Realizing how little time he had remaining to find, free and get Xi out of the underground laboratory Chad started moving faster through the prison area searching for his princess with none of his earlier considerations for being detected.

"Xi!"

Catching a situate which looked like her dear princess out of the corner of his eye, Chad ran after it and didn't realize that it was a trap before the door closed behind him.

"Huh? You're not the one I was after…" 

Finding himself inside a brightly lit room, Chad took a second before his eyes adjusted. when he could finally see again Chad found himself standing across from an old grey skinned mage with sunken eyes.

"So it seems like there are two rats inside my home. Oh well, kill this one first."

Still appearing relatively lax even though he was unarmed, the mage addressed his newest creation and made it do the dirty work for him.

"Xi?..."

Having finally found his princess Chad was utterly stunned at what he saw. Instead of her fair and fine skin, her body was now mostly covered in white scales and her nails had grown into claw like protrusions. While that wasn't exactly that surprising as both Xi's mother and father both had features like that, what Chad immediately saw was wrong was the dragonkin princess' eyes. Her clear blue and cheer filled eyes looked like the ones you would find on a 2 day old dead fish, clouded and unclear.

"... Yes, master."

Responding in a dull, flat voice Xi instantly closed the distance to Chad and slashed at him with her claws.

"Xi! What are you doing!? It's me!"

Blocking the attack by muscle memory alone Chad was stunned seeing his princess' emotionless face up close as she tried her very best to kill him. Breaking his sword lock with the dragonkin princess Chad tried to pa.s.s her and reach the mage behind her, but as the mage's order was still in effect Xi chased down her prey with utmost efficiency. Striking out once more Xi found her target and dug her claws deep into Chad's gut while still remaining completely expressionless.

"Gha!" 

Freeing himself from the insanely sharp claws, Chad backed off a few steps before taking a knee while trying to keep as much of the blood from flowing out as possible. 

"Be sure to finish him off, we need to find the other rat and kill it."

"Yes… Master."

(Come on, just a bit closer.)

Hiding the fact that his wound had already healed, Chad waited for the perfect moment to get past Xi, which he got right as she raised her hand to decapitate him. Moving faster than he had ever done before, Chad reached the old mage even before he knew what was going on, cleaving his head in half with a downwards swing before he even knew what happened. Flicking the old mage's blood off his blade Chad turned to Xi and extended a hand to her, believing at that moment that the mind control had been broken.

"Xi, come on, let's get out of-"

But as Xi effortlessly slipped into his range and dug all 10 claws into his chest, Chad learned that the mind control had not been broken. Wrestling free from Xi's claws Chad stumbled backwards as the black matter within him struggled to regenerate his heart and deal with the internal bleeding.

"Xi… It's me."

Coughing up a large amount of blood Chad felt that his enhanced healing was slowly starting to run out while his legs kept on failing him, so he tried to reach his princess with words, even if it was futile.

"Please wake up!"

Extending out a hand towards Xi once more Chad pleaded for her to regain her senses, but as she cut off half of his outstretched hand the knight started losing faith while he started getting faint from the blood loss.

(s.h.i.+t… I'm sorry.)

Mentally apologizing to Xi's parents Chad broke a long held and cherished promise, gathering the rest of his fleeting strength as he rushed towards Xi and embraced her in such a way that he could keep her claws away from himself.

"My lady, please regain yourself!"

Holding Xi back the best he could while avoiding her head as she also tried to bite him, Chad realized that he could only keep stalling and wait for Dax to save him.

"f.u.c.k! Not this again!"

But as soon as he came to that realization, Chad realized that he could not simply wait for himself to be saved like he tried the last time Xi was in danger.

(Think! This can not end like last time!)

Chad wasn't worried about his own life in the slightest, that's not what he wanted to save, the reason he was fighting to his last breath was for Xi herself. While he had pretended to not notice, deep down Chad knew Xi held some sort of feelings for him which had slowly developed as they had grown up together. If Xi regained her consciousness after she had killed Chad with her own hands, she would be destroyed completely.

(That is the only thing I must avoid at all cost…)

"Xi, please fight it! I'm here for you, I'll always be there for you!"

Slowly getting overpowered by his princess Chad felt that he was starting to lose the battle, he needed another plan.

"Fuc!-"

But at that moment Xi finally managed to overpower him, making Chad trip and fall over backwards with his princess on top of him.

