-chan, you are getting scary you know?"

Her face was ghastly pale like a ghost. Accompanied with her current face, she looked like a vengeful spirit.

"This is your end"

"What? Gagahahaha! What makes you say that!"

"I have no obligation to tell you. You want your arm back right? Here, have it back."

The shards of ice, which was previously Ravaglia's arm, shot towards him.

"Gufu!?"

The glass shards pierced through his body, like bullets through paper. But, the ice stayed in Ravaglia, freezing him from within.

"What..did..you..do!?"

Ravaglia was half in pain, and half wanting to know how did she attacked him.

"Since you are going to die, I'll tell you anyway. It's not like the secret of my attack will get exposed. I first sent icicles at you so that some ice from it will enter your body through the wounds. Then, I froze and broke your arm, which has your blood in it. Because everyone's blood is different, they can be distinguished, and thus I set the ice shards to return to their formal body. When the ice shards came into contact with you, the ice from the icicles on the outside and the glass shards on the inside came into contact. Thus, it will freeze your entire body altogether, oh, you have already frozen huh."

By the time Nebula's explanation was finished, Ravaglia had turned into a lump of ice.

Nebula walked away from him and looked at the remaining soldiers.

"Do you still want to continue?"

The demon soldiers ran away from the sight of an existence which would extinguish their lives when provoked. They will forever remember in their hearts to never mess with the Ice Queen.

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It's been a thousand years since I have been in this lake huh. Although I had died, my soul still lingers in this lake.

In this span of a thousand years, many things had happened to the lake I am currently in, mostly terrain changes. There grew a hill next to the pond and the grass was greener than before. Although I am only able to see what was going on around the lake, I was able to remember everything I saw. I remembered Nebula's battle with Ravaglia after I had died.

She turned from the cute girl I was fond with into a ruthless killing machine. What did I do wrong in her upbringing to make her become like this?

The main reason would be that she has grown too attached to me I guess. Due to my death, it must have caused her mental trauma for her to change her personality. I see, she must have done so to protect her weak heart.

But, in terms of power, she was overpowered. She defeated Ravaglia, which I was barely able to kill. She then chased off the other demon soldiers. Within a few minutes, the area around the lake has become empty with no sign of the enemy.

She came to the lake which I resided in, and reverted back to her original personality. I could not hear her voice, but she was crying non-stop.

I felt bad. I must have been an important existence for her.

I tried moving my soul towards her. Looks like I could only move within the vicinity of the lake. When I reached in front of her, I tried to communicate with her. Even if it was futile, I still tried to do so.

(Don't worry, Nebula. I will always be watching you from now on.)

As soon as I finished saying what I thought of as parting words, she wiped her face with her sleeves and walked away.

I hope that she would live happily.

Oh, she came back, holding a flower. She placed the flower in front of where I tumbled down, and prayed.

She has grown into a mature girl.

After her silent prayer, she left to the forest.

There was a glimmer, and from there, other girls appeared from it. Nebula went into the glimmer with the other three. They must be the other goddess-samas.

I wished her the best of luck in the war with the Demon King.

When the war ended, Nebula started to visit this lake once every ten years to give her prayers. This had touched my heart. I wouldn't mind if this had continued until she dies.

However, something unexpected happened.

The lake suddenly dried up in an instant overnight. I was shocked to see the waterless earth bowl, which was once the lake. I looked around to see what was the cause.

And at one of the lake's banks, was a small golden sapling. It's roots had grown into the lake, until the bottom.

Was it this tree's doing? I have never seen this species of tree before.

All of a sudden, I felt a similar feeling as when I was born.

"Hello? Soul-san?"

That was the beginning of how I met the future saviour of Ayashi.