"There aren't any Grandragons."
They had dropped to an altitude of thirty meters and circled the area, but the creatures were nowhere to be found.
"Maybe..." Lordtoss pointed toward one of the sets of tracks leading away from the rocky mountain. "Maybe they've headed somewhere else?"
These tracks were different from the ones they had been following.
"That's not good. We have to catch them. Hope, after them!"
"Yes, Jin-sama."
Hope turned the nose of the craft to the south.
"This is bad... if they continue south, they'll hit the area with the Devil's Potato fields," Sion said with a grim expression.
"Hope, increase speed."
"Understood."
Pegasus 2 picked up speed. Before long, something moving appeared in the far distance.
"Father, I see the Grandragons," reported Reiko, whose eyesight was far superior to a human's.
"Good, we made it in time."
While they spoke, the distance between them closed until the Grandragons came clearly into view. They were trekking south at about fifty kilometers per hour.
"Warning shot!"
A magi-cannon fired from Pegasus 2.
The shot landed two hundred meters ahead of the Grandragons, sending a spray of stone and debris into the air. This show of force caused the three creatures to come to a sudden halt.
"Good, they've stopped."
Jin took the opportunity to observe them properly.
"All three are adults. Strays... I assume?"
The Grandragon was a land-dwelling dragon with a grayish-brown body, resembling a giant iguana. These specimens were approximately twenty meters long.
Sion mentioned that while little was known about their ecology, they were understood to form packs centered around a leader. A typical pack consisted of at least five individuals that acted with coordinated behavior. This meant the three before them were "strays" that had been cast out of their group.
"Strays are said to act entirely on impulse. That's what makes them so dangerous," Sion explained.
"If they kept going south, they would have reached the Devil's Potato fields in less than ten kilometers. They would have surely decimated the entire crop," Lordtoss added.
"Then we have to stop them here."
"H-How are you going to do that?" All-Creation asked Jin with a look of concern.
"Father, please let me handle this," Reiko volunteered. Since she hadn't had much of a role lately, she was eager to prove her worth before Jin.
"All right, I’ll leave it to you."
"Yes!"
Reiko opened the emergency hatch of the hovering Pegasus 2 and jumped out.
"!"
All-Creation looked panicked for a moment, but Reiko landed on the ground without the slightest issue.
"Now, here I go!"
In the next instant, she kicked off the earth and dashed forward.
"G-Great-grandmother, I thought magic didn't work well on Grandragons?" All-Creation asked Sion.
"Yes, that's true. But that doesn't matter for Reiko-chan."
"I had heard that, but still..."
All-Creation still looked worried.
When Reiko had subjugated three Grandragons alongside Anne in the past, she had used Touka and a magi-cannon. This time, she only had Touka. However, that Touka was no longer the same weapon it had been back then.
"The Plasma Sword, huh..."
It was a function added by the Jin of the past. It worked by confining plasma—reaching temperatures of tens or even hundreds of millions of degrees—within a barrier force field to form the shape of a blade. The length was variable, ranging from several tens of centimeters to several meters. It was a sword that evaporated any matter it touched.
The only drawback was its excessive mana consumption. A mana cell was built into the hilt, providing enough power for approximately thirty seconds of use per charge.
Reiko swung the Plasma Sword as she fell upon the Grandragons.
Perhaps confident in their absolute superiority, the creatures didn't try to flee when they saw her. Instead, one lifted a massive front leg, intending to trample her.
But in the next heartbeat, that leg was sliced clean off.
Without pausing, Reiko decapitated the Grandragon before it could even process what had happened.
Cries that were neither screams nor roars issued from the mouths of the remaining two. Recognizing Reiko as a threat, they pounced on her simultaneously.
Reiko leaped instantly, soaring thirty meters into the air. One Grandragon lost sight of her and stumbled, but the other noticed her and reared up.
When a twenty-meter-long Grandragon stood on its hind legs and extended its front limbs, it could reach a height of over thirty-five meters. Reiko, suspended in mid-air after her jump, should have been a defenseless target.
"Watch out!" All-Creation’s voice rang out.
However, just before the claws could reach her, Reiko shifted further upward.
"Huh?" All-Creation’s eyes went wide.
It was only natural, as Reiko was now simply floating in the sky.
"Um... is that Gravity Magic?"
"Not quite. She's floating using a force generator. It's the same device we have on Pegasus 2," Jin explained calmly, allowing All-Creation to finally relax.
"Look, she’s finishing it."
Still hovering in the air, Reiko swung the Plasma Sword twice.
Two more heads fell to the ground.
As thirty seconds passed, the Plasma Sword flickered and vanished. Reiko then flew through the air and returned directly to Pegasus 2.
"Father, it is finished."
"Good work, Reiko."
Because the Plasma Sword cauterized as it cut, no blood had sprayed. Reiko looked exactly as she had when she first stepped out.
"Grandragons provide a lot of materials, don't they?" Jin asked.
"Yes—scales, hides, horns, meat, bones, and claws. There's basically no part of a dragon that goes to waste," Sion replied.
Jin nodded, thinking they were much like whales. "In that case, let's give the remains to the people whose greenhouses were destroyed."
"Eh? Are you sure?"
"Of course. If they're willing to share, I'd just like a few of the scales from the back."
Sion nodded. "I understand. I'll make sure they know."
As a result of this decision, a mountain of scales would be delivered to Jin at a later date.