Nico popped his head out through the jagged hole he'd blasted into the deck earlier and peered out into the night.
"…That was one loud explosion I just heard," he muttered.
And what answered him was fire.
The command center on Luke's ship was half gone, its upper structure collapsed inward and still burning, lighting the deck in violent orange.
And standing on what was left of the roof, very much still alive and very much not okay with the situation, was Auralis.
She was braced awkwardly as the structure beneath her feet groaned and cracked, with chunks of it already dropping away into the inferno below.
Nico didn't hesitate.
Mana slammed into the cloak hard as he shot forward in a blur, skidding to a hover just in front of her as another section of the roof collapsed behind her with a roar.
"Quick pick," he said, holding out an arm, "... piggyback or princess carry?"
For a moment, Auralis just stared at him in pure, unfiltered shock, like her mind had short-circuited somewhere between imminent death and this idiot.
Then the deck lurched.
The metal beneath her boots buckled with a shriek as the last stable section gave way, and instinct kicked in before pride ever had the chance.
She lunged, arms locking around his neck, legs wrapped around his waist, and suddenly, Nico had an Auralis full-body clinging to him as the roof collapsed completely beneath them.
"Yeah… okay, sure…" he blurted, face burning as he tried very hard not to think about the fact that she was warm, and soft, and very much pressed against him. "Whatever you're most comfortable with!"
"Just take me down!" Auralis snapped, mortified as her grip tightened even more.
Nico did just that, dropping fast and touching down on the deck a short distance away as the fire raged behind them.
And the moment his boots hit the deck, she loosened her hold and stepped back, smoothing herself out with stiff movements.
"So…" he said, scratching the back of his neck, "Nice perfume you got."
"I don't use perfume," Auralis replied flatly, eyes fixed anywhere but him.
He blinked. "So that was sweat? How does that even work, I mean -"
"Just shut up," she snapped, cheeks faintly flushed despite herself, before squaring her shoulders and looking at him properly. "Why did you save me?"
Nico's grin crept back despite the lingering blush.
"To give the tactical answer," he said, folding his hands on his chest, "I want you to evacuate everyone on this ship. Lifeboats, emergency gates… mana bubbles? Whatever you've got. I want this thing empty."
Auralis too folded her arms slowly in response. "And why would I help you?"
"Because if you don't," Nico said easily, jerking his head toward the neighboring ship where fire and frost were still tearing the night apart, "... I'll have to ask one of them to do it instead."
Her expression tightened.
"X-97 seems pretty familiar with the ship," he added casually. "So I figured I'd start there."
The color drained from Auralis's face.
"…Two Chimeras," she said quietly, exhaling through her nose. "And now the ship. Whoever you are, Pantheon will have your head for this. It's not a matter of if, but when. You-"
"Yeah, yeah," Nico waved her off, already glancing back toward the sky. "I'll give you thirty seconds before I make it her problem. So maybe move."
She stared at him for another heartbeat, then let out a defeated sigh and turned, jogging toward the stairs leading back down at the base of the still-burning command center.
Nico watched her go, and just as he was about to let out a sigh, Precognition screamed in his head.
And a lance of ice erupted straight through his future.
He snapped his head up just in time to see the remaining cannons on Thane's ship finishing their rotation, runes flaring as they locked onto him once more.
"Oh, come on!" Nico groaned, already blasting back into the sky as the first volley tore toward where he'd been standing.
While on the deck of the Southern Vigil, Nom-Nom rushed at Thane.
There was no hesitation this time, just a reckless burst of motion as she launched herself straight at Thane with her three wings flaring wide behind her, and a grin stretched across her bloodied but now healed face.
Deagons, after all, heal incredibly fast.
Thane reacted purely on instinct as he threw himself sideways in a desperate attempt to get clear.
But his feet never moved.
Stone surged up around his boots in a heartbeat, locking him in place up to the ankles, and the moment he felt it, he snarled and thrusted a hand forward, erupting out a lance of ice he shot toward Nom-Nom's chest.
But it never reached her.
