Bab 25: Chapter 25
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… He wouldn't be who he was if he just laid down and took it. He wouldn't be deserving of the title Red Dragon Emperor if he just rolled over and let Ddraig get away with this.
You wouldn't be Red Dragon Emperor at all if not for me, boy…
And yet, despite Ddraig's words, there's a note of amusement to the tone of the dragon taking up residence in his soul. Issei lets his eyes drift shut but does not fall asleep. Instead, nestled between a cat girl and a nun that he'd just finished defiling, Issei begins to meditate. It's not like it's hard, it's one of the earliest things Ddraig taught him. How to look within himself, how to access his own soul.
It was actually how they used to communicate, before Issei had eventually grown in capability enough for them to communicate telepathically while he went about his business in the real world.
He closes his eyes in his bed, and a moment later opens them in his own soul, appearing on a field of golden grass, the sun beating down from ahead. No sooner had Issei opened his eyes, however, then a massive set of draconic claws slammed into him, swiping him right from where he stood. The vision of a golden field rapidly changes shape, becoming that of a hellish volcanic landscape, with lava and a great big scary mountain in the background… Ddraig's final lair, before he'd been sealed in the Sacred Gear all those eons ago.
Swinging him around, the Great Welsh snarls directly into Issei's face, rising up in his full draconic glory, spreading his wings nice and wide as he roars in indignation.
"You think to push ME, Issei Hyoudou?! You think to teach ME a lesson? You are a thousand years too early for that, whelp!"
Before Issei can react, Ddraig throws him, tossing him into and through the mountain that had just appeared. The core of said mountain is in fact molten rock, because the mountain is not a mountain at all, but an active volcano. As lava scalds him, Issei cries out, but in the end he comes out the other side barely singed, his skin red but his body ultimately unharmed. If anything, the impact and the deep furrow in the rock behind the volcano hurt more.
As he's levering himself up out of the crater Ddraig has just thrown him into, Issei hears the mighty wingbeats that signal the Great Welsh's approach. Coming over the volcano's peak, Ddraig is unveiled in ALL of his glory. Covered in thick red scales, Ddraig's neck is long and sinuous and his eyes are glowing green specks. With red and golden spikes covering his body, and four limbs on top of his massive wings, he cuts quite the opposing figure.
As well he should. The Boosted Gear was one of the Longinus, Sacred Gears with enough power to kill Gods. Which meant that, back when Ddraig had been unsealed, at the height of his power, HE'D had enough power to kill a God, or any God-equivalent creature, like one of the Great Satans. To say Ddraig was no pushover was the understatement of the century.
Winging down towards Issei like a meteor about to strike, Ddraig reaches out for another swipe. Hastily, Issei summons his armor this time, letting the draconic red mail cover him from head to toe. He looks exactly like Ddraig in this moment, even as he lifts his arms to meet the Red Dragon Emperor's downward strike.
As dragon claws meet draconic chainmail, one gives and it's not on Ddraig's end. Issei cries out, thrown back yet again as the armor is torn from his arms, sliced off like so much tissue paper, like it might as well have not been there in the first place. He's thrown back what has to be another couple hundred feet, only for Ddraig with his massive draconic form to close that distance in but a few scant seconds, following up with blow after blow that Issei either barely blocks or fails completely to deflect.
"I am Y Ddraig Goch! I am the Red Dragon Emperor of Domination! You use my name and my power as your own, but always remember where it comes from, boy! Always remember that your soul belongs to ME!"
That sticks something fierce in Issei's craw. Ddraig might be the source of his power, of his strength, of his independence… but that didn't change the fact that Issei was, above all else, independent. He belonged to no one. He REFUSED to belong to anyone. With a frustrated growl, he pushes out of the latest crater the Great Welsh has put him in and jumps forward, going on the counterattack for the first time since this earth-shattering combat had begun.
"I belong to NO ONE! My soul is my OWN!"
