Gardenia’s Heart

Nia knew from the beginning that it would not be easy.

“Simulation eighty-two, physical weakness.”

Flying toward the dragon woman with her purple hair swaying, Nia withdrew even the smallest trace of dark mana leaking from her body.

Right in front of Bahamut, her body twisted, dodging the punch aimed at her face and the tail that tried to strike her from behind.

By deliberately not using dark mana to reinforce the exterior of her body, Nia could bypass the crystal scales and touch Bahamut directly.

Physically, without using mana, the metamorph did not possess the strength to match beings with overwhelming muscular power like Akasha. But no matter how powerful she was, the woman before her was still a living being. Whether it was her eyeball, nose, mouth—it didn’t matter which part—there had to be at least one place where Nia could surpass her in strength.

Spinning midair with the help of her two pairs of wings, the metamorph used the propulsion like a spring, sending her fist straight toward the hero’s face.

However—

“Boring.”

The word slipped out with a sigh from the woman with wheat-colored hair.

Even beyond the dragon’s physical resilience, the layer of mana surrounding the hero was so dense that Nia could not even pass through it with her fists.

All five fingers of her hand broke the moment they made contact with the mana protecting Bahamut’s face. Nia grimaced at the same time she felt a fist collide with her stomach.

Without exaggeration, a horrifying amount of purple blood burst out from her organs and spilled from her mouth.

That marked the end of her attempt.

“Simulation one hundred and fifty, crushing from ocean pressure.”

Forcing Bahamut through one of her portals at the cost of having half her body destroyed, Nia moved the hero beneath the island that floated above the ocean—more precisely, to the deepest point she could reach.

Since it was not water created by mana but a part of nature itself, Bahamut would have to deal with a pressure that not even a leviathan could endure.

Yet not even half an hour after being sent there, an irritated dragon woman returned flying to the labyrinth. As always—but this time even more furious—Nia had her body destroyed beyond recognition.

Experiencing death so many times in such rapid succession was not pleasant at all.

Unlike when she fought Mr. Demon—when the abnormal number of simulations had been tested and discarded within her own mind—here every single option had to be verified.

She had tested everything.

“Simulation one thousand eight hundred and ten, weight.”

After more than a thousand different attempts, the metamorph had managed to send Bahamut into one of her portals once again.

If a portal’s exit was misaligned, the user might end up inside a wall. However, that could not be achieved through error alone.

It was as if an earthquake had struck the surface of the earth.

Beneath the weight of the tallest mountain in the world, Bahamut felt the sensation of tons of solid rock crushing her body from all sides.

Even so, against everything Nia expected, using nothing but overwhelming brute force, the hero tore a path out of the mountain range.

“Simulation three thousand nine hundred and eighteen, direct damage to the soul.”

After nearly four thousand attempts that ended in her death, Nia began to learn the combat pattern of her opponent.

Dodging the white tail and arriving directly behind Bahamut, her palm touched the dense layer of mana protecting the hero’s back.

One soul could injure another soul—this was the combat method Mr. Demon had used.

Although she could not use the magic that projected her soul into a physical form that allowed direct contact, during that battle Nia had learned how to wound another soul.

As her fingers forced their way through the dense layer of mana in a single instant, the small purple smoke inside her body grew increasingly intense.

A body could not harm a soul.

But a soul could harm another soul.

Within the mere milliseconds her attack allowed before a counterattack could reach her, the purple smoke met a powerful white glow.

No matter how powerful Bahamut’s body was, if Nia attacked her soul directly, she could inflict damage on the dragon woman.

“What…?”

However, there was one problem with her strategy.

No matter how many times the purple smoke advanced toward the white, the pale glow always slipped away from its approach.

“Causing injuries to a soul is only possible if the one you seek to wound cannot react to your attack—protecting themselves with their own soul first.”

With a smile on her face, Bahamut made no effort to turn around or remove the girl touching her back.

Her crimson eyes wide, Nia stared at the unmoving hero, her fingers trembling when an impact from the white smoke pushed the purple one back with force.

“You… found your soul as well?”

It wasn’t impossible—it was something she herself had managed to do, so it certainly wasn’t impossible—but still…

“That one wasn’t so bad, Jelly.”

With a powerful twist of her entire body, the last thing Nia saw was Bahamut’s fist before her vision went dark.

Yet even after fighting for her life thousands of times, she had not managed to draw even a single drop of Bahamut’s blood.

Spells, innate abilities, souls—every piece of knowledge she had acquired over the years had been tested against that woman.

Each of her assassination preparations, all of her direct combat simulations, everything she could imagine that might lead to killing her opponent had been tried. Yet even with all of that, Nia could not see even a glimpse of victory.

“She’s a monster.”

Coming from a monster, that might have been the greatest compliment the purple-haired girl could give someone.

Lying on the cold stone ground, both arms spread open and her body covered in dirt and sweat, the girl watched the sunset on the horizon.

With almost no dark mana left in her stiff body, any attempt to move from where she lay would result in nothing.

