The Dimensional Gap seemed truly timeless. Even after an explosion of that magnitude, the kaleidoscopic distortion around the floating land remained exactly the same, as if nothing had happened.
The landmass had stabilized again, drifting aimlessly as before. But the aftermath was carved into it. Rubble, scorch marks, and craters covered what had already been a desolate ruin, making it look even more wrecked than before.
A flame materialized in the sky above the devastation and slowly took Leo's shape.
He surveyed the damage and winced.
"Went a little overboard."
He knew the compressed fire lotus would hit hard. He'd poured every ounce of fire-attribute power Zenith Tempest could muster into it, compressed to the absolute limit. But he hadn't expected the detonation to be this extreme.
"At least I didn't destroy the whole place."
He glanced at the castle. It had taken a beating from the shockwave. The outer walls had almost entirely collapsed, and seventy or eighty percent of the windows and inner walls were shattered, exposing the interior structure. But the main body still stood.
That was a relief. The castle was his best hope of finding a way out of the Dimensional Gap. If it had been leveled, he'd have nowhere left to turn.
A castle guarded by a Dragon King had to contain something significant.
"Speaking of which, where's the dragon?"
Leo extended his magical detection and found it quickly.
The dragon lay on a pile of rubble. Its condition was devastating. The soft, near-white fur had been burned away completely. Its skin was charred black. One wing was half-destroyed, white bone visible through the ruin. The horn on its head had snapped off. Its face was drenched in blood. It was barely clinging to life.
Leo flew over and landed in front of it, folding his wings.
"So? Want to keep going?"
That was deliberately cruel. In its current state, the dragon couldn't fight, let alone move.
Worse still, its life signs were fading. Its breathing grew weaker. Blood-filled eyes slowly closed, crimson tears leaking from the corners.
It was dying.
Even a Dragon King with centuries of accumulated vitality couldn't survive a direct hit from that attack.
Leo had just achieved dragon-slaying in the Dimensional Gap. A Dragon King, no less.
He didn't feel guilty about it. The dragon attacked first. Every single one of those breath attacks had been aimed to kill, with zero restraint. Why should Leo hold back?
Still...
"Do you want to live?" Leo stood before the dying dragon. "If you want to live, tell me what you know."
He wanted to try communicating one more time. Even setting aside finding an exit, just learning the history of this land and the castle would make this trip worthwhile.
The dragon didn't respond.
This time, it probably wasn't unwillingness. It simply couldn't anymore.
Its life signs vanished completely. It stopped breathing.
It was dead.
"What a pain."
Leo scratched his head. Then he held out his palm and summoned a magic circle, from which a single chess piece emerged.
A Pawn piece. The same type as Ram and Rem's.
The piece was glowing brilliantly, telling Leo that the being before him was an ideal match for this Evil Piece.
"Making a Dragon King into a servant, huh?"
Leo smiled.
"Not bad."
He pressed the glowing Evil Piece against the dragon's body and began the incantation.
"By the name of Leo Eligos, I command..."
"You, unknown dragon, let your soul return to this place, to become my servant."
"Be reborn as a devil, and rejoice in your new life."
The incantation complete, the Evil Piece shattered into countless particles of light that sank into the dragon's body, enveloping it in a soft glow.
Within that light, the dragon's charred body began healing at visible speed. Time seemed to reverse. Burned fur regrew. The broken horn reformed. Blood receded. Life signs surged back.
At the same time, Leo received the feedback from Servant Conversion.
[Trait: Servant Conversion activating...]
[Base feedback acquired: Demonic Power (massive).]
[Advanced feedback acquired: Sacred Gear (enhanced).]
[Extra feedback acquired: Trait: Lightning.]
The instant the feedback registered, Leo's demonic power skyrocketed.
This was a Dragon King-class servant. That alone qualified as a high-potential evaluation, and the demonic power feedback was enormous, greater than any he'd received before. His power, which had just reached the ten-wing tier, surged all the way to the ceiling and hit the barrier to the next level.
