Chapter 497: Second Kiss

The personnel, understanding instantly what was about to happen, didn’t hesitate even once.

They abandoned whatever equipment they’d been holding—didn’t waste a single precious second gathering belongings and simply ran with every ounce of speed their bodies could muster.

They sprinted at top velocity until they’d cleared the property boundary and reached a safe distance away.

Meanwhile, Fauna quickly grabbed Cecilia with practiced ease and launched into the air, her beautiful angel wings spreading wide.

"There’s no need to worry, darling." Fauna said soothingly. "I’ve got you."

Cecilia blushed intensely as she fell into Fauna’s soft, protective embrace—especially feeling the warmth of Fauna’s body pressed against her back.

At the same moment, Nadia scooped up Mika from behind and lifted him smoothly into the sky, carrying him higher and higher until they had a clear aerial view of the entire property.

From this elevated vantage point, they could see the full scope of what was essentially one enormous, building-sized bomb.

Nadia’s eyes began to glow with intense power as she prepared to do something that no one else in the world could possibly accomplish.

But just as Nadia raised her hand, preparing to lift the massive chunk of earth into the sky—

—something unexpected happened.

Her emotionless face flushed. Her eyes became slightly teary.

And when she looked down, she saw that Mika had turned around in her embrace and was currently rubbing his face into her breasts!

He had even pulled her clothes open just enough to smother his face in her cleavage, sniffing her like a dog, taking full advantage of the situation.

She was so embarrassed. Ashamed. He wasn’t even trying to hide his brazenness anymore.

He simply did whatever shameful things he wanted to her, without any propriety at all.

"M-Mika." She said, her voice soft, almost pleading. "Could you please stop that? I’m trying to focus here. The lives of millions of people are at stake."

His voice came out muffled against her skin.

"You’ve been in worse situations than this, Nadia. Not to mention that you’re the calmest woman in the entire world. I’m pretty sure you won’t be distracted by your son playing with your breasts."

He looked up at her with a cheeky grin.

"So just ignore me, Nadia. Go ahead and do what you have to do."

Her eye twitched. He was taunting her. There was no other explanation.

He knew exactly what he was doing, and he didn’t care.

He was playing with her, pushing her boundaries, seeing how far she would let him go.

She should push him away. Should demand answers, an explanation, something.

But the truth was watching him cuddle against her like this was...nice.

Especially after seeing him flirt so easily with Fauna and Cecilia, watching him charm other women without a second thought.

Seeing him act like a little baby seeking comfort from her, only her, made something warm bloom in her chest.

So, instead of pushing him away, she shifted her position slightly—blocking Fauna’s view of what Mika was doing and let him continue.

Her eyes also began to shine with a crimson glow.

The moment it appeared, the earth below began to crack and tremble.

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

Massive groaning sounds came from deep underground, as if the planet itself was waking from a long sleep.

Everyone in the area could feel it—the shaking, the wobbling, the sensation that the ground beneath their feet was about to give way.

Cracks spread across the surface. But not randomly.

They spread with purpose, tracing a perfect perimeter around the children’s hospital.

The gardens, the open areas where children were supposed to play, the sidewalks, the parking lots—all of it was cut open by the earth’s splitting.

Then, to everyone’s shock and surprise, the ground began to rise!

Not just the hospital. The soil. The land. Everything inside that perimeter.

A massive chunk of earth—humongous, almost incomprehensibly large lifted out of the ground like a giant’s table being pulled from the earth’s womb.

Soil rained down from its edges. Roots snapped. Pipes burst. Water mains erupted.

People outside the hospital who were watching this were utterly shocked. They pulled out their phones, recording the impossible sight, a floating island rising slowly into the sky.

The bomb squad watched with held breath. They were relieved that nothing had triggered the explosion and watched as the chunk of earth rose higher, and higher, and higher.

"Twenty-five seconds!" Someone shouted.

Even if she lifted it high enough, the explosion would still affect the ground. They all knew this.

But Nadia also knew something else.

She pulled Mika closer, so close that her dress slipped further, revealing the faint edge of her areolas.

Her face flushed deeper, but she didn’t stop.

Instead, she held him tightly with one arm while raising the other toward the sky.

BOOM!

A loud noise was heard but it was not the bomb.

Instead, it was the sound of the massive chunk of earth breaking the sound barrier as it shot into the sky like a rocket!

It was so fast that people barely had time to track it.

One moment it was there; the next, it was a speck disappearing into the clouds.

Whoosh!

This absurd speed was because Nadia had removed every aspect of gravity from the structure she was holding.

It was weightless now—completely unbound from the earth’s pull.

Then she pushed it with the full force of her blessing, accelerating it to speeds that should have torn it apart.

But it held.

From the capital, people could see it, a massive object rocketing toward the heavens.

From outside the capital, from cities and towns and rural villages, people looked up and saw it too.

A meteor heading upward instead of down, rising beyond the clouds, beyond the sky, beyond anything they had ever seen.

And the bomb squad below knew if the bomb exploded now, nothing would happen. They were safe.

People smiled. Laughed. Some cried with joy, knowing they had survived.

But Nadia was not satisfied.

She pushed it higher. Faster. Until it broke through the atmosphere, until it was floating in the void of space, weightless and free.

Still...it was not enough.

So, she twisted her hand.

Meteors, actual meteors, hanging in space, chunks of rock and metal that were also part of her domain began to move.

