It may go without saying at this point, but among the weapons Rinie keeps in storage, there are—naturally—more than a few troublesome oddities.
They are powerful items, yet their consumption of magical power is so severe that they cannot be used recklessly, weapons reserved only for decisive moments.
The most infamous example would be the counterfeit-and-modified weapon known as "False: Divine Chronicle Shatterblade Schwer Volke II," itself based on the sword that once shattered mountains in the mythic age, the "Divine Chronicle Shatterblade Schwer Volke." This imitation was created by analyzing and replicating degraded remnants left behind in a dungeon's treasury, then repeatedly modifying them until the weapon became barely manageable. Compared to the original, it was nothing more than a crude knockoff—but being derived from a mythic blade, its destructive power was nonetheless formidable.
Yet among her stored armaments, there existed something even more problematic.
By definition, it was armor—but due to its structure, one could scarcely even say whether it deserved to be called armor at all.
There exists a plant-type monster known as the Chaos Flower.
It is a creature that uses curses to put all humans in the surrounding area to sleep, drains their magical energy as nourishment, and ultimately kills those humans once they have been depleted.
One defining trait of this plant-type monster is that it can sometimes crossbreed with indigenous plants of the land, giving rise to subspecies. As a result, Chaos Flower variants with many different characteristics are born—and among them, there are individuals that possess extraordinarily powerful defensive capabilities.
For example, depending on the plant it merges with, a Chaos Flower may be born that manipulates leaves with mirror-like properties, reflecting magical attacks outright.
And in the mythic age, there once existed a Chaos Flower that crossed with an utterly incomprehensible plant—one that was both botanical in nature and a spiritual entity.
The subspecies born from this union also became a spiritual existence: it lacked a physical body and instead possessed leaves of light, like a barrier itself, while retaining the mirror-like reflective properties of the previously described subspecies.
In short, during the mythic age, there existed a truly absurd Chaos Flower variant.
And just as absurd was the thinking of the humans who once captured that monster.
They arrived at the idea of using the leaves of that outrageous Chaos Flower subspecies to create a shield.
However, monsters disperse into particles of magical power once slain. To use them as materials, they would have to be captured alive and processed as such.
Thus, they processed the core of the captured Chaos Flower subspecies while it was still alive, stripping away all instincts except its defensive instinct to protect itself with its leaves against approaching attacks. That core was then embedded into a bronze shield. The leaves connected to the core were folded and hidden inside the shield, and when danger approached, seven leaves would emerge, overlapping in a tomoe-like pattern to form a massive shield of light.
This barrier-type divine artifact, born from the mad ingenuity of humans in the mythic age, was none other than "Roar Chaos, the Leaf Mirror of the Retributive Demon Flower."
Labyrinth dungeons are truly incorrigible things. Even the remnants of such a shield had remained in their treasure vaults—and what's more, the core of the Chaos Flower subspecies embedded within it was still alive.
Regardless of its origins, if it was armor made by human hands, then even if its form was far removed from that of a "sword," it was not impossible to imitate—given sufficient time and effort. That Rinie herself was not human but a demon, a kindred monster, surely played a part in making this possible.
Thus, if the "False: Divine Chronicle Shatterblade" was the strongest spear Rinie could wield, then "Roar Chaos, the Leaf Mirror of the Retributive Demon Flower" was without question the greatest shield at her disposal.
『■■■■■■■■■■ッッッッ!!!!!???』
The dragon's scream echoed throughout the city.
The seven overlapping leaves of light scattered and reflected the dragon's heat ray without leaving even a fragment unreturned.
During the battle with Solitaire, it had been a hastily constructed imitation, unable to fully repel the attack and destroyed as a result.
But this time, it was a reflection barrier Rinie had replicated with every last syllable of chanting she could muster—an imitation that was as close to perfect as possible.
The scattered heat rays rained down one after another upon the dragon's exposed flesh.
Had its scales not already been torn away, the dragon might still have been able to stand. It might even have endured without screaming.
But after having its scales shattered repeatedly by Rinie, only to be struck by its own full-powered heat ray reflected back at it—even a dragon could not withstand that.
The shield of "Roar Chaos, the Leaf Mirror of the Retributive Demon Flower" mercilessly, relentlessly bathed the dragon in retributive light.
