“I think I have to agree with Sahara.” Menou understood why Sahara would make such an off-base guess in the face of the bizarre sight before them. The buildings above were so high up that it was hard to even imagine how one might reach them. And it was even harder to comprehend how people could stand to live in a reversed city that might fall at any moment. Believing them to be an artistic display with zero practicality made more sense. “There were lots of fun places to play up in the ceiling district. Although… Hmm.” Maya squinted. “There used to be a sort of balloon-like transport that constantly moved up and down, but I suppose that doesn’t run anymore. What a shame.” “Well, it has been a thousand years… It’s more surprising that the city is still so perfectly intact,” Menou replied. The city had been sealed away for nearly a millennium. Yet it displayed no evidence of aging. “The size of this place…” Sahara shielded her eyes with her hand and squinted up at the ceiling. “They didn’t just dig a cave, they used Pure Concepts to make the foundation. What a crazy idea.” Menou nodded. “True… This couldn’t have been easy to pull off.” The sheer height of this place stood in stark opposition to the laws of physics, more so than the city itself. Menou and the others had descended a long staircase and through the gradual downward slope of the underground hub. Based on that, they couldn’t possibly be more than two hundred meters down, yet the cavern ceiling was likely over a thousand meters above. It was proof that the space containing the City of Ruins had been expanded. “It must be Primary Color Storage Space, right?” Menou said. Of all the conjuring systems, the Concepts of Primary Colors was likely the most all-around useful. The Concepts of Primary Colors clustered in an enclosed space would begin to construct a space of their own, which led to the belief that it could be used to create worlds. By increasing the density of the Concept of Primary Colors in the enclosed space, the area contained within would expand, becoming a new subspace distinct from the topology that originally existed there. “So basically, it’s like an item box. That’s not so different from my shadow.” Maya had a point, since she’d lived a thousand years ago, when the Concepts of Primary Colors were used on an everyday basis. This city functionally existed within a ridiculously large item box. “A thousand years ago, it was so useful that miniaturization had to be regulated, but it was used quite often on large, fixed objects like buildings. Space expansion is very convenient—it makes rooms much bigger.” “And expanding the city space while building is a natural extension of the item box idea. When you can control Pure Concepts down to the smallest units, the subspace stays stable, and it’s so much easier than digging things out. Although there is a side effect if you overdo it, of course,” Abbie added. Unlike Menou and Sahara, who lived in a world where the Concepts of Primary Colors had been strictly regulated, Maya and Abbie were unsurprised, the latter in particular. Abbie was born in the Mechanical Society, a territory and world all its own constructed by the Concepts of Primary Colors within a barrier that was therefore larger than an entire country. Even now, it was still growing and expanding. Grisarika Kingdom, which had become Menou’s base of operations, was in the midst of gradually lifting the regulations on the Concepts of Primary Colors. “There are micromachines scattered throughout the city that maintain its basic settings,” Abbie remarked. Menou raised an eyebrow. “Micromachines?” “Conjured soldiers made up of the smallest units of the Concepts of Primary Colors. To put it simply, they’re the tiniest conjured soldiers possible.” “Whoa, I didn’t know that was a thing…” Sahara sounded impressed. The Concepts of Primary Colors were a conjuring system that used materials made from the three Primary Colors as their foundation. Micromachines gathered and formed Primary Color crystals, which in turn were used as a core to collect more crystals of the same color, creating conjured soldiers. By Menou’s understanding, the only way to use Primary Color conjurings was by employing Primary Color crystals that were visualized as materials, but that wasn’t the case for Abbie. Analyzing and meddling with a Primary Color space was her domain, where she could use her powers to the fullest. She was essentially an expert. “And you can tell where they’re going and what they’re doing?” Menou asked. “Sure I can. Back in the Mechanical Society, we have micromachines dispersed in each zone that we use to modify the space. If you leave ’em to their own devices, micromachines