Chapter 240

Emerging from the cool, yet suffocating air of the warehouse, Draco stretched, a low hum vibrating through his bones from his rigorous practice session.

The early evening sun had begun its descent, painting the sky in muted shades of grey and rose.

It was time for the evening meal distribution, a crucial routine in their precarious wartime existence.

His current goal was to retrieve his share of rations for the evening.

Food was a commodity more valuable than gold in these besieged sections of Orario, rationed strictly twice a day, morning and evening, to ensure everyone had something to stave off hunger.

He took a step outside, the dust motes dancing in the last rays of light, when the sky above seemed to rip open.

A sound like a monstrous roar, deep and guttural, echoed across the ruined city.

Draco paused, instinctively scanning the horizon.

The soft evening hues were rapidly swallowed by monstrous, bruised-purple clouds that boiled and churned with unnatural speed.

A heavy, oppressive silence fell just before the first fat drops began to fall – isolated splashes on the parched ground.

Then, without warning, the sky unleashed its fury.

Within seconds, the scattered drops became a furious torrent, a curtain of water descending with brutal force, drumming loudly against wreckage and stone alike.

A weary sigh escaped Draco's lips, mingling with the sound of the downpour.

"Why at night of all times," he murmured to himself, the thought less a question and more a lament.

For him, the rain was little more than an inconvenience.

But for the vast majority of Orario's residents – the fragile civilians and weak adventurers – it spelled trouble.

The city, already a patchwork of damaged structures and temporary shelters, was ill-equipped to handle such weather.

Many places offered little decent cover, and the fear of sickness spreading through the population was ever-present.

With contact to the outside world severed by the evilus forces, supplies, particularly medicine, were incredibly scarce.

The thought of a widespread illness sweeping through the camps was a chilling prospect, a potential disaster that could cripple their ability to resist.

To compound the anxiety, the sudden storm provided perfect cover for the evilus; no one knew if or when they might use the dark, rainy night to launch an attack.

Draco imagined the widespread unease settling over the temporary camps.

‘Many will not sleep well tonight’ he thought.

Shaking off the thought, he pulled his cloak tighter, though it offered little protection against the deluge.

With hurried steps, he began to run, his immediate goal the main camp where the Bahamut Familia was quartered.

Vasiliki, had already gone ahead about an hour prior, leaving him alone in this immediate vicinity.

As he navigated the flooded pathways and debris-strewn streets, a peculiar impulse struck him. He started playing a little game, a childish diversion against the bleak backdrop of the storm and war.

He would dash from the cover of a crumbling wall to the partial shelter of an overturned cart, testing his speed and agility, seeing how many raindrops he could evade in his short sprints.

It was a fleeting, almost absurd pursuit amidst the downpour, but in its own small way, it offered a brief mental escape.

His little game, however, was abruptly interrupted.

As he rounded a collection of shattered rubble that had once been a building, his eyes caught movement through the sheets of rain.

A figure, small and swift, was running away from the relative safety of the temporary camp perimeter, disappearing into the darkened and dangerous outer districts.

His breath hitched slightly.

‘Huh! Ryuu… Where is she going at such a time?’ he wondered, curiosity immediately overriding his need for shelter.

It was standard, heavily emphasized protocol for adventurers to remain within the guarded camp areas after dark, and never to go out alone due to the constant threat of evilus ambushes.

A brief internal debate ensued.

‘Should I follow her?’

Danger lurked outside the camps.

But Ryuu was a capable adventurer.

Yet, her current state was... complicated.

The pull of the unknown, coupled with a sense of unease about why she would run off on her own, settled his indecision.

Releasing his draconic wings with a silent burst of energy, he sprang upwards.

The scaled wings materialized from his back, momentarily catching the faint, diffused light before he quickly ascended into the stormy sky.

His form, dark and powerful against the turbulent clouds, swiftly blended into the night, the sound of his flight lost in the clamour of the rain.

Tracking the lone figure below, a recognizable splash of green amidst the grey, he followed her silently from above.

She led him some distance into a derelict section of the city, eventually stopping at a partially destroyed building.

It had likely been a large structure once, perhaps a shop or warehouse, but like so many others in Orario, it was riddled with gaping wounds.

