Akatsuki Translations

【True Babel】 Operations Headquarters—Victor furrowed his brow deeply as he listened to the report.

“I was prepared for some level of failure… but for everything to go wrong?”

It was almost laughable at this point. Almost. But his face refused to so much as twitch.

At least now, he understood why the dragon had descended of its own will. It had been subjected to dispel magic—falling from the sky would have been too great a risk. Instead, it chose to land on its own terms. The defense against magic eyes, which relied on dust storms, had been partially neutralized by acquiring other monsters. And the dragon slayers, who sought to cripple its wings, were targeted and eliminated in advance.

There was no doubt about it. The enemy had anticipated their strategy.

But how?

“Could there be a spy among us?”

“Dragons do not comprehend human speech. Not because they lack intelligence, but because their very way of thinking is fundamentally different from ours.”

Many had attempted to read the minds of dragons before—but every last one of them had been reduced to an empty husk. The sheer disparity in perception between humans and dragons was too vast to bridge.

Likewise, the dragons shouldn’t be capable of understanding human thought. Of course, if there were something—or someone—acting as a mediator between them, that would be a different story. But assuming the existence of such a thing without evidence was pointless.

For now, he could safely dismiss the possibility that their strategy had simply been overheard.

Then how? How had the enemy read their every move?

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《Are you saying this is just a coincidence?》

《No. The way they’re moving proves otherwise.》

《You’re quite certain, Leader.》

Beyond the reach of the dragon’s magic eye—just barely outside its range thanks to the swirling dust storm—【White Sea’s Ripple】was still locked in combat against the kamaitachi. The air was thick with slicing wind, as countless of the creatures appeared and tried to clear the dust with their invisible gales. Begude cut through them one after another with precise efficiency. The ground around him was soon littered with their corpses, breaking apart into nothingness.

《The timing was too perfect. The magic eye-obscuring dust storm and the kamaitachi’s emergence happened almost simultaneously. Calling it coincidence would be naive.》

《But if that’s the case… how?》

《That’s what I’m trying to figure out. If you notice anything, no matter how small, report it to the Knight Captain immediately.》

『KI!!?』

As he spoke, Begude swung his sword once more. Three kamaitachi were sliced into ribbons in an instant. Their small, beast-like forms barely visible in the storm, their heads tumbled to the ground.

The battle was progressing in his favor. But the sheer number of kamaitachi was overwhelming. Their persistence was unnerving—they would stop at nothing to keep the magic eye’s field of vision clear. If this kept up until the mages were exhausted…

No. He had to put an end to this before that happened.

《…Where is the mage corp deployed?》

《They should be positioned slightly behind us, under heavy guard… right?》

The moment he heard that, Begude shot forward.

The dragon had descended to avoid the risk of falling due to dispel magic. Then, it had systematically dismantled their offensive efforts. Yet its response to the dust storm had been limited to using the kamaitachi.

But the dragon’s true objective was still the same—seizing Sua from within its belly and making an escape.

Which meant it would never ignore the mage corp responsible for conjuring the dust storm—the very group that had the ability to nullify its flight and force it to the ground.

That meant—

“Headquarters! Pull the sandstorm mages back and reinforce their defenses!”

《We’ve already given the order! But keep moving toward them!》

“Understood!”

Something was happening.

Begude leaped higher. Carving through any airborne beasts in his path, he pressed forward until the mage corp came into view. They were sheltered behind the knights’ defensive wall, shielded from the monster onslaught.

But that barrier was shaking violently.

What the hell?

As he got closer, he saw it—something massive, writhing in the shadows of the attacking creatures.

A long, thick, black body. Not quite a serpent—more like a grotesquely oversized leech, its slimy mass coiling and twisting as it gnawed at the defensive wall.

That’s…

“A 【Baby Dragon】?!”

A dragon pup

Not yet fully grown, but still a dragon nonetheless. And there wasn’t just one.

Where the hell did they come from?!

That question flashed through his mind—but there was no time for answers.

He moved. Immediately.

“【Fixate!】”

The magic eye took hold.

That much was a relief.

Begude drove his sword into the nearest dragon pup. But—

“Tch… Tough bastard!”

『GYYYYYYYYYAAAAAA!!』

Even as a newborn, a dragon was still a dragon. Its skin was like armor—thick, slick, and black, only barely torn by his strike. This was beyond what mere skill could slice through.

And its strength—formidable. Despite its smaller frame, it was far heavier than it looked. If it rammed into him, bones would shatter on impact.

But Begude had long fought on the frontlines, despite his small stature. He was no stranger to enemies with ridiculous durability.

“Let’s see if your guts are just as tough.”

『G!?』

He wrenched his sword free and, without hesitation, jammed it straight into the creature’s unnervingly large mouth.

The dragon pup’s fangs snapped shut, trying to tear his arm clean off—but he stopped it.

“【Fixate!】”

The magic eye locked its jaws in place.

Then—stab, twist, rip.

The dragon pup spasmed violently, its body jerking in place as if trapped in an invisible vise. Moments later, it stilled.

Begude yanked out his sword, its blade dripping. He wiped it clean and muttered to himself.

“Still weak. Must’ve just been born.”

But dragons grew at an unnatural rate.

Time was not on their side.

He sprinted toward the defensive barrier, where more dragon pups were flinging themselves at it with crazed, frenzied force. At the same time, he opened communications.

“Headquarters! They’re predicting our every move! We need countermeasures—now!”

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Inside the Rock ‘n’ Roll

“Why? How is the dragon predicting our movements…?”

“Shizuku, I get that you’re deep in thought, but we’re currently being shaken to death, just so you know.”

Upside down, Ur shot a deadpan remark at Shizuku, who was also upside down and deep in thought.

The two of them were currently crammed inside the Rock ‘n’ Roll.

