253. Transformation

When Kuroneko saw Izumi who pushed Tabane against the wall, she pointed at them and exclaimed.

"That's Kabedown!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

While the others were speechless over what Izumi was doing, they suddenly heard Kuroneko which made them even more speechless.

'It's kabedon, not kabedown!' That's what's on their mind.

Tabane felt embarrassed by Izumi's act. She didn't expect that Izumi, who is usually calm all the time, would make an aggressive move toward her.

With a flushed expression, Tabane immediately ran away from him. Izumi found it unbelievable since Tabane was always acting aggressively in front of him. Yet, it was the other way around this time.

"Looks like I overdid it." Izumi smiled awkwardly. Then, his gaze shifted downward, where there was a "bulging" part on his pants.

Since he didn't want everyone to see that shape, his body dispersed into the wind as he disappeared from everyone's view.

— — — —

Several days have passed. After Izumi had hunted many dragons the other day, he saw Rori relaxing in the castle garden sleeping on a folding chair under a large tree that covered the moonlight at night. Izumi thought for a moment, then approached her.

Feeling someone close by, her eyes fluttered as she opened her crimson eyes.

"Oh, Izumi, huh?"

"Rori, do you mind helping me with something?"

"Hmm? What's up?"

"I need someone to supervise me in case something goes wrong."

"Hmmm?"

Rori tilted her head in confusion. She had no idea what Izumi was talking about. So, Izumi told her a little bit about the side effects of the dragon slayer magic.

"That's weird. I mean… you know… Didn't you get that magic without any side effects?"

When Rori asked that, Izumi denied it.

"Nah. It's just a side effect of vehicle sickness. The side effect of turning into a dragon still persists."

For the past month, Izumi has been traveling the world hunting not only elves but dragons as well. Apart from collecting dragon blood, he also bathed in blood little by little during his fight against the dragons. He felt that he had almost reached the limit point before his blood fully mutated which could turn him into a dragon.

As cool as it sounds, turning into a dragon could cause him to lose his mind and be unable to tell the difference between friend and foe. In other words, his mind would be consumed by his negative emotions to the point where he himself didn't realize it.

Therefore, to prevent him from going out of control, he needs the most powerful member which is none other than Rori. Aside from her strength, with "that" skill, there was nothing to worry about.

— — — —

Izumi carried Rori to find a place to transform while flying. However, he couldn't find the right place near the demon lord's castle. Moreover, he couldn't just go around transforming near the castle or else he'd be inviting trouble. Having no other choice, he flew away from the castle to find another place.

It was good enough if his transformation went out smoothly. But he knew he shouldn't be overconfident just because he had Rori to help him when he might have lost his mind.

If something bad happened, it wouldn't be strange for a mountain to be razed to the ground. Therefore Izumi looked for a slightly abandoned place.

It was already around 300 kilometers that he flew from the demon lord's castle heading west.

"Oh, this place…"

Izumi stopped while looking at the scenery in front of him.

The sight before him was the border. Not the border between the demon territory and the Renxandt empire, but rather the border with the dead plains.

From his position, he could see the trees starting to wither in a scene similar to trees in autumn. No. Not the trees in autumn, but the trees in the barren land where he could see the wasteland 200 meters in front of him.

The wastelands in front of him were dead plains from dwindling planetary energy. And it seems, the green forest will be devoured by desolation in a few years seeing the signs of dead plains that are increasingly creeping into the forest little by little.

"Alright. This place will do." Izumi nodded after examining the surroundings.

"Well, even if you destroy the surroundings, no one will complain." Rori replied.

Then, Izumi put his fingers on his chin. With a thoughtful expression, he said,

"Even so, the crisis on this planet seems so obvious. It's just, I wonder why the inhabitants of this planet don't seem to notice it?"

"Perhaps the higher-ups are hiding the facts."

"Is that so? Well, enough chit-chat. Let's do it right away."

After that, Izumi prepared a tub that could be filled with several liters of water. Then he took some containers that contained several liters of dragon blood, and poured almost all of them into the tub.

After everything was ready, he took off his shirt while turning his head toward Rori.