Slamming himself into Ddraig's midsection with all his might would probably seem futile to any outside observer. After all, Issei is miniscule when compared to the Red Dragon Emperor in all his former glory. But even at only a scant hundredth of the size as Ddraig, he's able to throw the Great Welsh back, slamming him back into the side of the volcano, causing a minor eruption that throws lava, magma, and molten rock all over Ddraig's scales.
Not that this has much effect on the Red Dragon Emperor. Shaking off the lava like one might shake off snow or dirt, Ddraig rebukes Issei most strongly, ending the boy's counterattack right then and there with a blinding fast swipe that sends Issei into the ground yet again, shattering his reformed draconic armor once more.
As Issei lays there on his back, Ddraig looms over him.
"You have spine to you, Issei. More spine then any of my wielders have had in centuries, and at such a young age too. At the age of five, you reached out to me. From there on, you acted as if we were partners, peers. I allowed this, encouraged it even. But let us be abundantly clear. You are not my equal. You are no true dragon. My power is yours, only so long as I allow it!"
"… No…"
Issei's whispered response causes the Great Welsh to cock his head to the side, his long sinuous neck bending a bit as he glares balefully down with those glowing green eyes of his.
"No? Tread carefully, whelp. Submit, and we can put this all behind us."
"I… refuse…"
Snarling, Ddraig raises his claw up.
"Then I suppose we shall find out what happens when I break you, here and now within your own soul!"
The claw comes down, slamming into Issei… only to stop dead in it's tracks. But not of it's own accord, oh no. Ddraig can only blink stupidly as Issei catches his strike with nothing but his own hands in turn… and holds him back.
"That's just it, Ddraig… you've forgotten one of the most important lessons you taught me. As a dragon, choosing one's territory is… critical! Picking the battlefield can mean the difference between victory and defeat!"
Snarling in confusion, the Great Welsh continues to try to drive his claws down into his current wielder, to no avail.
"But of course! Look around! Is this not a battlefield of my choosing?!"
"No! It's a fraud, Ddraig! And maybe you thought to trick me with it! Or maybe you just didn't realize yourself. Because at the end of the day… this is all still MY soul!"
With a mighty roar, Issei lifts himself up, and in doing so pushes Ddraig back, forcing the titanic Red Dragon Emperor in all of his former majesty… to stumble backwards from the sheer strength of his current wielder. As Issei raises up into the air, flying seemingly under his own power, the world around them shifts and changes. The hellish volcanic landscape, as well as the bursting volcano, disappear to be replaced by golden fields once more.
"… I will break you here just as easily as there, Issei. You must know you can't win."
Issei lets out a bark of laughter at that and shakes his head.
"That was your other mistake, Ddraig. This was never a battle. There is no winner and no loser. This is a renegotiation of our contract, and let me tell you something… I'm the one negotiating from a position of strength."
Thrusting out one arm, Issei fires off a beam of blistering red energy. It strikes Ddraig in the side of his chest and causes a wounded cry to emit from the Great Welsh's maw as he stumbles back. Issei follows it up with another, and another, and try as he might, Ddraig cannot block them, cannot deflect them, cannot shield himself from these blows.
When finally the so called Red Dragon Emperor tries instead to dodge, to flee from the seemingly painful beams, he finds them following him wherever they go. Finally, Ddraig is pinned down… and begins to shrink, shifting and changing under Issei's barrage as the young man moves into position over his soul's prisoner.
Because at the end of the day, that's what Ddraig truly is. The Great Welsh might be the source of Issei's power, but if they wanted to talk about who had truly gifted Issei with that power, then they need look no further then God himself, supposedly. It was God who had created the Sacred Gears as far as Issei knew. The Three Factions had destroyed Ddraig and Albion during the Great War, and subsequently sealed them away.
Of course, Issei wasn't particularly religious. If God wanted to toss around overwhelmingly powerful Sacred Gears at random like nobody's business, Issei was neither going to question it, or appreciate it. As far as he was concerned, he won the lottery. That didn't mean he owed the people who ran the lottery, nor anyone else, anything at all.
