It's big.

It's a big one.

I've lost count of the number of heads.

But it's not working, is it?

'If you're going to move, it's probably not safe to go near it. I'm glad Marilyn was right.

Taro, I'm not a liar.



　The temple was relocated, or rather, Marilyn, the sea spirit, had just moved into Gori-san Town, but we were soon to move to defeat the Water Dragon.
　Since we couldn't win by fighting them out of the blue, we decided to scout first, so we left Gori-san Town to scout out the water dragons in the heart of the withered sea from a distance.
　We all looked at the water dragon with binoculars that we had purchased from 'online shopping'.

''It's made of water...''

'It's almost salt water. There's a core somewhere in that giant body that collects water like that to form a body.

'Are you making the seawater that normally forms the ocean a part of your body?

　That would make it very difficult to defeat........
　After all, the Water Dragon sits like a lid on a point where a large amount of water gushes out.
　Its inability to move may be a weakness, but it's not an exaggeration to say that it has infinite recovery power.
　Moreover, to make up for that disadvantage, the water dragon had grown countless necks.
　It had no legs, and its body was shaped like a neck platform, which was quite a special shape, even though it was a dragon.
　How could it be a sand beast when it was made almost entirely of water?
　That's what it was like.

''I see. So me and Aisha can't do any damage to it?''

'I suppose so. Water can't be cut with a sword, and even if you poke it, it does zero damage.

　Water dragons are made of seawater, whose core can be controlled at will.
　Even if you cut off its numerous heads, new heads would immediately grow out of its body parts.

''You need to destroy the core?''

　Moreover, the core is located at the back of its body, which supplies seawater, the material for the head.
　Naturally, if you tried to destroy the core, the heads would get in the way, and even if you cut off its head, the head would grow right out of its huge, massive body.
　It's like they have infinite resilience.

''Taro-san, you can't do that, right?

It's no use.

　So, we're going to break up.
　I try to point the multi-purpose track Unimog, which I also purchased from 'online shopping' to scout out the bad road called the bottom of the dead sea, towards the mobile city.

'There is a way!'

I can't, indeed.

　Endlessly growing necks and an endless supply of seawater gushing out of the ground.
　How could they destroy the core?
　Impossible, of course.

''Water dragons have their limits!　Infinite resilience is a lie!

What do you mean?

"Lalabelle, Aisha. Just attack me and chop off some heads!

I'd be happy to do that, but...

It doesn't make sense, does it?　It. Well, that's okay.

　After being asked by Marilyn to go fight the water dragon to try it out, Larabell and Aisha got off Unimog and started running at full speed towards their target as it was.
　As expected of them, they were over six hundred levels and four hundred.
　The two of them slashed at the water dragon with a speed like a gale.

　We observed the scene with our binoculars.

''Let's go!''

Yeah!

　As if dancing, Larabell slashed down with her sword while dodging attacks from the Water Dragon's neck.
　Aisha also slashed off the Water Dragon's head one after another with a series of precise continuous thrusts at the neck area.

''The heads that were dropped will be sunk away once they fall to the ground, and a new head will grow right away, right?

'Marilyn-sama, I still don't think it's possible. As for the torso part, it's true that it's smaller because of the recovery of the neck, but it's quickly recovered by sucking it up from underground. You think so too, don't you, Taro-sama?

Yes.

　While Frau's analysis was certainly correct, there was one thing that bothered me.
　So I asked Marilyn about it.

'Can't the Water Dragon get any bigger?　Or can't you be?

　If they could suck water out of the ground, the waterdragon would be able to grow forever.
　But if they don't do that, it's possible that the water dragon can't get any bigger.

'It's right. Water Dragons are very contradictory, being sand beasts made of seawater, but they also have the characteristics of sand beasts. Basically, sand beasts are not very good at water.

'You're a sand beast made of water, and you don't like water?

　Mew disagreed with Marilyn's statement.

'Sand beasts are living things, so a minimum amount of water is essential. But for sand beasts, more water than they need is harmful to them. That's why the water dragons are blocking that place where the water comes out.

　So sand beasts are the most prosperous in this Great Desert.
　According to Marilyn, the water dragons are at their current size limit.
　Not only can they not get any bigger, they're dead as a living organism, so they're preventing the ocean from reviving them.

'One more thing, water dragons can't survive without salt.

　Water dragons are made up of salt water, not water.
　Their salinity is almost the same as seawater, and they still die when their salinity is low.

''In other words, if we hit them with a large amount of water, can we defeat them?

Water Dragons are not stupid, you see. We have a safety factor in mind.

　They don't have to exceed three times their current volume to die from excessive water and low salinity.

'What if the water dragon's body becomes too salty?　If you can't live with it, there's a way to hit it with salt, right?

　I see.
　That's another way to do it.
　As expected of Miu Miu, she is quicker to come up with new ideas than we realize.

