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Late Evening - Early Winter : Myles Kalfas' Estate, Northeastern Bahamut

-

*thump* *thump* *thump* Quickly walking down the hall from Myles' office with him in tow, I glanced back and gave a light nod to Ilios.

Although I could bring him along, I planned to leave him here to protect Grandmother. -I doubt the assassins even know she's here.. but it's better to be safe than sorry...-

"My lord, do you wish to bring that with you?" A butler came up to us as we came into the main hall.

"That won't be necessary. According to the messenger, it's only Leander and Megalos; I will be fine without it." His confidence was still overflowing. "Prepare squadrons 1 and 2 and send them to the Elder Hall the moment they're ready."

"As you wish."

Watching the man run off, I turned to Myles and noticed confidence still oozing out of him. -Ah, it's gonna feel nice to wipe that grin off his face...-

But although I was also confident, I couldn't say I wasn't worried. -It's nearly 3,000 kilometers to the Elder Hall from here... That means I'd have to travel at about 17 kilometers per second (Mach 50) the entire way, and that doesn't even take into account the altitude I need...-

It was a speed I had barely even touched for more than an instant, but oddly enough, it felt doable. -It'll be a question of how fast I can accelerate with him...-

Quickly wrapping up his conversation with a few nearby maids, he finally turned back to me with a wide smile. "Alright, let's leave, shall we?"

Immediately making our way outside, we came into his massive courtyard, where I abruptly stopped. "This is good enough. Go ahead and change to your humanoid form."

His smile turned sly. "If you say so." *flash*

The moment the blinding light subsided, I met eyes with an extremely toned draconic man easily over 2 meters tall with an extremely nice outfit and covered in jewelry. -He's quite tall...-

The moment I held my paw out toward him, he scoffed. "I'm a bit heavy, I hope you don't mind." But it only lasted an instant as he climbed on and noticed me casually pulling him close to my underside.

"Use your aura and physically hold on, or else you could fall out." Preemptively accumulating a significant amount of hydrogen around my wings, I helped him get situated and even used a significant amount of my own aura to lock him in place.

His overflowing confidence had already started to waver, but I hadn't even left the ground. "I am ready when you are."

"Alright. Hold on." Quickly making sure no one was within several hundred meters, I finally flapped my wings. *fw-WOOOOOSH* Almost instantaneously, we were launched a kilometer in the air, but I wasn't going to let such precious momentum go to waste. -I should be high enough...-

*blub-psh* The instant I ignited the thruster magic, everything went silent, and the estate below us shrank until it was but a small dot.

In a matter of seconds, the sun darted back above the horizon, and the skyline curled.

Before we could even realize it, we had reached the edge of the atmosphere.

-Time to push back the clock.. shall we?

- Assuming the air was finally thin enough, I dispersed the hydrogen around my wings and leveled out our flight path.

-If I'm not careful, I'll get hurled into orbit.

.. But this should be good enough...- Cruising at around Mach 20, we were already going insanely fast, but it wasn't enough. -Time for antimatter...-

In an instant, the glow between my scales turned sky blue, and I looked down to see Myles looking toward the ground with wide eyes. -I'm sure he can handle it...-

Looking up at the horizon once more, I dumped my focus into my mana and curled my wings inward.

*crackle-FLASH* As if it had become day, a huge area of land beneath us lit up, but it only stayed lit for an instant.

-10... 15... 20...- (20km/s = Mach 58) By the time we got up to speed and I stopped using the antimatter, we had covered upwards of a thousand kilometers, giving momentary daylight to everything we passed over.

Giving a quick glance at Myles with my aura revealed him tightly gripping one of my fingers with a look of disbelief and awe. -To think he doesn't even look lightheaded...-

"How are you holding up?" I spoke to him through wind magic that copied the vibrations of the isolated air around my mouth.

He immediately jolted once he heard it, but he could hardly move with how tense he was. "W..what.. are you..." He spoke with a curious tone, but his sense of awe couldn't be suppressed.

"A Ragnarok. What else?"

"You.. really are just like him..."

