"Why does nothing ever go according to plan?" Michael clicked his tongue in displeasure.

Behind him, the approaching roars of the creature deafened the surroundings.

"About a minute until it reaches us." Eliza exclaimed, her head shifted backward, her hair flowing freely in the generated wind.

"How are your spiritual reserves?" Michael asked, his brain racing for a plan.

"Before you found us, we were close to running out of steam." Elina said with a tired voice. "At most, we can unleash one more meteor shower. After that, we’ll be completely depleted."

From bad to worse, Michael didn’t have the luxury of time.

"Can’t you go any faster?" He threw a hopeful glance toward the fox beneath him.

A loud tremor left the exhaust pipe of the motorcycle, the fox clearly offended.

Michael assumed that this was the extent of the fox’s response... Until a feminine voice abruptly echoed.

"Perhaps... if I... didn’t carry two more of your kind on my back!"

The voice was clearly not fluent in the human tongue, barely having started to learn the ins and outs of it. Regardless, even amidst the adrenaline-filled chase, Michael was still momentarily puzzled by the revelation that the marvelous fox could have communicated all this time.

Before expressing his surprise, Elina beat him to the punch, glancing at the bike she rode with a baffled expression.

"T—The motorbike can speak?!"

Another tremor left the exhaust pipe.

"Just a little... sorting memories... hard."

By permitting the fox to look into his mind earlier, an act that had resulted in her current form, Michael had unintentionally exposed her to human language as well.

Of course that didn’t mean the fox had comprehended it, since even a glimpse of the memories Michael had allowed her to observe was an overload of information.

She might have observed different patterns of tone, speech, and more, yet it was up to her, given enough time, to achieve true mastery.

Understandably, Michael had countless questions that he wanted to ask her. Not to mention, he also felt slightly conflicted.

After all, even though they had temporarily teamed up, the fox was still a subject of a Titan. A member of the Iskra alien race that wouldn’t hesitate to eradicate humanity if it served their benefit.

Teaming up with aliens went against his very nature, much less teaching them the human tongue and giving them a potential advantage in the future... Nevertheless, with the colossal creature closing in on their tail, he bottled up any sense of doubt and curiosity, focusing solely on the present.

With another roar, the disturbing illusion rose higher and created another set of purplish portals that unleashed a devastating rain of meteors.

Colliding with the surface of the star, explosions erupted around Michael and the others, threatening to devour them whole.

Gritting his teeth, Michael’s eyes hardened.

"Hold on tight!"

Before Elina and Eliza could ask what he meant, his body ducked low, minimizing potential drag.

Abruptly changing course, they dashed across claustrophobically narrow alleys that made them harder to spot from the elevated position of their pursuer.

Taken by surprise, the sister Lords had no choice but to follow suit.

Knowing that colliding with anything at such speed posed a real threat even to them, they too dropped down as low as they could. Elina practically sprawled across Eliza, while Eliza pressed herself against Michael’s back.

Not done yet, Michael manipulated the handlebars to the best of his limited ability. Passing through the hardest-to-track paths, he changed directions at seemingly random intervals.

The fox’s sentience aided him, instinctively understanding where Michael wanted her to go and obeying without hesitation.

Initially the plan worked. His riding widened the gap. However, the narrow alleys were close to running out, opening into a large part of the Light Kingdom, which would have left them as easy targets.

’Brat!’ In that moment, Devil’s voice echoed almost like a deity of salvation that had answered prayers. ’I got a plan!’

With no other alternative, Michael followed his soul weapon’s instincts. Leaving the narrow passages, he headed toward a crooked building angled to the side, about to function as a makeshift ramp.

Thanks to the speed the motorcycle was going at, he and the sister Lords practically flew away like a comet, completely neglecting the intensified gravity.

The illusion, hot on their tail, noticed them and was about to charge straight in while they were still mid-air, only for Michael’s voice to echo.

"Do it now!"

Realizing this was their moment, Eliza and Elina acted without hesitation.

Eliza used every bit of her energy to conjure a monstrous number of ice pillars, which were overcharged with Elina’s electricity, only to be hurled at their enemy.

The projectiles not only completely stall the creature, but their blast also has the bonus effect of boosting their speed even more.

Finally managing to lose their pursuer, the Lords found themselves with another problem... Heading toward the ground at dangerous speed.

"Can’t you fly like before?" Michael turned to the fox.

"No... too tired!" She replied in a slightly shaky voice.

"We are about to crash!" Elina yelped with a pale expression, not able to marvel at the beautiful sight of their high altitude.

At that moment, Michael’s armor trembled.

"Not on my watch!"

Angel, assuming her true form, moved to the front. Her wings, which spanned over four meters, unfurled.

Battling against their comet-like momentum, coupled with the gravity pull of the star, was far from easy. Yet, with her Master’s life on the line, Angel remained undeterred.

Gradually slowing down the motorcycle, she managed to land with everybody on board safe and sound.

Letting out a sigh, Michael relaxed, his head resting on the handlebars, allowing the adrenaline to settle.

Even he wasn’t immune to feeling a tingle of nervousness, even though his stoic expression rarely, if ever, showed it.

He was so tired he didn’t even acknowledge the cold breaths brushing against the back of his neck, with Eliza still clinging to his figure, too weary to care for her icy image.

"Thank you so much..." Elina was the first one to recover, getting off with trembling legs. "Please... can we never repeat that again?"

"Agreed." Eliza said in a quiet whisper.

"Don’t worry, Master." Angel reassured, straightening her back to maintain her graceful persona. "Rest assured, I will always be there to catch you should you fall!"

"Let’s go again!" Devil materialized, overflowing with joy over the high-speed chase.

Michael barely acknowledged everybody, his eyes fixed on the motorcycle. Still reeling over the fact that the fox could apparently speak and understand them.

He had many things to say, yet his concerns remained unvoiced when the sound of a door creaked open echoed not far away.

Instantly, everybody tensed, glancing toward the source.

To their surprise, a door to one of the numerous structures had opened.

Past it, a one-meter creature with a neck longer than the rest of its body met their stare.

Losing interest a second later, it came out and calmly headed to the side, completely ignoring the Lords.

"..."

Puzzled, they watched the creature closely. Their gazes soon shifted toward the building it had emerged from, accompanied by a sigh bearing an unknown language.

At last, Michael spoke, shattering the silence.

"Is this... a tavern?"