Gardenia's Heart-Chapter 170: Against the Strongest

There was no signal to begin; the woman simply stood there and waited.

With a smile on her face, Bahamut observed the dense mist surrounding her—the dark, thorn-covered forest growing along the silent mountainside.

Then, like a dome forming around her body, a black sphere took shape with her at its center.

“An offensive barrier, huh?” Bahamut whistled in surprise.

A sharp, piercing hum invaded her ears. In an instant, an overwhelming weight began to form across her entire body, evenly distributed.

It was as if hundreds of tons had simply appeared. Every nerve, every vein, every bone—everything suddenly grew heavier, to the point that even the air around her felt as dense as liquid.

Beneath Bahamut’s feet, dozens of fractures began to spread through the mountain itself. Each deep gash connected like a colossal spiderweb.

The sound of rock splitting apart exploded outward.

Within moments, a massive crater formed at the center of the dome, Bahamut’s body driven downward as though a nail were being hammered into the earth.

“Hahaha!”

At the center of the crater—where not even dust could rise due to the gravity multiplied hundreds of times—a wheat-haired woman laughed in exhilaration.

Slowly, step by step, Bahamut began to walk. Every tiny movement of her bones against the terrain under crushing gravity created a macabre cacophony. As she moved, her differently colored eyes studied the sphere, which shifted along with her no matter where she went—her body never reaching its edge.

“So I’m the center?” Bending her knees, her ivory wings spread wide and a grin stretched across her face. “Interesting!”

She shot upward. The explosion of sudden movement lasted only a second. Twisting her body in sync with the opening and closing of her wings, Bahamut reached the edge of the black sphere and unleashed a spinning kick.

A sound like shattering glass rang out as an opening tore through the barrier. Leaping into the thorny forest, Bahamut balanced on a branch, bracing herself for a direct attack.

However…

“They went down the mountain to hide in the forest?”

With a sigh, the dragon woman frowned when none of the girls were there to greet her as she exited the sphere. Not even her sense of smell could pierce the limitations imposed by the dense mist.

Since it was unlikely they wanted to drag the battle back to Athamas, it was almost certain they had descended the mountainside. She would have to follow.

“Hm?”

A chill at her feet caught her attention.

From the tips of her toes, climbing to her ankles and then her knees, a dense layer of dark bluish-black ice grew in thick crystals, coiling around the tree she stood on, running along the trunk down to the ground.

And not only that.

From the thickest thorned vine to the thinnest blade of grass, for hundreds of meters around the black sphere, a vast section of the mist-covered mountainside had frozen over as though an eruption of ice had swept through it.

Then, a voice colder than the abyss resounded.

“[Crystal Apocalypse]”

A white flash engulfed everything.

The ground trembled as if an earthquake had been born. Like a glacial cataclysm, successive explosions carried with them absolute zero.

White frost froze everything in its path, every inch of the earth’s surface turning into petrified sculptures of ice.

At the edge of the devastation, protected within a small barrier, three girls watched the scene unfold before them.

“Did we get her?” Thelira asked, gripping her wooden bow as she tried to see through the dense mist.

“Lily’s magic hit her head-on. I’m sure of it,” Nia said, trying to pinpoint Bahamut’s position with her mana-location.

It had been a hastily made plan, one whose success depended entirely on Nia trapping Bahamut inside the barrier long enough for Lily to finish her spell.

“She never said how it had to be done.” Holding Akasha in her hands, Lily spun the wooden staff and returned it to her waist, staring at the area where her magic had activated. “If we can wound her without getting close, that’ll be our best option.”

Though she had faced a dragon before, Lily had no idea what it meant to fight one in a pseudo-human form.

If she assumed that, like Nia, strength and mana capacity didn’t change regardless of form, then that meant they were now facing someone at least as strong as Fafnir in his draconic state—but with speed amplified by a smaller body.

When the explosions from her spell finally ceased, the frigid air began to settle, snow starting to fall in response to the extreme drop in temperature.

They only needed to inflict a single wound. That attack should have been enough.

Preparing to go check on Bahamut, the girls were about to step into the now-frozen forest when a whistle cut through the air.

“You’re right, Lily. I don’t care how you do it. Use whatever you like.”

Slowly emerging through the snow-covered field, a single woman walked forward, her body covered in a thin layer of ice.

