Chapter 328 - 328: So It Was a Transformed Final Boss

Only a short while had passed, and yet to him it felt like a very, very long time.

By the time he came back to himself, the thin summer-afternoon rain outside the window was still trailing down in silvery threads.

Isagi couldn't feel anything "abnormal" about himself, so all he could do was head to Goddess Astrea's room and have her take a look.

And so—

"Isagi really did get a new magic. It's just…"

A little strange.

Or rather, hard to make sense of. Astrea had long since grown used to Isagi's bizarre skills and spells, of course, but this one was baffling even by his standards.

Magic:

[Destined to Become King].

- Additional Magic

- Ultra-short chant

- Chant:

[It's over.]

- Randomly obtain the strongest form of the current Character Card.

There weren't many words to the spell. Compared to the dense, cramped panels Isagi usually got, it was almost too simple.

But that was exactly the problem.

What was "the strongest form of the current Character Card" supposed to mean?

Astrea had no idea. Neither did Isagi.

So what else could they do but test it? And to be safe, Isagi decided they should take a little vacation on the deserted island out at sea, beyond the port town of Melen.

And so, after an afternoon of preparations, the boy, the girls, and the goddesses of the household simply set out before nightfall.

Around eleven that night, the whole group arrived at the familiar little island.

The rain hadn't let up. If anything, it was coming down harder.

The goddesses put up umbrellas and hurried off the boat, dashing across the beach toward the wooden cabin that had been built there long ago. Before long a fire was crackling in the hearth and they had settled in to rest.

Isagi and the girls paid the rain no mind. For adventurers, it hardly mattered.

They went straight to the forest on the far side of the barren island—ah, no. Between the excessive destruction and the absence of Goddess Demeter to "repair" anything, the place had long since been reduced to cratered, pitted wasteland.

It couldn't really be helped.

The main culprit was the sheer, absurd devastation Lefiya and the others' magic left behind.

In the forests outside the city, everyone held back at least a little during practice. Out here, they cut loose without a second thought.

Under those conditions, the fact that the island hadn't sunk yet counted as good news.

Isagi was starting to think this couldn't go on. Maybe they really would have to move their training down into the Dungeon.

While he was mulling that over, the girls had finished getting ready.

His sparring partners this time were the usual lineup: Lefiya, Ryuu-senpai, Ais and Tiona.

"So how are we doing this? A free-for-all, or…"

The girls were practically bouncing with excitement.

Isagi's answer was simple.

"All of you against me."

"—?!"

"Isagi's really looking down on us!!"

"Hmph!!"

"We'll beat you to death!!"

Cheeks puffed out, terrifying words delivered with a completely goofy expression.

Tiona was as much of an idiot as ever.

But Isagi wasn't being arrogant. He hadn't actually used the new magic yet, and still he had a feeling about it. A feeling that said: this is strong.

"It's over."

He spoke his ultra-short chant just like that.

Magic power converged in an instant.

In that tiny sliver of a moment, Lefiya was the first to feel something shake her to the core.

She was a mage, after all. She could feel the impossibly vast magic gathering around the boy's body—and feel it beginning to turn into "something else."

Isagi's body started to change.

And there, in the endless drizzle, for reasons no one could explain, it began to snow.

No—wrong!

Those were cherry blossoms.

Petals drifting down from the vault of the sky, light and weightless as falling snow.

For a moment, the sight was almost dizzying.

Then mist rose all around them.

A thick, heavy fog rolled in, blotting out everything in the distance, and clouds gathered in clumps beneath their feet, thick enough to swallow half their bodies.

A few seconds later, the girls realized with a start that they were walking on top of the clouds.

And out of that mist rose enormous vines, long since withered.

They wove together into one grotesque great tree after another. Appearing alongside them were creatures like ashen deadwood—long, slender necks, dragons' heads, and flute-like instruments cradled in both hands.

[What in the world are those things?!]

None of the girls could process it.

They threw themselves into the fight anyway.

The creatures weren't strong.

Aside from spitting a dark green, poisonous liquid, they were frankly pitiful.

Sluggish, with almost no offense and almost no defense. They simply came in numbers, sprouting endlessly from the ground.

But against Level 7 adventurers, they were far too weak, and in moments the whole swarm had been cut down.

Still, there was no question this had only been the appetizer. Soon enough, the girls saw that where Isagi had been standing in the distance—now that the mist had thinned—there stood a colossal tree.

It was like a mountain range.

Titanic trunks in full cherry bloom twisted and coiled around one another, and as golden lightning came hammering down, every one of the dragon-headed creatures from before dropped to its knees and bowed toward the great tree.

Then a flash of white light swept past.

A gale came rolling in on a tide of blossoms, and through the waves of cloying floral sweetness the girls lifted their heads—and saw, growing out of that enormous tree, a strangely shaped Great Dragon.

It was nothing like the dragons they knew.

Ryuu recognized it quickly enough, though: this was one of the legendary "dragon-kind Monsters" from the Far East. For whatever reason, the Great Dragons over there differed from the ones on this continent.

Their bodies were longer and more slender, serpentine—exactly like the thing in front of them now.

And at the same time, it resembled an impossibly thick vine.

At least a hundred meters long, its surface a dull, ashen gray, with countless fine branches sprouting from it. One of those branches was far longer than the rest, arm-like, and in its grip was a bronze greatsword of equally peculiar make.

[Divine Dragon].

This really was what Isagi had "transformed" into.

Even the boy himself hadn't expected it—that his new magic could summon out the final boss of the Character Card he was currently using.

Though honestly, the thing he'd turned into wasn't all that strong.

That was what Isagi was thinking.

Why couldn't it have been a certain Sword Saint risen from the dead?

Whatever.

Might as well test out what it could do.

With that thought, thunder split the heavens and the earth.

The mist surged upward, and in a single instant it blasted the girls clean off their feet, sending them tumbling helplessly backward.

The "Divine Dragon" that Isagi had become raised the divine weapon in its grasp—the [Seven-Branched Sword]—and swung once.

And then.

The clouds churned again. Thunder rolled in waves, and a colossal blade of sword energy tore forward, visible to the naked eye, carrying a pressure that struck terror straight through them. In the blink of an eye, it was racing toward the girls, still hanging there in midair.

"!!!"

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