Mirror World: Destined Return

First, I have to get to Jurie! Seong-Hwi thought as he soared through the sky with a vapor trail behind him, spotting dragons that had scattered to destroy the Capital from everywhere.

The Union appeared to have built a defense line to endure their attacks.

Jurie can figure out the situation of the battle in real-time! I need to provide support to areas of weakness and prioritize hunting the stronger dragons!

As he ordered the list of things he needed to do, he noticed the southern region of West Earth, as small as a dot in the distance. It was Amsterdam, where wyverns were carpet bombing the city from above. The beautifully spinning windmills fell one after another.

Wind...mills? Seong-Hwi said inwardly, and a face flashed in his head. Melody!

The Windmill Orphanage, the red-bricked building where he had brought the orphans from the church, was located in Zaanse Schans of Amsterdam, and Melody Mulder was there.

“Seong-Hwi! You have to save my lights!”

“Ahahahaha! The smell of death is reverberating!”

“You promised me that you would not mock or disrespect love.”

“Charge! Charge!”

“They are nothing but scapegoats.”

The voices of the figures whose destinies he had borrowed mixed and echoed inside his head.

“ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!” Seong-Hwi shouted to chase away unnecessary thoughts, then quickly changed direction from Middle Earth, where Jurie was, to Zaanse Schans.

There’s no way she’d still be there! he thought anxiously.

***

“How boring,” mumbled Delokera, the giant blue wyvern soaring above Zaanse Schans, attacking the small and peaceful neighborhood with five hundred of his subordinates.

The entire place was destroyed in less than an hour, and humans ran away like crawling worms.

“BURN!” Delokera shouted.

[Activating Race Skill: Imperfect Dragon Tongue.]

Although it was a mere imitation of Dragon Tongue, a skill that only royal dragons could use, it was still highly effective thanks to its activation using the Draconic Mana of a superior dragon. The flames engulfed the worms, without even the time to scream, and they became ash.

“Not even the slightest hint of taxing on the Dragon Heart. Inferior races are no fun to slaughter... Hm?”

Just then, Delokera sensed a considerably powerful mana pulse from the ground. He turned around and saw a white silhouette killing the parvus.

“Is that a tiger beastfolk? No, their fur looks a little odd. Whatever the case... That should be more fun than this,” he mumbled as he flapped his wings to turn himself around toward the silhouette.

Just then, he felt a heavy pressure of caliber from above—one he would feel only from royal dragons.

He grunted as he thought, Has Master Seringer come? No! It’s an enemy!

An iridescent light flashed blindingly from above, and every cell in Delokera’s body warned him of imminent danger.

“O ATMOSPHERE! SHIELD MY BODY!” he shouted, activating Imperfect Dragon Tongue the moment he considered the possibility that it could be an enemy.

The air around him enveloped his giant body and was filled with his Draconic Mana.

Not even Rankers can get through this shield!

Even if the air shield were to be penetrated, he believed his hard scales would protect him. However, a spear that fell like lightning went through his chest like pudding. His blood corroded from the puncture wound and crystallized. Delokera, enduring his body being torn apart from the inside, forced himself to look up.

“Urgh! Who...”

He saw a man with black hair and eyes, stretching his arm toward him. He had fourteen fairy wings on his back.

A fairy? Delokera thought. In that case—

“SUBMIT TO ME, SUBORDINATE RACE!” he shouted.

“Cut the bullshit and die!” the man shouted.

Thirty-six light blue swords appeared out of thin air and fell toward Delokera like meteors.

“Shield me!” Delokera commanded.

A dozen amphipteres flew toward Delokera. They were long like snakes with no legs and a pair of wings, and their flying speed was faster than wyverns thanks to their light weight.

[Activating Race Skill: Steel Scale.]

[Activating Race Skill: Amphiptere Breath.]

...

The amphipteres immediately got between Delokera and the swords. Those nearest to Delokera activated defense skills, and those toward the swords released breath attacks to shoot down the swords. However, the thirty-six swords sliced through the breaths, piercing the amphipteres at the front and the ones who had activated defense skills at the rear. The amphipteres screeched in pain, but their sacrifices allowed Delokera to live.

Delokera grunted as he quickly polymorphed to his human form, becoming dozens of times smaller. A handsome man with blue hair, blue eyes, and blue curved horns coming out of his head, landed headfirst on the ground of Zaanse Schans. He immediately got back up and sprinted despite coughing up blood.

After racing through alley after alley, Delokera looked up as he mumbled, “Did I... lose him?”

There were no subsequent attacks, and the black-haired man with fairy wings was nowhere in sight.

“Gurgh! My Heart... was damaged!” Delokera fell to his knees as he stared at the hole in his chest. An unsettling dark red rust was eating his body alive. “I must... recover as quickly as—”

“Whistle! A half-dead wyvern. What a score,” someone said from in front of Delokera.

“Who’s... there?!”

