D-Animal
Elara let the air out slowly, as if the simple act of breathing were already a calculated effort.
— "I doubt I'll be able to rest…" — she murmured, shrugging lightly, her voice low, almost resigned.
Rafael felt like laughing.
He didn't.
But the corner of his mouth lifted slightly, betraying the thought. He had known her for little more than a day — and even so, that much was already obvious. People like Elara Pack didn't get rest. They only received intervals.
He crossed his arms, shifting his weight onto one leg, his naturally surly expression softened by a trace of irony.
— "With our luck?" — he commented. — "If this lasts more than five minutes, I'll start getting suspicious."
Lucas, still seated near the cot, let out a short sigh, rubbing his face with both hands.
— "You two really don't know how to stay quiet without attracting disaster, do you?" — he grumbled.
Elara opened her mouth to reply.
She didn't need to.
The world tore.
Not literally — but in her mind.
Her vision split abruptly, as if someone had drawn an invisible blade straight through the center of her perception. The inside of the tent was still there: pale canvas, antiseptic smell, human sweat, heated metal. But layered over it came the sky.
Gray.
Heavy.
Cut by columns of dust rising kilometers away.
Visio.
At the same time, Rafael flinched.
Cain forced the shared vision open with brutality, without any smoothing at all. The impact was blunt, direct, almost violent. Rafael shut his eyes on reflex and cursed under his breath.
— "Shit…"
The humor evaporated instantly.
Lucas noticed the change before he even understood why. He brought a hand to his forehead and let out a nervous laugh, completely devoid of humor.
— "Here comes more trouble…"
General Argus, still inside the tent with the doctor, raised an eyebrow, alert. He wasn't a man to ignore subtle behavioral shifts in veterans — even young ones.
— "What is it?" — he asked, voice firm.
Elara inhaled deeply.
The air felt heavier now. The smell outside had changed: fresh dust, distant ozone, something burned carried by the wind.
— "The Ferus elephants…" — she began, running a hand over her forehead. — "The same ones from before. They're still coming."
Argus frowned.
— "How many?"
Elara blinked, sharpening the shared image.
— "Three. Disaster Class." She swallowed. — "Two cannons mounted on the sides of their backs. One missile launcher on top. By the pattern… anti-air missiles."
The silence that followed was dense.
The doctor froze mid-motion, hand suspended over the clipboard.
Argus's eyes widened for a fraction of a second — just enough to show that the information was anything but trivial.
— "And how exactly do you know that?" — he asked, far too slowly.
Elara sighed again.
— "Because I'm seeing it."
She lifted her wrist slightly.
— "Visio."
The metallic owl responded before any verbal command. A deep screech echoed through the tent, followed by the controlled beat of wings. Visio dove from the sky, slipping through the canvas opening with surgical precision and landed near the cot.
Almost at the same time, Cain did the same.
The black falcon descended in an aggressive arc, claws scraping the ground before settling. His eyes glowed with contained intensity, sensors active, wings still partially spread.
The presence of the two D-Animals changed the air inside the tent.
Soldiers outside stirred.
— "Visual contact confirmed…" — "Two active D-Animals inside the infirmary—"
Argus raised a hand.
— "Quiet."
Elara pointed to Visio.
— "Surveillance Class." Then she indicated Fenrir, still posted at the entrance like a living statue. — "Concealment Class."
Fenrir didn't move, but his internal gears adjusted, emitting an almost inaudible purr.
Elara did not mention Lupus.
The white wolf remained sealed within the D-Armilla, invisible to the world.
Rafael stepped forward.
— "Cain," — he said, lightly touching the falcon's metallic neck. — "Surveillance Class."
Argus nodded slowly, absorbing the information.
— "And the Ligre?" — he asked, blunt.
Rafael didn't answer immediately.
He looked at Elara for a second. Then at Lucas. Then he took a deep breath.
— "With permission," — he said. — "I'll call Kaiser."
Argus hesitated.
The laws were clear. So were the risks.
But the ground trembled faintly beneath their feet — a distant, almost imperceptible vibration, but real.
Argus closed his eyes for a moment.
— "Authorized," — he said. — "I'll take responsibility for the report."
Rafael didn't waste time.
Before Argus could even raise his communicator to warn the soldiers, the air vibrated.
A deep, resonant sound rolled in from outside — metallic breathing.
Smoke poured from Kaiser's nostrils.
The containment field failed silently — not by brute force, but by precise calculation. The Ligre took one step forward… then another… and then ran.
The ground truly shook this time.
Kaiser crossed the outer area and stopped beside Fenrir, the two mechanical giants side by side, smoke venting from their cooling systems, metal plates still hot to the touch.
The soldiers froze.
Not by order.
By instinct.
Elara felt the pain in her back pulse harder — not from movement, but from anticipation.
— "They're less than four kilometers away," — she said, voice steady despite the fatigue. — "And they're not diverting."
Argus clenched his fist.
— "So this isn't reconnaissance."
— "No," — Rafael confirmed. — "It's a direct attack."
Visio spread his wings, projecting a simplified three-dimensional map into the air. Three massive signatures advanced slowly, each step devastating the terrain.
The smell of dust and burned fuel flooded the tent.
Lucas swallowed.
— "So…" — he murmured. — "The rest is over."
Elara closed her eyes for a second.
When she opened them, there was no resignation left.
There was decision.
