BAM!
SLASH!
Fwing!
Rei and Aliza fought together. More monsters kept coming, drawn by the blood.
Aliza panted hard "hahhh... hahhh..." She was strong, but this was her first long fight. Usually she won fast. Now she was learning her limits.
"Watch out!"
Purple energy shot past her. It killed a monster about to bite her.
"Thanks!" She kicked another one away.
They stood back-to-back. Rei guarded her while she guarded him.
"Tired?" Rei asked. He sounded calm.
"Yeah..." Aliza breathed hard. "Never fought this long before." Her arms felt heavy. Her legs shook. "Everything's so heavy now..."
She realized something from this fight. She always trained for quick fights. Not long battles like this, Her body was failing her.
Slash!
Rei's blade cleaved another attacking monster clean in half.
"Good job, Aliza," he said, watching her steady herself. "You discovered your weakness mid-battle. Now let's end this."
His grip on the Blade of Olympus tightened. Dark energy surged through the weapon as he channeled more power into it.
The sword became enveloped in a violent purple aura. Crackling lightning danced along its length, hissing through the air.
"Hold tight!"
Rei pulled Aliza against him and leaped backward, positioning all remaining monsters before them in one sweeping view.
With one devastating horizontal swing, a massive wave of purple energy erupted from the blade. It tore across the battlefield at terrifying speed.
Where the energy touched, monsters vaporized instantly. Not even their violet blood remained - everything evaporated in that single, cataclysmic strike.
The Blade of Olympus had annihilated them all in one motion.
After the battle, Rei glanced down at Aliza still held in his arms.
Her face shone with sweat, strands of grey hair sticking to her forehead. Her training clothes clung damply to her body, outlining her figure clearly in the afternoon light.
'Good thing Narmaya got me used to being around Draph body' he thought, keeping his gaze carefully neutral.
"How about we take a break?"
"Ah... yeah," Aliza sighed, her chest still rising and falling rapidly. "I could really use some rest right now."
Rei surveyed their surroundings. The rocky ground was littered with monster corpses, the air thick with the metallic scent of blood. Not exactly an ideal place to relax.
"Let's head up to that mountain," he suggested. "Should be safer up there - fewer monsters at this altitude."
Adjusting his grip, he lifted them both into the air, Aliza's exhausted form secure against his chest as they ascended toward the distant peak.
A few moments later, Rei arrived at the mountain peak. He looked around but couldn't find a good place to rest—there were only big rocks and patches of grass.
At least the view was beautiful, but that wasn't why they came here.
In the end, Rei decided to use Yggdrasil's power to make a proper place for them to rest. He grew a tall, wide tree to give them shade and changed the rough ground into soft grass.
"It's kind of weird seeing you use a Primal Beast's power for something so simple…" Aliza muttered as she watched him.
"You get used to it," Rei said, gently setting her down on the soft grass under the tree.
"How is it? Comfortable?"
Aliza sat up, looked around, and touched the grass to check it. "Yeah, this is pretty nice," she said, then leaned back against the tree.
Rei sat down beside her and looked out at the peaceful scenery in front of them.
"Are we really just gonna lie around here? How are we gonna get back to the Grandcypher?" Aliza asked.
"Don't worry. With my speed, we can catch up easily. And I can feel where Lyria is, no matter how far we are."
"If you say so… Then let me rest for a bit. I'm really tired from all that fighting."
Aliza slowly closed her eyes as the wind gently blew around them, making her gray hair sway softly.
Seeing Aliza asleep like that, Rei turned to face forward, where he could see the whole island from the top of the mountain.
Thanks to Tiamat's protection, the wind wasn't cold at all. It just felt cool and really comfortable.
He could hear Aliza's soft breathing beside him, showing that she was already fast asleep.
That peaceful sound slowly made Rei feel sleepy too. His eyes began to close, and before long, both of them were quietly sleeping next to each other under the tree.
---
It didn't take long for Aliza to wake up. She was just tired from all the fighting, so it was more of a short nap—around half an hour—before her eyes slowly opened.
"Nmm…" she rubbed her eyes and blinked, trying to get a look at her surroundings.
When she realized the scenery around her was unfamiliar, she quickly sat up and looked around, confused for a moment.
"Oh right, we're on another island…" she mumbled after a few seconds, finally remembering where she was and letting herself relax again.
She rolled her shoulders and stretched her back a little, hearing a satisfying *crack*.
"Ummm~ that feels good."
Then she turned to her side. "Wow…" she whispered, amazed at what she saw.
Rei was sleeping peacefully, leaning against the tree. This was the first time she had ever seen him sleeping in person since they met.
His silver hair caught the sunlight, and his smooth white skin gave him the look of a character from a storybook.
Aliza stared at him, a little stunned. Without even realizing it, she slowly leaned in closer to get a better look.
"When I look at him closer like this… he's actually really handsome," she murmured to herself. "His looks are so unique… I've never seen anyone like him before."