Tiger, the leader of Cecil Hotel’s Executionary Corps Team 3, said, “You can have this little bird, youngest.”

“Thank you very much,” a voice said from behind Delokera.

Delokera’s eyes widened, but an invisible kukri beheaded him before he could even turn around. Chaya appeared after canceling Concealing Cloak and grabbed Delokera’s head.

Cutter, appearing beside Chaya, said, “That’s RB, right? What a monster. He absolutely destroyed a superior dragon. The rumors of him being a High Ranker were true.”

High Heel walked over as she said, “I guess there was no need to surround him. The bastard was so busy running away that he didn’t even pay attention to his surroundings. Hm? What are you gonna do with that, youngest?” she asked Chaya, holding Delokera’s head.

“It’s a gift for someone,” Chaya answered.

He wondered, Why didn’t hyung-nim finish him off? He immediately flew down to the ground as if he had discovered something.

He couldn’t see clearly because Seong-Hwi had been so far away, but whatever Seong-Hwi saw, it seemed urgent.

I’m sure he’ll be fine... Whatever anyone says, hyung-nim is strong.

However, Chaya couldn’t help but be slightly uneasy.

***

It was complete pandemonium with explosions sounding and buildings falling everywhere. Melody Mulder, a woman with silver hair and eyes, wearing a pink apron, guided about a hundred children through the alleyways.

“Hurry up, kids! Keep running!”

“Huff! Huff! D-Directress!”

“I can’t... run anymore...”

“Sniff! Directress! Johnny... Johnny isn’t getting up!”

“Get in! I’ll carry Johnny!” Melody shouted as she headed toward the collapsed child, but a white boy wielding a cricket bat picked him up instead. “Thank you, Toby.”

“No problem. Help me out, Oliver!”

“Okay. Hassan, Thiago, you help too. Sun Jian, cover our surroundings. Lan Yan, feed your chocolate bar to the tired kids!” shouted Oliver, his green eyes shining.

The Middle Eastern Hassan and the South American Thiago helped Oliver carry the tired children. The Asian Sun Jian, wielding a bow, covered their surroundings as his eyes shone with a white light, and the little girl Lan Yan gave each tired child a bite of her chocolate bar.

“Thanks, you guys,” said the exhausted Melody with a faint smile.

The children had grown so much before she realized it, finding the roles they could play and striving toward them.

They’re a million times better than those Guardians clansmen! Melody shouted inwardly, gritting her teeth as she raced through the alley.

Once the orphanage accepted more children, she had paid a hefty amount of Coins to hire five members of Clan Guardians, who had fled as soon as the dragon attack commenced.

Damn cowards! What do they think the Coins I barely managed to pay them were for?!

Melody had been in the Mirror World for eight years. She had returned to the Capital ten months ago and had used almost all her Coins to buy the red-bricked building with a windmill attached. It had been because of the Adaptation quest, but not for the Karma she would obtain from clearing it.

She realized that the Lost-All would result in countless children overflowing the streets of the Capital with no parents. Hence, she named the building Windmill Orphanage and began to accept children with nowhere to go.

The Windmill Orphanage did not simply protect the children that Melody accepted. Her education motto was to become a weed over a flower; if one had no choice but to become a flower, they must grow thorns coated in poison.

Melody helped the children polish their powers, and over twenty had already become self-supporting. A hundred twenty-eight children came to the orphanage a few months ago, and about a dozen, including Oliver, were planning to be independent next month.

Damn dragons! I just barely managed to develop a nest to settle in! Melody thought, biting her lip as she recalled the Windmill Orphanage that had burned down by a pillar of fire from above.

She had ended up in the Capital, dragging her exhausted body and mind after losing all motivation to reach the center of the Mirror World. The last ten months she had spent with the children were the best moments of her life. Melody shook her head, thankful that they had not been too late to escape.

It’s okay. Buildings can always be rebuilt, but the children must be saved.

All that remained was to keep heading east and get past the Union’s defense line.

“Directress! There’s danger!” shouted Sun Jian, who possessed a detection skill.

Melody, leading the group, stretched her arms outward and shouted, “Everyone, stop!”

Something massive swung horizontally, destroying the alley. Inside the dust cloud was a tractus, an inferior dragon over ten meters long and four meters tall.

They screeched as they shouted, “So close! I could have turned you all into mincemeat!”

The tractus were of intermediate size, covered in spikes that made them look as if they wore horned armor, and had a lizard’s head. Their most prominent characteristic was their tail that they could swing with immense power, resembling a flail of various types of balls.

“Immature humans! Lucky me!”

“A tractus!” Melody said, biting her lip.

She could tell from their mana and Draconic Mana that they were a mature dragon. She knew how difficult it was to face a mature tractus. They were like tanks with hard armor that could swing insanely powerful flail tails.

“Leave this to us, Directress!”

“We’ll defeat it!”

“Prepare for combat!”

