The safest way to descend to the surface was to use his ability. However, that was impossible when he was with Kaniel. Kaniel would end up getting electrocuted.
So there was only one method he could choose.
“Magic, magic… No, we can’t do it here because it’s a forest. The trees below will get in the way…”
Kaniel rambled incoherently with a half-dazed expression. Come to think of it, he’d been like this last time they fell too. And when they slid down the cliff as well. He must be particularly afraid of falling from high places.
“Don’t worry, Kaniel. It’ll be okay.”
Taeyon positioned himself below and placed Kaniel on top of his body. Then, before Kaniel could even react, he transformed into his animal form. Taeyon’s body instantly swelled large and sprouted fur.
At the same time, his body collided with the trees that had drawn close.
CRASH! BANG! BANG! CRASH! THUD—!
“Huh, wh-what…?”
Kaniel mumbled in a dazed voice as he pushed himself up. Broken branches lay all around them, and they had reached the ground.
“T-Taeyon! Taeyon!! Are you okay? Did you break anything? Oh my god… Taeyon!”
“I’m fine.”
“H-how are you fine? Where, where does it hurt?”
“I said I’m fine.”
Taeyon set Kaniel down on the ground and got up. His fluffy fur was covered in dirt.
“The trees dispersed the impact.”
Still, if he’d been an ordinary human, he wouldn’t have escaped serious injuries from that impact. Taeyon had been able to endure it because he was a sturdy beastkin, and in animal form at that.
And Kaniel was unharmed because Taeyon had hidden and protected him within his fur.
Standing up while steadying his trembling body, Kaniel almost burst into tears from relief. But more than that, he wanted to pull Taeyon into a tight embrace. Following his feelings, he clung to Taeyon’s nape and hugged him tightly.
Only then did tears pour out.
“Taeyon… I’m so glad you’re not hurt.”
“Mm.”
“Thank you for coming for me…”
“It’s only natural.”
“Sniff…”
Just as his crying turned into sniffles—
“What the, how did you even follow me?”
At the voice from behind, Taeyon and Kaniel whirled around. The kidnapper, with his wings folded, was approaching while shaking out his throbbing limbs.
The electrocution from earlier hadn’t been enough to incapacitate him. Taeyon hid Kaniel behind him.
“I didn’t get a good look, but how did a wolf chase me all the way into the sky?”
“Curious?”
Taeyon tilted his head with a crooked smile as he asked, then appeared in front of the kidnapper in the blink of an eye and opened his mouth wide. The kidnapper quickly pulled his body back, but he couldn’t avoid it completely. Taeyon’s teeth bit into the man’s left shoulder and forearm.
“Ghhk…!!”
I should have bitten deeper.
Taeyon clicked his tongue and struck the man’s body with his front paw. Birds were fundamentally weaker than most quadrupedal animals. Moreover, if you sealed their wings, they couldn’t execute proper attacks. If there were many of them, they’d be troublesome and cumbersome, but wasn’t he alone now?
Losing to a sparrow bastard like this would be a humiliation no different from a wolf dying with its snout stuck in dishwater.
The man flew back and crashed into a tree, then rolled across the ground.
‘Should I kill him?’
Actually, killing a bird could create some troublesome political problems. Birds were residents of a different castle, not Oblyad. If it were at least a fight between ordinary residents, it might be one thing, but if Taeyon, who was affiliated with Oblyad Castle, killed him, it could cause major problems.
‘But does that matter?’
Does that kind of thing matter right now? No.
Taeyon questioned himself once more and concluded that it didn’t. This bird bastard was a criminal who had dared to steal an ability user’s Tuner and try to run away with him.
If he claimed he’d lost his reason momentarily and committed the act, who could say anything?
Well, he did have his reason, but.
‘…Taeyon doesn’t seem to be in his right mind right now.’
Kaniel thought as he watched Taeyon walking toward the kidnapper one step at a time, growling with an unusually menacing expression. The Taeyon who always made clear-headed, rational judgments didn’t seem to be here right now.
Was it because he’d transformed into his animal form? Was that why he was getting agitated so easily?
Kaniel cautiously observed Taeyon’s mood.
Would it be okay? Though they were different types—avian and mammal—they were both people, so wouldn’t it be murder if he killed him? Would Taeyon be punished for a crime?
Not knowing how the laws on the surface operated, Kaniel fidgeted with both hands anxiously.
‘No, who would even know what happened in a place like this?’
More importantly, it was far more crucial that Taeyon didn’t get hurt.