Each of her steps shattered the frozen grass beneath her feet. From her head to her legs, her entire body was coated in faint crystals that melted and vanished into the air as she moved.

Seeing the dragon woman approach, Lily couldn’t help but frown.

She had used Akasha for that attack. Amplifying the spell’s power dozens of times through her fairy, it should have at least left a single wound. Yet Bahamut’s skin hadn’t regenerated… because she hadn’t received so much as a scratch in the first place.

“You’re not coming?” Bahamut lifted her chin, placing one hand on her hip, her white tail swaying lazily.

Watching the dragon woman who waited for her challengers, Lily gripped both her swords and turned her gaze to Nia.

A single black crystal the size of a tree trunk formed in the air. With the deep sound of ice condensing, it shrank rapidly, becoming no larger than a coin.

Spinning on its own axis, the condensed shard of ice began to accelerate, vibrating so violently that a deafening hum filled the air.

Cutting through the dark mist in less than the blink of an eye, the tiny ice crystal shot forward like lightning, aimed straight at the center of Bahamut’s forehead.

There was no interruption. No attempt to evade.

Striking its target perfectly, the crystal continued spinning without losing momentum. The piercing attack—designed for nothing less than absolute execution—vibrated relentlessly and then—

“What?” Thelira’s stunned, confused voice echoed as she instinctively shrank back.

It was like a ricochet.

Hurled backward along a reversed trajectory with even greater force than when it had been fired, the black ice crystal punched a small hole into the black sphere—directly toward Nia’s head.

Watching the crack in her barrier caused by her own attack, Nia narrowed her crimson eyes.

“That’s what Lily said happened in the library, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Crystal scales…” Lily murmured.

On the surface of Bahamut’s forehead, a thin layer of white, crystallized scales—like frozen air—glimmered almost imperceptibly.

Cicuta’s words in the library echoed once more in Lily’s mind.

The innate ability of the Scale Clan.

“We can’t use mana. Her scales will reflect any spell.”

That was a serious problem.

Swallowing hard as the reality of it settled in, Lily watched Bahamut. Even after taking Nia’s impact head-on, the dragon woman hadn’t moved an inch—hadn’t even taken a single step back.

An opponent against whom spells were useless.

She was the worst possible enemy for a mage.

“I’ll have to fight her head-on. Cover me, please.”

With both black blades in hand, Lily stepped forward.

In the snowy field, she took a battle stance—and her opponent mirrored her.

Face to face once more, two pairs of mismatched eyes studied each other.

Then they moved.

Slicing through the air, the twin black swords—one wrapped in a bluish aura, the other in a reddish-violet glow—clashed against bare fists.

Like identical poles of a magnet, the instant the blades made contact with Bahamut, both of Lily’s arms were violently thrown backward.

“So even the swords…” Lily didn’t have time to complain. Her failed strike had left her wide open.

Planting her white tail into the ground as leverage, Bahamut spun midair, her heel whipping toward Lily’s abdomen.

But the leg that cracked through the air like a lash struck nothing.

Raising a brow as she landed lightly, Bahamut couldn’t suppress the thin smile that curved her lips.

“Time magic really is fascinating,” she murmured.

Spreading her ivory wings, she looked up at the girl now flying several meters above—and gave chase.

Sharp detonations rang out as sparks scattered through the air.

Gritting her teeth, Lily shot through the forest while airborne, weaving past branches and jagged rock as she kept her eyes on the woman pursuing her.

Even if she attacked during frozen time, the scales covering Bahamut’s skin would still reflect the strike if she infused it with mana. Like a ricochet, any mana that touched her surface would be repelled instantly.

A portal like a star-filled night sky opened before her. Passing through it, Lily reappeared instantly behind Bahamut.

Long silver hair streamed in the wind. Gripping a single sword, Lily used the momentum she had built and lunged.

Only then did Bahamut realize her target had vanished.

She twisted midair—but Lily’s blade was already pressed against her stomach.

A dull impact echoed as the dragon woman’s body was launched away. Trees, rocks, vines—everything within a hundred-meter stretch was swept aside as Bahamut crashed through them.

Dismissing her black wings and landing atop a tree, Lily stared at the impact site as the dust began to settle.

“So not even that…” she murmured.