「■■■ッ,■■■ッ,■■■ッ─────!!!!!」
Its muscles scorched directly, the dragon continued to scream even after the shield of light vanished.
Anju, watching from the very front, and the people observing from behind, stared in stunned silence.
They had only been able to perceive the shield of light for a fleeting instant.
The one who had summoned it—Rinie—collapsed to one knee just behind Anju, gasping for breath.
「■,■■■ッ...」
The dragon glared at the kneeling Rinie one last time, then fell with a thunderous crash that shook the ground.
Anju—and the people behind her—remained frozen as a moment of silence passed.
And then—
「…U,」
Who had uttered that first sound, no one could say.
Soon, as if spreading contagiously, the heat began to swell.
『UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO———ッッ!!!!』
Cheers erupted all at once.
An uncontainable frenzy.
As if to say they cared nothing for the devastation around them, their fervent gazes fixed upon a single girl.
Unable to restrain themselves after witnessing the miracle before their eyes, the crowd rushed toward her in unison.
…Passing right by the other girl—the one who should have been the true hero—their feet carried them instead toward the girl in nun's robes who had been standing at the very front.
"That was amazing! Was that the Goddess's magic!?" "To reflect even a dragon's attack… as expected of Anju-chan…" "Big Sister Anju… so cool…!!"
Thanks to Rinie's scheme, the crowd mistakenly believed the radiant shield had been Anju's doing rather than Rinie's, and all their praise poured toward Anju.
All they had noticed was Anju reciting the familiar incantation of the Goddess's magic, exactly as Rinie had instructed. The quiet chanting Rinie had whispered behind her was something they could never have heard, and so they fully believed that it was Anju who had protected them.
"H-huh? No, everyone, that wasn't me… I don't understand what's going on…!"
Besieged by praise she had no memory of earning, Anju faltered in confusion.
But perceptive as she was, Anju quickly grasped the cause.
Rinie's earlier words—just deploy a decoy barrier; I'll handle the actual attack. And then, the incomprehensible chant spoken by Rinie that only Anju herself had heard, likely used to activate that shield of light.
…Understanding Rinie's intent, Anju could only clamp her mouth shut.
By now, Anju had more than enough experience to understand how abnormal Rinie's magic was. From an obviously insufficient amount of magical energy, she produced numerous treasure swords and demon blades brimming with power and mystery. The spell itself—the formula used to create the weapons—was no different from the magic any warrior-type demon could use to weave human weapons from magic. And yet, the results were far beyond what such a technique should ever be able to produce.
While not quite flight magic, even among demons this kind of magical output—produced through what was likely considered little more than basic magical manipulation—was clearly on an entirely different level. Anju had witnessed that abnormality firsthand many times.
From a human perspective, one might simply accept that demon magic was inherently outrageous. But from a demon's point of view, seeing something like this produced through a spell anyone could casually use would be utterly shocking—especially to the original creators, who would not take such imitation lightly.
And now, Rinie was disguised as a human in the city. Thanks to her small horns, she could hide them under a hood, but if humans were to witness magic so suspicious that even demons would find it unsettling, the risk of her true identity being exposed would skyrocket.
Fortunately, the shield of light had looked distinctly holy, making it easy to misidentify as the Goddess's magic—something Rinie had likely anticipated.
Even so—
(The Goddess's Three Spears would be one thing… but I've never heard of her being able to summon a shield like that…)
Anju had assumed that, no matter how much Rinie's magic violated the law of equivalent exchange, what she could produce would still be limited to "swords" or something akin to them. And then this happened. Who could have predicted she could create something so outrageous?
"She's a Saint!! Saint Anju is here!!" "The birth of our Saint!!" "Anju! Anju! Anju!"
"Ah—aha… ha ha ha…"
In the end, Anju swallowed her urge to shout that everyone was safe thanks not to her, but to Rinie, and could only respond with an awkward smile.
The fact that the one who truly deserved praise received none of it, while she—merely one of those protected—was showered with acclaim, hurt her heart more than her physical wounds ever could.
Yet she was alive because of Rinie.
And if Rinie had chosen to remain unnoticed while still protecting her and the townspeople, then this pain was something Anju had to accept.