“Kgh…! This isn’t just a simple Acceleration Ability, is it?!”
“That’s right.”
Lightning ability wasn’t a simple ability like acceleration. It was an ability where, depending on how much of the Ability Wavelength you could handle, you could use all the characteristics of lightning. In other words, it was a higher-tier ability with infinite possibilities for application.
“Then that means…! You, Oblyad’s second… Kgh!”
The kidnapper, who’d been muttering as if he’d realized something, was suddenly rushed by Taeyon and got punched in the jaw, sprawling on the ground. However, this time he didn’t move sluggishly like before. Despite staggering, the kidnapper jumped up and spread his wings, taking flight.
Taeyon lunged at him, realizing he was trying to escape, but it was already too late. The kidnapper vigorously flapped his wings and rose into the air.
“Damn it. Of all times…”
The kidnapper, clutching his wounded left shoulder, looked back and forth between Taeyon and Kaniel with irritation, then suddenly changed his expression and smiled brightly.
“Ah, right. I’ve got a good idea.”
As he said that, what he pulled from his chest was a blue stone the size of a fist. The kidnapper raised the transparent stone—like aquamarine—above his head and hurled it forcefully to the ground.
CRASH!!
As the blue stone shattered with an explosive sound, something began pouring out from within. A fierce wind whipped up, giving the feeling that it was pushing the surrounding air outward.
Taeyon didn’t know what it was, but Kaniel could tell.
“Mana…?”
It was dense mana.
In that moment, a page from a textbook flashed through Kaniel’s mind.
Mana stone.
It was a gemstone from the surface that didn’t exist on the Floating Island. A stone containing vast amounts of mana, which could be used to create tools that could use magic semi-permanently. It was such a rare stone that he’d never actually seen one before.
For such a precious mana stone to be shattered the moment he saw it—what on earth was happening? But he soon understood the intent.
AUUUU—!
The cry of a monster echoing from the distance made him realize.
“No! Taeyon, Taeyon!”
“Yeah.”
“Monsters will swarm here. Monsters…!”
The mana flowing from the mana stone was similar to the mana humans released to feed monsters. However, unlike what was drawn out to feed monsters, it was rapidly dispersing into the air.
That meant that even if monsters were lured by sensing the mana and came running, there would be almost nothing for them to eat. The monsters who’d lost their target would become enraged, and that fury would be directed at the people remaining here.
And if they were unlucky, a Rift to the Demon Realm might open. Because it was said that when monsters gathered, rifts to the Demon Realm opened.
“Hahaha! Let’s see if you can survive there!”
The kidnapper sneered as he flapped his wings and flew higher.
“No, I actually hope you do survive.”
The kidnapper’s expression as he said that looked chillingly gleeful.
What the hell did that mean? He was talking as if surviving would be more unfortunate. Terrified, Kaniel gripped Taeyon’s fur even tighter. But the kidnapper didn’t explain further and flew away.
That was the moment.
CRACK—lightning struck, grazing the kidnapper’s wing. The bastard staggered and fell a few meters before regaining his balance and flying up again.
Taeyon clicked his tongue. The distance had grown too far. It would be good to chase after him and finish him off, but he couldn’t leave Kaniel behind.
“I should have cut off his wings earlier.”
Taeyon muttered in an ominous voice, shook out his fur once, then returned to his beastkin form.
“Taeyon, what do we do now?”
Without answering, Taeyon pulled Kaniel into his arms. As the warm body temperature entered his embrace, the heart that had been anxiously raging this entire time stopped its commotion.
He’d barely been holding back this desire to hold him like this until now.
“I was worried.”
“Y-yes…”
“I’m glad you’re safe.”
“…Me too, I’m glad you’re safe, Taeyon…”
Only then did his frozen heart melt.
Warmth filled the chest that had felt cool until now, as if cold blood had been flowing through it. Taeyon felt as if that warmth was flowing from where his chest touched Kaniel’s.
The anxiety from potential loss, and the sharp, bristling senses from using his ability, all softened.
However, within that embrace, Kaniel continued to fidget restlessly.
“Um, but Taeyon, we really don’t have time for this right now… The monsters, monsters are coming.”
“Mm.”
“I’m telling you, this isn’t the time.”
“It’s okay.”
“It’s okay?”
“Yeah.”
Dozens of monsters are swarming here and it’s okay? Kaniel found it both difficult to believe and difficult not to believe, so he awkwardly stroked Taeyon’s back while just rolling his eyes.
