Ep 66. Get A Life, Will You? (6)

 

Light approached the giant lake, marvelling at the size of the water. She’d only been able to take a brief look when they’d first arrived; now, she could take in the grandeur of the continent’s largest lake at leisure.

“Woah…I can’t even see the other side!”

The beautiful nature view was beginning to wash away the guilt of running away from work. The half girl went about searching for a comfortable place to sit and relax – if she was going to skip out on working, she might as well make good use out of it.

After finding a cozy shade underneath a nearby tree, the half girl put her back against the bark, slumping down on the floor. In the comfort of her refreshing surroundings, Light slowly closed her eyes, her hair rippling against the passing breeze.

A slow, shallow wave broke into the shore with a faint, calming noise. It was almost felt like an oceanside vacation.

Almost.

“…Wait…what?”

And finally, Light kindly reminded herself that she was, in fact, at a lake.

Light slowly opened her eyes again. Another wave crashed ashore, this time a little harder than the last. When she raised her gaze to follow the crashing waves to their source, she could see the lake rippling from afar for no apparent reason.

Soon, the ripples became rumbles, and waves were no longer calming. Even the ground began to echo with a faint thudding noise.

‘Uh oh. Uh oh. Uh oh. Right, I’m in the middle of nowhere. What was I thinking?!’

Ilias was not with her right now; no one was. If the source of the lake’s tremor was a monster, then she had to get out of this place immediately.

That’s as far as her thoughts went until a glimmering scaled head exploded out of the surface, pelting large amounts of water all over the riverside.

In her hurried panic, Light immediately rose to her feet, covering her face as water splashed everywhere around her. A monstrous reptile had emerged from the water with a large…something…held in its maw.

A high-pitched shriek filled the forest, scaring away the resting birds that fluttered out of the area afterwards.

‘What IS that?! Is that a snake?!’

It was grey, it was scaled, it had two large fangs digging into whatever the hell it was holding in its mouth, and Light couldn’t see anything other than its long neck and smooth head – which was already at least three times her height. In all fairness, it did look like a giant snake.

It wasn’t, but it looked like it.

The ‘snake’ turned its head towards the shrieking voice. When the trembling half girl came to sight, a muffled voice came from within its metal scales.

“Kii, rewaa.” (Kid, relax.)

That didn’t exactly come out right – not with all the dirt muffling their voice. But Light could recognize the tone and sound, even if individual words weren’t too distinct.

Thudding steps echoed throughout the forest as the monstrosity showed the rest of its body. Clawed limbs finally revealed themselves from out of the waters, and Light’s panic slowly began to die down.

“…Raizel???”

The dragon nodded her head as she walked back ashore. When she was completely out of the waters, her figure momentarily turned into a murky grey silhouette, reducing in size until the familiar steel dragon returned to her human form. The huge pile of dirt she’d been holding in her maw dropped down to her raised hand, making a pseudo dirt roof over the dragon’s head.

Raizel spat off to the side with a disgusted expression, trying to rid the dirt taste in her mouth.

“Ugh. Can’t believe I had to do that…huh?”

When their eyes met, Raizel could see Light staring back at her, dumbfounded.

“Something wrong? You’ve seen Ilias transform already, haven’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but…you…”

Light scanned the steel dragon from head to toe. It’d occurred to her before, and she’d passed it off as personal preference – but now that she’d seen Raizel in her original state, the half girl began to realize that it wasn’t a matter of preference at all.

“You don’t have…wings? Or horns?”

“No.”

“How come? Didn’t all dragons have them?”

“…”

Light winced in fear when saw Raizel’s expression hardening at the question; the steel dragon already had a bad temper to begin with. When Raizel approached her in silence and hovered her hand over the half girl, Light wrapped her arms over her head in panic, closing her eyes shut.

“Sorry, sorry, I won’t ask again! Promise!”

The steel dragon snorted at the panicked reaction. Her hovering hand softly plopped down on the top of Light’s head, patting her hair into a mess.

“Kids don’t need to know stuff like that.”

“…?”

At the unexpected lack of violence, Light slowly opened her eyes again. She lowered her arms, staring into Raizel with a quizzical gaze.

“…You’re not going to hit me?”

“What? No. Do I look like I will?”

“…Yeah?”

“...”

After a ‘friendly’ session of hanging out by the riverside, the two later returned to the cabin together. Otoka’s craft proceeded apace as his assigned ingredients were collected one by one; eventually, it came to be a simple waiting game.

As soon as it was finished, Serenis could head back to the city with Karas. Surely, a few days’ waiting wouldn’t make a big difference.

Surely.

 

✧   ✧   ✧

 

An elven figure rushed out of his dimensional tear, letting out a satisfied sigh once all the ice was gone from sight. Felicir stepped out of the gate behind him.

A breath of warm, fresh air greeted their entrance; the vibrance of the city below was nothing short of welcoming after their visit to the frozen cavern just now.

“Ah, much better. I will never understand why Aymeia chose the dreaded north as her lair. She really ought to be like your sister more.”

“Come now. The cavern’s rather pretty without the cold – which she can’t feel.”

Felicir scanned their surrounding once more, noting the small hill they were standing on. The city of Partivine stretched before them, brimming with life and activity.

“Though, my dear sister does have good taste. It truly is a lovely city.”

The elf smirked at the hollowness of the death deity’s comment.

“It’s a shame that the harbinger of doom has arrived, then.”

“Haha. Come now, there are plenty others that fit the description better than I.”

“…I beg to differ, ‘Reaper.’ You leave nothing but death in your steps.”

Felicir’s eyes narrowed at his friend’s remark. Though it was more of a factual statement than an insult, it still unnerved the winged figure just the same.

“Strange. If that was true, you should’ve been long dead, Clyus.”

The elf winced, sensing the hostility behind his grinning friend’s voice. He awkwardly cleared his throat, turning his eyes away.

“…Apologies. Let’s go find your sister.”

After snorting at his friend’s hurried change of subject, Felicir began to descend the hill, heading towards the city’s heart. He didn’t know where Felicis was, but she’d always been easy to find – for him, anyways.

“I do wonder how she’s been. I simply can’t wait to find out.”

“…How are you planning to find Felicis exactly? Doesn’t she live with a human disguise?”

“Oh, it’s really simple. We just ask any civilian where she is.”

Clyus frowned at the certainty in Felicir’s voice. The deity of death’s solution seemed much too simple – and not exactly effective for locating someone in disguise, either.

“And if they don’t know…?”

The deity of death shrugged back at his elven friend.

“Then they die, and we move onto the next one.”

The elf pursed his lips, imagining how that would go. He slowly nodded his head in acknowledgement.

‘And he wonders why people call him the Reaper.’