A warm breath brushed across Tiran's face, awakening his dormant consciousness. Struggling to open his heavy eyelids, his pupils took a moment to adjust to the suddenly bright environment, and the scene in front of him seemed hazy and unclear.

"Um..." He groaned with a headache, feeling his brain about to explode. Any slight movement of his head or even a thought made him feel dizzy.

"You really messed things up, buddy." Aya's voice came from beside him. "You better not move now, and don't think about anything either."

"Aya? Where are we...ugh, I have a terrible headache." Tiran moaned, trying to lift a hand to hold his forehead, but realized that the blanket on top of him felt as heavy as a ton, and he couldn't lift it at all.

"A headache is normal, and feeling weak is also expected after releasing that kind of attack. I don't believe there won't be any consequences." Aya held a cup with both hands and brought it to Tiran's lips. "Open your mouth."

The newly awakened princess was still in a half-asleep state, completely devoid of her usual strong posture. Instead, she appeared unexpectedly weak, resembling a child being fed medicine by her parents when sick. She obediently opened her mouth, letting Aya slowly pour the liquid from the cup into it.

"So bitter!" The taste of bitterness immediately brought Tiran back to full consciousness. He jumped out of bed like a carp, and pounced on Aya like a wild cat. "What did you make me drink, you idiot!"

Caught off guard, Aya was knocked down to the ground, and the glass in her hand also rolled onto the floor. Luckily, it was empty, otherwise cleaning the carpet would not have been an easy task.

"Phew! It's so bitter!"

"Of course, it's medicine, not sweet water. Do you expect me to tempt you by saying 'take a sip of medicine and you'll get a candy'?" Aya, who was pinned down, rolled her eyes.

"Well, now that you mention it, that's actually a good idea." Tiran stood up from Aya and sat back on the bed. Ah, the splitting headache was gone, but her body still had a kind of soft and weak feeling.

Wait, something seems off.

Tiran carefully assessed her body and her eyes changed slightly. She no longer felt the Chi flowing throughout her body, and couldn't sense the power of the Holy Rank at all. In other words, she was no different from a weak ordinary person now.

It really was quite a price to pay. Tiran couldn't help but grimace. She had only slightly overused her Holy Rank power, and yet she ended up completely disabling herself.

"Um, it seems that the medicine Chip sent really worked. What about the others? Do you have any other issues? I remember you also depleted your power, right? Are there any aftereffects from using that killer move forcefully?" Aya walked up to Tiran and asked with concern.

"Why are you suddenly getting so close?" Tiran, however, shrank back like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, desperately trying to distance herself. "As for aftereffects..."

She didn't continue her sentence and instead looked at Aya with a more worried expression. Losing her power had happened on the day of the coup d'etat as well, but that was only for a few minutes. Now, she couldn't even sense a trace of Chi. Who knows how long it would take for her to regain the strength of a Silver War Maiden?

More importantly, she had previously crushed Aya with her superior power. If they were to find out that she had suddenly lost her strength, what reaction would the Clans of the Stupid Dragon make?

"What's wrong?" Aya still hadn't noticed anything, tilting her head and looking at Tiran in confusion.

"No, nothing." Tiran lowered his head and mumbled in a voice that almost no one but himself could hear, "I can't feel my power anymore..."

"Huh?" Aya blinked, "You lost your power?"

"Yeah... yeah." Tiran avoided Aya's gaze, a bit afraid of her reaction.

"Well... that's troublesome. But it's your own fault for being reckless and getting what you deserved, right?" Aya laughed gleefully.

Why is she so annoying? Tiran gritted his teeth in anger.

But... Tiran raised his hand and ruffled Aya's head, messing up her neatly styled white shoulder-length hair, "Don't you have any other thoughts?"

"Thoughts? What thoughts?"

"Never mind... forget it." Tiran sighed in relief. What was he worrying about? This stupid dragon faced Angel head-on and carried him all the way while escaping.

"By the way, are you okay? I remember you got pretty badly injured when fighting that old pervert..."

"Of course I'm not okay!" Aya's expression immediately turned grim as she lifted the hem of her white shirt, revealing her slender waist.

"Groping me, are you?" Tiran instinctively wanted to make a sarcastic comment but quickly held it back.