A single cut to the abdomen should have unleashed a river of blood.

Yet not a single drop of crimson stained Bahamut’s flawless skin.

Worse, she hadn’t even fallen.

Standing upright, knees slightly bent, Bahamut brushed dirt from her dress with the back of her hand.

Watching her clean herself off with utter indifference, even after that attack, Lily felt unease coil in her chest.

This time she hadn’t been repelled, but the strike still hadn’t pierced the dragon woman’s hardened skin.

Reinforcing her own body was the only way to bypass the repulsion of the crystal scales. But without channeling mana through her blade, its cutting power was drastically reduced.

Stardust was a conductor of mana.

Without drawing out the weapon’s true nature, the sword was no different from an ordinary blade.

“How about we speed things up a little?” Bahamut tilted her head, gazing at the silver-haired girl perched in the tree a hundred meters away.

This time, she didn’t wait for a reply.

With an explosive leap, Bahamut reached the tree Lily stood on. The trunk split clean in two as her heel struck it. Splinters of wood slammed against the black sphere protecting Lily, who jumped aside to avoid being crushed.

Both swords in hand again—still without mana coating them—Lily began parrying the incoming blows.

The sound of steel clashing against Bahamut’s fists was anything but dignified. This wasn’t an honorable duel.

It was savage.

Each impact made the bones in Lily’s wrists scream in protest.

She knew she couldn’t defeat the dragon woman alone.

And because of that, she knew exactly what she had to do.

Leaping back just before a punch could land, her body was swallowed by a portal resembling a starry sky.

“Another trap?”

Bahamut barely had time to think.

She couldn’t move.

Around her arms, legs, feet—even her neck—thin, sharp, black, sticky threads bound her tightly.

And that wasn’t all.

The instant one thread was repelled, it wrapped around her again. The process happened in milliseconds, never allowing all her limbs to be free at once.

Though the threads were laced with venom and acid, Bahamut understood they weren’t meant to harm her.

They were buying time.

For that.

“Oh… those are some sharp teeth you’ve got there, little wolf.”

With a whistle of surprise, Bahamut looked at the countless fangs of the five-meter-tall black wolf snapping shut around her body.

A shrill grinding noise followed Akasha’s bite. More than a hundred spectral eyes fixed on the dragon woman as the fairy—who sought nothing but destruction—tried to pierce her skin.

“Sorry, but I’d rather not become breakfast, you know?”

Laughing, Bahamut extended long, white crystalline claws from each of her fingers, curving like sharpened crescents.

In a single motion, all ten claws struck the upper and lower jaws of the wolf’s snout, forcing its massive mouth open. With a leap, Bahamut launched herself out—straight toward two massive paws tipped with razor-sharp talons waiting for her.

Her clenched fist cut through the air like a projectile, knocking one of the giant claws aside, unbalancing the fairy and sending it crashing to the ground.

Landing lightly, Bahamut rested a hand on her hip, smiling at the wolf before her.

Furious howls filled the air. Akasha’s overwhelming bloodlust locked onto the dragon woman.

Preparing to lunge again—the world changed in a single blink.

“So you can use that too, little wolf?”

Smashed against the mountainside, Bahamut watched as a tail came slicing toward her neck like a blade.

Destroy.

Unconditionally.

Beyond repair.

Laughing between savage howls, Akasha lashed the dragon woman dozens of times with her tail.

Earth, dust, granite—countless kinds of rock were pulverized and scattered into the air, vaporized under the immense pressure.

Each strike sent seismic tremors through the mountain. Each impact hammered Bahamut’s body harder and harder, the crater deepening as her form was driven further into stone.

But something was wrong…

There was no scream.

Not even a groan.

“Is that it?”

The wolf’s mocking laughter faltered. The strikes of its tail slowed as it watched the woman slowly rise.

Unable to believe what she was seeing, the fairy froze in place.

Planting both feet firmly on the ground, Bahamut bent her knees. Drawing one arm back as far as her shoulder allowed, she twisted her torso and drove her fist forward.

A single impact.

Her crystal-scaled punch struck Akasha’s forehead, blasting the five-meter wolf down the mountainside in a dry, thunderous explosion.

With a leap, Bahamut landed several meters below.

“You’re next?”