will naturally gather with other ones of the same color and form Primary Color crystals, so this level of concentration in the atmosphere has got to be artificially managed. Watch this… Hyah!” Suddenly, Abbie smashed her fist into the nearest wall. Her punch was so powerful that cracks ran through its surface. Menou’s eyes widened in confusion, but what happened next was the real surprise. Guiding Light appeared in midair, filled in the cracks in the damaged wall, and began to repair it. At the same time, the rubble that had fallen to the ground from the hit was dismantled and disappeared. “This whole city is built with micromachines. As long as the layout has power, the micromachines will create shapes accordingly, which is probably why it’s remained pristine after so long. It looks like the glass and interiors were made with ordinary substances, so it’s really just an empty husk of a city.” Automatic restoration and cleaning. That was how the place had survived for a thousand years. All of this was very unexpected. Menou gave a sigh of admiration, marveling at the ancient civilization’s technology. Perhaps because the City of Ruins far surpassed Menou’s expectations, she found her eye drawn to a decoration that looked out of place. Many structures above and below were decorated with what looked like brand-new flags. “Maya. Those flags weren’t there a thousand years ago, were they?” “Nope. I wonder what they could be.” Maya confirmed Menou’s suspicions. These flags were new. Each was emblazoned with the letter G in straight white lines, a symbol known across the world. “Genom’s red flag…” Sahara breathed the name of the recognizable symbol in this unfamiliar city. The City of Ruins had been closed for a very long time, yet he’d heard of its unsealing and made it his base. “Gennum’s… Sorry, what now?” Maya cocked her head to one side. “It’s a flag that the infamous villain Genom Cthulha displays in his occupied territories,” Menou explained. The red pennants were the antithesis of the indigo blue robes that Faust priestesses wore. It was said that Genom adopted the symbol after killing members of the Faust and hanging their bloodstained robes. Even the most confident fighters would hesitate to approach a land marked by those crimson flags. Genom had been known to attack the bases of Noblesse knights and those of Faust priestesses, raising the white G on the roofs of claimed churches. That flag had become a symbol of the strength of Genom’s armed forces, a declaration of strength even the mightiest nations were reluctant to challenge. And now, dozens of them decorated the City of Ruins. The sight of what was essentially an emblem of evil hanging everywhere made even Sahara turn pale. “You don’t look so good, li’l sis. You all right?” Abbie asked. “No, I’m not.” Sahara shook her head immediately. She didn’t look well in the slightest. Sahara brought a hand to her mouth, as though to keep from vomiting. “How awful. There were no flags at the Iron Chain base…” “Well, those people were in the middle of a smuggling trade. And Genom himself wasn’t there,” Menou said. Nearly a year ago, she’d fought against an organization working for Genom in the Balar Desert. The armed organization Iron Chain must have taken care deciding when to display proof that it answered to him. That meant it had been deemed safe to openly display the red flags in the City of Ruins. It looked like the place was under occupation. Menou sighed. “Well, this is an even bigger problem than I thought.” Judging by the many symbols of Genom, it was clear that his primary intent wasn’t to intercept her group. “Genom’s just been setting up encampments because he wants to use the City of Ruins as his base.” Why he chose such a restricted location was unclear. Whatever the reason, Genom had left the Mechanical Society and gathered subordinates to turn the City of Ruins into his personal stronghold. The need to constantly flee from Michele had kept Menou from gathering information and learning as much until now. Hostility and fighting spirit radiated openly from the buildings with the red flags. Clearly, Genom’s forces infested the center of the city. They had to be armed and far more dangerous than the adventurers in the underground hub. Genom’s followers had stained their hands with all manner of taboos, yet they’d escaped the Faust and knights of various nations. In short, they were true villains. The adventurers had been mere scarecrows intended to frighten off anyone who’d try to enter the real mastermind’s base. Genom’s true army lurked ahead, ready and armed to the teeth. And it was even more powerful and motivated to keep watch outside than the adventurers