After studying the dragon heart she had consumed, Nia managed to acquire the innate ability of the Wing Clan. The extra pair of wings now on her back acted like magnets for atmospheric mana—in her case, dark mana. Upon realizing that, she understood why Ignis’s clan had members with so much mana compared to other dragons.

It wasn’t exactly perfect, but thanks to it, she could recover faster than before.

Each time she was killed, Bahamut always allowed her to be the one to launch the first attack when the fight restarted. Because of that, Nia knew she could rest without being attacked—but every second she remained still was less time she had to complete her mission.

This was the first of the three days she had to defeat the hero.

If she did not win, she would not be able to obtain Bahamut’s help—nor the volume of the Book of Truth that she guarded.

“Hey, Jelly, still alive?”

The irritating voice she least wanted to hear at that moment sounded right beside her.

Staring down at Nia’s fallen body in a way that cast her shadow over it in the light of the setting sun, Bahamut crossed her arms with a disappointed look.

“You really don’t want to call me teacher, do you?”

Letting out a heavy sigh, the dragon woman sat down beside Nia. Crossing her legs in a manner far from proper for a lady and resting her chin on her fist, she looked toward the horizon.

“I have to admit, you use your portal spell well. It’s so complex and well constructed that even I need to put in a bit of effort to react to it, but… that’s all.”

“Was that supposed to be a compliment?”

Frowning, Nia looked at the woman, who rolled her mismatched eyes.

“You’re strong, but you grew too fast.”

A subtle smile formed on Bahamut’s lips.

“Even without getting any results, you’ve undeniably become stronger than when you started fighting me. Your full regeneration doesn’t even take a full second anymore. I can assume you’re the type who learns when cornered. If we fought for decades or centuries, you would undoubtedly become far stronger than you are now.”

Bahamut’s words made Nia frown deeper.

“You mean I need centuries just to have a chance to beat you?” the metamorph asked.

“No. What I mean is that even if we repeated this for centuries, the way you are now, you still wouldn’t be able to defeat me.”

The words were simple, but somehow they struck Nia to her core.

Her mind went blank.

Motionless—not from exhaustion, but from the pressure of the words she had just heard—the girl lying on the ground stared at the hero who wasn’t even looking at her.

“After being thrown against several colossal challenges in a short period of time, you managed to evolve in an extraordinary way. But that also made you fail to understand everything that led you to become this strong in the first place. You reached the top of everything around you without truly maturing as a mage.”

With a single motion, Bahamut stood up. Placing both hands on her hips, she looked down at the girl on the ground from the corner of her eye.

“For someone who thinks so much, your creativity is limited, Jelly.”

The words sounded as cold as the night that was approaching.

“If you can’t break past that barrier, you’ll never step into the field of beings who can truly change the world. Focus on your objective and see what you actually need to do to achieve it. Stop brute-forcing every possible way to accomplish it. Creating multiple paths to a single goal is pointless if you never truly look at what you already have at your disposal.”

Letting out a short sigh, Bahamut turned to face Nia directly and pressed her index finger against the girl’s forehead.

“Get rid of the unnecessary noise. That little head of yours—the one capable of managing complex spells simultaneously better than anyone else in the world—is your specialty. It’s not a matter of improving your magic, but of truly understanding what you can do with it.”

Stepping away from Nia, Bahamut turned and began walking.

“I’ll be waiting at the center of the island. Come when you truly understand what I said.”

Sitting up on the ground with difficulty, Nia watched the dragon woman disappear into the landscape of the floating labyrinth.

In the silence of the night, the girl reflected on what she had just heard.

If things continued like this, she would not be able to defeat Bahamut. Nia knew that fact bitterly well.

To better understand her own magic.

There was someone she could consult.

---

As the sun disappeared and night arrived, the orange tones that covered the laboratory began turning into a bluish purple.

“I had finally thought I could sleep for a few days, but all of this had to happen.”

Sitting in her white lab coat, a beautiful woman with golden hair tied in a ponytail made notes on a pad while crushing herbs in a mortar with her other hand.

“Paper Eater, what brings you here so early?” With a slight shift of her eyes, Elarielle finally addressed the presence approaching from behind her. “If you’re looking for Rhei, she went to fetch ingredients for me, but she should be back soon.”

The strong smell of the place seemed even more intense than that of any kitchen. The golden crown filled with jewels on her head reflected the soft light of the glowing flasks, while the sound of several glass containers being heated created a gentle harmony in the room.

Careful not to step on any of the papers scattered across the floor, Nia approached Elarielle, her gaze resting on the workbench before returning to the woman’s emerald eyes.

“To get Bahamut’s help, she challenged me to kill her at least once.”

“Impossible.”

The words that left her mouth were answered immediately.

Stopping everything she was doing and turning toward the metamorph, Elarielle let out a long sigh.

“Or that’s what I would like to say… Knowing you, I know that’s not something that cannot be achieved.”

Crossing one leg over the other, the queen of the elves gestured toward another chair at her workbench. Though reluctant, Nia stepped forward and sat beside the high elf.