The children each summoned their D Weapons to protect Melody. They had never seen Melody summon her D Weapon or use skills, so they had stepped forward to protect their kind and gentle directress, who they naturally believed was a non-combatant.

“Gehehe! C’mere, you soft and tender treats!” the tractus said.

“All of you, stay back!” Melody stopped the children running toward her. She took a deep breath and asked Oliver, the most mature child of them with the most sound judgment. “Huuu... Oliver, once I kill that thing, take the other children and run as fast as you can. Others will arrive once they hear the noise.”

“B-but you’re not a combatant, Directress! I’ll face it! I’m a full-fledged swordsman now!” shouted Toby as he raised his cricket bat like a sword.

“This is hilarious. These inferior creatures have all lost their minds!” the tractus snorted as they spun their tail filled with Draconic Mana.

“Can you do that, Oliver?” Melody asked.

Oliver hesitated momentarily, but after feeling something from Melody’s resolute attitude, he replied, “Yes.”

“Oliver?” Toby looked at Oliver in wonder, but Oliver was only staring at Melody.

Directress... You must be about to release the thing... that you’ve been hiding from us, Oliver thought.

The quick-witted Oliver had realized long ago that Melody had been hiding something, but he loved her too much to even think about asking her what it was. But now, she seemed to be willing to reveal it of her own volition.

“Huuu... I didn’t want to use this, but... I have no choice!” Melody shouted, her silver eyes shining with determination.

She summoned her D Weapon, which she had not used for the past ten months. Two tiny hands stretched out of Melody’s abdomen and pulled it open like pulling open a curtain. She retched as if she had morning sickness.

A whining little boy’s voice sounded from inside her abdomen, “How could you, Mommy?! Didn’t you miss me?”

Melody’s pink apron was torn, and an infant with an umbilical cord still attached to his belly fell from her bleeding abdomen. The bloody infant was Melody’s D Weapon, Theo Mulder.

“Well, I missed you, Mommy, but you kept me stuffed in that dark place this whole time!” Theo said.

“N-no... that’s not...” Melody stuttered.

“Well, it’s no surprise! After all, you mashed me up like a tomato, Mommy! What’s to stop you from doing anything less? Kyahahaha!” The bloody infant got up and laughed demonically.

The children were shocked by the grotesque sight of a demonic infant jumping out of their angelic directress.

“W-what... is that?”

“Directress?”

“What the...”

“Oliver... Huuu, you remember what I told you, right?” Melody asked as she took deep breaths.

“Yes, Directress,” Oliver replied as he nodded.

“Good. Okay, let’s begin, Theo,” Melody said as she grabbed the umbilical cord still connected to her abdomen.

The demonic infant giggled demonically. “Kyahahaha! I’m a good boy, so I’ll listen to you, Mommy!”

[Activating Unique Skill: Thorn in my Heart.]

[Activating Unique Skill: Venom in my Heart.]

Spiky thorns grew from Theo Mulder, Melody’s D Weapon, and they were coated in venom that dripped on the ground, melting it.

“Humans sure use all kinds of peculiar skills!” the tractus shouted as they activated a skill.

[Activating Race Skill: Flail Tail.]

The tractus swung their tail once it generated enough momentum, activating their skill with it.

“My thorns can pierce anything! My venom can melt anything!” the bloody Melody shouted as she controlled the umbilical cord with her pale hand.

Theo giggled demonically as he charged at the tractus like a small monkey. However, just as they were about to clash, a thunderous boom echoed; someone had fallen from the sky so fast that they couldn’t be followed with the naked eye.

“W-what was that?”

“Directress!”

The children shouted, staring at the large dust cloud and the scattering rock fragments. Iridescent wings flashed so brightly that they were vivid even inside the dust cloud, which instantly vanished. The children saw the tractus, dead with a sword piercing their head, and an Asian man in a black hoodie, with a terrifying expression.

“Huh? That’s...” Oliver trailed off, wide-eyed.

“Mister!” Toby shouted delightfully.

He was the strongest man they knew, the undefeated swordsman, and their benefactor who had freed them from Hell. However, they did not recognize the expression of the man who pulled out his sword from the tractus’s head and walked down from their body. The man approached Melody, his face dyed with intense fury.

“You’re...” Melody trailed off, sensing the man’s overwhelming bloodlust and caliber.

“MELODY! YOU PROMISED! YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU WOULD NEVER BRING HIM OUT EVER AGAIN!” Seong-Hwi shouted.

“What... did you say?” Melody mumbled, unable to understand his immense fury toward her.

Seong-Hwi pointed his sword at her D Weapon, Theo Mulder, and shouted, “WHY WOULD YOU—Ah...” He slowly lowered the sword, seeming to have returned to his senses. He remained silent for a moment and said, “I’m sorry. I mistook you for someone else. Follow me. I will secure you an escape route.”

“Wait... Who—” Melody called to Seong-Hwi, but he walked forward without looking back.

Melody swallowed the question she had for him, thinking, Who is he?

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