“Why would I be disappointed?” Menou replied, noting that Nono’s question was only a setup. She didn’t mean a word of it. “If anything, that makes it more important. It’s far more useful than if it were simply a powerful weapon. This place must be important to Hakua, too.” So much so that it was strange that she’d allow Genom to take it over. Or perhaps Genom taking over the environment control tower was a means of forestalling Michele. “Ah, yes. It’s just as you’re thinking.” “As I’m ‘thinking’?” Nono used the phrase “just as you’re thinking,” not “just as you say.” This choice of words made Menou all the more certain that Nono was not to be underestimated. Future vision that never erred. An Otherworlder who didn’t become a Human Error. Based on what Maya had said of Nono earlier, Menou had tried to steer the conversation to learn what she wanted to know. Unsurprisingly, those starry eyes saw right through that plan. “We just met yesterday, and you can already tell what I’m thinking?” “But of course. Have you forgotten who I am?” “I know, I know. The magical girl genius Nono, right?” “Yes, exactly!” Nono flashed a peace sign, pointing at her eyes with both fingers. “Let me make one thing clear, and I’ll swear it on these eyes of mine. There’s no way to undo the effects of the Sword of Salt. Not in the past, the present, or even the future.” This information was of utmost importance for Menou. The Sword of Salt. It was purity incarnate, having turned an entire continent to salt a thousand years ago and melted it into the sea. It was a fragment of the Pure Concept of Ivory, and it was currently embedded in Akari’s chest. Menou had thrust it in herself half a year ago. She’d had no other choice. It was the only way to save Akari after she’d been consumed by the Pure Concept of Time and begun transforming into a Human Error. Similarly, it was also the single method Menou had to kill Akari. She’d succeeded in focusing the effects of the massive World Suspension conjuring, which Akari unleashed when she became a Human Error, into one point to resist the effects of the Sword of Salt. However, that solution quickly became Menou’s greatest obstacle. Even now, that little shard continued to kill Akari. “You mean, no matter what?” “No matter what. Not even Hakua can undo it. Pulling it out won’t stop the effect. That thing is a literal fragment of the Pure Concept of Ivory made into a sword, without any of the limitations of conjurings.” Menou thought of a few solutions. She might negate it with another conjuring of the same kind. Excising the transformed part to keep the damage to a minimum could work as well. And there was the possibility that killing Hakua might undo the effects. “Nope. None of those will work.” Nono rejected all the strategies Menou vaguely considered before she could even voice them. “Are you trying to say that there’s no way to save Akari?” “Yup. You should just give up on Akari’s body.” Nono mercilessly verbalized what Menou had already somewhat suspected. Everything she’d done for the past six months had been to save Akari. She worked with Ashuna to withdraw Grisarika Kingdom from the Faust to resist Hakua and gain enough influence to stand against her. Yet while Menou had worked to gather ways to combat her enemy, she hadn’t found a single solution to rescuing Akari. And now she’d been hit with the reality that such a cure never existed in the first place. “You…” Menou trailed off, then glared at Nono. “Why would you tell me that?” “Because Akari is your biggest goal. If you really want to save her, you need to accept what I’ve told you and find a way forward.” That made everything painfully clear. Nono’s powers were indisputable. Menou required a fundamentally different approach to restore her dearest friend. That’s what Nono meant to convey. Rather than Menou steering the conversation, Nono had controlled it from start to finish. However, she’d revealed something else to Menou by doing so. “Nono. I certainly can’t question your ability to see the future. Your powers of perception are impressive, too.” “I know, right? You should praise me as ‘Nono the magical girl genius’!” “But even if you can see the future, that means you’re guiding us toward an outcome you’ve seen, right?” Menou gazed into the stars in Nono’s eyes. Nono must have given her the information about the Sword of Salt to limit the actions she would take going forward. Why else would she have brought it up? “Yup.” Sure enough, Nono readily confirmed Menou’s suspicion. “This situation is partially my responsibility, after all. I just want to steer things toward the best possible conclusion out of the available handful. It’s all I can do to atone.” “The best outcome as far as you’re concerned, you mean.” Evidently, there were several different ways that the future could turn out. Menou worked through this idea while pressing the other girl further. “What do you want to do about Hakua, exactly?” There was no guarantee that what Nono considered the best ending was at all agreeable. Menou wanted to get rid of Hakua. She and Hakua were fundamentally in conflict. Hakua’s existence was an obstacle preventing Menou from reuniting with Akari. No doubt Hakua felt the same way about Menou. But what about Nono? The bonds those girls had formed a thousand years ago were not so easily broken. Menou had seen proof of this with Maya. “Hmmm…” Nono crossed her arms and tilted her head. “I hate to say it, but there’s nothing I can do about her. All I can do is try to guide the emergency situation in the City of Ruins toward a soft landing.” “That’s awfully careless for someone who claims to feel responsible. Couldn’t you tell me in specific detail what’s going to happen?” “It’s a secret. Nothing good would come of revealing all that now.” Nono had said something similar last night. As frustrating as her dramatic hints were, trying to drag the truth out of her was likely pointless. The pair smiled at each other. “Okay. We can cooperate until we reach the environment control tower,” Menou said. “Please, let’s do just that. I’m just a delicate beauty, after all. You’d better protect me!” If nothing else, coming to the City of Ruins hadn’t been for nothing. They would bring Nono to the environment control tower. Since she was the Astrologer, it was in their best interest to help her regain management authority over the Starhusk. “Heh-heh. This reminds me of when I met your Master.” Nono chuckled. Menou’s eyes widened at the unexpected new subject. “You’ve met Master Flare?” “When she obtained activation authority for the attack satellite, I went to warn her of the dangers. I’m amazed she was able to find such a thing, even with the Pure Concept of Light.” “Oh, right…” Menou had seen it during her battle with Hakua, the attack from the sky that brought down a massive amount of Guiding Light in a concentrated beam. It had been powerful enough to destroy the land of salt. Menou wouldn’t soon forget the sheer strength that vaporized the remains of a continent, even one that had shrunk to the size of an island over the years. “Couldn’t we use that? That seems like an effective means of attacking Hakua.” “Nope, not a chance. It’s outside my domain. I don’t have a communication vessel to connect with the satellite.” “I take it you didn’t make that thing, then.” “Quite the opposite. It’s a product of the enemy, really. I think they intended to use it as a weapon against us. I’d applaud the Light holder for taking it over, if I could.” Master Flare’s ace in the hole originated from the Pure Concept of Light. While they spoke, Menou and Nono returned to the room where Maya and Sahara