Meanwhile, Yamero and Maki were still aboard the plane, speeding through the sky to reach Aika and Daru as quickly as possible. The engines roared, slicing through the air on a direct trajectory toward the Sahara Desert.
Yamero, his eyes fixed straight ahead, declared firmly,
"We're almost there. This will all be over soon."
Maki nodded slowly, his gaze hardened by years of fighting.
"Yes… so many years fighting this damned organization. And here we are at last. This time, we're going to put a definitive end to it."
But as the plane approached the Sahara, a strange feeling settled over them. Something was wrong.
Maki narrowed his eyes.
"Yamero… look at this." Around the plane, silhouettes were appearing in the sky. Birds. At first, tiny, almost insignificant. Then, second by second, their size increased. The faster the plane moved, the more massive these shapes became, distorting perspective like a bad omen.
"They're… getting bigger," Yamero murmured.
Suddenly, everything changed.
With a deafening crash, several gigantic birds swooped down and clamped onto the plane. Each one was nearly twice the size of the aircraft. Their sharp talons slammed brutally into the wings, scraping the metal with a shrill cry that echoed throughout the cockpit.
The plane shook violently.
These creatures had bright red eyes, gleaming with a sinister intelligence. Bony horns protruded from their skulls, and their immense wings beat the air with terrifying power, whipping up violent currents around the aircraft.
One of them let out a piercing, almost supernatural cry as its claws tightened around the wing, threatening to tear it off.
Maki straightened up, a dangerous aura already emanating from her.
"It seems even the sky refuses to let us pass without a fight." Yamero gave a cold smile.
"Perfect. Then we'll show them why they should have flown somewhere else."
The plane wailed through its shrill alarms. All the warning lights abruptly turned red, the screens flashed frantically, and the entire structure groaned under the pressure of the monstrous claws.
"Critical Integrity…" a mechanical voice repeated from the cockpit. Without losing a second, Yamero teleported directly outside, appearing on the cockpit in a burst of energy. The violent wind nearly ripped him off, but he remained perfectly stable, his feet anchored as if he were walking on invisible ground.
Facing him, one of the giant birds let out a shrill cry, opening a beak bristling with fangs.
"Hey… come here, you." Yamero leaped.
In a fraction of a second, he landed on the creature's back. He dug his fingers into the thick feathers, thrust his hand in with brutal force, and yanked violently, twisting the bird's neck and throwing it off balance.
"We'll move away from the plane a bit, okay?" With a chaotic flapping of wings, the bird was forcibly pulled sideways, drifting away from the aircraft. The plane's metal groaned one last time before being freed from the beast's grasp.
But no sooner had Yamero gained any distance than a collective cry ripped through the sky.
Three other giant birds immediately swooped down on him.
Their black wings sliced through the air like blades, their red eyes locked on Yamero. One attacked from above, another from the flank, while the third opened its beak wide, concentrating a dark energy deep in its throat.
The third giant bird opened its beak wide, and a burst of blazing energy erupted, a dense, compact wave of fire hurtling straight toward Yamero.
Yamero slapped the attack directly with his bare hand.
With a swift, precise movement, he deflected the attack. The mass of fire was brutally diverted from its trajectory and exploded far into the sky, illuminating the clouds with an incandescent glow.
Yamero was now in freefall.
Two birds immediately appeared on his flanks, perfectly encircling him, while the third positioned itself directly above him, blocking any escape. In perfect synchronization, the three creatures opened their gaping maws.
Three fireballs took shape.
They were fired simultaneously.
At that precise moment, a luminous circle appeared on the back of Yamero's hand, engraved with complex symbols, with a stylized pillar inscribed on the side of the circle. Space seemed to fold around him.
The fire attacks, instead of hitting him, abruptly changed direction.
As if drawn in by an invisible force, they were redirected.
The three fireballs violently returned to their respective senders.
The explosions struck the giant birds head-on. Their shrill cries were instantly smothered by the flames. Their bodies burst into flames, their wings partially disintegrated, and they plummeted heavily into the void, incinerated by their own power.
Meanwhile, on the plane…
Two more giant birds had latched onto the wings, completely blocking the aircraft's lift. The autopilot was desperately trying to stabilize the trajectory, but the fuselage was shaking dangerously under the pressure.
"Critical alert… structural overload…" the synthetic voice repeated. Maki, perfectly calm, observed the situation. She simply snapped her fingers.
The sky darkened instantly. Lightning of incredible violence erupted from the clouds, striking the two birds head-on. In mere seconds, their bodies were pulverized, reduced to burning fragments.
Only blackened feathers remained, swirling slowly before vanishing into the void.
The plane immediately regained its stability.
"Problem solved." In the cockpit, Maki gave a faint smile.
Yamero teleported inside the plane. The wings were partially damaged, crisscrossed with cracks and burns, but the structure was still holding. The aircraft vibrated slightly, yet it remained perfectly capable of continuing the journey.
They finally entered the Sahara Desert.
Below them, an endless sea of sand stretched as far as the eye could see, bathed in the cold moonlight. The sky was studded with twinkling stars, offering a striking contrast to the deep darkness of the desert.
But something was wrong.
Outside this area, day had already broken. Sunlight bathed the distant horizon. Yet, above the Sahara, the night persisted, motionless, as if frozen in time.
Maki frowned, her gaze scanning the sky.
"What the hell is going on...?" she murmured. "Something's not right." Yamero crossed his arms, observing in turn this abnormal boundary between day and night.
"It's surely another trick by the extremist organization," he replied coldly. "With their cursed relics." He paused, visibly annoyed.
"As if modifying humans and corrupting life weren't enough… now their relic is capable of influencing the weather, even twisting the natural cycles of the world." Silence fell once more in the cockpit.
In the distance, the desert seemed to breathe slowly, like a living entity awaiting their arrival. One thing was certain: this Sahara was no longer just a desert. It was territory under enemy control.