they were threatening. Sahara grumbled wearily. “These guys have to be strong enough to beat the priestesses stationed outside the Mechanical Society…” There was no warning at all. The moment Menou, Abbie, Sahara, and Maya stepped out onto the city streets, they were attacked. Men concealing themselves inside the nearby buildings closed in without a sound. From around the corners of the alleys on either side, from the second floors of buildings, even from hiding places under the ground… They emerged from all directions, skirting Menou’s detection until a moment before they struck. They might have even stopped their heartbeats to lie in wait soundlessly. To maintain the element of surprise, they didn’t use crest conjurings or Guiding Enhancement, so as not to risk exposing themselves before their assault. As a former Executioner, Menou had to admit she was impressed with their skills. At first, the assailants looked empty-handed. However, each of the attackers had at least one artificial limb. They used the metal prosthetics as lethal weapons, striking with jabs and toe-kicks aimed at vital organs. Menou and Abbie still managed to react. Despite their surprise, they parried and dodged the deadly blows. But the surprise attack was so perfectly executed that even the two seasoned fighters had their hands full merely protecting themselves. Maya, who had no understanding of battle, stood in place rigidly. “Huh…?” Her failure to react meant there was only one person able to move in time to protect her, the girl nearest to her—Sahara. Which explained why she quickly became a casualty. “Mm-gah…” A sound that was part scream and part groan clawed from Sahara’s mouth. She had thrown herself in front of Maya to shield her, abandoning any hope of defending herself, yet her attackers showed no mercy. Guiding prosthetic hands pierced through her heart and sliced the back of her neck. A spray of blood splattered across Maya’s face. “……” Unable to make a sound, Maya looked wide-eyed from Sahara, who was falling to the ground after shielding her, to the attacker’s deadly Guiding prosthetic arm. Menou and Abbie hadn’t finished dealing with their own opponents yet. For all their combat skills, their enemies were still able to stall them. Neither would be able to save her. As a prosthetic arm came for her life, Maya’s eyes glowed with red Guiding Light. Guiding Force: Sacrifice—Chaos Collusion, Pure Concept [Evil]—Summon [What’s yours is mine.] The Original Sin conjuring took less than a second to activate. The bits of Sahara’s blood splattered on the attackers’ prosthetic limbs shifted eerily and oozed into the metallic parts. “Tch?!” The attackers let out a hiss. The Guiding prosthetics that served as their limbs and as powerful weapons suddenly twisted into impossible directions. Alarmed by the sudden change, the men tried to back away from the cause, Maya. However, the child of Original Sin wouldn’t allow them to retreat. “Are you stupid?” Maya’s eyes glinted with the vestiges of the Original Sin conjuring as she laid bare their grave error. “You really think you can use Primary Color-made prosthetics as weapons against me? Do you have a death wish?” As she spoke, the attackers’ prosthetic limbs became monsters and attacked with fangs and claws. Even Genom’s skilled warriors couldn’t fight with their own weapons after they’d transformed into bizarre creatures. And Menou wasn’t about to waste that opening. Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Invoke [Guiding Thread] She touched the dagger strapped to her thigh and activated a crest conjuring. Her Guiding Force threads wrapped around the pair of assailants that had threatened Maya, binding them. Guiding prosthetics, built in the Mechanical Society to replace missing limbs, were made up of the Concepts of Primary Colors. They were powerless to resist a transformation invoked by an Original Sin conjuring. Perhaps the men didn’t know this, or maybe they’d intended to finish her off in the initial surprise attack. One of the monsters separated itself from its owner’s limb and slithered over to Maya’s feet. It coiled around Sahara’s body, which appeared utterly lifeless, and touched the Guiding prosthetic attached to her shoulder. Guiding Force: Sacrifice—Original Sin, Envy: Flesh—Summon [Meat Puppet: Heart, Blood] The monster was absorbed into Sahara’s flesh, filling in what she’d lost. Her heart began to beat once more, restored by the Original Sin conjuring. With her wounds healed, Sahara sat up and blinked. “…Whoa, that’s crazy. I thought I was dead for sure.” Seeing that Sahara was restored, Maya went weak in the knees. She dropped to the ground next to Sahara and let out a deep