Anaheim sighed and shook her head, pressing a button on her watch to summon her flying metal egg. She lugged Luke over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and frowned. “So spineless. Is he really the demon lord?” she asked as she glanced at the unconscious man. “He was much more imposing in game.”

“You’re just too scary in reality,” Khrx said with a nod as he peered out the window. The metal egg had touched down, hovering an inch above the ground. Khrx looked around one more time to see if there were any more valuables he could take, but he didn’t see any, so he led Duchess Rose out of the front door.

“Me? Scary?” Anaheim asked with a furrowed brow. Her cheeks were smeared with blood and her clothes had bits of unidentified flesh clinging to them. “Am I really? You’ve seen me even messier when I cooked those cows for you.”

“But Luke hasn’t,” Khrx said as he climbed onto the metal egg. He was practically bouncing up and down, waiting for the others to board. “Let’s find Fufu!” He tugged on Duchess Rose’s black curtain-like sleeve. “Which way? How far? You can still sense her, right?”

“Yes,” Duchess Rose said. “Don’t worry, Khrx. You can count on me.” She sat on the couch-like seat that sprang out of the floor and removed her hood as the metal egg closed shut, blocking out the sun. Her eyes closed and she hummed to herself before pointing south. “That way.”

The egg jetted into the air, causing Khrx to press flat against his seat from the pressure. He shook off the feeling and straightened his back while blinking his large eyes at Anaheim. “Go as fast as you can, please.”

Anaheim gave him a warm smile as she manipulated the projections floating within the flight craft. It shot off as more projections appeared along the walls and floor, revealing the outside world. Duchess Rose flinched as sunlight landed on her skin, but she relaxed when she realized it was just a projection created with magic. Or technology—as Anaheim put it. But technology might as well have been magic; they were both practically inexplicable.

Khrx blinked as he pointed at the projection on the floor. “What happened there?”

Anaheim looked down and frowned. What used to be a magnificent city was now a ruined pile of scorched rubble. “A city-level threat?” she asked and pressed on the screen a few times. The projection zoomed in on the destruction. Past the shattered skyscrapers and burnt down buildings, the ground seemed to be moving. Anaheim pinched and spread the screen, zooming in even further. Her face turned green when she realized thousands upon thousands of worms were wriggling on the surface of the ground. It wasn’t a layer of ash blanketing the ruined city’s ground, it was a layer of black worms, eating away at everything. The buildings and skyscrapers were dissolving ever so slowly as the worms nibbled away at them.

“Oh, hey,” Khrx said, his eyes lighting up. “Aren’t those Niddy’s offspring?” He hopped off the chair and crouched closer to the projection. “They are! They’re so cute as always. But Niddy and everyone related to him died after they finished eating Yggy. What’s going on?”

“Niddy? Yggy?” Anaheim asked. “You know these things?”

“Hmm? Yeah,” Khrx said. “Niddy’s a giant worm. Yggy’s a giant tree. They had a love-hate relationship where Niddy loved eating Yggy, and Yggy hated Niddy for eating him. But once Niddy finished eating Yggy, there was no more food that Niddy could eat to live off of, so he died too.”

“How come I’ve never heard about this?” Anaheim asked.

Khrx shrugged. “Maybe because you’re too young. Luke knows them.”

“Is that right?” Anaheim asked, nudging Luke who was pretending to be dead. Unfortunately, he couldn’t deceive Anaheim’s eyes of truth.

Luke groaned as he glared at Khrx before burying his face into his hands. “That worm and tree were powerhouses three billion years ago. The great tree covered half the world with its roots. The dreadful worm covered the other half of the world with its offspring. Terrible, terrible time to live in. Property values were abysmal.”

“Pretending that everything you two are saying is true,” Anaheim said, “you’re trying to tell me an ancient worm from three billion years that ruled half the world is back?”

“Hey, look!” Khrx said, his eyes brightening even further. Ahead of the metal egg, a massive green tendril the size of a mountain blocked their path. “It’s a branch of Yggy!”

Anaheim stared at the tendril that was rocking back and forth in the wind. It looked nothing like a branch; perhaps, if a tree was just beginning to grow branches, it’d be what an offshoot from the trunk would look like. It was green and lacked leaves. “If that’s a branch, where’s the trunk?”

“Yggy doesn’t like standing up,” Khrx said. “His trunk lies against the earth and his roots spread out from his belly unlike other trees where the roots only spread out of their feet.”

Anaheim’s expression darkened. “Why do you sound so excited? I can even see it in your eyes.”

“Huh?” Khrx blinked at Anaheim, trying to hold back his smile. “Me? Excited? I’m not a child! I’m an ancient dragon. I don’t get excited. But it has been a really, really long time since I saw those two. I used to play capture the flag with those two.”

“Capture the flag?” Duchess Rose asked. “I’ve heard about that game. Whose side did you take?”

“Neither side. I was the flag,” Khrx said, puffing his chest out.

Anaheim suddenly reached out with her hand, grabbing onto Luke, causing him to let out a miserable cry. “Who said you could activate a teleportation spell, darling?” she asked, crushing his shoulder as she clenched her fingers into a fist. She clicked her tongue as sweat poured from Luke’s forehead. “I’ll train you to fall in love with me soon. Don’t worry.”

“Is that how love works?” Duchess Rose whispered to Khrx.

“You’ve never fallen in love?” Khrx whispered back.

“Every time I thought I fell in love, I ate the other party and realized it was just hunger,” Duchess Rose whispered back, shooting glances at Anaheim and Luke. “I think Anaheim’s going to eat him.” Her body stiffened as she whipped her head around. “Turn back! Go north, go north! The target just slipped past us!” She blinked twice and stared at Khrx. “How fast is Fufu?”

“She can run around the world in three minutes,” Khrx said, puffing his chest out.

“Don’t sound so proud about that!” Anaheim said. “How are we supposed to catch her?”

“This egg can’t fly around the world in three minutes?” Khrx asked, tilting his head.

“No.”

Khrx sighed as he turned his head towards Duchess Rose. He could fly a little faster than Fufu if he really put his mind to it, but he’d also have to carry someone else too. That went against all his principles of laziness! But for Fufu…. Khrx sighed again. “Alright, alright. I’ll exert some strength.”