One Last System

We flew through the air for quite a while.

It was an insane experience, even for someone like me, who, to a certain degree, had already managed to live through something similar.

Yet, right now, I wasn't in the mood to enjoy the ride or the views. Rather than that, I strained both my physical eyes and my mana perception in search of any clue that could lead me to Mia.

"Isn't this..." I muttered when a strangely familiar set of land suddenly dawned before my eyes. "There!" I shouted, sliding up the Dragon's back only to hand down from the bottom of its neck and point my hand in that specific direction. "Can you bring me there?" I shouted again, more for the sake of passing the message with the tone of my voice, something that proved to be quite challenging with how noisy the air at this speed was.

"Rawr!" the Dragon uttered a small cry only to then bring its wings together and make a small dive.

A mere moment later, the Dragon spread out its wings again, sliding through the air at an angle that quickly brought it to a direct line of approach to the direction I pointed out.

For a moment, I couldn't help but worry.

'Is this really a place I saw before?' I thought, pretty uncertain over how much I could count on this Dragon's help.

'It's already a blessing that we are not fighting to the death. It would be best not to try to ask too much out of it,' I thought while clenching my teeth.

The distance between our position and the place I noticed shrunk pretty quickly, courtesy of flying on the back of likely the fastest being in the world when discounting the strongest cultivators in the whole damned world.

And a mere few moments later, the Dragon took a dive again, only to kill its momentum with a gentle slide that brought us right above the ground level.

For a moment, I wanted to just jump down and accept the pain of landing at such a great speed... But those thoughts quickly disappeared when the curve of the Dragon's approach suddenly changed directions, bringing us back to the skies.

This time, however, the Dragon didn't bother to climb any higher than necessary, opting to just make a swinging motion to lose most of its momentum before falling down and finally landing on the ground.

"Is this the place?" I muttered to myself as I jumped off the Dragon's back, only to immediately kneel down on the ground and look for clues.

I moved my eyes to the side, to where a dense part of the woodlands started. Right at the limit of how far my eyes could reach, I could notice a massive chain of mountains.

'We were here,' I thought, recognizing the landscape that I observed roughly halfway through my trip with Mia from before.

And with a set direction, I could finally figure out where exactly I should start my hunt for my girl.

"I know where we are!" I shouted as I started to run.

I dared not to say another word, worried that asking the Dragon for any more help would make it annoyed.

'I know too little about it to risk anything. And if I were to anger it, then approaching Mia would turn into the worst of the things I could do,' I thought, clenching my teeth as I started to increase my pace above what a normal mortal could ever hope to achieve.

And then, a positive surprise somehow lifted my mood.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

The sound of heavy steps reached my ears from my left side. I leaned my head to identify its source...

Only to see the Dragon running right by my side.

'I guess it's happy to help,' I thought, my lips forming a small smile when I kicked against the ground and leaped to the side, climbing right back to the Dragon's spine.

"Let's go!" I shouted, only for the Dragon to spread its wings wide.

We were already moving at a pretty fast speed, so when the monster suddenly caught a massive amount of air with its wings, it allowed us nearly a vertical climb up.

For a moment, the Dragon continued to fly up, just like a passenger plane would do back on earth. Only once it gained enough height for its comfort did the dragon level our flight before heading in the direction I was interested in.

Now that I knew where we should go, we could skip all the roaming and hovering, opting to rush for the place where I left Mia at a breakneck speed.

"It's here!" I announced, once again climbing to the bottom of the Dragon's neck to point it out towards the familiar area.

I could see it. The place where I apologized to Mia before leaving to sacrifice my life to stop the seemingly evil Dragon from destroying the ancient city.

Yet, Mia wasn't there.

'Right, she likely went to search for the survivors,' I thought, turning my hand a little bit to the side, pointing my finger at the place I could see the fain leftovers of my own mana linger.

'Where are you?' a thought appeared in my mind.

The desire to find Mia. To protect her from the potential danger. To save her from those who could wish harm upon my beloved.

And an intense, overarching fear caused by the fact that I didn't find her in the place I believed she was most likely to be.

'Just where are you?!' I thought, feeling how the tears of immense worry appeared in my eyes.

Crack...

BOOM!

A pillar of blue light suddenly erupted a small distance away. It was quite similar to the shroom of an atomic explosion, yet it was inherently different at the same time.

But there was one thing that I found extremely familiar in it. One thing that I nearly forgot I ever saw before.

It had exactly the same nature as the sparks I noticed when Mia broke through Vaner's shield to prove her worth as a potential disciple!

Yet, as happy as I was to finally find out where my loved one was, a single question appeared in my mind at the same time.

A question so logical and down-to-the-ground that it made my blood freeze in my veins.

'What made her use this strange power?'