slept. Maya lay upside down on the king-size bed, her bare foot pressed into Sahara’s cheek. While Sahara looked a little uncomfortable from the unconscious kicking, she showed no signs of waking up, either. “They’re really passed out, aren’t they?” “That’s a good thing. Sleep helps a child grow up strong.” After a long journey filled with battle, a taste of normal life wasn’t unwelcome. Perhaps Menou’s memories of traveling with Akari, or her recollections with the aide from her forgotten Executioner days, could be a comforting glimpse of a better life as well. Although it pained her to know that history had vanished, Menou put such thoughts aside and gave Sahara and Maya a rude awakening. “All right, let’s get things back on track. This is our destination!” Nono had brought Menou, Maya, and Sahara to the theater room for a lecture. “The environment control tower. And what we want is in the top half.” A map of the City of Ruins was displayed on the giant screen. Nono was operating the conjured soldier mechanism somehow. The projection was so large, it was a bit difficult to read the map. “Why just the top?” “Excellent question, Sahara!” Nono looked pleased. “Management authority of the Starhusk is kept up there. When the terminal, also known as yours truly, reaches the control room, authority can officially be transferred.” “And the bottom half?” Menou asked. “That’s the system that maintains the City of Ruins. It’s not relevant to your mission, so don’t worry about it.” Just as Menou started to ask a question in the impromptu lecture, there was a loud crash. The door in the back of the theater room was suddenly blown off. “Yo.” Maya froze in shock from the violent noise, while Menou and Sahara leaped into battle-ready stances. Their eyes focused on the brazen intruder—a man with no face. There was a fist-sized hole in his head that left most of it empty. The aperture was centered on where his right eye should have been. A continuous flow of Guiding Light gushed from the opening. Menou’s and Sahara’s hair stood on end. Both recognized this threat immediately. “Sahara!” One word was all she needed. Sahara grabbed Maya by the scruff of the neck and rushed to make an escape. Fortunately, there were multiple exits to the theater room. Nono hurriedly followed after Sahara, leaving Menou to face this intruder alone. The faceless man’s head turned in Sahara’s direction briefly. Believing this to be a moment of distraction, Menou seized the opportunity to rush at him. However, she only got a few steps before needing to jump aside. Many small holes had appeared where she’d stood a second earlier. Despite entering unarmed, the man now held a Guiding gun—a shotgun, based on the bullet holes. Even standard single-shot Guiding guns were very strictly prohibited, so it was unusual to see anyone with this style of firearm. Yet the man tossed this valuable weapon aside carelessly and thrust his hand into the hole in his face. He withdrew another Guiding gun. “I must say, I wasn’t expecting you to come out and attack us personally.” Menou was already certain of the man’s identity; his appearance and powers were exactly as the rumors claimed. “You must be Genom Cthulha.” “Damn right. Glad to hear Flare’s successor knows my name.” Genom pointed the gun at Menou. Bullets came spewing in rapid succession. Gunshots overlapped and echoed. The weapon was automatic. Each round was much more powerful than that of an average Guiding gun. Since the weapon drew Guiding Force from the wielder, an ordinary human wouldn’t have been able to maintain fire like this for more than ten seconds without their soul starting to dry up. First a shotgun, now a machine gun. Menou zigzagged to evade the endless onslaught. The bullets followed close behind, firing into the trail of light left by her Guiding Enhancement, blowing the seats of the theater room to pieces. Unlike the scattered grain of a shotgun, the bullets from a machine gun were limited to a straight line directly from the muzzle. As long as Menou watched Genom’s arm, she would avoid being hit. Yet before she could get close enough, the man’s gun jerked in a different direction entirely. He was aiming for Sahara’s back as she escaped through the door. “Well, now what?” Genom sneered. Menou was too far away to stop him. “Double Speed.” The Guiding bullet inside the barrel made of Guiding Branches rotated rapidly. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Communion, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Decay Acceleration → Guiding Bullet] Menou didn’t level the barrel at Genom. There wasn’t time to get her aim just right. Instead, she fired the accelerated bullet at the floor. The shot pierced through the ground. Its impact was so great from the Acceleration effect that the floor collapsed, and Menou and Genom tumbled to the level below—the movie theater lobby. Menou used the resulting cloud of dust as cover, blending into her surroundings with Guiding Camouflage and slipping behind Genom. Her attack came from his blind spot. It should have been flawless, and yet he dodged. He couldn’t possibly have followed her with vision, and any sound of movement had been obscured by the crashing collapse. Normally, he couldn’t have evaded. Menou didn’t have time to think about how he managed it. She dismissed her doubts and surprise while readying her dagger gun again. “Oh-ho?” Genom’s attention went to her weapon. “Wasn’t that Flare’s weapon? Did you kill her and take it off her corpse? Nice taste you got there, kid.” “…!” Menou’s hands trembled. Her crest conjuring faltered, and the Guiding Branches that composed the barrel of the gun vanished. Invoking a conjuring required intense concentration. It was unlike Menou to allow her mind to be disturbed. She hadn’t failed a crest conjuring once in the past several years. “Oh, come on.” Genom sounded disappointed. Taking advantage of Menou’s momentary distraction, he pointed the muzzle of his machine gun at her chest. “That was a sincere compliment.” He squeezed the trigger. The Guiding gun fired close to ten bullets in a matter of seconds, the sweeping fire rapidly reducing the counter behind Menou to rubble. Such a storm would’ve torn through an average priestess’s Guiding Enhancement and destroyed her, but not a single projectile found purchase in Menou. “Oh?” The girl had ducked and fled before Genom finished pulling the trigger. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Communion, Pure Concept [Time] “I doubt this will matter, but…” Something hard clunked against Genom’s lower jaw: the Guiding Branch gun. “Don’t hold a grudge against me if you die.” Invoke [Decay Acceleration → Guiding Bullet] Menou pulled the trigger, denying Genom any opportunity for last words. There was a massive boom, louder than all the previous gunshots combined. The bullet pierced through the top of Genom’s skull, blowing his head to pieces. Even after his destruction, the energy shot through to the top of the three-story building, blowing a fresh hole in its foundation. Since it was upside down from a normal construction, the top floor was the base of the building. The damage rocked the structure, sending fatal cracks through the walls. Aftershocks gripped the ground, scattering more destruction. In little time, the building reached its limit. The movie theater began to collapse. As Menou tumbled down with the crumbling pieces of the place, she sent Guiding Force into her other dagger. Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Invoke [Gale] Using the gust of wind from the weapon to glide into the air, she tumbled through a window into the adjacent building. Menou stood slowly and checked herself for injuries. Although that battle had clearly ended in her victory, she only felt unease. The fight had gone unexpectedly smoothly. While it might have looked like she’d won easily, someone could’ve died had she made a single misstep. Yet after the mortal conflicts with Hakua and Michele, Genom didn’t feel nearly so challenging. The Monster of the Commons. Should a man with that title have gone down so quickly? Still doubtful, Menou looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of Guiding Light out of the corner of her eye. It was too brief a look to know precisely what its purpose was. She charged her clothing with Guiding Force and activated a crest conjuring purely on instinct. The Guiding Light flashed as her conjuring activated. Guiding Force: Connect—Battle Clothing, Crest—Invoke [Multi-Barrier] Unidentified Guiding Light was best treated with extreme caution. Menou owed her life to that fundamental teaching. “…!” The Barrier failed to absorb it completely. While the multiple layers of thin Guiding Force walls broke in rapid succession, she was lucky that they’d formed at an angle. By the time it broke through the last Barrier, the bullet’s trajectory had been altered, preventing a direct hit. Yet while the projectile didn’t touch her directly, the force of it was still intense. Menou was sent flying. She pulled herself in and rolled over twice across the floor. And she was up in time to see a new opponent, a man holding an enormous pistol aimed right where she stood. Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Invoke [Gale] Air burst from her dagger into the floor, sending her up in a near-perfect line. The enormous bullet missed Menou and bored through the floor. Its destruction more closely resembled a bomb’s than anything else. Menou landed and faced this new opponent with disbelief. The enemy who’d fired twice… He, too, was Genom. “Your moves aren’t bad. I suppose that’s because you’re a former Executioner.” The man with the hole in his face tossed aside the enormous gun. Menou was sure she’d killed him, yet here he was, complimenting her abilities quite leisurely. “Wouldn’t say they’re all that great, either, though. Did you really kill Flare?” That was a harsh assessment. He seemed to recall the earlier fight before his death, too. It made it hard to believe this Genom was an imposter. The Accelerated bullet had eradicated him, yet here he stood, perfectly unharmed. Menou maintained a straight face, suppressing her shock as she leveled her gaze at him. “Well, your attacks are awfully monotonous. Nothing but Guiding guns. Don’t you use any crest conjurings?” “Nah, I’m no good at conjuring. I can’t even get Guiding Enhancement right.” The man who’d held the top spot on the Commons blacklist for nearly ten years, the person considered the pinnacle of individual strength, casually highlighted his shortcomings as he reached into the hole in his face. A new Guiding gun emerged, surging with Guiding Light. “Oh, and by the way. The way you guys manage to use Guiding Enhancement while you’re fighting is like a miracle to us nobodies, ya know. Wish you’d show some more awareness of your freakishness.” His latest weapon was a machine gun, much like the one he’d used in the theater. Presumably, it was of an identical make, not the same object. Menou had heard that Genom possessed weapons in abundance, an accomplishment that had earned him the nickname “Arms Dealer.” The hole in Genom Cthulha’s face was an armory. That was a well-known fact. Still, seeing it up close was startling, nonetheless. “When you’re average like me, the most you can do is toughen yourself to withstand the recoil of these babies while you’re standing still. Get it?” Genom pulled out three different kinds of Guiding guns and tossed them to the floor. Shotguns, which scattered multiple bullets across a wide range, making it nearly impossible to dodge. Machine guns, capable of fully automatic rapid fire. And the high-powered firearm that blew a hole into a barrier conjuring in just one shot. All three were Guiding gun varieties not in widespread use, particularly the last one. Even Menou, a former Executioner, had never seen anything like that third one before. She didn’t think any Guiding gun was capable of shattering a Barrier so easily. And it was even more dangerous because it was pistol-sized, making it easy to conceal on one’s person. Were something like that to hit the market, any ordinary person could easily kill a knight or priestess. “See, I know I’m just average. That’s exactly why I like Guiding weapons so much.” Genom smirked and picked up a machine gun. A second Genom stepped into view from Menou’s flank. They both spoke at once. “’Cause even a talentless nobody like me can kill a priestess with the pull of a trigger.” Guiding Force: Merge Materials—Prosthetic Arm, Inner Seal Conjuration—Activate [Skill: Pile Driver] Sahara’s metal arm shot out a stake that gouged a huge hole in the passage linking the movie theater and the station building. “Wait, what are you doing?!” Despite Maya’s protests, Sahara didn’t hesitate. The sounds of gunshots behind her were far more frightening. Since she was carrying Maya and Nono now, her top priority was making sure that their attacker couldn’t follow them. Sahara shot off another conjuring from her prosthetic arm to block the way they’d come. Guiding Force: Merge Materials—Prosthetic Arm, Inner Seal Conjuration—Activate [Skill: Guiding Shot] With holes on either side, the tube broke apart quicker than the micromachines could repair it and collapsed. The danger hadn’t passed yet, however. If Genom was here, he’d surely come with lackeys. Menou’s flashy fight would make it difficult to move undetected. Fortunately, she had some unexpected help. “All right. Take a right at the next corner. They’re going to pass over us, so stay still under the roof for a few seconds… Okay, run!” From under Sahara’s arm, Nono offered startlingly useful guidance. They slipped past the armed forces by jogging sometimes and remaining concealed during others. Sahara would never have navigated all this security on her own. “Now enter that room through the window and… Great! Take a ten-minute break!” Thanks to some melodramatic pointing and calling, they made it to a private residence-sized building. Nono’s order to rest helped ease the tense atmosphere. “Maya. You may wish to use the restroom now. We won’t have a better time to rest for a while, and holding it in is bad for your health!” “Either shut up or die!” Huffing at Nono for her lack of discretion, Maya nonetheless hurried to the bathroom. Sahara sat on the floor and slumped against the wall. When she focused, she could still make out the sounds of battle coming from the movie theater. “Your future sight is pretty impressive,” she said. “Heh-heh, keep the praise coming. May I recommend repeating ‘magical girl genius Nono is the best!’ a few times? Go ahead, Sahara! One, two…” “Are there limits on your ability to know what’s going to happen? You don’t seem to use a conjuring. How exactly does it work?” “Hmmm?” Nono’s power was strong. Sahara had only evaded Genom’s forces thanks to her instructions. She leaned forward, hoping to learn more, mostly for the sake of her own safety. Nono pouted at Sahara’s practiced ability to deal with weirdos by ignoring their oddities, but she answered her questions anyway. “Here’s the thing, Sahara. I’ve never managed to invoke the Pure Concept of Star. Not even once. In a way, I’m a total failure as a Pure Concept holder.” “You haven’t?” “Nope. The best I can do is make a Guiding