The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  Completely unharmed after taking three breath weapons from the strongest dragon? And people call me a cheat! Her level had to be nearly ten thousand or something to have that kind of power.

  Seeing the unfavorable result of its massive attack, the dragon let out another roar, its great wooden wings giving a downward swing that released a powerful wind throughout the area. It was enough that it caused me to be knocked back and wind up laying on the ground. Unfortunately, I had no motor control while working the Walking Vision, so I just laid there.

  After the beat of its wings, the dragon began flying upwards, seeming to be looking for an escape. Lilith watched it impassively, before flying to action, taking off after it. Her first strike severed the end of the dragon’s tail, sending it crashing to the ground with a substantial impact.

  Now that it wasn’t on the ground anymore, I expected its healing ability to be compromised, but rather it seemed to be accelerated from flying into the storm. A bolt of lightning struck the creature, and suddenly its tail was restored. This was the power of a nature dragon, a being with dominion over all of nature.

  But this was only a fledgeling, whereas Lilith was a matured queen that had dominion of a realm in her own right. Now that they were airborne, her hit and run tactics became even more effective, swarming around the dragon like an insect. Thanks to her insane speed, the dragon couldn’t react fast enough to counterattack, and black cuts began appearing all over its body as fast as the storm could heal it.

  Breath weapons of fire, ice, lightning and wind were fired off in random directions, impacting the sea and the island and sailing into the sky. Lilith’s battle experience became apparent as she easily avoided the multiple assaults, taking no damage while inflicting some bit by bit.

  Like had been done by the vine beast when Denise struck it with a shadow arrow, the vines composing the dragon’s body began to sag in the wake of the repeated onslaught. Now and again, a few would fall to the ground, causing the island to shudder under the impact. Still, the dragon refused to surrender this battle, using whatever tactic it could to get the upper hand.

  The storm itself turned into an enemy to Lilith, lightning striking down at her any time she got close enough to land a hit on the dragon. The result both healed the dragon and warded her off, but that only lasted for a few moments. Afterwards, when the lightning struck she would absorb it into the shield of her armor, and then rake her claws along the dragon’s hide.

  Four lines of hellfire traced along those cuts and continued traveling along the beast’s body until its rapid healing could negate the damage. So, her gauntlet could absorb magical attacks and use them as fuel for hellfire? That was quite a useful ability.

  Once her victory seemed assured, Lilith flew up above the body of the dragon, raising her sword into the air. Grasping it with both hands for the first time, twin spirals of hellfire launched up from the blade and rose far into the sky. Likely fueling it with both her own magic and all of the energy she had absorbed during the fight, she brought her sword down, the fires cleanly cutting the dragon in two.

  At first I expected it to burst into flames and turn to ash, but instead as the dragon died its body reverted to trees and vines which fell to the earth. It would seem that Lilith had won the battle without taking any damage at all. But really, she had used an insane amount of magic, right? If that had turned into a war of attrition, the dragon might have been able to win thanks to constantly absorbing the elements to replenish its health and energy.

  When the vines and trees landed on the ground, they formed a large pile where the mountain used to be, at about half its former size. Lilith, meanwhile, flew straight down to where we were, her sword vanishing and black armor reverting to the revealing outfit she typically wore.

  “What’s wrong with Jin? Why’s he laying down like that with his eyes closed, did he get hurt?” She immediately approached me with a pained look. Levy smiled up to her mother and shook her head.

  “No, he was just watching you fight with a spell and couldn’t move his body.”

  “Levy..? I thought you weren’t going to fight?” She glared accusingly to Levy while I returned my vision to my body.

  “She didn’t. She came in after the fighting was all over to watch you.”

  “Jin!” After hearing me speak, Lilith launched herself at me, holding me tight. “Stop worrying me like that!”

  “Really.. aren’t you too strong? You dared to call me a cheat, and yet you have that kind of power.” I laughed, patting Lilith on the back and looking around. Denise was smirking while shaking her head, and Krath was joining me in my laugh. Levy just seemed to sit there next to me smiling at her mom with an amazed expression.