exhale. “Whew… Let me make one thing clear, Sahara. You do know you can’t live very long as just an arm, right?” “Wait, I can’t?!” Sahara looked horrified at this revelation. “Why not?! I thought I was basically unkillable, since this arm is my main body?!” She stuck out the Guiding prosthetic that was her right arm, but Maya shook her head. Abbie did the same in agreement as she helped mend the hole in Sahara’s clothes. “Sahara, your soul is stuck between the body I made and your Guiding prosthetic. If either of them gets destroyed, you won’t be long for this world,” Maya explained. “Mm-hmm. Your soul is special, li’l sis,” Abbie said. “It has to be connected to both an Oirginal Sin body and a Primary Color vessel, or… I’d say it would evaporate within an hour or so.” “You’ve got to be kidding…” While Sahara hung her head, crestfallen, Menou approached one of the men she’d captured with Guiding Thread. “Now, I’d like you to answer a few questions.” These attackers were a valuable source of potential information, and there was plenty Menou wished to know about Genom and his base in the City of Ruins. “……” The man cast his gaze briefly at Menou, then slowly and silently closed his eyes. Menou furrowed her brow at this odd behavior. It was a strangely quiet and calm gesture, too much so to be a declaration of intent to resist and remain silent. Any questions she might have asked were answered immediately. There came an almost unsatisfyingly soft sound. It was a light bursting noise, like a single kernel of corn being popped. All the attackers, not just the man Menou had captured, suddenly had blood on their shirts. Life abruptly drained from their faces, making it clear what they had done. They’d committed suicide. “Yikes…” Sahara grimaced and covered Maya’s eyes. Menou’s expression remained calm as she touched the bound man’s wound. Their hearts had exploded, perhaps from a conditionally activated conjuring. It was likely a near-instant death. “They’ve been very well-trained. I didn’t even have time to stop it,” Menou said. Sahara shivered. “Not even Executioners would go this far…” As soon as they were captured, they had all taken their own lives without hesitation. Menou laid the body down to rest and raised her head. Genom’s red flags were displayed all over the city. “With his banners everywhere, there’s really no way of knowing where his minions are hiding,” Menou remarked with a sigh. Surprise attacks were bound to continue. There were still enemies swarming all over the city. “But the Astrologer is in the tower at the heart of the… Huh?” Maya abruptly stopped talking. She stood still, looking dumbfounded. Her gaze was fixed on the giant tower that connected the upper and lower halves of the City of Ruins. “What’s wrong?” Menou asked. “I just got a really bad feeling from over there…in the environment control tower.” Although Maya answered, her eyes never left the spire. Even the red flags couldn’t pull her attention away. “Pandæmonium is in there.” There was no uncertainty in Maya’s tone. Her confidence made Sahara’s and Menou’s expressions turn grave. “Oh, really.” Abbie, on the other hand, sounded casually murderous. “You sure about that, twerp?” “I’m almost positive. I can sense her.” Maya was a part of the Human Error Pandæmonium. She’d gained independence by recovering her memories. That she possessed a conjuring-like connection that allowed her to detect the main body was no surprise. Between the surprise attacks and this revelation, the mood was growing increasingly heavy. This wasn’t good. Menou clapped her hands to clear the air of the oppressive tension. “All right. Let’s have a strategy meeting.” Menou and the others found a small empty building at the end of a back alley. There was no telling where Genom’s forces were hiding or when they might attack, so even after confirming their hiding spot was empty, Menou, Sahara, Maya, and Abbie remained on alert. “Our goal is to gain control of the Starhusk. We came here to enter that giant spire—the environment control tower—and to make contact with the Astrologer to ask for aid. That was our original purpose,” Menou began. Maya and Abbie nodded. They’d intended to search for the Astrologer here, but upon entering the City of Ruins, they found fresh trouble they’d have to deal with first. The plan needed to adapt to compensate. “Our new obstacle is Genom Cthulha and his armed forces.” The men who attacked them earlier were strong fighters, but not beyond anything Menou and her companions couldn’t handle. “If Pandæmonium is here, too, then there’s no telling what might happen.” That being’s mere presence was enough to turn the entire situation on its head. Maya’s