Force connection.” Nono pointed at her eyes with her index fingers. This made for a very silly pose, which was probably on purpose. “All I need to do is link Guiding Force to these eyes, and I can see the near future of anything in my field of vision. Actual predictions are different. I need Kaa’s help for those.” If Sahara remembered right, “Kaa” was the Otherworlder who’d become the Mechanical Society. “Uh-huh. Those eyes still seem pretty useful, though.” “They sure are. But there’s a limit. I can only view things that meet the proper conditions. Right now, I’m focusing on Maya to look into the future. If you get too far away from her, you won’t be in my field of vision anymore. Be careful, because I can only guarantee Maya’s future.” That explanation seemed reasonable enough. With her hands now empty, Sahara reached out and pinched Nono’s cheek. “Hrm. Very soft.” “Whaffat?” “Your body. You’re possessing a conjured soldier, right?” “No, not quite.” Sahara assumed that Nono had transferred her soul into the conjured soldier called “the Astrologer,” and that was how she’d survived for a thousand years. However, the other girl rejected the idea quite smoothly. “This body doesn’t have any functions for storing a soul, and I refuse to use the Possession conjuring. I wouldn’t let Kaa use it, either. No matter what.” Nono was more forceful about this than Sahara thought necessary. Clearly, she harbored a hangup about it. Sahara wondered privately if Nono was insulting her, since she’d used Possession before. Rather than ask, she moved to her next inquiry. “Then why are you inside a conjured soldier?” “I’m not. Not really. I’m just linking information to this body, that’s all.” “I see.” Sahara nodded, despite not understanding the difference. The details didn’t seem like they’d affect her well-being, so she elected not to worry about it. Just as the conversation petered out, Maya returned. “Welcome back, Maya,” Nono greeted her. “Now, it’s unfortunate that we got separated from Menou, but we should continue without her.” Maya frowned slightly. “…We’re not going to meet up with Menou?” “Think about it, would you?” Nono acted like a commanding officer. “You said that you sense Pandæmonium in there, Maya. This Genom fellow left the tower to come find us. In other words, the environment control tower is less protected now.” “That reminds me.” Maya’s frown deepened. “Why is Pandæmonium here? I sense her nearby, but that’s all.” “Apparently, her arm escaped Pandemonium and tried to meddle with Michele, only to get the tables turned on her. She’s always been strong, that one!” Nono sounded proud of Michele’s strength. While Michele was a dreaded enemy to Sahara, to Nono she was an old friend from a thousand years ago. “We’d be in big trouble if Pandæmonium took over the environment control tower. The spire maintains the micromachines, so if it stops functioning, this expanded pocket space will overlap with the original one.” Sahara was well aware of what happened when expanded space vanished. “The parts that overlap will fuse together, right?” “Precisely. And it will produce a shock wave in accordance with the volume of matter fused. The effect is strong enough to be wielded as a weapon in its own right.” A Primary Color Storage Space was a pocket dimension created with Guiding Force. It used the ordinary world as a base to create a realm on a slightly different wavelength. If this other space vanished for any reason, whatever was stored within would return to the area it overlapped. If the Primary Color Storage Space containing the City of Ruins disappeared, the massive amount of structures in the city would collide with the ground. “So this chamber would collapse?” Sahara asked. Nono shook her head. “It’d be far worse than that.” People lived in the underground hub outside the City of Ruins. If the artificial cavern collapsed, it would mean tremendous casualties. While Sahara thought about it distantly, thinking it wouldn’t affect her, Nono disagreed. “The problem is, between the top and bottom halves, that environment control tower is one thousand six hundred and sixty-six meters tall. Amazing, right? It’s the tallest building in history, even during the ancient civilization days. And it was much easier to build down here than aboveground, since we were able to expand the space and—” “That’s great and all, but what’s the problem, exactly?” Sahara interrupted what seemed like it might become a lengthy explanation. So far, she didn’t see the connection between what was happening underground and the fusion with the Starhusk. Sahara knew that Pandæmonium was nothing but trouble. She’d even worked with her, albeit temporarily. The damage of her unpredictable behavior was beyond normal comprehension. However, she couldn’t take over something unless she touched it, even with a Concept of Original Sin. No matter how big the environment control tower was, it was deep underground. How could what happened down here possibly have any effect on something high up in the sky? Besides, the computing unit that managed the spire, the conjured soldier known as the Astrologer, was here as Nono. That left the environment control tower like a human without its brain. Without the operator to access its functions, it was really just a giant building. “Okay, question. Excluding the expanded space, how deep underground is the City of Ruins?” Nono said. Sahara pursed her lips. “About two hundred meters?” “Correct! This is a deep underground cavern that we worked hard to build using Pure Concepts! We had big plans for a subterranean transportation network, and we planned on putting in large-scale Guiding Force supply facilities and a waste disposal center and so on, so we made sure it would never collapse. Now, think about where the Starhusk is located.” Nono grinned, acting like a schoolteacher as she prompted Sahara for another response. Sahara and Maya pictured the Starhusk, floating above the northern continent. “As I’m sure you know, the Starhusk hovers in the sky above the north. However, it’s actually not at a very high altitude. It’s meant to ride on the heavenly vein, so it’s safe to say that it maintains a height of roughly a thousand meters, although it can shift up and down a little.” Now Sahara understood what Nono was trying to say. A shiver ran down her spine. It was simple math. Round the numbers up, and subtract two hundred from one thousand seven hundred. Even a child Maya’s age could handle that arithmetic. “Guess what would happen if the environment control tower stopped working and the expanded space collapsed?!” Sahara and Maya pictured a giant tree bearing fruit. It was only a mental image of a palm tree, but they understood, whether they wanted to or not. “The environment control tower and the Starhusk would intersect and merge into something like an art installation,” Nono explained. “Huh…?” Maya was speechless. It certainly was a problem if an expanded space collapsing meant that whatever was inside would stick out into the real world. Sahara posed her next question cautiously. “So, uh, what happens if those things fuse…?” “When their forms intersect, the environment control tower will pierce the core of the Starhusk and break it. The white liquid covering it will fly off and rain Blanch down on the north. The stars, excluding the nucleus, will fall, one after the other.” Just one drop of the white Blanch liquid was a conjuring material strong enough to overcome an Otherworlder’s conjuring like Akari’s Suspension. If it poured down, the result would be catastrophic. “That would be nothing compared to Pandæmonium taking over the