Reincarnated as a Dragon's Egg
Chapter 442: Second Coming

Lilixira jumps into the hall, keeping her staff pointed at me. As she lands, she swings her staff.

“[Holy Spear].”

A spear of light shoots from her staff and closes in on me at high speed. Is dodging possible? No, that's too difficult.

Then I have no choice but to block. At the same time as I defend with my claws, I’ll shoot a [Wind Slash] at her! I spread my wings and swing my foreleg. The spear of light hits my claws.

Two of the digits of my foreleg are torn off and roll across the floor. However, I succeed in causing the spear of light to deviate from its trajectory, and it stabs into the wall behind me.

Enduring the pain, I flap my wings and send the wind produced down my arm towards Lilixira. I then twist my body and shoot a second [Wind Slash] in a different direction.

Just before the first blade of wind reaches Lilixira, a wall of light appears in front of her. The blade of wind seems to be sucked into the wall, and vanishes into ripples. No sooner as it disappears, as the blade of wind reappears from the surface of the wall, this time flying towards me.

At the last moment, my partner turns her face to the side to dodge the returning blade of wind. It tears off scales as it grazes past her, splattering blue blood.

That’s probably Lilixira’s skill, [Mirror Counter]. I’m already hard pressed enough as it is, and yet she still has skills I don’t know about.

Lilixira thins her eyes slightly as she looks at me, seemingly deep in thought as she touches her free hand to her mouth.

“…I was worried about unpredictable elements and stacked up layers of insurance, and yet it's one unexpected thing after another. It would be great if I was just overthinking it.”

Lilixira mutters. Did something go awry in her plans? If so, could there be some way in which I can take advantage of it…? But nothing comes to mind that could work in my favour. Damn it, I should have played along with God’s Voice a bit more to gain intel.

I hear a sudden angry shout.

“Guh! I-It got me…!”

Balear, who had been pointing his sword at Aro, is holding down his bleeding arm and glaring at me. His sword clangs against the ground a short distance away.

My second [Wind Slash] was aimed at Balear. It looks like he was unable to completely dodge it, and his arm was wounded as a result.

“A hostage is pointless in this situation. I should have killed her right away!”

Balear holds his empty hand up towards Aro. He must be capable of some sort of attack magic. Aro quickly gets to her feet and jumps backwards, distancing herself from Balear.

“Balear, leave it! Ignore the undead! She might be a lich, but she’s still nothing compared to that!”

Alphiss shouts. Balear stops and glances back at me.

“But, Alphiss-dono! The undead's going to escape!”

…As winning was impossible, my objective was to draw their attention and create an opportunity for Aro to escape. My struggles weren’t in vain. Aro is going to be able to get away.

『Aro, run! If you can, pick up the nightmare and magiatite-jii!』

Aro stops, and appears bewildered.

『Hurry up! As long as you’re here, I can’t run away!』

She jumps with a start. Looking at the ground as though to hide her face, she turns away.

…Sorry, Aro. If I didn’t say that, it didn’t seem like you would run without me. I’d like to apologise next time we meet, but that probably won't be possible.

Lilixira jumps in front of me… Is she trying to close the distance?

My ranged skills are only damaging enough for hunting small fry. If she wants to close the distance, then that suits me. If I’m lucky, I might be able to land a good hit on her and force her to retreat…

By the time I raise my foreleg up to strike, She is already holding her staff out.

“[Gravity].”

With Lilixira at the centre, a dome of black light expands. My body becomes heavy. I can’t raise my forefoot higher than my neck…

“Your body is already reaching its limits. You know that most of all, don’t you?”

…That's right. But I’ve at least allowed Aro to get away…

I focus my eyes on the edge of my field of vision. Alphiss and Balear are under the effects of [Gravity] and have fallen to their knees. Beyond them, Aro has fallen to the ground. I open my eyes wide.

『S-surely there’s no need for you to kill Aro! Your objective is the divine skills! I put my life on the line to deal with the Demon Lord! Surely you can spare that much mercy!』

Without saying anything in reply, Lilixira frowns and glances back slightly.