A gust of wind slammed into it from the side, knocking the lance off course just enough that it shoved itself uselessly against the deck.
X-97 stood a short distance away, posture relaxed as she conjured her magic with cold, focused eyes
Thane swore under his breath.
And in a last, frantic move, he threw up a wall of ice in front of himself, pouring every ounce of mana he could spare into the barrier.
And then-
- BOOM-!
Nom-Nom's punch tore straight through it.
The ice wall didn't just crack or splinter; it exploded with shards flying everywhere as her fist punched through it and kept going before slamming into Thane's chest with a sound like a cannon fire.
All the air left his lungs at once.
Thane's eyes bulged as his body folded around the impact before being flung backward like a broken doll and crashing hard into one of the remaining cannon platforms.
The structure buckled, runes flickering wildly before going dark as the cannon destabilized and died mid-charge.
Up in the sky, one more source of spellfire aimed at Nico went silent.
Thane slid down into the rubble inside the hole on the platform, coughing blood onto his own chest, vision swimming as pain flared through his torso.
"…Two ribs," he rasped, trying and failing to push himself up. "At least…"
Meanwhile, Nom-Nom threw both arms into the air.
"I hit him!" she cheered, wings fluttering happily. "Yay!"
But the moment didn't last.
[Nom! Destroy the other cannons!] Nico's voice snapped through the familiar bond.
[I can dodge them, but I can't break them. Barrier's still up, and I'm out of shells!]
Nom-Nom nodded immediately, seriousness replacing excitement as she turned toward X-97.
"Master said to destroy all cannons," she reported dutifully.
X-97 glanced toward the command center, eyes narrowing slightly. "There's a woman inside. Fetch her, and every remaining system will go dead."
Nom-Nom brightened. "Thanks!"
She didn't wait for anything else. With a single beat of her wings, she smashed straight through the command center's wall, blasting a hole clean through reinforced plating as she vanished inside.
Silence fell over the deck for half a second.
And then the rubble shifted.
Thane staggered upright, swaying slightly with an empty vial of potion in his hand, and his wounds knitting and mana flooding back into his system.
Wiping blood from his mouth, his eyes flicking to the gaping hole Nom-Nom had just made, then back to X-97, who was watching him like he was something irritating that refused to die.
And a nervous grin tugged at his lips.
"…This is bad."
And the next second -
-BOOM-!
Violet fire erupted from inside the command center, rolling outward in a violent wave as every remaining cannon on the ship powered down at once.
And from within the flames, Nom-Nom burst out again, three wings flared wide as she landed heavily on the deck.
In a princess-carry, she carried a vivibly terrified woman with green hair and green eyes, clutching at Nom-Nom's shoulder as she was 'carried' out of the command center she had ruled.
The moment Thane saw Nymira in Nom-Nom's hand, his heart jumped into his throat.
"Let her go," he said instantly, arms lifting without thinking.
Nom-Nom blinked, then smiled.
"Okay~" before loosening her grip immediately.
X-97's head snapped toward her. "Are you insane—"
But it was already too late.
The instant Nymira's boots hit the deck, she bolted, sprinting and stumbling straight for Thane.
X-97 reacted on instinct, mana flaring as she raised a hand to trap her-
And then the night lit up blue.
A brilliant shimmer erupted from the ship beside them, snapping every eye on the deck toward it.
Before anyone could make any sense of it, the light faded, and Luke's ship was gone.
Where it had been, now only a man in a blue cloak floated in the air, holding a dumbstruck Auralis in a princess carry, while below him an emergency life pod in the shape of a black cube bobbed half-submerged in the water.
For a heartbeat, no one moved as they watched in dumb stun as Nico turned in the air, and drifted toward them.
By the time they registered the impossibility, Nico touched down between them with far less force than any of them expected, with his clock flutering behind him and the hood covering half of his face.
He straightened before gently setting Auralis down on her feet.
Auralis just stood there for half a beat, staring at him with wide eyes before finally bolting a word and nearly colliding with Nymira as she threw herself toward her and Thane.