Starhusk, though,” Nono added. The color drained from Maya’s face. It wasn’t long ago that she’d been a part of Pandæmonium. She never wished to return to that. “Maya. You’re separate from Pandæmonium. It’s why I activated when you arrived,” Nono said. “What? Where’d that come from?” “What do you do when a movie ends?” Maya tilted her head at the seemingly unrelated question. “I watch the credits before I leave. Isn’t that obvious?” As a child actress, that was a point of pride for her. “Good. Just make sure you remember that.” Nono beamed. Both Sahara and Maya looked unconvinced, questioning the meaning behind that question. “Well, I’ve told you what you need to know. Shall we keep moving? I really don’t like it when people act like the current state of the world is all our fault. It was an accident. Anyway, we’ll have to proceed along the route that I’ve predicted.” “Question.” “Yes, Sahara!” “Why couldn’t you tell us that when Menou was with us?” When Menou was around, everything was Menou’s fault. She had the final say in the group’s decisions. But now that Sahara had been given vital information without Menou to make the choices, she was forced to take responsibility. She didn’t like the idea that it might be her fault if something terrible happened to the continent. “Oh, come on. Some strange man showed up before I could get to that, remember? Who was that anyway? He had a very peculiar face.” “You should be careful about believing what Nono says, Sahara. She tricks people all the time without batting an eye.” Maya clearly didn’t trust Nono, even though they were close. Sahara understood where she was coming from. Nono had a habit of dodging subjects she didn’t want to discuss. Perhaps it was due to the disparate information acquired from her future sight. “Yep, she’s right. You shouldn’t trust me too much. I’ll do whatever it takes to guide people into doing what I want.” “Got it. I won’t trust you, then.” When Nono chimed in to agree with Maya, Sahara groaned and lost interest in keeping up the conversation entirely. However, Maya didn’t drop it so easily. “Nono, if you betray Sahara and Menou or try to use them, I really will sacrifice you to an Original Sin conjuring this time. You have to promise you won’t.” Nono’s smile broadened at Maya’s response. “You’ve really grown up, Maya. You’re not the same girl who used to hide behind Ryuunosuke all the time.” “Mm-hmm. And?” Maya gazed steadily at Nono, refusing to be brushed off so easily. Nono looked away, unable to handle the smaller girl’s stare. She straightened her lab coat, adjusted her red-framed glasses, and turned from Maya to Sahara. “Okay, gang! Prepare for departure! Our goal is to prevent the birth of a giant monster that could destroy the world. Our obstacle—a security detail of armed and dangerous villains. It won’t be easy, but hey, with these eyes of mine, we can get past anything! Let’s go on a grand adventure to save the world!” “Hello?!” Maya exclaimed. “Come on, promise me!” “I’ve chosen a route that will prevent the armed criminal group from finding us, so we should be safe on the way to the tower. And my eyes can see a few seconds into the future wherever I look! We won’t be found, at least not by criminals with artificial limbs!” “You keep saying ‘at least.’” A bad feeling was brewing in Sahara’s gut. “What about the rest of them…?” “Huh? The rest? The rest of who?” This answer only made Sahara even more anxious. “Like other humans, or a different means of searching, or Pandæmonium’s monsters, or even Genom himself… There are plenty of other enemies out there, right?” “W-well, yes, I suppose.” Genom had already shown himself, bursting into the theater earlier. It was possible that he’d found them because Nono chose that place because it wouldn’t be discovered by the armed criminal group. “Well, what happens if one of them shows up?” Sahara pressed. “I mean… I guess they’d find us?” Nono answered awkwardly. The conversation stopped dead. A painful silence fell over the three. What trust Sahara and Maya had in Nono’s future sight rapidly crumbled. “Uh-oh…” Suddenly, Nono gave an alarmed squeak. Something had happened in the future she glimpsed. A sense of foreboding told Sahara they couldn’t stay here. She stood to leave, but it was too late. “There she is! The Governor!” The voices belonged to the adventurers from yesterday. Menou, Sahara, Maya, and Abbie had knocked them out and disarmed them, yet they’d pursued the girls all the way to the City of Ruins. “What do we do?” Nono asked. “Isn’t it obvious?” Sahara tugged on Nono’s sleeve. Meanwhile, Maya fused her shadow to Sahara’s and jumped inside. There was only one thing they could do in this situation. “Run for it!” A Guiding bullet lanced for Menou, leaving a trail of light. The powerful gunshot only managed to pierce her afterimage, as she’d already leaped away before it left the weapon’s muzzle. Menou’s Guiding Enhancement bolstered her kinetic vision such that she saw the movement of Genom’s finger as he started to pull the trigger. Evading his attacks wouldn’t be an issue. However, she couldn’t manage to close the distance between them. “…” After avoiding the latest volley, she set her sights on the man again. While the machine gun’s power and continuous spray were dangerous, its aim couldn’t keep up with Menou’s enhanced movements, and a Barrier made up for any shortcoming on her part. The large-caliber gun would pierce a barrier conjuring in a single shot, forcing her to evade that, no matter what. However, since Genom had tossed each of those high-powered pistols after a round or two, it was safe to assume they couldn’t hold up to their own force. As long as she was careful, she didn’t have to fear them too much. Dealing with one type of firearm at a time would’ve been simple. Unfortunately, Genom constantly switched between the three, which was much more threatening. “What d’you say, Flarette?” She couldn’t get close enough to attack, nor would she win in a shootout. But the situation wasn’t quite desperate enough to warrant firing a bullet with the Pure Concept Decay Acceleration conjuring attached. While Menou was locked in a stalemate that was perfectly balanced in a way, Genom raised his weapon proudly. “Those damn priestesses treat them as toys, but my Guiding guns have gotten real powerful, don’cha think?” “You’re certainly as zealous about them as everyone says.” “It just so happens, I’m in the process of having one of the Primary Triad soldiers develop these for sale.” That statement was the true reason why Genom Cthulha was so deeply despised. Terrorists in cities, adventurers, and other scoundrels were all equipped with Guiding guns because of Genom’s rise to power. He was the source of the Guiding guns sold and distributed all over the continent. “What do you think? Grisarika’s gone independent and started calling off taboos, right? You wanna get a bite of this market, too?” “Unfortunately, we’ll be maintaining the ban on Guiding guns. And you’ve just given me proof that we made the right decision about that.” “Damn. Your loss.” Conjured soldiers wouldn’t normally develop weapons that others could use. They had no need for tools to kill humans. However, the man called Genom Cthulha had managed to win the support of conjured soldiers in the Mechanical Society, hence his “Arms Dealer” title. He’d established trade with a conjured soldier, securing mass production of Guiding guns for humans. By selling Mechanical Society mass-produced firearms in steady, large quantities, he’d risen to become an infamous villain known all over. Conjured soldiers were born as ultimate weapons. They’d never