The Dragon God's Armor!

The little bone dragon was delighted, spinning in place as though chasing her own tail to bite it. She was too young—so young that she responded to everything around her with acute sensitivity and utter purity, with no notion at all of how to bend. Yet sometimes, to bend is nearly a synonym for submitting to reality and endlessly making peace with one's own heart. In Karen's eyes, this was true loveliness, because his former self's greatest problem had been that he understood bending too well—was too skilled at it. So at this moment, Karen was sincerely willing to shelter this little bone dragon. The road of exploration is like drifting on the open sea; it needs a great many anchors. Alfred was one, but Alfred worshipped him a little too much. If this little bone dragon could stay by his side always, her presence could become an anchor holding him to his own core of order. When he wavered and lost his way, one glance at her might make the decision easier to reach. Karen firmly believed: above order, there should be no god. Though the little bone dragon could not yet put her thoughts into mature words, her behavior made it plain: to her, rebellion meant shattering every shackle and fetter overhead. Even the Rebel Dragon God, once the very emblem of that belief, must not appear above her head; it made her deeply uncomfortable. In a world where gods plainly exist, a world that worships gods, a world whose workings are all measured by the will of gods—to oppose the existence of gods is destined to be incomprehensible, and lonely. Under the night sky of the grasslands a bonfire is lit; look up, and in some veiled way you seem to see that on the moon, in another world, in some exiled space countless layers of distance away, another person has also lit a bonfire, just as you have. The feeling of each fire's light falling on the other's face can dispel all loneliness in an instant—each lighting the other, each warming the other. There is a word that can pierce the barriers of age, the divisions of borders, the lines between races, the definitions of class. When you hear him call you by that word, the answering resonance and trust it summons in an instant is enough to break through any obstruction—enough, even, to let you hand him your back without the slightest worry. The moment Karen stepped onto the head of the God of Order, the little bone dragon seemed to hear that call. Every word, every lie, every scrap of hypocrisy looked pale and powerless before it. Karen waved a hand, and the faith body of the God of Order dissolved. Thousand Phantoms: "..." With a swoosh, Thousand Phantoms darted back behind Karen and coiled around his right arm. Seeing this, the little bone dragon stopped spinning and reared up; drawn along by her, the phantom of the Dragon God at once grew grander and more imposing, as if about to roar down at them. Thousand Phantoms could not understand it at all. It did not grasp why, with victory all but assured, its master would choose to abandon resistance. But Karen showed no panic whatsoever, standing quietly where he was. He had confirmed the feeling: she would not hurt him again. The little bone dragon shook her head, only then realizing she had forgotten to withdraw the giant shadow. She at once thrashed her body; the Dragon God's phantom scattered—and then she lunged at Karen. Thousand Phantoms instantly perked back up, ready to charge in and keep fighting, but Karen reached out and caught its tail. The little bone dragon rushed right up to Karen—and rather than attack, she stopped. This creature that had been so savage a moment before now seemed extremely shy. Karen held out his hand to her. The little bone dragon hesitated, lifted her dragon claw, made an attempt—and found it wouldn't do at all. Then her form changed, and a little girl with long white hair stood before Karen. She was thin, marked with wounds on her face and body—frail, yet resolute. She raised her small hand and placed it in Karen's. Karen gave it a gentle squeeze. When the handshake ended, the white-haired girl caught one of his fingers and squeezed again. She did not understand, but she felt this must be a courtesy between equals. Karen smiled and lifted his other hand toward her face. She flinched away, but his hand simply stayed where it was, unmoving; gradually she stopped dodging and let his palm rest against her cheek. Then a stream of soul power flowed from Karen's palm into her body and began to mend her soul wounds. It felt so comfortable and warm. For a moment the white-haired girl felt that the hand stroking her cheek was wonderfully kind, and her own hand unconsciously came to rest on the back of Karen's. After channeling some soul power, Karen felt his own soul sinking into lassitude and weakness. Today he had truly spent too much; he was not so badly hurt as to fall unconscious, but he was walking and testing right along that line. Watching all this, Thousand Phantoms understood none of it, and felt deeply wronged besides—like a loach that had accidentally slipped into a vat full of fruit vinegar. It badly wanted to copy that black cat: throw a tantrum, roll on the ground, and shout over and over—Why? On what grounds? How can this be?! But it didn't dare. Because it knew its master would tolerate anything from that black cat, and if it tried to imitate her, it could expect to be swatted dead with a single slap. Karen's soul consciousness began to withdraw. In reality, Karen opened his eyes and pulled his hand back from the ice. Still kneeling, Lady Augie saw that Karen had "returned." The corner of her mouth curled before she could stop it. She had probably meant to smile; she controlled it—though not entirely. "Success?" It sounded like concern, but it was mockery. She believed no one understood that bone