Therefore, the Black Annihilation Dragon chose to use his silver tongue to confirm the facts.
— Even if I point out his lack of strength, it would be meaningless if he realizes it’s just a wild guess… To shake his heart, I need to act as if I know everything. — I have no choice but to show it. The world’s strongest dragon’s finest oratory skills!!
And so, the Black Annihilation Dragon made his move.
“Kah kah kah……”
Facing his greatest enemy, the Black Annihilation Dragon let out a chuckling laugh.
“You say my power is nothing but dregs. Well said, Siegfried.”
“……”
The Black Annihilation Dragon spoke in a somewhat mocking, sarcastic tone.
The man facing him watched silently.
“Indeed, I haven’t regained most of the power I had 400 years ago. But what about you, Siegfried?”
The Black Annihilation Dragon asked with a fearless smile.
“……”
The man maintained his silence.
“Are you thinking, ‘No way…’? Unfortunately, that ‘no way’ is correct.”
“……”
“…Did you really think I wouldn’t notice? You should keep your convenient delusions in check.”
The Black Annihilation Dragon avoided making definitive statements, instead trying to shake the man’s confidence.
“It was quite hard to believe that you were the real deal. Not that I doubted the reincarnation magic. As I said before, it wouldn’t be surprising if you could do it.”
“……”
“What I found hardest to believe was how incredibly weak you’ve become.”
“……”
To the silently listening man, the Black Annihilation Dragon spoke in a somewhat exasperated tone.
“…Did you really think you could keep it hidden? …That’s impossible.”
And finally, the Black Annihilation Dragon uttered the words that struck at the core of the matter.
“Siegfried. It’s obvious that you don’t have the power you had 400 years ago in your current reincarnated form.”
With each word he spoke, the Black Annihilation Dragon’s confidence in the truth of his words grew.
The man facing him now appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary human in the Black Annihilation Dragon’s eyes.
The Black Annihilation Dragon was certain that this would instill fear in the man before him.
…However.
— Huh? What?
In that moment, the Black Annihilation Dragon felt his blood, which had been boiling with excitement, suddenly turn cold.
His breath caught. He could hear his own heartbeat all too clearly.
His vision blurred as if the world was distorting, and he couldn’t focus.
Just moments ago, various visions had been flooding his mind, but now his thoughts had gone blank.
In his current state of mental confusion, the Black Annihilation Dragon understood only one thing.
— I can’t sense it…
He desperately tried to concentrate on the man standing a short distance away.
Praying that it was some kind of mistake, he sharpened his senses.
But no matter how much he concentrated, he couldn’t sense any fear from the man.
— No… This can’t be…!?
The Black Annihilation Dragon’s plan had completely fallen apart.
“Sorry, Blackie.”
The man who had been silently listening to the Black Annihilation Dragon’s words from about a dozen meters away slowly approached.
“I was a bit far away, so I couldn’t hear you well.”
The man, holding the “Dragon Slayer Sword Balmung” in one hand, stopped right in front of the Black Annihilation Dragon.
“Could you repeat what you just said?”
“…N-Nothing in particular…?”
The Black Annihilation Dragon tried to pretend that nothing had happened, hoping that if the man hadn’t heard, he might be able to get away with it.
“What about my power?”
…But the Black Annihilation Dragon knew there was no way to deceive him.
“It seems you haven’t changed, which is reassuring…”
“Shall we test right now whether I still have the power from 400 years ago?”
— So you heard everything clearly…
“…Huh!? T-Test, you say!?”
Then, the man in front of him lowered his stance and pulled his sword back.
Gradually, the sword began to emit a golden light.
“Glory Sparkle–” “Wait!!”
Just before the man was about to release his technique, the Black Annihilation Dragon involuntarily shouted.
“……”
Hearing this, the man stopped his hand.
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“…Ahem, ahem. Wait, Siegfried.”
The Black Annihilation Dragon, who had been visibly shaken for a moment, cleared his throat and tried to regain his composure as he spoke.
“Glory Sparkle – Ehre.” That was Siegfried’s ultimate technique that had once driven the immortal Black Annihilation Dragon Schwarzadlius to the brink of complete annihilation.
Siegfried had inflicted many traumas on the Black Annihilation Dragon.
Among them, this technique, which had completely obliterated his physical body and reduced him to an invisible state of mere magical essence, was one of the Black Annihilation Dragon’s greatest traumas.
It was no wonder that the Black Annihilation Dragon reflexively shouted when faced with this technique.
“What’s wrong? Is there a problem with me, who’s supposedly become so weak, using this technique on you?”
“N-No… that’s…”
“Hey, Blackie.”
The man continued speaking to the stammering Black Annihilation Dragon.
“Did you seriously think my reincarnation magic was imperfect?”
“That’s… well…”
“There’s no way that could be true.”
The man stated the obvious fact mercilessly.
— Of course… Of course that’s true!! There’s no way that Siegfried would fail at magic!! Am I an idiot or what!?
The Black Annihilation Dragon harshly scolded himself for his overly optimistic assumptions.
Faced with the man who seemed ready to unleash his technique if not stopped, the Black Annihilation Dragon keenly felt that his doubts had been completely misplaced.
— To think that Siegfried would lose his power, what foolishness… Huh? Wait a minute…
But in the next moment, what arose in the Black Annihilation Dragon was
the same sense of incongruity he had felt moments ago.
…Why did Siegfried stop his attack?
It was already clear that he hadn’t lost his power.
So the reason why he interrupted the “Glory Sparkle – Ehre” and still hasn’t attacked remains unclear.
For a moment, the thought crossed the Black Annihilation Dragon’s mind that perhaps he had already been forgiven by Siegfried during these 400 years.
— …No, that can’t be.
However, he quickly dismissed that possibility.
— I must not entertain such naive thoughts anymore. I must do my utmost to survive this situation without clinging to false hope.
“…Siegfried.”
“What is it?”
After a moment of silence, the Black Annihilation Dragon slowly opened his mouth.
“Would you listen to what I have to say?”
The Black Annihilation Dragon asked the man, as if having made up his mind.
“Sure, I’ll listen.”
Surprisingly, the man agreed readily.
— Still, I don’t understand why he’s not attacking. It’s hard to believe that the man who had such killing intent towards me 400 years ago is now willing to listen to me. — But the fact remains that there’s still room for conversation between us. — Attacking in desperation would be the worst move. Even if I tried to run, I wouldn’t be able to escape and would just end up getting killed.
— Therefore, I must seize this opportunity to find a way to survive while we still have this chance to talk.
Casting aside his pride as the world’s strongest dragon,
the Black Annihilation Dragon chose negotiation with Siegfried as his means of survival.
“Four hundred years… It’s not a particularly long time in my lifespan. However, these 400 years, spent in solitude with my head cut off, the Seal Sword pierced through it, constantly assailed by unbearable pain, felt like an eternity of suffering. Even the worst criminals in the human world wouldn’t receive such a severe punishment, would they?”
“Yeah, I suppose not.”
The man nodded in agreement as the Black Annihilation Dragon continued speaking.
“But I don’t think that absolves me of my sins. …No, I probably will never be forgiven for all eternity.”
“……”
“But even if I’m never forgiven, how long will this continue, Sieg? …I can never die. You seal me, and then after several hundred or thousand years, the seal breaks, you reincarnate, and seal me again… …I ask you once more, how long will this continue, Sieg?”
The Black Annihilation Dragon looked straight into the man’s eyes.
“Knowing you,
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