In Another World As A Dragon - Am I Dreaming?

Chapter 12 - "Residence"

"Will you show me? The power that can eradicate this mountain in the blink of an eye?"

"This human... you're clearly mocking us, aren't you?!"

"No..." Arufaz said.

"Wha-...?! Arufaz?!"

"You won't show me, then?" Mara asked.

"If I do, then I wouldn't be able to sleep here anymore when this place is obliterated..."

Mara laughed at the end of my sentence. "If you're so confident in your power then, I really want to witness it first-hand. You'll do anything I say, right?"

"......................... fine......"

"Then, it's settled. Show me your power. Destroy this place... if you can."

*sigh* "What a drag..."

"Go, Arufaz! Show this human your world-ending prowess!"

"World... ending?" Mara mumbled.

I flew to the skies and inhaled as much air as I could. And then, I expected to shoot fire out of my mouth, but I shot a black energy beam at the mountain instead!

Mara summoned up some kind of portal and sucked my beam in, then opened another portal behind me, and what came out of it was my own breath attack heading straight at me! I got hit by my own blast, and the aftershock was so powerful, all the clouds in the vicinity were blown away in an instant, and the snow that covered the mountain were also blown away from the wind pressure!

Looking from a distance, the explosion seemed like a small sun shining in the sky next to a mountain, before everything started to calm down and the smoke slowly disappearing.

"Arufaz! Arufaaaz..!!"

"What power. He wasn't lying when he said that he can destroy this whole mountain in an instant, then. However, it would seem that he has met his last days. Though, it is unfortunate that I didn't get to conduct more experiments on him. Oh well... nothing I can do about it, I guess."

"No... I don't believe this... I refuse to accept this... this can't be happening...!"

"Pipe down, child. Your master is no more, and you're left all alone, now. Although, I promised him I wouldn't do anything to you. But what the dead doesn't know, doesn't need to know."

"You'll pay for thi-...! Mhmfmph!!" Mara simply gestured her hands in the air, and yet for some odd reason, Draiz's mouth wouldn't open!

"I was planning on experimenting your master. But, you'll have to do."

Draiz was pinned. His whole body couldn't move. Mara's hands were getting closer to Draiz. Yet, Draiz couldn't do anything.

"Aru... faz.....!" Draiz thought to himself, as he was slowly starting to lose hope, and was about to give in.

Then all of a sudden, a powerful gust of wind surged through the mountain, blowing away Draiz & Mara from where they stood. Finally, Draiz could move, and he released a current of wind to cushion himself from getting hit by any icicles on the sides of the mountain. Mara did the same by making herself fly.

"What? What happened?!" Mara exclaimed. She and Draiz both looked up at the sky, and saw Arufaz without a single scratch. As if nothing happened at all. He didn't move an inch from where he was hit by the blast, and not a singe of fire from any of his body parts at all!

"Arufaz!" Draiz shouted, showing how happy he was at seeing me again. His tears trickling from his cheeks endlessly, like... seriously... in all of my experiences as a human for more than 18 years, I have never seen anyone let their tears flow down their cheeks like that. Especially coming from a dragon's face.

"W-... well... it seems that you have not entered the afterlife yet, dragon. You got hit by your own attack, which was powerful enough to almost obliterate this place, and come out unscathed."

"Yeah, yeah... and the name's Arufaz. So then? Can I get some sleep now...?"

"Arufaz! You seriously can't still be thinking of sleeping here?! This human broke her promise, you know?! She was gonna do something to me, you know?! How could you not know that?!"

"That was because she thought that I wasn't here, anymore... Which means that as long as I'm alive, she won't do anything to you..."

"Yes. I keep my word."

"What did you say?! "

"Your mentor is right. As long as the one who made the promise still exists in this world, I shall keep the promise that I have been tasked."

"Grrrrr......."

"Now then... Arufaz... or whatever your name was... I permit your stay here. You may hold shelter or residence on my domain."

"The terms have changed... This place is mine..."

"What?"

"After seeing what you did to Draiz, before, I changed my mind... I'm claiming this place as my own..."

"ALL-right! Now, that's more like the world-ending Dragon that I admire!"

"World-ending? Are you perhaps... the infamous 'Great Demonic End Dragon'?"

"Again, with that title... look, I'm not even sure if I am that so called 'Great Demonic...' something... that you people keep calling me..."

"Of course you are, Arufaz! You can easily destroy this world without breaking a sweat!"

"Hmph... well... as much as I find your exaggeration preposterous, the fact that you showed me at least a portion of your power to destroy this mountain unscathed convinced me... you are a very dangerous existence." Mara glared at me with extreme cautiousness and alertness. "If you allow me to continue with my research, then I accept your claim to own this mountain. Are you alright with that?"

"Fine... Let's go, Draiz... Back to your training..."

"What?! Right now?! Weren't you going to sleep?! And did you just seriously agree with that woman, again?!!"

"That's a lot of questions... if you have time for complaint, then use them for training... It was you who asked me to train you, right...? This is just how I do things... You can find another guardian for you if you want..."

"Huh?! No, no! Anything, but that! Let's start my training, then!"

He sure is gullible. But, I guess that's fine with me. I mean, it's not like my previous life, where I live almost everyday there with absolute caution, that I can die anytime. At least in this world, I'm invincible. And that makes me slightly happy. I always feared death, since dying means that I won't get to enjoy the feeling of sleep, anymore. Even though I've wished for immortality constantly back when I was human, it's not like I had any dreams to accomplish in that span of long-life. I just wanted to... "not die yet", I suppose. And now I really can't die. I don't even know if I really am immortal in this world. But in any case, I can finally sleep for as long as I want to.

"By the way, Arfuaz. I have something to tell you."

"Hm?"

"What is it this time, human?" Draiz asked aggressively.

"Arufaz... I love you."

"............................. Huh?.................."

The high mage at the highest point of the highest of mountain has confessed her love for our MC?! What twists and turns will the story hold for us, next?!