Because what she saw wasn't the fair and smooth skin of a young girl, but a set of closely spaced pale white scales resembling a close-fitting armor... And there were tiny traces of blood seeping through the gaps in the scales, slowly but steadily flowing. Under Aya's bangs, you could also catch a glimpse of two pieces of dragon horn, about half the length of a pinky finger.

"Here, my mana is basically depleted. I can't even fully use shapeshifting. If I hadn't squeezed out a bit of mana at the end, we might have been surrounded by the people down there..." Aya recalled their escape and felt a bit drained.

"Umm, not to mention anything else, but you actually look quite cute like this. It fits the image of a dragon girl. How about transforming a tail?" Tiran tentatively reached out to touch the two pieces of dragon horn, only to be avoided by Aya with a disgusted look on her face.

"Don't touch my horns!"

"Okay, enough fooling around. What's the situation outside now?" Tiran lazily asked as he lay back on the bed.

"Delua is arguing with Commander Heffy, and the aftermath of our fight caused quite a commotion... Though it's mostly Hermes' fault, but he's already kneeling..." Aya shrugged.

In fact, it wasn't just "quite a commotion." The research institute was almost completely destroyed. Initially, the conflict between Hermes and the guards caused some damage, but the main structure of the institute remained intact. However, during Tiran's battle with Hermes, their clash of Holy Rank powers directly demolished half of the courtyard, shaking the deep-seated ruins and causing extensive damage to important research materials...

If Sainz insisted on full compensation, there would be no room for negotiation, and it would be quicker to just go to war.

"We suffered quite a loss this time... and yet, we couldn't even save Chirp. What's the point of killing Hermes now?" Tiran's expression turned gloomy.

"Oh, speaking of that, there's another thing." Aya said, "Actually..."

"Chirp, dad! Mom!" A little head with animal ears poked out from the other side of the bed, big watery eyes blinking rapidly.

"Huh? Chirp?!" Tiran couldn't believe his eyes for a moment. Was this really the same loli that they had lost? But Chirp was clearly...

And not to mention, this little one in front of them had clearly grown a lot taller! If she was less than ten years old before, she must be eleven or twelve now!

"Don't doubt it, this is Chirp," Aya finally reassured Tiran, a smile appearing on her face.

"Can I not doubt it? When Chirp was swallowed by that old pervert before, my heart turned cold!" Tiran hugged Chirp tightly in his arms, doting on her little face.

"Anyway, this result is not too bad..." Aya's face showed relief, but after less than three seconds, her expression changed.

"Hey hey hey! Tone it down a bit! Don't do crazy things to the child with that nympho look on your face, you idiotic owner! Let go of the child's clothes! Stop licking! Are you the devil father?!"

...

Actually, twenty minutes ago, Aya had a similar reaction when she saw Heffy bring this child in front of her. Without hesitation, she walked up to Chirp and hugged her tightly, almost scaring the little loli into tears.

"Mom... don't... it's, itchy..."

"You scared us, little one!" Aya didn't let go of Chirp and continued to hold her in her arms. The previous scenes were too scary for her.

"...this time, I will never let go, never."

...

"So, why is Chirp still here? I thought..."

Tiran asked while stroking the frightened loli's head.

"According to Heffy, this child is not a normal living being. In fact, Hermes found her deep in the ruins," Aya explained.

"Huh?"

"Don't look at me like that, I don't believe it either. But even among the demi-human race, it's rare to find someone like Chirp who can provide unlimited magical power," Aya said. "She should be a relic left behind by the civilization that built the underground ruins of the magitech city. There are many secrets. Sainz has been developing the underground ruins, but they still haven't fully understood it."

"An artificial being? They actually created a loli with animal ears. It seems the people of that civilization had quite a twisted sense of humor."

"Anyway, Chirp is a crucial 'key' to researching that civilization," Aya said.

"What do you mean?" Tiran immediately became alert. Did this mean that Heffy didn't intend to hand Chirp over to them?

"It's not like what you're thinking. If he had said so, I would have already turned on him," Aya shrugged. "We've almost reached an agreement. As a token of gratitude for defeating the invaders, Chirp will no longer have any relationship with Sainz, and the damage to the building will not be blamed on Milanía. The support provided to Milanía will continue as before."

"When did they become so easy to negotiate with?"