“For the time being, I believe we’re safe. The dragon thrashed around at first from the impact of landing, but now it’s settled. It likely won’t move again until it eliminates all obstacles to flight.”

“That’s good to know, but now we have a different problem—figuring out how the hell to get out of here.”

Ur winced as he rubbed the bruises and lumps forming all over his body.

When the dragon had forcefully crash-landed, the Rock ‘n’ Roll had been sent flying. Somehow, in the chaos, it had ended up impaled on the sharp spikes at the end of the dragon’s tail.

『The damn thing’s wedged right in the gap between its armor plates! This ain’t coming out easy!』

As a result, the two had no choice but to endure the dragon’s wild thrashing from within the ship, suffering significant damage in the process.

Shizuku looked no better—blood trickled from a gash on her forehead.

But she didn’t seem to care. She was completely lost in thought.

Through the transmissions from headquarters, both of them had been briefed on the current situation. Since then, Shizuku had remained silent, absorbed in contemplation.

Then, suddenly, she looked straight at Ur.

“Ur-sama, what do you think? You too, Rock.”

“What do I think…? Well…”

『I ain’t good at this sorta thing. Ur, you take it.』

Rock promptly abandoned any attempt at thinking.

Ur, still upside down, scratched his head.

“Honestly? The scale of the dragon is so massive, it’s numbing my imagination.”

When he first heard that the dragon was predicting their strategy, his immediate thought had been:

“Well, it’s a dragon. I guess that makes sense.”

The sheer difference in power was too overwhelming. His brain had stopped trying to process it logically.

The enemy was so absurdly massive in scale that it felt like it could do anything.

He knew that was a dangerous mindset to have on the battlefield, but—

“Ur-sama.”

Shizuku’s voice cut through his thoughts.

She was looking straight at him, her gaze sharp and unwavering.

Even upside down, she was beautiful.

The ridiculous thought crossed his mind—”A beauty is still a beauty, even when flipped upside down.”

“No matter how far removed from common sense dragons may be, they are still living creatures. If you kill them, they die. That much is absolute.”

Diz had repeated that point countless times. Dragons die. They can be killed.

She had been insistent about it, pressing the notion over and over. At the time, Ur hadn’t understood why.

But now, he was starting to.

She had been worried that they would end up exactly like this—paralyzed by the overwhelming existence of a dragon.

And Shizuku had realized it, too.

“The fact that they can be killed means they live by the same principles as us. That means there must be a reason behind this dragon’s actions.”

“…Got it. Let me think for a second.”

Still upside down, Ur gave a small nod.

He had nearly fallen into the same mental trap that anyone who faced a dragon risked—falling into despair at its sheer absurdity. He massaged his forehead, forcing his thoughts back into balance.

Shizuku was right.

Dragons were monstrous. Their existence was unreasonable.

But they were not invincible.

If they truly were untouchable, they wouldn’t have bothered with countermeasures like the kamaitachi. They wouldn’t have needed the sandstorm to block their vision.

The fact that they had taken those measures meant that the dragon had needed to.

It had feared something.

It had weaknesses.

“…”

Then what was the logic behind its ability to read all their movements?

It had reacted as if it had known their entire strategy in advance. As if it had anticipated everything.

A dragon. A flying dragon. A dragon with Magic Eyes. A countermeasure prepared in advance. A precognitive movement—

Wait.

“Shizuku, when Paisen talked about the Black Dragon, what did he say happened to him?”

“He said his ability was ‘nullified’ by the same kind of Magic Eye. His 【Fixation】 was broken…”

At that, Ur reached for the hatch of the Rock ‘n’ Roll. The entire tank had flipped over, so the exit was now beneath his feet. Carefully, he unlatched it.

“Rock, hold me steady. Make sure I don’t fall.”

『Not sure what yer gettin’ at, but all right.』

The skeletal arms of Rock wrapped securely around him, suspending him in place.

Ur leaned forward, lowering himself upside down, and slowly removed his eyepatch.

His Precognitive Magic Eye stared straight at the dragon.

And then—

“——”

The moment his left eye perceived the world without the black cloth filter, everything blurred.

His uncontrolled, barely mastered future vision overlapped seconds ahead of reality, making his sight double in a nauseating, disorienting way.

But this time—

His vision was different.

The world was indeed overlapping, a doubled haze of past and future.

But—

At the very center, where the dragon should have been, there was nothing.

The space it occupied was missing.

At first, Ur thought it was because the dragon’s scales were black, blending into the surroundings. But that wasn’t it.

His Magic Eye simply did not register the dragon’s presence.

The creature was there—he knew it was there—but his sight refused to capture it.

And yet—

Within that void, one thing did shine.

A single point of blinding brilliance.

A Magic Eye.

It remained utterly still, unmoving, locked onto something unseen. But the intensity of its glow was undeniable.

It pulled Ur’s gaze toward it, as though demanding attention—

And at the same time, it burned.

A searing pain, like fire licking the back of his eye.

“Gh—!”

『Oi! Quit squirming, damn it!』

The agony became unbearable, snapping Ur back to reality. His consciousness reeled from the heat, his body convulsing in pain.

If Rock hadn’t been holding him up, he would have plummeted straight out of the tank.

Seeing this, Rock yanked him back, throwing him into the overturned Rock ‘n’ Roll with a solid thud.

“Ur-sama!”

“…Command… HQ, do you read me?”

Panting, grimacing through the lingering pain, Ur forced the words out.

“I figured it out.”

Shizuku had already started treating his injuries, but his mind was locked onto only one thought.

He grit his teeth and shouted—

“The dragon is reading us using a 【Magic Eye of Future Vision】!”

Not because his own future sight had been erased.

But because it had clashed.

A Magic Eye of the same kind—canceling his own.