It was hell itself. Inside the burned down buildings, in the blink of an eye, people burned into ash. The
end of the royal country Jenafu’s peace was signaled by a single entity… The Black Dragon.
“Ahhhhhh!”
“Ow… It hurts…”
“Water! Someone get me water!”
Running around frantically, the Black Dragon calmly watched up above as the people tried to make their
escape. The Black Dragon is one of the strongest monsters of the demon kings. To be exact, they were
despair itself. However, the soldiers of Jenafu stood their ground and fought against the Black Dragon
wholeheartedly.
“Prepare the magic attack! Fireee!”
There was a division of soldiers that produced protective magic according to the commander’s orders.
However, with just one attack, most of the soldiers had been annihilated. The commander survived the
initial attack, though he had been blown away by the vibrations of the impact and was now covered in
wounds.
“Thi… This can’t be…”
The citizens of Jenafu were struck with great despair by the death
of their proud divisional commander.
“Motherrr! Motherrr!”
Amongst the people running around was a girl who strayed from her mother, looking around. However, the
surrounding people had no time to care, as they put themselves first and were frantic to escape this
hell. The commander would normally lend a hand, no matter how big or small the ask, but they couldn’t
even move. That’s when…
“N… no way…”
Once again, a jet-black flame was dwelling in the mouth of the Black Dragon. Furthermore, even if this
flame wasn’t comparable to the previous one, the magic division had been destroyed, meaning this flame
would completely blow the royal capital away. Almost as if out of desperation, the surviving magicians
and adventurers that lived in the capital aimed their arrows and spells at the Black Dragon and fired.
Though, the Black Dragon could care less. Finally, the light of despair shot from the mouth of the Black
Dragon.
“...Absolute Demon God Impact Barrier”
A clear refreshing voice resounded. In that moment, a flickering rainbow barrier appeared in between the
Black Dragon’s spout out flame and the capital. The barrier expanded and covered the whole capital as if
it was protecting everything.
“...Heaven’s Blessing Miracle Rain”
Rain poured over the entire capital. To the point of suppressing the blazing flames and healing the
wounds of the citizens.
“This is…”
The commander, who was surprised to see his wounds being healed, looked around his surroundings. Then,
the crying girl who lost her mother looked up into the sky and noticed something,
“Ah!”
“!”
Her scream caught the commander’s attention, so he too looked up into the sky. A man in a jet-black robe
wearing a mask was floating up there, facing the Black Dragon. It was from afar, but he didn’t seem to
be very tall. Looking from below, his height seemed to be like that of a woman’s. Somebody with the
stature of a child is facing off with the Black Dragon. It was a bizarre scene. Most didn’t understand
what was going on. However, the commander knew exactly who the floating man was.
“It… It’s the Black Emperor…”
“Huh?”
“The Black Emperor is here!”
The Black Emperor is one of the 8 only rank 0 Adventures in the world. Each rank 0 adventurer has power
equivalent to war weapons, and can be considered human weapons! In reality, the Black Emperor protected
the city from the attack of the Black Dragon who was the cause of the destruction, and on top of that
they poured the healing rain down onto the city. As if everyone heard the voice of the commander, they
all simultaneously looked up into the sky and had a sparkle in their eyes. Then, as if answering their
expectations, the Black Emperor faced the Black Dragon and threw out his hand.
“Divine Destruction Spear”
An ominous black spear appeared from his outstretched hand. Every attribute began to mix and compress as
much as possible within the spear that appeared. That mass of magic was morphed into a spear and blasted
off. It was a significantly fast attack. The Black Dragon, who had displayed a calm attitude, had no
time to react and was pierced by the spear of destruction.
“Grrraaaawwwrrrr!”
The Black Dragon, who’s never had a rival, nor have they felt pain before, shrieked. Though, this was
not the whole extent of the attack.
“As expected, one attack isn’t enough to finish you. If that’s the case, then I won’t stop till I
kill you.”