With my smug look quickly turning curious, I gave his words a moment of thought before tossing them aside and turning back to the horizon. -We're about a minute and a half out... I should start getting ready to slow down...-

-

- Leander Sofos ~

*CRUNCH-WHAAAAM* My scales shattered as Megalos bit into my neck and slammed me onto my back. *Crackle* The dozen buildings under my body were pulverized in an instant. -This bast*rd!-

*Crunch-FWOOOOSH* Flapping my wings, I threw my back off the ground and swung around to try and pin him, but he let go of my neck and darted off before I could grab him.

*Crackle-CRRRUNCH* Mercilessly plowing through buildings as he darted away, he came to a halt and lowered into an agile stance.

"You're just as slimy as ever, Megalos..."

"To think I'd be called slimy by the likes of you!" He wore a confident smile as a bright glow appeared behind his teeth.

-This psycho!- *CRACCK-FWOOOOSH* A colossal tornado of fire ripped through the air toward me in an instant, vaporizing everything in its path and leaving me no other choice but to do the same. *psh-RUMBLE*

As our breaths, each capable of destroying a human city in an instant, collided a huge wall of destruction spanning nearly a kilometer across formed, reducing the buildings in its path to ash finer than dust.

But it didn't last long. -I need to conserve my mana...-

Ceasing my breath in an instant, I darted up to the wall of scorching fire and readied another spell.

*crackle-BANG* A huge opening in the wall of fire and molten material formed instantly as I blew a huge hole through it, sending blazing chunks of molten rock in every direction.

It was only a fraction of an instant before Megalos locked eyes with me, but I was already too close for him to dodge.

*Clack* Locking my claws in his teeth, I pulled his breath toward the ground before slamming into him and biting into his wing. *WHAAAAM* His huge body was slammed into the molten ground instantly, partially melting many of his scales and covering his back in molten rock.

*shik* Using the recoil of hitting the ground, my teeth finally punctured the scales covering his wing and reached the bone.

I didn't hesitate to blast earth mana into it the instant I could. *CRUUNCH*

But although I managed to shatter the bone completely, it stood strong, held in place by several strands of divinity. -He has that much?!-

I immediately went to pull away, but before I could do anything, I felt a burning sensation in my side. -SH*T!- *CRUNCH*

Feeling two of my ribs shatter and my flesh getting shredded, I gritted my teeth and jumped off him.

*shik* His blood-covered claw ripped out of my side with a stream of blood quickly following it.

*tssss* The blood turned to vapor as it poured out of my side and onto the nearly-molten ground.

-Tch... It's deep...- Although it was nothing life-threatening, it was a wound I couldn't ignore.

-But he's going to be worse...- Looking over at Megalos, I watched him carefully fold in his broken wing while using earth magic to break off the molten rock that solidified on his back.

He was bleeding from the mouth and all across his body where I dug my claws into him, but none of the wounds were too deep.

Not yet at least.

*FWOOOSH* Hurling myself back at him, I used my aura to pin his leg to the ground and gripped it before driving my other claw into his chest. *CRUNCH-SHIK* My claws punctured his scales and skin in an instant, letting me immediately slam my weight down on the inside of his rib cage.

*CRUNCH* Several of his ribs shattered instantly, but even though the divinity kept me from ripping through them, his body was still slammed into the ground. "This is the end, Megalos."

I was in a complete position of power. There was nothing he could do to get out of the situation.

At least that's what I thought.

*vwowowowoom* Out of nowhere, a warped cloud appeared just in front of me. -What...-

But before I could even react to it, I felt as if I could see a human hand reach toward me.

That was the moment when it felt like the world collapsed around me. *WHHHHHAM* Every remaining building within several hundred meters was crushed and reduced to rubble instantly, with my body slamming into the ground so hard my legs, wings, and ribs all shattered.

It sent an unfathomable pain through my body as the divinity holding my legs together strained to stay in one piece.

But that was when I heard Megalos speak through heavy breaths. "This is indeed the end.. Leander... Haah... The end for you."