Rune strode up to Hika and picked her up and placed her on his shoulder. Then he carefully laid her down next to Erin and cast [Heal Greater] on the two of them. A green light appeared before him over the two and their wounds closed and healed. Their bruises faded and their bleeding stopped. Even their breathing became normal once more.

The two lied their to rest and Rena and Rouna staggered over to them. Rune healed them too as their blood leaked from their mouths and cuts. Even frostbite was healed from their toes.

Rune looked around them and raised a barrier made of hardened mud which became more like an igloo. It kept the rain out and the ground underneath them was now solid and not slippery.

Everyone, save for Rune, lied down on the floor and found it comforting and warm, at least more so than the ice and rain. Everyone was tired and no one really wanted to keep going with the trek.

“When you guys wake up, tell me if you want to continue on this trip. If you don’t, I’ll bring you back to the school.”

The group nodded without really listening to him and drifted off to sleep. Everyone was actually in a deep slumber as just walking through the isle made them tired.

Rune looked around outside for a moment. He had to actually walk outside and move around the igloo to patrol which was quite the hassle. He couldn’t hear anything either due to the rain beating the ice and igloo like a drum.

He sighed and sat underneath the igloo entrance and looked out to not get rained on. He liked dry weather more than he did rain, but he liked the cold more than the hot. He certainly was a strange existence, even without the many forms he could change into.

And so, with rifle in hand, he watched the area. Even though he was in his Demon King form, he did not need as much sleep as a regular human. He just needed to sleep for an hour before regaining all his stamina and magic.

He saw that they were each carrying a bag on their backs and carefully took them off without waking them. He checked the contents, starting with Erin, and saw that they still had sleeping bags, but no food and minimal water.

From his storage, he took out a barrel of water and dozens of bags of dried meat and other things that wouldn’t go bad within two months at least in the current climate. He divided them up into four separate piles, each relative to the person’s size, stature, and how much they can eat before they get full, and placed them in their bags.

Then he used [Water Control] to take out most of the water that had made their clothes wet and shoes soggy. He took that water, full of grime and dirt, and threw it outside as far as he could away from them.

He unfurled their sleeping bags and placed them on the ground after placing a tarp first. To do so, he had to carefully raise everyone up with his [Gravity Control] and place them in the sleeping bags on the tarps which required extreme precision as to not wake them up.

Then, after all was said and done, he checked his status to find that he had gained two magic spells. One was [Lightning Offensive] which allowed him to use any offensive Lightning spells until rank A. The other was [Lightning Buff] which allowed him to using any buffing magic that was related to Lightning until rank A.

He stroked his chin and looked back at the two new magics. They were extremely powerful, but not as powerful as his [Water Control] spell. Still, rank A was one of the highest tier spells. The only rank that surpassed that was rank S and all the others.

For rank S, they were divided into five categories. S was a spell that could turn the tide of war or destroy a large city. SS was a spell that could cause damage to the entire region if left unchecked. SSS and above were titles with few exceptions, such as the skills or magics given by gods.

SSS was a rank where there were immunities and they were able to gain a single, if not more, SS spells. SSSS was a title that could rival the smallest of gods in its weaker stage. This rank is usually given to Demon Kings and they get the same things as rank SSS, but either much more of them or they are more powerful. The last was rank X meaning that the world would be destroyed if something like this were to appear. This last one is given to the sealed gods in different worlds, such as Tiamat.

All of the Seven Deadly Sin’s titles and skills were SS and Rune had each and every one of them, just like how a Demon King should. Some curses, such as the Curse of Iram, was one that was labeled as S rank due to it being unstable and able to either produce more blades or being able to freeze over an entire city.

Rune sighed as he looked out. He was someone who did not like going in alone to strange, unknown territories. That was why he usually had friends to party with him in most of his video games. But, even so, he knew that there would likely be more casualties if he kept them going.

He got up and looked back at the group. He pulled out one of his teleportation crystals whose teleportation destination was set to the ship. Strangely enough, it was still there, even after all this time.

He wrote a little note and started to get to work.

Rena sat up. She was till half asleep and her eyes were closed, but she was still somewhat conscious of her surroundings. Things like Erin’s snoring or the rain pouring around them could be heard by her.

She stretched her arms and sighed. After opening her eyes, they soon became even wider.

She and the rest of the group were moving through the air. She checked her surroundings to find that she was still above the isle, but they were on a metal platform with a barrier around it to prevent rain from entering.

