Titanomakhia

Now that I think about it, that was the beginning.

 

"Hmm…"

Turning over pieces of broken bricks, I wrote numbers down in my book.

The calculations don't work out no matter how many times I try it.

"What's wrong?"

Nina asked me a question without looking at me while weaving a colorful cloth.

"Nothing, it's just… that wall shouldn't have been broken by Lufelle's headbutt."

"But it did."

"It did, yeah…"

Lufelle was five meters and fifteen centimeters tall. I'd actually measured her.

She was around four times the size of a human girl around her age—ten.

In that case, her weight wasn't four times as much, but closer to four times four times four, for a total of sixty-four times as much.

Four times for her length, width, and depth each. A ten-year old child would be around thirty kilograms.

In that case, Lufelle should weight somewhere around two thousand kilograms.

In other words, two tons. She had around the mass of a small elephant.

It was a formidable mass—but the bricks I made should have been able to easily endure that much force. In fact, when I let loose a rock I'd estimated to be about two tons at the wall, it took it like a champ.

"Didn't those stones launches at it before explode? Those could've weakened it."

"I didn't get that feeling though…"

I let out a sigh in response to Nina.

If that were the case, shouldn't there have been at least some cracks visible?

The undamaged wall emerging from behind the smoke created by Tia's magic was still clear in my memory. Was it possible for such a pristine wall to have been damaged only on the inside?

"I mean, it feels like I keep going through this recently. Like there's inconsistencies, or like my predictions just don't pan out…"

"You're talking about the water mill?"

"Yeah."

Something that should have moved… didn't. Something that shouldn't have broke, broke.

The phenomena were entirely opposite each other, but I got the feeling that there was some interlinking reason.

"Thinking about it more, I guess it's natural that my predictions would be off the mark."

Giants. Behemoths. Dragons. This world's land creatures were simply too large.

Lufelle was still alright since she was a child, but there were adult giants towering over ten meters.

Behemoths were even bigger than them, with dragons flying through the sky despite their size.

They used magic for flying, of course, but thinking about it carefully, it was just as strange they could walk at all. With giants being four times the size of a human, the thought they could have the same body type at all was strange.

In that case, there's even the possibility that Lufelle's body was even heavier… Though even so, there's no method I could use to measure her weight directly. I couldn't make a balance large enough to support her gigantic figure, after all.

"So, what'll you do?"

"What indeed…"

The university building was also the student dorm. However, Lufelle was taking care to not damage anything so she slept in a hut she build on the outskirts of the village.

"Her always having to be careful is so sad."

"Yeah, I agree, but still…"

She'd been making sure to not damage the walls since then.

"But if she accidentally destroyed an important pillar or something, she could cause everything to come down on everyone…"

"It'd be better than you doing something like that though?"

Nina cut the string with her knife, throwing her cloth at me roughly.

She'd recently gotten into embroidery. She'd embroidered a stunning dragon figure onto the red cloth with white thread. Really, she's good at everything…

"… That's it."

Seeing the picture, I suddenly remembered something that caused my eyes to open wide.

The thread wove to display a dragon, its scales, and a stream of flame.

"What, did you think of something else strange?"

"No… it's really good. It might just work."

I'd come up with an idea.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

"Lufelle. Could you try breaking this?"

With me carrying a giant rock in my dragon form, Lufelle huddled herself up as if afraid.

"There's no way she'd do something like that."

Seeing her, Tia spoke in disappointment. Hearing the girl speak so unilaterally on her behalf, Lufelle simply shrunk away all the more.

"I dunno if she couldn't though~"

Brushing away her hair, Aqua turned to look at the rock.

"You just want this broken, right?"

She turned her hand toward the rock. Water began to overflow from it. Aqua threw it with a quick wave of her hand. With that, the water stretched out in the blink of an eye, turning into a sharp spear.

However, it was unable to damage the rock and just dispersed into the air.

The reason being that Yutaka had unsheathed his scarlite sword and struck it.

"Big brother said he wanted Lufelle to do it."

I couldn't imagine how he managed to pull off the superhuman feat of striking a spear moving that quickly through the air like that. Still though, Yutaka treated it as if it was nothing and just spoke to Aqua.

