Chapter 151

“Wait, so what’s going on exactly?” This question came from Sahara, who had just woken up and wasn’t following any of what had just happened. She didn’t remember anything after being attacked by Ginoum. Maya gave her confused servant an unimpressed look. “You’re always so useless when it matters most, Sahara.” “Hey, Maya, what is this weird floating thing anyway? It’s kind of freaking me out.” “That’s Gadou, a friend of mine. She’s shy, so she doesn’t like to show her face.” “This goes further than not showing her face… Oh, the blue butterfly on top is pretty, at least.” “Oh, that would be Abbie. I like her better this way, too.” “Wha…?” “By the way, Sahara…are you feeling all right in the head?” “Excuse me? What a rude question to ask out of nowhere.” Completely out of the loop, Sahara looked puzzled by Maya’s question. Hooseyard’s ceremonial conjuring had stashed most of the Mechanical Society in the endless space that apparently existed inside Sahara’s arm. All that remained outside was the small room inside Gadou’s monolith, and Abbie, who had used up too much of herself and could no longer move a terminal any bigger than a butterfly. There was no telling what side effects those events might cause, but as far as Maya could tell, Sahara seemed perfectly fine. “For now, we should go find Menou and the others…” Maya was standing up to leave when a familiar figure entered the church. “Why, hello there, young Sahara. And young Maya, too.” “…Kagarma?” Sahara was right. It was none other than the director, Kagarma Dartaros. He was an important figure who had once led the criminal group known as the Fourth. Through various twists of fate, he wound up staying with Sahara and company while they were living in Grisarika Kingdom. “How’d you end up way out here? Is this area near Grisarika, by any chance?” Kagarma didn’t answer Sahara directly. “I came to say my farewells.” “Farewells?” “I’m afraid so. You see, I was looking for a place to die a thousand years ago, but at the same time, I was terribly afraid. I didn’t want to die and be gone from this world forever.” “What’s wrong with that? Dying is scary. Anyway, do you know where Menou is?” “That’s not what I mean. I was simply afraid to die for nothing. I had no children, no one I could trust…nothing to my name at all except for money. That’s why I invested in those foolish immortality experiments and aided the Grisarika Conglomerate.” Expertly sidestepping Sahara’s question at the end, Kagarma clacked his cane. “Or perhaps you could say that I would’ve been happy to die anytime if it meant I could be of some service to the world.” Kagarma turned his gaze from Sahara to Maya. “Young Maya. The Pandæmonium in the south has been freed.” Maya gasped. That was the name of the ultimate form of the Pure Concept of Evil, Maya’s former self from when she lost her memories and became a Human Error. The leader of a horde of monsters that could destroy the other world was on the loose. “If left to her own devices, she’ll consume everything and plunge the world into chaos. …Now then, young ladies.” Director Kagarma Dartaros wore a shady-looking smile. “Can you guess why I’ve come here when the world is in such grave peril?” As his untrustworthy grin widened, his shadow shifted with the presence of an imminent Original Sin conjuring. Menou sensed something horrible nearby. It was an Original Sin conjuring. What’s worse, a presence was creeping into the world, so enormous and numerous that it was impossible to tell what had been summoned. “What the… Come on, you two, let go of me already!” “Nooo!” “I refuuuse!” Despite the Original Sin conjuring that loomed so large it could crush one’s heart, Momo and Akari were still stubbornly clinging to Menou. They were hanging on so tight, it was as if they suspected she might kill herself if they let go. “Yes, I know I worried you. I’m sorry, okay! I really do feel bad, but right now—” “Michele lost, eh?” A familiar voice rang out behind them. Menou turned around and saw a woman with red-tinted blond hair streaming down her back. “Princess Ashuna?” “And Kagarma made up his mind, too. You can tell the times are changing. Those unlucky few who’ve lasted a thousand years are coming to an end, one after another.” Ashuna ignored Menou, speaking slowly. A single knight stood on guard behind her. “The Starhusk, Pandæmonium, the Sword of Salt, and the Mechanical Society. They’ve all come together in one place. So that thousand-year feud will finally end…but is this really the final battlefield you wanted, Nono?” “Wait…” Momo finally raised her head from Menou’s chest and looked up, her brow furrowed. “You’re not Princess-poo. Who are you?” Ashuna’s distant gaze snapped back, and her lips curled into a grin. Momo’s eyes narrowed. In response to her open animosity, Ashuna spoke the name of the knight behind her. “Experion.” The man called Experion stepped forward. His hand rested on the hilt of the blade at his waist. Menou immediately pushed the two girls away. Experion drew his sword so quickly that his right hand blurred in the air. Reading the arc of his strike, Menou readied her dagger at just the right spot to meet his blade with her own. The blade of Menou’s dagger was sliced clean off. She scarcely felt any impact in the hand holding the hilt. Menou watched, shaking, as the blade fell away. “He is still the strongest knight in the continent, you know.” The person who looked like Ashuna spoke mockingly. This man’s blade was completely different from Michele’s. Menou had moved in a way that should have been enough to block his attack, and was utterly betrayed. It was his swordsmanship, not his strength, that surpassed the limits of a normal human. “Hakua will get here soon enough. I wouldn’t mind holding off on interfering if it means all five of you, Hakua included, will take each other out…although I’d hate to lose the perpetual motion machine.” This woman, accompanied by the world’s strongest knight, wasn’t Ashuna. Her body might be the same, but the spirit within was different. If she knew about Hakua and what she was doing, her identity was clear. “Guardian…!” “Don’t glare at me like that. I just thought I’d make a little appearance.” The Guardian sneered through Ashuna’s face. “It’s too bad, really. If I just had a hundred more years, I could’ve taken over Gadou’s body from the Mechanical Society and conquered the original personality. But if you go sending someone into the world of souls and cut off the connection between body and soul, even I can’t mess with them anymore. Do you get it yet? Nono manipulated you all just to protect Gadou from me. She really cares about her friends, even though she hates me. …See, look at that.” With a little pout, Ashuna—or rather, the Guardian—pointed into the distance. Following her gaze, Menou saw the worst phenomenon imaginable. It was a gigantic door the size of a mountain, so black that it defied all sense of depth. Monsters were jostling, pushing each other, piling up and crushing each other to form the enormous black door. “Well, then. First up is Pandæmonium.” The Original Sin conjuring Menou sensed earlier was designed to summon Pandæmonium’s true form. “Shall we watch together and see what that thing’s going to do to this world?” As the Guardian pointed, the door that hid endless Evil was starting to swing open.