Carefully, she reached out and touched his silver hair. It felt soft and smooth in her hand.
"His wings, his weapons, even his powers… just who is he really?" she kept murmuring as she stared at him.
Surprisingly, Rei didn't wake up at all, even as she touched his hair. It was probably because he hadn't had much sleep since boarding the Grandcypher—he'd been too focused on his experiments.
Aliza kept playing with Rei's hair, enjoying how soft and silky it felt. She smiled a little, her fingers brushing through it like she was petting something rare and special.
Without noticing it, her hand slowly moved lower until it stopped right in front of his face.
Poke.
Her finger gently touched his cheek.
"Whoa… it's so soft. And kind of cold too… Is he cold?" she murmured, frowning a little as she kept poking his face.
Since they were on top of a mountain, with the wind softly blowing around them, Aliza didn't realize that Rei had already used Tiamat's power to keep them warm. So in her mind, Rei must be cold from the wind.
"Hmm, then…" she whispered.
Carefully and slowly, Aliza leaned closer toward him.
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"...Mm?"
The moment he woke up, he could feel something soft and thick behind his head. It didn't feel like the tree bark or grass from earlier.
He blinked a few times, trying to look around—but something was blocking his view.
Soft and kinda dense it's like his fingers getting absorbed by that thing that blocking his vision.
It took him a second to realize what it was.
"…Eh?"
He tilted his head slightly and finally saw it—Aliza's face above him, looking down with a faint blush on her cheeks. He was laying on her lap.
Not only that, but her long dress was spread out, covering as much of his body as she could. And what had been blocking his vision just now...
Her big chest.
As expected from a Draph, her chest size was impossible to ignore—especially when it was hanging right above his face.
"Y-You're awake?" Aliza asked quickly, looking away a bit flustered. "I, um… thought you looked cold so I… did what I could…"
She looked really embarrassed, her ears slightly red as she tried to act calm. But Rei just stared up at her, not saying anything for a moment, still a little surprised.
"…Thanks," he said simply, his voice soft. "It's nice."
That made Aliza even more flustered, and she quickly turned her face away again. "D-Don't say it like that, dummy…"
Seeing Aliza blushing and trying to look away made Rei smile. In the game, he rarely saw this side of her.
In the game Aliza was always the tomboy girl doing her best to get closer to Stan. But even though they were already in a relationship, Stan kept running away from her for some reason, always too shy or unsure to face her properly.
After stretching his back, Rei sat up from Aliza's lap.
"Thanks again. That was really comfortable," he said with a grin.
"S-Stop it! You already thanked me!" Aliza snapped, even more embarrassed now. She started pushing him lightly in frustration.
The two of them bickered for a while—Rei kept teasing her, and Aliza kept dodging his compliments, flustered but smiling.
Still, deep down, Aliza felt truly happy. Being with Rei like this—being able to laugh and joke together—was something she hadn't felt in a long time. With Stan, she was always treated like someone special, someone important. But what she really wanted… was someone who saw her as just Aliza. Not as the future Grand Duchess of Valtz, but simply as herself.
"Alright, alright, I'll stop." A few minutes later, Rei finally gave up after teasing Aliza for a while.
"Hmph!" Aliza pretended to be mad, looking away from him with her arms crossed.
Rei just smiled at the sight. He had the urge to poke her cheek again, but in the end, he let her be and allowed her to keep pouting.
Lifting his right hand, Rei summoned the Blade of Olympus once more. As it appeared, he grabbed it and rested it across his thighs, looking down at it quietly.
Sensing something had changed, Aliza turned toward him and saw him checking the sword.
"That sword is really strong. Every monster you hit with its blast just disappears. So the 'god' from your story before… really isn't a joke, huh?" Aliza said, leaning over to peek at it from his side.
"Well, aside from their terrible personalities, yeah—they're strong," Rei replied. After giving the blade one last check, he made it vanish again.
"By the way, what are you going to do after we reach Valtz Duchy?"
"Huh?" Aliza blinked in surprise.
"Well, first of all, I need to find out what my uncle wants from me. He suddenly called me out of nowhere," Aliza said with a sigh, already imagining how busy she'd be. "After that, I'll probably go back to my usual daily life… lessons, meetings, and a bunch of other stuff."
"Oh yeah, you're the future Grand Duchess, right? Replacing Io's teacher?" Rei asked.
"Yeah…" Aliza replied softly, lowering her eyes.
"Hm? What's with that tone? Isn't becoming a Grand Duchess a pretty big deal?"
Aliza stayed quiet for a few moments, like she was trying to decide whether to talk about it or not.
But then, she remembered how everyone on the Grandcypher—since she and Stan came aboard—had welcomed them warmly. Everyone had been kind to her. Every day had been filled with laughter and fun moments with the crew.
"…It's like this…" she finally said, deciding to share her thoughts with Rei.