decided to manufacture weapons to kill humans on their own. Typically, any arms they created suited their forms, giving no consideration for how a person would wield them. Just thirty years ago, Guiding guns were exceedingly rare, only found in ancient ruins and later restored or reproduced with less power by a handful of skilled engineers. Production on any large scale had been unthinkable. “You’ve been working with that Ability chick, right? Could you get me in good with her, by any chance? She’s valued as a real good creator, even among the zone admins.” “I doubt Abbie would be willing to work for you, even if she is soft on anyone younger than her.” “Don’t be so sure. All you gotta do is figure out what they want and pitch ’em a sincere request, and they’ll get on board. Those things have real reasoning and intelligence, ya know. See, this is the problem with the Faust. It doesn’t even realize that discussions on economy don’t care about differences in values. Money talks.” Despite Genom’s assertion, conjured soldiers who lived among Concepts of Primary Colors would find no meaning in currency. Genom had offered the beings sealed away by White Night a different resource—people. Human bodies were the ideal material to produce Primary Red. By selling humans as materials, he gained weapons from the Mechanical Society. Genom held sole control over the place of manufacturing, and his operations distributed firearms in vast numbers. The man abducted innocents, turned them into weapons, and sold them off. And his network was far-reaching, with plenty of sub-organizations, including the armed criminal group Iron Chain that Menou crushed in the Balar Desert. “You get what I mean, right?” Genom asked. “Even that Michele gal can’t touch us now that we’ve got control of the City of Ruins. Knowing what people care about is important.” “I’m pretty sure she just doesn’t want to trouble herself with you for the time being. Once your usefulness dries up, she’ll get rid of you,” Menou said. “Maybe.” The man who trusted no one and knew the ways of the world sneered. “But big business demands a little risk.” For all the strength of Genom’s weapons, none were likely to break through Michele’s Guiding Enhancement. Her immortality was much too strong for that. They were certainly enough to kill Menou, though. “But I guess the finer points are lost on a kid.” Genom cracked his neck. He had no injuries, aside from the hole, of course. He narrowed his left eye, which stood at the edge of the aperture in his face. Menou let out a long, thin exhale, steadying her heart and readying her weapon. A quick assessment of the battle left her with only one clear choice. She turned and ran, not showing any concern for exposing her back. If what Genom said was true, and he couldn’t use Guiding Enhancement well, then he wouldn’t be able to catch up to Menou, who was a master of the technique. It meant Sahara and the others would outpace him easily as well. Menou hadn’t come here to eliminate Genom. She hadn’t even known he was here. She was under no obligation to indulge a face-to-face battle of attrition. Of all the conjurings in existence, there was only one that came close to a true method of recovering from death—the Concept of Primary Colors, which could transfer a soul and spirit into another vessel. “That can’t be his true body!” Genom was similar to Sahara and Abbie. His soul and spirit were safely stored elsewhere while he controlled a form other than his own to interact with the world. Destroying what was functionally a puppet seemed pointless. “You catch on quick.” The words came from up ahead, not from behind. Despite leaving Genom in the dust, he now stood in Menou’s path. She jumped backward, startled. Her body protested the abrupt halt. A massive bullet flew past her face, missing by a hair. Suppressing the urge to move even farther back, Menou dared to glance behind. Surely not. A terrible suspicion arose in Menou’s mind. If Genom’s claim that he couldn’t use Guiding Enhancement was a bluff, then so be it. That would explain well enough how he’d intercepted her. But if the reason was different… Menou didn’t have to wait long for the answer. “You’re dead wrong if you think you can get away from me.” The Genom she had fled from stood behind her. One in front, one in back. There were two Genom Cthulhas, with Menou trapped in the middle. Both looked identical in face and stature. The same person had seemingly been multiplied, and both aimed machine guns at Menou. The cross fire intersected where she’d stood a blink ago, flashing brightly. The bullets were made of solidified Guiding Force. They left a beautiful trail, but anything in their path knew only death. Both Genoms took aim at Menou again. She’d evaded by leaping into the air. The two men moved in perfect sync. One had ditched his automatic weapon for a shotgun, while the other had opted for a high-powered pistol. Presumably, their intention was to force her to use a barrier conjuring against the scattered shot only for the large bullet to pierce it through. Menou’s options were limited to defending with Barrier or avoiding with Gale. Either way, her chances of emerging unscathed were slim. If only she had a scripture. Menou dismissed the fleeting thought. Certainly, scripture conjurings excelled when facing multiple opponents. However, to hold any attachment to the idea of using a scripture now was absurd. She had let hers go partly to keep Hakua, its creator, from tracking her, but also as a show of her determination to leave the Faust. She’d relinquished the tool of her own free will. “…!” Menou opened her eyes wide. Her thoughts raced. In a fraction of a second, she found her solution. Guiding Force: Connect—Battle Clothing, Crest—Invoke [Multi-Barrier] Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Double Invoke [Guiding Thread, Gale] She invoked multiple conjurings simultaneously from two different mediums. With her Barrier still active, Menou called upon Gale to propel her dagger forward, piercing the heart of the Genom ahead of her, who stood nearer. The one at her back loosed a barrage, but the small clouds of projectiles weren’t enough to pierce her Barrier. “Don’t underestimate me…” Menou leveled the muzzle of her dagger gun at Genom. There was no need to use Acceleration this time. As he’d revealed in their conversation in the theater room, Genom’s greatest weakness was his lack of defense. If he couldn’t invoke a simple crest conjuring, a barrier one was definitely beyond him. And if he could only manage Guiding Enhancement while standing still, that meant he was a sitting duck against enemy attacks. He lacked a way to guard against an attack that surpassed the limits of a human body. “I am the woman who killed Flare.” Menou pulled the trigger. The Guiding bullet pierced the forehead of the Genom holding the shotgun. Despite the unusual construction of his face, his vital points seemed no different from an ordinary human’s. The light went out in his eyes as he collapsed to the floor. “Hahhh…” Menou spared a moment to catch her breath. Despite dispatching both opponents, she scanned the area, refusing to let her guard down. Any hope that the battle would end here had vanished the moment she saw a second Genom. The trick behind his power was almost certainly an unusual conjuring that employed the Concept of Primary Colors. But it was very different from Sahara’s ability to swap her body for a new one. He wasn’t moving the core part of himself to a new body. Genom didn’t operate with his true body. He’d abandoned that, preferring to control other forms like pawns. What incredible