"Hey, how's it going?" Adyr asked as he glided in through the open side door of the hovering hoverjet, slipping into the cabin humming with engines and pale instrument light.

"It's stable. We just launched the fourth missile without any problem," Selina said, a small, contained smile touching her lips as her posture and clipped tone showed the professionalism of a disciplined soldier.

Rhys's gaze tightened. "There is actually a problem. I don't know why, but it looks like transferring nuclear warheads from Earth to here consumes too much energy."

"How much exactly?" Adyr asked. He had already suspected the transfer would be costly, having read the researchers' recent report.

The transfer cost rose in step with an object's material complexity; the more intricate the composition was, the higher the energy burn was.

He had first tested the cost-efficiency of his Sanctuary long before, back when he first unlocked the feature in his system, by sending a pillow that still sat forgotten in a corner.

Until now, he had thought size was the cause, but cross-tests the researchers had run with other Players showed that the determining factor was the material, not the scale.

"Well, only for nuclear warheads it's around 500 energy," Rhys said, glancing toward red-haired Evangeline, who was overseeing the transfer operation.

"That high?" For a moment, the number clipped Adyr's thoughts. With that much, he could purchase a good quality Rank 3 Spark on the market.

It was also dramatically higher than what it had cost to send Cannibal to his Sanctuary.

That didn't mean Cannibal was cheap or worthless; human transfer costs clustered within a similar band. The striking part was the gulf between a biological being and a chemically lab-produced substance.

"I see," Adyr said after a brief pause, weighing the figures. "Stop the fire now. Just prepare two ready-to-launch ones for me and wait for further

instructions."

Evangeline slid the sealed vial of reactive compound into the missile's warhead and engaged the locking latch, seating it firmly in the reaction chamber, then raised her head. "Are you sure? That thing seems to regenerate very fast. If we stop now, the damage we've done so far will be wasted."

"I'm sure." Adyr's answer came with a faint smile. He turned to the researcher seated off to the side with a laptop. "Can you program them to detonate remotely?"

"Y-yeah, sure," the researcher said as he stood quickly, his shoulders tight and body tense, though it was hard to tell whether the cause was Adyr's high status or his intimidating appearance.

I wonder what Marielle and Niva would think when they saw me like this, Adyr thought, keeping the reflection to himself, as he still hadn't shown them his new look.

The researcher cleared his throat. "B-but you should know our signal transmitters still don't work, so I can only add a timed countdown system."

"That's okay. Set the timer to 5 minutes." Adyr nodded once, making it clear the limitation wasn't an issue.

Whatever he was planning, he intended to do it within 5 minutes, a revelation that left everyone in the cabin visibly shocked, yet they didn't waste time questioning him and instead hurried to carry out his orders.

While Evangeline and the researcher finished one missile, Selina leaned back in a seat, released her consciousness from her Beyond body, and shifted to her

body on Earth.

Within a few breaths, she returned with another missile body and a nuclear warhead, bringing both into the Beyond through her Sanctuary.

After they locked the second warhead in place and the researcher set the system, Adyr stepped closer.

"They're heavy, you know?" Rhys said, eyes narrowing, curiosity flickering as he tried to guess what Adyr was about to do.

Adyr did not answer. He pulled two ropes from the storage rack, threaded them through both missile bodies, and tightened the knots until the pair held together as a single load.

Testing the balance with a short tug, he caught the central tie in one hand, lifted both missiles in a smooth motion, and rested them against his back as if slinging a light pack for travel.

"They're quite okay," he said with a low chuckle, earning a few strange looks around the cabin.

"How high is your physical stat?" Rhys asked, then shook his head and waved it off. "Never mind. I do not want to know."

Even Eren, who had the highest muscle strength among them, would not have lifted 1,000 kilos(2,204 lbs) with that kind of ease; he could have managed the weight, but not with that calm, unhurried control.

Before leaving, Adyr turned his back to the researcher and said, "You can start the countdown now."

The researcher nodded, opened the metal access panel on each missile, entered the password, and set a 5-minute timer on both, then placed his palms on the arming switches and pressed them together so the countdowns began simultaneously, closed the panels, and stepped back.

"It's done."

Adyr inclined his head, spread his wings without wasting a second, and dropped from the hoverjet.

Those who remained in the hoverjet leaned to the open hatch and watched Adyr slice into the night, wings beating as he arrowed toward the Blood

Dragon.

"What is he planning?" Evangeline asked, her voice edged with worry and a

hush of expectation.

With two nuclear warheads lashed to his back, both set to detonate in 5 minutes, the maneuver looked perilously close to a suicide run.

Rhys gave a short, humorless laugh. "My guess? He is going to ram those things

into its ass and blow it from the inside."

He did not temper his language even with the two women beside him, but

anyway, his guess was quite close.

Selina, her eyes still tracking Adyr's descent, offered the more logical one.

"He will probably make the dragon swallow them."

The Blood Dragon's scales were incredibly durable, and its regeneration rate was immense, yet its inner tissues were unlikely to be nearly as resilient. That was the assumption they all shared as they followed Adyr's shrinking form

into the glare and heat below.

***

A/N: We successfully failed the mission guys, and ended up closing the month in 11th place :D Nevertheless, your support so far has been phenomenal. I'm really thankful for that.