''With salt, I can't do that because I have to expel it from my body.

　Let's get Lady Lalabelle and Aisha to withdraw. Hey, Mr. Taro.

　Even now, Lalabelle and Aisha are still fighting the water dragon, but no matter how many heads they cut off, it won't work.
　The salt water that made up their necks has seeped into the ground, making it difficult to get a foothold.
　It would be better to make the two of us retreat.
　I set off the rocket fireworks I had purchased from 'online shopping' and gave the order to retreat.

'Mr. Taro, what do you have in mind?'

Uh-oh.

　The Water Dragon is composed of salt water with the same concentration as seawater.
　The salt water is held together by a core deep inside the body part of the waterdragon.
　If the core is destroyed, the waterdragon will not be able to sustain itself and will die.
　There was a limit to the amount of salt water the core could hold, and if it was exceeded, the waterdragon would still collapse.
　This is because even though they are made of water, water dragons are sand beasts, and more than the required amount of water is poisonous.
　Even now, Lalabelle and Aisha were dropping the Water Dragon's heads one after another, but as soon as the fallen heads were stained by the rocks, the Water Dragon quickly sucked up water from underground to maintain its own size.

'Marilyn, is the water the Water Dragon is sucking up from underground seawater?'

No, it's just... It's just water.

'Huh?　So how do you keep the salinity of the water that makes up your body?

　If they were sucking up fresh water to regain the lost salt water, the salinity would soon drop and this should be fatal to the water dragons as well.

'The rocks around here have a rock salt surface. When the seawater evaporated, it left behind some salt.

　The people of ancient civilizations extracted the water needed for a fully room temperature fusion reactor, but not the salt that was in the way.
　As the water decreased, the salinity of the seawater rose like the Dead Sea, and eventually the water evaporated and remained in its place as rock salt.
　So the Water Dragon is using that to secure the salt content as well.

''It's so seamless........''

　I was looking through my binoculars for a hint, when Lalabelle and her friends were just about to begin their retreat as I had instructed.
　As I watched them through the binoculars, I noticed one thing.
　The head that had been cut off and dropped to the ground had turned into a puddle of water, and from the largest puddle of water, the head resurrected again and attacked Lalabelle.

''Lalabelle!''

　I couldn't help but scream out as it was an unexpected surprise, but even if I didn't worry, Larabell had anticipated it and avoided the attack, slashing with his sword again and scattering water to take him down.

'Marilyn, does the seawater that was slashed off and split up live for a while?'

As long as it's within the confines of the core, the water can live for a while. Once it's on the ground, though, it's useless.

　I see.
　So out of a large puddle, the water dragon's head grew again.
　If it seeps into the ground, the water will die, but if it remains as a puddle, it will try to be as active as possible.
　So it's still in a state of undeadness.

'If it's only about the amount of water that's been slashed off and separated, it's not much of a threat. Lalabelle-sama had plenty of time to deal with it. Moreover, considering that the separated water mass is also in the amount of water that the core can hold, I might be able to manage it with my ice magic.

　The water dragon's neck is frozen by Mew's magic, and Larabell and Aisha slash it off.
　Since the ice is still alive, it goes into the breakdown of the amount of water the core can hold, but since it's frozen and separated, it's not a force to be reckoned with.
　Is it difficult for it to join the main body because it's ice?

'Gradually, the main body may become thin and wan and be able to destroy the core.

Oh, no, you don't.

Why?

'Because seawater doesn't freeze. To be exact, when it freezes, it drains the salt out of it.

　When salt enters the water, it stops freezing.
　No, if you lower the temperature considerably, it will freeze, but when it does, the salt is expelled as an ion, so the fresh water will only freeze.

'Marilyn, water that's drained of salt dies, doesn't it?

I deserve it.

　This means that even if you only freeze water, the water dragon will quickly pump water up from underground and recover quickly.
　The salt discharged when the ice was formed would also be effectively reused, meaning that the Water Dragon would take no damage.

''I didn't know that. That's as good as Taro-san.

　I'm glad I can remember my teacher saying that in science class a long time ago.

'Not a bad way to think about it. If you make a lot of living, independent bodies of water and let the main body get skinny and wasted...

　Apparently, the core can't slay a mass of salt water if it meets the survival requirements.
　If there's a limit to the amount of water it can hold, then creating a lot of salt water masses that are alive but useless in stopping our attacks should weaken the body.

'But we can't freeze it, can we?　Can it be made into an independent mass other than by freezing the water?

I can do it. We can use the thing and we'll be fine.

''Like when you defeated 'Emptiness', you're going to use your 'online shopping' purchases again.

That's what I'm talking about.

　When we got to that point, Lalabelle and Aisha came back, and I joined them in proposing a plan to defeat the Water Dragon to everyone, including the girls.