-----


    "RROOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!"


    "BECOME… MY… FAMILIAR!!!"


    "NEVEEEEEEERRRR…!"


    BOOOM! CLAAASH! RUMBLE!


    Tonight, as usual, I had an intense sh of wills against Ignatius inside of what I call his "Soul Realm." Like any other battle before this, I was using all of my will to materialize my powers and attack him.


    Actually, I''ve discovered in these past three years that you can apparently be whatever you want in your astral form and not stick with your current body. I suppose you can transform into what you see yourself be, but as someone that has lived two lives, it''s not so hard to change how I see myself. Therefore, I can change the entirety of my astral body''s appearance.


    As of now, I had taken a form I felt more confident in using against him, which was my previous life''s appearance! I covered myself in my ck armor and held arge de that my teacher once held, which was incredibly wide and thick, named the Dragon yer.


    My teacher was a good rogue, but he was also an amazing swordsman on top of that. He used this de to y powerful bandits and barbarians, as well as mythological beasts that emerged from the crypts that appeared in my original world, which were simr to the dungeons in this one.


    SLAAAASH!


    I used the massive ck de to sh through Ignatius'' wings. After that, I cut off his left and right arm, threw him into the ground before pointing the de into his head.


    "Give up," I told him.


    "NO!"


    He red at me with great indignance as his throat gathered fire, starting to get swollen. Soon, he unleashed an explosive Fire Breath on me, blowing me away into ashes.


    BOOOMMM!!!


    Naturally, I reemerged right away as I was immune to Soul Pain at this point. Fighting against him in this Soul Realm has helped me forge my techniques quite a lot, and I''ve found a lot of utility from this, even as a kid. I can train the de in here… now that I think about it, I can train in any weapon I want as long as I can imagine it.


    Moving that aside, I infused will into my de once more as it began to pulsate with bright mana. In an instant, the power of my soul emerged within it as I leaped over his head.


    "BECOME MY FAMILIAR!"


    SLAAAAAAASSSSSHHH!


    "G-GRAAAAGGH…!"


    I shed through Ignatius'' entire body, cleanly cutting him down in half.


    "I-Impossible…! Ungh…!"


    BOOM!


    His two halves then fell over the volcandscape as he died!


    Only to revive right after that.


    He always says "impossible" when he dies here, even though I''ve already killed him 385 times including this one. For some reason, he still can''t believe it.


    How prideful can a dragon get?! It''s so goddamn hard to force him to obey me…


    "That''s 385 wins on my side!" I bellowed as Ignatius sat down in the Volcanic Lands, ring at me with anger but also with a tinge of fatigue.


    "I-I''ve killed you more than that! I…" he muttered.


    "Not really. I finally killed you more than you killed me. After all, you''ve only killed me 384 times," I said in response,ughing.


    "W-What?! Then die!"


    With that, Ignatius'' tail sneaked up behind me as he tried to tten me into the floor. Unfortunately for him, I sensed his tailing from a mile away as I raised my de and unleashed a long-ranged sh attack. In less than a second, the power of my mana transformed into a de, slicing through his thick tail as blood began gushing out of therge wound. From a certain angle, I could even see his bone protruding out of it.


    SLAAASH!


    "GRRYYAAAUUUHH…!"


    "What a pitiful scream for a prideful dragon!" I could not help but say.


    "Y-You damn witch! I''m not going to… give up… Ungh…"


    After that, Ignatius suddenly fell to the ground. His soul seemed to have finally grown tired.


    I slowly walked near him sometimeter.


    "Come on. We''ve fought against each other for almost four years now. Be my familiar. I promise you that I will bring you back to your father so we can meet him together," I told him.


    "Y-You just want to kill him, don''t you?!" he asked with anger in his tone.


    "Eh? No! I don''t hold any grudges against dragons. I will only kill those that try to kill me!" I said in response.


    "…Fair." He let out a long sigh after that.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "But just for you, even if a dragones to chomp me down, I will try to convince them to not be aggressive if they try to kill me… although, to be honest, I''m still too weak to even survive against a dragon''s attacks, so I would most likely get chomped if my parents aren''t there to help me. They would most likely kill the dragon for sure if they were to apany me," I said to him.


    "Y-You damn witch… a child between two ursed Heroes… you know that Heroes are the enemies of the world, right?! The heralds of the detestable Gods that the world despises!" Ignatius told me.


    "But why does the world despise Gods and Heroes? And even humans? Didn''t the world create humans?" I asked.


    "What? The world never created humans… the world was… ording to my father, a beautiful ce of wilderness. We dragons were made by the world as their protectors and guardians, alongside the Titans and Beast Kings! The Gods soon emerged one day, and then created all of you pests, who began absorbing our world''s energy for your nefarious purposes!" he replied.


    "I see, I see… anything else you know?" I asked.


    "…I don''t know anything else. That''s the tale they always tell dragons," Ignatius said, letting out a sigh soon after.


    Well, that''s a bummer. He really doesn''t know more.


    But apparently, Gods might be aliens or something. Because of that, the world is trying to get rid of them and their creations by using the power of the guardians it created, such as the Demons, Dragons, Titans, Beast Kings, and so on…


    But even against Gods, the dragons were defeated, and the Dragon Kings were continuously ughtered by past Heroes. The Demon King seems to fall underthe same case.


    There''s also the Beast Kings and the Titan Kings, but I don''t know anything about those two.


    "Come on, Ignatius. Join me. We''re like best friends at this point," I persuaded him one more time.


    "I am… no friend of a witch…" he muttered.


    "Sigh… fine, see you tomorrow. Make sure to rest well," I said as I left the bubble of volcands.


    But at the very instant I left, a bright lighting from the sky of my Soul Scape called upon me and teleported me away.


    "W-What the hell?"


    FLASH!


    My sight suddenly changed at that moment. From my Soul Scape, I emerged in a wondrous pce, resembling a massive building made of pure gold resting over… fluffy white clouds?!


    There were waterfallsing out of each side of this massive pce, and… countless bright figures filling up my sight.


    Where the hell am I?


    Was I abducted?!


    "Ah… but if it isn''t the next Heroine in the making!"


    The youthful voice of a young man greeted my sense of hearing, prompting me to look at a figure among the group of many bright figures.


    This bright figure turned into that of a young human-looking guy around his twenties. He had short blonde hair and sharp emerald eyes.


    He looked at me with great suave as he smiled, showing off his perfect white teeth.


    To be honest, his smile is too off-putting…


    Of course, I, as a little girl, looked at him from above.


    "Huuhh… where am I, and… who are you?" I asked.


    "Hm? Oh! My bad. I guess we have yet to introduce ourselves! Hahahaha!" the man said in response,ughing his lungs out.


    The other figures whispered around me. They were all made of lights of different colors, and they didn''t let me see their true appearances. Perhaps… this was their true appearances, and the human form of this guy was just an illusion?


    "We… are Gods!" he told me all of a sudden.


    "… You''re kidding me, right?"


    -----