The beating of those abnormal wings could be compared to the screeching of a hundred flocks of birds. As the harpy flew, an immense number of feathers came loose and fell behind her, but they did not scatter upon the wind. Instead, they stayed floating in the air, painting the sky above Vulcan black. The light of the illumination flares fired into the air by the Reincarnators began to fade, like the sun disappearing in an eclipse.
People looked up and saw Nyx, goddess of the night, descend from the sky. The eyes within the feathers, closed during flight, now opened. The hundred red eyes embedded in the coat of feathers gazed at the Reincarnators, the mercenaries, and the people of Vulcan.
“Nue, what are you doing here?”
Iris, what are you doing here?
Uncle, look out!
Memories flooded back to Dill, keenly sharpening his senses.
The Project Leader, Shiden, unleashed his lightning, directly targeting Nue. In response, Dill aimed his spear above his head and hurled it. The spear diverted the Reincarnator’s lightning bolt toward it, charring it black. The weapon clattered to the ground before crumbling into ash.
“Whoops, that was a failure.”
“Shiden! I am your opponent!” Sid slashed at Shiden, drawing the Project’s chief back into a one-on-one fight.
“Sid...?” Nue asked hesitantly, knowing nothing of Orestes.
“Shiden...this is preposterous.” Hero frowned.
“Nue, are you all right?” Dill picked up a replacement spear and ran toward her.
“Yep. Thanks. Um, I...” The girl’s expression was downcast. She was at a loss as to how to explain everything—Hathaway’s betrayal, Lycaon’s visit—and most of all, how to excuse the fact that she had disobeyed Dill’s wishes once again by transforming.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you had a good reason. Are you afraid I’ll be mad at you? We can talk about it later.” Dill moved to put himself between Nue and Hero. “Right now, I just need to protect you.”
“...Okay!”
Hero observed this exchange carefully. There had been reports of this bizarre young girl with wings, and this was most likely the very same being as the transformed giant that had appeared in the middle of the city. Hero had heard that the Managers who’d gone to deal with the giant had been obstructed in their cleanup by the appearance of Dill Steel-Link. So, was this winged girl an enemy? The nightmarish appearance of the feathers with eyeballs filling up the sky, along with the nerve-wracking noise of their blinking, had sent the Reincarnators and the natives indiscriminately into a state of confusion.
“S-Stop! Don’t stick to me! Whaa...eeeeek?!” A man screamed pitifully—he was the lab coat-wearing Reincarnator, Puppeteer, who had been hiding behind one of the temple’s pillars. Now he fled wildly, with eyeball feathers clinging. As if the fear had thrown his Skill into disarray, his self-targeted brainwashing was dispelled, returning him to his true self: a hunchbacked coward.
“Just like that man there with his unsightly wailing...” Dill drew closer to Hero. “...You too will be humiliated. You’ve lost your lifeline—your mood stabilizer.”
“I don’t consider that man my doctor, but my warden. This will just make it even easier for me to fight.” Dill and Hero closed the distance between them and crossed spears. As this continued, Nue Kirisaki continued to beat her blinking wings. Fallen black feathers floated into the air. The sky was now completely obscured by feathers, which had formed a dome without even a single crack in it; not even a thin shaft of light from the Reincarnators’ flares could break through. The only light left illuminating the great temple plaza were the festival bonfires still burning on the ground.
“Don’t recoil, advance! Dispose of that red-eyed girl and don’t hold back, you morons! Don’t you know that fear is nothing more than electrical signals in the brain?!” A solitary female Reincarnator gave her motionless subordinates a verbal thrashing. This woman was Repeater, a Chief-class Reincarnator. Repeater cast her eyes around the immediate area, but found that each and every low-ranking Reincarnator had lost the will to fight. “You cowardly dropouts! How did it come to this...?!”
“You’re the lady from earlier, aren’t you?” At the sound of this voice, every other noise audible to Repeater seemed to disappear. Before her was a young girl with red eyes. A hundred more red eyes, these glaring out of wings overgrown like the trees in a dark forest, now stared down at Repeater. Her mouth went instantly dry, and she quickly looked left and right. There was no one there to help her—everyone had either fled or was now curled up on the ground, clutching their heads.
