"Craaaahhh!!"
A giant and black dragon, stirring chaos among the people of the capital. Its wings and body bore multiple scars, evidence of many battles and enemies devoured over the years.
"Brother?! The dragon is flying towards us!!"
"I know!"
I continued to run endlessly, holding her tight, with no specific destination in mind.
Inside me, a survival instinct was screaming a warning. If caught, it would be more than just a bad situation. It was an unimaginable catastrophe waiting to happen.
So I ran wildly, crossing the streets in a desperate attempt to escape the immeasurable killing intent. Could a mere human outrun those massive wings?
Honestly, if it were just a matter of speed, it was only a matter of time before we would be caught. So, the escape route I chose was...
"Let's go here?! "
A narrow alleyway for cover. Even if a dragon's vision is superior to that of humans, the distance was significant, and the narrow passageways, hidden by buildings, provided a better chance of evasion than open ground.
"Brother, do you even know where you're going?!"
Honestly, I was running so blindly I had no idea where I was going. The alley was unfamiliar, and I just stepped wherever I could.
"No?! We need to escape first, right?! The dragon seems to be after us!"
"Yeah... But brother, your embrace is really warm, and... you smell nice ♡"
While I was sweating and starting to breathe heavily from the effort, Yura was just leisurely embracing me.
"It's like a prince carrying a princess, isn't it romantic ~?"
Despite the situation, with one of the top predators in the world chasing us, she blushed and smiled faintly. "Huff... Huff..."
After running for a while, I finally set Yura down in some unknown alley.
"Whew..."
I took a brief moment to catch my breath and embraced the silence to assess our current situation.
For a while, even holding our breath, only a profound silence followed. The flapping sound that had maximized tension when we first started running was now absent. Only the rapid beating of my heart in my chest was audible. It seemed we had distanced ourselves from Mir.
"Haah..."
Having regained my breath and feeling somewhat safer, I let out a deep sigh, sweeping away the negative thoughts that had accumulated in my chest. It seemed like we had successfully evaded Mir's sight.
Was fleeing through the alleys the right decision?
Wiping the sweat that had dripped down to my jaw, I felt uncomfortable with the grime that had seeped into my shirt and shook out the collar.
"Did we lose her?"
Suddenly, Yura's words made me shudder, though there was no clear reason why. Something about it felt unsettling.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Just as my mind was filled with worries and fears, a terrifying noise, too loud to ignore, came from afar.
"Brother...? There's a strange noise coming from over there..."
"I know...!"
It was like a massive wave roaring from a distance. Though we couldn't see because of the buildings, something ominous and violent was approaching from the end of the street.
The worst possible scenario unfolded in my mind... Could it be Mir causing chaos in the distance?
"Could it be Mir... No, right?"
Considering her power and ferocity, it wasn't impossible, but to cause such a disturbance in the middle of the city...
"Craaaahhhh!!!"
But then, a ferocious roar sounded, and suddenly, where the sky had been clear just moments ago, now there were fragments swirling in the air... "Is it really happening...?"
The fear that I had barely managed to suppress was turning into certainty, filling me with despair again.
Crash! Crackle!
Then, a horrifying scene unfolded before our eyes. Like cleaning tools sweeping away garbage on the floor, the tall buildings that had blocked our view until now were violently demolished, swept away.
The complex paths we had traversed... they were no longer complex. The space, now more like a barren wasteland with piles of building debris, had completely transformed.
"Grrr..."
The dark-consuming dragon, which we thought we had just evaded, was glaring at us.
"Mir...?!"
It was like the growl of a starving predator or a sound to intimidate and instill fear in enemies. We instinctively stepped back.
"Craaaahhhhh!!!"
It let out a wild roar, as if to say that no matter how much we ran, it was futile.
The roar was so powerful that it left our ears ringing.
"This is crazy..."
How did she come up with the idea of sweeping away an entire area instead of searching for us one by one? Not even a bucket list for the most powerful guys at a men's club would include such a deed.
"Mir?! Calm down...!"
I wasn't sure if my voice would reach her, but I tried to talk to her urgently, hoping to resolve the situation with words rather than bloodshed.
With a scraping sound, the giant black dragon slowly approached us. Thankfully, my plea seemed to work. While still intimidating, it didn’t seem intent on harming us.
Then, the massive black form began to shrink...
"Oo....!"
It transformed back into the girl I knew, starting with a pained groan.
"Mir... are you okay?!"
The situation was more unsettling than I had anticipated.
"Aah.. uh...."
There was an unusual, alien atmosphere – but it wasn't the first time. Certainly, back when I first met Abne, she had been eroded by darkness after a fight... It was a similar state to that time... "Mir? Just a moment..."
I was suddenly reminded of the process through which she had nearly lost her sanity forever.
"...?!!"
Before I could dwell on the unpleasant memory, Mir swiftly overpowered my lips, indulging in her madness-driven desire. All this happened right in front of Yura, as Mir relished without restraint.
"Haah... ♡ That was really dangerous..."
With the unstable killing intent dissipating and a sigh of relief, our lips finally parted.
"Even though she's your sister, seeing you kiss another woman made me lose control... I would have been gone forever if I was just a bit later..."
Mir clung to me tightly, taking deep breaths, and began to savor me actively. And witnessing this was a woman who wouldn't just stand by silently...
"Brother? What are you doing...? Isn't she your superior...?"
Yura asked with a somewhat dishappy expression, inquiring about Mir's identity.
"You... Harold's sister, I was suspicious... Are you a rival?"
If it were only about personality, someone like Eleona would have rushed in, but Yura just sent a simple cautious look. She probably didn't know what we had done, right? It would have been strange if she did know.
Even if Eleona faintly knew through some oath, Mir had no such connection. The worst-case scenario here would be if Mir discovered that fact...
"You're not a rival! Because..."
As long as Yura didn't excitedly spill that fact, the situation wouldn't plunge further into the abyss.
"Stop it?! "
I covered Yura's mouth, forcibly cutting her off to prevent her from continuing.
"Yura... Choose your words carefully..."
Perhaps my earnestness reached her somewhat; she didn't continue her accusation.
"Anyway, as I said earlier, I'm not handing over my brother to you!"
If Mir had embraced me from the front, Yura was clinging to me from behind, making me feel the same embarrassment I had just a few hours earlier. "Really annoying... Even though you've undergone strange changes... I could tear you apart right now, you know?"
"I'm not exactly lacking in confidence myself."
"Both of you, stop it..."
In the midst of the increasingly tense atmosphere, I intervened to prevent any further exchange of words before things got worse.
Fortunately, the girls seemed to heed my words. Honestly, even though I'm the weakest in terms of sheer power, it's ironic that I'm the most influential in holding them back.
"By the way, where were you two heading...?"
She asked, suddenly curious about why we were out like this, her interest piqued.
"We were on our way to the temple of Abne, at Yura's request... Why?"
"Temple of Abne..."
She pondered for a moment, resting her chin in her hand, then lowered her head as if lost in thought.
"I'll go with you."
"?! "
Despite our past enmity, she unexpectedly decided to join us on our journey.
But before I could react, Yura responded first.
"What.. what did you say...?"
She was so taken aback, it was as if an unexpected major problem had just intruded.
Come to think of it... what business does she really have at the temple of Abne to want to come with us?
The doubts I had pushed aside resurfaced as I saw Yura's troubled face.