"Hmhmhm. You really can say something human once in a while."
Mira lifted her chin slightly and snapped the fingers of her uninjured left hand.
Seeing the girl brighten up the moment she was given the slightest praise, Shane's eye twitched. He suddenly felt the urge to give her good hand a solid smack too.
"Since we've confirmed that the source of the causal branch was Lisanna's scattered magic, we probably don't need to investigate anywhere else, right?"
Mira knew when to stop. The teasing glint that had been dancing in her eyes a moment ago vanished instantly.
"Yeah. I'm thinking the same thing."
Shane nodded, his gaze passing over the girl's shoulder toward the barren outskirts of the city.
Although his encounter with that black dragon had only lasted a brief moment, that cold, crushing presence around it absolutely could not be underestimated.
Add to that the ruling class of this country Mystogan had mentioned, as well as the mysterious "Exceeds" Carla had spoken of…
Every sign suggested that this magicless world was hiding some very complicated undercurrents.
"We need to find Lisanna quickly and finish this fast. We can't afford to linger here."
Mira normally looked carefree, but her instincts had always been sharp. Clearly, she had also smelled the instability in the air.
The two exchanged a glance. No words were needed. They immediately quickened their pace and headed toward the city gate.
But just as they neared the gate and were about to leave the small city—
Whoosh, whoosh—
The sky, which had just cleared again after the black dragon's departure, suddenly darkened once more.
With the sound of air being torn apart, a vast shadow approached rapidly from the distant horizon, blotting out the sun.
"It's the kingdom's Legion forces! The evil dragon just left, and they show up right after. They sure move fast."
Nearby, a few residents who were busy packing up stalls muttered to each other as though they were used to it.
"Who cares? It's always just for show anyway. They'll ask about the dragon's movements like usual, that's all. Ignore them, ignore them!"
Another person waved a hand and urged his companion to hurry up.
"Legion forces? What are those?"
Mira looked up curiously.
Through the clouds high above, they could vaguely see a group of dragon-like beasts with broad fleshy wings and hideous faces circling overhead.
On the broad backs of those beasts, fully armed riders could be faintly seen.
The group was clearly well-trained. After circling half a lap through the sky, they dove straight toward the city center—
in other words, toward the plaza where the Lacrima had just been placed.
"Stop looking. This has nothing to do with us."
Shane shook his head. He was just about to remind Mira not to poke her nose into things and to hurry out of the city—
when his words abruptly stopped, and his expression shifted.
Thump!
It felt as if something heavy had smashed directly into his heart.
A familiar swelling sensation exploded without warning through the blood vessels in his limbs and bones.
Beneath his skin, it was as if countless streams of scorching magma were rampaging wildly, and the force of it was fiercer than ever before.
"How is this happening?"
Shane clenched his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead.
"Is it because I got close to the dragon aura coming off my counterpart just now? But…"
"Didn't that 'me' turn himself into a mechanical dragon species? He's a pile of scrap metal. Where's the dragon aura coming from?"
He felt Lancer's fourth vision, which had been stored away inside the bookmark, being violently stimulated by something.
It was overflowing with influence in a crazed, unprecedented way, constantly eroding and changing the structure of his body.
"Shane? What's wrong?"
Hearing the rapid, strained breathing of the person beside her, Mira's heart tightened. She immediately reached out to support him.
"Don't touch me… Hurry! Out of the city!"
Shane grabbed Mira's wrist hard and didn't dare delay for even half a second. Almost roughly, he dragged the girl and sprinted toward the city gate.
He absolutely could not lose control here. If the Legion forces that had just landed saw him, and another dragon appeared in a sensitive place right after the evil dragon's descent, who knew what kind of misunderstanding that would cause?
With astonishing willpower, Shane staggered out through the city gate.
But the moment his feet touched the wilderness outside the city, he could no longer hold on.
"Roar—!"
A deep, suppressed, utterly inhuman growl burst from the depths of Shane's throat.
Then, under Mira's horrified gaze—
Shane's once slender and proportioned limbs swelled violently, tearing through his clothes and growing into thick, sharp black claws.
Crack, crack, crack!
Accompanied by the teeth-grating sound of shifting bones, fine, hard black scales surged like waves and covered his entire body. A pair of wide, pitch-black dragon wings burst from his back.
In the span of a few short seconds, the familiar human boy vanished completely.
