Pluto claimed to know just the thing to help Alicia, then moved to summon something.
Sigh… gracious.
Wait.
What am I getting worked up for?
I'm supposed to be relieved she was dying anyway, right?
One less Pact to worry about.
…Ah, well.
I can't deny I'm glad she'll be fine.
It's strange, but I trust Pluto will save her.
I glanced at the young girl, subtly writhing in pain—and felt a sting in my chest.
Damn it.
You better fight on, Alicia!
After Pluto's summoning, a lad stepped out from the black mist behind him.
"Good morning, Uncle Pluto."
His voice was smooth, and he carried an air of cheer and charisma.
…Wait.
Morning?!
It was still dark, but I suppose it must be around that time when daybreak was just about to hit.
Everything we've done since I arrived at the edge of Gihon took just around 30 minutes.
So it's me who took long getting here.
Pluto faced the young man, who had light green slit pupils and short dark hair.
He was indifferent to my nudity, though.
I thought humans overreacted to seeing that kind of thing?
I personally don't see a problem with it.
I've always been naked, after all.
"Ah, Greia!" Pluto greeted. "You are the one who responded? I see." His tone shifted back to its Divine flow. "How is your mother?"
Greia responded, "I came immediately when I sensed the summon; I haven't had a chance to repay you all these years. And Mother is doing great!"
He flashed a charismatic smile.
…This guy was pretty attractive—in more ways than one.
But…
Wait a second.
"Is that… a dragon?" I asked.
"Oh? As expected of a Fenrir with great senses." Pluto remarked, nodding in approval. "Precisely. This is Greia, a Great Dragon and one of Gaia's newer offspring. He will assist us in suppressing the human's magic power now."
The dragon-turned-human glanced at me and smiled warmly.
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, oh beautiful man!" he proclaimed, utterly devoid of perversion, unlike Pluto over there.
…Well. Who's a good boy?
Wait, before that—
I shot Pluto a look. "What do you mean by 'suppress her magic'?"
Because—was that even possible?
"You see," Pluto began, slipping into his know-it-all tone, "only a being of a dragon's caliber can withstand the sheer vastness of that human's magic power. So Greia here will place himself inside of her, manually repressing the magic into control."
Greia flinched, his gaze snapping to Pluto.
"Eh? That was the task?" he asked, a wary edge creeping into his voice. "And how long am I supposed to be doing that?"
Oh. So Pluto hadn't told him the details.
Pluto waved a dismissive hand. "Don't overthink it; humans have short lives—she'll be dead before you can say 'Hades had a little lamb'."
"Hey!" I barked. "Stop wishing bad luck on Alicia!"
That said… I did see the logic here. Even if I had no idea what Pluto meant by Hades and a lamb.
Dragons were spiritual beings, and the greater they were, the closer they returned to their spiritual heritage. If Greia shifted into his spiritual form, he could suppress her magic.
I turned to Greia, my voice firm but pleading.
"Please, Sir Greia, help me with this."
He made a complicated face, glancing between me and the slowly cracking girl.
Then, with a deep sigh, he squared his shoulders.
"…Sigh… No problem, then. Since Uncle Pluto is the one asking, what's a hundred years of intense and severe hard work?!"
He said it charismatically—but I caught the underlying exasperation.
The kind of long-suffering exhaustion that only came from dealing with Pluto.
Well, this was going to be a tough cookie for him... or anyone else.
Greia was supposed to keep Alicia's magic under control, but that task was looking about as simple as finding a bunch of needles scattered in a mountain of straw.
Still, we appreciated him for his impending suffering, and he stepped forward to place a hand on Alicia's shoulder.
However, when he touched her—
"Ow! Hot, hot, hot! Hot, hot, hot, hot!!"
He started screaming in agony.
"Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot!"
Me: "…"
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"
Pluto: "…"
"Pain, pain, pain! Oh, the pain!"
Me and Pluto: "..."
"Agony, agony! Death, death! Seriously, help me! I'm dyiiiiiing…!"
…Why…?
Oh, boy.
Uh… Pluto and I just stood there, watching his nephew(?) scorch to death.
A dragon scorching to death… Hm…
The guy had barely even touched Alicia before a small green flame ignited on his palm.
At first, it was tiny—hardly something to get worked up over.
Then it spread.
The poor dragon was frantically trying to put himself out while screaming like a banshee.
Pluto and I, however, just… watched.
Actually, Pluto was kind of a jerk for not intervening.
Then again… there was the chance he'd catch fire too.
Well, that escalated quickly.
In less than a minute, Greia had turned into a lump of charcoal. THEN, as if it had never existed in the first place, that mysterious flame vanished.
I wasn't sure whether to be horrified for Greia, or more concerned for my own safety.
I mean… I wasn't necessarily weaker than a Great Dragon—maybe we'd be on the same level—but Greia became history because of a graze.
A graze… from something that had been resting on my back.
"...Wow. I mean, just wow," Pluto whistled, slipping back into his delinquent nonchalance. "What in the world am I gonna tell his family?"
"That's what you're worried about? Wasn't he your nephew or something?"
"Ah, you know, in the realm of gods, that doesn't really amount to anything. I'm just glad I didn't touch her first."
"Pluto, you're a terrible person to say that right after your nephew burned to death."
"What? The only cure for stupidity is death. Let him reflect for some time. He'll eventually come back to life at some point, besides."
Pluto didn't even pretend to mourn Greia for at least two minutes before he extended a hand and absorbed his burnt corpse into his palm.
"Why are you consuming him, you heartless beast?!" I blurted out.
"Chill." Pluto's expression darkened as he turned to me. "He'll be more useful in death. So what's the problem? Let's use him. I'm sure he'd love that too."
Pluto was a horrible being.
Greia had no idea what awaited him when he responded to that summon.
Then again, I couldn't pretend I really cared.
I wanted to, maybe. But my heart just wasn't… hearting.
After absorbing Greia's ashes, Pluto carefully and warily released them into Alicia's body.
The moment the charred remains merged with her, the cracks stopped growing.
Then, slowly, they began to recede.
"What's happening now?" I asked as Alicia's overwhelming magic power started to stabilize.
Pluto dusted off his hands. "I reinforced the girl's vessel with Greia's essence. Her physical structure is now as solid as a dragon's. Now she'll pack about twice or thrice more punch than before."
He grinned.
"And she was already a mammoth to begin with."
I see… I see what's happening here.
Why Pluto is beating himself up for Alicia's sake.
He must think I'm planning to take her into battle against Cthulhu—I haven't even sat down to think about that suicide mission yet.
On the contrary, that's not ever going to happen—taking Alicia to battle, that is.
But of course, I'm not going to tell him that.
Pluto seems to be banking on her strength, and for what? Sure, her magic is immense, and now she's got dragon vitality too. But so what?
Alicia is still the same human girl I (barely) know.
She—probably—doesn't know how to fight. She definitely doesn't understand how to control her magic. She might not even know a single spell.
With that kind of inexperience, she wouldn't last five minutes against even a well-prepared weakling.
The Cthulhu termination operation?
I'm handling that myself.
Maybe I'll recruit some mercenaries at Pison—trick them into thinking we're just going to hunt a Great Dragon and then rob it blind.
I was cheated into this, after all.
This is a wolf-cheat-wolf world.
"Nngh…!"
Huh?! Is Alicia waking up?!