“Ah!”

As loud crashing sounds filled her ears, the both of them fell towards the direction of the open door and out into the mansion hallway.

“Guh!”

Aleby had gone out before her, slamming headfirst into the wall, and losing control of his cane, which landed beside him with a clatter. He slumped down, the impact appearing to have knocked him out cold.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

Having reacted fast enough, she had grabbed onto the side of the door before she could slide into the hallway. However, as the tilting quickly became worse, until the entire mansion seemed to be on its side, she hurriedly dropped down beside him.

However, that was not the only problem they were facing either. As she dropped, she suddenly realized that, even without the use of her wings, she could not land in the hallway.

In fact, she was slightly hovering, and the unconscious Aleby had also begun to float off of the wall. At the same time, the crashing noises became louder and were getting closer and closer to their location with each passing second.

“We’re falling…”

In the split second after she realized this, she shook her head and got to action. Without taking his cane, she grabbed Aleby by the scruff of his suit and unfurled her wings.

“He’s heavy…” she offhandedly remarked to herself as she pulled him closer to her chest and wrapped her arms around him, lowering her head until it made contact with his, and with one big whoosh, she zoomed off along the falling hallway.

“Come on, come on!”

As the destruction continued, she focused her attention only on one thing: To protect the man in her arms.

To that end, she kept her body low and near the bottom, as she knew that if she went even slightly higher, the weight of the mansion would smash down on the two of them. She could most likely survive the impact, but he would not.

At the same time, she desperately glanced up from time to time, looking for an open door of any kind above that she could go through and exit through the window.

However, as her speed grew faster, she knew that even stopping once would push her past the door and get caught by the mansion either way, so she focused on one exit point instead, which was the window at the end of the hallway.

When she had entered with the others for the first time, she had casually noticed its existence and thought nothing else of it, but now it was their only means of escape left.

As posters came loose and rained down on her head, along with shards of broken wood and other materials that she did not have the time to identify, she kept her eyes straight ahead.

If she was too late, the entire mansion would land on the underground city along with them.

“MAKE IT!!!!!!!”

In the span of a few seconds, she had reached the window. Quickly moving him down, closing her eyes and twisting her body slightly such that her shoulder was pushing out first instead of her head while still maintaining her speed, she slammed through the glass and wood with all her strength.

“Agh!”

Slightly wincing in pain at the splinters in her shoulder, she opened her eyes again and looked ahead.

“…for god’s sake…”

It was not just the mansion. The entire city was crumbling before her very eyes.

On both sides, buildings were tilting and collapsing into a gaping hole that had suddenly opened up in the ground, which was growing wider and wider as the destruction shook and made the surrounding intact ground give way, creating a gigantic chasm that barely anyone could escape from.

There was also something unknown and undeniably massive inside the said chasm, but there was no time to focus on it. What mattered to her at that moment was getting to safety immediately.

Despite the bleak situation unfolding before her, she remained persistent and kept flying straight. She knew that much like her passage through the hallway, as long as she kept going, she would reach the edge of the city and escape.

However, that was still more easily said than done.

As she flew through the city, massive skyscrapers continuously fell above her head, bringing down massive chunks of concrete, rotting furniture and what appeared to be pieces from broken Fox traps.

While making sure Aleby was still secure in her hands, she was forced to regularly look up to check if any of them were dangerously close to her, and by furling and unfurling her wings at various times, she skillfully made her way through the rubble in front of her, zigzagging left and right through all the chaos.

“Help!”

A soft cry for help caught her ears despite the noise of the collapsing city. In the distance in front of her, she spotted a Fox, clinging for his life on the side of a falling skyscraper.

She had to help him.

Taking a deep breath, she took the risk and soared higher such that she could reach his position, getting dangerously close to the skyscraper in the process.

“I’m coming! Get ready to take my hand!”

As soon as she was near him, she yelled loudly in order for her voice to get through to him.

“!!”

Luckily, the Fox had heard her, and even though he was holding onto the one thing keeping him from falling off, he quickly reached his hand out towards her, and she did the same, all while carefully readjusting Aleby in her remaining arm.

It was very, very close. If she was even slightly off, she would not catch him.

“GRAB ITTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!”

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As she yelled, both of them reached out towards the other with all they had.

…

Their hands connected. This was it.

“Huh?”

But that was that.

There was just not enough grip in the contact, and he had also let go of the skyscraper’s side in order to reach her.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“NO!!!”

As he fell into the chasm below screaming, she let out a guttural yell of despair as she watched his small body disappear out of view into the dotted landscape below.

“Damn it!!!!!”

She bit her lip. By her own inability, she had once again inadvertently caused the death of yet another person.

However, she could not stop this time. She had to keep going.

“Protect the ones I can… protect the ones I can…”

She was nearing the edge of the city. However, another building was coming up in front of her, this one falling faster than the others. With her speed, she could not fly upwards or downwards at this point before she would inevitably made contact with it.

Once again, she knew that she could survive even through that, but Aleby would not. As such, in the precious few seconds before impact, she took another risk.

Looking up to make sure there was no other falling objects that could stop him, she loosened her grip on him and let him slightly fall before immediately catching him by the arm.

“God, I hope this works…”

Controlling her strength as much as she could, she carefully aimed the direction and distance for her next action.

“Go!!!!!”

And in one swift motion, she flung him up past the building and a far enough distance in front of her, right before she smashed through the building’s glass window.

“…”

As his unconscious body soared through the air, she curled her body up into a ball to smash through the building walls and go through rooms, doing her best to make it outside again as quickly as she could.

