“Continue straight down this passage.”
“All right!”
In the midst of blaring alarms, Riselia sprinted ahead, following Schwertleite’s navigation. More and more security combat machines were rolling over to them, but most of them fell under Schwertleite’s control and became inert, with Riselia and Sakuya easily sweeping up any that didn’t.
“I’m feeling kind of useless here, Lady Selia…,” Regina complained, holding her Drag Striker.
“Uh… Oh, here’s your time to shine. Blow through that!” Riselia pointed at a bulkhead partition wall blocking their path.
“You got it. Mode Shift—Drag Howl!”
Regina changed her Holy Sword from its rifle form to its cannon form, but just as she was about to fire…the bulkhead opened on its own.
“—Door unlocked,” Schwertleite said with her emotionless voice.
“Wow! Good work, Leite!”
“Heeey, that was my moment!” Regina pouted, once again denied her time in the limelight.
Past the bulkhead partition was the door to a large elevator.
“Taking the elevator to the twelfth floor should be our fastest route to the central control room.”
“It doesn’t look like it’s working, though…”
“Please wait a moment. I will undo the password protection on this elevator.”
Schwertleite reached out and touched the elevator’s panel. But as she did, Sakuya rapidly turned to face the wall behind them.
“—They’re coming.”
“Eh?” Riselia frowned.
The next moment, the wall was blown to bits with a loud rumble.
“What?!”
A human with his arms turned into two massive blades emerged from the hole in the wall, followed by five figures with the same physique emerging from the cloud of dust. All of them were wearing protector suits with combat configurations and had visors on their faces.
“These don’t look like your average guards to me.” Sakuya said, looking at them with severe eyes.
All five of them had malevolent-looking blades sprouting out of their arms—and those blades couldn’t possibly be Holy Swords.
“Demon Sword users.”
“…?!” Riselia and Regina gulped.
“Miss Riselia, would you let me handle this?”
“Sakuya, what are you saying? I can fight, too,” Riselia said, the Bloody Sword held on guard.
Sakuya shook her head, however. “I can handle them on my own. Right now, we need to hurry and save Miss Elfiné.”
“Sakuya…”
They could hear the sound of the elevator doors opening behind them.
“Hurry. These people are dangerous enough to keep monsters like these as their pets. Go, before it’s too late,” Sakuya said.
Riselia bit her lips. “…Fine. I know you can handle this, Sakuya.”
“Just don’t do anything dangerous,” Regina said, and the two hurried for the elevator.
The Demon Swordsmen let out an inhuman howl and made a beeline for the elevator—only for a swift flash to streak through the air—Raikirimaru’s blade slashed through their protector suits, cutting into their flesh.
“—Too slow. You’re like flies sitting in place.”
Sakuya brushed up her hair, revealing a glowing, amber-colored left eye. As the Demon Sword user collapsed, his visors split in half and fell to the floor.
“…?!”
Sakuya’s expression froze upon seeing the face exposed under the visor. This was a man she knew.
“Uzan, how…?!”
This was the leader of the Kenki Gathering—a Sakura Orchid warrior group that became Finzel Phillet’s private troops for the sake of taking revenge on the Void Lord that destroyed their homeland. But they all became involved with the power of the Demon Swords and lost their lives in the process. Or so she thought.
“Don’t tell me…”
Undoing her Mystic Eye’s power, Sakuya bolted forward. A flash of lightning and the glint of a sword streaked through the air, and the other Demon Sword users’ visors all snapped in half and fell to the ground.
“…I see. So that’s what’s going on.”
All of them had the same face under the visors.
“Phillet company homunculi. They’re producing humans that adapted to using Demon Swords!”
Sakuya stood stock-still without realizing it, and sensed more presences approach. Eight more figures, clad in protector suits and with the same physique.
“This is disgusting. Absolutely repulsive…,” Sakuya whispered coldly, fixing her grip on Raikirimaru. “I was right to let them go ahead.”
Ominous miasma began coiling around Raikirimaru, lending its blade a dark glow.
“My seniors are all too kind. They’d hesitate before breaking an opponent that looks human.”