“Wait.”

A distraught Minerva held out her palm toward me.

I stared at it, expecting something, and she gave me a toothy grin.

“Do you mind if I change before we fight?”

(..what?)

For a moment, I thought I’d misheard her.

But instead, Minerva shrugged.

“I’m sorry, but these clothes are very precious to me. It was the first thing I ever received as a gift.. and it’s made of ordinary fabric, so it tears and breaks easily at the slightest impact.”

As she said this, she grabbed the hem of her dress, which fell to her knees, with her unarmored hand and gently lifted it.

I frowned as the action revealed a small portion of her white thigh.

(And you’ll change out of that right here and now?)

“Well, it won’t be long if you’re patient.”

With that, she moved her wings and wrapped them around herself like a chrysalis, hiding her body from view.

A moment later, her wings parted, and Minerva emerged, dressed in an unusual garment: not a gothic dress, hanbok, cheongsam, or kimono.

If anything, it was a strange mix of all four.

It had dragon embellishments all over it.

Minerva smirked.

“As I recall, you were quite interested in this kind of clothing.”

I said nothing.

I don’t know what she took my silence to mean, but Minerva became quite amused and burst out into a giggle, an innocent laugh.

“Good, good, this is fun. Hopefully, this will make it more memorable for you.”

As she smiled, her teeth glinted like the fangs of a beast.

Then, a light suddenly appeared above us.

We looked at the epicenter of the intense light almost simultaneously.

“An unwelcome visitor has already come to interrupt our secret meeting.”

There was a dragon made of lightning.

‘Could it be Lee Wuwei?’

Minerva muttered in a rare tone of displeasure.

“If I had known this would happen, I should have killed that lightning man first.”

As soon as she muttered that, the original Minerva, the one we were standing on, shot out a bolt of magic.

The lightning dragon scattered momentarily and then assumed its original form with a thunderous crackle.

[Annoying.]

With those words, Minerva, the dragon, spread her wings and began to fly through the air, flying to the lightning dragon.

In the gusts of wind, her black hair fluttered along with the hem of her clothes.

“Leave everything to me. All you have to do is...”

“Just hang out with me.”

I didn’t answer her words.

Instead, I lunged forward and thrust my spear down.

Claw and spear intersected, and a loud crack echoed through the air.

***

“..He’s really up there.”

After closing and opening his eyes for a moment, Myung-Joon muttered.

He could see Ji-Hyuk standing on Minerva’s back because he could share his vision with the dragon.

He could also see the woman locking arms with him.

“What are you going to do?”

“It was already decided what I should do.” historical

Myung-Joon glanced at Joo-Hyuk and continued.

“I don’t think I could even mortally wound the dragon if I hit, and on top of that, Ji-Hyuk’s on it..”

He vividly remembered that Ji-Hyuk had told him in the past that he had a similar skill.

He’d even given him tips on handling it, so there was no way he’d forgotten.

“Joo-hyuk, I need you to take over the command for me.”

At Myung-Joon’s words, Joo-Hyuk nodded with a trembling expression.

He knew that there was no one else who could take over the role of commander right now.

Anastasia, Gamalterra, Reiko, and Evangeline were not in a position to command. They focused on plugging the gaps in the formation that had opened up when one of the Aegis was shot down and dealing with the indiscriminate fire.

Lee Wuwei was severely wounded and out of commission.

Joo-Hyuk’s quick actions had saved her life, but her wounds were deep enough that she would have to lie low for at least half a year.

Richard might be on the front lines, but he had deep wounds, and Ossie, unlike the other Ten, wasn’t even a guild leader.. in short, he was a lone wolf who wasn’t meant to lead.

Laura Hartmann could have been a good candidate, but she closely guarded four people who could barely take care of themselves.

‘The only good thing is...’

A group of unidentified people had shown up to help.

Led by the silver-haired young woman, each was a force to be reckoned with, especially the silver-haired woman who seemed to be their leader.

“What will you do then?”

At Joo-Hyuk’s question, Myung-Joon let out a small gasp.

Then, as usual, he shook his head and muttered.

“I’ll do what I can first.. With Wuwei down, I’m the only one with the means to keep the airborne enemy at bay.”

With those words, Myung-Joon’s fingers moved.

As if in response, the dragon made up of lightning let out a roar, and Minerva let out a cry in return as if she wasn’t going to lose.

“I’ll try something.”

He muttered to himself, almost as if to himself.

* * *

“Come on, it’s okay now.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Yu-Na.”

Holding a wet handkerchief in her hand, Yu-Na gave a slight nod.

Soo-Young, holding a tissue over one of her noses, mumbled nasally and looked at Hyun-Woo.

“At least we’re alive.”

“..Yeah.”

Hyun-Woo looked at what remained of his sword with bitterness in his eyes.

“It was a sword that the ogre’s full-force blow hadn’t even scratched..”

He muttered to himself and looked at Soo-Young.

“I wonder what we should do now.”

“Well...”

Their gazes were fixed on Minerva flying in the sky.

