A Nascent Kaleidoscope.

Chapter 67: Chapter 66

contemporary romance

The...thing didn't immediately rampage.

I mean, it caused wanton destruction by merely existing, being bigger than most buildings, naturally emitting a poisonous miasma that looked very deadly, and just the sheer confusion at where it found itself.

I could see the buildings begin to erode and the concrete literally disintegrate as the venom seeped into the surroundings.

Frankly, I think someone summoned It in the sewers or something. Easily a premeditated action, no way someone could 'accidently' summoning this thing right at this moment.

I unfurled my wings and took to the highest building I could get to within a few breaths to get a better idea of what was going on, because frankly, this whole thing was absurd.

I saw in a few directions, there were more pockets of chaos, buildings on fire, and magical attacks soaring through the air as several groups clashed. My attention was turned back to the large dragon-hydra thing that was starting to get rather ornery.

I just sighed as I saw some 'heroes' try to attack it, throwing what I considered to be cantrips at the thing. I spun my hat on my finger, watching the scene unfold with accumulating annoyance.

"What do you think Ddraig?"

[I met Yamata-No-Orochi on a few occasions, this thing's definitely pumping out poison reminiscent of it, though it's a very pale comparison.]

"Probably some kind of magical snake-creature-youkai, that was experimented on? Perhaps force fed some remains of the serpent dragon?"

[I wouldn't be surprised if it was originally a very – very distant relative, and they pushed some of that inside it to begin with.] Ddraig agreed. [Look at its heads and tails, they should be even, yet it has only 5 heads to its six tails, that is heavily mutated, and not in a good way.]

"Now that I take a closer look, some of its scales are.....dislocated and jutting out at weird angles, and there are some odd growths on parts of its body that look like bones."

[As much as I hate that stupid snake.....this thing just makes me angry. Even if left alone, it would probably die by itself in a few weeks.]

Just as Ddraig finished, one of the mouths opened up, and a condenses stream of green fire spewed out down the street. The surroundings didn't catch fire and burn, they dissolved.

"Is that...."

[Poison, yeah. Maybe it has some Hydra ancestry as well?] Ddraig pondered and I could only nod my head.

"Some unholy combination.....that isn't really unholy if I think about it. I mean, the serpent dragon was poisonous, but the Hydra, it was 'known' for its poison, even to an extent that gods feared it.....maybe whatever happened to this thing it merely latched onto Orochi's poison concept and that's how it mutated the way it did?"

Just as Ddraig said, this thing was breaking down and wouldn't last long by itself, I would put money that its own poison was eating away at it on the inside.

[Your guess is as good as mine, even as is, it couldn't compare in any way to that stupid snake.]

Hmm, yeah, Ddriag didn't really get along with other dragons.

I shook my head, I wasted enough time. I focused on my heart, allowing my magical energy to explode out. It only took a moment for all 5 heads of that things to dart towards my directions, eyes staring at me menacingly.

Having an artificial dragon heart does have its boons outside of the physical enhancements.

This snake-dragon-youkai abomination ignored the little insects that were trying to bite it as it started moving towards me. I suppose I was acting as a challenge, even if neither of us was a 'real' dragon certain instincts were still ingrained.

Even I could feel an annoyance at its presence, as miniscule as that creeping sensation was.

Well, one thing was for sure, whatever origin this thing claimed, it was a strictly malevolent being. "May as well flex my Onmyoji since I'm in the neighborhood." That and apparently Odin was around, don't want to use too many runic spells for the moment. This has already been a shit show, don't need to drag him into it.

Flicking my hand, several talismans overlapped between my fingers.

"God of the east sea, Amei. God of the west sea, Shukuryou. God of the south sea, Kyojou. God of the north sea, Gukyou. Gods of the seven seas, fend off a hundred demons and drive back the fierce disaster. ORDER!" My voice carried from top the building, my magical energy fluctuated out as a massive pentagram formed both in the sky and on the ground under the malevolent snake-creature.

They both lit up and the miasma seeping from its pores began to vanish, the venomous liquid that spewed from its mouths onto the surroundings were doused and dissipated. Even the creature itself looked up to the sky and shrieked in pain and anger.

