45. Last Boss

At the foot of the mountain adjacent to the entrance of the ancient ruins. There stood a young woman with red-purple eyes and long dark purple-pink hair and some loose bangs covering her forehead.

She wore crimson armor with black trim covering her shoulders, breasts, and four limbs, along with crimson armor wings on her back.

In front of him was a handsome man with short silver hair and wearing noble clothes. However, what was noteworthy about the man was that his Divine Drag-Ride was shaped like a colossal battleship. It was covered in silver multifold armor and had countless cannons. There was a cockpit covered in reinforced glass in the center where the man sat in the cockpit and piloted it.

The young woman was Tabane, and the handsome man in front of her was Fugil Arcadia.

The two finally met after Tabane killed all of Fugil's men. Actually, Tabane was just having fun because in this world, IS and Drag-Ride had similarities in terms of power and technology. She spent her time searching for someone who would dare to fight against her to test her IS further. The appearance of Fugil's men was just a coincidence. Tabane only wanted to experiment with fighting against Drag-Ride users because Drag-Ride had piqued her interest. Too bad, they wanted to kill Tabane instead. Tabane did not stay silent and killed them all and took all the Drag-Rides belonging to them.

Because of that, Fugil assumed that Tabane was luring him out of his lair. And finally, the two of them met.

Seeing Fugil's killing intent, Tabane smirked.

"Arara. Nice Drag-Ride you have. Makes me want to test my newest IS."

It's been two months since Tabane researched and experimented with combining IS with Drag-Ride. Both have something in common. Cores, weapons, energy, sensors, etc.

A significant difference lies in special abilities. IS has a special ability to change from the default form to the first shift, then the second shift, until the third shift. But changes to the second and third shifts are rare.

Meanwhile, all Drag-Rides, especially Divine Drag-Rides, each have a special ability called a special armament. Like Fugil's Divine Drag-Ride which has special armaments to imitate others' Drag-Ride and also teleportation.

"So, you're the so-called demoness? Your deeds are so noble, you have killed a lot of my men." Fugil gave her sarcastic words.

"Oh? Your men? I didn't remember that. After all, who cares about humans like you all?"

"The way you talk like you're not human."

"What do you think?" Tabane replied with a smile. Then, she said, "You have a pretty good Drag-Ride. How about you lend it to me for a bit? I'd like to take a look at your Drag-Ride?"

Fugil gritted his teeth. But he was able to control himself so he didn't lose his mind because the woman in front of him didn't see him as a threat.

"You sure are pretty relaxed, eh? By the way, can you give her to me? She's not dead, is she?" Fugil pointed at the one under Tabane.

"Oh, this one? She called herself Hayes something. Are you perhaps her acquaintance? What's your name?"

Under Tabane was a woman who was already unconscious. That woman was Hayes Vi Arcadia. Tabane intended to kill Hayes, but when Fugil came, she stopped doing so. Hayes' Drag-Ride has the ability to cut through space. Too bad, just cutting space would be useless against Tabane. Any IS has a much higher speed than Drag-Ride. So no matter how many times Hayes attacked Tabane, Hayes would not be able to defeat her.

Fugil furrowed his brows. He didn't know how Tabane could kill all of his people. However, what Tabane said and her relaxed attitude intrigued him.

Fugil didn't want a meaningless fight, so he tried to find out what Tabane wanted. Besides that, Fugil didn't care about his men at all. Most importantly, it seemed that the woman in front of him had taken all of his men's Drag-Rides after seeing the armor Tabane was wearing. Fugil was pretty sure that Tabane's armor wasn't the Drag-Ride he knew.

"This woman doesn't care about life at all. All she wants is to research Drag-Rides and create a new Drag-Ride that she called IS earlier. I'll try to see if this woman is worth investing in." Fugil said inwardly.

Fugil had already lost a lot of men, it would be difficult if he recruited again. However, the woman in front of him was able to wipe out his men by herself. If he could get this woman to join him, then that would be great news.

"You, why did you kill my men? I don't know you and I didn't ask my men to attack you."

"Hmm? Throws back the question from my question, huh? Well, if you want to know, I'll tell you." Tabane pointed to the IS she piloted. "I want to create a new generation IS by combining it with a Drag-Ride. When I finish my first try, I want to find an opponent for my IS. It just so happened that there was a commotion at the academy, so I tried my IS against someone who was making a fuss. I killed that guy and got the first Divine Drag-Ride. Since then, I have continued to meet such people one by one. Well, it can't be helped. My genius is incomparable after all."

Fugil pondered. He only saw Tabane as a mad scientist. She just wanted to do a test run, but Fugil's men wanted to kill her. Of course, she wasn't going to stand by and let herself be killed.

Fugil smiled.

"In that case, please forgive me for being incompetent to take care of my underlings who are acting so recklessly. How about you join me? I will facilitate you with whatever you want. I'm even willing to lend you a Divine Drag-Ride. But you must be willing to help me."

"Eh? Sure. I'm in!"

"That's easy?" Fugil said in his mind. He didn't think that the woman in front of him would immediately agree to his offer.

"By the way, what's your name? I'm Fugil Vi Arcadia."

Tabane raised her brows in surprise.

"Huh? You're Fugil?"

Meanwhile, Fugil just smirked. "Looks like she's surprised to know who I am." He thought to himself.

"I didn't think that you actually appeared before me. That means, this is a sign that I was told to go home."

Tabane's words were quite confusing to Fugil.

*Stab*

It was when Tabane stabbed Hayes with an energy sword that Fugil immediately felt the danger coming from her.

Fugil tried to activate a special armament that could transform into Bahamut, a Divine Drag-Ride, to buy time for him to activate his large-scale weapon. Fugil just realized that Tabane was aiming for his head. Knowing that Tabane could wipe out all of his men even though there were some who used Divine Drag-Rides, he wouldn't hold back from killing Tabane before it was too late.

But…

*Boom*

Bahamut who had just manifested was knocked to the ground. Then, Tabane fired a nuclear launcher using a launcher that suddenly appeared on the IS arm.

The imitated Bahamut instantly turned into dust.

"The fuck!" Fugil shrieked. He tried to activate another armament, but he had already seen Tabane who was already in front of Fugil grabbing his Drag-Ride armor.

"I can't activate my armament!"

"Hehe. Energy petrification works pretty well."

Then, Tabane removed the armor on her left hand. He grabbed Fugil's Divine Drag-Ride using her left hand to analyze it. Once Tabane finished analyzing, she released electromagnetic energy to break all circuits connected to the Drag-Ride's core.

*Shatter*

Fugil's Divine Drag-Ride armor instantly shattered into pieces. Tabane slammed him to the ground. Then, she snatched Fugil's Drag-Ride before killing him.