(I just need my head…)

The way Chad understood Dax's 'revival' of him was that his head was the most important part of his body, even if he did lose the rest his head must remain intact.

"In that case!"

Just before Chad lost the last of his strength he let go of Xi's hands which rushed down towards him, but as he had already predicted that action Chad wrapped his arms around Xi and hugged her close, making it so she couldn't reach his head.

".... It's... Okay."

Feeling Xi's claws dig into his sides and gut and shredding it apart, Chad kept gently whispering those words into Xi's ear.

"... You… Could… Never… Hurt me."

While his vision slowly darkened Chad kept on rea.s.suring Xi while she dug her claws into his flesh until she suddenly stopped moving.

"... Xi?"

Releasing his grip on her body Chad weakly muttered the name of his master as she pulled her body away from his, making eye contact for the first time in a few minutes.

"..... Please… Keep….. Fighting!"

Looking into Xi's eyes Chad instantly understood, she was starting to regain herself. While her face was still completely expressionless, Xi's clouded eyes were shaking as tears slowly welled up right below them. For a few moments, it looked like Xi was winning the internal fight, but as she slowly started aiming her claws towards Chad it looked like she was losing.

(f.u.c.k!.... My lady… You're... So….. Close.)

While tears dripped down on his face, Chad's mind raced as he tried to figure out what he could do to help, finding only one single solution.

(I'm… Sorry.)

"I… Love….. You…"

Pulling his arms up, Chad reached around Xi's back, then he pulled her in towards him and locked her lips against his.

"MMM!"

At first, Xi struggled to flee herself from Chad's kiss, but after a few seconds, she greedily partook in the kiss before separating from him.

"Welcome…. Back… My… Lady."

Looking at Xi's dazzling face, Chad clearly saw that she was back in control.

"... Idiot. You honestly picked the worst time to something like that."

"... I-"

"No, don't speak. Save your strength."

Having been conscious and fighting the mind control ever since Chad first called out her name, she knew very well how critical his condition was. Getting up on her feet, Xi started concentrating, making her claws gradually retract before she ran over to the dead mage and ripped off some of his robe before kicking him in the head and shattering it apart.

"Rot in h.e.l.l, f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

While Xi was using the cloth to wrap some of Chad's deeper injuries, he finally gathered enough strength to talk again.

"... We… Need... To… Get… Out. Now."

"Okay, lead the way."

Picking her knight up in a princess carry Xi followed his directions as she ran as fast as she could while carrying Chad, soon finding herself up on the surface after what had felt like a lifetime underground.

-

"Well that's not really the way I pictured it, but good job getting her back."

Looking at the dragonkin princess who wore nothing but dirty bloodstained rags carrying her knight in a princess carry, Dax couldn't help but put on a wry smile.

"Please save him!"

"Of course, follow me."

Walking out of the destroyed church in the middle of the ruined village with Xi behind him Dax looked towards the sky as he mostly ignored the two twins who quietly observed Xi from the sidelines.

"ICI strike ETA?"

[FIRE MISSION FINAL GOAL LINE REACHED. PAYLOAD INBOUND HOT, SPLASH: 2 MINUTES, 39 SECONDS.]

"So plenty of time… Call down the CAS-7A, Let's join up with Lux and the others."

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED.]

Looking up at the spa.r.s.ely clouded sky, a black lump suddenly priced one of them as it fell towards Dax with blistering speed.

[DUST OFF: 9 SECONDS.]

Spreading out its wings at the very last second, the CAS-7A blasted out ionized propellant with the afterburner active and barely slowed down beneath the maximum tolerance of its landing gear as it landed right in front of Dax.

"What is-"

"Shut up and get in if you want Chad to survive!"

As he was on a tight schedule Dax didn't want to explain what exactly the craft was to Xi and therefore clearly spelt out the choice she was faced with. Lifting off the ground, the Stinger flew at low alt.i.tude and quickly accelerated to beyond Mach 1 as it opened up the distance.

[SPLASH.]

At ICI's callout, a single Viper cruise missile carrying a fusion warhead impacted the destroyed church at a high angle, cras.h.i.+ng through the roof and travelling halfway down the long stairway before it detonated, levelling everything within 5 kilometres and leaving behind nothing but a smoking crater and a rising mushroom cloud.