Likely surprised, Aqua's nonchalantly beautiful face stiffened.

"Lufelle. I know you're afraid."

Giants were generally a wild, rampaging race.

I had no idea why she, a girl who had been born in that race, was so timid.

However—

"This is a necessary step in overcoming that fear. What you are afraid of is your own strength."

—However, I knew what she was afraid of. It was the same for me. I was a coward, after all.

Her eyes wide in surprise, Lufelle looked up at me.

"It's alright. I… a dragon, am even stronger than you. Give it your all, don't worry."

Lufelle's eyes swam about… before she eventually nodded.

She slowly walked to stand before the rock, looking at her hand.

Lufelle's palms were large enough to carry people.

Yet all I could see were the round, soft hands of a child.

Lufelle slowly raised that hand.

She used no technique, just a simple blow, like an infant throwing a punch.

—In that instant, the rock exploded and the ground shook.

The huge, solid rock shattered as easily as an eggshell with the fragments flying away. The impact didn't stop there, however, as the force had traveled through the rock into the ground, letting out a terrifyingly loud boom. I tried unfurling my wings to protect everyone, but it was pointless.

From my right, tree roots stretched out to intercept the stone fragments. From my left, a thick wall of water did the same. Nina and Rin had stepped in for the defense.

"Hey! Are you alright!?"

Shaking off the roots that had wrapped around her, Tia was the first to fly over to Lufelle.

"Y—… yeah…"

Bathed in pebbles and dust, the giant girl was sitting in a crater of her own creation.

"You don't look to be injured."

Still, she didn't seem hurt. Even her hand was entirely unscathed—it was unbelievable that her hand hadn't taken any damage from that attack.

"Hey, Mentor! What're you making her do!? That was dangerous!"

"Sorry, sorry. There was something I had to confirm. I figured that Lufelle would be alright, but I wound up worrying you."

I bowed my head in apology to Tia, who was raising her hands in anger. In front of the giant, the fae's body was so small it would be easy to accidentally lose sight of her.

"Yeah… Tia is always worrying about me."

"Wha—you're so big, why would I worry about you!? I was just saying it's dangerous for me!"

Setting aside the clamoring Tia, I turned to Lufelle.

She hadn't destroyed the rock for nothing. I was keeping careful watch.

The rock was crushed before her palm actually managed to touch it.

"Your strength is the same as my flame. Even if you aren't aware of it, it's covering your body and happening without you wanting it to."

As I said that, I let flames come from my mouth for the first time in a long time. I'd mostly been staying in my human form recently, so I'd almost entirely forgotten about how I had such a hard time with it back then.

My sighs had caused Nina to get angry so often.

For me, me sighing was enough to breath fire.

For Lufelle, movement itself was destruction magic.

Even so, hers was much stronger compared to other giants.

Not even adult males held as much power as her.

To put it another way, it was like Lufelle was living fully armored at all times.

"Which is why you'll be able to control it."

This time, I spoke without letting any fire out. It was a knack that had taken me decades to fully get the hang of, but it wouldn't be so hard nowadays. Now that I've lived for over six centuries, I've learned a bit about magic.

"That power… right. Let's call it Titanomakhia. There are two ways you can use it. As a destructive weapon… or as a shield to protect you."

Brushing away the pebbles still on Lufelle's head, I explained.

It was just a light brushing, but I definitely did feel something like a wall of power protecting Lufelle's body.

"For that, you must focus on it being a shield. Wish for it to happen."

Lufelle stared at my face in puzzlement… before placing her hands to her chest.

 

 

"My… Titano… makhia. Protect, me… I… I don't want to hurt anything, anymore."

Uttering an incantation, Lufella quietly stared at her hands.

She was probably doubting that it worked.

This world's magic didn't emit any light or sound when activated.

"Nina."

A flower flew over to me so quickly I doubt I'd even finished saying her name by the time it arrived.

It was that familiar white flower. Really, my partner was both smart and had a great memory.

Returning to my human form, I placed it on Lufelle's finger, which was as thick as my palm.

If she'd picked up the tiny flower with her power as out of control as it always was, it likely would have instantly been torn to pieces or crushed.

Seeing that, her laughter caused a wind strong enough for it to flutter.