When I was asleep… I heard strange whispers in my head.
Calling.
Pleading.
Praying.
Instead of drifting into a dream, I found myself floating in a void of darkness and isolation. The feeling was unsettling, and as the voices grew louder—rising in a chilling crescendo—
BOOM!
A loud explosion, followed by a small "Kyaa!" snapped me awake.
I quickly glanced at Alicia. She was still sleeping peacefully, undisturbed.
So I guessed everything was fine…
Wrong!
There wasn't supposed to be anyone else in Coastelle. So what caused that blast? And more importantly—who screamed?
GASP…! Where's Levi?!
I spread my senses—and found her. She had been sent flying.
Dashing out of the cave, I covered quite a distance before I reached her. Levi lay sprawled on the ground, dirt smeared all over her from skidding across the terrain.
"Tsk. That little girl…" she grumbled, sitting up with a wince.
"What happened? Isn't it way too early to be messing around?" I asked. The sun—well, the light—was only just beginning to rise.
Levi's head snapped toward me, and she immediately bowed.
"Ah! Good morning, Master Raven!" she greeted hastily. "You see… uh… I was suffering from a terrible nightmare. So, um, as I tried to, uh—"
She fumbled, obviously trying to come up with an excuse.
By the red spot on her face, I think Alicia punched her in her sleep.
But would the punch actually hurt Levi, though?
…And by the way, was Levi lying to me about something?
Now that I think about it, hasn't Levi been hiding things from me lately?
Like how the Pact was made while I was asleep?
I've been waiting for her to tell me the truth herself, but… if I let this go, the lies are just going to keep piling up.
…That's no good.
But just as I was about to admonish Levi—As if trying to change the subject—
"Hoh? Master!" she suddenly exclaimed, staring at me as if I were made of heavenly diamond.
"Wh-what?"
For some stupid reason, my face burned. Heat crept up my cheeks and ears—I wasn't used to being looked at like that.
"Master, you've gotten far stronger than when we last fought!"
"R-Really? Well, I suppose that was a given." I muttered, half-heartedly using my hand to cover my face. "C'mon, let's not act like it's a big deal. I am a Dark Fenrir, after all. A Dark Fenrir, despite it all."
"That you are," Levi agreed, "but my Master, this level of growth is astonishing."
Before I could question what she meant, she grabbed my arm and examined me closely.
And suddenly—I felt weak.
For whatever reason, standing this close to her, caught in her grip, it felt like she could snap me in half like a twig.
I tried to shake her off. "Wai—sto! L-Let go… Ahn!"
No luck.
She traced her fingers over my arm, then my shoulders and hips—slowly, deliberately.
"Hehe, as expected of my Master." Her voice took on an oddly pleased tone. "You truly are the most wonderful individual I've ever met."
Then her face met my beet-red one.
"I'm… happy I found you."
JEEEEEZ!
All this praise—I swear, it was going to go straight to my head!
And it wasn't even the usual kind of praise I got from my servants back in Gihon… This was different.
"H… How much stronger am I?" I caved, deciding to indulge a little.
Levi grinned. "Compared to the time we fought, you're now ten times stronger!"
Eh?! T-Ten times?!
I mean, I did fight THE Leviathan after dealing with the nightmare called Sarvest, so I guess it makes sense, but—
"It's absurd, Master," Levi continued, "but remember—I wasn't fighting you seriously back then... I can still defeat you again."
…Hm?
"So keep getting stronger for me, okay?" she added, smirking.
"…"
At least, I got to gloat for a while.
Before reality decided to punch me in the gut.
A line of pure white, beautiful liquid suddenly appeared around Levi, wrapping her in the blink of an eye. In an instant, both the grime and the liquid vanished, leaving her spotless.
Uhhh, awesome!
"What—what was that just now?!" I blurted out.
Levi tilted her head, now sparkling and smelling… fresh. Like a crisp, clean scent—maybe soap?
"Hm? Master, you didn't know about it?"
"I'm sorry, I don't exactly have the list of your abilities memorized."
"It's part of my ability called [Black & White Water], but the one you just saw was White Water."
Oh, right. Now that I think about it, I had seen that in her stats…
{If you wish, Master, you could use her abilities for yourself. The same applies to the abilities of the summons.}
Eh?!
(Oh, of course! That must be through my new ability, [Receive], right? So I can use that cool White Wate—)
{…Of course not.}
(WHICH IS IT?!)
{You can use abilities from any of your servants who are deeply connected to you, but you cannot use their Supreme Gifts. You could try to replicate them with a lot of practice, but it wouldn't be as effective as the original.}
Ah, that makes sense.
Supreme Gifts were tied to the soul, after all.
So White Water was a Supreme Gift? Figures—it looked so beautiful, so white, so pure, and—
{What are you talking about, Master? White Water is not a Supreme Gift.}
Oh. My. God.
(Platform, what is wrong with you this morning? Are you trying to bully me so early?!)
{No, nothing of the sort, Master. I was just—}
(You said I couldn't use White Water because I couldn't use the Supreme Gifts of my servants!)
{That I said.}
(Yeah! And now you say White Water isn't actually a Supreme Gift! Then why in the four heavenly pieces can't I use it?!)
{…Because it is complex, and its composition is difficult to grasp.}
(Then just say that from the start! Not all these chopped-up half-truths making me—).
You know what? Let's not fight this morning.
I'm calm. Really, I'm calm. I promise.
I wanted to test some things out—and while I was at it, I figured I'd show Levi my summons.
Also, while fruits were all well and good, there was no denying that flesh and blood—well, minus the blood since we had Alicia—were still delightful.
So, yes, you guessed it right.
The monsters and beasts lurking around the coastal areas were about to be returned to the great circle of life—by my hand.
Levi and I headed back to the cave to tell Alicia to stay behind in Coastelle while we handled the dangerous work, but she wasn't having it.
"But I have Bone Saw. What could possibly go wrong?" she said, looking genuinely confused—like I was the odd one there.
…What did she even mean by that? Does she really think Bone Saw will answer all her problems involving conflict?
At this rate, if I didn't keep a close eye on her, Alicia might just become a serial killer.
So, she ended up tagging along, painting this bizarre contrast: a cute little girl holding a double-edged saw almost as big as she was. And, of course, the moment I handed it over, it automatically resized to match her will.
With her newfound dragon strength, the weight wasn't an issue.
…Wait.
Wouldn't training this walking time bomb be a bad idea?
I mean, shouldn't we at least feel bad for whoever would be dumb enough to attack Alicia after she got trained and powered up?
My gaze wandered to Bone Saw's silvery handle, crafted from some unknown material. Ancient engravings ran along its surface, their markings hinting at its divine nature.
I had Levi do a quick clean-up for Alicia using her White Water.
They both insisted on bathing in the nearby lakes—since it was only us around—However, for some reason, my danger bells rang at once.
But since I had things to do with Levi that morning, we opted out.
…And just like that, my danger instincts shut off.
…Weird.
Then, stepping through the shimmering ripple of water in the air, we arrived at Pison's Coast.
It seemed to have roughly the same time frame as Coastelle—except while it was morning in Coastelle, it was already high noon here.
…Soooooo, I guess they weren't exactly the same after all, huh?
We had a lot to do today!
* Introduce my summons to my companions.
* Test out both mine and my summons' abilities.
* Ambush a delicious-looking monster and turn it into breakfast. (The more deadly it looks, the tastier it would be.)
Then, we'd head for the human settlement Levi claimed to know about.
First on the mental bucket list: Introductions!