I scooped her up from her handcuffs, causing a loud snap to be heard, but I ignored it, tightly embarrassing Freyja; I outstretched my other arm, just in time to catch both grand and Trenza who had come falling back toward the ground. The sudden weight caused me almost to lose my balance, but I tightly held Grand by his leg while doing a few spins, channeling the momentum he carried into it, which actually helped to increase my speed slightly.

"Urgh! Y-You b-broke my arm!" Yelled Freyja angrily as she glanced at her dislocated shoulder while within Diddy's embrace.

"I don't care; I don't exactly have the capacity to worry about accidentally injuring you, so just suck it up and deal with it." Replied Diddy with ragged breaths and heavy eyes as he focused on the unconscious Scar through his blurry vision.

'Urgh, c'mon, just a few more minutes, you've dealt with worse!' Thought Diddy as he psyched himself up before taking a deep breath and increasing his speed, which put more pressure on his broken leg.

While I was nearing Scar, I sensed both Lindbergh and Mini approaching me; Lindbergh was much closer and wasn't too far away from me as he slowly gained ground; Mini, on the other hand, was a reasonable distance away, and it seemed I was going just fast enough to outpace him, though I didn't know how long I'd be able to keep it up. I've already long since exceeded my limit; if it weren't because I managed to disperse a large chunk of Lindbergh attacks into the ground beneath my feet, I'd have died a long time ago, though even so, I could tell just another one or two good attacks, and that'll be it for me.

I was already giving it everything I had, even going so far as to forcefully increase my heart rate to get the oxygen to different parts of my body faster, and while I could feel a slight increase in my performance, my blood also left my body quicker, which caused my mind to become cloudy and my sense's less accurate. If this continued for too much longer, I'd collapse from blood loss rather than Lindbergh or Mini delivering the finishing blow.

'Heh, I don't have much of an option right now; I've got to give everything I've got and then some if I want to get these useless fools back to the ship.' Mused Diddy as he lowered himself to the ground once he neared Scar's location.

"F-Freyja, I-I need you to pick up Scar." Said Diddy as he coasted just a few feet above the ground and swiftly approached Scar.

"E-Even though I-I want to, I-I can't, t-these sea s-stone handcuffs a-are draining my strength, i-it's already difficult for me to s-speak." Replied Freyja lightly as she weakly lay in Diddy's embrace, much to her annoyance, but she didn't have a choice if she wished to survive.

Glancing at the sea stone handcuffs binding Freyja, I grunted in response as I knew I couldn't break her out of them; even if I were in peak condition, breaking them would still be impossible. Trust me, I've tried before; they are insanely durable and can even damage my nails. The only instance I was able to damage them was when I smacked them as hard as I could with Naga-sa, though in the end, all I managed to do was chip the edge, nothing substantial, not enough to help Freyja.

'What about melting them? I've never tried that; I still got a little more left in the tank, so let's go ahead.' Thought Diddy as he released Freyja before grabbing her by the wrist right where she was cuffed.

"This will hurt, Freyja." Said Diddy as he unleashed his remaining electricity, though he made sure to converge it around the sea stone handcuffs in his hand, surprising the confused Freyja, who felt a great deal of heat on her wrists.

"Urgh! T-That fucking burns!" Yelled Freyja as she felt the sea stone handcuffs that bonded her morph into a viscous liquid form before trailing off her wrist, melting parts of it in the process.

Unsurprisingly, the sea stone couldn't withstand my lightning, which only made sense, as while I don't know its exact temperature, I remember hearing that it was well over ten thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Once I had finished melting on a handcuff, along with a good chunk of Freyja's wrist, I swiftly moved to her other wrist and did the same thing, causing her to yell loudly in pain, though I ignored it as we were mere seconds away from reaching Scar's position.

(Note: the temperature of lighting is said to average around 50,000 F, which should be far more than enough to melt sea stone.)

"C'mon, burn faster!" Said Diddy as he summoned forth even more lightning, increasing its melting speed, but it was marginal, though that was all he needed.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Instantly after the last piece of solid seastone turned into a bright red, molten liquid, we happened to arrive just over Scar; releasing my hold on Freyja, I grabbed her hand, which was severely burned, and hung her as low as possible while she used her other hand to just barley grasp Scar's shoulder, before lifting his unconscious body into her embrace.

"Haa, haa, I-I've got you, Scar." Muttered Freyja with a soft smile as she glanced at Scar before glancing behind her, causing her expression to shift to an intense frown.

"G-Good, we've g-got everyone; n-now, I can f-finally kick it up a notch. G-Grand, c-catch them!" Yelled Diddy with a grin as he swung Freyja and Scar above him onto Grand, to which he caught them both, embracing them in a tight hug along with Trenza.

