"That just now was..."
A strange sensation—words forming directly inside his mind.
For a fleeting moment, Rei wondered if the voice had been his imagination.
But Vihera beside him was frowning in visible displeasure. That confirmed the words just now—or whatever this telepathy-like phenomenon was—were definitely not in his head.
"Did you hear that too, Rei? No, rather than hearing it... it's more like words were planted directly into my mind."
"Yeah. Looks like you got the same experience."
They exchanged glances, confirming they had both felt it. Yet in contrast to the two of them, Set didn't seem nearly as bothered.
It had been the same earlier—the intense discomfort from the Queen's cries was something only Rei and Vihera experienced.
Set appeared to feel some mild unpleasantness, but it was clearly not as severe.
(Why is that? Does it come down to whether someone is human? Well, neither Vihera nor I are strictly human, either.)
Rei's body had been created through the combined pinnacle of the Zephyle Clan's techniques.
Vihera had once been an ordinary human, but after absorbing a vicious monster called an Unbris in a certain incident, she had become something difficult to call human anymore.
In that sense, neither of them could accurately be called human... but Rei still considered his heart to be that of a human's.
"Screeeeeeeeeee!"
The Queen's cry echoed through the Underground Space once more, and simultaneously, words were generated in Rei's and Vihera's minds just as before.
Seeking... desire... power... sameness... you...
The words materialized the same way as before, but the problem was that they were only fragments—individual words without context. He couldn't grasp exactly what the Queen was trying to say.
"Ow! ...First of all, does transmitting words through a method like this mean we can assume she understands our language? She certainly doesn't look capable of it."
Furrowing his brow against the pain throbbing in his skull, Rei fixed his gaze on the Queen.
What loomed before him was an existence that in no way befit the title of Queen—not in the sense of a monarch ruling a nation, but rather a queen in the manner of a Queen Ant or Queen Bee. The Queen Dragonias.
Given that, just as a Queen Ant laid ant eggs and a Queen Bee laid bee eggs, it was only natural that the Queen Dragonias was specialized for one purpose: producing Dragonias.
"I wonder. Even through such a primitive method, the fact that she's trying to convey her will suggests she does understand our language, don't you think?"
The pain from the words taking shape in her mind faded quickly. Once it subsided, Vihera relayed this to Rei.
"I hope so. So, did you glean anything from those words, Vihera?"
"That's difficult. All I get are isolated words in my head. How they connect to each other is..."
"Screeeeeeee!"
"Tch, again?!"
Rei broke off his conversation with Vihera, his annoyance spilling out involuntarily as the Queen unleashed another cry.
The next instant, fresh words surged into his mind.
Hope... power... mass... breeding... proliferation... me...
Once again, only fragments surfaced.
But whether the Queen had been listening to their conversation or it was mere coincidence, the words now forming in Rei's mind gave him a general sense of what the Dragonias desired.
"Power, mass... considering what every other Dragonias has been after, it has to be the Spirit Egg, right?"
"Then breeding, proliferation, me... means that with the Spirit Egg, the rate at which Dragonias multiply would increase beyond its current pace?"
The instant those words left her mouth, both of them understood: if their conjecture was correct, this was absolutely something they could never agree to.
If they were right, then obtaining the Spirit Egg would amplify the Queen's reproductive capacity—no, from what Rei could observe, the Queen required no male. She produced Dragonias entirely on her own. Whether "reproduction" was even the right term was debatable, but one thing was certain: the speed at which she spawned Dragonias would skyrocket.
The Centaurs had already suffered devastating losses to the Dragonias. If their numbers grew further, the outcome was obvious.
Though their numbers on the plains had dwindled, the Centaurs still clung to survival there. What would happen if the Dragonias swelled beyond their current count didn't require imagination to figure out.
As someone who had sided with the Centaurs, Rei could not possibly comply with the Queen's demand to hand over the Spirit Egg so she could birth even more Dragonias.
(I came here to annihilate the Dragonias in their headquarters. That being the case, I have no intention of dancing to their tune.)
With that settled, he readied himself to draw Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear from his Misty Ring at a moment's notice, then spoke.
"Sorry, but we have use for the Spirit Egg on our end. I can't hand it over."
...In truth, there was no such use.
The Spirit Egg was merely a provisional name based on its outward appearance. Rei had no idea what kind of object it actually was.
(Though I do need to figure out what to do with the thing.)
The Centaurs could sense the overwhelming spiritual power radiating from it.
But very few among them had any aptitude for magic. And among those, the number who could become Spirit Mages was vanishingly small.
Knowing the Centaurs, Rei could easily imagine that leaving the Spirit Egg with them would only invite unnecessary chaos.
...Yet the thought of taking it back with him wasn't appealing either.
Leaving it in Grimm's care wasn't an idea without merit.
