Chapter 219: [A Mountain of War and Death] 4/?: A Small Talk Before a Great War

-----

Gaius glanced at the mountains that quickly approached his sight as he sat down inside of Veronica's transformed physical body. Veronica had been thoughtful enough to even create windows for the people to see the outside, and after one and a half-day of traveling through the skies, they had finally reached the mountains in the morning.

Gaius still could remember the delicious Dragon meat of yesterday's dinner, after the unexpected fighting against the Thunderstorm and Windstorm Dragons that had appeared in the middle of their travels. Such Dragons were not something unknown by nearby Nations, the Devil Forest was known as a Devil Zone, a place where an enormous amount of miasma, contaminated mana, would spread all around, through this, the spawn of monsters was a common occurrence.

Behind these circumstances, not only the land would be contaminated and change, but also the sky and often the sea if it were to be nearby. The sky would turn into a chaotic place where many storming clouds gathered alongside a dozen of flying monster species. Because such Devil Zones had existed for so long, families of Dragons such as Rank 9 Thunderstorm Dragons and Windstorm Dragons were common.

Due to the threat of these fearful monsters, the route towards the Devil Forest that went around the mountains was often forbidden within the nearby nations, as fearful monsters roamed both the lands and the skies.

However, Veronica and Ervas could not care less about such things, as their army of allies and monsters quickly took care of any menace. Unlike fighting an intelligent race, monsters, even if they were as high as Rank 9, would never be as hard as an A-Rank Adventurer due to many and obvious reasons. 

Even if the difference in ranks between the monsters they had tamed was rather notorious compared to the powerful Dragons, it was not as if they were working alone, as they had their allies to back them up, and most of Ervas and Veronica's tamed monsters and allies possessed special skills that strengthened them through their Strengthen Followers Skills.

Even Rank 6 Monsters such as Shoggoth were able to fight against the Dragons with the assistance of their allies such as Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep. The power of a high-level Strengthen Followers Skill was nothing to scoff at, even more, if it was double the boost because every monster followed both Ervas and Veronica, so essentially their stats increase almost doubled while being below their command and orders.

Another thing to note about such confrontation was that the Dragons were not as many, only being around six, and not all of them being Rank 9, but only two of the strongest ones were, while the rest were Rank 8, with one being Rank 7. With such a fight, the dinner brought upon a delicious new ingredient for Gaius to taste and cook.

And as the new day came, he glanced with a bit of concern these mountains that he once inhabited.

"Sigh… I don't know how I will talk with that old man…" muttered Gaius with nervousness in his tone.

"Is your relationship with him really that bad?" asked Ervas at Gaius' side, who had appeared as a Phantom Clone.

"Well… yeah, it is… I already told you, didn't I?" said Gaius.

"Yeah, but still, how bad can it be, Gaius? You have to be braver. I am sure that your father has missed you this whole time, after all, he's still your father," said Veronica, who appeared as a Phantom Clone as well.

This giant flying train-shaped metallic structure was her physical body, so she was able to appear as a complete phantom inside. In such form, she would often resemble her appearance of always, but instead of wearing armor, she wore a beautiful white dress while being barefoot.

Gaius's facial expression twisted a bit.

"Err… well, I guess? He is such an old man stuck to traditions, it's going to be such a pain to deal with him… At the very least there will be my little brother, perhaps he can help me out? He was also kind of 'odd' within our tribe, as he liked to craft items…" said Gaius.

"Oh? You didn't tell us about your brother…" said Ervas.

"Well, I never thought it would be necessary, he's still young, he should be on his fourteen years of age as of now… I wonder how he is doing, I hope my father has not neglected him as much as he did with me… Maybe he changed his ways? …Nah, I'm being way too hopeful…" said Gaius.

"I don't think you're being way too hopeful, it is good to have hope in your father changing his ways… I am sure that he has learned after you left," said Ervas with a mild smile.

"Sigh… I don't have much else to hope for," said Gaius.

"Tell us more about your little brother! I can already imagine a little Gaius! Ah, that would be so cute~!" said Veronica.