It looked as though some bomb had gone off in it, leaving jagged holes in the walls, the roof partially collapsed, and every window shutter blown out or hanging precariously.

Inside, several internal pillars were missing or cracked, and the entire eastern section of the building slanted at a terrifying angle, groaning under the strain of the rain and gravity, threatening collapse at any moment.

Ryuu approached a large, bent metal door that hung askew from one hinge.

With a grunt of effort, she forced it open enough to slip inside.

A moment later, Draco landed silently on the partially intact roof, his powerful wings folding as he found an opening wide enough to observe the interior below.

Inside the damp, gloomy space, Ryuu muttered to herself, her voice barely audible above the rain drumming on the ruined roof.

"Why did I come here...?"

"I wonder why too," a resonant voice replied from near the entrance, startling her.

Ryuu snapped around, instantly on guard, her hand hovering near her weapon.

Her eyes, sharp even in the dim light filtering through the rain, focused on a figure silhouetted against the slightly lighter doorway, wings momentarily spread out.

"Relax, it's just me," the voice said again, accompanied by the sound of large wings being shaken dry before retracting.

"Draco?" Ryuu breathed, her tension easing slightly as recognition dawned.

"Hmm, the one and only," Draco replied, stepping further into the room away from the entrance, though still mostly in shadow.

He watched as Ryuu raised the mask that covered the lower half of her face.

‘Tsk, the elves and their strange habits’ he thought idly, a flicker of annoyance at her guardedness.

"What are you doing here?" Ryuu asked, her voice muffled slightly by the mask.

"I could ask you the same thing, Ryuu," Draco countered smoothly.

He certainly couldn't tell her he'd followed her because he was curious – that sounded far too much like stalking.

He needed a better cover story.

"I came here... to think. To clear my mind," Ryuu said, her tone carefully neutral, though Draco sensed a tremor of deeper emotion beneath the surface.

She was clearly trying to hide the turmoil churning within her.

"You came all the way to District Six... to think?" Draco repeated, his tone laced with undeniable skepticism.

While not the furthest reaches of Orario, this district was a considerable distance from the factory area where their camps were.

To venture so far at night, in this unprecedented storm, during a war, just to 'think'... it stretched credulity.

"Yes. What about you?" Ryuu quickly deflected, attempting to shift the focus.

"Well, I was just trying to get out of the rain, saw you head in..." Draco began, improvising, but he paused mid-sentence.

A subtle, almost imperceptible shift in the air reached his senses – the distinct stirring of the wind element, reacting to something unseen.

There was only one person he knew whose presence could cause such a phenomenon.

Squeak!

A different sound echoed from the opposite end of the large, damaged space – the screech of another reluctant metal door being pushed open.

Ryuu's head snapped towards the sound, her attention completely diverted.

Draco seized the opportunity.

In a movement too fast for the eye to follow, he melted back towards the opening in the roof he'd used to enter, vanishing into the darkness above as silently as a shadow.

"Who is there?" Ryuu called out, her voice sharp with renewed caution.

But the only response was the sound of tiny, light footsteps moving across the debris-strewn floor.

‘A Pallum?’ Ryuu wondered inwardly, her long elven ears twitching, straining to pinpoint the source of the sound in the oppressive gloom.

Her eyes, adapted to low light, focused intently on the patch of darkness where the sound originated.

Eventually, a figure stepped into the faint light, revealing a small human girl.

She stood there, unnervingly still, her eyes wide and unblinking in the shadows.

"What are you doing here? Who are you? Are you alone?" The little girl fired off a barrage of questions, her voice flat and devoid of noticeable emotion.

Ryuu felt a wave of relief – it wasn't an evilus soldier.

But that relief quickly turned to surprise at the girl's identity.

She couldn't quite make out her features clearly in the poor light, but the long, flowing golden hair was an unmistakable marker.

‘The Doll Princess... Ais Wallenstein’ Ryuu realized, her mind racing.

‘But why is she asking if I'm alone? Can't she see Draco behind...?’ Her thought was abruptly cut short.

She whirled around, expecting to see Draco standing there, perhaps hidden deeper in the shadows.

But there was no one.

"Draco...!? Where did he go? Was I... hallucinating?" Ryuu muttered to herself in utter confusion.

