In the pit of bewilderment, Lezamer failed to notice that Cullina was watching him with a sad look in her eyes.
Sure enough, Watt gave his answer. “That’s right. Watch me, Cullina... Watch me settle it all at the end of our path! Here we go, Lord Gryphon! Full power on! Exhaust heat released! Begin max magic energy circulation!”
A shimmering wave of heat emerged from Lord Gryphon. Devouring the stockpile of magicyte crammed in its Mech-Heart, a raging torrent of magic energy surged all throughout the machine.
“Carve this into your memory! Magi-skill, activate! Mode Shift!”
The Mechsteel began to transform. It folded its arms behind its back while its dual blades fused with its rear armor to form a gigantic pair of wings. Its legs spread out to form four in total, as its helmet transformed to take on the shape of an eagle’s head. The Mechsteel went about reclaiming the shape of the monster it was built from: the gryphon, bearing the head of an eagle, wings, and the four legs of a beast.
With a burst of steam, Lord Gryphon let out a piercing cry as if it were truly alive and rose into the sky after completing its transformation. The air around it seemed to sway beneath the storm of magic energy pouring out from it. The dual blades equipped on its wings began to glow with a pale light as magic energy surrounded them. Leaving a trail through the air in its wake, Lord Gryphon circled the skies above the palace.
“Enough of this nonsense! Such insolence after you’ve reduced yourself to nothing more than a monster! Activate, Hyper Magi-skill: Dragon’s Rooooooar! Burn all the fools who would defy me to ashes!”
Light gushed from Bahamut Dominion’s shoulders, stretching out into the heavens. It was the light of a dragon, destroying and razing everything in its path—but the light couldn’t even catch so much as Lord Gryphon’s shadow as it soared through the sky at will. The citizens bustled as they watched the beam of light stretch through the sky of the capital.
Bahamut Dominion frantically swung the beam of light around, only for it to quickly drop off soon thereafter as the dragons’ skulls on Bahamut Dominion’s shoulders closed their jaws.
“Wh-What’s the meaning of this, Bahamut Dominion?! You’re a Diviner, are you not?! Running out of power this quickly is absolutely unacceptable!”
“You really are as hopeless as they come,” Watt said. “You don’t even know when your Mechsteel’s run out of steam, so you don’t have the first idea about where its limits are!”
Diviner though it was, that didn’t mean it possessed infinite reserves of magic energy. After burning through immense amounts with its Hyper Magi-skills, Lord Bahamut had now reached its limits.
Watt sighed. He knew what he had to do, but it was far too harsh. Yet he had no reason to let this opening escape him. Circling through the skies, Lord Gryphon rapidly began to descend with its aim set on Bahamut Dominion.
Lezamer’s eyes opened wide as he watched his end descend from the heavens.
“Aaaaaaaaagh! Stay away from me! Stay away! Stay away! Stay awaaaaaay! Feather Sphere! Don’t let him get any closer!”
Giving up on any attempts to even move, Bahamut Dominion squeezed out the last reserves of its magic energy as it spread its wings. While the feathers rose into the air, Bahamut Dominion crouched. As Lezamer’s final act of futile resistance, the feather blades cast aside any attempt to protect Bahamut Dominion, instead darting out toward Lord Gryphon.
“Bring it! I’ll crush ’em all! Break through—Wing Edge!”
Lord Gryphon stretched out its wings, now fused with its twin blades, and met the attack. The feathers launched themselves at Lord Gryphon from every direction, but each flap of the gryphon’s wings cut through the feathers, scattering them before they plummeted to the ground. In the end, there was nothing else moving in the sky but Lord Gryphon.
“Ah... Aha, hah! Impossible! This can’t be happening! It can’t be! It can’t! Not to meeeeee!”
All that was left now was the corpse of a Diviner that could barely move. Watt squinted—it would be easy enough to destroy Bahamut Dominion if he simply charged his foe in his current form. But in doing so, his attack would strike not only Lezamer riding inside the Mechsteel but Cullina as well. Both Watt and Cullina had gone into the duel prepared for just that. But even then...
