So if I was going to get him out of here, it would be through transferring his consciousness into a new body, huh?
I guess I need some kind of receptacle to get you out of here. Even if it's in spirit form only, it sounds like it oughta be possible…
No point telling him what kind of odds he had to go on. I'd just be hurting Veldora further if I dampened his spirits.
Mm? There is a way out of here?! Indeed… I feel my magical force will exhaust itself by no later than a hundred years from now. My magic continues to flow out of me, even now.
Yeah? So that's why there's such a concentration of it around here…
Indeed. Even high-class monsters would not dare approach. You saw how there were no weeds on the ground? The sort of plants that can thrive in this area are very rare indeed!
Right. I recalled all the hipokute herbs I'd churned through over my short life. It was that valuable, huh?
Yeah, so…you wanna try escaping, maybe? If I had the right receptacle, I think that'd help our chances a fair amount… Do you know what I'd need, though?
…Indeed, even if I escaped in spiritual form only, it would be quite difficult to regather magic and form my core once more. Your creating a small tear in the prison helped my chances immensely, no doubt. As for that receptacle—the new core, if you will—if you can bring one to me, all I'd have to do is traverse myself over to it. Transmigration, I suppose…
Yow! And here I thought he was a little slow. He knew exactly what I was getting at, didn't he? The exact same conclusion the Sage had made.
Pretty much, yeah. If it's something I can get on this side, I could look for it for you.
Hmm… To tell the truth, I do not need any core at all… You can keep a secret, I trust? As I said, I am both unique and the most perfect of my kind. A fully unique creation, one that takes purely spiritual form. I have no particular attachment to this body. It is merely the faith of those who live around me that forms the shape you see.
There he went again. Spouting off complete nonsense.
As far as I could piece together in the ensuing conversation, the basic idea went like this:
Using his consciousness alone, he could gather magicules toward him to form a physical body. Said body was currently being held in this prison, but that prison also prevented his will from collecting the magic he needed. Could he escape in consciousness form alone? No, because he needed some kind of receptacle.
If he simply burst out in spirit form, his essence would scatter to the winds like the magic itself, erasing his very existence. This would result in the birth of a new storm dragon, somehow, somewhere—I didn't care about the details by this point. But to sum up, maybe he could escape, but if he did, he'd wind up being something else. It wouldn't matter to him.
So much for that. But what if I used Predator to consume Veldora himself? I could either analyze him inside my stomach, or isolate him and annul the effect of Unlimited Imprisonment, and he'd be out. Would that work?
Received: It is possible to store the target Veldora in your stomach via the unique skill Predator.
Really…? In that case, if I could convince him of it, we could get going. If I couldn't, he'd have another century of isolation before he was reduced to nonexistence. So I spent a few moments explaining the Predator skill to Veldora, and what I wanted to do with it. It'd be impossible from the get-go without the Sage's help, but…
Mwah-hah-hah-hah-hah! Fascinating! Please, go ahead. I leave myself at your mercy!
You're that ready to believe me?
But of course! It'd be far more fun to break through this prison with you than sit around and await your return! With the two of us together, this Unlimited Imprisonment could fall quicker than we thought!
Now I got it. He was one, but now we were two. I liked his outlook.
So the plan was I'd use Great Sage and Predator to analyze this beast, and Veldora would try to destroy it from the inside. No worries about Veldora dissipating away in my stomach. I was starting to think this could actually work.
All right. So I'm gonna consume you, all right? Hurry up and get outta there.
Heh-heh-heh! Right away! You shall make me wait no longer! Let us finally join together!
Right! I summoned up my stores of resolve, touching him for a moment—then activated my Predation skill. In a moment, Veldora's massive form disappeared from sight.
It happened almost too fast. We were talking just a moment ago. Seeing him gone suddenly made me feel very small and very solitary. Using the skill on my first target created too much resistance to work at all, but with the help of a fully cooperative Veldora in all his hugeness, it couldn't have gone more smoothly. He and Unlimited Imprisonment itself were sucked in at once.
Kind of a surprise it all fit in me, though. Checking my stomach usage… Geez, 25 percent? How big was that thing, anyway?
Then:
Conduct Analysis of unique skill Unlimited Imprisonment?
Yes
No
This better work, I prayed as I thought Yes to myself.
🌍 Interlude A cataclysm shook the world on that day.
It was the only way to describe the reaction when the disappearance of the storm dragon Veldora was confirmed. It wasn't every day that a Special S-ranked monster simply vanished without a trace.
Monsters, as well as adventurers, were ranked on a system of six grades, from A to F. Pluses and minuses could be attached to these grades for extra precision. This system was first put into place by a man named Yuuki Kagurazaka, a rumored otherworlder and one of the few to assume the topmost rank of "grand master" in the Free Guild. It was quickly adopted, thanks to being much easier to understand than the previous, somewhat arbitrary four-tier system of "novice" → "beginner" → "intermediate" → "advanced."
The Special S rank combined the S rank, which comprised demon lord–class foes that deserved more than simply an A, with the "Special" tag reserved for those above even that class—monsters capable of single-handedly engineering calamities or natural disasters. A scale-breaking rank, existing wholly outside the six traditional ones. Normally, an A-ranked monster alone would be dreadful enough to threaten the existence of a nation—someone like Veldora was dangerous enough to plunge it into despair.
Three hundred years of penance had done nothing to affect the dragon's rank as a natural disaster–level threat. Just because he had disappeared didn't mean he couldn't be reborn somewhere, posing a new menace before long.