They gathered around the floating island, surrounding it from all sides.

Larger ones, smaller ones, all of them drawn by her will.

They smashed into the bomb from every direction, covering it completely.

Layer after layer of asteroid rock and cosmic debris wrapped around the children’s hospital, the gardens, the playground—forming a thick, dense shell around the bomb.

Ten seconds left.

Nadia kept adding more. More rocks. More debris. More shielding.

Five seconds.

Mika looked up at the sky, toward the invisible ball of rock and bomb hovering in the void, and smiled.

"Three...Two...One..."

"...Boom." He whispered.

And on point—the bomb detonated!

In the vacuum of space, there was no sound.

But there was light—a massive fusion of energy that bloomed like a star being born.

The asteroids around it shattered, vaporized, scattered into cosmic dust.

The shockwave rippled outward, invisible and deadly, but contained by the very void that had given it birth.

From Earth, people saw a sudden flash of light in the sky—a brief, beautiful burst of radiance that faded almost as quickly as it appeared.

They pointed, wondered, speculated.

A shooting star? A celestial phenomenon? Some kind of atmospheric event?

No one knew. No one would ever know that they had just watched their own deaths pass them by.

The bomb squad erupted.

"WE DID IT!"

"HOLY SHIT, WE ACTUALLY DID IT!"

"I CAN’T BELIEVE I LIVED!"

They jumped, screamed, hugged each other, cried.

The new fiancé and his bride-to-be kissed passionately, lost in their own world.

Another couple, the wife who had said she could never be as excited as she was during the bomb disposal grabbed her husband by the arm and dragged him toward a nearby building, already pulling at his clothes.

"Wait—hold on—where—"

"Shut up!" She growled, her eyes wild with adrenaline and desire.

"Just shut up and take off your pants."

The husband, equally exhilarated, obeyed.

Everyone celebrated in their own way.

Nadia watched the explosion fade from above, and let out a long, slow breath.

Even though she had known that nothing would happen, not with her big sister around and certainly not with Mika beside her, she had still been tense.

The weight of all those lives, pressing down on her shoulders.

But it was over. Everyone was safe.

She looked down and was surprised to see Mika looking up at her as well.

His gaze was tender. Loving. The kind of look that made her heart flutter in ways she didn’t want to examine.

She tried to look away.

But he caught her chin and pulled her closer.

"Good job, Nadia." His voice was soft. Warm. "You saved a lot of people today."

She shook her head, feeling flustered for some reason.

"No, no—I did nothing. You’re the one who did everything." She looked at him with fondness. "If you weren’t here today, I honestly don’t even know if I would have managed."

"Big Sis would have had to handle the situation, and she would have scolded me for being so incompetent. You really saved me from that. If anyone’s the Hero of the day, it’s you, Mika."

Hearing her deflect, he pulled her cheek, annoyed.

"Be quiet, Nadia. Accept the praise. When someone compliments you, don’t brush it off."

She blushed at being scolded by her own son. But she nodded.

He smiled, caressing her cheek tenderly.

"So." He said, his gaze warm. "After saving basically the entirety of the capital, what do you want as a reward?"

She blinked. "What?"

"Don’t play dumb." He chuckled. "In the past, whenever I did something nice or got a good grade on a test, you always gave me some kind of reward."

"Took me out to eat. Bought me something I wanted."

He tilted his head. "So what do you want, Nadia? What’s your reward?"

She felt excitement bubble up in her chest. No one ever rewarded her.

She was a leader, a commander, a Battle Angel. People came to her for solutions, for orders, for protection. They didn’t offer her gifts or praise.

But Mika was different.

She thought about it. What did she want? What did she truly, secretly desire?

A new dress? A vacation? A quiet evening at home? The possibilities swirled in her mind.

Then she looked at his lips.

And she knew.

"I want a kiss, Mika." Her voice was soft, almost shy. "I want a kiss from you."

She felt her cheeks warm.

"Honestly, I’m a little bit nervous right now. I’m not the same Battle Angel I used to be. Even this, shook me up quite a bit."

She looked at him with loving eyes.

"But as long as I get a kiss from you, I think everything will be alright."

In her mind, she imagined a kiss on her forehead. A kiss on her cheek.

Something wholesome and innocent, the kind of kiss a son gave his mother when he was proud of her.

That was what she wanted. That was what she expected.

Mika nodded. "A kiss, huh? That’s easy."

She closed her eyes, tilting her face slightly, expecting his lips to land on her cheek or her forehead.

Instead, he pushed forward—

—and kissed her on the lips!

Nadia was completely caught off guard by the kiss. She hadn’t expected it, not like this, not so suddenly.

Her mind went blank, her body froze, and instinct took over. She tried to pull away, but Mika held her head firmly, pulling her closer instead of letting her go.

The kiss deepened.

"Mmm!♡~ Mmm!♡~ Kiss!♡~ Mmm!♡~ Slurp!♡~"

Her entire body grew hot, flustered, her thoughts scattering like startled birds.

This wasn’t even her first kiss.

Mika had already taken that earlier, back in that meeting room, when she had been too shocked to process what was happening.

But that had been quick. Almost chaste compared to this.

This time, Mika wasn’t settling for a quick peck.

She could feel his lips moving against hers, working her mouth open, his tongue pressing insistently against her lips, demanding entrance.

He wasn’t just kissing her—he was making love to her mouth like they had all the time in the world and he intended to use every second.