Arcturus Forest

Lotte cried out in panic as she and Mary-Ann are taken away by a Dragon Bot.

"Lotte!" Akko shouted as she took aim with the Shiny Rod. She prepared to fire a Murowa bolt at the Dragon Bot, only to be stopped by Amanda.

"Wait! Haven't you heard of friendly fire!" Amanda said as she pushed the Shiny Rod down, breaking Akko's aim.

"But-" The Japanese girl protested.

"She is right!" The Shiny Rod agreed with Amanda. "What if you miss and end up hitting your friend?"

Constanze let out a grunt as she stepped forward, having put away her rocket launcher and replaced it with a net gun that she got from somewhere, and took aim with it.

However, Constanze never got the chance to fire the net gun, as another Dragon Bot suddenly swooped down from out of nowhere and snatched her along with Amanda in its talons, simultaneously causing the latter to release her grip on the Shooting Star.

"Let me go, you lousy sonova-" Amanda struggled to break free of the Dragon Bot's grip as it carried her and Constanze away.

Jasminka rushed forth in an attempt to grab on to the Dragon Bot before it could get away with her coven mates, only to be caught by a third Dragon Bot in the process as it too took off with her in its talons.

Akko cried out for the Green Coven. She took aim with the Shiny Rod again, this time able to fire off a shot with no one to stop her, only for the shot to miss her target completely and fly off into the sky.

"Let them go, you lousy sonova-" The Shooting Star quickly shot up to the sky and pursued the Dragon Bots. The sentient magic broom is able to catch up... only to get knocked out of the sky by a well-timed tail swipe from one of the Dragon Bots, landing pointy end first on the ground.

The Japanese girl could only watch as the Dragon Bots took off with her friends to who-knows-where.

"Kuso!" Akko cursed out in anger as she then kicked a small rock, sending it bouncing quite a distance away.

"On the bright side, you still have me..." Sucy nonchalantly said as she suddenly appeared in front of Akko.

The pale girl's sudden appearance caused Akko to jump back and yelp in surprise. "Sucy! When did-"

"I don't know. Feels like I'm in a story and the writer forgot about me until right now..." Sucy answered nonchalantly.

Akko had no idea how to respond to that, so she ignored it for now and walked past Sucy. "Never mind. But we need to go save the others!"

"I reckon that they've been taken to Fafnir himself." The Shiny Rod told Akko.

"I know that!" The Japanese girl said as she grabbed and pulled the Shooting Star out of the ground. "Are you alright?" She then asked the sentient broom.

"Feels like I've been splintered. But I'm fine." The Shooting Star answered with a pained groan. "Those dragons couldn't have been waiting to ambush us. They must've come from somewhere close by, and I think that's where they're headed to with the others." It then said.

"Well, then, lead the way!"

...

Not too long later, Akko and Sucy arrived at where the Shooting Star brought them.

It appeared to be a ruined structure, with so little of the structure itself left that it is impossible to tell what it used to be. However, the most prominent feature of the site wasn't the ruined structure, but the large, deep vertical tunnel dug into the middle of it.

"Well it does look like a place the dragons could've gone to." Sucy said.

Akko, out of curiosity, leaned slightly over the edge of the tunnel and looked down it. It isn't too deep, as Akko could see the bottom even without any illuminations other than the moonlight, but it still looked deep enough to discourage the Japanese girl from just jumping down it. On top of that, the walls of the tunnel looked too smooth to facilitate climbing.

"They must've went down there with the others." Akko stated. "We need to get down there and rescue them, then steal the Philosopher's Stone back from Fafnir!" She continued loudly.

"And how do you suppose we do any of that while you are drawing the attention of Fafnir and his robotic minions with your voice?" The Shooting Star asked sarcastically.

"He is right." The Shiny Rod agreed, then groaned at the thought of agreeing with its rival. "Don't forget that Fafnir is still a dragon, after all. He will not be a pushover." The sentient staff continued.

"Not to mention that he could probably afford some modern security measures, given how he even has robot dragons in the first place." Sucy pointed out.

Akko backed down a bit after hearing what the other three just said.

"Alright, alright, we should do this quietly. But we still shouldn't waste any more time!"

With that, Akko and Sucy rode on the Shooting Star and quietly descended down the tunnel.

...

Fafnir's Lair

After a minute of traversing through the tunnel, the group soon arrived at what is believed to be Fafnir's lair.

It is barely lit, as befitting for a dragon's lair. Going by what Akko and Sucy could see from their position, the lair is very large and lined with polished stone. There is also a large stone table with several spiky, scary-looking devices on it.

"This looks really creepy." Akko said with a shiver as she slowly dismounted from the Shooting Star.

"If I were human, I'd be having goosebumps right now." The Shooting Star added.

"Feels kind of cozy..." Sucy, as per her usual demeanor, remarked nonchalantly as she too dismounted from the Shooting Star.

"Be careful, you lot." The Shiny Rod told everyone. "Fafnir isn't dumb. He is probably expecting us already."

Akko as much as she wanted to rescue her friends and steal back the Philosopher's Stone as quickly as possible, agreed with the sentient staff. She didn't want to take chances with a dragon, after all.

"You two wait here." The Japanese girl told Sucy and the Shooting Star. "I'll go take a look first..."

With that said, Akko then emerged from the hiding spot, sticking close to the walls as she snuck through the lair.

Unfortunately, the sneaking around didn't last long before the lair suddenly lit up brightly...

"You couldn't have just came in through the front door politely, do you?" A deep, guttural voice spoke right afterwards.

Akko, sweating profusely at getting caught, turned toward the source of the voice...

And found herself staring right at a huge dragon...


Sorry for yet another effing delay and short chapter. This time, it's due to my newfound addiction to Genshin Impact which I just started playing two weeks ago.

Despite me saying several chapters ago that we're coming close to the end of the story, it's still going to take quite a while before we actually reach it, no thanks to my Writer's Block and getting distracted constantly. So yeah, sorry about that...

"Just remember: a believing heart is your magic..."

Afterword ends here.