It hurt. The wound on my torso burned as I desperately tried to get what little air my battered lungs could give me. Even a single breath would be enough for blood to spurt out of my mouth. But I couldn’t fall here. Not when I still had unfinished business to attend to.

I staggered, but there was just enough strength for me to stand. Or rather, from all those battles where my body was stabbed or gutted one way or another, I’d gotten used to the feeling of teetering between life and death. With one of my hands covering the open wound, I diverted my eyes to the source of all problems that I had to go to—the giant green pillar of light bursting out of the cave.

“Some sight, huh?” A voice sounded next to me.

“What happened to you?”

Akabane, who had moved to stand beside me, was in as much of a horrible state as I was. The cracks on his shell were starting to bleed, while a single scar ran across his right eye, forever shutting it off. Blood was spewing out from his mouth, which had returned to its humanoid shape. But the most disturbing feature was without a doubt his scythes… or rather, scythe. The blade on his left arm had been broken, leaving only a jagged, hollow crack on his forearm, with more of the crimson liquid oozing from the wound.

Unlike me, however, Akabane was still calm. Disturbingly so.

“Handiwork from your friend.”

“Don’t you mean your friend?”

“Former friend. What about you?”

“Stabbed by said friend.”

“So, we both got duped, huh?” Akabane sighed.

I shook my head in response. “It’s Green. Surely he has something else in store, right?”

“He doesn’t. I’m his childhood friend, after all. I can tell when he’s desperate.”

“Oh, so now you’re his friend.”

Another deafening screech interrupted our back-and-forth quip. From the green light, it arose.

It started with a pair of crimson eyes, and a mouth similar to a regular insect’s jaw, but even the head’s size was already as big as the giant tree headquarter back in the Mujin village. The further it rose, the more its shadow cast over the lands.

A verdant body even longer than the river flowing across the village, so gigantic that we could see only a fraction of it even if we were to fall to the ground with our eyes on the sky. Legs tucked firmly in the abdomen, yet larger than any trees we could find. But its most intimidating feature was undoubtedly its massive wings.

If the body was long, the wingspan must be at least twice that size. Yet, they were transparent, and the moonlight reflecting through them was nothing short of breathtaking. It was an otherworldly beauty that few could say that they got to experience, yet it was something that no one else wanted to encounter for a second time in their lives.

The creature let out a cry that could only be described as thunder. Even its scream was enough to send a wind strong enough to blow both of us away a couple dozen meters, only stopped by our bodies hitting the thicker trees in the forest. As a result, however, both Akabane and I coughed out another pool of blood, staining the grass with a metallic stench.

“Well now, genius. Any other plans?” Akabane spat.

“I’m not doing your ritual, asshole.” I gritted my teeth in return.

In the end, the man in red had no choice but to let out a sigh in defeat. “... Fine. Arguing right now would only worsen our chances. If you’re so insistent, I’ll back out. For now. And only if you have another plan to get us out of this situation.”

As the question left his mouth, a sudden thought came across my mind. Midorikawa’s words flashed back in my head, surging forward as if reminding me of the solution.

“Afterward… we can only pray that I control it, or… never mind. There’s no other option anyway.”

I clenched my fist. So that was his plan all along. It wasn’t a gamble, but a sign of trust as he passed the torch to the rest of us.

Either he could control the Dragon God that housed his body, or he would fail, and the task of killing him would be left to his teammates—in other words, us.

“What else? We just kill it.”

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“Kill? That?”

“Green entrusted us with this task. It was his final gamble—that we’re strong enough to defeat a Dragon God part with our own strength.”

“Preposterous,” spat Akabane. “Just the size of that thing alone makes the job impossible.”

“Well, you have a better idea? That doesn’t involve me eating my partner?”

“... Fine, we’ll have it your way.” Akabane clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Then we’ll base our tactic on that fact…”

“Which means that the first thing to do is to fix our wounds and rendezvous with the others.” I finished the proposed strategy. “But that leaves the problem of slowing that thing down.”

“Leave it to me,” answered Akabane. “We’ll slowly fight and back away with a hit-and-run approach. But we have to be careful—that thing can move at any moment’s notice.”

“Why isn’t it moving actually?” I cocked my head in confusion.

“It could be storing energy, or assimilating itself to Green’s body. But in any case, consider ourselves lucky that we could still talk like this. Now, on my mark…”

As the words left his mouth, Akabane crouched forward, raising his singular bladed arm.

