The thunderous beating of enormous wings swallowed the sky. Humans, who had never been born to fly, could only lift their heads in helpless futility, as they always had. A hot northern wind that had forgotten the seasons raked mercilessly through our hair.

Soon, the infantile herald of destruction began to reveal itself beyond the ridge. With clumsy wingbeats, it scattered shadows of ruin as it approached. Little by little, the creeping shadow drew nearer—until, in a single breath, it loomed directly above us.

The young trembled with terror. The slow-witted stood slack-jawed. And the foolish spread their arms wide as if embracing hope—desperately praying that even now, this world might warmly take them into its embrace.

But the Hatchling possessed no power to grant the wishes they so desperately sought. What could a mouth that spewed flame and acid possibly do for them? The incompetent tyrant simply let out a horrifying screech as it glided through the void.

“Kieeeeeek!!!”

“…!!!”

When that sound rang out, the onlookers wept. A few among them even raised prayers, moved to tears. They believed the Hatchling had answered their calling. That, apparently, was what they had convinced themselves of.

But it was nothing more than the infantile delight of a creature that had just succeeded in its first flight. Swooping through the air, riding the wind, showing off its aerial antics—it was surely no different from the playful capering of a young bird. The sight of people compelled to assign meaning to even the most trivial of actions was pitiful, to say the least.

After savoring the joy of flight for a good while, the creature suddenly plunged toward the center of the clearing. Only then, it seemed, had it caught the scent of the prey laid out on the ground. Without the slightest intention of slowing down, it dropped straight from the sky and slammed its body against the earth.

A familiar roar. A storm of dust scattered through the air. For the briefest moment, the Hatchling’s form grew hazy within the cloud of dirt. Its silhouette, dancing like a mirage, carried an almost mystical quality that stirred a strange emotion within me, if only for an instant.

After thrashing about within that mist for some time, the creature let out a shriek and snapped its wings wide open. The recoil scattered the haze entirely, and beneath the crisp sky, its body was laid bare. Eyes torn into long, narrow slits. Claws piercing through the gaps between its fingers. Enormous horns just beginning to sprout from its skull. It was unmistakably far more grown than any Hatchling I had seen before.

Disconcerting. That was my impression in a word. But those who stood directly surrounding the Hatchling seemed to have formed a rather different impression.

They faltered, yet worshipped the Hatchling’s figure. The creature regarded them for a moment, then suddenly lowered its gaze downward. And with savage ferocity, it tore into a slab of meat, scattering blood in every direction.

Only then did the people open their mouths. It seemed they were finally about to react. From the scene that had been frozen stiff for the briefest moment, their unified cry erupted.

It was a scream.

“Kyaaaah!”

“Ah… ah… ahh…!!!”

“Everyone, please calm down! You will startle our guest!”

Even in this situation, the mayor did his utmost to calm the crowd. But no matter how many times they repeated this ritual, the instinctive terror that washed over them was apparently beyond help.

“Please, everyone! Please calm yourselves! Screaming before our guest is a discourteous act!”

“But… it seems to have grown much larger than when it last visited…!”

“What does that matter! What will you do if our guest takes offense! Please, everyone…”

“That’s right, everyone, please calm down! That our guest has grown even more is actually wonderful news for us!”

At that moment, Mrs. Lopez let out a sharp bark of a shout. Then she spread her arms wide toward the Hatchling with all her might.

“Look. It has grown this much. It’s all thanks to our efforts all this time.”

“But it’s grown too large…”

“Then isn’t that even better? It’s proof of how devotedly we’ve served this one. Isn’t it?”

“Ma’am. You’re too close. Step back.”

“No. There’s no need. This one would never attack me.”

Mrs. Lopez walked slowly toward the Hatchling. Her face was already overflowing with pure rapture.

“Is this our fourth—no, fifth meeting? I’m not sure if the rest of you have felt it, but I have. A clear bond is growing between this one and us.”

“…”

“Yes. That is most certainly a bond. Look at those pure eyes. Can’t you feel it? Anyone can see it bears goodwill toward us.”

