"Has the medical unit arrived yet? I want Yugo to be treated as soon as possible..."
"It’s fine. I’d rather they prioritize the others first."
"Hehe... You are both so very kind."
Yugo and Ryuga, who had been searching for the medical unit a short distance from their companions, looked slightly sheepish at Raiha's smiling remark.
As Yugo let his gaze wander to hide his embarrassment, something caught his eye.
"Hm...?"
The area surrounding the hospital was a chaotic scene of people being rescued, members of the Security Force scrambling to assist them, and relatives of those who had been trapped.
The crowd was thick and bustling, but among the many faces, he spotted one that didn't belong.
(Egos? What is he doing here...?)
Meandering aimlessly through the sea of people was Egos Cutman. Yugo felt a surge of suspicion alongside the shock of the man's sudden appearance.
Why would he show up here after being subject to school expulsion from Luminous Academy? As Yugo tracked his movements, a sense of profound wrongness set in.
His gait was bizarre. He made no effort to avoid the people moving around him, walking forward with the hollow, vacant presence of a mannequin.
Sensing a dark omen in Egos's demeanor, Yugo realized the man was headed straight toward Fee and Yui. A cold dread that made his hair stand on end surged through him.
"Fee! Yui-chan! Get away from there, now!"
"Eh...?"
He had no evidence, no logical reason to be sure, but Yugo was certain that Egos was targeting the two children.
Yugo shouted to warn them of the approaching threat, but in that instant, Egos's sluggish movements vanished. He closed the distance with terrifying speed.
"Yui!"
Egos brandished his weapon, a heavy axe, and swung it upward.
Ryuga screamed as he saw the man standing behind the confused children, his arm poised to deliver a lethal blow.
At this distance, they would never reach them in time.
Yugo and Ryuga watched with wide, desperate eyes—and then it happened.
"Gyah!?"
"Wha...!?"
A streak of lightning arced directly toward Egos.
The golden radiance tore through the air and struck Egos just as he prepared to swing. The impact sent him flying; he hit the ground rolling, letting out a jagged scream.
Melt and her companions, Jinba and the Security Force, and even the bystanders gathered nearby froze in shock as they watched Egos collapse.
However, two people were looking elsewhere.
Yugo and Ryuga weren't looking at the spot where the lightning had landed. Their eyes were fixed on the point from which it had been fired.
"Hah... hah...!"
"Raiha... what was that just now?"
Yugo's voice trembled as he questioned her.
If she had used a spell or a Magic Item to release that electric shock, he wouldn't have been so shaken.
But he had seen it clearly. Raiha had spat that lightning from her own mouth.
As the asymmetrical bangs covering her face shifted, Yugo caught a glimpse of her right eye and felt a jolt of pure horror.
Raiha's right eye was not human. It was the slit-pupiled eye of a reptile—a snake or a lizard. The skin around it was cracked and layered with what looked like scales.
No, even that wasn't quite right. Intuitively, Yugo realized the truth. Her eye was that of a dragon.
As he struggled to find words, a bone-chilling sensation made him gasp.
"...Remember when I saved you? Back when that man rolling on the ground was about to lay hands on you."
"Ryuga...?"
The air around Ryuga, who was still supporting Yugo, shifted palpably.
He radiated a cold, sharp, and sinister bloodlust. Yugo watched in stunned silence as Ryuga addressed Raiha with a tone that felt entirely alien to his usual self.
"Back then, I saw your chest and was left speechless. There was a massive sword scar carved into your skin. Answer me one thing. How did you get that wound?"
"........."
When Ryuga had rescued Raiha from Egos previously, her torn clothes had briefly exposed a jagged scar on her chest.
If it had been an ordinary injury, he might have overlooked it. But Ryuga had recognized it the moment he saw it.
"There is no mistaking it. That scar... it was made by my father’s blade. Answer me, Raiha Utusemi. Where did you face my father's katana?"
"...!"
Raiha kept her head bowed, her tightly clenched fists shaking.
Ryuga leveled a piercing gaze at her, demanding an answer while exuding a terrifying aura that had completely discarded his polite mask.
"...So that’s it? It was you... You are the one!!"
"...Yes. It is exactly as you suspect. I should have told you much sooner."
As Yugo listened, the pieces of the puzzle slowly fell into place. The realization left him utterly aghast.
The lightning from her mouth. The hidden eye. The scar on her chest, and her lingering, guilty hesitation.
The truth solidified in Yugo's mind at the exact moment Raiha spoke.
"I am the one... I am the true identity of the Mad Dragon that killed your father five years ago."