intuition remained the only evidence they had of Pandæmonium’s presence, but they couldn’t afford to take that lightly. “It wouldn’t be that surprising if she was here, I suppose. If the World Suspension half a year ago weakened the Mechanical Society’s barrier, the same could’ve happened to Pandemonium,” Menou posited. Pandemonium was a fog barrier that existed to entrap the Human Error Pandæmonium, a place full of chaos and horrors beyond imagining, due to the monsters that had festered and cannibalized each other within it for a thousand years. Akari, the holder of the Pure Concept of Time, had used the World Regression conjuring repeatedly, altering the timeline. The many rewinds put a strain on the barrier and eventually led to a portion of the Human Error within escaping into the larger world. Pandæmonium’s pinky finger drifted ashore to the nearest town, where she took hold of a Noblesse girl and caused a great deal of damage and loss in pursuit of granting the girl’s wish. Such was the incident in the port city of Libelle. “Yikes, what a pest!” Abbie declared after hearing Pandæmonium’s history from Menou. “Concepts of Original Sin are nothing but trouble. Exterminate ’em all, I say!” “I wasn’t self-aware at the time!” Maya protested. What Menou found most terrifying during the trouble with Pandæmonium, when she was still an Executioner of the Faust, wasn’t that the Human Error sacrificed hundreds of lives or that she summoned a giant monster to destroy an entire island. It was that Pandæmonium displayed no ill will. She sought nothing, followed no logic, and harbored no concern for herself. Her sole purpose, the driving force behind all her actions, was simply to spread the chaos known as Evil throughout the world. After a series of coincidences and Manon’s efforts, Pandæmonium’s pinky was able to recover her personality as Maya. The idea that Pandæmonium might be here working with Genom in the City of Ruins, just as she had worked with Manon previously, was disturbingly plausible. Genom’s villainous disposition and power to foster Evil in the world would make him a perfect match for the Human Error. “Do you think something like what happened in Libelle might be happening here?” Menou questioned. “Well, I mean…” Maya nodded reluctantly. Pandæmonium was here, and so was the most infamous man in the world. This couldn’t be a coincidence. Although her attitude was unusual, Manon’s powers had been no different from those of an ordinary Noblesse girl. Genom, however, was feared as the worst of all criminals for nearly a decade. Not only was he a strong individual, but he had supporters and wealth at his command, far more than Manon ever did. Should Pandæmonium lend her power to someone like that, what horrors would be unleashed? Sahara looked nervous. “Is it just me, or is this really bad?” “It certainly warrants greater caution,” Menou replied. At the very least, it was unlikely that they’d be able to push their way through with brute force. Menou had access to the Pure Concept of Time, thanks to her soul-level connection with Akari’s Guiding Force, and Abbie was naturally powerful as a Primary Triad conjured soldier. Together, they could take on just about any opponent, save for Michele or Hakua. They’d remained convinced of that even after learning Genom had claimed the City of Ruins. Pandæmonium’s involvement changed things. She was one of the most dangerous beings in the world. “We’re lucky we have you, Maya,” Menou said. Learning of the Human Error’s presence in advance was tremendously fortunate. Had the group pressed on in ignorance, it might’ve been caught in a hopeless situation before realizing what was happening. “In a way, you could say this is actually pretty convenient.” Sahara offered this from a distance. Rather than participate in the meeting, which seemed like too much trouble, she was keeping watch. “Your goal is to destroy Pandæmonium, right, Maya?” Maya couldn’t stand to let that twisted version of herself exist. That’s why she’d joined Menou and the others on this journey. Given that she’d recovered her identity, her very existence could possibly be considered a counter of sorts against Pandæmonium. “If Pandæmonium shows up in the environment control tower, we can use Maya against her, but we’ll need to get past Genom’s lackeys first,” Menou said. Repeat fights like the earlier one would quickly exhaust the group. Sahara had already been killed once. Avoiding combat until they reached the tower where Genom and Pandæmonium likely waited was for the best. “Hmm… If the ambushes in the city down here are a problem, then…” Abbie pointed through the empty window frame at the underground ceiling. There was a