"But today won't be the day you kill me."
"Oh? And why is that?"
"You see… I may be hated by certain gods who wish me dead, but there are also gods who protect me. As you should know, I have inherited five Arts. A god can pass down the secrets of their power to only one living being or cosmic entity; that's why they will do everything in their power to defend me. No one besides them knows who inherited their power. You came here hoping that I had no Arts at all, or that, if I did, it would belong to a god of little value. Considering that here on Earth your powers are extremely limited so you don't cause damage to the planet… even I could give you a bit of trouble. I'll give you just one warning: I possess five Arts, and therefore have five gods backing me. Do you really want to risk your life over something so trivial?"
Aurora tried to persuade Hastur to leave with that short speech. He had mixed in a bit of bluff here and there, but he didn't truly believe Hastur would take such a risk.
"Very well, you've convinced me. I'm leaving. Farewell, Demon King."
A massive wave of darkness rose around Hastur, swallowing him whole and making him vanish without a trace.
"Phew…" Aurora sighed. "That was close."
After landing on the ground, Aurora turned toward the dragon, which was still standing there, waiting for an order.
Ever since he was a child, he had always wanted a pet dragon.
"Your master is dead. Now you have two choices: the first is to submit to me and become my subordinate. After all, all the others are dead. The second choice is death. I'm sure your dragon scales would be very useful to me."
The dragon immediately rose in panic and lowered its head beneath Aurora's as a sign of submission.
"Very well, then. Since you're going to become my dragon, I'll have to give you a name. What do you think of Nebula?"
The dragon simply nodded, as if accepting.
Wanting to test his flying abilities, Aurora set off together with the dragon, beginning to move—or rather, to fly—toward his castle.
"W-wo-wo-wo, hold on a second!" Aurora said to Nebula. After a moment, they landed on the ground.
"Which direction is Velgrastede in?"
Aurora turned in several directions, trying to locate his castle, but saw nothing.
"Where the hell was I teleported to…?"
He then checked the system shop, hoping to find some magic or item that could help him locate his castle. After all, following the battle against Lyce, Aurora had received a full 10,000 Megin.
Apparently, one received an amount equal to 10% less of the total levels of the defeated enemy. Since Lyce had been level one hundred thousand, Aurora had gained ten thousand Megin. Considering that one level was equivalent to 10 Megin, he could only gain a thousand levels if he used them all—but that was still no small amount.
While browsing the system shop, Aurora noticed that he hadn't eaten yet.
"I wonder if I even need food to survive," he thought.
He decided he wouldn't eat again until he actually felt hungry.
"Ah, found it!" Aurora exclaimed happily.
A map was being sold in the system shop for only 100 Megin.
"For everything I've bought so far, that seems incredibly cheap."
Without questioning it too much, Aurora bought the map.
"Alright, so we're only… 7,500 kilometers away?!"
Aurora stared in shock.
"Are you kidding me? That's practically the distance between Saint Petersburg and Tokyo!"
Still stunned, he also felt curious.
"I wonder how long it'll take me to reach the castle with my powers…"
"One hour!" Aurora exclaimed happily after arriving at Velgrastede.
"And you're certainly not slower than me, Nebula."
Aurora smiled and joked, while Nebula looked half-dead, as if pushing herself to cover that distance in such a short time had nearly killed her.
"Aurora?" Cleia said, half astonished and half confused.
"Welcome back."
After bowing, she continued, "May I ask who the dragon behind you is?"
"Huh? Oh, right. Since I've always wanted a dragon, and knowing that all my subordinates are dead except for you, I thought it'd be a good idea to bring home a new one."
Aurora gently pushed Cleia toward Nebula and introduced them.
"Nebula, this is Cleia. Cleia, this is Nebula. Good. Now that introductions are over… I'm off."
"Well, nice to meet you," Cleia said to Nebula.
In the meantime, the dragon had already collapsed onto the ground, fast asleep.
"Aurora looks completely fine after coming back… he really never gets tired, does he?" Cleia thought.