Chapter 443: O Dragon, O Dragon! Part 20

『Fuhahahahaha! Splendid! Oh, splendid!! What radiance! An incandescent heat that threatens to scorch my very eyes! A jewel-like brilliance that threatens to blind me!! Good, a Hero is a singular flame that attracts and guides the masses! Those who aim to become Heroes springing into action with your flame as the opening volley is the greatest proof of all!! Fuhahaha, fuhahahahahahahaha!!』

Laughing. Looking down from high in the sky at the players swarming like ants, he could have easily sneered in contempt, yet Siegwurm instead expressed pure, unadulterated joy with a booming laugh, entirely devoid of any negative emotion.

『Oh... Humans, Heroes. Your path will inevitably be colored by hardship upon the return of those ones. In that case, you must prove yourselves; if you seek to slay the same "Color", fine, and if you seek to slay me, even better!! I accept your challenge! Now, what will you do!!』

"Then I'll gladly take you up on your offer and borrow your chest!!"

Akitsu Akane leaped from Noirlind's back once more, jumping across toward Siegwurm. Even if attacks fueled by magic—which could be considered a Dragon's greatest weapon, their breath—were sealed away, physical attacks utilizing Noirlind's massive frame wouldn't be nullified, putting aside whether they'd actually be effective or not.

『Akitsu Akane! Do it!!』

"Yes! U-Um, just a little to the right of the throat..."

『Ho, planning to pierce my Imperial Wrath... but do not think half-baked blades will work on me when I am prepared for death!!』

Siegwurm's Imperial Wrath. When constructing the Golden Dragon King by pooling together the wisdom of the Divine Age, it was the single, solitary point that ended up with lower durability compared to the rest of the scales due to structural issues.
If this were a normal Siegwurm, the moment it was pierced, it would be the part that bestowed a Curse-like Blessing, but to the current Siegwurm, it was nothing more than a "somewhat weak spot."

However, that was strictly judging from the perspective of a human attacker. Right here, right now, one could say Akitsu Akane literally possessed the fangs and claws of a Dragon.

"Right here!!"

『Diiiiieeeee!!』

『Nuo!?』

Akitsu Akane was ultimately just an observer; her true objective was simply to relay the position of the Imperial Wrath to Noirlind based on past experience. And precisely because attention tends to be overly focused on humans and easily distracted away from Noirlind, the Black Dragon's fangs seized the momentary opening created by the two explosions that occurred down on the ground, sinking right into the Golden throat.

『Guh, nuuuuu! Insolent!!』

『Gwaah!?』

Yet the fangs that managed to barely pierce the Imperial Wrath were torn away, jaw and all, as Siegwurm violently shook him off, before a clenched Golden fist smashed heavily into Noirlind's cheek.

『Getting arrogant?! To think you would bare your fangs at me with such a paltry strike!!』

『Say whatever you want, the one whose corpse will be left out to rot in the end will be you, Siegwurm!!』

He fired a pitch-black breath from point-blank range, causing one horn on the left and one on the right out of his remaining five horns to shine, wrapping his entire body in light.
Glaring at the dissipating black breath with a look that seemed like he wanted to click his tongue, Noirlind leaped at Siegwurm once again.

"Uuu... Magic nullification makes things really hard to deal with...!!"

Barely clinging to Siegwurm's back, Akitsu Akane let out a whiny complaint at the glowing state that completely crushed her main strength as a magic-based class.
Siegwurm's magic nullification ability, Shining Dragon King (Tupac Amaru), could be described as an incredibly thick coat of paint.
Mana particles placed under complete control by the Dragon King simply painted over and nullified any external mana interference not under Siegwurm's control.

However, there were two weaknesses to this form.

The first was that it could not be used simultaneously with his skill-nullification barrier, Jazzy-Zone, meaning that skill-based attacks would still work. Although the underlying principles were different, Siegwurm was bound by a restriction similar to Ctarrnid's.

And the second. The radiant form that nullified all external magic interference—in other words, all magic—had a weakness against "material interference" that bypassed the magical process.
And that was something that a certain category of equipment possessed completely by default——!!

"...Suzaku, I'm going to use you a bit roughly, is that okay?"

『No ProBleM.』

『Nuuuu!!?』

A single streak of "Red" darting through the sky. No, that was wrong, it wasn't something dyed red down to the very marrow of its bones like those Genesis Monsters; rather, it was a beautiful pair of crimson wings.
The Blade of Cremation—once used to pin down a wolf that was the very incarnation of the night—was now resting on the arm of a lustrous-winged cyborg, fulfilling its original intended function.