Watt glanced over at Anna beside him in the cockpit. To whose service did Watt Sears offer himself and his blade? He was a knight in service of Anna Ogdenn—was it truly acceptable for them to remain prisoners to the conclusion they’d reached? As he pondered the question, he naturally began to see what he had to do. Watt gave the order to Lord Gryphon.
“Mode Shift—release!”
Returning back to its humanoid form, Lord Gryphon took its sword in hand. In its grip was the very blade that had been broken in their duel so long ago.
“This’ll do just right for finishin’ you off!”
“Aaah... Agh!” Lezamer shrieked.
In the depths of his disarray, Lezamer had given up any attempts at piloting, instead cutting an ungraceful sight as he clung to his wife. Without an ounce of pity in her expression, Cullina took Lezamer’s place and grabbed the control stick. She herself knew what she must do as well.
Bahamut Dominion stretched out its remaining pair of smaller arms, as if to welcome Lord Gryphon.
“Now, let’s put an end to this...Sir Watt.”
The moment they collided, Watt almost felt as if he saw Cullinagemia smiling from the cockpit of Bahamut Dominion. It was the sort of smile that only those who’d made their peace with everything could wear, and that was exactly why Watt nodded and pushed forward—without an ounce of hesitation or doubt.
Lord Gryphon thrust its broken blade straight into Bahamut Dominion’s chest.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Father, just how long are you planning on sleeping? You can’t be so lax!”
“Fwaaaaaah... Just a little longer...”
“I’m afraid not.”
No sooner had the heartless remark reached Watt’s ears than he found the covers being torn away from him. The brisk morning air broke in, driving him to finally open his eyes.
Watt scratched away at his head, his hair completely disheveled from sleeping. Looking around with a yawn, he realized he wasn’t in his home in Front-Edge City. At the same time, however, the room was far too ornately decorated to belong to an inn in the capital. It was then that he remembered that he was in a room in the palace. Anna, who’d gone back to living in the palace, had prepared it for him. It was more than fancy enough, but he just couldn’t feel entirely at ease in here.
“What’s a little bit more shut-eye gonna hurt? Not like I have work today or anything.”
“That won’t do. Having a day off is no excuse to go wasting away your day in bed! A healthy life starts with keeping a regular routine!”
Paying no heed to Watt’s objections, Anna mercilessly pulled the curtains open. The morning sun made no attempts to contain itself, stinging at Watt’s sleep-weary eyes.
“Uuungh...”
Just like a bug that had crawled out from underneath a rock, Watt groped around for his blanket, only to finally give up after his daughter stood in his way with her hands planted on her hips.
“Do get ready, father. Your breakfast’ll get cold.”
“Yeaaah, yeah.”
Watt made his way to the bathroom after being practically chased out of his room. Swiftly setting his hair in order, he shaved the stubble off his face. By that point, he had shaken off the drowsiness, and his mind had started to clear. He took a breath and opened up the closet to pull out the day’s outfit. Waiting for him there was a Royal Knights’ uniform that had been prepared for him. Watt had been convinced he’d never wear it again.
He stared at the uniform anew before mumbling beneath his breath. “Mighta been fine when I was a spring chicken, but this design’s a little rough for an old man like me.”
Watt’s time working as a station employee had prepared him well: The mere thought of putting on a uniform and serving in the court didn’t send a shudder down his spine. But even then, whether he’d gotten carried away or not, he’d been the one to go off and say he’d return to knighthood, so he was going to have plenty of messes to clean up.
“That’s one helluva heavy load to put on an old man...” Watt said.
Turning it over in his mind as he left the room, he found Anna waiting there for him.
“I was waiting for you, father. Come now—let’s have breakfast together.”
“Huh? You went to all the trouble of waitin’? You shoulda just gone ahead and eaten.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. Let’s eat together. We’re family, after all.”
Anna smiled at him as she spoke the same way she had when they were living together in Front-Edge City. Watt knew he was powerless against that smile.
All righty, then... My daughter sure is a handful, but I might as well start by joinin’ her for a meal!