Turning away from Holy, the man faced the soldiers. Despite being at an overwhelming numerical disadvantage, he didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. His absolute confidence was reflected in his posture.
The man stretched out his arm as if he were taking aim, making his eyes glow intensely once again. As he did that, the space around him looked slightly distorted, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, he unleashed upon the soldiers a brilliant white heat ray that seared the air.
The heat ray collided with the soldiers, burning through countless lined-up shipping containers and steel frames in the process. Screams, mayhem, and then shouts rang out. In the last moment, the tides of battle had been reversed in an instant by the lone Informationist.
The flames of torch after torch ignited, lining the previously dark harbor and using the soldiers as fuel. The flames were so intense that other light sources were unnecessary.
This was hell. The blaze was reminiscent of sinners burning in hellfire, and Holy’s breath caught in her throat. The bone-chilling cold she had felt just moments ago had instantly turned to a sweltering heat.
With this surreal sight in front of her, Holy looked up at the man standing beside her.
He had unmistakably saved her from danger, but Holy couldn’t genuinely consider him a hero. Something just felt off about him. Faintly illuminated, he was smiling demonically.
More soldiers appeared one after the other, and he incinerated every last one of them, completely quelling their attack. And yet he was grinning the entire time. No hero looked like this.
The area fell dead quiet, and the man finally dimmed the blue lights in his eyes. With almost all the soldiers dead, he looked out over the harbor, which was now nothing but flames and ash, and pulled a cigarette from his pocket.
“Who are you?” Holy asked the man as she tried to stop her arms from shaking. He struck an old oil lighter, lit the end of his cigarette, and looked at her.
“Tsushima Rindou. I received a request.”
His response made everything click. This man was the Informationist that Storm Hill asked to assist in her defection.
A feeling of relief welled up in her chest alongside a feeling of regret. She wiped her tearstained face and stood up. Then she strengthened the tone of her voice in order to hide her fear and weakness.
“You’re late! Why didn’t you come sooner? Everyone, absolutely everyone is dead!” Holy’s voice trembled as her emotions unconsciously boiled over, but she confronted the Informationist regardless. Tsushima, however, glanced at the corpses she pointed at with eyes completely devoid of emotion.
“But you’re alive. Isn’t that something to be happy about?”
“Uh…” Holy was at a loss for words. A heavy sensation welled up in her heart. The feeling was probably mostly self-loathing, but she couldn’t find the words to adequately express it.
Faced with Tsushima’s indifferent stare, Holy found herself unable to argue further. He clearly had the gaze of someone who lived in and saw a different world than she did.
Tsushima looked down at Holy, eyes teary and fists clenched, and sighed.
“Those men had no choice but to die here. That was what they had to do to protect you. Looking at the results, you could say they did a satisfactory job,” Tsushima stated flatly, exhaling smoke. Although Holy knew she had no right to talk back, she glared at him accusingly.
“Are you suggesting it’s fine they died on the job? They would’ve wanted to live!” As she spoke, Holy’s heart ached at her contradictory statement. She was the one who had let them die. She had no right to say that.
Unable to properly sort through her muddled emotions, Holy looked down as warm tears welled up in her eyes. Tsushima’s next words left her as rattled as if he had struck the top of her head.
“Sometimes people die for their missions. I’m just saying they would have wanted that,” Tsushima said coldly before putting his cigarette in his mouth. Holy clenched her fists tightly at his words.
“Are all Informationists this heartless?”
“Beats me. Ask another Informationist that kind of nonsense,” Tsushima retorted with apparent disinterest. He glanced at Holy before turning his back to her. “Let’s get out of here before more of your pursuers show up. Follow me.”
Watching Tsushima melt into the darkness of night once again, Holy felt an emotion similar to fear. She couldn’t readily believe he was an ally, but there was nobody else she could rely on. Feeling frustrated, Holy had no choice but to follow him.