"Watch it!" Estelletoria shouted as she dodged a ball of fire; her magic sensing eyes were working overtime. Each one flew around her movements; the only damage they caused towards her was that they were messing up her hair. Her natural anthophilous flight mannerism gave her the advantage of a more controlling and stable flight pattern; she was able to change directions at a split second. "Darling, I can't help but think that everything you do is going to get everyone around you killed sooner or later," She said, squeezing tighter around his chest, securing him closer to her body as she did a mid-air backflip to avoid a blast.

"It comes with the job, even if you're retired and trying to leave it behind," He replied, gripping her arms tightly as cold sweat beaded on his face. He continued to scan the ground, looking for the girls. "I can see them!" Arslan shouted and pointed down at the rooftop, Estelletoria and Arslan could see that the two girls were in combat. Even from the sky, Mandilyn and Avelyn were having a bit of trouble trying to advance to any distance. Every step Mandilyn took the pangolin-girl would break off from Avelyn and roll into Mandilyn sending her back, The pangolin was the ultimate wall, stopping them from advancing any further towards their target. Arslan stuck out his hand and concentrated, pouring his magic into his arm. The tattoos lit up for a split second and then faded. "Damnit!" He yelled, dropping his arm to his side.

"Darling!?" Estelletoria yelled in surprise, almost losing concentration and her grip from his sudden outburst.

"I'm too far! I can't fuse them!" He yelled, frustrated, "Can you get closer?"

She started to descend in altitude, but there was an airship that had spotted them and had decided that they had different plans. There was loud mechanical clanking as several rapid-fire magic cannons on the sides began shooting hundreds of bullets. Each one capable of vaporizing the two of them, however, they were brighter than a field of fireflies to Estelletoria, avoiding death would have been nothing more than a game for her. She eventually just regained the altitude she was trying to lose as seemingly the range of the weapons didn't go very steep, an intentional design so that they didn't tear up its hull. "It doesn't seem like our guests want us to get too close, darling."

The airship started to turn port and tried to climb in altitude and match her. At the very bottom, four giant mana engines fired at maximum thrust; magical blue fire exploded from their vents. "They really don't want us to," Arslan sighed. His markings on his body and his clothing began glowing bright; suddenly, there was a giant flash of light.

"This bitch…" Mandilyn spat after she had picked herself up from the ground. "Hey, Fire-butt. I don't think we're getting anywhere!"

"We aren't," Avelyn said, standing in front of the rabbit-girl with her ax firmly planted on the ground, at some point she decided it was useless to even go on an offense.

"Gee, thanks. I was totally asking for confirmation," Mandilyn snapped.

"Ya'know, Yah two ain't gettin' passed me, right?" The pangolin-girl shouted from the far end of the rooftop. She cracked her knuckles and neck in a cocky fashion. "My shell is too hard for ya'll."

Mandilyn rolled her eyes and gripped her glaive tight again, she was exhausted after several attempts, but she wasn't going to let her numerous failures stop her.

Arden pulled out a pocket watch and watched the second-hand tick four times until it reached the twelve o'clock position. He closed it and looked behind him, a giant, red and black airship began approaching. He turned to face the girls and smiled. "Would you two be dears and do me a favor? Could you all tell Arslan that I'm sorry I didn't get to see him?"

"Would you care if I used your vocal cords to say it?" Avelyn laughed.

"...Morbid," Arden replied. The airship released several smaller crafts from the underside. Each one flew in a different direction, but the majority went in the opposite direction of the airship's current course. "My ride's here."

The airship's cabin exploded in a massive fireball, the whole area turned red, and then covered in the shade as the smoke blocked out the sun's light. The destruction of the cabin sent the hulking aircraft into an uncontrollable fall. Without a pilot or any method to steering, the vessel turned to an extreme angle. Flames burned throughout the hull. Any soldiers that weren't able to make it to a smaller escape craft rushed to the ends to escape; some even took to the extremes and jumped off the sides, choosing to end their life quicker than burning to death.

The pangolin-girl turned around, hearing the explosions and other commotion. "Uh, boss. Yah might want to-" she started to say, but the airship, with the help of gravity, began moving faster. And nose-dived straight into the ground. She sprang into her protective ball mode and wrapped herself around him.

Even though the impact of the airship was several miles away, the shockwave still sent everything around flying, the sand and dirt, corpses, buildings, even an abandoned cabbage cart. The force sent Mandilyn to the sky. Fortunately, Avelyn was both strong and coordinated enough to grab her ankle and bring it back down. Shrapnel from the ship bounced off the quite hard shell of the pangolin-girl

"Ack, Ack." Arden coughed as he was let go from the safety of his monster girl companion. He tried to wave the smoke away from his face and found that it hardly worked. "What the hell?"