“Ma’am…”

“I’m a mother too, so I know. Our sweet Erika had that exact same look in her eyes when she was nursing. We are raising a savior with our own hands. This one will deliver us from destruction.”

“Mom… don’t do this…”

“It most certainly will. No—it must. It absolutely must.”

Fine dew gathered at the corners of her eyes. All the while, the Hatchling remained utterly absorbed in tearing apart the slab of meat on the ground. Mrs. Lopez watched the sight, then cast off the jet-black shawl draped over her shoulders.

What had been hidden beneath it came into view—a massive wing tattoo.

The tattoo that had been on Mrs. Lopez’s wrist was utterly incomparable in scale to the one that now covered the entirety of her back. Its size alone was staggering, but the artwork was so exquisitely detailed that one might almost have mistaken it for actual dragon wings sprouting from her flesh.

That the body of a noblewoman, once so refined and elegant, had been stained with such madness struck everyone as a profound shock. And for Erika, forced to witness it firsthand, the shock must have been far greater. She clapped a hand over her mouth in alarm and spoke in a trembling voice.

“M… Mom…”

“Oh, Erika. Mommy forgot. I should introduce you to this one.”

“No… I…”

“Don’t be like that. Come here. It’s not scary at all.”

“Mom!”

Mrs. Lopez seized the resisting Erika and dragged her forward. Erika cast a desperate glance over her shoulder, but Mr. Lopez had vanished somewhere. There was no one left in that place to help her.

“What’s wrong, Erika? This is the one who will save us. You need to make yourself properly known.”

“That thing isn’t a savior. You know that too, Mom. What on earth has gotten into you?”

“Erika! You mustn’t… you mustn’t say such disrespectful things. Never!”

“Mom, please, come to your senses…”

“You come to your senses, Erika! Why can’t you understand that this is the only way! Why!”

In that moment, the sincerity hidden beneath her madness erupted. Mrs. Lopez surely knew that this was irrational.

But because it was the only way. Because it was the only thing left before her eyes. She had no choice but to believe desperately. She had no choice but to believe that if she poured her whole heart into it, it would come to pass.

And so she drew into her faith the one thing more precious to her than anything else in this world—her daughter. Hoping that by doing so, even that indifferent sky might be moved to capitulation.

“It’s all right, Erika. You may not understand yet. But once you look into this one’s eyes, you will. Come now, come here. Hurry.”

“No, Mom… I…”

“No. It will be all right. Mommy promises on her pinky finger.”

“Mom…”

“Wait… it’s eating the offerings far too quickly…”

“Geck…”

At that moment, with the mayor’s worried voice, the Hatchling raised its head. Just as he had said, the creature had devoured the offerings at an alarming rate. It seemed the people who had prepared the feed had failed to account for the Hatchling’s rate of growth.

And that miscalculation would prove devastatingly fatal.

The Hatchling bared its teeth and fixed its gaze on Mrs. Lopez. For the first time, human and dragon locked eyes, and each rose to their feet carrying entirely different emotions. The emotion that flooded Mrs. Lopez’s face in that moment was ecstasy.

“Look, Erika. At last… at last, it has responded. This one is going to lead us to a world beyond destruction…”

“M… Mom! Stop this. This is…”

“It’s all right, my baby. Come to Mommy’s arms. Don’t be afraid. Come to Mommy now.”

“Mom!”

“Ah… my precious, lovely baby…”

By now, it was impossible to distinguish whether her words were directed at Erika or at the Hatchling. The desperate yearning for life reached out its hand, indiscriminate of good and evil. As if in response, the Hatchling too opened its mouth.

And from deep within its throat, flame boiled upward.

“Huh…?”

At a response far hotter than anticipated, Mrs. Lopez’s arms went limp at her sides. It was a reality she would have had to face sooner or later, but it was closing in far too swiftly. And so no one present managed to react in time.

“Ah…!”

In the final instant, Erika pulled her mother into her embrace. Her lips, parted in vain, faced the death rushing toward them. Her quivering eyelids drifted shut to meet the darkness.

But her father had no intention of letting his daughter’s fate end there.

“Erika!!!”