"Well, he was rather adorable, I spoiled him a lot with my cooking, and he also made a lot of cooking tools for me. Such as that pan, and the knives I use, all those were made by him. It was impressive how good he was despite no one ever having taught him how to craft them, he simply slowly figured the shapes out through making blueprints into leather… His crafting Skill was quickly developing, but his physique seemed rather weak compared to the standard of our tribe, due to that, father seemed… not too enthusiastic about him. Ah, his name is Azra, and our father, the grumpy old man is named Ragdaz," said Gaius.

"I see, that's interesting, it seems that your father got two very talented children, but he was too idiotic to even realize it," said Ervas.

"Yeah, although I blame him a lot, there is still the factor over the tribe traditions and rules, which were instilled into our minds and that of all our ancestors… It is hard to change such mindsets, where anything has to be done through strength while neglecting pretty much everything else. Although if that were the case, the crafting of tools would not be so looked down on. It is more like there is a certain obsession with pure physical strength, I guess. It might be part of the traditions as beast-kin… But I have never found them much reason, I have never felt attached to them either since the very beginning and found them overly annoying and stupid," said Gaius.

"Well, they are, yeah. They are incredibly idiotic. I don't really like to disrespect the traditions of other tribes, but the bear-kin might have gone too far in how self-destructive their own traditions were" said Veronica.

"I don't like to do so either… we will try our best to convince them peacefully to come with us, I am sure that we can find a way. They always follow the strong, right? If we show them our strength or that of our allies, they will have to follow us anyways," said Ervas.

"Yeah, I guess such traditions also made them have that weakness…" said Gaius.

"That's why you're going to fight!" said Veronica.

"…Eh?" asked Gaius.

"Yeah, you have grown a lot since you were freed from Oggoth, your strength is quite admirable, if your father challenges to a fight again, accept it and beat the crap out of him so he can recognize you," said Ervas.

"…That's… Not really what I wanted… But I guess that it does make sense…" said Gaius.

"It does within the traditions of your people, right? So, why wouldn't you do it then? By doing so, we will not disrespect their traditions and culture, and we will also convince them that you're strong and that they were always wrong," said Veronica.

"Yeah, I suppose, but I would like to convince them with my cooking other than my strength, I feel like beating my father is also not a good idea… I am far too strong, and I don't know how to measure my strength correctly, a miscalculated hit might bring his death," said Gaius.

"Sigh… Well, we can do what you say and convince them with words and your cooking, and if that doesn't work, we'll beat him," said Veronica.

"You're quite fixated with the idea of beating my father, isn't it, Veronica-san?" asked Gaius with a bitter smile.

"I guess so, he's such an asshole that I might want him to get a bit of what he deserves… But I should just cool down," said Veronica while sighing.

"How about we let them taste the Dragon meat too? Delicious ingredients plus your amazing cooking will totally win their hearts, I am sure of it," said Ervas.

"Ervas… Then let's try this method instead of the beating," said Gaius.

"Okay, I guess… Your father just might have saved himself," said Veronica while chuckling.

"It all depends if he likes his cooking though, or if even by liking it, he might not even accept it… well, in that case, we'll have to do Veronica's plan," said Ervas.

"Hm… I have most of my tools cleaned now, so I think I should be ready to begin cooking immediately after reaching the tribe…! Yes, let's do that!" said Gaius with enthusiasm, he seemed to be very confident in his passion, cooking.

"Oh, just in time! We are approaching the tribe- Huh? What the heck?" said Veronica, as the group glanced down below to see the tribe members fighting against an enormous horde of Undead-type monsters that kept surging from strange, purple-colored dirt that surrounded the tribe. Most of the people were escaping inside the caves while carrying their things, as the warriors, led by the chief, protected the people with their lives.

"That's… my father! Undead? Since when have they reached these heights? That Dungeon is at the bottom of the mountain…!" said Gaius.

"Let's go," said Ervas.

"On it!" said Veronica, changing the direction of her enormous body as she flew towards the surface like a rocket.

Flash!

-----