—Still…
—Just for this moment, I can't help but resent you a little, Lady Rinie.
She knew it was a luxury to think so, given that she had been protected.
This praise should have been yours. And a title like "Saint" is far too heavy for someone like me…
"…"
Meanwhile, Rinie—the true contributor—let out a weary sigh and forced herself back to her feet.
That single imitation had consumed nearly half her magical power. The farther an item strayed from the "sword" attribute, the more magical energy her imitation required. Combined with the nature of the object itself, the consumption had been roughly three times the usual amount.
Thanks to the trait of "Roar Chaos, the Leaf Mirror of the Retributive Demon Flower"—reflecting all magical attacks—it had been possible to combine defense and counterattack, allowing the shield to remain deployed only briefly. But had the attack been a purely physical one rather than magic, she would have had no choice but to prolong the deployment and simply keep defending.
In that case, she would have lost most of her remaining magical power without any chance to counterattack, and total annihilation would have been inevitable.
In that sense, she had been saved by compatibility.
Staggering as she rose to her feet, Rinie turned around and looked toward Anju and the others.
The townspeople surrounded Anju, raising their voices in praise and excitement. Fortunately, despite their agitation, they seemed to understand the severity of Anju's injuries, as none of them recklessly tried to touch her.
Some had already broken away from the crowd to fetch emergency medical supplies, so judging that things would be fine for the moment, Rinie watched the scene quietly for a while.
『■■■ッ...』
"…!?"
After a brief pause, Rinie instinctively turned back toward the dragon.
There it was—silently, weakly, somehow managing to stand again.
Yet its condition could only be described as pitiful.
Many of its scales had been torn away, and the flesh beneath—burned by the magical attacks of Rinie and Anju, and finally by its own heat ray reflected back at it by Roar Chaos, the Leaf Mirror of the Retributive Demon Flower—had turned almost entirely black and charred.
Even so, the dragon managed to rise and beat its wings—
—then turned its back on Rinie and the others and flew away.
The townspeople, still in an uproar, failed to notice this.
When monsters die, they disperse into dust-like magical particles. Thus, even if a corpse were to vanish unnoticed, no one would think much of it.
But Rinie did.
"…I won't let you escape."
Murmuring those words, she leapt across rooftops and chased after the dragon.
She could not rest unless she made it pay for injuring Anju.
…
Rinie's fury was so consuming that she failed to notice another figure watching the entire sequence of events.
◇
The dragon had known from birth, by instinct, that it was an aberration.
From a single egg of the Crimson Mirror Dragon were born several hatchlings. Normally, the species was born with red scales—but among them, one was different: a being with deep indigo scales.
Among its siblings born and raised in the same nest, this indigo-scaled subspecies was immediately regarded as an outcast. Yet the dragon did not find this unreasonable.
Some dragon species form packs, but Crimson Mirror Dragons do not. Like demons, dragons are monsters, and the world they see is governed by survival of the fittest.
And this indigo-scaled Crimson Mirror Dragon demonstrated its aberrance not only in appearance, but in power as well.
Even powerful physical attacks capable of piercing the scales of other Crimson Mirror Dragons could not penetrate its indigo scales. Not the claws, nor even the flames of its kin could harm it. And what awaited those siblings who bared their fangs at it was not fire, but exchanges of heat rays capable of melting even the air itself.
Before long, none of its kin dared challenge it.
From the moment it was born, the subspecies had no natural enemies.
Bored, the dragon soon sought a new land, traveling southward from the central regions.
It was not particularly belligerent, nor did it crave new enemies—but it did desire stimulation.
It thought that settling in a new land might at least alleviate its boredom.
As expected, the new land held no natural enemies either. That was only natural. The dragon had never sought combat. While it assumed it stood atop the food chain, it had no intention of deliberately throwing itself into the hellish northern regions. Its potential was immense; had it gone north, it might even have competed for survival against Imperial Prison Dragons.
But such matters did not interest it.
All it wanted was to put down roots in a new landscape. At its core, that was all.
After some time, humans began to wage wars among themselves. Even so, the dragon showed no interest in human conflicts.
But one day, an elven witch who called herself Minus came to visit the dragon.
