by J. J. Pavlov
And that's when I remember a tool at my disposal that I've forgotten due to the sudden reveal of this boss fight. Usually, I would be reluctant to use an ability I have never tested before in the middle of battle, but under these circumstances, what other choice do I have?
With these thoughts, I turn into a copy of Kiamedras down to the genetic level. The weapons bounce off the dragon armor like water on a shed, and I grow to his original size using the mass I gained from consuming him earlier.
Queen Aurelia's façade cracks for the first time as she stares up at me with a surprised expression. Then her lips part to reveal teeth made from white gold, visibly grinding in anger as her eyes widen to show her complete irises.
"Do not defile his memory, creature." She yells at me while balling her fists. Two swords pierce my eyes, and I'm blinded on the spot. The shock of being unable to see far outweighs the unpleasant sensation of having something stuck in my eyeballs without feeling any pain - since I shut off that sensation for this fight. After all, pain is purely disadvantageous for a being such as me which doesn't die from cuts and stabs. I quickly push the blades out of my body and reform a pair of functioning eyes.
If that's all she can do, it's my turn to retaliate. I open my maw, intending to shoot her with a plasma breath, but I'm stumped; unlike moving on four legs or flying with a pair of extra wings, the instincts of the dragon Kiamedras don't have any information on how to use either the fire or the plasma breath. This is the worst timing to find out that this species learns those breaths rather than being born with them.
A torrent of weapons flies into my open jaws and shred through my throat from the inside. I watch as the world around me turns, and my own body and the messy stump of my neck comes into view. Undoing my transformation while I'm still in midair, I immediately spread my tentacles toward the much bigger body and rejoin it before it gains a consciousness of its own. If I went back inside too late, and it already had a new owner, I might get absorbed instead.
"Stop using Kiamedras' appearance, you filthy monster!" The Golden Queen's fury is almost tangible, and a bulging vein appears on her exposed forehead to drive that feeling home - even though she's made of gold.
"If you feel that strongly about it..." It's not that I'm relenting because of her attitude, but in my current form, I'm too vulnerable to her attacks. Shrinking down and returning into a human form, I clad myself in dragon carapace. At my size, they make me look like I'm wearing a suit of armor rather than scaly skin.
"You dare make fun of me?!" Glaring at me for that quip, Queen Aurelia moves both arms to guide the mass of golden weapons. She has completely lost her cool after the revelation that I can transform into Kiamedras. If she had shown some restraints when I was in the elder dragon's form, then I might have been able to somehow use that to my advantage.
A vertical tornado of weapons, shaped much like the sandworm in the desert that Hestia and I encountered, flies at me, and I dodge it by rolling sideways. Even though it was able to withstand a rain of blades, I'm not sure this dragon armor can do the same in the face of this monster of an attack.
"Hasta de Lumin!" I chant while avoiding the golden shredder. The spirit spear flies toward Aurelia but is intercepted by a kite shield which gets a hole blown through it but doesn't let any of the force travel farther toward the Golden Queen.
Why is she using those to block my spells now rather than whatever invisible thing she had before? Or were those actually small plates of gold that completely disappeared in the explosion? Maybe she can't react quickly enough at this range and has to use larger shields to cover more area.
Learning that doesn't help me at all. I can only shoot one spirit spear at a time while she can attack and defend without leaving herself open to anything. The only way for me to win here is if I can get closer and hit her with that spell at point blank range. Or figure out how to do the plasma breath, but that one's a long shot.
Another idea enters my mind. I could be a huge mistake, but at this point, I'm running out of options really quickly. In this battle, all I've been doing was transform and dodge, never using the ultimate cheat ability of my already cheat-like existence. If my theory about is correct, I should be able to at least seal her offense.
That's a huge if, and comes with a pretty big hook.
Once again, the golden storm swirls at me, but this time I meet it head-on - or rather, chest-on. I burst out into my Crawling Chaos form, but grow my body uncontrollably, drawing reference from the massive blob that my grandma appeared as thirty years ago.