But ultimately, this was still his soul. Sure, it had a Sacred Gear stuck in it… but the soul belonged to Issei Hyoudou. Issei Hyoudou was the soul. He was the Master of his Fate, the Captain of his Destiny. Ddraig, meanwhile, had been living rent free inside of his soul for an AWFULLY long time.
As Issei finally lets up on the beams of seemingly destructive energy, he waits for the dust to settle. The massive, majestic form of the Red Dragon Emperor is nowhere to be seen, not even the effect of his thrashing visible any longer as Issei's soul casually repairs any would-be damage to the landscape of golden fields and sunny blue skies.
Once the dust fades away, however, Ddraig's new form is revealed. There, in a much smaller crater than the Great Welsh's original form, lays a singularly feminine figure. Slowly, she raises herself up into a seated position, bringing one clawed hand to her head for a moment before realizing what's been done and looking down at herself with a shriek.
"You… what have you done to me, Issei?!"
As she climbs to her feet, Issei doesn't respond right away. Instead, he admires the view. The Red Dragon Emperor is gone. In his place stands an Empress, if one wanted to be poetic about it. She's humanoid now, with fleshy, copper skin and a body that simply does not quit. Breasts, hips, ass. She's got it all, combined with a thin waist that gives her a perfect hourglass figure.
Of course, she's by no means human. Her eyes are still glowing green with no whites to be seen, and the massive draconic horns that push up out of her flowing red locks make it clear where her 'heritage' lies. Likewise, she has a smattering of scales here and there, and her fingers are tipped with wicked-looking draconic claws, as are her toes.
But more than anything, she's been turned into an overly sexualized, gorgeous approximation of some sort of red dragon girl, with barely any trace of the Great Welsh himself remaining in her. This is Ddraig's new form, decided so because Issei is in charge here, and he gets to decide what things look like in his soul… including his passenger.
"I've improved you, as far as I'm concerned."
With a snap of his fingers, Issei summons a mirror right in front of Ddraig so that she can get a good look at herself. The transformed Red Dragon Empress freezes and stares, before slowly reaching up to run her hands up and down her body. Issei cocks an eyebrow at that, having expected even more indignation in all honesty.
"My, oh my… look what you've done to me."
Issei cocks his head to the side at that, watching as Ddraig spends a few moments checking herself out. It's a little surprising that she's not more pissed off, but he supposes in a way, it sort of makes sense. Ddraig has explained it to him time and time again. In truth, Dragons do not have genders in the same way humans do. Before Ddraig was sealed inside the Boosted Gear, he didn't really identify as a he.
It was only lifetimes of being inserted into the soul of human after human, the vast majority of them men (was God sexist or something?) that he'd come to identify as male. And yet, he'd also spoken to Issei of the few times he'd been placed inside a woman, and how it was easy enough to fall into the female mindset during those periods as well. That was actually where Issei had gotten this idea.
The busty dragon girl was lurking inside of Ddraig somewhere… Issei had just had to drag it out. Of course, he wasn't expecting quite this much success, if he was being honest…
Turning away from the mirror, Ddraig's green eyes glow even more intensely as she licks her lips sultrily. Reaching up, she cups her new bust and raises a single eyebrow in a suggestive manner.
"Well… you've defeated me, Issei Hyoudou. You've got me right where you want me. I do hope you're going to take responsibility for this…"
… Of course the Dragon Girl in his soul was a randy bitch. For a moment, Issei finds himself at another impasse. Does he give in and engage in raucous, bestial, no doubt rough sex with Ddraig? Does he go a step further then that and escalate to outright domination to properly put her in her place and show her who's boss? Or… does he leave her like this for now, effectively edging her as punishment as he makes her wait?
There's no commentary from Ddraig as he thinks about this. With them both in his soul like they are now, his thoughts are his own for the time being. But he's going to have to decide soon, because the way Ddraig is looking at him makes it clear that the dragon girl (who's definitely more of a dragon WOMAN in the body Issei gave her) is about to decide for him if he doesn't act fast.
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