Chapter 20: Mana Link

「H-Had it always been that big!?」
「Of course not!」

I was sure there had originally been a mountain there.
It swelled up into a hemisphere, sprouted big eyes and a mouth, and the whole thing had completely become Jack Frost’s head.

「Did it absorb the snow from the summit and get bigger…?」

Even so, it’s far too big.
At that size, even at full power I might not be able to wipe it out.

As Ken and I shuddered, Jack Frost’s mouth gaped open in a crescent.

「Salamander, bring forth fire!」
「O flame, burn it all away!」

We chanted our spells in unison. Moments later, a raging blizzard slammed into us.

Two streams of flame twisted together as they shot out. They barely held the blizzard’s force at bay; between the two of us we were only just breaking even.

—No, less than that.

「Sensei…! How long is this going to last!?」

I couldn’t answer Ken’s shout—I was breathing fire.
But from his tone I could tell he, too, was nearing his limit.
Just as it strains my breathing to keep exhaling flame, you can’t keep casting magic forever.

But Jack Frost’s blizzard seemed all but inexhaustible. At this rate we’d be overpowered before long and swept up, slammed into the ground.

If only I could defend with ice like Ai did, but ice magic and I get along terribly—and we’re in midair. Even if by some miracle I managed it, I couldn’t raise a pillar of ice here.

What do I do? What do I do…!

「Gh—sorry, Sensei!」

Ken ran out of strength first and his flames cut off. The blizzard immediately shoved my fire back and began creeping toward us. I was desperately veering sideways to slip its reach, but Jack Frost could apparently shift the blizzard’s aim. There was no sign I could ever break free of it. My flames were nearing their limit as well.

When my flames died too, the ice and snow came cascading at us all at once—like a burst dam.

「Rend—」

But just before it swallowed us, I remembered.
To block an attack, it’s easier to handle the same element than to counter with its opposite.
I can’t create ice, but—

「O wind!」

—I’m downright good at manipulating wind!

The blizzard split in two right before my eyes and streamed away behind us. Since I wasn’t emitting this magic from myself, I felt like I could maintain it indefinitely.

That said, precisely carving the wind to ward off the blizzard demanded focus.
Casting fire at the same time looked difficult.

「Ken, I’ll handle the blizzard—attack!」
「Got it!」

Rending the wind, I turned our course toward Jack Frost. Even if melting it with fire alone wasn’t decisive, we had to at least shrink that massive body first or we were sunk.

「“O you who stretch out a crimson tongue, you who don a mantle of flame, O Salamander that devours firewood—”」

Listening to his chant, a thought struck me.
If that thing was an ice spirit, then could we counter it by summoning a fire spirit—a Salamander?
I immediately stamped out the thought that had surfaced unbidden.
I had a feeling the summoning itself was probably possible.
But if the Salamander lost control and rampaged, that would be a disaster beyond words.

「Thou art the spear that scorches all, thou art the sword that destroys all, thou art the arrow that pierces all, thou art the hammer that shatters all. Bind and bind, and become a single flash that pierces everything!」

A flash of light burst from Ken’s palm.
It pierced the blizzard with ease and bored a hole through Jack Frost.

「That’s…!」

The latter half of his chant was the one I’d used when I truly lost my temper at Dalga.

「…I respect you, Sensei.」

Still panting, Ken blurted it out.

「You’re stronger than anyone, you know more than anyone, and you’re kinder than anyone. Since I was a kid, you’ve always been my idol.」

Come to think of it, five years ago he’d approached me with far more innocent openness.

「But that’s separate from Ai-neechan. You know why she keeps turning down proposals, don’t you? Why she…」

Yeah.

「—why she only ever sees me as a little brother.」

Of course I know.

I’d known that for a long, long time.

「Then why won’t you answer her!?」

That flash spell clearly took a toll on him.

「Or do you not feel anything for Ai-neechan at all!?」

He fired it in bursts, gasping, and demanded an answer from me.

「Say it. Don’t put on the grown‑up act, don’t talk down to me like a kid.」

「That—」

「If you won’t, then I’ll—」
「Of course I love her!」

Before I knew it, I was roaring.

「A girl that single‑minded, that gentle, that earnest, that cute…! How could I not love her!」
「Then—!」
「But I’m a dragon!」

I had never once said those words aloud until now.

「I can’t even hold hands and walk beside her. I can’t have children. —I can’t even hold her in my arms.」

From a dragon’s throat down to the chest—
—right where legends in my previous life said the reverse scale grew.

I didn’t have any such inverted scale there, but it was the hottest part of my body. If a person touched it, they’d be more than just burned. To embrace her would mean pressing Ai’s face right against it.

「If she were with someone like that… a girl that good shouldn’t throw away her whole life. Right?」

This time, Ken didn’t talk back.

Just then, several colossal icicles materialized around Jack Frost.
Looks like it decided blizzards couldn’t finish us and switched tactics.

Arrows of ice—no, these were closer to spears, or even battering rams. There was no way mere wind could deflect them.

「O wind—」

But there was a way.

「Bear my wings!」

If I couldn’t move the projectiles, I could move myself.
Catching the howling gale, my body darted up, down, left, and right at high speed, dodging the incoming icicles.

That said, I couldn’t keep dodging like this forever.
The spears of ice came in endless succession, gradually shrinking yet growing more numerous.
Jack Frost had realized that quantity mattered more than quality. If he blanketed us in a continuous sheet with no gaps for me to slip through, there was nothing I could do.

「Sensei. I get how you feel now. I’m not completely satisfied, but…」

Ken’s voice sounded like something had finally clicked for him.

「Will you lend me your strength, Sensei?」

I didn’t know what he had in mind.

But one thing was perfectly clear.

Both of us, from the bottom of our hearts, were fighting for Ai.

「Yeah. Of course.」

I had no reason to refuse his request.

「O you who stretch out the tongue of flame, you who don the crimson raiment—」

As always, Ken began his incantation.

「You who bear sharp horns, you who possess keen wisdom—」

No—this was different.

「Kind‑hearted great lizard, proud and strongest of all, O fire dragon—」

It was a chant addressed to me!

「Lend me thy breath. With that might, burn that thing to nothing!」

Heat surged up from deep in my gut.

Ah—good.
Take it all!

Flames roared up from Ken’s palm.
It was nothing like the focused flash that sacrificed everything for sheer power.

Red, searing, a furious upsurge of flame.

This was true dragon’s breath.

The colossal fire wrapped Jack Frost together with the incoming icicles and vaporized them, then went on to burn away an entire mountain’s worth.

「…You really are amazing, Sensei.」

Ken murmured it absently, as if dazed, savoring each word.

「No—not yet!」

I beat my wings and dove for the peak of the mountain Jack Frost had covered.
The snow still wasn’t stopping.

Sure enough, the falling snow was gathering into one mass—Jack Frost was about to re-form.

「What do we do, Sensei!?」

Watching it, I became certain.

This was the place I’d once brought Ai to help her understand what ice was. As I thought, this Jack Frost had been produced by Ai.

She had created it with magic, and it had run amok.
Then the way to solve it should be this.

I opened my jaws wide—

Chomp.

—and swallowed Jack Frost whole.

Come to think of it, the very first time she let her magic run wild, I took care of it by swallowing it just like this.
If I took it into a body that was itself made of magic, the magic would vanish.
Even if not, the flames within me would keep melting it so Jack Frost could never hold its shape.

Judging by what happened, my guess was right—the snow falling around us stopped at once.
The dark clouds dissipated in no time, and the sun beginning to rise from the distant horizon bathed the mountaintop in dazzling light.