cityscape up there just as magnificent as the one below. Truthfully, it was hard to look at it without worrying that it might fall. Anyone who’d ever worried the sky might fall knew exactly what Menou and company felt in this bizarre place. Abbie was the only one without fear, cheerfully proposing, “From this distance, we could just fly right up there!” Wind rushed by. The buildings overhead were all linked by enormous passages. It was like a modern labyrinth constructed with full use of all three dimensions. Menou and the others rode on a conjured soldier Abbie produced. The squat, cylindrical mechanical creature oscillated its single pair of wings rapidly as it carried the girls higher into the air. “I didn’t know you could make flying conjured soldiers,” Menou remarked, wondering if Abbie had been holding out on her. “Sure you did. I make tiny ones all the time,” Abbie answered quite matter-of-factly. “The insects, you mean? Yes, I suppose I have seen those…” Abbie used lots of flying conjured soldiers that specialized in searching and surveying, due to their tiny size. Menou had no idea that she could produce the same design at a size large enough to carry four people. This construct seemed to be based on a bee. Its thorax was fluffy and pleasantly warm. Its flight posture was quite stable, making for a rather comfortable ride. Were Menou tasked with picking a negative, the best she could come up with was the annoyingly loud noise of the wings. Abbie’s conjured soldier climbed high enough to nearly skim the bottoms of the buildings hanging from the ceiling. “This City of Ruins certainly is strange,” Sahara mused. Maya cocked her head. “How so? It’s not that different from when I was here a thousand years ago.” “That’s exactly what’s odd about it.” Despite its moniker, the City of Ruins was a far cry from crumbled remnants. Menou had known little about the place, beyond that it was practically the stuff of legends. It had been blocked off by a giant metal door underground for nearly a thousand years, and stories claimed it sometimes opened to invite a “chosen one” inside. Menou only accepted that the city truly existed when Maya told her about it in Grisarika. “The earthen vein in the north dried up long ago. Where is the Guiding Force maintaining the city’s functions coming from?” Menou wondered. “I mean, isn’t it obvious?” Abbie answered cheerfully. “This place is connected to the Mechanical Society. I bet colonies of micromachines flow in from there.” Menou, Maya, and Sahara were left speechless. “Sorry…what?” Menou said. “I think I must have misheard you. Could you repeat that for me?” Perhaps she’d misheard Abbie’s explanation because of the conjured soldier’s buzzing wings. She certainly hoped that was the case. “You said this place is…what, exactly?” “Connected to the Mechanical Society. It’s why I came out of here half a year ago.” Abbie pointed at the giant sphere of swirling Guiding Light suspended between the two parts of the environment control tower at the center of the city. Menou frowned. “What? Isn’t that just the light source for the city?” “No, no. It’s a hole in the White Night barrier that connects to the Mechanical Society. Didn’t you know that?” “…” Despite herself, Menou fell into silence. Genom Cthulha, Pandæmonium, and now the Mechanical Society. The gravity of the situation and the importance of this information were almost beyond comprehension. Menou let out a long, slow exhale. Then she inhaled deeply to fill her chest, then blew it back out. Okay, she thought, after gathering her thoughts. Truthfully, her mind was still in utter disarray, but at least she’d calmed on the surface. “I thought the only spaces connected to the Mechanical Society were in the east, starting with the remote regions of Grisarika. Isn’t this too far away?” “The Mechanical Society is already just about the size of a continent in its subspace. Building a large enough Primary Color Storage Space…makes it a window into the Mechanical Society. That’s the side effect I mentioned earlier,” Abbie said. “I see…” Primary Color Storage Space was a conjuring that created a pocket space on a slightly different level from this world. The Mechanical Society existed on that same, slightly alternate plane, continually expanding until it was large enough to cover the entire continent. In other words, if one made a Primary Color Storage Space anywhere on this continent, it would become a portal linking to a part of the Mechanical Society. Now Menou understood why the unbelievably convenient Concepts of Primary Colors were banned, although she would’ve preferred to remain ignorant. “As soon as the Mechanical Society expanded from the east