A few seconds later, there was a loud buzzing, and the smoke was being blown away, leaving a lone person flying in the middle of the rooftop. Mandilyn and Avelyn were both coughing from the sudden smoke intake.

The moment Mandilyn's feet touched the ground, she had started to fan the smoke away from her face. "Next time, give a warning, jackass...Arslan?"

The person had vague qualities of Arslan; they wore the same hooded clothing, however black and gold hair flowed in the wind from beneath the hood, thick white fur gathered around his forearms, calves, and neck with the two giant insect wings speedily beating on his back.

The bee-fused Arslan readied a spell in his hands, two magic circles projected themselves from his palm, a fireball spell. The ball grew to the size of his head in a matter of seconds. Once ready, he unleashed it -- sending it towards Arden.

"Boss!" The pangolin-girl screamed. Her instincts kicked in, and she sprinted to his aid and knocked him over, taking the full attack. She screamed in pain as it scorched her scales, melting them as if they were butter sitting in the hot sun. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she fell onto her knees. She was unlucky as the spell was directly meant to counter such defensive fighters, such as herself.

Arden stared at her wide-eyed in horror, her perfectly impregnable armor was penetrated. He felt disgusted seeing this chimera lying in front of him, writhing in pain. A perfectly symmetrical circle melted to the muscle. She eventually started to froth at the mouth. When the hole cooled down enough, it revealed to have a stinger in the middle; not only was she burned, she was poisoned. He took a step back and cleared his throat.

"Arslan, It's so great that you've made it to the party!" Arden said, his voice was entirely composed and without any change in emotion.

Avelyn continued to stand by her ax ground and leaned back on the pole, "That's Arslan? He doesn't look much like a warrior anymore!" She chuckled.

Arslan readied another spell, this time aimed for Arden, however, the closer he got he realized something, and canceled the activation.

"Arslan, Arslan. Arslan, ever-so-smart, or is it lucky?" he started. "I admit, I'm off guard at the sudden new appearance, I'm guessing you learned a new trick?" Arden asked as he backed away from the male. "But, I'm quite aware that you and I both know this isn't as personal as everyone thinks this is."

Arslan smirked, "You've noticed?"

Arden laughed. "Yes, Arslan. Don't you remember? That bee of yours was the first chimera you showed me, I have the most data on that one." Arden climbed onto the railing, somehow keeping his full balance.

"Check?" Arslan asked.

"Check," Arden replied. He then jumped off the roof. A soft-wet crunch could echoed it's way up to them seconds later. Arslan sighed, and then there was another flash of light, Arslan and Estelletoria were forcibly ejected from one another, Esetelletoria rolled a few feet opposite of Arslan, who also went a few feet.

Estelletoria burped when she tried to get on her knees she kept her eyes closed, trying to stop the world from spinning around. "Darling, the next time you do that… I'm going to fill you with so much poison you're going to taint the next batch of eggs," she threatened.

Arslan held his head in pain, the very particular headache pain that plagued him since he came back from the other world flared up. "Noted!"

Avelyn looked disappointed as the rest of the surrounding airships began turning around and flying in the opposite direction. In minutes any trace of the invasion was left with the dead bodies. Mandilyn ran past Arslan to look at the aftermath of the scene. She grabbed onto the railing Arden stepped over and looked over the edge, there was a puddle of blue liquid and a gray, featureless corpse. "Huh? What in the hell?" The body contorted in all kinds of ways; the neck bent in a way that made a pretzel look straight.

Arslan approached and looked at the ground himself. "Oh, it was a golem. I was pretty sure it was some kind of mimic."

"Alright, call it. I know you want to," Mandilyn said with a deadpan face.

"Spill what?" Arslan asked.

"Say it...Tell me that I should've spent more time figuring out my enemy before going straight into a fight."

"No way, that was a golem. The chances that you wouldn't have figured that out were high, and to be honest, I didn't know it was a fake until I used Estelletoria's magic senses."

"So, you don't have a lesson for me?" She smiled cheekily, showing off her two buck teeth.

Arslan smiled and turned around, leaning on the back of the railing. "Go get some sleep. That's your lesson."

Mandilyn looked at the carnage underneath the setting sun. There lied multiple dead bodies from both sides of the invasion, a destroyed airship, and collapsing buildings. "I never thought any of this would happen."

Arslan shrugged, "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't expecting it."

"I'm not following. How?"

"I've been giving it thought...Eventually, someone else would have come along and made one of you girls; then another person would make some more, then a nation would, then war would have broken out with each person trying to create an s-tier or higher girl," Arslan explained.

"So, then what was your end goal?"

Arslan laughed, "You'll see it when it's time."

Mandilyn pouted, "That's a pretty shitty answer, you know."

Arslan tapped her shoulder, still laughing; he left.

Mandilyn continued to look in the distance of the burning facility.