The conference room ceiling was gone, and the floor was strewn with rubble and broken glass. The beautiful table and decor were in shambles. It was like a tornado had ripped through the room.
They had turned it into a makeshift field hospital, and Riho and Choline were running around using healing spells on the injured servants. Anzu was doing first aid on minor wounds. Those with broken bones were moaning aloud; those with scrapes and bruises were merely forcing themselves not to.
Vritra and Asako were lying side by side, both unconscious.
Anzu was tearing up curtains to use as makeshift bandages, looking worried.
“If unleashing the demon lords means things like Vritra appearing everywhere…we won’t hold out long.”
“Nope.”
Renge would normally pounce on any weakness Anzu showed, but for once, she was in full agreement.
Merthophan came back from a search for more wounded.
“I think we’ve got everyone out of the rubble.”
He was using a hoe and a spade like dowsing rods to locate buried victims. Most people would question this, but he’d found a lot of people this way, so no one pressed the point. The proof was in the pudding.
“But that is a big hole. Let’s hope this doesn’t become an international incident.”
A very royal concern, Sardin.
“It’s her fault! They can send us a bill, but not one coin is coming out of the national treasury.”
Ubi mimed pulling a purse drawstring. She’d been through a lot and didn’t let this get to her.
Selen had been looking after Vritra and Asako, but now she joined them.
“Eve’s the one who triggered Vritra’s rampage. We should be billing her…or at least, making her pay for this.”
“Right, what happened to her? I heard someone named Shouma was on her, but is he okay?” Threonine asked.
“No need to worry about him, Dad,” Allan said. “He’s from Kunlun, and stronger than Lloyd. No demon lord will get him.”
He seemed confident—and totally jinxed himself.
“?!”
The words had barely left his mouth when Phyllo’s eyes widened. And Allan jumped.
“Wh-what’s wrong, Phyllo? Did I say something wrong?”
Satan, Surtr, and Lloyd all sensed the same thing and scrambled up through the hole in the roof, scanning the sky.
“Wh-what is it, Lloyd? Phyllo?” Mena called.
Looking grim, Lloyd kept his eyes on the sky.
He was shivering, and not from the cold breeze against cheeks.
“I feel something…very strange.”
Everyone looked baffled, and Satan shifted uneasily. Surtr looked ill.
“What is it? It’s even nastier than a demon lord.”
“Feels like all sorts of emotions mixed up—like a scrambled egg. I don’t feel so good.”
Lloyd squinted and pointed at a figure in the sky above, where Eve’s new form hovered.
“……Something’s up there.” Phyllo spotted it, too, and Satan and Surtr followed suit.
“Who…? Seems like a cute lady, but that’s freaky in its own right.”
“Totally the type you’d drop a dime on at the cabaret.”
“I know!”
Whether this was an accurate comparison or not, it sure proved that Satan and Surtr were equally hopeless people.
“Is that what Vritra was talking about? Eve’s new body?”
“She went all-in on the glow-up. Does she have no shame?”
“……Too perfect… Uncanny.”
The girls did not approve. The design reeked of vanity.
Everyone agreed it was gross.
“She’s clearly a bad person!”
It was rare to hear Lloyd talk like that.
An instant later, Eve went flying off somewhere. And if she was safe—Lloyd became worried about what had happened to Shouma.
“Shouma?!”
“L-Lloyd?!”
Shouma would be where Eve had come from.
Hopefully he was safe and sound.
Lloyd plunged into the Profen Palace basement, scrambling like he was descending a cliff face. He leaped from perch to perch, heedless of the damage his clothes took.
When he reached the bottom of the pit, he searched everywhere for his brother.
“…………………Shouma.”
But his hopes were in vain. Lloyd found him lying in a heap, badly hurt.
His limbs were bent the wrong way—which a Kunlun villager would ordinarily heal like nothing, but clearly, he was too tired to manage it.
Lloyd sensed right away that Eve had gone to such lengths purely to adjust to her new body. She’d gone too far, for the fun of it—hurting him as much as she could without killing him.
✦ ✦ ✦