dragon better than she did. How could she be subdued so easily? If a bearer of the Dragon God's legacy would acknowledge a master that lightly, would the dragon race not become a complete joke? "Hah." Karen sighed. He was rather at a loss for words with this foolish female dragon. Here she was in such a state, and she still had the heart to sneer. What on earth gave her the confidence to think she could disguise it so that he wouldn't hear it? Strip away her dragon blood and the aura of "Lady," and she was just a warped maid with a muddled sense of her own place, a touchy pride, and a deep jealousy of her own young lady's standard of living. Xili was cheerful and eager to learn new things; Augie, by contrast, liked to lean on the railing and find fault with her own household. She had her own closed loop of logic, into which she could feed anything at all and make it run. Karen couldn't be bothered with her. But she went on: "Hand her over to the church. It would be a great merit, and it would improve your present situation in Yorktown Region." Karen turned his head toward Lady Augie and said: "Truly, I now think our Whip-Wielder is very merciful. Otherwise there is no explaining how you're still alive." "I told you before: in your attitude toward dragons, you and the Whip-Wielder are very much alike." "It's the inevitable attitude after being dumbfounded by your stupidity." "Otherwise what? You'd kill me and let her slip away? Hand her over. You keep quiet about what I did earlier, and I'll keep quiet about—" "What could you do for me?" Lady Augie: "Uh..." It suddenly occurred to her that she had nothing to give Karen. Karen walked up to Augie, reached out and hooked an arm around her neck, and brought his face close to her ear: "Listen. If I hadn't succeeded in subduing her, then by my nature I would rather have let her go and killed you—just for wanting to kill me earlier." Lady Augie's expression shifted. "And... then?" "Unfortunately, I succeeded." "What!" Now that the subduing had succeeded, killing Lady Augie was no longer appropriate, because it could not be explained. The little bone dragon's identity would have to be filed with the Church of Order. Otherwise, given Karen's resources, even if he could talk Neo into embezzling extravagantly alongside him, it would be nearly impossible to feed the little bone dragon perfectly to adulthood. Raising a dragon requires enormous quantities of many kinds of resources matched to its attributes. Many of those things truly cannot be bought even with point coupons to spare; it takes an extremely large cultivation team. Ashley's parents might, for Karen's sake, bring Purr quite a few tonics tailored to her, but they could not empty out their storehouse to help Karen feed a dragon. If the little bone dragon was to grow up in the most perfect and dependable way, it would take at least the entire research institute where Ashley's parents worked, running as one, to designate her a key cultivation subject and draw up a long-term, detailed plan. This was exactly the treatment Augie had enjoyed in the past. So Augie could not be killed. Kill her, and too much would become impossible to explain; it would rouse suspicion up above about this whole affair—even about the little bone dragon's true identity. And to some degree, Augie really was needed to make the lie hold together. "I want her as my partner. In this matter, you should know what can be said and what can't. You know her true identity and her secret; I can give her the greatest freedom possible. Of course, if you want the future hope of your dragon race completely exposed before the Church of Order, and want to bear the responsibility for your own mistakes, then by all means go report it yourself. One last reminder: I didn't kill you this time out of mercy. It's because you were lucky. From now on, let's have as little to do with each other as possible. If there is a next time, I will kill you at any cost. Now, undo the ice. I know you have no ability to use spells at the moment, but you can end one." Augie said, "I don't like your threats." "But you're afraid. From the way you keep talking, I can feel it—you seem to take me for a future Whip-Wielder. Because of your mother? Because of that skeleton? Or because of your own observations of me?" "You—" "Thank you for your good opinion of me. Now, be a good girl and do as you're told." Lady Augie closed her eyes, then opened them, and the huge lump of ice began to melt rapidly. The little bone dragon was free. She landed on the ground, her form shrank, and at last she became the very same white-haired little girl as in the soul space. In reality she looked more delicate and more real than her soul-state presentation. Hah—a stubborn little white-haired girl. Karen took off his divine robe and, guiding the Sword of Diamans in a cut, sliced away more than half of it. Holding the upper portion, he walked over to the little girl. She clambered up with some difficulty, and Karen pulled the garment over her. Karen was no skilled tailor, so the robe still hung huge and baggy on her. White hair, pale face, and the black-toned robe together made for a striking, endearing contrast. "Heh." Karen reached out and lightly pinched her cheek. She seemed not yet used to such intimacy from Karen and dodged slightly, but Karen believed she would get used to it in time—just as Purr had at first. "I ought to give you a name. But what name would be good?" Watching this exchange, Lady Augie, still kneeling there, opened her eyes wide. She had really... been subdued? Karen wanted to lead the girl along by the hand, but she walked with difficulty. Part of it was that her body was badly wounded, but the main reason was that Thousand Phantoms had cut her body in two in the soul space, so her sense of her upper and