She could have sworn, with absolute certainty, that she had just been speaking to him mere seconds ago.

The sudden, inexplicable disappearance rattled her more than she cared to admit.

"Are you with the evilus?" Ais asked again, her head tilted slightly, observing Ryuu's evident disorientation with that same doll-like expression, seemingly unperturbed by Ryuu's sudden turn and muttering.

"What!" Ryuu's temper flared instantly at the sudden accusation.

The emotional storm raging within her, exacerbated by the frustrating appearance and disappearance of Draco and her own confused state, made her particularly vulnerable to such a pointed question.

Being associated with the very monsters she despised triggered an explosive reaction.

"Do I look like one of those disgusting fanatics?!" Ryuu demanded, her voice rising despite her efforts to control it.

"But you are wearing a mask," Ais pointed out plainly, her gaze fixed on Ryuu's face.

"So what?! Is everyone wearing a mask a member of the evilus now?!" Ryuu retorted, the dam beginning to break, her raw emotions seeping into her tone.

"Okay... well, what are you doing here alone then?" Ais pressed, her voice still flat, unyielding.

"I..." Ryuu faltered.

It wasn't that she couldn't answer, but explaining felt impossible, even humiliating.

She had, in truth, stumbled into this ruin almost by accident, running blindly from the weight of her doubts and the chaotic storm of her own feelings.

"There is no light in your eyes, either," Ais stated suddenly, observing Ryuu with unnerving intensity.

The simple, direct observation struck Ryuu speechless.

"They are a bit like... mine from before," Ais continued, her voice taking on a faintly introspective quality, "but also... not."

Ais's words, though blunt and simple, held a devastating truth.

Ryuu had lost her way, her conviction, her justice clouded by the words and actions of the evil god.

Her eyes, once burning with righteous fire, did indeed reflect that loss, that internal darkness. Ais, standing there in the ruined building, saw a soul teetering on the edge, an unpredictable element whose path ahead was uncertain.

And then, without fully understanding the impact of her words, Ais uttered something that ignited the volatile mix of emotions boiling within Ryuu.

"Finn told me about the bombs," Ais said, her expression unchanging, her voice still flat and innocent.

"Do you have one, too?"

The interpretation of Ais's question was open, but in the context of her prior accusation and the known tactics of the evilus , it could only imply one thing: Ais was cementing in her mind the possibility that Ryuu was, somehow, linked to the evilus threat.

This accusation, delivered so innocently, was a direct assault on Ryuu's core, on everything she had fought for and lost.

It was an unbearable insult to be linked to the fanatics she hated with every fiber of her being.

"Child," Ryuu warned, her voice dropping to a dangerous, icy whisper, holding onto the last fragile thread of her self-control.

"I am warning you. Never say something like that again." Her eyes, visible above the mask, blazed with suppressed fury.

"If you won't listen..." she trailed off, the implicit threat hanging heavy in the air.

"...I don't know what I would do to you."

"Then... you are dangerous," Ais concluded, her voice still calm, utterly unfazed by Ryuu's barely contained rage.

Without breaking eye contact, she reached over her shoulder in a smooth, practiced motion and drew the blade she carried on her back.

"I have to fight you," Ais declared, her voice a simple statement of fact, the sound of metal sliding from scabbards echoing in the ruined space.

Draco, watching the entire exchange from his vantage point through the hole in the roof, felt a shock ripple through him at the sudden, dramatic turn of events.

‘I knew it’ he thought.

‘That girl is trouble’

The moment Ais had entered the building, he'd felt her aura.

Immediately he had hidden, not because he doubted his ability to handle her – he was leagues beyond her in power – but because fighting her was utterly pointless and strategically disadvantageous.

There was no benefit to engaging Ais; he had no desire to inadvertently become a catalyst for her growth or complicate future interactions.

Besides, he knew Riveria was usually close by; a fight with Ais would inevitably draw the High Elf's attention and might make her view him in an unfavourable light.

And interacting with Riveria... that was something he actively desired, something he had much wanted to talk to her about, encounters he didn't want to jeopardize.

From his hidden perch, he simply watched as the storm outside raged on, mirroring the brewing conflict between the fragile-hearted adventurer below and the unreadable, relentless Doll Princess.

A/N: Feel free to read ahead on pat3on and donate.