His demonic power now was probably the strongest among all ten-wing devils, roughly on par with Kokabiel. Capable of confronting a Maou, half a step from Maou-class, and liable to break through at any moment.
At this rate, just one more mid-potential servant would push him straight into Maou-class.
Zenith Tempest had been strengthened again too. It might have already surpassed the True Longinus, the so-called strongest Longinus.
But what excited Leo most was the extra feedback.
"Trait: Lightning?"
He'd gained a new trait.
Leo extended his hand and channeled his demonic power, attempting to convert it into lightning.
In the past, he could do this, but he'd had zero talent for it. The lightning he'd produced was pathetically weak, less than half the power of a basic demonic power bullet. He'd given up on that path entirely.
The contrast was Rias's Queen, Akeno Himejima, the Priestess of Thunder. Lightning magic was her specialty, which was how she'd earned that title.
But Akeno's skill came from natural talent, which was different from a bloodline trait. Traits were innate. The Sitri bloodline gave all pure-blooded members mastery over water magic, no training required. The Eligos bloodline granted natural aptitude for detection magic.
Now, through Servant Conversion's extra feedback, Leo had gained a lightning trait on top of his detection trait.
When he tried converting his demonic power to lightning this time, it flowed effortlessly. Brilliant arcs of electricity blazed to life in his hand, nothing like the feeble sparks of before.
And the power was staggering. The lightning he produced now rivaled the natural lightning released through Zenith Tempest itself.
"What if I feed this lightning magic into Zenith Tempest as fuel?"
The thought became action immediately. He channeled the lightning magic into his Sacred Gear and released it.
A pillar of thunder erupted from his hand, illuminating the entire sky.
Leo's eyes lit up. He tried again with regular demonic power as fuel. The result was still impressive, but nowhere close to what the lightning magic had produced.
"The difference is several times over."
Using lightning magic as fuel for Zenith Tempest's lightning output versus regular demonic power: the gap was massive.
This new trait didn't just boost his base combat power. It supercharged Zenith Tempest's lightning capabilities as well.
"If it's me now, I could probably match Serafall Leviathan's ice magic with my lightning."
That was exciting. But his current situation quickly cooled him down.
"Whether I even get to see Serafall again is still up in the air. Let's focus on getting out of here first."
Leo dismissed the lightning and turned his attention forward.
The dragon had fully healed and was awake. It rose, towering over Leo, staring down at him with those large eyes. The pressure was intense.
Leo met its gaze calmly.
"Can you take human form?"
Not every dragon could. Among the five Dragon Kings in canon, only Tiamat had ever assumed human form. Even the Two Heavenly Dragons had never done it. Shapeshifting clearly required either talent or practice.
Leo was hoping this one could manage it. Otherwise he'd be traveling with a full-sized dragon from now on.
The dragon studied him in silence for a long moment. Then, softly, its body began to glow.
The light enveloped it entirely, and the massive form shrank. Smaller and smaller, until it was even shorter than Leo. The glow faded.
Leo's calm expression froze.
Standing before him was a little girl who looked like she belonged in elementary school.
About a hundred and twenty centimeters tall. Dressed in ethnic-style clothing. Gradient purple hair done up in twin tails. Big blue eyes. Tiny, adorable, and staring up at him like a doll.
She gazed at Leo without a word. Her eyes said everything, and Leo's mouth began to twitch.
"You're really the dragon from just now?"
Leo was silent for a long time before he could bring himself to speak. He looked like a man who refused to accept reality.
"Graaah!"
The little girl caught the doubt in his tone and puffed up, clearly offended. She made a fierce dragon-roar face, as if trying to prove she was very scary. It looked like she was doing a cute pose.
Leo put his hand over his face.
He felt a little dizzy.
The realization that he'd just accidentally killed what turned out to be a tiny adorable girl hit him with a wave of guilt.
But more importantly, he recognized her.
Another crossover character.
"Tell me your name."
Leo asked, though he was already fairly sure of the answer.
The little girl blinked at him, then answered reluctantly.
"Kanna Kamui."