In his place was an enormous black dragon, its body expanded dozens of times over, radiating suffocating pressure.
"You… you're Shane?"
Startled into stumbling back several steps, Mira stared wide-eyed at the colossal creature before her in disbelief.
That hard, ink-black shell. Those strange dark red markings covering its whole body.
Aside from being several sizes smaller than the evil dragon that had snatched away the crystal earlier, their appearances were practically identical.
"Gulp…"
The girl swallowed, forcibly suppressing the shock in her heart. Carefully, she reached out, wanting to touch the dragon's scales and search for some familiar trace on this monster.
"Relax… I'm still sane."
A low, slightly hollow voice came from the dragon's mouth.
Although the tone had changed completely, that familiar way of speaking instantly made Mira's suspended heart settle back down.
Then, a huge dragon claw reached toward her.
Its movement was utterly at odds with its terrifying appearance. Almost gently, yet in a way that allowed no resistance, Shane scooped the girl up from the ground and set her on his back.
"I probably won't be able to turn back from this form for a while. We can't stay here. Let's leave first!"
"But looking like that, if the people in the city see you, they'll definitely…"
Mira looked at his ferocious dragon head and trailed off.
"I can't worry about that now."
Shane clenched his mouthful of sharp dragon teeth, a very human irritation flashing through his enormous eyes.
"Those cavalrymen should all be focused on the plaza ruins right now. Besides, they've been oppressed by the evil dragon for years. Unless they're insane, who would dare chase after a dragon?"
Right now, Shane felt like ten thousand alpacas were stampeding through his mind. He had no idea why his dragonization would be so violently affected by a mechanical counterpart.
With that, Shane stopped hesitating and spread his enormous dragon wings.
He intended to hold back and reduce the noise of his takeoff as much as possible.
But this newly born dragon body was far stronger than he had imagined.
Boom!
Just a slight downward beat of his wings kicked up a hurricane like rolling thunder.
Amid flying sand and stones, the huge dragon body shot into the sky like a black cannonball.
"You're making way too much noise! Even a deaf person could hear that!" Mira shouted, struggling to open her eyes in the violent wind.
"I know!" Shane's voice carried a trace of helplessness. "At this point, all we can do is get out of their sight as fast as possible!"
Just as he was about to adjust his posture and speed away—
"Behind you, Shane! Look behind you!"
Mira suddenly turned her head with difficulty and shouted while pointing behind them.
Shane's heart sank, and the huge dragon head glanced back.
Above Rune City in the distance, the Legion forces that had only just landed had already risen into the sky all at once.
They hovered in formation for only a brief moment, then turned their lances in perfect unison. Like a vast black cloud, they rushed toward Shane and Mira.
The worst-case scenario had happened.
Shane cursed inwardly. "Those guys actually have the guts to chase us?"
"No… wait."
Soon, he understood the key.
These kingdom troops had "coexisted peacefully" with the real evil dragon for years.
They definitely knew its size and habits very well. They must have noticed that this dragon body of his was smaller.
"Tch. Hold on tight. I'm shaking them off."
Shane had no intention of getting tangled up with these people.
His top priority right now was finding some deserted corner and shedding these scales. Once he returned to human form, they could flip the sky upside down and still fail to find him.
The black dragon tore through the thick clouds, racing across the sky thousands of meters up.
Behind him, the Legion beasts pursued like an inescapable shadow. Not only did the distance fail to widen, it was slowly and dangerously shrinking.
"These guys really don't give up. Are they that afraid another evil dragon will show up and fight them for magic?"
Sensing the hostile pursuit behind him, Shane gritted his teeth inwardly.
He was still very unfamiliar with this massive dragon body. He hadn't had time to figure out many of its force techniques, which greatly reduced his flight speed.
Seeing the vanguard about to catch up, he could only desperately squeeze more power out of himself and force another burst of speed.
Whooo—
The high-altitude air scraped past like knives.
Mira clung tightly between the smooth scales, her face pale.
This was worlds apart from the experience of being carried in Shane's arms while flying.
Without the protective field blocking wind and pressure, the girl who had lost her magic was incredibly fragile at this altitude.
If Shane hadn't split part of his attention while flying and deliberately adjusted the angle of his scales and wings to divert most of the fierce wind away from her, she would have been blown off long ago.
Just as Mira was being shaken so badly she felt dizzy and could barely hold on—
she suddenly felt the black scales beneath her heat up rapidly.
