Chapter 50: Turns Out the Hidden Trait was Sister Complex
Natsuba Rinrei crashed through the hospital. In mid-air, she used her dragon wings to cushion the impact, but even so, she was severely injured.
Blood streamed down her forehead, blurring her vision.
She had no time to wipe it away.
A small flame ignited on her forehead, simultaneously evaporating the blood and cauterizing the wound.
This prevented her from losing too much blood and becoming dizzy.
As for her dragon wings, which had been used for defense, they were now riddled with holes, tattered and torn.
And she felt every bit of the pain.
Natsuba Rinrei gritted her teeth and endured it without a sound.
However, as she crashed through the hospital, her dragon eyes had quickly scanned the surroundings, searching for any sign of Natsuba Hanae.
Instead, she saw Mizuō Morishige, like a dog, wagging his tail and begging another silver-haired girl.
With his honest, loyal face, she never would have expected him to be like this.
But the silver-haired girl with the black bird mask… her figure felt strangely familiar.
As if she had seen her just a short while ago…
—The Master of Summer Harvest Mountain?!
However, the familiarity she felt wasn’t from the identity of the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain, but from Natsuba Hanae’s.
The Natsuba sisters had grown up together; they shared a subtle, telepathic connection.
If Natsuba Rinrei hadn’t seen the black bird mask, she might have felt a flicker of suspicion just from Natsuba Hanae’s hazy figure.
But seeing the mask, a signature feature described by Natsuba Yosuke, she naturally didn’t think of Natsuba Hanae.
The identity of the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain completely overshadowed Hanae’s.
After all, one was an A-rank being who had mastered a Rule, and the other was just an ordinary conglomerate girl.
This perception was like seeing a billionaire disguised as a beggar on the street. A passerby would only think the beggar looked like the billionaire, not that he actually was the billionaire.
Natsuba Rinrei was in a similar situation.
But why was the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain here?
If only she could get closer. After she had displayed the crimson vertical pupil, as large as the moon, that supreme power had quickly made Natsuba Rinrei, desperate for strength, feel a sense of admiration.
She couldn’t help but want to get involved with her, even entertaining the thought of becoming her partner.
After all, with her current potential, her chances of becoming an A-rank were actually very high.
Even if she couldn’t become her partner, becoming a subordinate would be good too.
And after learning that the Master was a woman, her admiration hadn’t diminished in the slightest; it had even intensified.
It was common knowledge that all known A-ranks, including the Natsuba and Kujō heads, were men. Now, there was an exception.
Moreover, the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain, this woman, her power was undoubtedly in the upper echelons of A-rank.
And Natsuba Rinrei, who craved power, had even transformed this admiration into a partial infatuation.
Even…
The thought of becoming her partner hadn’t changed; it had only grown stronger.
Was it not possible just because they were both girls?
And now, in this predicament, facing death at the hands of the Old God, how she wished the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain would come and save her.
Unfortunately, that was impossible.
In the eyes of an A-rank, a B-rank with no connection and no use was like a weed on the roadside, an ant underfoot.
Not worth a single glance.
The pain coursing through her body pulled Natsuba Rinrei back to reality.
This wasn’t the time for wishful thinking.
It was time to survive!
If this were an ordinary Nightmare-level Old God, an A-rank equivalent, she would have died in its first attack.
But this Old God…
Its power was surprisingly weak.
Although it could completely suppress her, it still couldn’t kill her.
In reality, this was because…
A large portion of the Old God’s power was being used to resist its Otherside being devoured.
Otherside Fusion.
The Old God’s Children’s Hospital was merging with the Old God Daycare.
But there was a discrepancy: Natsuba Hanae’s Summer Harvest Mountain Otherside, which had already consumed a large portion of the Daycare.
Since Natsuba Hanae had obtained a Rule, even a half-formed one…
Summer Harvest Mountain now had a foundation. And the already-being-devoured Old God was being consumed even faster by the Heavenly Emperor Girl.
And when the Old God Daycare and the Old God’s Children’s Hospital merged, this devouring, annihilating power also spread here.
The Old God of the hospital never would have imagined that the fusion, which should have strengthened them both…
Had turned into…
“If you’re my brother, come and cut me down.”
Not only that, but the reason Nightmare-level beings could fight A-ranks was due to their super regeneration and the uncertainty of their Rules.
In terms of raw stats, an A-rank supernatural user was stronger.
Moreover, the Old God of the hospital was more of an intelligent type.
All these factors combined had allowed Natsuba Rinrei to survive for so long.
But this was her limit.
There was still an insurmountable gap between Nightmare-level and B-rank, a difference in power as vast and deep as a chasm.
Natsuba Rinrei was already severely injured. Three more minutes, and she would be at her limit.
But…
She hadn’t found her sister yet!
She couldn’t die!
The flames around Natsuba Rinrei suddenly surged as if fueled, coiling around her like real dragons.
Her aura was unparalleled, the heat rising, her power astonishing.
Her red dragon eyes burned with an unyielding will, as bright as stars, as radiant as the sun.
Scorching, crystalline deep red dragon scales began to spread rapidly over her body, covering half of it.
Even if she couldn’t kill the Old God, she would use this opportunity, while its power was weakened, to risk her life and injure it as much as possible, to reduce its control over the hospital.
To give her possibly still-alive sister a chance to escape.
After being knocked to the ground, Natsuba Rinrei regrouped. The flames, like her subjects, gathered at her feet. She gathered her strength and stomped on the ground.
“Boom—!!”
The ground exploded, cracking like a spiderweb and sinking, forming a large crater.
Like a brilliant meteor rising from the earth, Natsuba Rinrei, trailing long flames, carrying all her willpower, a torrent of deep red fire exploding around her…
She shot towards the Old God.
Aiming for the countless eyes on its chest, its weak point.
A red dragon, charging head-on.
I guess the half mask is doing its job… no I was just kidding. I don’t know if it mentions it but does the mask change clothes because if it doesn’t surely with all the clues pointed out, surely there’s a person appearing in people’s mind? Red eyes, white hair, a familiar feeling and possibly a similar clothing… yep not my sister.