Countless thoughts raced through his mind.
The Black-Gold Dragon was originally supposed to awaken three years from now.
Having only just risen from its lair, it would be slain by the original protagonist.
That was the established story of ‘EX-Rank Demonic Beast Hunter’ that Kranol had read.
‘But why in the world?’
The final boss of Act One had awakened now and sent a Dragon-Tooth Soldier here.
Kranol could not understand it at all.
What had caused such an unforeseen change?
‘Could it be because I used Summon the Berserk Dragon last time?’
Kranol immediately dismissed the thought.
‘No, that cannot be.’
That Secret Art could not cause a change of this magnitude.
Moreover, nothing should have been capable of waking the Black-Gold Dragon during its dormant period.
It needed that time to recover the life force it had exhausted during its violent active period.
Furthermore, it had suffered a grievous wound during its previous active period.
‘No matter how much I think about it, I cannot understand.’
Even after reviewing the past, he could not find the answer.
He had done nothing capable of causing such an enormous deviation.
That left him with only one hypothesis.
‘Something that never occurred in the original story has happened because of a factor I know nothing about.’
Kranol clenched his fist.
He could not determine the cause right now, but he had to remain calm.
If the Black-Gold Dragon's Dragon-Tooth Soldier was currently flying toward them, the situation was dire.
The creature possessed enough destructive power to turn a metropolis like this into a sea of flames.
‘This is no time to stand around.’
Kranol looked at the trembling Chubby.
“Where is the Black-Gold Dragon's servant now? How long will it take to reach us?”
“Rooooar!”
Chubby raised both front paws and evenly spread all five claws.
“Five days?”
“Rooar!”
Chubby shook her head.
Desperately hoping that his next guess was wrong, Kranol asked again.
“……Do you mean five hours?”
“Rrah!”
Chubby nodded vigorously.
Kranol gritted his teeth.
He hurried back to the inn room and woke Plumpy, who was still asleep.
“Yaaawn! Mister! Why are you waking me when I was sleeping so well?”
“Wake up and get moving immediately. We are leaving this place.”
“Huh? Why all of a sudden?”
Kranol packed their belongings and answered with a grave expression.
“Because in five hours, this metropolis will be reduced to ruins.”
***
A Dragon-Tooth Soldier was a soldier created from a dragon's tooth.
They were usually private troops used to guard a dragon's lair.
However, the Dragon-Tooth Soldiers of a mighty being such as the Black-Gold Dragon were far from ordinary.
‘The Black-Gold Dragon wants to destroy humanity's cities so that it can reach the ‘Outer Lands.’’
If it had awakened ahead of schedule, the situation was serious.
Of course, it had only recently awakened from its dormant period, so its power was probably not yet complete.
Had it been in peak condition, the Dragon-Tooth Soldier would have simply ‘teleported’ here and destroyed the metropolis.
However, if the Black-Gold Dragon regained its full power before long…….
‘No one will be able to stop it. Not even the original protagonist.’
In the original story, the protagonist had executed the final boss of Act One.
However, that had only been possible because the Black-Gold Dragon had ‘just awakened’ from its dormant period.
At the time, the dragon had effectively been in an incomplete physical condition.
If left alone, however, it would regain the power it had possessed in its prime.
“…….”
Kranol hurried toward the outskirts.
Fewer than five hours remained.
If they wanted to live, they had to escape the metropolis.
“Mister! Where are you rushing off to? Why will you not answer me no matter how many times I ask?”
Plumpy stared at Kranol strangely.
Then it happened.
Kranol, who had been walking with a grave expression, suddenly stopped.
“Chubby.”
“Rooooar.”
“Should I live or die?”
“Rooooar?!”
The startled little ones' eyes immediately filled with tears.
They seemed to be asking why he never grew tired of saying such things.
‘I have to make a decision here.’
Kranol suddenly found his attempt to flee absurd.
Escaping now would not necessarily allow him to survive.
Once the Dragon-Tooth Soldier shattered the metropolis, the situation would spiral beyond control.
‘The more of the world the Black-Gold Dragon destroys, the more of its original strength it regains.’
Should he struggle to survive even when the predetermined conclusion was hell?
Or should he simply end everything and accept a frightening but peaceful rest?
At that moment, Plumpy puffed out her cheeks and tugged at Kranol's clothes.
“Why are you only asking Chubby? I am here too!”
“What do you think?”
“I do not know!”
“…….”
Kranol frowned.
However, Plumpy looked up at him resolutely.
“That is not something we should decide for you! You have to decide it yourself! If you leave even the decision to live in someone else's hands, then it is not your life! Still, I do want you to live! You have to buy us more delicious things! You have to show us more of this exciting world too! Oh, and you have to bring Rolly back, and then…….”
“That is enough.”
Kranol closed his eyes for a moment.
He considered many things.
His life before possessing this body and everything that had happened until this very moment.
Lastly, he thought about the two little ones.
“Haaah.”
He eventually opened his eyes, having reached a conclusion.
Kranol wanted to survive.
Even now, that damned headache tormented him.
Yet, for some reason, he still wanted to live.
That was the decision he had reached after his long struggle.
“…….”
In that case, what he needed to do was obvious.
Kranol turned around.
“Mister?”
“Let us go back.”
He began walking in the exact opposite direction from before.
Chubby and Plumpy looked at each other.
Smiles appeared on the two little ones' faces.
“Rrah! Rooooar!”
“Hee! That is right, Chubby! Now you are acting like yourself, Mister!”
Several departments in the metropolis were responsible for managing the Alchemical War.
Kranol stormed into the building that oversaw the fireworks.
The dozing powder magazine manager jolted awake.
“GASP! W-who are you?!”
“Inform the organizers immediately. This competition must be stopped as quickly as possible.”