With his cry in that final moment, gray smoke erupted across the sky. When I lifted my head, a heavy metallic clang rang out from the railway, and an enormous plume of steam shot skyward. Even the Hatchling was captivated by the overwhelming spectacle.

And so it failed to see the man walking forward beneath it. Covered head to toe in weapons of every kind, the man let them all clatter to the ground, then hefted a heavy cannon.

He raised the muzzle toward the Hatchling and screamed with every ounce of strength in his body.

“Die, you lizard bastard!!!”

“…!!!”

At his roar, a deep blue mana shell shot forth like lightning and struck the Hatchling’s head dead center.

“Kieeeeek!!!”

“Kyaaaah!”

The creature’s pain-laced shriek and Erika’s cry tore through the air simultaneously as crimson bloody foam sprayed in every direction. That was unmistakably the blood the Hatchling had spewed—and the moment when humanity’s technology had finally produced a result.

But that weapon was far too much for an ordinary civilian like Mr. Lopez to operate alone. Even as he violently emptied his stomach, he somehow scrambled toward his daughter and wife.

“Urgh… h… honey…! Erika…!”

“What have you done…!”

“Please, snap out of it! You saw what that thing did. It’s a demon from the sky! It came here to kill us all!”

“But—”

“The rest of you, come to your senses too! You all saw it with your own eyes! That thing tried to devour my wife! And next in line would have been your families!”

“Mr. Lopez…”

“That thing is no savior, no nothing! It’s just—!”

“Kieeeeeeeeeek!!!”

Between his desperate cries, the Hatchling’s roar exploded. Enraged as never before by the first wound it had ever received, it spewed flame in every direction. Only then did the guards begin to activate their weapons, but in their sheer panic, their response was painfully slow. Some had even turned their backs entirely and were fleeing.

That the moment of annihilation had come for this city was plain for anyone to see. And standing at the vanguard of that destruction was none other than Mr. Lopez. He clutched his daughter and wife and squeezed his eyes shut.

In that moment, Mr. Lopez’s anguished cry pierced the void.

“Lope!!!”

“…!”

In the end, the name he chose in his final moment was mine. Knowing full well that I was not at the scene, he called that name relying on nothing but desperate faith and hope. Even after having confirmed yesterday how slim the odds were, he cried out for the help of a young man he had met less than an hour ago.

The conclusion of such meaningless hope typically spiraled toward despair.

…

But we had already been sprinting toward the scene long before his cry ever rang out.

I half-slid, half-tumbled down the slope, rolling roughly across the ground. Then I shouted toward Ms. Rebecca, who was already running ahead of me.

“Ms. Rebecca! Weapons!”

“Damn it, Lope. The train comes first—!”

“It’s useless if we can’t subdue the Hatchling! Saya! Haru!”

“Yeah. Got it.”

“God, seriously… if only someone would lend me a goddamn eyeball!”

Even in this situation, Haru cracked a joke, and Saya, carrying her on her back, sprinted at full speed. She snatched a weapon from a fleeing guard and hoisted it alongside Haru.

“This must be what Ms. Rebecca mentioned… Lope! How do we operate it?”

“Wait for Ms. Rebecca’s orders!”

“But—!”

“Erika! Get down!”

And without a moment’s hesitation, I lunged toward the Lopez family, wrapped my arms around their waists, and rolled forward. In that instant, the Hatchling’s flames grazed past overhead, searing the surrounding air. Saya’s scream slashed sharply through the void.

“Oh god… Lope!”

“I’m fine! Ms. Rebecca!”

“Here! Catch!”

Right on cue, another lightning bolt pierced through the Hatchling’s head, and a heavy weapon came flying in over the creature’s shoulder. I snatched it up as if cradling it, then lifted my head without a second’s delay.

And at last, I locked eyes with the thing.

Even as it thrashed from the renewed attack, it fixed a hate-filled glare on the fly that had buzzed into its line of sight. Meeting that enormous gaze head-on sent a chill racing down my spine, coldness spreading through my entire back.

But there was a limit to how long one could keep dodging. I felt the weight of the metal wrapped in my grip and gritted my teeth toward the harbinger of destruction I had finally been forced to face.

“All right. Let’s do this, Dragon.”