“Ready Akari?” I patted the critter on my head. “Don’t force yourself to take him down—we’re only stalling for time.”

“Kuri!”

“Set…” Akabane’s shell started cracking even more—proof of his muscles being pushed well beyond their limits.

“Go!”

The red man rushed forward with a giant leap. Even on the ground, his leg strength was strong enough to lift him high up in the air, even surpassing the trees to approach ever so closer to the giant dragonfly’s legs.

“Akari, follow him!”

I quickly raised my arm to the side as well, making a platform for my partner to jump. Swinging my arm with Akari on it, I threw the critter as hard as I could. With their differences in sizes, Akari couldn’t mimic Akabane’s jump just now, so I had to build up momentum for her instead. The throw was for such a purpose; I aimed her right at one of the larger trees nearby, and she would ramp up her speed by doing what she had always done before—bouncing from tree to tree in a zigzag pattern to build a large kinetic energy.

As Akari made her way past the last tree to make it to the sky, the two’s paths finally crossed.

“Onigiri, follow my lead!” Akabane, still charging at full speed, shouted.

“Kuri!”

It was a clash of blades, sending sparks flying in the air. However, the two never hit each other—instead, Akabane’s instruction just now was a signal for a coordinated attack. With a target that big in size, the two would have to time their attacks to both be simultaneous and hitting the same spot in order to put a dent on the oversized dragonfly’s exoskeleton.

However, one look, and I knew that the attack didn’t go as planned.

The creature cried out once more, and this time, its legs kicked forward, smashing through both of them at once. Akari and Akabane, hit by the sudden attack, looked as if all of their momentum had disappeared, and both were freefalling from their spots towards opposite sides on the ground.

“Akari!”

I rushed to my partner’s location as fast as my legs could take me, ignoring the seething pain that was still trying to tear my body apart. I tumbled forward, eating a handful of dirt in the process, but it didn’t matter. All I needed to do was catch her, or at least get her to safety, even if my life depended on it.

But there was still a limit to my abilities. Even when I had run with all I had. Even when my lungs were just a gust away from collapsing entirely, or when my muscles felt like they would snap at any given moment. Even when my bones could shatter from just a touch. It wasn’t enough to keep my partner safe.

Akari was alive, but just barely. There was a giant blunt wound on her back, with cracks running from it all over her body. Her forearms looked chipped after just a single slash, and her breathing was about as weak as I was.

“Ku…ri…” She whimpered, almost as if it was her last breath.

“Akari…” I didn’t dare to shout, nor did anything too forcefully. All I could muster was to hold her tight in my arms, quietly letting tears escape my eyes as I faced the reality of how powerless I was.

I needed to get her out of this place. This continent, if I could. But right now, there was no chance for us to escape.

“What are you doing? Get away already!”

Akabane’s shout snapped me out of my trance. When I took my gaze upward, it was as if all the blood had left my system.

Both me and Akabane had made one giant miscalculation. The creature didn’t move to attack the village, not because it couldn’t, but because it didn’t need to.

Finally, the giant dragonfly lifted its wings. One flap, and it was the largest storm known in history.

I was immediately plunged into darkness. My body felt weightless, while air was squeezed out of my chest. My eyes were blinded by the sheer intensity of the wind alone, and my ears could only hear a constant whoosh from the incredible gust. I couldn’t even brace myself for impact—partly because I had no strength left, but mostly because there was no foothold for me to force myself anyway. All I could muster was to clutch Akari tighter to my chest in the hopes of letting my own body take the brunt of whatever damage we were about to take.

However, it wasn’t my fate to end there, for my back suddenly hit something much softer than the old tree or ground. My nose, meanwhile, picked up a familiar smell, one that was equally sweet as it was addicting.

“Thank goodness we made it in time!” The voice that sounded was a familiar one as well. “Yakushi-kun, are you alright?”

“Yamabuki-san? You’re healed?”

“Took a while, but I can move decently enough,” the yellow-and-black girl flashed a reassuring smile. “Blue is here as well.”

Looking to the other side, I could see a vague azure silhouette carrying a battered crimson armor.

“I take it that the plan failed?” From afar, Aozaki asked.

“You think?” Spat Akabane. “I swear, you people take too many risks!”

“We’ll let you chew us out later,” sighed the man in blue. “Now, let’s say we handle that thing first, shall we?”