Before me stood a man… no, a monster. A monster with a humanoid body, with two long, curved blades sprouting out of his body. What I assumed was his helmet was in fact his head, and cracks formed all over the forehead area. His mouth was no longer a human’s, but now transformed into something more like a bug’s jaw, while his compound eyes flashed a shade of dark crimson. His shell armor had long lost its shine, instead covered in a deep black color—blood stains from both his victim before and the half of a corpse dangling on his scythes.

But all of that wasn’t why he was so intimidating, far from it. The most chilling thing about the creature standing in front of me was in fact…

“Yakushi-kun, we don’t have to do this.”

He was still sane. Even when he bore a hideous appearance before us, Akabane was still Akabane—rational, calculating, and cold to a fault. Fighting a beast was hard, because a wild beast when provoked would cause havoc, but fighting a man with the body of a beast was a million times harder. A creature with the intelligence of a human and the savagery of a beast… ironically enough, it was just as Akabane himself had mentioned in the prophecy. A perfect Evolution.

The former man, meanwhile, took my silence as a refusal. However, he didn’t engage in combat yet.

“Think about it, Yakushi-kun. Look at how I can overpower even two of my comrades. Even Green wouldn’t be an issue—I’m the only one among us to achieve Metamorphosis. And this is me not even being an important figure in the prophecy! Just imagine, you, the chosen hero, when you get a hold of this power…”

“Then aren’t you the most powerful already?” I interrupted.

“Well… I mean, when you put it that way, right now, yes. But…”

“Why fixate yourself on this prophecy, Akabane-san?” I questioned. “It’s as you said; no one can beat you right now. I’m sure that with your strength, together we can…”

“Did you honestly think that we haven’t tried it?” The leader’s icy voice froze the words just waiting to escape my mouth.

“Red, what do you mean? We’ve never…”

Before Midorikawa could interrupt, Akabane continued. “I’m part of the chief’s lineage, remember? I know more than you could ever, Green… including the fact that previous generations have tried to vanquish the Dragon God part on their own, only to be prematurely wiped out. Did you ever stop to think why there were almost no adults when we were still Unborns?”

“Don’t tell me…”

“Yup. Wiped. All of them. Now do you see how dangerous your gamble is, Green?” Red’s whole body and voice tensed. “Are you willing to risk however many people we have left, just for a fight that we hold nearly no chance of winning at all? And I already know where you’re going; that cave of sealing is only a couple hundred meters right behind you, isn’t it?”

Before the final accusation, Midorikawa froze in shock. However, he didn’t mean to give up just yet. When the man in green took a deep breath for a comeback, he used his ankle to lightly poke my own.

Though there were no words that came out of his mouth, if he was thinking what I was, then there would only be one option. The cave, as Akabane said, was right behind us for a couple hundred meters. Midorikawa might be able to fly there before Akabane, but I would be a sitting duck. The only way for both of us to get there in time would be either for Midorikawa to carry me, or I somehow had to get a speed boost. The former was impossible in this terrain and with an opponent in front of us, so the latter would, naturally, be the correct solution.

In other words, I had to fly there via a certain propulsion.

“But even with the kid, there’s still not much of a better chance than just some words on a scroll!” Trusting in our shared intuition, Midorikawa started the plan with a flimsy argument. “You’re just adding a vague reasoning to an already big gamble, just like us! If there are already risks, then shouldn’t we aim for the biggest win we can?”

Meanwhile, I slowly took a step back, hiding behind Midorikawa.

“You don’t get it, Green!” Akabane had taken the bait. “The prophecy isn’t baseless!...”

I failed to pay attention to the rest of what he was saying, but it didn’t matter. Just a bit more.

Touching Midorikawa’s back, I could feel it. The vibrations forming under his shell.

With a crisp decision, I turned around and jumped, trying my best to position the soles of my feet on my partner’s back.

“Now, Green! Akari, hold on tight!”

“Fly, kid!”

At the same time, Midorikawa’s legs also left the ground, while his clear wings sprouted on his back in a flash. With the strongest flap he could muster, Midorikawa blew a giant storm in front of him. The strong gust of wind served two purposes—both to stop Akabane from advancing after us, and create a propelling force that pushed both of us forward. It was the fastest way to travel without either of us weighing each other down.

With the wind blowing both behind and in front of me, my vision, hearing and smell were all useless. But that was exactly why this plan could only work with me, since I had an advantage that no other possessed.

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“Akari, I’ll have to trouble you for a while! Navigate and get rid of all the obstacles on our way!”

“Kuri!”

The existence of Akari—a creature used to sudden, high-speed movements while having little air resistance—was our trump card. Midorikawa had to be at the back to fly us forward, and I couldn’t tell the directions apart, so Akari was there to make our path as clear as possible.

Soon enough, I could vaguely make out cracking sounds of falling branches and rustling leaves joining in along with the fierce wind. And with Akari jumping on and off my head, I could tell that our strategy was working. Midorikawa provided the transportation, while Akari took care of the clean-up.

However, it would be foolish of us to think that a tactic of only that caliber would be enough to stop our opponent.