“Bahamut is possibly the worst type of enemy for a mage focused on using spells like you.” Resting both elbows on the table, Elarielle spoke, her expression turning grim. “If it weren’t enough that her scales can reflect mana, that woman’s physical resilience is no joke. As the front line of our group, she basically had to endure all the damage of the war so the rest of us could act.”

The elf’s words only confirmed the painful truth the metamorph already knew.

Noticing this, Elarielle rubbed her temples with her fingers and released a heavy sigh.

“So then, why did you come? You never visit me without needing something. I’d like to help you, but as you can see, I’m very busy.”

Pointing at the many items on the table with the palm of her hand, Elarielle watched as Nia’s gaze timidly fell. With an expression that made her reluctance obvious, the metamorph pressed the tips of her fingers together several times before finally speaking.

“That time, when we fought at the top of the castle, you said that out of all the people you’ve met in your life, my teleportation magic was second only to one person… who were you referring to?”

Elarielle’s expression instantly soured.

No—soured would be a euphemism.

Her eyebrows, eyes, ears, and every muscle in her face contracted as if she had heard something so horrifying that every ounce of her being found it repulsive.

“I… really don’t want to talk about that.”

Turning to look at the herbs on the table, Elarielle tried to change the subject without hiding her discomfort, but the girl beside her did not stop speaking.

“Teleportation magic is undeniably my best spell…”

When Bahamut told her to better understand her own magic, Nia knew it had to be that one.

With portals, Nia managed to leave the labyrinth where she had been born and find Lily.

With portals, the metamorph had been able to face her opponents and protect her family.

Although that magic was only part of the knowledge she had acquired from the Book of Truth and absorbed into her mind, that spell was undeniably the one that had helped her the most throughout her life.

“If there truly is someone better than me at it, I need to know more if I’m going to have a chance of protecting what’s important to me. Please.”

Looking down and clenching her fist, Nia spoke with as much intensity as she could muster.

Facing that hero had made her realize that what she considered strength was only the baseline for those who truly possessed the power to change the world.

She needed to become stronger to protect what was valuable to her, and to do that, she would abandon her pride and ask for help.

“There were a few people I met in my life who used portal creation magic with quality and mastery. All of them were eccentric and unique individuals by nature—different from others in certain aspects, if I may put it that way.”

Lifting her head, Nia blinked several times in surprise. With her forehead resting on her hand, Elarielle let out a heavy sigh before turning toward her.

“Including you, there’s the leader of the Mage Tower, who still lives in the human capital, and well—even though he’s no longer alive, the Demon King himself used portals to a certain extent in combat.”

“How skilled am I compared to them?” Nia asked quickly, adjusting herself in the chair.

Seeing the girl suddenly full of excitement, Elarielle reflexively leaned back, rubbing the dark circles beneath her eyes.

“I’ll be honest. Among everyone I’ve met until today, if we’re talking purely about traveling absurd distances like entire continents, and the amount of objects or people you can transport at once, there has never been anyone in history superior to you, Paper Eater.”

Elarielle raised a single finger.

“However, there is one person. When it comes to the magic itself—its use in combat more specifically… not even you are superior to him.”

“Him? You mean the Demon King?” Nia tilted her head.

“No.”

Resting both arms on the table again, Elarielle’s expression darkened, genuine disgust spreading across her face.

“During my journey, I met another person who also used teleportation magic. Using his spell in a way no one else ever had, that mage was indispensable to the fall of the Demon King. If Bahamut is the one with the greatest defensive capability, he is undeniably the one with the greatest offensive capability among the five of us.”

Looking at Nia, emerald eyes met crimson ones, and the elf let out another sigh.

“I know why you want to know about this given the situation, but to be completely honest, not even I can explain how that idiot genius’s spell worked. Besides, he never bothered to properly explain it to anyone who asked, so I doubt he ever taught anyone.”

“Tell me where he is. I’ll find him and figure it out myself.” Rising swiftly from her chair, Nia approached Elarielle with quick steps.

“He’s already dead.”

However, the cold words that left her mouth made all the hope that had arisen within Nia disappear.

Frozen in place, the metamorph’s mind raced, thinking about what she should do now. But before she could get lost in her thoughts again, the sound of the elf clearing her throat drew her attention.

“It will take some time for the flask’s reaction to finish, so I can at least tell you a story in the meantime.”

Gesturing for Nia to step back, Elarielle waited for the girl to sit down before speaking again.

“I hate that bastard so much that I made a point of erasing every record of his existence from the elves’ archives. It’s not something I like remembering, and honestly, if it weren’t for the complexity of this problem, I would never want to talk about it again.”

Even with a nostalgic—almost wistful—look in her eyes, the elf’s tone of voice held no joy.

“When the war escalated to the point that all the high elves were forced onto the battlefield, I was assigned to several different fronts to act as a healer. That’s where I met that man…”

“That man?” Nia asked, and in that moment, she could hear the sound of Elarielle’s teeth grinding.

“An idiotic, egocentric bastard whose face I would beat so many times it would become unrecognizable if I could. A maniac who joined us at the ends of the world, and also…”

With hatred so visible in her voice that it overflowed with bloodlust, the elf looked at the metamorph.

“The one who came to be recognized as the first king of the humans.”