The witch presented the dragon with a single grimoire.
A grimoire is itself a material imbued with magical power, and thus held some value for a dragon that habitually used magic-infused objects as nesting materials.
But this clever subspecies did not stop there.
The dragon understood the contents of the grimoire—and mastered them.
The spell known as Zoltraak, the magic that kills humans, which was wreaking havoc in the wars of the southern nations.
Perceiving the dragon's intelligence, the witch smiled slyly and whispered to it:
—Become yet another cog in this endless cycle of war.
Leaving those words behind, the witch departed.
Whether that moment was the true catalyst, the dragon could not say.
Even after learning human magic, nothing changed as long as there were no enemies to wield it against. For a while, its days continued much as before.
But gradually, the dragon became curious about humans—creatures who devised spell formulas even a dragon like itself could understand, and who slaughtered one another with them.
Eventually, the dragon began attacking humans who trespassed into its territory.
Panicking, the humans retaliated with Zoltraak, but it could not penetrate the dragon's sturdy scales. Instead, they were reduced to ash by the dragon's Zoltraak, magnified many times over.
After that, the sounds of humans entering its territory once again disappeared.
Some time later, the dragon thought:
It had fought countless kin and monsters in survival contests, always standing at the top—but it had never truly fought humans.
It did not believe the few humans it had fought represented them all.
Recalling that there was a human city nearby, the dragon wanted to confirm something for itself.
—What is my position in this world?
Would it remain at the top of the food chain as it had in the central regions, or would that be overturned?
Fortunately, the humans of the southern lands were warlike. Perhaps becoming a cog in the machinery of war, as the witch had said, might be amusing.
And so, out of sheer boredom, the dragon attacked a human city.
There, it received a painful rebuke.
Its whimsical Zoltraak attacks were all evaded. Scales that had never once been damaged were torn away, and the flesh beneath was burned repeatedly.
And the one responsible was not human, but an intruder—something that had inexplicably blended into a human city. A being called a demon: something shaped like a human, yet not human.
Seeking human enemies, only to be grievously wounded by a monster merely resembling them, the dragon suffered its first blow to its pride.
So it decided to erase everything.
—and yet, even that final blow was reflected back by a suddenly appearing shield of light, forcing the dragon into retreat.
—What was that thing?
Its magical aura was clumsy and conspicuous, its appearance indistinguishable from any ordinary human-shaped monster.
And yet, the weapons it produced were utterly beyond reason.
Projectiles too fast to even perceive—their true nature swords. Those swords were fired like arrows again and again, shattering its scales and scorching the flesh beneath along with a nearby human.
And then there was that shield of light.
The dragon no longer understood anything.
But as it fled far from the city and drew closer to its nest, its head cooled, and it reached a realization.
—Ah. I was never reigning at the top.
Its pride as a dragon was deeply shaken by that truth, yet at the same time, another feeling welled up within its chest.
—But at last, I know my place.
There was relief in that realization. It felt as though it could finally live grounded in this world.
…It was while lost in those thoughts that it happened.
—What is that?
Flying overhead, the dragon looked down and saw a canyon below—wide enough that even its own massive body could fit within it.
That alone was nothing unusual.
But at the canyon's floor—and along its sides—the dragon saw countless swords embedded everywhere.
Ordinarily, it would not have paid such a sight any mind.
But the magical power contained within those swords dazzled its eyes.
—Ah. That's perfect.
The dragon descended into the canyon.
Even now, flying was barely possible. This was nothing like before, when merely showing itself was enough to drive monsters away.
Here, conveniently, was a vast supply of magic-infused material.
Planning to use them to expand its nest and recuperate for a while, the dragon reached for the many swords embedded in the canyon—
"Blinded by treasure, dragons and demons are all the same."
At that moment, a voice rang out.
"Ex Phantasma — the magic that turns mana into explosions."
The countless swords it had tried to claim shattered all at once, erupting into explosions.
「■■■■■■■ッッッーーーーーーー!!!!!!???」
As the sensation of its flesh burning beneath its scales overwhelmed it, the dragon screamed.
◇
Rinie had located the dragon's nest in advance, calculated its escape route, and set a trap in the canyon along that route.