Grimm possessed a curiosity that burned differently from Anastasia's. An entity like the Spirit Egg would surely fascinate him.
"Screeeeeeeee!"
As Rei pondered the Egg's fate, the Queen's cry rang out again.
And once more, her words invaded his mind.
Life... birth... hunger... desire... blood sphere...
He vaguely understood the first portion. Not the precise meaning, but a general sense of the direction she was conveying.
The problem was the final word: blood sphere.
What it signified, Rei couldn't fathom.
(Normally, "blood sphere" would bring to mind things like white blood cells, but in this world... I seriously doubt instinct-driven Dragonias would know that term. So what does "blood sphere" mean here? Taken literally... a sphere of blood, perhaps?)
Unable to make sense of it, Rei redirected his gaze to the Queen.
She remained utterly indifferent.
"Can you understand my words?"
He tried asking, but the Queen showed no reaction whatsoever. She simply sat there—a colossal mass of flesh, completely unresponsive.
(Can she really not understand us? Looking at her, it wouldn't be hard to believe, but... this makes things difficult. Since it'll probably come down to a fight anyway, should I just strike first?)
The thought crossed his mind, but launching a preemptive attack in this situation would inevitably trigger a massive battle. In a place like this, that would be nothing short of disastrous.
If the Dragonias surrounding them had been ordinary specimens, Rei might have considered fighting here and now.
But these were no ordinary Dragonias.
White. Black. And the rarest of all—the seven-colored scaled Dragonias, likely possessing the highest abilities among their kind, excluding the Queen herself.
He hadn't fought them yet, so their true strength remained unknown. But given everything surrounding this situation, there was no mistaking that they were powerful.
Even the golden-scaled Dragonias had deflected a thrown Twilight Spear—and that was when Rei had been riding Set's back, meaning he hadn't thrown it at full power.
Of course, that golden-scaled Dragonias hadn't walked away unscathed.
Among the golden scales, which boasted extraordinary defensive strength, the areas that had contacted the Twilight Spear—and even those that hadn't—were stripped, shattered, and pierced. The damage had been tremendous.
(If these ones are even stronger than the golden-scaled Dragonias, they'd probably shrug off even more and find a way to deal with the Twilight Spear.)
Rei swept his gaze across the black, white, and seven-colored Dragonias. But the targets of his stare, perhaps occupied by commands from the Queen, gave no reaction.
"Screeeeeeee!"
You... fate... resolve... death... life...
"Ow! ...Think I'll get used to this after a while?"
Rei grimaced at yet another cry and the resulting stab of pain in his skull.
If she'd at least signal before shrieking, he could brace himself. But the cries came without warning. As things stood, there was nothing he could do about it.
"I doubt it. This pain—this revulsion—it feels instinctive. I don't think I'd ever get used to it no matter how long I listened. And I certainly have no desire to try."
Rei found himself nodding along with Vihera's assessment.
Asking someone to grow accustomed to nails on a chalkboard was simply unreasonable.
If asked whether he'd adapt to the Queen's words, Rei—like Vihera—couldn't claim he would. And he had no intention of enduring her company indefinitely until he did.
"Yeah, I'm with you on that. The real problem is: if words won't reach her, how do we send our reply back?"
If verbal communication was impossible, then nothing they said would convey their intentions to the Queen.
She had sent the copper-scaled Dragonias to guide them here. That alone suggested she might have some form of two-way communication prepared.
"When you give your answer, how will you deliver it? I assume it's already decided?"
"I think you already know the answer to that, Vihera."
Rei fired back with the same teasing lilt she'd used.
Vihera's lips curved into a delighted smile.
It was a grin unique to her—one born not from the prospect of an easy victory, but from the anticipation of a fierce battle against a powerful enemy.
As if sensing something in that smile, the surrounding Dragonias—who had shown virtually no reaction to anything Rei's group had said until now—stirred. Every one of them shifted, if only slightly.
They had caught the Fighting Spirit radiating from Vihera as she readied herself for combat.
Observing the reactions of the white, black, transparent, and seven-colored Dragonias, Rei spoke.
"The answer is no. With the relationship between the Centaurs and Dragonias having deteriorated beyond repair, there's no other choice."
In the end, no matter what conditions the Queen might propose, Rei's answer had been decided from the start.
If the Centaurs had truly been cornered, reduced to a dozen or so survivors with no hope left, there might have been a case for accepting what amounted to the Queen's demand for surrender.
But while the Centaurs had been devoured by the Dragonias, a considerable number still survived.
He hadn't surveyed every Centaur, so he couldn't be precise, but the combat ratio between Centaurs and Dragonias on the plains stood at roughly four to six. With Rei's group tipping the scales, it would shift to five to five—and depending on circumstances, could even reverse to six to four. That was Rei's calculation.
"In other words... this is our answer!"
With those words, Rei drew Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear from his Misty Ring and readied himself for battle.