Not even needing to glance behind me to know Lindbergh was close on my tail, I suddenly picked up my speed while also increasing in altitude, just in time to evade Lindbergh's attack from below, having gotten too high for him to attack me. Looking back behind me, I saw Lindbergh just standing there before turning around and running back towards his campsite, most likely to get his jetpack, while Mini still followed me from a distance, though for now, I didn't have to worry about him, he wasn't able to catch us.

With my speed, we quickly left the vicinity of the battlefield as we headed west toward where Sebas said he'd be. Granted, we still hadn't gotten any information from him yet, but right now, we didn't have many options; I just hoped he'd be arriving once we got there. However, as time passed, I could feel myself growing weaker, my speed slowing down, and the weight of Grand, Trenza, Freyja, and Scar bearing down on me, causing us to descend toward the ground slowly.

"C-C'mon, j-just a l-little, m-more to g-go." Said Diddy weakly between his heavy breathing as the intervals between his kicks got longer, while his vision, senses, and mind got worse by the second.

"C-Captain! I-Is everything okay!?" Yelled Trenza as she noticed their speed slow down and their descending altitude; although she tried to look at him, Grand's large figure was in the way.

"I-I'm f-fine." Replied Diddy softly, his eyelids heavy while his breathing and heart rate started to slow down.

Feeling an overbearing sensation of drowsiness start to erode my mind, I attempted to fight it off, as I knew that if I let it consume me, I would most likely never wake up to see the light of day again, not when I've got two and a half people wanting to kill me.

"W-Well, t-then, I-I just won't a-allow it to win; I-I can't a-allow it t-" Said Diddy with a feral grin, his voice progressively getting weaker and weaker until suddenly his eyes closed and he fainted, the over-exhaustion, blood loss and numerous severe injuries having finally caught up to him.

___

___

"C-Captain? Captain!?" Yelled Trenza in worry, feeling something was terribly wrong as she noticed their rapidly descending altitude.

Seeing us falling to the ground, I forcefully broke out of Grand's hold and placed Scar in his arms before spreading my wings, flying down and arriving just before the falling Diddy, only to see him unconscious; a sight that caused me to display a bloodthirsty smile, as I've finally been blessed the chance to kill him.

"Hehe, I won't waste this opportunity; I'll probably die soon after this, but at least I'll take you with me!" Said Freyja with a ferocious grin as she brandished her sharp claws and slashed down toward the defenseless and injured Diddy, though before she managed to kill him, she heard a voice that caused her to momentarily halt her actions.

"F-Freyja? T-Trenza, I-Is F-Freyja okay?" Asked Scar weakly in pain as he looked around, spotting Freyja nowhere before focusing on Trenza, who was at his side.

"Y-Yeah, she's okay." Replied Trenza, though internally she had already resigned herself that Diddy was dead, killed by Freyja, and their capture from the rapidly approaching Mini was assured.

"Haa, t-that's good." Said Scar lightly as he nodded his head and closed his eyes, though his voice carried within it traces of happiness, something Freyja could discern.

I don't know why, but ever since I've laid eyes on Scar, I've been unnaturally attracted to him, and not just in a romantic way; something about him pulled me towards him and evoked a weird feeling within me that I'd only ever felt when I was with my children.

'Ahh, now that I think about it, he reminds me of my son. His white hair, serious personality, and scar across his face; how did I only now realize it.' Mused Freyja with a slight smile as she reminisced about her son, which in turn only furthered her resolve to kill Diddy, but for some reason, she could no longer bring herself to do so.

I wanted to kill Diddy, but If I did so right now, we'd all be killed or imprisoned; maybe I'd be able to flee away from Mini, but if Lindbergh managed to catch up in time, my fate was sealed. I saw glimpses of his prowess when he fought against Diddy; there was no way I was matching a level of strength that even Diddy couldn't. However, while I wasn't too bothered by Grand, Sebas, or Trenza being killed or detained, knowing something terrible would happen to Scar, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It was like I was envisioning him as if he were my son, and although I knew he wasn't, I couldn't stop thinking like that.

"Is everything ok down there, Captain? Freyja? That marine is getting closer!" Yelled Grand as he looked at the Mini, who was speedily approaching them.

Hearing Grand's words, I looked at Mini out of the corner of my, and when I saw how close he was, at that moment, I had made a decision, one that I may very well regret in the future, but I suppose that's why they say "live in the present".

'Urgh!! I can't believe I'm actually doing this! Fuck myself!' Thought Freyja as she looked at Diddy with absolute hatred and anger before grabbing his chin and passionately kissing him.

'Lust Empowerment.' Thought Freyja as her passionate kiss ignited Diddy's lust, which was then used to empower himself.