https://re-library.com/translations/hero-king/Book 12: Chapter 481: 16-year-old Inglis and the Search for a Dragon God (8)

Two days had passed since Inglis and her group split off from Raphael and the main force.

Now, riding atop their Flygear Carrier, they scanned the landscape around them.

“That destroyed area over there… that must be where the Prisma passed through, right? It’s completely wrecked. That mountain there—half of it’s been gouged out,” said Rafinha, pointing at a small hill.

Indeed, the hill had a huge chunk taken out of it near the middle, leaving it oddly misshapen.

Some repairs had been made to the highway, but the sections deemed low priority had been left in their ruined state.

“Yeah… it’s worse than I expected,” Inglis nodded in agreement with Rafinha’s comment.

“With monsters like the Prisma possibly being born at any moment because of the Prism Flow, humans really shouldn’t be wasting time fighting each other. I mean, saving Instructor Rochefort is the top priority, but we’ve got to stop the war too…!”

“Right. We’ll just have to do our best, Rani.”

As Inglis and Rafinha nodded seriously at one another—

**RRRRGGGGHHH…**

Their stomachs let out a loud growl in unison.

“That sound really doesn’t match the look on your faces or the tone of your words,” Leone sighed, exasperated.

“I-It’s not our fault! We were trying to distract ourselves from being hungry by talking about something serious…!” Rafinha protested.

“We couldn’t bring that much food with us since we’re on a separate mission.”

“Even though we did bring twice the usual amount…”

“Still not enough!”

“Ahahaha… It’s rough for you two at times like this, huh?” Mais said with a wry smile.

“I figured we could just hunt something in the mountains along the way to make up for what we didn’t bring…”

“But there really aren’t many wild animals around. So much for that plan…”

Inglis and Rafinha let out matching, helpless sighs.

“It was already a region with few animals to begin with, but they must have fled in fear of the revived Prisma. It may take some time before they return. Animals are sensitive and timid creatures, after all,” said Arles, casting her gaze down at the mountain below.

“Ugh, I know this sounds like something Meltina would say, but… do you think we could eat the Mecha Dragons?” Rafinha asked.

“It does have some organic parts, right? Think we could slice off a piece?” Inglis added, turning to look at the Mecha Dragons flying behind their Flygear Carrier.

The Flygear Carrier was being pushed from behind by the Mecha Dragons, allowing them to fly toward their destination faster than usual.

“I-I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t do that…” said Mais with a nervous chuckle.

The Mecha Dragon’s expression—even though it shouldn’t have been able to show one—somehow looked like it was twitching with discomfort under Inglis and Rafinha’s hungry stares.

“This is no good…! We have to do something fast!”

“Yeah, you’re right, Rani!”

“But do something fast… like what?”

“We just have to get there quickly and harvest some dragon meat!”

“Yeah, that’s the best plan!”

And so, Inglis and Rafinha pulled out the Star Princess, a high-speed Flygear stored inside the Carrier, and climbed aboard.

The Flygear Carrier had hollowed-out compartments near its outer rim where smaller Flygears could be stored and anchored. Through these, they could also recharge their energy.

“Leone, we’ll go on ahead!”

“We should be able to make it all the way to the target location just using the Flygear.”

Even with help from the Mecha Dragons, Flygears were still faster than the Flygear Carrier, especially the Star Princess unit. After all, it was one of the fastest Flygears.

“Got it. We’re getting close anyway, so that might be a good idea,” Leone said with a nod.

“Then I’ll go with you too…! There’s a chance we might run into combat,” Arles added as she climbed aboard.

Since they were already near the recorded location of the seal, Inglis and Arles had changed into the golden shrine maiden outfits Rafinha had made.

“Be careful, Inglis, Rafinha, Arles!” Leone and Mais called out, seeing them off.

With that, the Star Princess separated from the Flygear Carrier and flew ahead.

“Let’s go full speed! Acceleration mode!” Inglis shouted.

Even after being repaired, the Star Princess still had its acceleration mode intact.

In an instant, the distance between them and the Flygear Carrier widened, and its form quickly shrank from view.

◆◇◆◇◆

The Star Princess flew on until its energy began to dwindle, finally reaching the vicinity of their destination.

“Over there! Those four rocky mountains! According to the map, it should be inside that area, right…!?” Rafinha exclaimed, pointing ahead.

She was indicating the central area where four rocky mountains stood, aligned like points on a compass—north, south, east, and west.

Each mountain was roughly the same size and sat at nearly equal distances from one another, as though arranged deliberately.

The road leading to Venefique seemed to thread its way eastward between a pair of steep ridges beyond that area. Since the path between the ridges narrowed considerably, blocking it could also help achieve their secondary objective.

“Four mountains, all about the same size… It almost looks artificial,” Arles commented, tightening her expression.

“It really does,” Inglis agreed with a nod.

“But if it *was* man-made, then it must’ve been a long time ago. The degree of weathering and the vegetation on each peak varies.”

Though the mountains looked similar in stature, the one exposed to the northern winds had visibly faded and worn down, while the sunlit southern side supported far more trees and plants around its base and slopes.

It was the kind of natural difference that only long stretches of time could produce.

And— as they drew closer to the rocky mountains, Inglis flinched slightly.

“…! Ether…”

She could sense flows of Ether radiating from each mountain. The currents were all converging toward the center of the hollow between the peaks, streaming downward into the ground, as though being drawn into the earth itself.

And that flow of Ether seemed to form something like a web or membrane beneath the ground. In other words, something lay sealed beneath it—

And if the intel was accurate, that “something” was surely the Dragon God Owlgloria.

“Say, Glis… I don’t know how to explain it, but this whole place just *feels* strange. Like, definitely not normal. Do you sense anything, too?” Rafinha asked.

“Yeah, I feel it. Just like you said, Rani, something’s definitely here. Probably the Dragon God.”

During the battle in Illuminus, Rafinha had apparently fired an arrow of Ether. Having grown up alongside Inglis since childhood, it was likely that Inglis’ Ether had gradually begun to reside within her as well. Though faintly, Rafinha seemed able to sense the Ether flowing through this area.

If Inglis, a Divine Knight, was half-god and half-human, then Rafinha would be one-quarter god and three-quarters human…?

“I don’t sense anything unusual myself, but if the Dragon God is here, that would certainly be a welcome development. Nothing can begin unless it is,” Arles said.

As a Hyrule Menace, she couldn’t perceive Ether. It seemed Arles didn’t sense anything out of the ordinary.

“In any case, let’s go confirm it,” Inglis said.

“Yes, but how should we go about that? Should we try digging into the center over there?” Arles asked, pointing toward the middle of the basin surrounded by the four rocky peaks.

“That’s one way to do it… but if we destroy it all at once, we might end up injuring the Dragon God underground. On the other hand, taking the time to carefully dig it out might not be an option either. Ideally, I’d rather have it come out on its own.”

“Come out on its own? Is that even possible?”

“Yes. If whatever’s acting as a binding force can be released, I believe that it’s possible.”

From what Inglis could see, the Ether from the four rocky peaks was converging to form something like a seal. Whether it had been created by another Divine Knight or a God themselves, she wasn’t sure, but it was clearly the work of something beyond the realm of humans.

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