to the north, it connected to the City of Ruins,” Abbie explained. “…In that case, couldn’t this place easily become another battlefront like the one in the eastern Wild Frontier?” Menou suggested. “Whaaat? Why would we do that?” A tremendous number of conjured soldiers had emerged and attacked humanity in the eastern regions of the Wild Frontier. Abbie was glad to elucidate why the same thing hadn’t transpired in the north. “This boundary line is connected to zone thirteen, where I’m in charge! I wouldn’t send conjured soldiers out like that!” Menou grabbed the other girl’s shoulders firmly. Although given a reasonable explanation, she had plenty of questions—one in particular that stood above all the others. “Listen, Abbie…” Menou smiled, though something about the grin would’ve made anyone’s blood run cold. “Why didn’t you tell me that half a year ago? Or at the very least, why didn’t you mention this before we left Grisarika?” “Well, you didn’t ask. Besides, I’d rather travel on this side than cut across the Mechanical Society anywaAAAARGH!” A swift chop to the forehead interrupted Abbie. She clutched her head while Menou looked down at her coldly. “See, keeping things like that from me is why I can’t trust you.” “I’m sorryyyy…but is it really that important? The Mechanical Society and the City of Ruins have overlapped for at least five years.” “If that’s not a major development, I don’t know what is!” When Menou really thought about it, the timing and location of her encounter with Abbie half a year ago had been strange. Abbie had left the east and arrived in the north awfully quickly. It wasn’t impossible, but a conjured soldier unaccustomed to human society wouldn’t have access to the quickest route. Abbie found Menou and the others when she did because she’d emerged in the north, sensed Sahara, and made a beeline for her. “Oh well. At least this clears up the Michele problem.” “Huh? Wait, li’l Menou, are you saying you want to come to my place on the way home? Gosh, your big sis is a liiittle embarrassed…” “Do you have a problem with that?” Menou donned her domineering smile from earlier. Abbie folded immediately. “No, not at all…” “There’s no need to get that angry, is there, Menou? Depending on how you look at it, this means we have one less thing to worry about,” Sahara chimed in from the back. “I suppose so…,” Menou admitted. “But the fact that it’s not all bad news just makes it even more annoying somehow.” Michele lying in wait outside the City of Ruins had been a major issue, but not if this place was linked with Abbie’s territory. The group could pass through the Mechanical Society and return to Grisarika to the east. “If we really are allies, you should tell me these things in advance,” Menou chided Abbie. “The same goes for this thing we’re riding right now. Knowing you could make this while we were fleeing Michele would’ve been a big help.” Menou patted the conjured soldier they rode on. It was much faster than a train, since it wasn’t hindered by the terrain. In fact, it was still a good deal speedier than the spider soldiers the group had used for transportation on the surface. “I don’t think that’d be such a good idea. I don’t like to fly with these things much outside. Especially for long periods of time.” “Hmm? Why not?” “Because it’s dangerous, duh.” Abbie’s tone was nonchalant. “My tiny insect conjured soldiers are great in the air. So I figured I could just make one bigger to use as a flying machine, but the result doesn’t work well, for some reason. When they’re big enough to carry people, the wings lose efficiency.” “What…? But we’re flying on one right now, aren’t we?” “Yup. Pretty amazing, right? Especially this kind. My li’l bros said they couldn’t figure out how it was able to stay up at all, never mind with passengers.” Menou, Maya, and Sahara exchanged glances. Abbie had apparently put them on a flying death trap without a word of warning. Was it truly safe to have four passengers riding on a conjured soldier that shouldn’t be able to keep airborne? Abbie smiled brightly, hoping to reassure her increasingly anxious companions. “Come on, don’t look so nervous. Your big sis has full confidence that this li’l carpenter bee buddy of mine will fly for us! See? We’re almost theRRGUH?!” A piece of wing came off with a pop and struck Abbie in the face. Evidently, the fragile wing base wasn’t strong enough to withstand the high-speed oscillation required to create the necessary lift to ferry four people into the air. It was lucky that Abbie took the hit. The fast-moving wing had enough physical energy to cause serious injury had it struck anyone else. “Oof…” While Abbie reeled from the surprise, Menou, Maya, and Sahara went into stunned silence. With its pilot distracted, the conjured soldier lost its balance. A crash seemed inevitable. Menou stood up before they went into a complete tailspin. She saw two options: an attempt at a soft landing from over a thousand meters in the air or finding a way to hang from the ceiling district buildings a few dozen meters above. Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Invoke [Guiding Thread] Menou tossed the dagger with the concentrated Guiding Force thread to Sahara and signaled to the other girl with her eyes. The nun understood immediately and held out her Guiding prosthetic right arm. Menou placed one foot on Sahara’s prosthetic limb. Guiding Force: Merge Materials—Prosthetic Arm, Inner Seal Conjuration—Activate [Skill: Guiding Shot] Sahara used the recoil from firing the Guiding gun to launch her arm up with all her might. She and Menou had chosen to land on one of the buildings hanging overhead. Sahara’s strength helped launch Menou high. Their combination of abilities made for an impressive jump, but it still wasn’t enough to reach the nearest structure. At this rate, Menou would fall with Maya and Sahara, to whom she was connected by her Guiding Thread. Menou pointed the barrel of her dagger gun downward. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Communion, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Decay Acceleration → Guiding Bullet] The force of firing at her feet catapulted her even higher. Menou was almost within reach of the building. Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger Gun Crest—Invoke [Guiding Branch: Barrel] Branches of Guiding Force spread from the gun. Menou’s Guiding Force manipulation sent them twining around a red flag planted nearby, which supported her weight right as gravity reasserted itself upon her. Menou swung up after dangling from the flagpole. Sahara and Maya held fast to the Guiding Thread from the dagger to avoid falling. “I should’ve just summoned a flying monster to make sure this never happened,” Maya grumbled. “Agreed.” Menou couldn’t argue with that. Her shoulders drooped from strain and relief as she pulled Sahara and Maya up to join her. “Almost…there… Ah.” Menou had nearly forgotten the fourth member of her party in the brief crisis. “Don’t worry, your big sis will be fine! See you at the control tower! Byeeeeeeeeee!” Abbie tumbled toward the ground in a spectacular fashion. In no time at all, she was only a speck in Menou’s vision; then she vanished entirely. After Menou worked to pull up Maya, the little girl tugged on her sleeve. “Hey, why didn’t you save Abbie? Do you actually hate her just as much as I do?” “No… I just assumed she could take care of herself.” There was no ulterior motive. Menou hadn’t sought petty retaliation for their earlier exchange. Apparently, Abbie just wasn’t able to fly on her own. It didn’t worry Menou too much, though. “A fall like that shouldn’t kill her…probably.” A violent crash echoed from somewhere far below. Abbie’s impact kicked up clouds of dust. Even the sturdy structures of the City of Ruins had their limits. The impact from Abbie’s fall smashed the surface of the main road, creating a decent-sized crater. Abbie sat herself up in the center of the impact zone. “Nnngh… Being ignored really hurts my feelings. I guess I’m not a high priority to li’l Menou. Not at all.” She dusted herself off lightly. Even after a fall of nearly a thousand meters, there wasn’t a scratch on her brown skin. “It’s been a while, Ability.” Someone greeted her as they emerged from the dust. It was a pink-haired girl wearing indigo-blue priestess robes. Abbie’s eyes sparkled with excitement. She’d known Momo since before meeting Menou, Maya, and Sahara. “Well?” said Momo. “You’ve come this far. What do you think?” Abbie shook her head and regarded the other girl with evident sadness. “I would’ve preferred that you held us back some more.” “I don’t care. You know that’s not what I was asking.” Momo seized Abbie’s hand and roughly pulled the girl to her feet. Abbie gave a salute of gratitude, which earned a scowl. “I dunno. It should be fine…” Abbie narrowed her eyes in displeasure. “You’re the one who brought that thing to the environment control tower, right? Why?” “Me? Of course not.” Momo flatly denied Abbie’s intense accusation while taking a seat on her white suitcase and crossing her legs. “I don’t appreciate being accused by someone who can’t even carry out a plan to destroy the world. So what are you going to do? What do you think, now that you’ve traveled around the continent for the past six months? Did the deal we made when we met serve you well?”
Chapter 123
32 min read