“I will enlighten you.” The voice Repeater managed to wring out of her own throat was so hoarse it surprised even her. Her field of vision began to waver up and down very slightly as her knees shook. “Impossible...what manner of Skill is this? This can’t be. I’m...”
The hundred eyes peering at Repeater turned up crookedly in glee. They were smiling. The hundred eyelids narrowed but did not close entirely, still leaving a thin gap through which they undoubtedly continued to stare at Repeater. A jolt of fear shot through her, raising goosebumps on her arms.
“You’re the lady who treated us so horribly, aren’t you?” The girl slid straight toward Repeater. Her wings were not beating—instead she floated in the air by some unknown force that appeared similar to levitation or magnetic repulsion.
“We Reincarnators are undying. Unyielding warriors who do not fear death...” The brave words she had recited so many times fell automatically from her lips as Repeater stepped back.
“Would you like to play tag? Or maybe hide and seek?”
Repeater turned away from Nue, and as she did she opened her mouth and let out a scream from the depths of her belly. Using her pyrokinesis, she fired bursts of flame from the heels of her feet, devoting everything she had to her escape. Her feet, unexpectedly, cut into the ground, and Repeater suddenly noticed the black mud spreading below her feet. With the girl’s feet at its epicenter, the pool of mud continued to expand. Black liquid ran down the girl’s white thighs, then her ankles, and finally dripped from the tips of her toes. Forming droplets, it fell to collect on the ground, and the area around them had become a pitch-black swamp. Repeater’s body sank. She couldn’t find her footing. This is impossible. The plaza is flat and featureless, yet I can hear singing. Is it coming from the bottom of this swamp? No...it’s like the black water itself is vibrating—singing—with a girl’s voice.
With a wet plop, something floated to the surface of the water. It was an eyeball with a red iris.
Heedless of the chaos reaching its peak in the plaza around them, the battle between the two heroes intensified. Dill raised his shield and charged headlong at Hero, only for the Reincarnator to blast jets of flame from his back and push Dill away. With the shield between them, they fought for dominance. Dill tried lowering his shield to crush Hero’s foot with his full weight, but Hero retaliated with a headbutt as soon as Dill’s face was exposed.
Dill staggered back, blood flowing from a gash on his forehead. Hero pressed his advantage, swinging down his spear, imbued with a force field, but Dill threw his own spear faster than Hero could swing, forcing Hero to deflect the attack. In that opening, Dill threw himself against Hero.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” Hero roared with laughter. Grappling with Hero, whose body temperature was abnormally high, was causing Dill pain. Maybe this was due to the fiery blood of the hero Prodotis coursing through Hero’s veins, or maybe he had heated his whole body with his Skill, but in any case, in a bare-knuckle brawl, Dill was at a disadvantage.
“Heroes really are wonderful! Don’t you agree, Aegisthus?!”
Dill shook off Hero’s grasp and bashed him with his shield, retreating with the recoil from that blow. He then brought his foot down on the hilt of a sword resting on the ground at his feet, launching it into the air. In an instant, he seized the sword and thrust it forward.
One clash, two clashes, three—sparks flew as the two exchanged blows, grinding down their weapons while throwing their entire souls into their battle. Dill, however, was outmatched and sent flying. An explosion that Hero had created behind his back using his Skill had generated a blast of destructive power.
Dill skillfully broke his fall as he landed on the ground. He felt no agitation. Quite the opposite—his rust-colored eyes were cold.
“Having become a hero myself, I finally feel certain! My belief that a mighty superhuman should guide the masses was absolutely right! First I will defeat you, then Orestes, and then I will force this city to surrender! Maybe next I’ll try destroying Panopticon itself?! Hah ha ha ha ha ha ha! There is no need for a complex society. An age of power, with a hero ruling over all, is much more desirable!” Hero cackled again and again.
Flames traced a spiral as they wrapped around Hero’s spear, and he then thrust it at Dill, although Dill was out of striking range. The flames extended from the head of the spear, searing a straight line in front of Hero.