While Leo savored his power-up, he didn't notice the subtle shift in Ophis's eyes.
She watched his demonic power explode far beyond what it had been moments ago, watched his wings evolve from ten to twelve, watched a new flame aura manifest that hadn't existed before. For the first time, something other than emptiness flickered in those hollow eyes.
Before, the only thing about Leo worth her attention had been the faint trace of Great Red's scent. Everything else was beneath notice. Near-Maou-Class demonic power? Meaningless to someone who viewed gods as insects. Zenith Tempest, the world's second-strongest Sacred Gear? Even the first-ranked wouldn't warrant a second glance. The Biblical God who created the Sacred Gear system didn't even register as significant to her, let alone the Sacred Gears themselves.
But now, in this moment, Ophis had stopped looking at the dragon bloodline and dragon treasure entirely. Her eyes were only on Leo.
Leo, unaware of this, finished assessing his new power and turned his attention to the girl in his arms.
"Mm..."
The girl who had shown no signs of life just moments ago let out a faint sound. Her body temperature began rising rapidly. The aura of a living person returned to her, bit by bit.
Her eyelids trembled, as if fighting free from some deep nightmare. Even the simple act of opening her eyes seemed like an enormous struggle.
But she persisted. Slowly, painstakingly, she forced her heavy eyelids open.
And the girl who had slept for untold years found herself staring into a pair of eyes she had never seen before.
Time seemed to freeze.
Leo held the girl and met her gaze, neither of them speaking.
Leo stayed quiet because he was observing, curious how a girl would react to waking up naked in a stranger's arms.
But she didn't react at all. That threw him off.
He'd expected confusion. Shock. Bewilderment. Maybe outrage or disbelief.
Instead, those fire-colored eyes held nothing. An emptiness rivaling Ophis's, perhaps even deeper.
Then the fire came.
Not metaphorically. Actual flames ignited in her eyes. The air around her began to warp from heat. The temperature spiked. Sparks like phosphorescence drifted upward.
The girl in his arms became hotter than magma. The hands he had on her skin started to smoke.
Leo's instincts kicked in. He threw her away from him without hesitation.
He was a fraction too late.
The instant before she left his arms, searing flames erupted outward. The blast wave hit Leo like a detonation, hurling him across the throne room and igniting everything it touched.
The dead-silent chamber became an inferno in seconds. Fire crawled across the floor, wound up the pillars, climbed the walls, consumed the ceiling. Firelight replaced all other light, and blistering heat filled the hall.
"What the hell?"
Leo flared his twelve wings to arrest his momentum, stabilizing in midair. His face showed genuine surprise.
The girl stood wreathed in flames on the ground below, staring up at him with those same hollow eyes.
Something was wrong with her.
"Defensive instinct."
Ophis appeared beside Leo, delivering the explanation in her flat, weightless voice.
"What?"
"My power triggered the defensive instinct of the dragon bloodline inside her." Ophis was looking at Leo rather than Stella, as if the girl no longer interested her. "Her dragon bloodline originates from Great Red. The moment I broke the seal, her bloodline sensed my presence and instinctively lashed out."
Leo understood.
Ophis's presence had overridden Stella's consciousness with pure bloodline-driven survival instinct. Just as Ophis would never ignore traces of Great Red's power, Great Red's bloodline would never ignore Ophis's power.
And the problem was that those empty eyes were locked onto him. Stella's defensive instinct had tagged him as an enemy too.
Great.
"...Come and serve me."
The flame-wreathed girl parted her lips and spoke. The voice was melodic but devoid of any emotion.
"Laevateinn."
The moment the name left her mouth, the crimson sword that had fallen to the floor when the casket shattered trembled violently, then wrenched itself free from the ground with a metallic ring and flew into her waiting hand.
Flames erupted along the blade, radiating a terrible heat.
Girl and sword, both cloaked in fire, began walking toward Leo, one deliberate step at a time.
Leo could tell there was no avoiding this fight.
"Need me to step in?" Ophis offered, surprisingly.
Leo shook his head.
"She's my servant. My problem to solve."
Mainly because he was afraid the Dragon God might accidentally reduce Stella to ashes without meaning to.
"Besides..." Leo glanced at the blazing sword in Stella's hand, interest shining in his eyes. "I want to see for myself how strong the dragon bloodline and dragon treasure born from Great Red's blessing really are."
According to the castle's records, Familion's dragon bloodline and dragon treasure were exceptional. Inheritors could manifest the physical power of a dragon in a human body and wield dragon breath as a controllable ability.
Stella's bloodline had the highest affinity with fire dragons. She could wrap her body in flame breath, generating temperatures of several thousand degrees with every movement. Ordinary beings couldn't even get close without being vaporized.
And Laevateinn, the dragon treasure, amplified that power further. It could push the wielder's dragon bloodline to its absolute limit. The purer the blood, the greater the amplification. It could even subjugate dragons whose bloodline potential fell below the wielder's own, bending them to her will.
That was why Familion's royal castle had been built to dragon-scale proportions. Every wielder of Laevateinn throughout Familion's history had commanded dragons. Dozens, hundreds, even thousands of them.
Kanna had been drawn here by Laevateinn's power too, willingly staying for centuries, absorbing its radiance, eventually reaching Dragon King-class.
Stella might not be as strong as Kanna in raw power, but as the last and purest inheritor of Familion's dragon bloodline, her bloodline potential exceeded Kanna's. That was why Laevateinn could exert an attraction over Kanna that the dragon couldn't resist.
On top of all that, Laevateinn could purify its wielder's dragon bloodline over time, preventing dilution across generations. But it required the wielder to possess a dream worthy of its recognition, because Great Red was a Dragon God born of dreams, drawn to those who dreamed greatly. The first Familion king had likely attracted Great Red's attention precisely because of his dream. And so Laevateinn, Great Red's gift, shared that trait. The grander and more resolute the dream, the stronger its power became.
Honestly, it rivaled a Longinus. Most Longinus couldn't even compare.
Now, Leo wanted to test it firsthand.
"Come on then, princess."
Leo beckoned to Stella with a crooked finger.
"Time to show you how strong your new master is."
Before he even finished speaking, Stella surged forward on a wave of fire.
Her flame-wrapped slash came down, and the dragon sword smashed into the floor where Leo had been standing. The entire throne room floor buckled and shattered, caving in to leave a massive crater with edges glowing red from the heat.
Leo dodged the strike and clicked his tongue.
"That power... she's definitely a dragon."
From that one blow alone, he could tell.
Stella Familion, the last princess of the Kingdom of Familion, was close to Dragon King-class even if she hadn't quite reached it.
With Laevateinn factoring in, aside from Kanna, who had lived for fourteen thousand years, Stella was without question the strongest member of his peerage.
She might have even been stronger than Leo himself before he'd reached Maou-Class.
"Flames of purgatory, pierce the heavens..."
Stella raised the dragon sword and pointed it skyward. The fire blazing along the blade intensified, growing more massive, more ferocious, until it erupted upward in a spiraling pillar of flame that punched through the ceiling and shot into the sky beyond.
The light was blinding as the sun.
The heat was scorching as magma.
"Katharterio Salamandra."
The girl spoke the name of her ultimate technique without a trace of emotion, and swung down with a slash carrying apocalyptic heat.
The explosion was deafening.
---
T/N: Stella Familion is based on Stella Vermillion from Chivalry of a Failed Knight (Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry). The author renamed her surname from Vermillion to Familion to match the Kingdom of Familion in this fic's worldbuilding. Her sword Laevateinn and fire abilities are from the source material.