mental power it must have taken to manipulate two selves at once. Menou couldn’t begin to imagine the weight of the task. Worse yet, two wasn’t likely his limit. Sure enough, Menou caught four sets of footsteps approaching from different directions. “Ah…” Although she’d prepared herself for this possibility, Menou would’ve been lying had she claimed to feel no despair when the latest round of enemies came into view. She let out a hollow laugh. “No wonder Master couldn’t kill you… Tell me, do you even need subordinates?” “Don’t be stupid. I only made it to the top because my lackeys protected me. Why would I give up such loyal assistants?” All four Genoms smirked. Each had the same hole in his face and moved identically to retrieve a Guiding gun and point it at Menou. Fighting had to be a lot more fun when one’s life wasn’t on the line. Menou wouldn’t be surprised if she defeated these four only for eight to show up next, and perhaps ten after that. This unbelievable reality made it agonizingly clear why Genom was considered the peak of individual power. He wasn’t strong as a single person. His strength came from his ability to become a mob all by himself, and on top of that, he could arm every one of his additional selves with powerful weapons. That was why a man who described himself as average could boast the most individual power, more than any influential figure’s or talented fighter’s. “None of those Executioners know a damn thing about the subtleties of how people work. You, Flare, and the rest of ’em—do you all think you can change the world just by killing your enemies?” Where was it? Menou’s gaze flicked around, searching. There was nothing more pointless than fighting the pawns of someone who’d abandoned his own body to use the Concepts of Primary Colors. No matter how many terminals she destroyed, he would bring back more as long as he had lives remaining. Guiding Force could only work with a channel. The one Genom used to control his bodies was the hole in his face. However, it wasn’t large enough to try and barge inside. The real Genom had to be somewhere, controlling all of these bodies. Just like Sahara’s real body was her Guiding prosthetic arm, there had to be a control hub containing the soul, the source of Guiding Force, and the spirit, the essence of one’s personality, to move the body. Since there were limits on the range of such remote control, the most likely location was the environment control tower at the center of the City of Ruins. It was a massive spire that stretched from floor to ceiling, constructed in a way that would be impossible with the current level of technology. And with the entrance to the Mechanical Society at its heart, it was a better place to hole up in than any fortress. On top of that, it was the only passage connecting the top and bottom parts of the city. There was no better place in the underground chamber to protect oneself. Menou’s attention turned toward the tower for only an instant. Naturally, she kept vigilant against the four opponents surrounding her. She was confident that she could react instantly if any of the Genoms tried to move. But that moment still led to her downfall. Without any warning, Menou felt a sudden impact strike her back like a full-body blow, piercing through her chest. “…” For a moment, she didn’t understand what just happened. The sound of the wound only reached her ears after the fact. A single distant gunshot echoed. There were so few humans with the ability to attack this way effectively that Menou had unconsciously excluded it from her consideration. “A…sniper…?” Her lungs were more than half-crushed and rapidly filled with blood. She coughed crimson from her throat as she struggled to breathe. Her vision slowly sank down to her chest. The metal clasp of her mantle had broken, and the garment slid off her shoulders. The wound it revealed gushed blood. This was a fatal wound, piercing from her back through her chest. Her upper half lost all stability. She tried to remain standing, yet her body wouldn’t listen. Menou’s body crumpled to the floor with a quiet thud. The blood continued to flow, pooling around her. There were to be no death throes, no last words. The wound was so deep that it was a miracle she hadn’t died instantly. Her consciousness faded away rapidly. She couldn’t even close her eyelids before her vision swam and the world went white. Her life didn’t even flash before her eyes. “Guess that’s it, huh?” The men’s voices were flat as they watched the girl go down in a spray of blood. Genom Cthulha’s fields of vision fixed on the girl known as Flarette as her pale tawny hair was slowly soaked with the red liquid on the floor. As the color spread, all signs of life left the young woman’s body. Gradually increasing his numbers, fighting with three different kinds of guns—all of it had been laying the groundwork for the final sniper shot. Anything less risked someone with such sharp instincts sensing the sniper shot and evading. Some people possessed intuition that warned them when they were being watched or were about to be attacked, although none of that made sense to a self-proclaimed average man like Genom. That’s why he carefully adopted an act to keep her focus on the Genoms in her immediate vicinity. He pointed a gun at her head to finish the job. Victory brought him no satisfaction. One-sided wins had long since become boring to him. Now most battles were nothing but work, an uninteresting task. Genom Cthulha’s history had been impeccably clean and normal until he was twelve. Originally, he was just a young boy of the Commons, the third and lowest caste. His parents raised him peacefully, and he was blessed with good health and a cheerful personality that earned him plenty of friends. It was nothing but coincidence and bad luck that led to Genom being kidnapped. He’d played outside with his friends until evening and decided to head home a little later than usual. So he elected to take a shortcut through an empty back alley. He wasn’t careless. He did nothing wrong. He was simply an unlucky victim. The kidnappers sold him to a taboo researcher. This man was obsessed with Primary Color materials and crest engravings, testing them until he eventually sank to the forbidden act of fusing crests with the human body. He kidnapped countless people, each experiment ending in transplant rejection and failure, still advancing his techniques at a slow but steady pace. In a way, the man was probably a genius. Genom became one of his test subjects and had a Primary Color crystal implanted in his body. Namely, a Primary Color crystal was carved into his body. The materials proved fundamentally incompatible. Genom suffered a spectrum of agony, ranging from simple pain to unbearable madness, yet he managed to survive. The experiment, however, was a failure. Genom didn’t gain any powers or special abilities. He lived, and that was it. In fact, he lost whatever talent he’d possessed for Guiding Force manipulation. Yet while the result was imperfect, Genom was the researcher’s first surviving specimen, perhaps the first to survive any such procedure since the ancient civilization fell. What made the boy different? The researcher was determined to find out, and he kept Genom confined. Then, one day, a lone priestess destroyed the research facility. Her skills were impressive. Poison, whistle-blowing, assassination. She used all of these to erase every last researcher from this world, potential genius, research data, and all. At first, Genom thought she was his salvation. He’d no longer be a lab rat. He could return to his family. The red-haired young woman in the pure-white priestess robes seemed to him like an actual angel, or a saint. Which is why Genom ran up to the priestess in training who’d destroyed the facility all on her own, crying and thanking her repeatedly. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for saving me.” He was grateful from the bottom of his heart. “Huh. I didn’t think any of the experiments from this place survived.” She sounded impressed. Then, without hesitation, she thrust her blade into the boy’s chest. “You’re a product of the taboo. Better off dead.” She was the girl who’d become the Executioner known as Flare. Killing people was her life’s work, and she carried no shred of emotions like compassion. Genom had never done anything wrong from the time of his birth to the moment Flare’s dagger pierced his heart. He was a poor, innocent victim, kidnapped and subjected to experiments. Yet she was going to kill him as thoughtlessly as stepping on an insect. It was nothing but a stroke of good luck that Genom successfully escaped. All those experiments had granted him an unusually strong life force as a by-product. The collapsing burning building kept the girl from pursuing him. Destroying the entire structure had been a mistake of inexperience by the white-robed priestess. All of these lucky factors allowed Genom to slip from the Faust’s grasp. Unable to return to his family, Genom found his way to a group of adventurers who operated out of the Wild Frontier. That’s where people who had nowhere else to turn wound up in the end. And it was there that Genom sharpened his fangs. What an unfair world, for him to be killed simply because he was made into a taboo. What a twisted system of oppression that maintained peace in society. Those priestesses surely believed that they were in the right. Which is why he hated the Faust, the top caste. After surviving, Genom sought power to change the world. He was marked as a wanted man with a growing group of enemies, so he gathered adventurers and created a criminal organization. The Director of the Fourth, who spoke of destroying the current caste system, seemed promising to Genom but proved a failure in the end. The Director wasn’t qualified to start a revolution, since he’d forgotten that he was an Elder. Genom was willing to do whatever it took to fight against the unfairness, and to kill Flare. But he lost to her over and over. He never managed to hold his own against Flare. She always took down his subordinates and cornered him. He only saw openings when Flare was with the girl who had the Pure Concept of Light. But even when he took her as a hostage, he still knew merciless defeat by way of a dagger driven into his face. Ultimately, Genom escaped into the eastern Wild Frontier. And when he stepped into the inhuman world of the Mechanical Society, Genom learned for the first time how to use the Concept of Primary Colors that had been carved into him. He refined his abilities and built up more power. When Flare finally caught up to him in the Mechanical Society, he was able to drive her off. His strength grew so much that he was sure he’d be able to kill her next time. Which is why he couldn’t accept Flare’s ultimate fate. “She wasn’t supposed to die on her own, dammit…” Either she would kill him, or he would kill her. Yet neither outcome came to pass, and Genom was left to grind his teeth in frustration. Worse yet, Flare’s successor proved to be nothing special. She could have at least conducted herself like a proper Executioner. Instead, she’d brought up the rear to stall for time so her friends could escape. What a joke. She’d only succeeded in dying a pathetic death. “Bet you never learned how to fight proper, anyway.” Flare would never have let this kill her. She would’ve hidden, sneaked, and deceived her target to destroy taboos stronger than her. That was how Executioners ought to operate. But Flare’s apprentice quit wearing a priestess robe. What the hell was she thinking? That terrible disappointment was why the sound that escaped his mouth held a hint of joy when he sensed something unexpected. Guiding Force: Connect— “Oh-ho?” With the signs of a conjuring construction came Guiding Light that surrounded Menou’s body. The luminous motes danced in the air, slowly assembling into a more organized pattern. Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]— The Guiding Light formed the shape of a pendulum clock, a device that symbolized time. With a tick, the hands of the clock began moving backward. Invoke [Regression] A Pure Concept conjuring was invoked. Tick. Tock. As the clock’s hands wound back, the hole in Menou’s chest closed up. This wasn’t regeneration; it was actually turning back time to before she was killed. However, the truly strange part was yet to come. Slowly, unsteadily, the girl stood. The girl who’d conquered death showed no signs of injury. Even the blood on her clothes was gone. This proved that she hadn’t been healed—her time had regressed to before she’d perished. More than her restoration, the most noticeable difference was her hair. “…Gotta say, that looks pretty damn cool.” The ends of her pale, tawny locks were dyed black, as though they’d been dipped in ink. No one in this world would dismiss a change in hair color. Such a thing was more than hereditary. It was perfectly normal for it to change, based on the strength of the power in one’s soul or personality. If a person’s hair color suddenly changed, that typically meant that something had happened inside them, an extreme shift in the nature of their soul. Sure enough, the girl in front of Genom now gave off a completely different air than the one he’d fought before. “Who the hell are you?” “Me…nou…” With that, the girl vanished from sight. He hadn’t blinked or looked away. All the Genoms had been completely focused on her, and now none could see her. The only one that got the slightest indication of her movement was the sniper, who observed the battlefield from a distance. Something appeared at his back. He was in a building more than a hundred meters away from the battle. But when he sensed a presence looming behind him and turned, he felt something wrong in his chest. Upon touching the spot reflexively, he realized a dagger had pierced his heart. “Huh?” As blood surged from the wound, the sniper Genom let out an impressed grunt and dropped dead. He tried to get a last look at the girl who’d killed him, but she was already gone. Then the thing that was shaped like Menou reappeared in the middle of the four remaining Genoms. Black spread up her hair. “I’ll be damned…” Genom breathed in amazement. She was fast. No, this wasn’t a matter of speed. Her movements completely disregarded time and distance. She’d vanished, stabbed the sniper, and returned to her original location. The results of these three actions existed, but the time it should have taken between them didn’t. None of the Genoms saw her move. This was far beyond any speed granted by Guiding Enhancement. “Don’t…you dare…” The girl in front of him spoke slowly. Her movements were sluggish, her gaze vacant. Her mind seemed like it wasn’t entirely active yet, like she’d only just woken up. Vacant eyes suddenly snapped to attention. “Don’t you dare…hurt…Menou.” This time, Genom didn’t lose sight of the girl. She was still there, standing still. The only difference was the blood dripping from her dagger gun. “…!” One of the Genoms let out a soundless scream and collapsed. His carotid artery had been slashed open, his life force draining away with the torrent of blood. There was no questioning that it was the work of the girl’s blade.
Chapter 127
53 min read