Everyone was there except Rune and Rouna. In the center of the platform was a blue crystal the size of one’s fist. On one side of it, it had a sticky note with some words scrawled onto it in ink.

She got out of her sleeping bag and was surprised when there wasn’t any shaking, even when they were going through the air at such high speeds. She plucked off the note and read it aloud, but still quietly.

“This will take you to the ship once you exit the isle. Rouna is staying with me for a bit to … I dunno. We are probably going to find the dragon(s) that are keeping this afloat and kill them. Have fun with Nacht and Lacht and say that I said “Hi” if you see them…. P.S. There should be a teleportation portal to go to the school and back. It should look like a door.”

She slowly lowered her hand and sighed. At least she didn’t have to worry about Rune or Rouna and she was going to go back to a regular school life.

“Do you think it’s wise to send three children off without supervision?”

Rouna looked at Rune who was busy making his weapons more powerful. He looked up at her and sighed. He waved his hand as if he felt no guilt sending teenagers off to go back to school. Probably because he actually felt no guilt doing so.

“You sound like a parent. Don’t be so harsh on them. I was able to kill dragons when I was their age.”

“... You are their age though. Well, two to three years older, but still. You are an anomaly.”

“Aw. Thanks. You’re making me blush.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

Rune waved his hand once more to dismiss her from speaking.

“If you take negative comments about yourself as compliments, you wouldn’t take things seriously.”

Rouna still managed to spit out her words before Rune could speak.

“Exactly! I really don’t take this too seriously. This mission is a bit dirty and muddy, but the monsters here are weak. Of course, that won’t mean that the boss is weak.”

“IS this some sort of game to you? People’s lives are at risk here!”

“Hey! Calm down. I know that, but, you know, it kind of is a game to me. And, even if people die, there are still resurrections spells that High Priests can use.”

“Yeah, but for hefty sums of money. About ten gold PER PERSON!!”

She emphasized the last bits of her words, but realised that it wouldn’t get through to him, no matter what she said. It was as Rune said, it is a game for him… Well, at least most of the time.

“I can pay for about fifty people per month then, excluding my payments and food costs, but I see your point. Let’s not delve too deep into this topic or else you will find that I will talk of something disturbing.”

“?”

She opened her mouth, but closed it soon afterwards. She had no idea what he meant by that.

“Disturbing things?”

“How do ya feel about automatons with souls in them. People can live infinitely without food or water, but will need electricity or natural resources. If the latter, then we can assume that the…”

Rune droned on about things that Rouna did not understand for about several minutes before she stopped him by shoving her small hands over his mouth. She was getting a headache just by thinking about it.

However, she could pick out some bits and pieces like “chinese water torture”, “slowly boiling alive”, “world wars”, and “cannibalism” which she felt was disturbing the more he talked about those things and more.

What Rune was actually talking about was that, if automatons needed natural resources, there would be world wide fights to obtain such goods and that there may be people torturing others to get such goods. If there was a finite amount of vessels for souls, people would want more, bringing them to fight with each other to end up in a world war. Then starvation would haunt everyone and people would resort to cannibalism as the weapons of mass destruction would kill many plants and animals.

“Ahem. Anyway, how are we gonna find this source. We have to kill it, right?”

“Yes. It must be at least one dragon, if not more. I can only imagine that only the power of several Hierarch dragons could do this.”

“So, which way?”

“I am unsure. Perhaps maybe we can look at the pillar over there.”

Rouna pointed at the large column that the hydra had leapt off of and both looked at it. It was actually kind of menacing when one looked at it from a far enough distance.

The reason why Rouna was with Rune was because she had woken when Rune was putting the finishing touches on the hovering platform. He was placing enchantments on it and rigging the crystal to the center.

Apparently, a dragon’s hearing was extremely good and they would wake at the sound of metal clanking on metal. This was actually a defense mechanism to protect their treasure.

“Munya.”

Rune almost let out a laugh as she said something he had only heard anime characters say. She looked at him and rubbed her eyes.

“What’re you doing?”

She started to yawn during the last part of her words and stifled it as soon as it tried to come out. She looked around to see that they were all on a platform and Rune was putting the finishing touches on it.

“Um… Saving you guys? From the horrors that await?”

She stood up and walked over to Rune. She wasn’t too intimidating as she was smaller than a teen and had the body of a smaller, slimmer person. The only problem was the overwhelming bloodlust that Rune felt in his face.

“Ok, you caught me. I just wanted to send you guys home so that none of you would get hurt…”

“Starting to have a conscience, eh?”