"What? Are you embarrassed to be naked in front of me? Don't worry, I'm not interested in your thing yet." Rori grinned as she looked at Izumi's expression.

Izumi twitched.

"Yet? That means you'll be interested in it later, right?"

And Rori chuckled.

"Ufufu…guess what?"

"Fine then. Just don't stare at it too much or it'll be addictive for your eyes."

"Hell with the addictive thingy! Get in your business real quick!"

"Affirmative, mam!"

To be honest, Izumi wasn't the exhibitionist type. However, because he had to soak in a tub filled with dragon blood, and didn't want to throw away his clothes, he was forced to go completely naked even if Rori had to see him. In addition, if he was naked, he could absorb the dragon's blood more subtly.

Taking off his clothes, he immediately soaked in the tub. He calmed himself down so that the absorption process would go smoothly.

Slowly and little by little, the dragon's blood was absorbed by him and mutating the blood cells in his body.

"Argh!"

Izumi began to feel immense pain due to the mutation.

"Rori, flush me with this blood! The sooner this is done the better." With a slight groan of pain, Izumi asked Rori.

And after Rori washed Izumi several times, his body began to change. Starting from the appearance of scales on his body, reptile eyes, tail, and a pair of wings. Izumi screamed in pain from the change. It didn't take long for his body to change shape as he grew bigger and then transformed completely into a huge dragon with light blue scales and wings. He reached approximately 20 meters in height.

However, after completely transforming into a dragon, Izumi begins to wreak havoc around him.

Rori, who was nearby, felt Izumi's power was a threat that might kill her if Izumi was not stopped immediately.

"Calm Mind!" Rori recited the spell to cleanse Izumi's negative emotions that affected his mind.

Soon after, Izumi in dragon form stopped with a sigh that came out of his mouth.

"Thanks. Luckily you're around."

"No problem. Then, what next?"

"I'll try to find a way to condense my power. But…" Izumi didn't know what to do, so he asked Rori's opinion. "What to do? Do you have experience condensing your power?"

"Don't you often use that kind of ability with your Devil Fruit power?"

"That's differ… wait! It might work. Let me try."

Izumi concentrated while trying to control his new power. Yet, despite a couple of attempts, he failed to condense his power.

Since he failed, he tried to transform back into a human. However, he also didn't know how to do it.

He tried to imagine transforming back into a human while activating his dragon slayer magic but failed. Spiritual power, failed. Just imagine, failed. The more he tried and failed, the more nervous he became.

Izumi became flustered while scratching his head with his claws.

He smiled bitterly while muttering.

"What should I do?"

Izumi tried to calm himself while remembering what he felt when he turned into a dragon, but too bad he couldn't quite remember.

He started estimating something. If changing into a dragon is stimulating his blood, then he must do the opposite, which is nothing but sedating his blood.

He took a deep breath, and then silently concentrated.

Izumi could not only manipulate the spiritual energy within his body, but also manipulate his own blood. Thanks to his dragon slayer magic, even though he can't manipulate other people's blood yet, he is already an expert at manipulating his own blood.

His blood was concentrated at several points in his body, so he slightly loosened it.

And just as he expected, his body began to change as he slowly transformed back to a human form.

After his body returned to normal, he asked Rori not to use her Calm Mind skill before he wanted to transform again into a dragon. It was indeed dangerous, but if it succeeded, his power would increase drastically.

Izumi was fully concentrated by spending half an hour looking for a way to stimulate his blood to transform.

His blood was stimulated afterward as he felt a burning sensation all over his body from the inside. He winced to hold it in. But the heat was increasing every second which made him roar as his body began to transform.

Then, his vision darkened.

Rori didn't know the detailed situation about him, who was surprisingly roaring like he was in pain. But she sensed that Izumi's strength was gradually increasing.

In his dragon form, his entire upper body is covered in light blue, round, scales, which, in turn, are decorated by deep blue markings. His lower body, specifically his chin, chest, stomach, inner tail, thighs, and arms, are white in color.

Unable to control his strength, Izumi goes on a rampage again destroying his surroundings. What's more, when he realized Rori's presence, he was even more aggressive in attacking.