Although it was efficient, the process was still undoubtedly, incredibly painful for her, and she emerged with multiple bruises and cuts from the impact.

However, despite all that, she still made sure he was still in the air above her such that she could catch him safely.

This time, they had already gone past the city into the wasteland, and there was nothing stopping her from going as high as she could, so as soon as she recovered, she flew up to his position and stuck her hands out.

“Don’t miss…”

Once again, she was going to be able to reach him, but she could not make the same earlier mistake again. One Fox was one thing, but if she had lost the person she was supposed to protect with her gamble, the man who had told her to step up and move on…

“No… I will make it!”

Shaking her head to clear any doubts, she reached out to him, slowing down and pushing her chest forward such that he could land safely in her arms without any risk of serious injury.

And so…

…

…

“Got you!”

The two of them had made it out of the city safely, and with minimal injuries to boot.

**********************

“Are you awake, chief?”

“Mmgh…”

When Aleby opened his eyes once again, he found himself lying down on a woman’s lap in the wasteland. The sun had set, and the sky had turned dark, so it took a while for him to recognize her face.

That woman in question was Anten, who was busy chanting something and healing him up, seemingly unbothered by the fact that she was letting him rest on her lap.

“Ah.”

“Oh.”

As the two made eye contact, he quickly sat up, nearly hitting her head in the process.

“What… happened, my dear?”

“Well…”

“It’s… Chief Claine, Chief Aleby,” another person, one of the Foxes who had miraculously escaped the city on his own, suddenly made his presence known as he spoke for her, “the mission in the underground temple unleashed something, and its actions have caused the city to collapse.”

“I see.”

As soon as he heard the update, he stood up and began walking back towards the now-ruined city.

“Chief… your leg!”

“Huh?”

He stopped and looked down. Indeed, he had not noticed it at first, but his limp was gone.

He quickly looked back at Anten, who shifted her gaze away from him.

“I guess she healed my injury,” he murmured to himself as he shook his formerly bad leg.

However, that was beside the point. Even if he was alive and completely well, there was still the pressing matter at hand.

“Is the released thing dead?”

“No, chief.”

“Then I shall—”

“No!”

The surviving group of Foxes turned and looked at Anten as she stood up and began to walk towards him, her face having turned into one of worry.

“I can’t let you go back in there. We barely escaped last time, and I can’t guarantee—”

“It is my choice, dear angel,” he rejected her in a determined tone, abruptly stopping her order.

That lecture that he had given her, before all the chaos went down, still pressed down on her mind, and he knew it.

“No.”

However, she remained steadfast as she spoke again.

“I refuse. I will be the one to go down and help them.”

“My dear…”

“I remember what you said,” she stubbornly interjected, “but here’s what I think. While I do believe that I must move on, you were wrong in saying that I should let everyone make their own decisions.”

Walking in front of him, she stopped and pointed at the now-exposed underground city.

“I might not know much about this kind of thing, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, but your brother’s decision made that mess. And you are about to walk into that very mess. So, I’m sorry, but I cannot let you make that decision. I might not be considering your feelings when I ‘protect’ you, but you are not considering the others’ feelings as well. What would your Foxes think if they saw their chief lose his life over this decision, huh? What would they do then? Tell me!”

“...”

Everyone fell silent, including him. In just the span of a few minutes, and the destruction of an entire city, the lecturer had suddenly become the lectured.

“…the Foxes here need you, Chief Aleby,” she pleaded, “that’s why you must protect yourself.”

“…”

Slowly, he turned to look at the other Foxes. They were tired, hurt, and traumatized. Of all things, they needed to be protected.

He needed to be protected.

“…right.”

“Huh?”

“You are right, my dear,” he finally conceded, “I need to consider my own self as well as others. I will stay here in that case.”

“…thank you.”

“Regardless, I do need to stay here, as we do need to prepare.”

“Wait, what?” she replied, confused once again.

Without saying another word, he pointed at something behind her, and as she turned around to look at what it was, her heart sank.

“Lost!!!”

The Foxes hurriedly began to move away from the approaching group that was moving towards them at top speed, large in number and packed close together.

“Prepare the weapons!”

Equipping the rifles they had that were still usable, the Foxes stood their ground in the face of the imminent threat.

At the same time, Anten prepared her bow and aimed it at the closest Lost. She had not personally used her arrows against them before, so she had no idea if they would even work, but regardless, she still had to try at least taking them down.

“Come on…”

However, to their surprise, the Lost did something completely unexpected. They changed their direction as they swerved to the left, moving away from them like it was natural.

“Huh?”

As she lowered her bow and followed them with her eyes, she saw where they were going.

Instead of coming after the exposed group standing in the middle of the wasteland, and the probable high energy source that was with them, they were heading towards the gigantic chasm and into the underground city, leaping inside one by one without a second thought.

“It can’t be…”

She quickly came up with a few possible explanations for the change. Unsurprisingly, none of them were especially good at all, with the sole exception of one.

However, regardless of what the cause was, she still had to act. The original plan had not changed at all, despite the appearance of a new party.

“I have to help them,” she declared again as she began to fly back towards the city, following closely behind the Lost.

“Good luck.”

As he wished her well, Aleby stood looking at her departing form for a moment before he turned and faced his remaining Foxes.

“My dear Foxes. We must check the surroundings and make sure we locate more survivors. Keep yourselves safe at all times.”

“Roger that, chief!”

And so, the fight continued, even above the surface, even for those who were already out of danger.