The Black Emperor floated up multiple spears around themselves. This ‘Divine Destruction Spear’ spell
wasn’t originally a spell that was intended to be fired off many times. Let alone that, it’s not even
possible for a normal magician to cast the spell. It demands a lot of mana and a high magic skill level
to cast it. The Black Emperor cast the spell countless times and aimed the spears at the Black Dragon.
He swung down his raised arm. Simultaneously, the floating spears of destruction fired off towards the
Black Dragon.
“Grrraaawwwrrr!”
However, as if to say they won’t fall for the same attack twice, the Black Dragon rose up into the sky
and fired off flames so hot they incinerated the spears.
“Absolute Demon God Impact Barrier”
However, the Black Emperor had spread protective magic, covering the capital and themselves of course,
and successfully defended against the Black Dragon’s attack. Then, as the Black Emperor protected
against the flames, he once again cast ‘Divine Destruction Spear’.
“You won’t get away next time.”
This new ‘Divine Destruction Spear’ was different from the ones just now, it started violently rotating.
As the ‘Divine Destruction Spear’ rotated, the speed gradually increased, and it was fired off towards
the flames of the Black Dragon. The “Divine Destruction Spear” slashed through the flames and flew into
the mouth of the Black Dragon, piercing it with its violent momentum.
“Grr…aaaa…”
The Black Dragon was pierced in the skull and faintly shrieked.
Their wings stopped flapping and finally, their body hit the ground. Everyone’s voice rose with joy as
they looked at the now completely silent black dragon.
“I… it… it’s over!!!”
“The Black Dragon has been defeated!”
The Black Emperor looked down from the sky, towards the people hugging each other who rejoiced in
surviving. Then the Black Emperor soon left without making a sound.
“Huh!? The Black Emperor left!?”
“We didn’t even get to express our gratitude…!”
The Black Emperor had already left before anyone could even notice. All except for one person… the
little girl had been staring at him the entire time.
“The Black Emperor…”
Then, they too dreamed of becoming just like them one day.
* * *
The world heard of the slaying of the Black Dragon; this news became a glimmer of hope for humanity.
This is because of the history of fear and bitter memories the people had for the Black Dragon. The one
who was responsible for the slaying of the Black Dragon, the Black Emperor returned back to the
adventurer guild’s headquarters. Everyone stopped moving the moment the Black Emperor stepped into the
building. Their eyes turned to the Black Emperor. However, the Black Emperor paid them no mind and in
that same uninterested state headed towards the front desk.
“I completed my quest,” he said indifferently.
“WHOOAAA!”
“HUH! CONGRATULATIONS!”
Shouts came pouring onto the Black Emperor. Their shouts seemed like they were about to split the
building in half.
“That’s truly amazing!”
“The Black Dragon hunting quest was already thought to be impossible to complete!”
“Special rank adventurers sure are on a different level…”
“Fool! The Black Emperor is the one who’s on a whole other level!”
While everyone was up in cheers, the one being paraded was extremely quiet. It seemed like he was
thinking of something completely different.
“Uh, um, Black Emperor… Is something troubling you?”
“Hm? Ah, it’s nothing.”
“I… is that so? Rather, to think that you would complete that hopeless Black Dragon hunting quest,
you’re truly amazing!”
“Thank you. Well, I did train up to this point with the goal of slaying them, so it only makes
sense.”
That’s right, it was the Black Emperor's goal— No rather, it was his assignment. He was ordered to slay
the Black Dragon by his master.
“You’ve been training with the sole purpose of defeating the Black Dragon?”
“Correct. I was told that I could quit being a rank 0 adventurer if I defeated the Black Dragon.“
”Ahh, I see! You’re going to quit being a rank 0 adventurer... Wait what?”
“Huh?”
For a moment, everyone thought they must’ve misheard the Black Emperor's words and stopped moving.
However, the Black Emperor paid no mind and continued to nod.
“That’s correct. I’m dropping out of the adventurers’ guild"
"...”
And just like that, the headquarters went back into a silent state. Until—
“HUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?”
The headquarters went back into an uproar.
The headquarters went back into an uproar.