“No, who are you to suddenly demand that the competition be…… Gah!”
Without even listening to the rest, Kranol kicked the man squarely between the brows.
The manager was knocked backward, lost consciousness, and began bleeding from the nose.
Thanks to the Heavenly Martial Physique Trait, Kranol could subdue him with minimal force.
Plumpy stared at him in disbelief.
“No, Mister! How is he supposed to deliver the message after you knock him unconscious?”
“Put him outside. It will be faster to persuade the soldiers when they arrive.”
Kranol took the manager's keys and unlocked the padlock on the powder magazine door.
The room was filled with Magical Fireworks transmuted by alchemists.
Kranol wrote the message he wanted upon them.
“Take these and set them all off.”
“Rooooar!”
“Wow! This is exciting! We are playing with fireworks!”
Chubby and Plumpy excitedly carried away the fireworks.
An alarming number of brilliant flames shot into the sky.
Blazes of every color illuminated the dark heavens with dazzling light.
WHOOOOOSH…… BANG-BANG!
Fireworks suddenly exploded in the middle of the night.
The light was as painfully bright as sunlight.
It was more than enough to capture everyone's attention.
“What is that?”
“Why are fireworks going off in the middle of the night?”
The sleeping citizens rushed outside in alarm.
Letters of flame had been inscribed across the formerly silent night sky.
「All alchemists must assemble in the central district immediately.
The metropolis of Aletica has now entered a state of war.
This is a real emergency. Prepare for an invasion by a Dragon-Tooth Soldier.
I repeat.
All alchemists must assemble in the central district immediately…….」
The fireworks continued launching without pause, filling the sky with light.
The burning letters remained in the heavens for dozens of minutes without fading.
***
“This is truly absurd.”
Bineureban crossed his legs with an irritated expression.
He was currently wearing lizard-patterned pajamas that did not suit him in the slightest.
The other alchemists were dressed similarly.
Most of them had just awakened, and even their hair was disheveled.
“I came after seeing the fireworks, but you are saying that a Dragon-Tooth Soldier is going to invade a metropolis like this? How does that make any sense?”
“Yes, it does.”
Kranol's appearance was equally ridiculous.
He was wearing handcuffs around both wrists.
They had been placed on him for assaulting the powder magazine manager.
Mayor Koldo sighed as he looked between the two strangely dressed men.
“Mr. Bineureban, we could hardly believe it either, but this man is telling the truth. We have received a report from the outskirts. An enormous monster is approaching from a great distance.”
The Mayor of Aletica, Koldo Jarin.
The middle-aged gentleman with the monocle was also a renowned alchemist.
He was the only person who had arrived in the middle of the night without a single strand of hair out of place.
However, even he could not conceal his astonishment at this unexpected crisis.
“That Dragon-Tooth Soldier will not be a mere giant monster. It must have inherited the power of a dragon. The forces currently stationed in the metropolis will not be sufficient to stop such a creature. Shameless though it may be for me to ask, we desperately need the assistance of every alchemist here.”
The response, however, was dismal.
The pajama-clad alchemists reacted in horror.
“You want us to participate in a real war? We only entered a competition!”
“We can prevent death in a tournament by declaring our surrender. A genuine battle is entirely different!”
“I cannot send my Chimera onto a battlefield where blood will spray and flesh will be crushed!”
“That is right! I would rather abandon this miserable city!”
Although the Chimeras had been fused into all manner of grotesque forms, no one regarded them as pitiable creatures.
This was not because the public was cruel.
The reason lay in the process of transmuting a Chimera.
There was one essential ingredient required to create them.
An alchemist’s “love.”
A Chimera could only be created by adding the factors of dying creatures.
An alchemist could hunt creatures and obtain their factors that way, but doing so would make it impossible to infuse the Chimera with ‘affection.’
These alchemists had saved beloved pets from a permanent separation by fusing them with other creatures.
That was why they all sincerely cherished their Chimeras.
“No, you have no choice.”
Everyone turned toward Kranol.
He dismissed their protests firmly.
“It is already too late. Even if you leave the city now, you have almost no chance of surviving. Everyone must stand and fight if we are going to survive. Our opponent is the Black-Gold Dragon's Dragon-Tooth Soldier.”
Everyone's eyes widened.
The Black-Gold Dragon!
None of them were unfamiliar with that terrifying ancient legend.
It was a dreadful omen of doom that had once attempted to destroy the continent.
Had such an overwhelming evil appeared in the world once again?
Bineureban furrowed his brow.
“Just who are you? How can you be so certain that you know all of this?”
“We do not have enough time for me to explain that. However, I swear that every word I have spoken is true. I was the only person who detected the Dragon-Tooth Soldier's invasion and gathered all of you here.”
There was no way to refute that.
An alchemist wearing toad-patterned pajamas asked tensely.
“Then…… do you also know how to defeat the Dragon-Tooth Soldier?”
“It will be dangerous, but there is one plan that offers us the highest probability of survival.”
“W-what is it?”
Kranol answered calmly.
“Sweet things.”
“Pardon?”
“Dragon-Tooth Soldiers hate sweet things. Candy, fruit—anything that causes cavities.”
“What in the world are you……?”
“Also, gather everyone in the metropolis with experience in dentistry. Those who have extracted wisdom teeth without anesthesia would be ideal. They will buy us time against the ferocious Dragon-Tooth Soldier.”
“…….”
A sudden silence fell among the alchemists.
Bineureban gave him an incredulous look and responded sarcastically.
“Will we not need Ice Magic too? I have a feeling it dislikes cold things as well.”
“I was about to mention that. Alchemists with Cold-Attribute Chimeras should gather over here.”
“…….”
Three hours and seventeen minutes remained until the Dragon-Tooth Soldier's invasion.
The ‘real Alchemical War’ had begun.