Looking ahead, she fixed her gaze on the elf with the orange scarf standing dozens of meters away—and on the brilliant amber-brown arrow resting just inches from her feet.

The arrow hadn’t been fired after she landed.

It had been shot knowing she would land there.

“Your future sight is different from the one Virelia used?” Bahamut murmured, staring into the half-moon pupils glowing with golden light.

“Explode,” Thelira whispered, stepping into a portal.

A bluish spark flashed, and from that single projectile, dozens of stone pillars erupted upward, launching toward the dragon woman.

The mana-forged rock shattered the instant it touched Bahamut’s crystalline scales.

As an attack spell, the elf’s magic was a failure.

But injuring Bahamut had never been the goal.

Though the pillars weren’t strong enough to push her back, the sudden upheaval along the mountainside—already weakened by the fairy—was anything but meaningless.

It was as if an earthquake had been born.

Like a seismic rupture, every stone, slab of granite, and shard of gravel in the affected area trembled, then began to move against its will. Breaking apart, surrendering to gravity, boulders larger than houses collapsed.

The landslide flowed like a brutal river, the avalanche swallowing Bahamut’s body whole.

One hundred meters. Two hundred. And beyond.

The torrent of stone consumed the frozen field, growing as it devoured more of the terrain. A cacophony of destruction dragged the dragon woman down the mountainside.

And yet—

Not even the force of nature could wound her.

She was strong.

Absurdly strong.

That fact was being carved into the depths of their beings with every passing minute.

And because of that—because of that undeniable truth—they could not afford to hold anything back.

At the far end of the avalanche’s descent, Bahamut rose from the rubble.

For the first time that day, a shiver ran along her nerves.

Violet lightning spread through the forest, tearing open ethereal fissures that reflected a sky filled with stars.

In the frozen world, Lily held a purple-haired girl in her arms, the black blade in that girl’s hands resembling a night sky studded with constellations. Accelerating, the silver-haired girl carried her beloved straight toward their opponent.

If the problem with striking her using a spell was the absolute repulsion her body carried—

“Then we just need to hit her with something that can’t be reflected.”

The moment the world’s colors returned, it felt as though reality itself trembled.

“[Cosmos Rupture]”

All the fissures converged into a single point, forming an absolute cut.

And—

“It was a good attempt, Jelly. But not yet. Not good enough.”

She grabbed her wrist.

That was all.

Nothing more.

“When you cast the portal onto the blade, you break all the spell’s conditions of existence and distort the laws of the world. A slash that rends the fabric of space itself—rather than what occupies that space—is undeniably indefensible…”

Her grip tightened.

“…if it hits.”

The black blade vibrated violently now, emitting a piercing hum that rang across the entire mountain. A crimson-violet glow spread outward—and even so, the dragon woman’s voice and presence remained perfectly steady.

“If you pour in too much dark mana, the sword breaks. If you use too little, the spell can’t be projected onto the blade in time—or it becomes incomplete.”

Letting out a heavy sigh, Bahamut looked at the purple-haired girl, whose widened eyes couldn’t even blink.

“Only Lily and the little wolf can move when time is stopped, right? Even if she carries you to a distance where dodging should be impossible, the mere instant you need to calculate the spell makes you too slow. That makes all of Lily’s effort meaningless, Jelly.”

The spell, cast for the sole purpose of cutting down the dragon woman, had failed to reach completion. Without fulfilling its ultimate purpose, the portal—conjured with the sword not as a catalyst, but as the very forge of its existence—was spiraling out of control.

If nothing was done, the stardust blade would finally succumb to overload, the magic that consumed all of the girl’s dark mana erupting outward in unrestricted devastation.

And because of that, the dragon woman did not hesitate to clench her fist.

A splash of violet liquid scattered across the mountainside as Nia’s wrist was crushed.

“So this is your limit without using Ragnarok as a weapon? An attack this slow and dull wouldn’t be enough to kill me.”

The sword was torn from her mangled hand.

The purple-haired girl fell to her knees.

The impact was dull. Heavy.

The sound of someone who had exhausted themselves before the inevitable.

“Nia!”

Shouting her name, Lily dropped to her side at once, hands trembling as she checked her over.

She had been defeated.

There was no doubt. No room for interpretation.