They already knew that Ji-Hyuk was fighting her on the back of that beast.

The question was what to do.

There was nothing.

“..Why can’t you fly with your magic?”

“Didn’t you see my nose bleed when I tried to redirect something? It overloaded my circuits. If I tried, I’d probably pass out with blood pouring out of my body.”

For one thing, being outside the Aegis made it challenging to build delicate magic.

In addition, Minerva was emitting an intense wavelength that disrupted the flow of mana.

From Soo-Young’s perspective, whose specialty is spatial magic that relies on delicate construction and formulas, Minerva was the worst possible opponent for her.

“She’s so high up, my attacks can’t reach her.”

Yu-Na also muttered nervously.

Beside her, Ye-Seul was twiddling her thumbs wordlessly.

“There’s no way.. We have to make up for our mistake somehow, some way...”

Hyun-Woo glanced around and said to Soo-Young.

“Where are the others? I don’t see Ivan, Ye-Eun, and Do-Hoon.”

“..They were going to meet Evangeline Lohengrin.”

Ye-Seul muttered out the answer as she looked up.

When Hyun-Woo looked at her to elaborate, she continued.

“Ivan will use the power of the spirits to find another way. Ye-Eun said she’ll talk with Evangeline to conserve her mana for now. They’ll gather the power of the spirits and try to find a way.”

“Hmm...”

“And Do-hoon.. I don’t know.”

Ye-Seul looked really worried right now.

Hyun-Woo suddenly let out a small chuckle in disbelief.

‘Who’s worried about whom right now...’

Wasn’t he the one who couldn’t do anything?

No, if anything, he was even more pathetic.

At least Do-Hoon had grazed Minerva.

On the other hand, he hadn’t even gotten close to her and lost his weapon.

‘Stupid asshole...’

Hyun-Woo cursed at himself, wallowing in self-loathing.

“..I didn’t think you’d be here, either.”

Choi Hyun-Woo looked up, dumbfounded and surprised.

He wondered if he was hallucinating, but the person in front of him was no hallucination.

“What, Hyun-Ah..?”

Hyun-Woo stuttered and stammered uncharacteristically.

Before him stood a silver-haired woman with a sword at her side.

She looked at him momentarily with complicated eyes, then bowed slightly.

“Greetings, sir.”

“Oh, yes...”

Hyun-Woo greeted her awkwardly and stepped back slightly.

He had decided long ago that he would give up on her, but human hearts don’t always work that easily.

“Hyun-Ah? Ah, then...”

Soo-Young nodded in understanding before speaking.

She figured someone as powerful as her would naturally have connections to the Ten Strongest.

“When I was wandering around, I felt a familiar magic power, but I never thought it was real..”

As she mumbled something wistfully, she inspected Soo-Young and Hyun-Woo.

They didn’t look particularly injured.

She gave a small nod of relief.

If she saw a grave wound, Ji-Hyuk wouldn’t live much longer.

“Hmm?”

Then Hyun-Ah.. no, Nam Hyun-Hwa could feel something uncomfortable.

After hesitating, she turned to Soo-Yound.

“Hey, excuse me, but the necklace you wore before...”

“What? Ah.. the necklace?”

Hyun-Hwa nodded, and Soo-Young blushed as if she was slightly embarrassed.

“..I lent it to my friend some time ago.”

“.....”

Hyun-Hwa was at a loss for words.

In her head, she was deciding that this was probably for the best, but in her heart, she felt an indescribable sense of regret and sadness.

“Is something..?”

“..I’m sorry. I got distracted.”

At Soo-Young’s call, Hyun-Hwa shook her head slightly.

She hadn’t come to these children to think about this now.

“First, I came here to ask you two for help.”

“What?”

“Really?”

Soo-Young and Hyun-Woo looked at each other in confusion. Yu-Na and Ye-Seul also turned their heads to look at them.

“The situation isn’t good nor bad, but it will get dragged out. It would be great if we win after some time, but unfortunately, the chances of us losing are much higher. We need to do something while Ji-Hyuk is keeping her busy.”

Soo-Young nodded. ‘But why does she sound like master?’

“As most of us are swordsmen, including myself, we don’t have much of a legitimate offense against someone flying in the air like that, but...”

She looked at Soo-Young and Hyun-Woo.

“If the two of you can help me, I think I can see a way out, so please, will you help?”

The two of them nodded at her words.

Hyun-Hwa smiled with pride, then looked at Yu-Na and Ye-Seul.

“Would you two like to join us?”

They nodded as if they had been waiting for this.

Hyun-Hwa took a small breath as if she understood.

“Okay, then, for now...”

Looking around, she pointed to the tallest, most intact building.

“Let’s move to the roof of that building, and I’ll explain the plan as we go.”

***

“.....”

As they moved as a group, someone was watching them from afar.

She was none other than Belluna.

Whistling and kicking stones on the ground, she muttered quietly.

“Well, I think I’ve done enough.. and it’s not my place to help...”

Squinting, she looked at one of them.

Then, with a knowing smile, she murmured.

“There are things I need to take care of first and foremost..”