From deep within the already massive dragon body came that teeth-grating sound of bones grinding again, while its muscles visibly swelled.
"Shane! You… your body is getting bigger again!" Mira cried out.
"Don't panic. I'm adapting to it!"
Shane's voice, deep as muffled thunder, rolled through the wind.
And sure enough, just as he said—
as the dragon body stretched and lengthened further, his previously awkward muscles and wings began finding a rhythm that better matched the airflow.
Boom—
The air was violently crushed open, and a white sonic boom cloud exploded around the dragon's body.
In that instant, Shane's speed underwent a terrifying transformation. He accelerated faster and faster, as if there were no limit.
The Legion forces that had been biting tightly behind him instantly became slow motion before that unreasonable burst of speed.
In just a few short minutes, he had completely thrown them off until not even a black dot remained in sight.
To be absolutely safe, Shane did not land right away.
Carrying Mira, he repeatedly doubled back and circled over the clouds, thoroughly disrupting his flight trail before finding a remote, barren island. Only then did he fold his wings and land heavily on the ground.
"Hah… they shouldn't be able to find us here."
The giant dragon let out a very human long breath. Although his body hadn't taken any damage, the chain of unexpected events had left him mentally exhausted.
Mira collapsed weakly onto the ground, gasping for breath.
Only after her heartbeat calmed a little did she have the space to lift her head and look worriedly at the colossal creature in front of her.
"But can your body still turn back to normal?"
"Relax. That out-of-control swelling has already faded. The dragonization should be nearly over."
Shane closed his eyes, feeling the boiling dragon blood inside him rapidly cool and settle.
"And," his low, thunderous voice gained a hint of showing off, "once I got used to this feeling, it was actually kind of interesting. I can already control this body perfectly."
As he spoke, wanting to prove how much control he had, he subconsciously flicked his thick dragon tail.
Screech—!
A tremendous noise rang out.
The hard rocky ground was carved open like tofu by that casual tail flick, leaving behind a terrifying trench dozens of meters long, with shattered stone flying everywhere.
In the rising dust, Mira looked at that exaggerated scar in the earth, then at the huge black dragon wearing an innocent expression, and fell silent.
After a long while, the girl finally said faintly,
"So this is what you call… perfect control?"
"Uh, cough… accident."
Shane gave two dry laughs, the dragon face stiffening into an awkward expression.
He stopped showing off and quickly focused, suppressing the influence of the vision that was continuously leaking out of the bookmark.
Time passed in silence.
About half an hour later, along with a faint sound of grinding bones—
the dragon body, enormous as a small hill, began to emit a faint glow and rapidly shrank at a visible speed.
The moment his flesh and bones reformed and Shane's slender human outline had just appeared, he impatiently yanked a cloak from his storage space and quickly wrapped it around his completely bare body.
"It's not like I haven't seen it before. Why are you in such a hurry?" Mira sat cross-legged on the ground, chin propped in one hand, unable to resist teasing when she saw him trying so hard to avoid being seen.
"You think everyone is as shameless as you?"
Shane completely ignored her teasing. Without even turning his head, he focused entirely on putting on his clothes as quickly as possible.
"Could you please have a little awareness that we're different sexes?"
Once he finally straightened himself out and turned around, Mira looked him up and down, then asked curiously,
"That form just now… will it happen again?"
Shane paused and raised a brow.
"What, did it scare you?"
"No, not really."
Mira shook her head.
"Honestly, it was actually pretty cool. But… power you can't control must be really inconvenient to use, right?"
"…"
Hearing that, Shane froze for a second. The line sounded strangely familiar.
After thinking about it carefully, wasn't that exactly what he had told Mira back when she couldn't control Satan Soul?
This girl had actually learned it on the spot and thrown it back at him.
Well, he would count it as the girl's concern for now. Shane gave a light snort and said irritably,
"Don't worry. A small problem like this won't take long to solve."
That was what he said, but his mind had already begun calculating quickly.
Edolas might not have much else, but it had more than enough empty floating islands and wilderness.
After finding Lisanna, he absolutely had to find a suitable place and completely resolve Lancer's fourth vision.
"Let's go. While I was circling in the sky, I deliberately compared our direction. We haven't deviated much from Lisanna's causal line."
As he spoke, Shane pulled up the hood of his cloak and beckoned to Mira, who was still resting on the ground.
"We shouldn't be far from our destination now."