Crushed. The familiar landscape, the neighbouring town across the river—had been trampled.
The skies shook. The ground gave way, swallowing up houses, cars, trees.
Those tremors even reached the boy on an overlook of a distant hill, etching cracks into the concrete by his feet.
"Go away... please go away..."
Beside the boy, a girl cried. Collapsed on the ground, she begged as tears flowed down her face.
Begged towards the being that had tread over the neighbouring town.
But there was no way that the voice from such a tiny human would reach.
The giant foot that easily flattened a whole town. The long arm that lightly swept away mountains. The head, hidden within clouds, invisible.
It was a large, unbelievably large thing.
One of the supernatural creatures called dragons.
In particular, the blue dragon—Hekatonkheir.
Though it was named after the giant humanoids of legend, probably the only similarity it shared with humans was that it walked on two feet.
Its whole body was covered with blue scales, and when it moved a part of the scales lit up, forming a strange pattern. Furthermore the head that occasionally peeked out from the gaps in the clouds had neither eyes nor a nose nor a mouth, instead there existed just a single horn-like bulge.
There was no way to label such a being under the existing biological cla.s.sification framework. That was why it was a dragon.
The blue dragon that wandered the world on its whim—the headless giant.
Unfortunate towns that end up in its path can do nothing but wait to be destroyed. Those who lived there could only run away before they were crushed.
However, the girl was the only one who did not turn away from the giant. She was the only one that headed towards the overlook in order to face the monster.
The boy had come to bring the girl back, but what he witnessed there was the battle between the girl and the giant.
"Gooo Awaaaaaaaaay——!!"
The girl screamed. Raising her head, staring at the giant, she squeezed her voice out.
As she did so, a black sphere appeared in front of the girl"s eyes, and shot towards the giant.
A few seconds later, a bright flash filled the world and the air shook. When color returned to the surroundings, a part of the giant"s left arm and flank had disappeared, as if gouged out.
However, that lasted but a brief moment.
As the girl took another breath, the left arm and flank returned to normal.
"...!"
Even then, the girl continued to glare at the giant, biting down on her teeth.
"Mitsuki—why don"t you give up?"
The boy called to her in a calm voice.
"There"s no way I can... give up."
The girl replied hoa.r.s.ely.
"But why? Our parents have already evacuated. Everyone else have probably long since escaped too. There"s nothing that you need to protect like—"
"There is! Our house is still there! That town is where our family belongs!!"
Overpowering the boy"s voice, the girl yelled.
The giant seemed to be getting ready to take yet another step. In front of it was the town that the boy and the girl had lived in for thirteen years.
Six years as neighbors, then seven years as family, the two had lived together.
"...I see."
With a small sigh, the boy patted the girl on the head.
The girl looked up towards the boy with a confused face.
"Nii-san?"
"Leave everything to me."
Even now, three years later, the girl did not understand what had happened then.
But it was true that the boy had fulfilled his words.
He drove away Hekatonkheir, saved the town, and shouldered the result all by himself.
It was not until afterwards that the girl realized what the thing she most wanted to protect was.
Not until after she had lost the boy—.