  “Yeah, well.. I’ve had thousands of years to get this good. What’s your excuse?”

  “Having women not letting me slack off, of course.” That caused Denise, Lilith, and Dariel to all laugh together.

  Denise walked over and pated me on the head. “If we let you slack off, we wouldn’t get to have so much fun.”

  “But sometimes a guy needs a break, you know?”

  Lilith smiled to me, finally releasing me from the tight hug. When she did, Levy jumped into her arms.

  “You were awesome!” She said, clinging onto a laughing Lilith.

  “Thanks. Haven’t had a good fight like that in a long time.”

  Slowly rising to my feet, I looked over towards the demoness. “Is Halor going to be alright? That wound seemed pretty serious.”

  “He’ll recover. It’s not like we’ll be needing to bring him out again for a while, so he has plenty of time to heal.”

  “I see..” I nodded to her, understanding that they really didn’t get out of Hell very often.

  At that time, two figures came towards us from the distance. One, I recognized to be Dremor, so I could assume that the other was Belial. In most respects, he looked like Krath, except his hair was a bright red. Also, instead of Krath’s full plate armor, Belial only wore normal-looking clothes.

  “Good fight, Queen Lilith!” Belial called out with an exaggerated smile as he closed the distance between us. “I had forgotten what it was like to see you getting serious. This was that strong of an opponent, huh? Wish I could have had a go.”

  “If it had been older, all of us would have had a hard time against it. Thank you all for taking care of the forest and giving me the chance to win.” Lilith bowed to her generals politely, and Belial laughed.

  “No, no, thank you for showing me something good. I had been getting bored, you know? There’s nobody I can challenge in the Wrath district, and even if I could it’s a pain when I have to help pay for repairs.”

  What, do you cause so much damage that your opponent can’t afford it?

  Lilith smirked, casting a glance towards me. “Knowing this one, you may get the chance to fight something strong soon enough.”

  Belial looked to me with hopeful eyes, and I really felt like he was nothing more than a battle addict. “If you ever find something like this again, summon me right away, alright kid?”

  “Uh… sure..” I nodded to him, and he smiled. Krath, behind us, started letting out another loud laugh. Are all powerful demons such strange characters?

  “Really, Belial, can’t you think with anything but your fists?”

  “But Krath, surely you have been bored as well! You used to lead such great battles during the war, it was always interesting to be a fighter at that time.”

  Lilith’s face tightened up at that, and Belial instantly apologized for his words. “I’m sorry, my queen, I didn’t mean…”

  “No, it’s alright… you can say what you want.” She shook her head, shrugging off his apology.

  Looking between the two, I decided to speak up. “So, what’ll happen now? We’ve pretty much destroyed this island’s entire ecosystem, since neither plants nor animals live here now.” I wasn’t even sure that the tribesmen we originally saw hadn’t been killed by the randomly aimed attacks.
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br />   “This island will become deserted, and might regain its life eventually.” Dremor spoke from beside Belial, nodding. “It won’t get very many animals unless some happen to come across on ships, but in the end it doesn’t matter. This island had been little more than a nest for that dragon in the first place, and now it’s gone.”

  I nodded to him, looking at the scorched land around us. Part of me began wondering if any passing ships saw the battle, and if they did what they were going to do. Looking back at the mountain of plants, I noticed that it seemed to have dwindled a bit. Guess the parts are gradually burning and rotting after all. Should be entirely cleared up in a few hours. “Oh, Lilith, I wanted to ask you about something I got earlier.”

  “Oh? What is it?” Lilith turned her head to me, suddenly smiling.

  “You saw my Intelligence score from back when I was training Levy, right? Well, today it finally hit five hundred, and I got a new type of magic. Dariel had already mentioned before not knowing about it, so I wanted to ask you.”

  “Hmm? What’s it called?”

  “According to the window, it was called Origin Magic.”

  Suddenly, Lilith began laughing uncontrollably. “I knew you’d get that eventually. Yeah, it’s pretty much what you think. Kind of like the ability your book got from me, only permanent and less restricted. It also uses up a lot more energy.”

