Chapter Twenty-Four: The Dragon

“In fact, it’s not that there isn’t anything,” Dunn added.

“First, the disappearance of John’s team is most likely related to this strange passage of time,” Dunn continued, raising one finger as he followed up on Aiden’s words.

“Second, if someone truly was able to come through the ‘wall’ and take John away, then they should have been able to reach the orphanage by now and take us—or rather, capture us.”

He lifted a second finger.

“The third... Well, the third...” Dunn was unable to raise a third finger; perhaps, as the saying goes, his composure lasted barely three seconds.

“If... right now... there’s still... anyone moving in... this area... it’s most likely... someone from... John’s team,” Aiden concluded.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I meant,” Dunn said, his expression confirming his agreement.

“It seems we need to adjust our objective,” Lily acknowledged their analysis.

“Someone carrying a high-value item that I can sense just passed beneath us. My maximum detection range is fifty meters.”

“Oh, by the way, the presence that was watching our group from the mist probably has a maximum visual range of fifty to sixty meters. While we were heading to the art museum, its surveillance was intermittent,” Lily added, considering this basic information crucial for everyone to know.

“You mean, not all creatures have their visual range restricted to twenty-four meters?” Dunn questioned.

“Hmm. The exact reason is unclear, but yes,” Lily nodded.

“It’s not hard to guess. Humans are the ones who defined units like centimeters, decimeters, and meters, so this strange law based on Arabic numerals might only apply to us,” Dunn replied, narrowing his eyes.

“Attention—something’s approaching!” Sandro suddenly warned. He had keenly noticed abnormal turbulence in the mist outside the window, about twenty meters away. The fog appeared to be pushed aside by something.

A deep, dreadful sound—absolutely not produced by any human—reverberated in their ears. Instinctively, everyone held their breath and turned to stare into the mist outside the window.

A shadowy figure emerged in their view. How to describe it? It resembled a massive oval sphere, from which, at roughly a hundred and twenty degrees of its surface, extended a dozen or so cone-shaped structures, each perhaps three or four meters long. And this was likely just the creature’s head or something akin to it—nothing that could be associated with any known lifeform from their original world.

Yet before the thing could completely emerge from the fog, they all felt a tremor from the top floor of the art museum above them. It was followed by a deafening, piercing roar that made their eardrums ache; Stephenson even crouched down in pain.

Lily forced herself to keep watching the window through the thunderous noise and saw clearly: a massive creature, vaguely resembling a climbing lizard but with wings, swooped down from above, dragging its long tail straight toward the shadow. The two monsters then disappeared together into the mist, their roars and the sounds of heavy blows echoing intermittently.

“An internal feud?” Sandro asked, his mouth dry, but received no answer. Turning his head, he saw that only Lily and himself were still standing; even Aiden had slumped to the ground, gasping for breath.

Lily was now seriously considering aborting the operation and leading everyone back immediately. This district had become utterly incomprehensible to them. What was that black shadow? And what about the creature that just flew past? Why did it look so much like... a dragon? The very kind that appeared in films and television—reptilian in form but with massive wings.

“Aiden... I think we should...” Lily reached out to help Aiden up.

“We can’t... give up. We’ve only just... found a lead. If we... turn back now... we might really... lose our chance forever.” Aiden had guessed her thoughts. Truth be told, even he was wavering.

“But...” Lily bit her lip. Was she really going to drag them all to their deaths? She knew she couldn’t do it.

Aiden signaled for everyone to head downstairs; the second floor was no longer safe. He instructed Sandro to stand by at the top of the staircase to serve as a lookout—if anything seemed wrong, he was to come down and alert the group at once.

Once on the first floor, Aiden switched on his flashlight and pulled out the map of Dunlun City he carried. After a brief calculation, he studied it for a few seconds, then pointed to a location and looked at Dunn.

Dunn thought for two seconds, then said, “If I’m not mistaken, Aiden’s suggesting that we only search up to here. If we still can’t find the carrier of the high-value item you sensed, we turn back. Am I right?” He looked at Aiden, who nodded in confirmation.

Lily followed Aiden’s finger to the designated location—the Duke of Somerset’s Mansion. That was indeed the direction in which she had sensed the high-value target vanish. Coincidentally, it was also the largest building near Waterloo Bridge. According to Aiden’s plan, if their search there yielded nothing, they could use Waterloo Bridge to cross the Thames and return to the orphanage.

Lily looked up at the others. Camille simply nodded. Dunn, naturally, had no objections. Sandro, though upstairs, could hear the conversation and snapped his fingers to signal his agreement. Stephenson’s expression was grim—he’d have preferred to return immediately, but he also understood the consequences Aiden mentioned if they missed this chance.

After a few seconds of internal struggle, Stephenson finally nodded as well.

“I understand. Let’s do it,” Lily said after taking a deep breath, agreeing to Aiden’s proposal.

They left the National Gallery once more, moving swiftly westward along the main road. Lily was initially worried that the mysterious observer would continue to follow, but she no longer sensed its presence. On the dust-laden street, only the sound of their footsteps echoed.

Occasionally, something like a bird’s call sounded from above, but now none of them believed it was only a bird—the earlier experience was proof enough.

They chose routes that offered quick access to buildings where they could take shelter if necessary, all the while hoping Lily’s senses would pick up something. Yet halfway along their journey, she still detected nothing; the carrier of the high-value item seemed to have vanished without a trace.

At one point, they heard another roar, likely from the enormous creature they’d first encountered. Dunn muttered that it must be cheering its victory, but no one responded.

The current situation was indeed tense—everyone was on high alert.

Suddenly, Lily turned her head northward. “I sense something! To the north.”

“Change formation. Sandro, take the lead and watch for any movement from our target. Dunn, you and Aiden cover me. Camille, Stephenson, don’t fall behind—stick close to Aiden and Dunn. Camille, you’re in charge of the rear. If you spot anything, shout immediately,” Lily instructed quickly, assigning tasks with swift efficiency.

“Understood.” “Got it!”