Even through the haze of losing control of her spell, with barely any mana left after that attack, Nia understood—there was no way she could stand against the hero.

It had been a crushing defeat.

She should have been thinking about escape.

But in that moment— running never crossed her mind.

Pain wasn’t the issue. Not even the blood pouring from her severed hand, already beginning to reform with a burning, bubbling sound.

Lying on the ground, crimson eyes remained locked onto the dragon hero before her.

It made no sense to oppose Bahamut.

There was nothing she could do.

And yet—

Nia did not retreat.

“Not ideal… but it’s almost there.”

Murmuring to herself, the dragon woman’s lips curled upward.

Holding the stardust sword loosely in her hand, Bahamut tossed it back toward Lily, who caught it with ease.

“Well then. That was a disappointing fight… but perhaps fighting you might be more interesting than sparring with Elarielle. So let’s do this, Jelly.”

Leaning forward slightly, Bahamut looked down at the girls on the ground.

“Three days.”

She raised three fingers, her mismatched eyes locking intensely onto the purple-haired girl.

“If she follows the rituals properly, that’s how long the hothead will need to formally assume her position as leader of the Wing Clan. And given Tiamat’s condition… that’s about how long I’d estimate she has left.”

Straightening up, Bahamut flicked her tail against the ground, clearing away the dust and shattered stone around her with a single sweep.

“Jelly, I’ll revise my offer. If you can meet my expectations before that time is up, I’ll give you this book—and I’ll stop the other clans from starting a war against the elves. What do you say?”

The woman’s words made unease spread through Lily’s body, and she quickly stepped in front of her wife.

“Nia, you don’t have to do this. We can find another way!”

A brief clash with Bahamut had been enough to completely defeat them all. Facing a being of that magnitude, Lily couldn’t even begin to imagine what new expectations the hero might have in mind this time.

However, just as she was about to stop such absurdity, a small hand—already fully healed—rested gently on her shoulder.

“Lily… I’m still not strong enough.”

With a soft voice, Nia stepped closer and tenderly pressed a kiss to her wife’s lips.

Caught off guard by the sudden gesture, Lily didn’t react when Nia, this time, moved to stand in front of her.

Nia had no proof that Bahamut would keep her promise. Yet she also couldn’t see any other way to obtain that volume of the Book of Truth without complying with her demands.

That hero was an obstacle she would have to face someday.

If she backed down now and merely postponed it, what would she do if the next challenge before her was even greater than this one? She was certain that if she didn’t seize this opportunity, she would never have another.

And that wasn’t all.

It wasn’t something concrete, nor was it based on logic her mind could calculate. It was a hunch—perhaps intuition. Still, Nia was certain of one thing.

If she faced Bahamut, she would grow even stronger.

“I want to become stronger to protect Lily. To protect Rose.”

Without turning around, the metamorph clenched her fists.

“Nia…” Lily whispered her beloved’s name as she stared at the back of the purple-haired girl.

“I promise I’ll succeed.”

Hearing those words, filled with such unwavering determination, not even Lily could stop her—no matter how worried she was.

Feeling her beloved’s support, Nia took a single step forward, standing face to face with the dragon woman and looking directly into her mismatched eyes.

“I accept.”

Seeing the girl challenge her once again, Bahamut let out an impressed whistle.

“Doing it here would be troublesome, and I’m not in the mood to return to the Scales Clan’s base so soon… Yes, that place should be perfect.”

Ivory wings unfurled, and a white tail wrapped around Nia’s waist in a single second.

“You can come along if you want, Lily.” Turning toward the woman whose face was filled with concern, Bahamut invited her to join them, but soon tilted her head slightly. “Though I believe there are a few other things you need to take care of here.”

Even with Selene present to protect Thelira and her daughters, Lily knew how risky it would be if both she and Nia left at the same time.

If they accepted Bahamut’s offer and sent everyone home through a portal, the sudden disappearance of the entire elven delegation would be no different from declaring them guilty of the poisoning—triggering the conflict immediately, before the three-day deadline Bahamut had mentioned.

To ensure everyone’s safety, Lily would have to remain behind and protect the elven delegation, while Nia sought Bahamut’s approval.

Clasping both hands together in front of her chest, Lily watched as the dragon woman began to rise into the air, disappearing into the mist alongside the metamorph.