“... So that I won’t have to keep sending you guys back to the school. It’s starting to become a hassle. The more someone gets injured, the more likely I have to fly, teleport, and care for them.”

“...Oh.”

Rune sighed and kept working on the platform. It wasn’t as fast nor as large as the previous one, but it would get the job done… probably.

“Anyway, since you’re up, you can at least help, right? Keep this straight from a sec while I…”

And so, back to the present. The present where Rune was talking about cannibalism and Rouna was trying to not listen.

Rune stood up and dusted himself off. Rouan followed suit as they head towards the pillar. Unlike before, Rune was actually able to block out all the rain while constantly making an ice path around him.

Once they reached its base, he looked up and spoke to Rouna.

“What does it say? Hey, can you read it?”

The first sentence he muttered under his breath while the second was a genuine question for Rouna. She nodded and looked at the runes engraved into the material.

She started to walk around it and Rune had to follow her to make sure that she wouldn’t go off and accidentally die or something.

“If thy dare to enter… head west of thine obstacle ahead.”

“That many runes for a simple sentence?”

“No, there are usually more characters to a sentence in draconic. This is ancient draconic with less characters.”

“... Ok?”

“Um, yeah, you probably wouldn’t understand it.”

“Yeah… So, west, huh? Let’s go!”

Rune took a step forward before remembering something. He swiveled around on his heels and looked at Rouna.

“Which way is west?”

And so, after many hours of walking and flying and Rouna using her farsight, they managed to reach a large cone whose point was buried deep, deep into the ground. There were five balls of metal surrounding it that were each placed at equal intervals with chains connecting it to it.

The actual cone seemed to be made of large sheets of metal that were twisted around and there were pieces of metal randomly sticking out like some sort of bird’s nest made of metal. The metal spheres were actually smooth and round and had no distortions in it.

The surrounding area had turned from mud to rock and was definitely more solid than the ice Rune created under his feet. Rune stepped forth and Rouna followed as well and they could soon feel vibrations under their feet. It was as if there was a huge earthquake. He stepped back onto the ice that was separated from the rock and felt nothing.

Tentatively he stepped back and march on. His feet were starting to become numb which the metal greaves made worse since they were made of multiple chunks of metal. Rouna had her boots on which were made of leather and metal, but her skin, or rather scales, did not allow her feet to become numb.

“Do you think the top is the entrance?”

“Hopefully.”

With that doubtful answer, the two of them sprouted wings from their backs and flew upwards. High into the sky. Actually, Rune just had his wings folded up and they just extended outwards when he flew up.

From the air, they could see that there was indeed a hole to enter, but it was surrounded by several Blue Dragons that each had their own individuality. They were all Hierarch Dragons each with more power than five of the hydras the group faced combined.

Of course, Rune wasn’t one to run from a challenge and he flexed his might. He raised both his hands into the air and started to cast magic.

Down in the Nest as they called it, two guards were talking to each other in low growls and grunts which was also known as Ancient Draconic. They were speaking to each other about the Blue Irregular Dragon.

“That guy seems pretty arrogant, right?”

The dragon on the left moved his arm to point downwards.

“Oh, thank Tiamat, it’s not just me! He’s so strange!”

The dragon on the right was so relieved that he sighed. He was keeping his feelings about the boss a secret which were that he really didn’t like him and that he was mentally ill.

“I know, right? He keeps asking for parfaits and stuff and I have no idea what that means!!”

The Irregular Dragon was a huge fan of desserts and liked fruits. He happened to peek into Earth’s world for several minutes, but, within that short amount of time, he was able to deduce that desserts were amazing. The only problem was that no one knew how to make the ones he was looking for in Arborea.

“The other day, he ordered my friend to fly in the sky with him on his back! He’s like some sort of sadistic, psychotic leader. If he wasn’t my boss, I would steer clear of him.”

The leader liked to force his own underlings through terrible things to make himself feel much better about not having desserts.

“Even his name was weird.”

“Yeah, it was like-”

The dragon on the right looked upwards at the sky.

“What’s wrong?”

“The rain… it became ice…”

“Isn’t that normal?”

“No, not here.”

Suddenly, a spear of ice as large as the dragon stabbed through it and pinned the dragon to the metal Nest. The life faded from its eyes as it drew its last ragged breaths. It coughed up blood and vomited up a lung.

From the edges of the wound where the ice pierced the dragon, blood trickled down and flesh covered the part of the ice that had already gone through the dragon.

The dragon on the left looked up to where the ice spear had come from. Now, it was like a volley of arrows where they were going to start killed dragons in a single blow.