The weapons pierce into my body, but can't go all the way through due to my size. Instead of pushing them out, I pull them in, and they disappear into the unfathomable depths of the pocket-dimension in my stomach. I can eat a dragon without looking fat on the outside, so I should be able to eat all of these as well. Of course, pure gold might give me indigestion, but it's okay if I can take away the Golden Queen's means of attack.
Within moments, the entire swarm of weapons has disappeared into my body. As before, even without eyes, I can see my surroundings, and notice that Aurelia is staring at me wide-eyed. Her glare is filled with utter disbelief, but anger soon rises in her again.
"You abomination!" With a roar, she raises both her arms and the entire armory comes to life. It seems she thinks that those weren't enough weapons, as every single item on the ground, on the display stands, and those sealed inside cabinets swarm toward me from all directions.
Each and every one of them disappears into my depths, leaving the room completely devoid of any gold except for the aureate adventurers scattered here and there, the throne, and the Golden Queen herself.
She stares at me, more veins popping up on her face as her rage, which has long surpassed its boiling point, enters the realm of plasma. If she were a human instead of a being made of gold - and hadn't tried and almost succeeded in killing Hestia - I'd almost feel bad about making her blood pressure rise to such an extent.
Extending an arm toward me in a grasping motion, she attempts to pull her armory back out from inside me. But I don't feel anything, and judging by her expression, neither is she - in whatever way she's sensing the location of the gold she manipulates.
I shrink my body back to my human shape clad in dragon armor and look up at her with an expression that suggests I'm coming for her now. I put my foot on the first step of her platform, and for the first time, the Golden Queen looks unsure of her victory.
But as if noticing the weakness overcoming her mind, she grinds her teeth and clenches her fists to beat it down. Then she lifts her arms and opens her palms, upon which her golden robes break into sheets that rearrange themselves into an intricately crafted suit of plate armor. Does she want to fight physically next?
"You should be honored. Only the gods have ever stood on the receiving end of this." Regaining her composure, Aurelia looks down at me with a whole new emotion in her eyes and raises her right arm in front of her. A part of me is impressed that a being which seems to be made of nothing but gold has eyes that still act as windows to her soul. "Sing for me, Vanadia."
A sword's golden hilt rises out of the open palm, then the blade emerges. No, calling it a rod would be more accurate, as it has neither a point nor a cutting edge. Its design is unlike anything I've ever seen before, consisting of a seemingly randomly woven golden mesh at the core covered by irregularly arranged and overlapping plates on the outside.
Aurelia's expression of affection as she regards her strange weapon stirs a feeling inside me. It seems that there's far more connecting her to it than just its usage as a last resort.
And my instincts tell me that this thing is dangerous.
But by the time it has fully formed, I'm already near the top of the platform. My instincts have never been wrong, so it's best that I don't give her any time to swing the baton. Mirroring my opponent, a sharp blade covered in dragon carapace on the outside and dragon bone at its core extends from my palm.
"I will grind yo
u into powder!" At that sight, the Golden Queen grows angry again, thinking that I'm mocking her. But when she tries to raise her sword arm, I perform an upward swing in an attempt to cut it off near her shoulder.
I never learned how to wield a sword, so the result is me bouncing off her armor without causing any damage. If this weren't such a tense situation, I would be laughing at my overwhelming idiocy. Why did I do this even though I have better options?
But wait, touching her armor doesn't count as touching her, it seems. Or maybe her ability to turn somebody into gold doesn't activate unless she wills it to. That was a pretty dumb thing to do and could have ended the fight for me if her ability worked through her clothes. I acted rashly and used my own body as a weapon even though I have spirit spears and shadow swords at my disposal.
