When she reached the cove, she became certain.
The power was gone from his wingbeats, and he was losing altitude before her eyes. The girl couldn’t tell what was happening. The dragon’s breaths had grown ragged, like he was in pain.
The girl and dragon had assumed the first attack had been an aerial strike. But that was not the case.
Prior to the bombing, many smoking, bomb-like objects had been dropped around the temple. They hadn’t exploded, but had quietly harmed the dragon in a different way, eating into him.
The girl realized what that faint stench really was.
The first weapon used against the dragon had been poison gas.
Victory had been decided before the fight had even begun, since even the fighter planes the dragon had taken down had been a decoy for luring the dragon out to the cove.
It was a compound that only worked on dragons. Before her eyes, the nerves of his body were paralyzed. As the dragon reached the cove, he landed on the beach, audibly skidding through the sand.
The dragon’s blue eyes gazed at the ocean and the enemies there.
The fleet floated on the water, about twenty kilometers ahead. Surrounded by little gunships that were like hangers-on, an abnormally imposing battleship pointed its main gun at the dragon.
The girl had seen that gun before.
The girl realized…
The four days she’d spent in the lands of men had been no nightmare.
In fact, the days she had spent on this island might well have been no more than a sweet dream.
The Balmung Cannon.
Its gun barrel aimed at where the dragon lay on the ground.
The girl ran to the dragon.
She didn’t know whether she could be useful, but she raced over anyway.
Her left arm reached out to the dragon.
At the same time, a flash of light tore through the darkness of night.
In the next moment, her body was hurtling through the air. The blast of light eviscerated everything from the girl’s chest to her right arm.
It was incredibly powerful.
Even if she had managed to fully position herself between the dragon and the cannon, it wouldn’t have made a difference.
Her body slammed to the beach with a grisly splat. She didn’t die immediately, thanks to the dragon’s blood. But she could no longer move.
The girl struggled to adjust her head enough to look at the dragon.
The dragon was wounded just as badly—no, he was in much worse condition than the girl.
The right side of his body was gone. The scales that should have been solid had melted like candy, and pieces of his shredded right wing had fallen to the beach.
✦ ✦ ✦
Mercury-like blood had started to flow like a waterfall.
The silver dragon was dead.
There was no life in his blue eyes.
The plants behind him were burning.
With the dragon’s death, the whole island was enveloped in flames in an instant.
Seeing that, the girl felt like black sparks were crackling deep in her body.
This is strange.
The girl had imagined this tragedy in her mind many times. Every time, she had steeled herself. She understood that they would be united in the Kingdom of Eternity, so she should have welcomed death.
But even understanding that…
The girl could see tears in the dragon’s eyes.
No, dragons were not made to cry tears. Blood was flowing from his eyes, which had been damaged in the blast. It only appeared as though he were crying.
But seeing him like this…
The girl moved her neck. She looked at the battleship that had dealt the mortal blow to the dragon.
Standing by the battery was a man who looked like he had fired the gun. It was far enough away that a normal human wouldn’t be able to see, but having been bathed in the dragon’s blood, the girl could clearly see his face.
He was a soldier with black hair and dot-like irises. Though he stared at the girl and the dragon, he appeared to feel nothing…or so she thought at first. But the man’s nasty-looking eyes were on the burning Eden.
The man’s mouth moved. Having been showered with the dragon’s blood, the girl could hear what he was saying, even across the great distance.
“…Come on, not again… Why do dragons…never know when to give up? Putting up a pathetic struggle to the last. We just want the fruit…”
The man clicked his tongue, saying, “Another waste.”
With a whoosh, the sparks within the girl roared into full bloom.
A waste?
Did that man just say it was a waste?
After disturbing our peace, burning our paradise, and stealing away the lives of those we loved…
…He calls that a waste?
With all sorts of negative emotions—sorrow, regret, hatred, and rage—as kindling, a fire blazed to life in her heart.
I cannot die.
The girl’s body was wet with the dragon’s blood that overflowed from the corpse beside her.
They will not have it.
Since they have the nerve to consider this a waste.
The girl sucked up the silver blood that soaked the beach. Refusing to hand over even a drop, she fervently dragged her tongue over the sand to lick it up and swallow.
She had to survive. She figured that if she consumed the dragon’s blood, she might be able to do something about her fatal wounds.
If I can kill that man…
The fires of vengeance burned in the girl’s red eyes.
If I can kill that man, I don’t need anything else.
The girl continued to voraciously lap up the bodily fluids of the one she loved, but no matter how frantic she became, she couldn’t stop her vision from growing dark.
Eventually, her consciousness faded to black.
In the end, human and dragon could not understand one another, to the last.