As they anticipated, the control tower’s interior was also populated by a Void Hive. Riselia and Sakuya raced down the hall, cutting down the hatching Voids.
“Haaaa! Bloody Spiral!”
“Mikagami style, Ultimate Blade Technique—Lightning Flurry!”
The Holy Swords’ blades flashed through the dark, cutting through centipede-shaped Voids, their flesh and filthy miasma scattering in the air. The Voids formed within the facility were relatively non-threatening ones. But with so many of them hatching at once, they posed a menace just by their sheer numbers.
“The control room should be just ahead!” Riselia shouted as she cut down a centipede Void.
The elevator naturally wasn’t working, so Riselia charged her leg with mana, kicked open the emergency door, and raced down the stairs leading underground.
“—This is taking too long. Let’s take a shortcut.”
Sakuya hopped atop the railing and jumped over it, plummeting down. With her legs enveloped with lightning, she ran vertically along the wall.
“Sakuya, wait…!” Riselia hopped after her.
Spreading her mana wings, she swooped down the shaft. Landing gently on the ground, she dismissed the wings and looked around.
“This should be the control room.”
It was a circular, spacious room. The only source of light were emergency lights set all over the room, but Riselia was able to see the place clearly with her vampire’s eyesight. Thankfully, a Hive hadn’t formed this deep underground yet.
“Let’s hurry. Regina and the others can only hold them back for so long—”
But then, Riselia suddenly wheeled in place, sensing something.
…?!
A figure moved within the dark…and it wasn’t a human figure. Its form was humanoid, but…
“A Void?!” Riselia shouted, holding up the Bloody Sword.
The figure approached, revealing itself to the dim light.
“—No, Miss Selia,” Sakuya whispered beside her.
The thing—the monster—was donning the uniform of the Academia, the Fourth Assault Garden Holy Swordsmen school. But its entire body was swollen, and one of its arms was especially enlarged and warped into the shape of a blade.
A Holy Swordsman—or rather, what had once been a Holy Swordsman.
“A Demon Sword user…” Riselia swallowed.
At that moment—
■■■■■■■■■■■…!
The monster bellowed and swung the blade merged with its arm down on a startled Riselia, cleaving through a mana supply pipe crawling along the wall. Sparks sprayed into the air, and the two hopped left and right respectively to avoid the blow.
“…This must be a test subject for the D-Project. Did the Phillets station them to guard key positions?”
“Who’s to say. Maybe they’ve just been let loose to prowl around…”
Sakuya ran along the wall, swiftly closing distance with the figure. Raikirimaru’s power was its authority of acceleration, allowing it to speed up whenever it cut an opponent. At this point, Sakuya had long since achieved her maximal speed.
“Haaaaaaa! Thundering Lightning Slash!”
The blade flashed, crackling with lightning as it cut through the arm morphed into a Demon Sword. She then used the momentum to drive her sword into the Demon Sword user’s heart—
“Sakuya!” Riselia shouted.
The severed arm instantly regenerated and extended to slash Sakuya’s throat. She ducked at the last second, avoiding the slash, but the Demon Sword user thrust his knee forward, delivering a powerful kick.
“…Ugh!”
Sakuya got knocked back, hit the ground with a thud, and was sent rolling back. The Demon Sword’s blade then swung down at her like a whip.
“No!”
Riselia swept the Bloody Sword up, deflecting the Demon Sword. She then kicked against the ground to accelerate and lunged at the Demon Sword user. Thrusting forward, her sword travelled like a flash, skewering the Demon Sword user’s throat.
Ah…
But at the last second, she froze up. The Academia’s uniform—the mark of a Holy Swordsman sworn to defend mankind.
■■■■■■■■■■■…!
A howl filled the room—and the Demon Sword user’s human face parted in two, manifesting a gigantic mouth lined with countless teeth. They made to chomp down and crush Riselia’s throat, but then—
A slash swept through the air horizontally.
The monster’s head rolled off its shoulders and hit the floor. Void miasma spewed out of the cross section of its severed neck.
“Sakuya…”
“—What was that, Miss Selia?” Sakuya asked, Raikirimaru’s blade thrust into the Void’s torso. “It might look human, but once someone’s been corrupted this much, they’re effectively a Void. They’ll never go back to normal.”
“…Yes, I know. I’m sorry.” Riselia hung her head, biting her lip.
She knew that, and yet, the moment she saw the Academia uniform, its image overlapped with another in Riselia’s mind—the image of her, taken over by a Demon Sword.
Riselia shook her head slowly and got to her feet. But then, suddenly, a small orb of light emerged from the Demon Sword user.
“…Huh?”
A malevolent, crimson Eye opened in the orb, and it began absorbing the Demon Sword’s particles, which were fading into the air.
“…It’s eating the Demon Sword?” Sakuya’s voice echoed in the dark.
Overwhelmed by a grim premonition, Riselia turned around on the spot. Another orb appeared—
“Sakuya!”
Riselia jumped, pushing Sakuya’s body down to the floor. A sweeping flash grazed Sakuya’s back, destroying the floor nearby.
“Sakuya, are you okay?!”
“Ugh… Kuh… A-aaaah…”
Riselia held up her Holy Sword, guarding Sakuya, and turned her eyes to the presence that emerged there.
A Void tear formed in the center of the control room. The tear was pushed open from the inside, and a girl in a pitch-black dress emerged. Accompanied by four Eye of the Witch orbs, she looked at the pair with blank, emotionless eyes.
“Miss Finé…,” Riselia whispered in shock, still gripping her Holy Sword.
She thought she was prepared for this, but she still believed somewhere deep down Elfiné was resisting the Demon Sword’s power and would regain her soul as a Holy Swordswoman.
“—Miss Finé, it’s me. Riselia from the eighteenth platoon!” Riselia called out to her desperately.
Elfiné, however, didn’t react to her voice at all. Her blank eyes reflected nothing at all. The Eye of the Witch orb that had absorbed the Demon Sword returned to her. When she touched the orb, her body underwent a change.
“…Aaah… Aaah, aaaaaah!”
She let out a loud cry of pain, hugging her shoulders with both hands and trembling. For a second, her sleek, black hair shined red like fire, and Void miasma brewed around her.
“—Miss Finé!”
Riselia reflexively understood what she just did—she had consumed the Demon Sword. Devoured another’s Demon Sword, taking it into her body. Riselia could tell this wasn’t something Elfiné could do and get away with unscathed.
“Oh, no—Miss Finé!”
Riselia didn’t know what to do, but she did know she couldn’t stand by and let this pass. She broke out into a run, charging at Elfiné, who was writhing in pain. But two Eye of the Witch orbs appeared, standing in her way, and unleashed flashes of light.
“…Haaaaa!”
She kicked against the ground and sprung forward. Dodging the flashes, she slashed at one of the orbs. A loud screech—sparks scattered into the air. Her blade was stopped by a barrier. Riselia got the impression the orb’s blood-red Eye was sneering at her.
…The orbs have a will of their own?
Riselia heard whooshing around her—three more orbs surrounded her.