“Yakushiiiii!” Akabane’s raging scream tore through even the toughest of winds. Along with it, Midorikawa started to panic:

“Kid, we got trouble!”

“Yeah, I can tell!” I tried to answer back with a shout of my own.

“We’ll need to get to that cave! Red will have to take a while to deal with the storm inside!”

“What about me then?”

“Don’t worry! If you’re the chosen hero just like the prophecy said, then the wind should affect you, just like how it didn’t affect me as the heir of the wings!”

“Wait, but what if I’m not?”

“Well… That’s the gamble we’re taking!”

Before I could even say a comeback, a final gust of wind, this time more powerful than any other, sent me flying. As my face finally got used to the wind pressure enough to open my eyes, the cave’s entrance was already before me, and immediately after, I plunged head-first into the unknown darkness.

I was instantly greeted with the tornado from Midorikawa’s story. However, I was no child of wind, and this foreign gust proved it. Violent whips of wind cut through my clothes and face, leaving behind small, but distinguishable scars all over my body. The air was sucked from my lungs to the outside world, forcefully making me kneel in an attempt to catch my breath. As sweat flooded my forehead and body, the sting from the minor cuts burned, while I still had to gasp for precious oxygen every counting second. But the worst part was undoubtedly the darkness surrounding me—even now, I was still blind from everything inside the cave.

And as if adding insult to injury, as soon as I started to lose my grip on the current situation, the annoying voice that I was suppressing resurfaced in my head once more.

[Detecting ‘Player’ in critical condition. Forcefully activating safety precautions…]

[The skill ‘Child of the Wind’ was temporarily added to your list of abilities.]

As soon as the voice sounded, the wind surrounding me calmed down. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that my body got used to it. I could still hear the gust howled, but it could no longer hurt me with its cuts, nor I was feeling like my lungs were being turned inside out. And with it, the torches in the corners of the cave finally lit up, revealing the same stone tablet and marble coffin that Midorikawa mentioned in his story.

Following his example, I also put my hand on the tablet. A sudden shock went from my contacting arm to my head, making me flinch from the sharp pain. But never in my life could I imagine the following voice to be what it was.

There were almost no emotions coming from the voice. But it wasn’t a natural voice in the first place. In fact, the eerily mechanical feel that it brought was something that I was all too familiar with.

[Welcome, prophesied hero… Or should I say ‘Player’?]

“You bastard,” I let out a grin to hide away my pain. “So the damn system that was trying to pry me open… that was you all along?”

[I believe you are mistaken.] The voice continued. [What you perceived as the “system” was only a fraction of my mind, cut off from my body and acting independent from me ever since. If your question is whether or not it was “I” that led you to this place, then the answer would be “no”.]

“Then how did you know that I was a ‘Player’?”

[When you touched the tablet, the fraction connected with me. It had no personality of its own, so only I could read the information it had stored about you. Now, I’m assuming that you’re here for my power.]

“Who wants your power, you bastard?” I spat. “I’m here to destroy you.”

[Now that is just rude. And besides, shouldn’t my fraction have told you about the power I possess?]

“What do you mean?”

[I cannot be destroyed, only absorbed by a suitable wielder. Even if you destroyed this part now, another would form at a different spot. And here I thought that when you inherited the ‘Child of the Wind’ title, you were set to inherit my power…]

“Wait, what?”

[Don’t you know anything even with my fraction?] The voice had lost its composure completely, changing its tone to a confused shock. [This is the temple of the Left Leg, blessed by the wind. Only the ‘Child of the Wind’ could inherit my power and bring forth my awakening, via the blood of an Otherworlder.]

“Wait, but that means… what exactly are we fighting for?”

As the question left my mouth, I could feel a sudden presence from behind me.

“Sorry, kid.”

A blade—the same curved blade that made Akabane’s arm—pierced my lungs. But when I turned around, Akabane was nowhere in sight. Only a saddened Midorikawa, his hand holding a cracked scythe blade dyed in crimson.

“Green… you…”

“It’s the only solution I could think of,” answered the man in green. “I’m sorry that I hid the information from you. But the Dragon God part is right; we need your blood to awaken it, and it can only be contained by the right vessel—me, that is. Afterward… we can only pray that I control it, or… never mind. There’s no other option anyway.”

“You fool… Black was… similar…”

“Is he?” There was a quizzical look on Midorikawa’s face. “But in any case, with Red killing him already, that isn’t an option anymore. Now…”

Bringing the bloodied scythe blade towards the marble coffin, Midorikawa shouted.

“Hear me, O’ Dragon God of old! I, Heir to the Wings, one that bears the title ‘Child of the Wind’, has brought the blood of an Otherworlder to your domain! Awaken, and inhabit my flesh to roam the new world!”

As the blood dripped onto the coffin, the stone surface cracked open. From it, emerged a single object—a bandaged leg with sharp talons similar to a bird, but scales similar to a reptile. A tornado formed within the cave once more, this time taking the floating leg as its center, and along with it, Midorikawa rose above the ground.

The next thing I knew, a blast of wind knocked me straight out of the cave, breaking the structure entirely. Following it, a screech unlike anything I’d heard verberated in the air.