Editing Unlimited Fafnir:Volume 2 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 6===

After the barbecue, the teachers gathered up the equipment and left. The members of Brynhildr Class all shifted locations to Mitsuki's dorm.

Lisa and the others had apparently gotten permission from Shinomiya-sensei to stay over at Mitsuki's dorm.

The girls were apparently planning to have pajamas party in Mitsuki's room, but I could not possibly join in as a guy after all, so after showering, I changed into a t-shirt and lay down alone in my own bed.

Tia was not in the room either. She had gone to Mitsuki's room with the others. Probably after everything that had happened today, she had started trusting her classmates from Brynhildr Class.

...Or rather, I should say it was thanks to Lisa.

When about to separate from me, Tia looked uneasy but she followed obediently after Lisa held her hand. They looked like mother and daughter, bringing a smile to my face.

As soon as I lay down, my eyelids instantly felt heavy.

Although I wanted to fall asleep just like that, I wanted to email Honoka before that. Hence, I picked up my portable terminal. But when I checked the screen, there were two emails that had arrived at some point. One was Honoka's reply while the other was sent by Major Loki. Speaking of which, Major Loki had mentioned he was going to send me data on Kili.

I opened Honoka's email first.

'I am so sorry I can't join you even though you went out of your way to invite me. Because I suddenly received a call from my mother, I missed the chance to meet up with you. My mother says she is worried whether I can live properly on my own. Looks like I am not that trusted.'

I read her email and keyed in my response.

'Don't worry about it since it was a sudden invitation without warning. Your own business is more important. Making calls to Midgard from outside requires going through convoluted procedures, but your mother still called you. She must be a good mother.'

Honoka had previously described their relationship as cold but in fact, she was probably close with her mother. I felt a bit relieved while sending my email. Then a reply came back quickly.

'Thank you for understanding but my mother still says things on her own without allowing any argument. Oh, speaking of which, I told her about you, Yuu-san, and she is very interested in you. She might be visiting Midgard in the near future, so please do your best then.'

Visiting Midgard...?

This was not a place that even a D's family could enter so easily. Honoka's mother was apparently active all over the world... Perhaps she was actually a person of quite substantial position.

Hence, I replied 'If possible, please have her show some mercy? Anyway, goodnight.'

—Okay, let me read Major Loki's email next.

I tensed up and opened the email. There were no contents apart from an attachment file.

I decompressed the data and opened it. What appeared was a profile with a photo included.

—So this is Kili?

It was most likely taken on a battlefield. The photo showed a girl standing in the middle of blazing flames.

She had slightly tanned skin and long black hair. Although her facial features were quite exquisite, her gaze was very sharp. Wearing a smoking black cape, her entire body gave off vibes of danger.

When told about Kili in the past, there was never such a vivid photo. Since NIFL had apparently fought Kili while taking Tia into custody, perhaps this was taken during that time.

—Kili Surtr Muspelheim. Female. Roughly 160cm in height. Age unknown. Weight unknown... Nationality and family background unknown too... Since three years ago, she started being active as the leader of the dragon cult, the Sons of Muspell. There are over three hundred terrorist incidents regarded as related to her. Reports indicate that she can incinerate people and objects without touching them. Very likely a D specializing in the transmutation of flames. Already deemed a disaster without concrete evidence...

Despite the full efforts of NIFL's intelligence agency, the amount of corroborated data was exceedingly small. Although there was an abundance of information noted with indeterminate veracity, it was all data that was hard to believe directly.

—By conservative estimates, suspected murder count is a hundred thousand people. Within a single night, wiping out a town stationed with a regiment of a thousand troops. A sniper located a kilometer away was burned to death by her before he could pull the trigger. Wide area bombing was used, expecting her death to be assured, but she was later confirmed to be still alive. Often appearing in towns after "Blue" Hekatonkheir had passed through...

"Is she even human...?"

I could not help but blurt out.

Even if Kili was a D, I doubted she could do all these things.

It would be more probable if she was the eighth dragon instead.

"But... Oh right, she is living as a dragon right now."

Kili was the culprit who had indoctrinated Tia with the concept that Ds were dragons. Suppose Kili also believed she was a dragon, then perhaps she had become something even more of a dragon than a dragon. If this was the appearance of a D who had chosen to be a dragon—

"I absolutely won't let Tia become like her."

With firm resolve, I muttered. Then lying on the bed again, I looked up at the ceiling at Mitsuki's room above, I could hear faint sounds from their voices and footsteps.

—Whether from Basilisk or Kili, I will protect Tia.

Vowing in my heart, I then closed my eyes.

Drowsiness attacked again. My thought gradually grew hazy and my consciousness left me.

Then—

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

A massive low rumbling made me open my eyes. The room kept shaking, the desk lamp fell from the desk, causing an acute crash.

"What...!?"

I sat up to a start but the shaking soon stopped. The alarm clock next to my pillow read 2am. I had fallen asleep without realizing it.

—This was no earthquake. There was a loud noise... The shaking was caused by some kind of impact just now.

I immediately concluded that because I had experienced identical sounds and shaking before.

But this could not possibly be the same situation. That thing could not possibly be here.

"..."

Nevertheless, my palms were wet with sweat. Saliva was building up in my mouth. With a gulp, I swallowed it.

I jumped out of bed and ran to the window, pulling the curtains open forcefully.

On the other side of the jungle behind the dorm, under the starry night sky, part of the jungle had been cut down unnaturally.

The night sky's dark blue was blotted by a certain gigantic shadow.

Faintly blue in phosphorescence, the shadow shook its humongous body.

As for what thing I was witnessing—I knew very well.

"The blue dragon—'Blue' Hekatonkheir..."

Blankly, I could only recite in a hoarse voice the name of the being that was towering over the night sky. Right there was the monster that had tried to trample the town where Mitsuki and I lived.

Hekatonkheir's entire body was covered with blue scales. Whenever its body moved, geometric patterns could be seen blinking and flashing. Without any facial features, the head only had a huge horn, upright as though rushing towards the sky.

Woooooooooooooooooooooo!

Finally, the siren at the clock tower sounded.

This meant that Midgard did not become aware of this situation until now.

"What the heck... Why didn't anyone notice?"

Midgard was defended by the concentric layered defense system, Midgardsormr. How on earth did Hekatonkheir infiltrate Midgard without being discovered? No matter what, I could not think of the reason.

But appearing before us was neither Basilisk nor Kili but an unexpected crisis. This was absolutely certain.

Accompanied by the siren, the clock tower was gradually retracted into the ground.

However, Hekatonkheir bent down slowly and reached out with its long right arm.

The gigantic hand reached above the school campus and swept sideways.

CRASH—!!

The violent sound of breakage was heard.

Originally in the process of descent, the clock tower had its upper half chopped off. The remaining lower half also collapsed.

The siren stopped. Deformed by the impact, the clock tower's lower portion also stopped moving.

"Ah—"

I listened to the cry from my own throat as though I was completely detached.

The clock tower was where Midgard's important facilities and the emergency command center were gathered, and even the principal's office was on the top floor of the upper half that was sent flying just now...

The faces of the principal and Mica-san, who had just parted ways with me earlier, flashed in my mind.

"Grrr..."

Gritting my teeth, I rushed out of the room—
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