It was a tactic she had often used in her days as an enforcer, when ambushing her own kind.
She would leave behind treasure swords attractive to demons, and when demons drawn by them approached, she would detonate the magic stored within the swords, wiping them out in one fell swoop.
The blade most often used for this tactic was Rinie's favored Dahha's Treasure Sword, but this time, her opponent was a dragon.
Against a foe with the habit of actively collecting magic-infused materials, even downgraded treasure swords would be enough to lure it in.
She had scattered crudely imitated treasure swords throughout the canyon floor and cliff faces, using them as bait.
And just as Rinie had intended, the dragon descended, dazzled by the swords—only to take their simultaneous explosions directly on its exposed flesh, its scales already torn away.
「■■■■■■■ッッッーーーーーーー!!!!!!???」
The dragon's scream echoed through the canyon.
She was already tired of hearing it.
The shock of the explosions sent the dragon's body collapsing once more.
It had already been barely able to fly. In that condition, being struck by explosions from all sides made this outcome inevitable.
As the dragon's body crumbled, debris shattered by the blasts rained down upon it.
…But this was not enough to satisfy Rinie.
As if she didn't care about the risk of being crushed herself, Rinie sprinted through the collapsing debris.
Her target was a single point—
the underside of the dragon's jaw, where its head would fall.
Spinning the haft of the already-imitated Whirling Strike Great Axe Belwind in both hands, charging it with mana through rotation, she leapt from falling rubble, threading through the narrow margins of survival as she ran toward the impact point.
Reaching directly beneath the dragon's jaw, Rinie slid the mana-charged blade of the Whirling Strike Great Axe Belwind upward—
True · Radiant Revolving Slash
She kicked the haft upward with all her strength, swinging the axe as if to drive it into the dragon's jaw.
It was one of the techniques of the warrior Eisen: Radiant Revolving Slash.
A one-hit kill technique driven by a fierce upward axe swing, further amplified by combining it with a kicking technique Rinie had once imitated from another warrior.
An improvised technique born from the fusion of imitation techniques—Rinie unleashed it upon the dragon without mercy.
And then, yet another tragedy befell the dragon.
The upward slash of the True · Radiant Revolving Slash—and the debris falling from above.
Struck by powerful impacts from both directions, the dragon's brain was violently shaken.
Yet the force of Rinie's attack proved slightly greater. The dragon's head was forced upward once more, and in that opening, Rinie quickly regained her footing and immediately disengaged.
「■■ッ...■■■ッ...」
So fast that it couldn't even raise a scream.
Crushed beneath the rubble, the dragon lay at the bottom of the ravine, its body unable to move an inch.
Even so, a faint, low growl still escaped it—proof of its terrifying vitality.
"Still alive?"
Standing atop the cliff overlooking the ravine, Rinie muttered in exasperation as she gazed down at the dragon, buried under debris yet clinging to life. A normal Crimson Mirror Dragon would have died dozens of times over by now.
Rinie's eyes, as she looked down upon it, were bottomlessly cold.
There was not a shred of pity in them—only the gaze one might cast upon expelled filth.
To Rinie, the very existence of the dragon had already become repulsive.
"Then I'll erase you."
As she spoke, her left hand held her beloved white Western bow.
And in her right hand… a sword wrapped in baleful, lightning-like magic emerged as if surfacing from the air itself.
"■■■!"
The moment the dragon sensed that ominous magic and looked up at the sword, its already immobile body stiffened even further.
That blade alone was on an entirely different level—its monster's instincts screamed the warning.
Even the sword that had shattered its scales again and again would pale in comparison before that.
A sword that once shattered mountains in the age of myth was now being replicated once more at Rinie's side.
"—Without leaving a trace."
Saying so, Rinie set the hilt of the demon sword against her bow.
As the string was drawn, the sword gradually twisted and thinned, eventually transforming into pure killing intent—an arrow.
Unlike with Solitaire, this time the target was massive.
And rather than firing into the sky, the shot would be driven downward into the earth. Its destructive power would be unleashed without restraint.
Just as magical power was about to be poured into the arrow—
"—That is enough."
A restraining voice spoke.
Before she realized it, an old man was standing behind Rinie, his calm command halting her hand.