“I wanted to clean up before things got noisy…”

At the same time as Lilixira’s mutter, an armed group enters the hall. For a moment it seems to be just three, but then seven more follow them in.

There’s no unity to their armour or weapons. Some are wearing armour, while others are half-naked and carrying huge clubs on their backs.

“So the rumours that the Demon Lord was impersonating the princess were true!”

“L-let’s stop this… We won’t last even a second against such a huge dragon!”

“Don’t be so cowardly, it’s nearly dead! Besides, Saint-sama is holding it down. With this, I’ll be able to join the ranks of the champions!”

Are they adventurers the Demon Lord invited into the castle to feed on? Probably not. In the first place, that group should be too heavily injured to show up now. Probably, they’re adventurers who noticed that something was strange with the castle and grouped together to barge in.

Their statuses aren’t anything significant. They range from about E+ to about C-. But, their arrival makes it even harder for Aro to get away. What's even worse is that there should still be other adventurers and subordinates of Lilixira nearby who are cleaning up the remaining slimes.

“…It’s dangerous, so please fall back. Your help is unneeded.”

Lilixira holds up her staff, and a black light gathers in front of it. It’s the gravity magic, [Gravidon]. If that hits me directly with my current status, I’ll die for sure.

…Very well, bring it on. Because her focus has shifted to [Gravidon], the restraint of the [Gravity] has grown weaker. I'll block with my wings and do everything I can do to divert it away. Then I’ll struggle desperately to bite her…!

“Ubuh…”

Suddenly, Lilixira’s body shakes, and she staggers with a hand over her mouth. The swollen light of [Gravidon] quickly shrinks and disappears. The [Gravity] also weakens.

Wh-what is it?

“Seraphim…?”

Lilixira mutters, her face stiff with unconcealed surprise.

…I don’t understand it, but this a chance. While I can, I’ll nail her with a good hit!

“GuuoOOOOOh!”

I leap straight toward her and swing my foreleg down.

She jumps back and swings her staff. Two spears of light fly towards me. I slam my foreleg into the ground to hasten my landing. The two spears stab into the ground just in front of me.

“Lilixira-sama, what has happened!?”

“I’ll explain later. First we need to end this.”

Upon seeing me freed from the [Gravity], the onlooking adventurers turn pale and scatter.

“Th-the dragon can still move!”

“Stay put! I-I’m going to become a champion!”

I see the arrow as it is fired, but as dodging would create an opening for Lilixira to exploit, I purposefully allow it to hit me. It sticks into my belly where my scales had been shaved off by the Saint’s magic. D-damn it, it did a fair amount of damage.

“See, my arrow hit! It was my arrow!”

…Don’t panic. It’s not a huge amount of damage. I've no choice but to leave it.

Suddenly, huge tremors run through the area. The collapse of the underground chamber must be reaching this floor, too. In front of my eyes, a huge fissure open up. The floor around me crumbles away.

As I kick off the floor to jump backwards, Lilixira unfalteringly jumps after me in pursuit. She keeps her staff pointed towards my chest.

I moved carelessly. But the result would have been the same if I allowed myself to be caught by the collapse and was skewered by her spears of light. This is as far as I go, then… As I prepare myself for death, the fissure in the floor suddenly widens, and something wells up from the centre.

The thing that appears between me and Lilixira is a fluid mass of shifting iridescent light in the shape of a dragon.

“Wh-why, how has this happened…”

Her face stiff, Lilixira swings her staff. Her spear of light stabs into the monster’s chest, appears to be swallowed by the monster’s brilliant iridescent light and vanish.

The monster’s eyeless head faces her. While jumping backwards, she swings her staff. A wall of light materialises around her. Its the skill she used to reflect my [Wind Slash], [Mirror Counter].

“OOoo, OOO…”

A strange sound leaks from the monster’s mouth. Right next to Lilixira, a sphere of the same iridescent light as the monster appears. The next instant, her [Mirror Counter] shatters.

“Ah…”

At the same time as I hear Lilixira’s murmur, my vision is consumed by light and a huge shock impacts my body.