Luke lay on his back in the dirt, thoroughly knocked out as I stood there staring at him.
The cloak still fluttered behind me, the shotgun still clutched in my hand, and my head… my head was frankly not in a great place.
Because the truth was... I almost killed him.
For that one vicious heartbeat, I really wanted to.
The moment I'd seen Nom-Nom lying there, wing gone, blood everywhere, and her massive body sprawled out like a fallen mountain, something inside me just… tilted.
It wasn't fiery rage or righteous fury.
It was colder than that.
It was the kind of anger that stops seeing people as people.
And standing here now, with the enemy completely pacified and looted of his treasures, I could still feel the echo of that instinct.
It was like a whisper at the back of my mind telling me I should've fired AP instead of Snow. I should've aimed with just a little more intent; he should've died before he even knew what hit him.
And… I understood why.
Even agreed with it to a certain degree.
These people experimented on her for five centuries.
Five. Hundred. Years.
They took this creature… this girl who lights up when she tries new food, who wants to explore the world, who just wants to live.
These people strapped her down like a lab rat and experimented on her like some subject for the entirety of her life.
And then had the gall to come after her again, like she was some escaped pet instead of a living being.
So yeah, for a moment… I wanted to return the favor.
My hand tightened around the shotgun, feeling the weight settle into my bones.
I could almost see it, dumping MP into this thing, pulling the trigger, and watching the blast erase him cleanly from the world.
And the part of me that survived needles, chemo burns, and hospital beds whispered that he kind of deserved it.
"That'd just make things worse… for everybody."
Those words had barely escaped my mouth when a tremor rolled through the dirt.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as the sound reached me.
"Mas…ter…?"
"Nom?" I breathed, already shoving all my MP into the cloak.
Her voice came again, weak and rumbling like distant thunder, and whatever murderous instinct had been chewing at my spine just evaporated.
The burning forest blurred around me as I zipped through the air, while Nom-Nom's massive head filled more and more of my vision.
"Nom! You okay?" I called out, louder than I meant to, worried she wouldn't hear me at this size.
Her eyelids fluttered, and a deep vibration rolled through her throat before the words followed.
"Master… did I do something wrong? Why are you shouting?"
That voice of hers came out a little gravelly, atop the warmth buried under exhaustion. And it made twisted my chest.
"No-no, that's not what I meant at all," I rushed out, hands raised. "I just didn't know if you could still hear me. Y'know… with the whole gigantic-dragon-body thing going on."
A tired rumble escaped her that might've been a laugh if she weren't on the brink of collapse.
"Oh. I can hear you just fine…" she murmured, her tone softening as she shifted in place, trying to get her footing under her enormous body.
Nom-Nom lifted herself slowly with claws digging into the broken earth while dust slid from her scales in small avalanches as she pulled her weight upright.
I floated beside her jawline, trying to keep my voice steady.
She tried to smile… or at least, as much as a dragon the size of a football field can, but it faltered the moment she moved her right side.
And I saw it hit her before she even looked.
Even I could tell that those four wings were a part of her identity. The identity of Greater Dragon.
She turned her head slowly, afraid of what she already knew.
Saw her breath hitch unevenly as dread set in.
As Nom-Nom's gaze travelled along her shoulder… drifted past it, she saw the stump.
The darkened, sealed flesh where a wing should've been.
And the sound she made…
A low, rising rumble. Just a trembling, wounded confusion that twisted knots in my chest.
"I… it's gone…" she whispered.
And the world around her seemed to shrink.
A creature who could carve mountains apart suddenly looked small.
"I didn't even feel it happen," she murmured, lowering her head until her snout nearly brushed the ground. "I flew… I fought… I…"
I drifted closer before resting a hand against the scales as she just let out a shaky exhale.
"I won't fly the same…I won't fight the same… I can't-"
"Nom," I said quietly, "... look at me."
Her eyes turned, slow as dusk settling over a field.
"I'll figure it out…" I said, staring straight into her eyes, "I promise you…You'll be back in the sky again, very soon."
But Nom-Nom didn't answer me.
Her neck rolled forward suddenly, fast enough that I jerked back on instinct. Her pupils tightened into slits, the violet in them burning hotter with each raged breath she took.
Heat began pushing out from her body in waves, stirring the ash around us.
"He is alive," she growled, making the ground tremble under her voice. "I can feel him."
Her claws sank deeper into the ground, cracking fissures under the pressure as she leaned forward, ready to move.
"Nom, wait," I pushed off the air, planting myself in her path before she could take another step.
She froze, but the fire crawling over her scales didn't fade. It kept climbing upward, gathering at her throat, trembling with everything she wasn't saying.
"Master, he's alive," she repeated.
"I know," I said, keeping my voice steady even though the wind from her breath alone could've knocked me back. "And I beat him up, read bad for you too… trust me!"
Nom-Nom didn't blink.
"He took my wing," she said.
She didn't shouted.
Just spoke a simple truth that hurt worse the quieter she said it.
"I know," I answered softly. "And I took something that is just as precious to him."
Her gaze flicked to the shotgun I raised up in my hand.
"Master…," she whispered. "He took my wing. He took my flight. He was going to take my life. My freedom."
"And we stopped him!" I said, inching closer, lowering my voice. "Now there is nothing between our freedom… our adventure. So, let's go!"
Nom-Nom's breath rumbled, and for a moment she looked like she was about to shove past me anyway as she said, "Master… I can't just-"
She stopped mid-sentence as her eyes lifted to mine.
"Master," she asked quietly, "... is this an order?"
I felt my shoulders loosen as I shook my head.
"No," I said, stepping aside and clearing the way. "You have a choice here, Nom."
She stared at me, waiting, so I kept going.
"You can walk up there and blast him out of existence… stepping to your freedom as the fearsome greater dragon, who will make Pantheon quake in their boot from the sheer mention of her name."
Nom-Nom's breathing deepened.
"Or you can simply walk away…" I continued.
"Free and bereft of vengeance. Having proven to the self-righteous Pantheon… and the whole world that the monster they thought they were caging and studying… was really just Nom-Nom all along, capable of forgiveness, and full of compassion… Even to the ones who have wronged her all her life. That all she wants is to live her life freely."
Her eyes softened a little. Softened enough that the fire stopped climbing higher.
While I floated back, giving her more space.
"And I want you to choose. Feeling rest assured that… no matter what you choose, I'd stand by you. We'll have our fun. We'll have… our adventure!"
Nom-Nom held my gaze for a long moment, while the fire inside her flickered between instincts carved over centuries and something softer she'd only barely begun to learn.
And then she turned.
Took a massive step toward the crater.
The ground cracked apart under her weight. Leaves shook loose from burning trees. Even the air rippled with every breath she took as she neared the edge and stared down at the man who had taken her flight from her.
While I waited, feeling saliva thickening in my throat.
And after a long, heavy silence… Nom-Nom shifted her weight and moved around the crater.
Her wings brushed the smoke as she passed it, turning her back on the man who'd nearly ruined her life, before lifting her head toward the distant treeline.
"Master," she said, "what are you waiting for? X-97 is this way. Let's rescue them and finally leave."
I didn't even notice when that grin stretched across my face, as I said, "Yeah! Let's go!"