This was to stop it's corrupted presence from spoiling the area. Damage can be rebuilt, but its infinitely harder to cleanse an area after something like this lingers here for too long.

I admired my work briefly; it seems my practicing has indeed paid of in spades. While not my main focus when I was training, I definitely spend many hours I toiled away to learn this craft...especially when Scathach read up on it and realized how much I was ignoring it.

I held back a shudder.

With a small smile, I jumped down from high up and squared up against the beast. It seemed content to entirely focus on my movements, not rampaging about.

Of course, it roared with all five heads, anger clear on its many faces.

"Noisy." I dismissed him.

It was intelligent enough to understand I wasn't intimidated, but it would be difficult to test how sapient it actually is.

I shook my head, Dawnbreaker flew out at lightning speed, it's golden light shining bright as it decapitated one of the heads in that brief moment where it was not on its guard.

It hissed in pain, roared in fury, and stared at me with madness. I only raised an eyebrow when the fallen head physically dissolved into a toxic puddle and a new head grew in its pace at a visible pace.

Did it trade physical ability for enhanced regeneration? I didn't expect my sword to cut off that head with such ease.....

It was by no means instantaneous like the dragon serpent would be, but that regeneration was top notch for nearly anything else in the world.

Its mouths opened up and the miasmic fires sprayed at me.

As they approached, I continued my pace unperturbed. The space around me shattered, like glass, and I was a few feet out of the way, still continuing at an even pace, each step unabated. The heads swept, melting the surroundings, and I would always appear in safe spot, much to the creature's annoyance.

It may look like a cute little trick, but it was actually an advanced technique utilizing the Kaleidoscope. I was essentially pulling myself to another dimension and allowing the world's natural flow to force me back into the correct path, but the time it took to do that allowed me to essentially side-step attacks.

Eventually, it got close enough to just try and pounce at me with one of its heads. Probably a smarter option, but still useless.

"Ascalon." I called gently. The anti-dragon sword flew out of my ring, taking the head off at the base of the neck, except this time, there was no regeneration.

The head flopped to the ground, lifeless.

[Impressive to actually see it in action.] Ddraig commented. [The anti-dragon concepts really do devour anything remotely draconic. Perhaps, it is even worse for this 'lesser' dragon because it can't defend against such a thing even if it is slightly less effective in the end.]

I held out my hand, and Ascalon flew to me, fingers clutched around its grip. My knees bent and the air behind my exploded at my abrupt increase in speed. My arms moved with a speed that had taken this creature by surprise, I rained down slashes on its body before it could reach.

Several more heads dropped the ground around me and the whole creature finally fell over. Its tainted blood seeping out and creating an entirely toxic environment. Even my spell was having trouble containing this malevolent venom.

Well, not much I can do about that....still better than letting it roam free.

I sighed, kicking the corpse to make sure it was truly dead, but I doubt I would miss something like that again.

Call it a small bit of self-consciousness after that whole dragon fiasco.

[Feel better?]

"Meh." I replied, I just wasn't really into it. I mean I had fun.....I always like to test various magical things, but...

[It wasn't a challenge?]

".....maybe?" I thought over his words for a moment. "Do I desire a 'real' fight?" Or maybe I'm still just moping....honestly it could be both as well.

I don't know, I'm still just so...bleh.

I looked up around me and noticed people peeking out from hiding places. Magical barriers coming down, and heads poked out of windows.

But what I noticed immediately, were the phones taking pictures and being held up like they were recording.

Ah.....I forgot that was a thing here.

Devilnet or something, basically the supernatural version of the internet and various social medias. Yeah, devil basically corner the market on such things, and most other species are content to just use their products.

Well....fuck.

[Damn, should have used the Boosted Gear.]

Yeah, fuck that.

So...uh...what are the chances that no one got a good look at my face?

Ddraig just laughed.

***

So I moved everything today, and god damn am I exhausted, so today's chapter is pretty short. Mc remembers that he's in a modern world even if he's surrounded by supernatural. Time to become internet-famous.

Anyways, if you want to support me or read 5 chapters ahead, visit my pat.reon.com/Astoryforone