Nico streaked through the air like a panicked comet with his cloak slapping against the wind.
The ground below was a churned wound of torn earth and pulverized roots.
And lying in the center of it was Nom-Nom.
He almost stumbled in mid-air as he came close enough to her, a head larger than a house, lying sideways in the crater.
Her breaths blew in slow, heavy waves, each exhale scattering dust and ash like a sigh from a dying star.
It was the only reason he knew she was alive.
"Nom… Nom!" Nico shouted as he hovered beside her cheek, voice cracking. "Hey! Wake up! Please…wake up!"
But Nom-Nom didn't move.
Not even the slightest flicker behind her closed eyelids.
Just the sound of her breath, deep, rumbling, and far too slow for his comfort.
Nico's heartbeat hammered harder, louder, climbing into his ears until -
-Ding!
{Use the Grade 2 Healing Potion in your inventory. Pour it over her wing.}
"Oh! Right! I got three of those as start-up rewards!" he blurted.
A shimmer of blue light twisted around his palm, and an ornate vial materialized, etched with crimson sigils.
Even through the glass, the liquid radiated heat of rich mana so dense it almost buzzed.
Nico didn't waste another second as he zipped toward the massive shoulder, right up to the bleeding stump where her upper right wing had once been.
The wound was… massive.
Still pulsing faintly with heat as red blood flowed out in rivers.
Nico's hands trembling, he tore the cork loose.
"Please work - please work - please work-" Nico muttered, pouring the liquid over the stump.
As the potion hit the exposed flesh, it burst into a rush of red glimmer before sinking into the ruined flesh like water into parched soil.
Nico watched, shoulders finally slumping as the torn flesh knitted together before closing in real time, sealing into a smooth patch of scales.
"The wing didn't grow back…" he breathed. "…Should I pour another?"
-Ding!
{You would be wasting your potions. Grade 2 is the third-highest tier of healing elixirs.
Even it cannot regenerate a Greater Dragon's wing.
Her own physiology is working against the attempt.}
Nico's face fell.
"So… the wing's gone? For good?"
Ding!
{It will take a few centuries, but it will grow back. So yes, the wing is lost for now, but not forever.}
Nico let out a breath he didn't know he had trapped in his lungs.
"Centuries…" he whispered, voice small against the vast, unmoving titan beside him.
He rested a hand on the newly sealed patch of skin, which felt warm and still pulsated faintly beneath his palm.
"Hang in there, big girl," he murmured, "I'll figure something out… You'll be flying at Mach speeds in no time."
Nico's fingers hovered over the system panel, ready to yank open the Shop and start hunting for anything that could restore a dragon's wing…
When the sound of rolling stones snapped his head towards its source.
From the far edge of the devastation, the silhouette of a man dragged itself out of the crater Nom-Nom had carved into the island.
And Nico felt something switch off inside him.
"Time to end this," he breathed, the warmth draining from his voice until only ice remained.
Mana surged to his palm, compressing into a Fragmentation Ice Pebble before he flicked his wrist and -
- CRACK—BOOOM-!
The pebble slammed into the figure's chest before exploding and sending him flying back like a rag doll.
He disappeared down the slope, his body tumbling through broken stone, charred roots, and molten earth, each impact punching a grunt out of the man until he finally skidded to a stop at the crater's bottom.
Luke coughed up blood, wincing from the pain shooting up his spine through his half-burnt body and face.
Hair on his head was burnt in patches, and his pristine black coat was nothing more than a rag.
His vision doubled… then trebled… then steadied only because his will refused to let it fade.
If he weren't Tier 6…
If he hadn't triggered that single-use high-grade defensive talisman at the last second…
He'd be a smear on the rock.
"This is… bad…" he wheezed, "Can't… contact Naf… either…" Luke wheezed as he reached out a trembling hand for the Boomstick lying beside him.
And as his fingers brushed the handle, a shadow fell over him.
Luke froze.
His eyes tracked upward, and hovering before him was a man, cloak whipping in the heated wind, hair dusted with ash and dust, his entire silhouette was framed by the aftermath of dragon fire.
His eyes, shimmering blue with mana, glowed down at Luke as he floated in silence.
But even with half his body burnt, even with every breath scraping his lungs, Luke still raised the shotgun with one shaking hand.
And with that one blood-slick grin.
One last, stupid, beautiful refusal to give up.
"You- " he rasped, tightening his grip -
-CRACK—BOOM-!
Nico's AP Ice Pebble slammed into his chest like a sledgehammer, blasting the air out of Luke's lungs in a strangled wheeze.
The shotgun slipped from his fingers for a heartbeat, but the bastard actually gripped and lifted it again.
"Nope," Nico muttered, voice hollow as a Snowball Pebble spun into existence in front of him.
-BOOSH-!!
Ice crashed across Luke's torso like a frozen tidal wave, coating him from chest to waist in a thick layer of frost before -
-BOOSH-!
-BOOSH-!
-BOOSH-!
.
.
.
Each blast caked another sheet of frost across him, kicking up clouds of frozen mist, dust, and shards.
And by the time Nico stopped, Luke's body was a frozen shell of hardened frost.
Only his face remained uncovered, with just enough room to breathe.
Nico hovered there a moment, exhaling hard, staring at the frozen man beneath him, and the shotgun hand still extended even through the ice.
He dragged a palm down his own face as he whispered, "I was… this close,"
A shiver crept up his spine as thoughts of what he really wanted to do traced back in his mind.