The Golden Queen brings down her strange weapon, but it's clearly not being used to hit me with physically. Instead, it's like the rod of remorse that an Enma, a god of death, carries to judge the souls of the deceased. Likening it to a conductor's baton might not be too far from the truth either, as a high pitched sound seems to emerge from it the moment her movement stops.
I instinctively jump back, but something invisible cuts through my left arm, part of the shoulder and head, completely ignoring the dragon armor. The pieces are further cut apart until only small shreds and slices remain, raining down on the steps to her throne.
"Hasta de Lumin!" I chant while lunging sideways in anticipation of the next attack. It was the right decision, as both my legs meet the same fate from above the knees with just the tiniest movement from Aurelia's baton. If I had stood still, that would have been my entire body.
The spirit spear explodes against Aurelia's chest armor but doesn't even leave a dent. Then I drop down to the floor, unable to stop my fall as I only have my right arm left. Rolling down the stairs, I notice that her invisible attack seems to have a spiral pattern, as there are deep grooves in the ground, expanding in a cone from the tip of her weapon.
Growing back the lost limbs immediately, I get up on my feet and create a thick shield out of dragon armor while chanting the light barrier spell. The grooves tell me that the attack can't cut through everything and is stopped by objects of sufficient thickness.
In the next moment, my entire body is vertically cut into a dozen slices. The dragon shield wasn't even able to slow the attack, let alone stop it. The one piece retaining my consciousness quickly grows out tentacles in both directions and pulls the separating parts back into a whole body. That was quite dangerous just now: What would have happened if she had used the shredding attack instead?
Luckily, the mass of my physics-defying body is evenly distributed across my outward appearance, so those dozen pieces each had enough of it to grow into a full-fledged human. But if not a single part had been enough to house my consciousness, I would have ended up like the shreds splattered across the stairs before me. Some pieces are beginning to wiggle, and the biggest will likely eat the smaller ones until a new Crawling Chaos is formed - but at that point, it will most likely be with a different consciousness.
While thinking these thoughts, I finish my incantation, which wasn't interrupted by me getting cut up. The sphere of translucent white covers me just as the Golden Queen swings her rod horizontally. Somehow, I'm not surprised to learn that her attack cuts through even this barrier, and I feel my body turning into a finely-sliced stack of ham.
"Thanks for the meal!" Asoko suddenly appears out of nowhere and runs up the stairs in her real form while sweeping up everything I lost with her trailing tentacles. Even though her mass was diminished earlier, she could still turn into her full blood-red Crawling Chaos appearance. But now she's getting it all back and more.
Throwing a tentacle sideways like a grappling hook and swinging herself out of the way, she narrowly avoids the Golden Queen's attack directed at her. In the same move, she speaks the incantation for the blade of darkness spell before swinging right back toward the opponent.
In the meantime, I pull myself back together and speak the same incantation as she is before following Asoko into battle. My other half avoids every swing from Aurelia's rod while hitting her armor with the black spell-blade whenever she gets the chance. Sparks fly, but it's nothing more than a nuisance so far - at least it's doing something, unlike my last application of the spell, which moved through solid matter without any effect.
"Damn you!" Aurelia yells, frustrated that she can't hit her. A black spirit spear suddenly explodes on her chest and blasts off half of her armor. Her body emerges unscathed, but she looks mentally shaken as she directs her eyes into the hall.
I stop as well and look back, to see Hestia back on her feet and with both arms raised while chanting something. Glowing red eyes send a fierce glare through her glasses, though it doesn't seem like she wants to activate her curse. Somehow, I doubt it would have any effect on a body made from gold either.
That's when her frustration and anger boil over, and the Golden Queen points her rod at the angel girl from across the room, ignoring both of me even though we're right beside her. Asoko uses a tentacle to grab the rod and pull it aside, while I swing the dark magic sword at the part exposed from the spirit spear explosion.
My other half's tentacle is shredded, but not before succeeding in directing the attack away from the intended target - it misses and only turns the stone pillar to the right into dust. That's when a second spirit spear from Hestia hits Aurelia's armor and blasts it away to expose most of her upper body. Using that opening, my immaterial blade cuts straight into her collarbone and emerges at her hip.
