Arthur didn't expand his Domain.
He only strengthened himself with Origin Force, fighting Tohru in a pure hand-to-hand brawl—flesh against flesh, bone against bone.
Tohru didn't revert to her dragon form.
In human shape, she couldn't unleash her full power.
Their first exchange was purely a probe.
Fists met head-on.
Force and mana collided, clashing and eroding one another. The shockwave blasted a deep crater into the ground—
Even the air itself was ripped apart, forming a brief vacuum.
After trading that single punch, both Arthur and Tohru had a rough measure of each other.
The next moment, Tohru's hands shifted into dragon claws wrapped in red magic light, slashing fiercely at Arthur.
Arthur flicked her strike aside with his left hand and threw a counterpunch with his right.
Tohru blocked with her left hand—
Bang! The air exploded again, pressure waves surging as she used the recoil to slide back several meters.
She opened her mouth wide, magic flaring—
A beam of blazing red dragon breath shot forth like a laser.
Arthur's eyes narrowed; he gathered the golden power of Sanctuary Shield into his fist—
And punched straight into the beam.
Sanctuary Shield could both attack and defend.
All that terrifying power condensed into a single point—
Like the Death Punch of a certain bald demon lord playing around with legends.
The dragon breath disintegrated inch by inch.
Seeing that, Tohru's eyes hardened.
She snapped her mouth shut, cutting off the beam, and shot forward in a streak of red light, slashing her claw down from above.
Arthur twisted aside, caught her arm, and drove an elbow toward her joint.
One was a "human" with the instincts and experience of a master fighter—
The other, a dragon who had lived tens of thousands of years, brimming with battle wisdom.
They traded blows in the air, back and forth, neither giving ground.
Human and dragon turned into blurs, colliding faster than the naked eye could follow.
Each impact cracked the sky with thunderous roars.
The shockwaves churned the air into violent ripples, sweeping outward and turning a ten-kilometer radius into a no-man's-land.
The ground quaked.
The sky trembled.
As their battle rose higher and higher, the shockwaves shredded the clouds above the desert until only a clear blue sky remained.
The fight lasted for an entire hour.
High above, Arthur and Tohru finally stopped, floating opposite each other, both wearing satisfied smiles.
They had enjoyed themselves—
Yes, I enjoyed.
Because neither had gone all out.
It was just sparring, a bit of fun.
This wasn't a real battle.
To Arthur and Tohru, a real battle meant life and death.
Everything else was merely play.
But even play had its meaning—
How far one could "play" revealed their true level of power.
Take Tohru and Kanna's playful sparring, for instance—
To a human, it would look like the end of the world.
After about three thousand exchanges in this hour-long "play fight," Arthur had a good idea of Tohru's strength.
Her base power was about the same as his own.
Relying purely on physical might and internal energy—without magic or special techniques—she could easily destroy a city.
If she went all out,
Tohru's full strength was probably on par with his—capable of annihilating an entire large nation with a single blow.
So when she said she could destroy the world…
It wasn't just boasting.
Both of them were around A+-class (Nation-Destroying Level).
Of course, that was only a rough estimate.
The details could wait.
Looking at the devastated desert below, Arthur invoked the rules of the Mirage Realm, channeling his Force to restore the land to its original state.
"What is this?!"
Tohru's eyes widened in surprise at the miraculous reconstruction.
Sensing her astonishment, Arthur smiled.
"This place is my subspace," he explained. "I plan to turn it into my base of operations—our home."
"So amazing!"
Tohru was stunned by the first half of his words—she hadn't expected Arthur to possess such a vast subspace.
She had tried sensing it with her magic perception… and could faintly feel just how boundless this world was.
But when she caught the words our home, her eyes flickered, lips curling into a soft smile.
Once the desert was restored, Arthur turned to her with a grin.
"Tohru, want to look around my Mirage Realm?"
"Sure," Tohru answered brightly.
She hadn't been particularly interested at first—
But since Arthur had called it our home, of course she had to explore her future house properly.
"I'll head out first," Arthur said, summoning the Gate of Mist.
"Ah… okay."
Tohru's gaze wavered slightly before she smiled and nodded.
She had thought he'd explore with her.
Arthur just smiled back, then stepped through the mist, returning to his home on Earth.
"Well then… let's take a look," Tohru murmured.
Hiding a touch of disappointment, she turned into her dragon form and began inspecting the territory.
Meanwhile—
Back on Earth, Arthur appeared in his bedroom on the second floor.
Seeing that Akashiya Moka was still asleep, he sat down at his computer.
He booted it up and logged into World Tree.
Just as he did, his phone lit up.
It was a message—from Machida Sonoko, editor at the Fujimi Shobo, the one responsible for both him and Utaha Kasumigaoka.
A short-haired, cool-headed beauty with a professional aura.
Her figure was almost identical to Utaha's.
He opened the LINE chat:
Machida Sonoko: "Sensei Shiro, I've got some good news—want to hear it?"
Arthur's real name contained the character Bai ("White"), and his pen name was Daydream.
Since they were on friendly terms, Machida usually called him Little Shiro, sometimes adding Sensei for teasing formality—
just as she affectionately called Utaha Shii-chan.
When Arthur had first debuted as a light-novel auTohru, Machida had helped him a lot—
like fighting for more promotional resources.
Arthur typed back:
Arthur: "What good news? Don't tell me it's a third anime adaptation?"
Because, honestly, that was the only kind of surprise that made sense right now.
His debut work, Game of the Gods, was still ongoing—
currently on Volume 10—
and had already received two successful anime adaptations.
Thanks to generous funding and a passionate staff, the animation quality was top-tier,
bringing a new wave of fans to the series.
Machida Sonoko: "Ugh, you guessed it again. You're no fun."
"But I've got another piece of good news. Want to hear that too?"
Arthur: "What is it?"
Machida Sonoko: "Guess."
Arthur: "No."
Machida Sonoko: "Come on, guess~"
Arthur: "I'm not."
Machida Sonoko: "Please~ guess, Little Shiro-sensei~~~."
Arthur: "Yare yare… fine, fine. You win."
Machida Sonoko: "Ehehe~"
Arthur: "Don't tell me you finally got yourself a boyfriend, Machida-san? Congratulations, that's quite an achievement."
On the other end of the line—
"...!!"
Machida Sonoko froze.
Wearing her sharp business suit, she blinked, then her face darkened slightly.
Her teeth clenched; she almost ground them audibly.
Machida Sonoko: "Brat! What nonsense are you spouting? Of course not!"
Arthur: "See? I told you I didn't want to guess. You made me guess, I did, and now you're mad."
Machida Sonoko: "..."
Arthur: "Alright, alright. So what's the real good news?"
And with that, the teasing continued—
a daily rhythm between the young prodigy auTohru and his sharp-tongued editor.
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