— "It never started," — she replied.
Elara braced a hand against the side of the cot and, ignoring the immediate protest from her body, stepped down.
The movement wasn't graceful.
It was real.
Her foot hit the improvised tent floor, her knee buckled slightly, and she stumbled forward, teeth clenching as the pain in her back flared again like heated blades pressed against her skin.
— "Hey—" — the doctor moved on reflex, hand outstretched. — "You can't—"
— "Stand down," — Argus's voice cut through the air like a sharpened command.
The general stepped forward, eyes scanning Elara from head to toe with a rare mix of surprise and disbelief. He muttered a low curse, almost a dry laugh slipping through.
— "This girl is everything…" — he said. — "Except ordinary."
The doctor shut his mouth, still stunned, watching Elara straighten on her own, breathing deeply until her body obeyed again.
Rafael didn't move to help her.
Not because he didn't want to — but because he knew.
He merely shrugged, as if it confirmed something he'd suspected from the start. Without a word, he turned to Lucas and pulled him firmly up onto Kaiser.
— "Come on," — he said, curt. — "Now."
Lucas obeyed without question. He climbed onto the Ligre carefully, gripping the heated metal structure, eyes still wide, alert, but without the panic from before. He trusted Rafael now — not because of words, but because of shared survival.
Elara was already moving.
Fenrir lowered himself automatically as she approached, the black wolf adjusting his posture to ease mounting. Elara planted her foot, climbed with a quick motion — drawing a restrained grunt — and settled onto the metallic back.
Before anything else, she raised her wrist.
— "Visio," — she said softly. — "Deactivate."
The metallic owl gave one last gentle screech before dissolving into blue lines of light, being recalled into the D-Armilla. The air seemed quieter without constant skyward vigilance.
Rafael did the same.
— "Cain."
The black falcon folded his wings and vanished in a pulse of dark energy, returning to the bond.
Argus watched everything with absolute focus.
— "Where are you going?" — he asked, direct, without pretense.
Elara didn't hesitate.
— "Run."
The word landed simple and raw, without heroism.
The doctor's eyes widened.
— "Run?" — he repeated, incredulous. — "You don't trust the soldiers to protect you?"
Rafael reacted first.
He narrowed his eyes, jaw locking, and replied in a dry tone, almost too rude for the setting.
— "No." A short pause. — "Not even a little."
Elara nodded in agreement and leaned slightly forward over Fenrir, gaze firm as she looked back at Argus and the doctor.
— "Of course," — she said. — "You're important. You have to protect the city. I respect that."
She took a deep breath, the smells of dust, oil, and antiseptic mixing in the warm morning air.
— "But those soldiers are still just human." Her bicolored eyes narrowed. — "If they were enough… there wouldn't be so many corpses in the streets. Or Uthos from their own D-Animals scattered, torn apart in battle."
The silence spread, heavy.
— "And well," — she concluded, gesturing lightly toward the unseen horizon beyond the tent. — "Those are three Ferus elephants. Disaster Class." One corner of her mouth lifted, humorless. — "I'm not sticking around to find out."
Rafael clicked his tongue in agreement.
From the start, he had assumed Elara trusted too easily. That she was too kind. That saving strangers meant naivety.
Now, watching her there, mounted on Fenrir, choosing to run when everyone expected heroic resistance…
He realized his mistake.
He looked at her with renewed attention — doubt mixed with respect.
Elara felt the look.
She turned her face toward him and answered before he could ask.
— "It's not," — she said simply. — "Because I cared for and protected someone that I'll trust that person easily."
Rafael raised an eyebrow slightly.
— "Got it?" — she continued. — "I'm kind. I like helping." A brief pause. — "But I'm not stupid enough to trust easily."
Rafael exhaled shortly through his nose.
— "Fair."
Elara then turned back to Argus, her tone softening just a bit.
— "Take good care of Catherine," — she said. — "I'm not abandoning her."
Argus nodded.
— "She'll be safer here."
— "Exactly," — Elara confirmed. — "We'll be running nonstop. And with her legs… the risk would be greater."
She raised her hand in a brief gesture.
— "Have a great day." Then, with subtle irony: — "And good luck."
Fenrir turned at her command.
Kaiser did the same right behind him, metal plates grinding as he repositioned. Kaine's spiders adjusted automatically over the Ligre, clinging with almost organic precision.
Without further words, the group departed.
Fenrir burst into a run, fast and silent. Kaiser followed close behind, heavy, devastating, carrying Rafael and Lucas. The ground trembled faintly as they left the army's small improvised camp behind.
Argus remained still, watching until they vanished among destroyed buildings and debris-filled streets.
The doctor broke the silence softly:
— "Will they survive?"
Argus took his time answering.
— "If anyone can…" — he murmured. — "It's them."
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Curiosity — Classified Technical Record:
> Ferus D-Animals do not arise only from direct abandonment.
They can spontaneously form in nature from residual particles called Nexus Vibrans.
> These particles are released into the air every time a Depletio Affinitatis occurs, dissolving from the Nexus of a D-Animal that has lost its human bond.
> In regions with high concentrations of Nexus Vibrans, the environment becomes fertile for the birth of Ferus D-Animals — creatures without bond, without master, and without containment, shaped solely by the emotional and energetic residue left by previous Nexus ruptures.
> The more violent human-bond deaths…
the more nature learns to create monsters on its own.