Danmachi: Westward Cloud [Complete]

[Vol.3] Quest 291.5- Wind Trail

About an hour after Hera has left the Room of Prayer.

"Huff! huff! huff!!"

Ais is running at full speed, not letting Fafnir out of her sight.

‘YOU WON'T GET AWAY!!!’

"(Tempest, Awaken)!!!!!!!!!"

Booom!!!

Whooooooooooooooooooooooosh!!!!!

High in the air.

"Fafnir, it seems that child you swatted is still following behind." Said Hera as she gazed down.

"What do you want to do?"

"Keep—!" She noticed the sky had stagnated, the black flame and white light standing still in the sky.

Half the sky was black flame, and the other a white sky.

‘Something happened. Dammit…’

She glanced down at Ais and smirked.

"… Land, I wish to see this child more closely. She could prove very useful."

"Very well."

Ais saw Fafnir was landing. She was so focused on Fafnir that she didn’t see the state of the sky.

‘It’s landing!! This is my chance!!’

Ais quickly ran as fast as her wind could push her, and when she finally reached the clearing, she saw a black dragon with 6 eyes, each one a different color. In front of the dragon was a goddess.

Whoo—

The currents of wind stopped.

Ais couldn’t help but see Cirrus in her face; it was so similar to his but more feminine that it was easy to think she would be his mother, but her divinity said differently.

"Ah, so you were the one who was following us... Child of the wind. You look so much like your mother."

Immediately, Ais was thrown off her game.

"Y-you know my mother!?"

"Well, no, but she was friends with my spirit, Arge."

"A-aunty Arge! The Fire Spirit that was with Aunty Evelda!"

"That’s the one, but…" Hera looks at her with her cold, ruby eyes and smiles. "It seems you reached this era through the Dungeon, huh?"

Ais looks down and nods.

"Good for you, hatred is truly soaked into the core of who you are."

Ais grimaced a bit before speaking up.

"Tell me."

"Hm?"

"Tell me why you are with that." Her voice was cold and filled with loathing.

"Oh her? Don’t worry, she’s fine. Show her Fafnir."

"Fafnir?"

Fafnir began to shift and form back into her human form.

"!!"

She was beautiful, but her eyes were unnervingly intimidating. Fafnir quickly put on heavily tinted sunglasses.

"My name is Fafnir; I am the 6-Winged Black Dragon Spirit King."

"Bit of a mouthful if you ask me," Hera said.

"I’m working on fine-tuning the name, anyway. As you saw with my eyes, I am a forced creation of the ones who you previously fought like Revis, but they jammed me with several other spirits resulting in a mess like me."

"So… They forced you into a dragon’s body?" Ais said, slowly lowering her sword.

"Well yes, I mean, I had no choice or agency in the matter of my existence. Master Cirrus helped me get some autonomy back into my life… Actually, I saw you down in the Knossos when master was pissed."

"Ah," Ais remembered the eyes that glowed behind Cirrus when he arrived that day. "… Alright." She sheathes her blade, trusting in Cirrus.

"Well, come along. You're already here. You might as well help, girl."

"Help with what?"

"Fending off a fallen hero."

"Fallen hero?"

"Yes. He is a man who claimed one of Cirrus’s eyes."

"!?" Ais reasonably is shaken by that fact. "H-how!? I would believe he got hit, but to lose an eye!?"

"Yes, that is how strong and dreadful this man is. You are a level…" Hera examines Ais up and down. "Six. Yes, that should be good enough to help my child fend him off. Hell, I am sure if luck is on your side, you could use him as your stepping stone to level 7."

Hera knows where to hit to get someone to follow her.

"Let us go!" Ais said enthusiastically with a stern expression. "I will help Cirrus however I can!"