But to my not-so-surprise, I find that when I'm done with the swing, not only wasn't she cut apart but also has my spell dissipated. I watch in a stupor as her glove opens up on its own and her slender hand emerges to grab my throat. Then the realization hits me that she's doing this to turn me into gold, and the world around me seems to slow down.
From the corner of my eyes, I see Asoko extending a tentacle toward her hand in a desperate attempt to pull her away. But she's way too far for that to succeed. Only now do I realize that Aurelia is incredibly beautiful - perfection carved into a body that will never age. Her face may be distorted in anger, but it doesn't diminish her looks at all.
Despite being made of gold, her skin is unexpectedly warm like a human's and doesn't feel hard at all. The fact that I know this means that she has already made contact with me. My last thought is that I can only leave it to Asoko to find a way out of this now, and hope that she'll protect Hestia and reunite with Kamii in my stead.
"Huh?"
But that sound makes time run normally again, and I find that I'm still conscious and able to move. The Golden Queen is staring at me with her eyes wide open, her hand squeezing my throat quivering from disbelief, or not wanting to believe this.
It seems that her ability has no effect on me and must originate from a curse after all. Without a moment's hesitation, I grab the hilt of her strange weapon and twist it out of her hand. Her jaw drops in shock, for the first time showing an expression of despair.
"Do not touch my-" She begins, but I grow my body into a giant maw and swallow her whole before she can finish.
For a moment, I stand still and stay completely unmoving while I feel Asoko stare at me even though she has no face in her real form either.
When nothing happens, I relax and turn to Hestia, who looks at me wide-eyed. It seems we did it.
Of course, I didn't put her in the same place as all the golden weapons inside me, or she could control them to burst out like Aldebrand did. Just in case, I restrain her movements - including that of her mouth - with as much mass as I can spare and put her in the place that digests the fastest. I doubt that I can dissolve gold, so I'll keep her there until I come across a smelting furnace or a volcano into which I can drop her to end her existence once and for all.
I look down at the strange weapon in my hand. This must be some legendary enchanted weapon, and now it's in my ha
nds. Swinging it in a direction away from either Hestia or Asoko, I try it out immediately, only to find that nothing happens.
Doing it again yields the same result, and I shake it to hear if something on the inside broke. My other half returns to her human shape, now back to its full size thanks to all the mass she collected from me and looks at me with an eyebrow raised.
"Give it here." She walks over to take it from me, but I don't just hand it to her. "I don't think that's how she was holding it."
"I doubt it has anything to do with how to hold it." I rebut and keep it out of her reach.
"Come on, don't be stingy. I want to try it out." Pouting in the same way I would have if our roles were reversed, she grows her arm to snatch it from me. I pull it inside my palm and put an end to this child's play.
Suddenly, the ground starts shaking, and both of me stop to peer around in surprise. That's when I notice Adano on his knees, staring into emptiness with a broken expression. He's muttering something while Kozii tries to pull him up to his feet. It seems the dark elf lost his will to live after seeing his queen defeated.
"What's going on?" I call out to him, but a large crack runs through the entire hall, fracturing into many smaller ones that travel up the walls and pillars toward the ceiling. As if mourning the defeat of its owner, the whole underground palace seems about ready to collapse. "Hey!"
I jump down from the elevated throne platform and land next to Kozii, who stares up at me in fear. Hestia flies across the hall toward us while dodging falling debris.
"This place won't last long. Tell us where the transportation circle is!" I grab Adano's arm and lift him to his legs, but he's like a lifeless doll and falls back down. "Do I have to beat it out of you?"
"Please don't!" Kozii steps between his father and me when I attempt to grab him again and pleads while trying to hold me back. Then he points to the left of the platform and answers my question. "It's behind the throne room."