lower halves was now out of step; she needed time to adjust. But Karen at once bent down and hoisted her onto his back. She didn't know where to put her hands and was rather ill at ease, so Karen put one hand behind her to support her bottom and, with the other, took both her hands and made them clasp his neck. The little girl was "forced" into it—and then she kept her arms around Karen's neck and did not let go. Carrying her, Karen walked up to Lady Augie. The little girl looked at Augie, her gaze not in the least hiding her disgust. The shame of the dragon race... livestock! Augie could bear other people's looks, and was used to them, but facing her gaze was torment. It was probably that any reaction from the little girl aimed at her could easily break through Augie's defenses. "How much longer until your seal is lifted?" Karen asked. "I must wait for the Whip-Wielder to send someone to confirm it, then the word goes back to the Whip-Wielder, and then the Whip-Wielder lifts it." "I see. Then you'll have to keep kneeling here." "I will keep this secret for you. I will keep her identity secret. Not because I've yielded to your threats, but because it is what I ought to do—as a... dragon." "Good." "But she is a gift set aside for Lady Daina. Lady Daina may be lying injured in bed, but her status is still above yours." "She has no status worth speaking of." "It is a fact..." "I'll fight for it. Worst case, I'll make a public request." In this Selection Assembly, Karen held the highest rank and had earned the most merit; by rights the best Church of the Crypt partner should go to him. Daina was the High Priest's foster daughter, and her noble status was real enough, but if Karen made a public request, even the High Priest could not openly show favoritism. This was a matter of the Church of Order's political correctness. Of course, breaking such an unwritten rule would carry a price, but Karen didn't care. He had already become one of the stinking bricks in the Yorktown latrine; good impression or not, there was no chance those above would ever let him leave Yorktown Region now. Augie suggested, "You could sign a contract with her first." Even at this point she had not forgotten to secure better terms for the little bone dragon, and she added, "A symbiosis contract." "I already have a symbiosis contract partner." "You already have a symbiosis partner..." A black shadow surfaced in Augie's mind, and she immediately realized she was about to trigger a forbidden memory zone again. She dismissed the stray thought at once and said, "A master-servant contract—she would die before she signed one." Lady Augie knew her pride; when the little bone dragon had controlled her earlier, she had been able to feel her as well. From Karen's attitude toward the little bone dragon, and from the way he had personally carried her on his back, theirs was a relationship of equals. At least, Augie could not imagine the Whip-Wielder carrying her on his back. Karen turned his face toward the girl on his back and said: "If you trust me, we'll sign a master-servant contract for now, and once you've grown up on the provisions of the Church of Order, we'll dissolve it. Because along the way they will certainly examine your body often, and dissolving it too early would make them suspicious." Hearing this, Augie laughed coldly inside—then she saw the little girl on Karen's back move her hands from around his neck to gripping it. Karen felt the chill and the pressure at his throat, but he made no other move. He could give her his back, and he trusted her. Their trust had only just been formed, but Karen believed in its purity. "Pff... pff... pff..." Her nails pierced Karen's skin, and all ten of the little girl's fingers sank into the flesh of his neck. Karen felt an immense pressure that left him barely able to breathe, yet still he did not resist. Then the little girl on his back began to fade; her body seemed to merge into Karen's. New power, new flesh began to enter him. Karen perceived them clearly, and a new will appeared. A starlight sigil of contract appeared before Karen—a master-servant contract, the servant's side already signed, leaving only the master's side blank for him. Karen spoke: "Contract signed." The light flashed, and the contract took effect. From this moment on, Karen would hold her life and death in his hands. "Woom!" Karen spread his hands and straightened his body. One after another, dragon bones appeared outside Karen's body, as though someone were knitting him a sweater. It was somewhat messy and unpracticed, but that raw, ancient aura was enough to overwhelm any flaw in the details. "Hah..." A low growl came from Karen's throat. Over his body appeared a suit of armor formed of dragon bone, its toughness beyond anything Karen had imagined. He lowered his head, looked at his palm, and slowly closed his fist. In the instant his fist closed, eight enormous dragon bones burst from the ground around him like the ribs of a giant dragon, shielding him within. Lady Augie's entire worldview was all but overturned: "How... is that possible..." What kind of power did he possess, that he could make the Dragon God's inheritor do this for him? Karen admired the armor on his body and felt the powerful barrier formed by the giant ribs on either side—a sense of security impossible to put into words. Yet he felt little surprise at it. When you choose to give her your back completely, she too is willing to use her own body to protect you. Because what bound them together was not profit, not treatment, not resources, but the same aspirations and ideals. "If someday I turn cowardly, shrink back, fall into depravity, or betray..." Karen lowered his head and looked at his own chest. "Do not hesitate. Strip the armor from my body, and let the blade pierce my heart."