  “Ah.. I’m guessing Origin Magic was the basis for Magus Mercy?”

  Lilith grinned to me while nodding. “That’s right. Mercy is basically the highest form of that kind of magic, allowing you to heal something from any wound, no matter how serious. He thought it might even be able to bring a body back to life, if the soul could be anchored.”

  “Ah, there is no resurrection magic in this world?” I had been wondering that for a while, for various reasons, just never found the time to ask.

  “Apart from you foreigners who seem to come back from deadly injuries, no. We only have one life, so we have to make the most of it.”

  I nodded to her. So, Origin Magic is one of the stronger fields? Maybe I should focus on mastering that for a while. “Oh, also. I think I figured out what you wanted me to learn about enchanting.”

  “Ooh, did you get an advanced circle created?”

  “I think so. I never got the chance to use it because I don’t have the materials, or even know what materials would be needed. But, for an advanced enchantment, you need a specialized diagram, right? You can’t just use the same one for all of it like you can with the basic stuff.”

  “That’s right!” Lilith nodded happily as I said it. “Any spell that is more advanced than just a few runes will need to have its diagram incorporated into the enchanting circle, or else it won’t work. I was wondering if you would be able to realize that.” Lilith patted Levy’s head beside her, and the little girl laughed at the attention.

  “I see. Could you still send me the book later? I’d like to go over it so that I know what materials are needed. The diagram I made was to make a cursed ring that would constantly drain my mana. I thought that I could train my magic like that, but now I’m more focused on doing it the hard way.”

  Lilith nodded again. “That kind of item doesn’t suit you at all.”

  “Yeah, I realized that. Also, could you send me a book or something about Hell’s crafting techniques? Only infernal items keep their effects when I go into my demon form, so it is quite difficult to use.”

  She nodded to me, gathering up Levy and her generals to head back to Hell. “Alright, I can do that. Just be careful, people with a good eye can spot demonic items.”

  I smiled, chuckling at her warning. “I can keep myself from being noticed. Done a good job of it so far.”

  She grinned back to me. “Fair enough. Hope you won’t have to forever, though.”

  Dariel walked up to me, smiling as well now that she had finally recovered the rest of her magic. “Mind sending me back? Looks like our work here is done.”

  “Oh, right, sorry. Forgot you needed permission.” I cancelled my summoning spell on Dariel, allowing her to step through the white portal back to her own home.

  At the same time, the three demon generals vanished into the shadows, likely returning to Hell now that the battle was over. It was likely that Levy couldn’t teleport out of Hell without her ability to appear beside me, so Lilith was making a proper gate for the two of them. “Don’t be a stranger. Otherwise, I might just use this little one to track you down.” She patted Levy’s head again, and the little girl giggled.

  “Alright, alright. I get it.” I nodded to them, and they began heading towards the gate. Denise stood next to me, putting a hand on my shoulder and smiling to me. Seems our big battle was over after all.

  No sooner had I thought that than Levy froze at the gate, suddenly turning around. “Jin!” Her face was masked with despair, and I had no idea what was wrong. Before I had the chance to ask, though, a large series of roots shot out from within the ground like a giant jaw. An eerily familiar jaw, directly around Denise and myself.

  My head jerked around to look at Denise, who was skewered by the various roots, blood flowing down her body and out her mouth. I could feel the roots being held back from me for a single moment, before pain was sent through my entire body as they impaled me as well.

  Your party member, Denise, has been killed by Nature Dragon

  Due to an impending lethal attack, Barrier has been activated.

  Mana depleted, Barrier has been deactivated.

  Massive damage, you have lost 2000 health.

  You have been killed by a Nature Dragon

  I spat up a bit of blood, and Lilith was next to me before I could even blink, ripping away roots as my vision began to turn grey, my consciousness leaving me.

  “No! No, Jin! Dammit, you plant bastard! What the hell!” I could barely make out her screams before everything faded away.

  To be continued…