Pulling the hood up did a decent job of hiding his face, and judging by how stiff Thane's posture became, the intended effect landed.
Thane studied him carefully, eyes flicking once to Nom-Nom and then back to Nico.
"…Are you a Chimera too?" he asked.
Nico tilted his head, just a little, then smiled.
"Yeah," he said easily. "Is it that obvious?"
Thane sucked in a sharp breath.
Given everything he'd just witnessed, the way Nico moved, the way the ship had vanished… the lie slid into place disturbingly well.
[He is probably a D-type Chimera. Would explain why our scanners registered him as a human...] Thane thought.
Nico didn't give him time to think further.
"Here's what's going to happen," he said flatly. "Green-head over there is going downstairs and releasing that cube full of your crew... I want this ship empty in thirty seconds."
He lifted a finger slightly.
"And don't bother trying to stall. I already know your reinforcements are on the way."
Thane's eyes narrowed. "And if we don't?"
Nico shrugged.
"Then I'll ask Nom-Nom to do it instead," he said, glancing over his shoulder at the three-winged Chimera, who was watching with interest. "And she might not be as gentle as you'd prefer."
"Either way, I'm taking the ship. Now…"
"One."
"Two."
"Three."
Thane glanced at Nymira.
For a split second, both of them looked like they might actually laugh.
Then Thane nodded once.
Nymira turned and ran, feet pounding down the stairwell toward the command center without another word.
Pantheon warships were the most advanced vessels in the world.
And each ship was equipped with trackers that allowed Pantheon to track their locations in real time.
So, wherever Nico went, Pantheon would follow.
Besides, Thane knew he wasn't winning this one.
Though he didn't know how Nico planned to store two warships, of course, but Thane had heard rumours of a prototype spell still in development that allowed objects to be shrunken and enlarged again later.
[Perhaps he was contained inside one of those facilities… and managed to steal the spell before he escaped… or maybe something else entirely.] Thane thought.
Whatever trick this was, Pantheon would learn it.
Besides, this battle was already lost. Thane knew he couldn't stall three Chimeras.
And there were still four minutes until backup arrived.
Too bad Thane didn't know about the inventory grid.
By the time his thoughts finished aligning, Nico's count was nearly done.
"Twenty-five," Nico said.
"Twenty-six."
"Twenty-seven."
And then—
-SPLASH-!
A massive black cube slid free from the side of the ship and dropped into the water below, displacing it violently enough that the wave's surge sprayed water all the way up to the deck.
A second later, Nymira emerged from the stairwell again, breathless but composed.
"Now, would you be so kind as to get on that cube?" he asked pleasantly. "I'd love to take you along… but I'm guessing we're not exactly your kind of crowd."
Thane drew a single breath as he scooped both Souls up and jumped, landing hard atop the cube as it lurched beneath their weight, before they slowly began drifting away from the ship.
Nymira looked back only once as the distance grew.
"It's never the power that ruins a man…" she said quietly. "It's greed."
Up on the deck, Nico turned.
"Nom," he said, "... Piggyback. Like I taught you."
Nom-Nom squealed before leaping onto his back with zero restraint, nearly driving his face into the deck as she wrapped her arms around him, giggling wildly.
"Nom!" Nico yelped, flaring the cloak just in time to keep his nose intact.
X-97 shot up instantly, hovering high up, wings beating slowly as she watched Nico and Nom-Nom disappear into a burst of blue shimmers, revealing the next second only the moonlit ocean where the ship was supposed to be, while waves crashed into the space the ship had occupied.
X-97's mind hadn't stopped spinning at full throttle since the moment she was set free.
From what she pieced together, this man and that strange, cheerful Chimera had defeated the special forces unit that captured her in a very one-sided battle, dismantled two Pantheon warships in open combat, freed her, and captured two Pantheon Warships.
All without killing anyone.
Which at the very least meant they had been holding back.
The question that made her skin prickle was -
How much?
She couldn't tell if she got lucky.
Or if tonight marked the beginning of a countdown.