Leaping off the reeling Siegwurm who had been thrown back by the sudden ambush, Akitsu Akane managed to return to Noirlind's back and cast her gaze toward the ambusher.

"R-Robot?"

"...Akitsu Akane, I've come as reinforcements."

"Eh, ah, Rust-san!?"

Roaring, a red cyborg danced through the air, propelled by waves of intense heat emitted from the steel crimson wings spreading from her waist. Looking purely at the keywords, a winged humanoid might sound like a Birdian, but whereas a Birdian's wings and arms are fused together into a single structure, these wings and arms existed as completely separate entities.
Although the wings were positioned a bit low, if anything, she closely resembled an "Angel."

『What is that annoying insect!』

"Ah, um, she's in the same clan... ah, yes, she's my friend!"

『Hmph...』

"...Noirlind, we are here to ensure you win. We are here to defeat Siegwurm... A message from our Boss."

『What?』

"...He said, 'Hey Noir-lin! If you're going to bet your entire life on beating Siegwurm, then fight Siegwurm down on the ground, YO!' ...That's what he said."

"........."

『.........』

"............Ahem. It's not something I came up with myself, it's strictly a message."

Offering a somewhat uncomfortable excuse into the indescribable silence, Rust, having fully linked with the Tactical Mech-Bird, leveled her blade at Siegwurm once again—a scorching Incinerating Anti-Magic Blade (Incinerate: Slasher) rooted in the wisdom of the Divine Age, distinct from Areadbhair.

"...Enemies who act all high and mighty from outside the combat zone are universally hated."

『The armor of distant days, is it... Kukuku, then what will you do?』

"...I'm not trying to brag, but right now I am... correction."

A star-like twinkle on the ground; the only one who noticed it was the targeted Siegwurm. From bottom to top.

"We are extremely strong."

『A snipe!!』

"...I do limit-time battles like this every single morning, I'll shoot you right out of the sky."

Going back five minutes.

"Alright then, fellow co-owners! I am putting the clan-shared item up for approval!"

"What's with the overly dramatic tone... approved."

"Wait, how the hell do I cure this status ailment...? Approved."

Three windows processed the exact same action, and the steel bird, its corresponding armor, and several weapons were registered into the clan-shared item box installed on the Seafaring Ship Brunbas as clan-use items.

Then and there, Rust operated the clan item box and manifested it into reality.

"Ooooh... Beauti-fuuul..."

"Treat it nicely, alright?"

"Those words hit completely differently coming from you when you treat your gear like absolute garbage, Sunraku-kun!!"

"Hey, is Sunraku exhaling helium instead of carbon dioxide or something?"

"We already did this joke before, didn't we? (falsetto)"

"F-Fufu..."

Mold, you...

"No, it's fine. It's fine... More importantly, is there any way we can use wireless comms with this?"

"Wireless?"

No, Rust's undefeated legend wasn't achieved by a single person's hands. The only reason she boasted a completely exaggeration-free undefeated record was precisely because she had a partner whose assist capabilities were so overwhelmingly high that they could join a random lobby and still run roughshod over everyone.

"Ah... I wonder, even if there was wireless communication, we only have one reactor so the other mechs can't boot up..."

Just as OiKatzo was about to convey the sheer difficulty of making Mold's wish a reality,

"I see, in other words, Intelligence Communication."

The self-proclaimed mass of intellect (Intelligence) arrived. Perhaps because the frontline was currently being maintained by the fierce assault of the other players, Saina came over to where Sunraku and the others were; with a clacking sound, she folded away her head casing in a completely inexplicable mechanical sequence, revealing a distinctly human—yet entirely non-human—face.

"Currently, 【Rising Waterfall】 is operational via the energy supply from this unit (me). Therefore, although it must be routed through this unit (me), long-distance communication with the wearer of 【Lustrous Feather】 is entirely possible."

The entire group fell into a brief silence.

"Fwump."

"Gubeh."

Pencilgon brutally stepped on Sunraku's back as he slowly tried to crawl away on all fours.

"Wow, what a cute girl we have here~? Naturally, you're going to introduce us, right...?"

"Stoooop, you bastard, let goooo."

Author's Afterword
Twenty chapters in, Siegwurm-shi is still airborne.
I wonder if this will finish before the end of the year... (whining)

Siegwurm's magic nullification negates "magic bullets or bullets made of magic," but it cannot negate "physical bullets that were previously prepared and then fired using magic as propulsion."
Because at the end of the day, propulsion relies on the laws of physics.