A battle between a young girl and a dragon.
Storms woven from dense magic power blasted toward the tiny girl.
It was a crude attack, nothing more than magic power lumped together. But because the amount of magic was so absurd, that crude attack rivaled a natural disaster.
[Kraaaahahaha!!!]
"..."
A storm dragon that fought with overwhelming violence.
In contrast, the girl danced lightly through the gaps between the storms.
Even one wrong step would have crushed her instantly, yet she kept pulling off that razor-thin balancing act with ease.
The girl's level of skill, built up through thousands, tens of thousands of regressions, had long since surpassed the dragon's vast reserves of magic.
And then came the girl's counterattack.
"[Absolute Severance]."
The Unique Skill [Absolute Severance].
A skill with cutting power worthy of the name [Absolute]. Combined with the girl's sword strike, it transformed into a slash that could cut through all things.
At the same time, that slash neatly carved through the dragon's outer hide.
[Ghk?! Not bad... but you are still no match for me!!!]
But a dragon was still a dragon.
It was far from a light wound, but dragonkind were the exception.
As if proving that their status as the highest class of spiritual lifeforms was no exaggeration, Veldora immediately manipulated magicules and regenerated the wound.
At the same time, his tail lashed out.
Fwhoooosh!!!
A massive tail strike, powerful enough to split even a mountain in one blow, crashed down over the girl's head.
"..."
But the girl remained calm.
She did not panic, and she did not dodge. She simply raised her sword without a word.
It was a very simple action, nothing more than lifting her right arm high into the air.
But that was enough.
Because the girl was a Hero. Because she bore the title of the strongest. Because she stood at the very peak of martial skill in the present age.
The dragon's tail was stopped, absurdly easily, by a single thin sword.
[...Oh? Quite the physical strength for a human...]
At that truly heroic sight, even the raging calamity let out a note of admiration.
"...If you're done, then it's my turn now."
The moment she finished speaking, the girl's figure vanished.
[Hm...? Where did you move to—ghk?!]
The girl had teleported onto the dragon's shoulder, and immediately unleashed a slash of [Absolute Severance].
Fired from point-blank range in the shape of a cross, the slash carved a wound far deeper than the one before.
Even so, the dragon endured the pain and the wound through sheer stubborn refusal to lose.
Watching that tenacious display, the girl adjusted her grip on her sword.
"...You're still far from done."
[......Fine, then. Show me what a Hero is, Storm Dragon!!]
**
Watching the fierce battle unfold like a natural disaster, I spoke without thinking.
"Wow... what a spectacle."
A girl swinging her sword as beautifully as a dancer, and a dragon weaving countless storms into a deadly performance.
A scene that looked like it belonged in myth unfolded right before my eyes.
This wasn't some Susanoo or tailed beast nonsense. Every single attack from Veldora and Chronoa carried enough destructive force to treat mountains like nothing.
'So this is [Catastrophe]-class... They're both monsters, and it still looks like they're holding back.'
Neither of them had even reached their prime yet, and still they were several times stronger than me, even though I already surpassed the level of a Demon Lord seed.
'Someday, I'll have to become that strong too... though right now it doesn't feel remotely possible.'
There had to be a reason Guy said it was possible, but honestly, I wasn't confident.
...Still.
'......Even so.'
[Kraaaahaha!!! Come at me harder, Hero!!]
"...You're loud."
I thought it might not be so bad to admire power like that.
'...Trying to reach that realm at least once does sound fun.'
The sky called [Catastrophe].
**
The battle between the Hero and the dragon, which had continued for hours, was slowly nearing its end.
[...Not yet... not yet!! I am the strongest Storm Dragon!!!]
With Veldora's roar, a breath attack filled with violent flames and storms shot high into the sky.
"No. It's time to end this."
The girl—Hinata, borrowing Chronoa's body—shattered the breath with a single basic downward slash, then drove the king of storms back instead.
To an outside observer, it looked as if a massive tempest had been swallowed up and torn apart by a tiny whirlwind.
By the Hero, that tiny whirlwind.
[Ghk... To push me, the Storm Dragon, this far...]
The pride he held as a True Dragon had cracked because of a single human who had stepped into the realm of a Demigod.
For Veldora, who had always believed without question that he alone was most worthy of being called the strongest, it was a deep humiliation.
"......"
But none of that mattered to the girl at all.
Because this battle was revenge from the future that lay hundreds of years ahead.
"—Goodbye. [Unlimited Imprisonment]."
Soon, the girl's sword pierced the ground, and from that ground surged a tidal wave of magic power.
[Damn it... just you wait!! When this prison disappears, I will win next time!! I am—the strongest—]
The dragon's final roar, still proclaiming himself the strongest until the very end, was never heard to completion.
An infinite prison shining in seven colors swallowed the storm completely.
A prison that would not vanish until its target was destroyed. For an immortal True Dragon, it was the worst prison imaginable.
...And it was also the marker that announced the end of this battle.
"...And with that—"
"Veldora goes quiet, the Jura Great Forest becomes ownerless land for the next several hundred years, and the original history stays unchanged too."
"......Since when were you here?"
Apparently she hadn't noticed my presence during the battle, because Hinata, controlling Chronoa's body, looked genuinely flustered.
"Hmm... a few hours ago?"
"......So you were here from the beginning of the fight."
"...Well, yeah?"
When I shrugged and said I was just too curious, Hinata's gaze turned ice-cold.
"(Staaare)"
Soon she was glaring at me like lasers might shoot from her eyes, but I calmly maintained a blank expression in return.
I hadn't really done anything wrong.
"......Hah, fine."
Well, it did feel like her opinion of me had dropped even lower because of it...
...But what was I supposed to do? Anyone would have watched if they had the chance to see a fight this entertaining in person.
Though it was a little disappointing that I didn't have popcorn.
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