"Not a line I wanna cross," he muttered, turning away. "…Not yet."
And just as he did –
-Ding!
{Host, grab that shotgun.}
"Sure… might as well." Nico let his head fall back with a sigh before descending beside Luke's immobilized arm.
The shotgun remained locked in a death-grip, fingers white and rigid, forcing Nico to pry them open one by one, joint by joint, until the weapon slid free.
And Nico felt the weight in his hands as he held it up.
It wasn't the sleek and shiny futuristic divine cannon Luke made it out to be.
This thing was old.
The varnish on the stock was worn down. The steel receiver was the colour of faded, dull grey, full of scratches and weathering.
On the black metal of the gun, he could still see the faded 'Browning' etched onto it.
"And it's semi-auto…" Nico blurted as he examined the first gun his hands ever held in pure wonder.
And that's when the thought clicked [There have been people isekaied here before… back from Earth.]
That was the only logical conclusion.
As he looked deeper than just metal and wood, he felt it.
The presence of runes hidden beneath that somehow didn't feel like just magic, despite having never felt or seen runes before.
He barely had time to absorb the weight of it before the System chimed again.
Ding!
{Take the bracelet in his other hand. It's part of the set.}
"Yeah, sure," Nico muttered. "What's another relic at this point?"
He moved to Luke's other arm before removing the silver bracelet wrapped around his arm.
It looked ordinary at first glance, a silver chain with a thumb-sized ruby attached to it. But on that second glance, he felt the same strange runes.
"Let's get back to Nom…" he sighed before turning away as he sent both of them to his inventory.
Or at least he tried to.
"What the…" Nico blurted as he once again traced the thought, and once again failed.
"System…?"
But only silence replied to him, except the tricking embers and the flicker of fires still burning.
"Dude? My guy? Homie? Sys? System?... Man, you there?!?
But still not a peep came out.
Cold sweat instantly drenched Nico's shirt as he tried to pop open his status in a panicked frenzy.
And the next beat –
[Protocol: Chronos]
Name: Nico
Race: Human
Circuits: 9
Affinity: Infinity, Time, Ice
Level: 9
EXP: 1,125 / 38,437
Status: Normal
Stat Points: 0
Stats:
STR: 1
AGI: 1
END: 1
DEX: 1
MP: 55 / 55
MP Regen: ∞
LCK: ERROR
Magic:
Ice Pebble (Common) [2 MP] (Optimal at 2 Circuits)
Skills:
Precognition (Legendary) [2 MP/sec] (Optimal at 2 Circuits)
Gear:
Cloak of Flight (Epic)
Credits: 130
Tabs: [Shop] [Inventory] [Map] [Crafting] [Familiars]
"Ohkay!" he breathed hard, letting out the breath stuck in his lungs.
And just as he was about to once again call out -
-Crack!
The sound of ice cracking snapped his head back to the man he tore the shotgun off of.
In sheer astonishment, Nico watched Luke's body tremble before gasping out of the frost in a burst of ice shards.
"Hupf!" Luke exhaled before –
"That… is not how you freeze someone!" Luke exclaimed mid gasp, "You need to leave enough space around the chest for it expand!"
"I was this close to dying!" Luke continued, as he stood up on his feet despite the blood, burns, and frost covering his body.
"Dude…" Nico said, absolutely speechless, staring dumbfounded as he watched Luke once again stand up on his feet.
"Now then," Luke said, brushing frost off his burnt sleeves, "Give that back."
"How about no…"
"Look, kid, Pantheon will pour everything it's got to get it back… It won't matter where you run off to… where you hide, or how powerful you become. You will always find Pantheon more powerful. You will always find Pantheon… everywhere." He said, each word straining the breath he drew from broken ribs.
"Umm… still no," Nico said, lifting up the gun and pointing it at Luke.
Luke snorted at his awkward attempt.
"You think it's just another crossbow, boy?" Luke grinned, taking a limping step forward, "Think you can just pull the trigger and do me how I did you, little pet?"
"That's the plan…" Nico replied, eyes narrowing as he finger curled around the trigger.
-Pfft! HAhahaha!
Even through broken ribs and burnt chest, Luke laughed aloud, stepping closer as he said, "That kid is the Divine Armament of the Goddess of Heroes! Our great founder was granted this weapon … For he was the strongest Hero to eve- "
"Get to the point, dude." Nico cut him off, his face deadpan as he watched Luke's morph as though he just swallowed a fly.
Luke took a deep breath along with another step, before his eyes widened into pure fury as he flashed a bloodthirsty grin.
"Point is… dude, you can't use it. It takes Divine Permission from the Goddess of Heroes, Lady Sera herself, to use it!"
"Huuh…" Nico said, trying to squeeze the trigger but being unable to do so, " Be that as it may… but the big girl back there is healed, and can wake up any moment now."
"I'll take my chances!" Luke spat as his grin widened, flashing every intent to kill.
And the very next moment –
-Ding!
{Authorization to use Divine Armament: The Boombstick, acquired.
Message from Lady Sera to Host: "Don't make me regret it."
Suggestion: Use it on him. So long as Host doesn't pour mana into it, it is just another 12 gauge and not nearly enough to kill a Tier 6 Practitioner.}
The grin that formed on Nico's face was even wilder than Luke's.
And before Luke's mind could even begin to assess the threat behind it –
-Boom-!
And Luke went flying back onto the ground… for a very good while this time.