AFTER that, they continued searching for John, but to no avail. The sun was already setting, dusk nearly upon them.
“I can’t find him…” Erina complained, dejected.
“We haven’t come across a single wild animal, let alone a puppy…” Lyle’s expression was grim.
The fact behind his words made the whole thing more unsettling.
In the end, I was useless this time too…
The only thing they had found was a rusty old metal knife and a beautiful butterfly. The knife was dangerous, so they picked it up under the pretext of a student council cleaning activity. Yuffie held onto it, but considering that she tripped and forced Erina to use healing magic earlier, that might not have been such a good idea.
I’m a walking disaster… She moved along, shoulders slumped.
“Meow…” Friend voiced weakly from his perch on her shoulders.
“What’s wrong?”
“Yuffie, I think we should head back. I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Huh…?”
She frowned at his uneasy words, all the more unusual because he only ever said positive things. The gears in her brain turned. Friend was an imaginary friend, and in a sense, a part of her ego. In other words…
Am I having a bad feeling about this…?
“Why don’t we call it a day?” Just as Lyle spoke, it happened.
BANG!
Not far away, a roar shook the ground.
“What the hell?! What’s going on…?!”
“Hrngh! Jack…!”
Then, from somewhere, they heard Jack’s and Edward’s desperate cries.
“Wh-What’s happening?!” Erina cried out in surprise.
Another blast followed. This time, flames rose from the west.
“Something’s wrong,” Lyle muttered, sweat trickling down his forehead.
“Um, shouldn’t we hurry to where the flames are shooting from?” Yuffie asked tentatively, holding Friend tightly to her chest for whatever reason.
“You’re right, of course! Yuffie, Erina, let’s go…”
“Soaring Gale.”
“Whoa!” Lyle and Erina cried out in unison because their bodies suddenly began to float. A swift wind had appeared out of nowhere, wrapping around the three and lifting them lightly.
“Wh-What…?!”
“W-We’re floating…!?”
They started struggling when they realized, but they couldn’t escape the wind.
“Keep your eyes closed,” Yuffie told them.
WHOOSH!
They heard the sound tearing through the air at the same time Yuffie spoke.
“Gah…!”
“Eeek…!”
Ignoring their bewildered shouts, Yuffie raced through the sky at lightning speed, pulling her friends with her. The whipping wind made a mess of their hair and clothes.
“I…I’m… flying… Nooooooooo…!”
The gale carried them onward regardless of Erina’s screams. As they approached their destination, Yuffie adjusted her control to make sure they landed safely.
“We’re here! I figured this was the fastest way to travel right now… Ack, are you both okay?!” She ran over to Lyle and Erina, their faces pale and their breaths shallow.
“I-I’m all right, Yuffie. But how am I alive? I am alive, aren’t I…?” Erina questioned, patting herself down.
“I’d heard rumors that wind magic could be used to fly, but I never thought they were true…” Lyle wheezed, disbelief written on his face.
“S-Sorry, was I going a little too fast? I should have slowed down a bit…”
“No, not at all. Good job, Yuffie.” Then a burning stench reached him, enough to make him frown. Lyle regained his composure and looked ahead. Yuffie, drawn in by his action, raised her head as well.
“Jack! Edward!” she shouted.
Trees were engulfed in flames and smoke. Not too far away, the two boys were collapsed on the ground.
“Oh my goodness, this is awful!” Distressed, Erina cried out and ran over to them.
Lyle and Yuffie rushed after her.
“Shit… Owww…” Jack grumbled with a wound bleeding from his head. His clothes were torn to shreds and stained with blood.
Both boys were seriously injured, but Edward was still lying unconscious with deep wounds crisscrossing from his chest to his abdomen, his blood turning the ground red.
“Oh, no, this is terrible…” Yuffie blurted out without thinking.
Jack and Edward, two people who had accepted her as a friend, were in critical condition. As soon as she realized that, her heart started pounding.
Wh-What’s wrong with me…? She didn’t understand why she was panting like this.
Friend stared up at her.
“Hold on! I’ll heal you right now… O god of healing.” The moment Erina started treating Edward, a terrifying roar echoed through the forest.
“Grrrrrraaaaaarrr!!!”
The monster mowed down trees with the iron club in its hand.
“You have to be kidding me…” Lyle trailed off as he realized the creature was responsible for the state their friends were in.
Built like a rock wall, it looked as big as a mountain. Thick muscles bulged from its shoulders down to its arms, and four hands as strong as boulders clutched sinister iron clubs. Drool dripped heavily from its mouth. With sharp fangs bared and its shining red eyes radiating a thirst for killing, the thing stared at its surroundings in hatred.
“This can’t be happening! A King Cyclops is an A-ranked monster!” Lyle was basically yelling at this point.
The creature continued its relentless march toward them. A monster with a danger level of A was a powerful enemy that could only be defeated by dispatching an entire brigade of the royal army. Normally, such creatures only inhabited demonic domains where miasma was particularly strong, so it really shouldn’t exist in the middle of human territory—even by accident. If you encountered one, the only thing you could do was run away as fast as possible, and even then, your survival rate would be less than 1%. Naturally, then, it wasn’t an opponent that students could handle.
“Jack, what in the world happened?!” Lyle demanded.
“The hell if I know… I woke up and bam, that King Cyclops was right there, and then…” He bit his lip and pointed in the direction of the monster. “That man…”
Lyle squinted and, sure enough, saw a hooded man standing at its feet.
That’s… His eyes widened. He recognized the magical item on the man’s finger. A ring of subordination… No wonder…
A King Cyclops was a ferocious monster that ravaged anything it saw. However, right now, this one just glared at them, growling low in its throat without attacking.
Lyle took a step forward and spoke to the man. “Are you the one who’s controlling it?”
“Indeed, I am.” The man clapped politely in mock appreciation. “Luck is on your friends’ side, eh? If they had just died quietly, their suffering needn’t have been so prolonged.”
“Who are you?” Lyle asked in a sharp voice.
“My name is Gordo.”
“…I’ve never heard of you. You look human, but you must be a minion of the Demon King.”
“What would you say if that were the case?” Gordo taunted him with a twisted sneer.
“Then…you were the one who unleashed the Flame Cerberus and put the fake letter in the suggestion box saying the puppy had disappeared, weren’t you?”
“Very perceptive. As expected of the third prince.” Gordo whistled inappropriately and removed his hood, revealing a man with a shaved head and painful-looking burn marks all over his face.
“Why are you doing this? What do you want?! Answer me, Gordo!” Lyle shouted.
The fact that he was able to remain undaunted in the presence of a King Cyclops, the very symbol of despair, was probably the result of the spirit trained into him as a member of the royal family.
“Come now, don’t tell me you actually think I’ll answer? The third prince has guts, but not much in the way of brains, eh?”
“As they say, doesn’t cost a thing to ask. And I must say, it’s quite an honor to be praised by someone who can command a King Cyclops.”