Allen fell straight toward the sea. He thought choking seawater was bound to greet him, but it did not.
A miracle occurred. After Gailis and the other Unicorns leaped off the cliff, they still refused to give up, galloping desperately through the air. Heaven did not disappoint those who tried; as though moved by Gailis and the others, or like butterflies breaking from their cocoons after countless trials, enormous white wings sprouted from their flanks. Set against the blood-red sky and sea, the Unicorns looked powerful, beautiful, and incomparably holy.
Gaia traced a beautiful arc through the sky and dove toward the sea. Just as Allen was about to plunge into the deep waters, she caught him, beat her huge white wings, and flew into the distance.
The winged Unicorns were wildly excited and flew tirelessly onward, until an enormous rippling barrier blocked their path. Having tasted the thrill of flight, the Unicorns charged through the barrier in one determined push.
The Unicorns, who had already prepared themselves for battle, descended from the sky one after another. Having experienced the exhilaration of flight, losing that ability again left them in a panic.
Allen noticed that they seemed to have returned to the square in the Unicorn settlement where they had started, yet it was also different. Everything was shrouded in a dim yellow mist, and the enormous white Sphinx statue in the center of the square had vanished. In its place stood a monster with the body of a giant lion and the head of a beautiful woman.
"A lion-bodied, human-faced Sphinx!" Allen recognized the monster's origin at once. Of course, he did not overlook its enormous, sharp, blue-glowing poisonous claws or the massive black wings on its back. Those wings were clearly much larger than the Unicorns' wings. Once