Hajime looked at the dragonformed Tio with a serious gaze he had never looked at her with before. With his pride and arrogance, Hajime had said he would be able to do anything by himself, but he relied on her. Expressing he needed Tio's cooperation to accomplish his wishes, and to overcome all of the difficulties. He said he needed Tio's power. There was neither trace of him giving up, trying to sacrifice himself, nor was he excluding Tio at all.
The sadness and anger in Tio's heart changed radically into one of joy as she trembled. She was "entrusted" with something important by the man she liked, no, the one she wanted to be her partner in this life and death situation. She would not be a woman if she didn't answer him.
Therefore, Tio only answered with one sentence.
"Leave it to this one!"
Hajime put "Treasure Box" in the inner part of Tio's scale. Doing so, he was directly touching the Tio's body while she was in her dragon form.
Confirming the "Treasure Box" with her skin, Tio quietly rubbed her head against Hajime. It was the best expression of love she could do now. Hajime also gently stroked Tio once before he parted. Tio turned her gaze to Yue and Shia. Then, she nodded powerfully having felt that the two also haven't given up.
"Tio, deliver this message to Kaori and Myuu. "I will meet you later." Okay."
"Fufu, acknowledged."
The too nonchalant message Hajime gave made Tio laugh inadvertently, and after a beat, she flew at once while cladded by a powerful wind. Using barrelroll to evade the incoming small beams, Tio immediately tried to pierce through the group of Ash Dragons. The Ash Dragons, sensing the crisis from the black dragon's movement, concentrated their attacks on Tio.
The rushing small beams were counterbalanced by Tio's Breath, but it wasn't easy because the beams keep coming one after another. However, the moment the balance about to collapse, a beam gushed out from below and blew several Ash Dragons that were attacking Tio.
It was the small beams compressed and fired by Yue's "Absolute Calamity." In addition, exploding-slug bullets were fired and the shock wave blew the Ash Dragons away.
Suddenly, maybe because Freed and the white dragon had reached outside, the doors on the ceiling began to close. Realizing she didn't have much time, Tio focused on accelerating with resolution of receiving the bombardment. Tio's flight speed was further increased, but the fired off small beams began to break Tio's dragon scale.
"Hmph, a pain only of this degree, it feels good! Bring it on~!"
Just as she said, Tio's mood brightened along with the increment of her speed whenever the attack from the Ash Dragons damaged her body. It was the effect of "Pain Conversion" in "Dragonform." The more pain she felt, the more her tension increased along with temporary boost of her ability, an awful skill derivation. Incidentally, it was something she obtained when she met Hajime after living for several hundreds of years. So, rather than "breaking through the wall (as in the wall before the skill derived)," it was more like "the door had opened.