A group of students raced down the main road.
The younger students struggled to keep up, running desperately behind the one at the front, like ducklings following their mother.
At the front, playing the role of the mother duck, was an old professor and a young, beautiful woman.
"Just follow closely behind , okay?"
"Yes!"
Adella gave her juniors a warning and notched a new arrow onto her bowstring. The three brilliantly shining arrows flew off the bow with grace, cutting through the air like sharks hunting prey, piercing through the beasts that leapt at them in quick succession.
"Adella! Right!"
The professor, swinging his sword to cut down the beasts, shouted. Adella quickly drew her bow while running. The arrow struck the beast that appeared from the right alleyway, embedding itself in its eye.
"Die! Heretic!"
Three cultists of the Unification Church, having bypassed the alley, charged forward riding on beasts. Adella, having slung her bow on her back, drew her rapier from her waist.
As the beasts’ blood-red teeth grew closer, she stepped forward. Her movent was smooth yet powerful.
"Ugh!"
The swift sword strike decimated the enemies. The cultists and beasts fell one after another, blood pouring from their wounds. It was a clean and graceful swordsmanship. Adella and the professor broke through the beast swarm as if they were icebreakers cutting through ice.
"When will the academy’s rescue team arrive?"
"Hmm, considering the situation, it might take quite a while, I think."
Adella felt a sense of frustration after hearing the professor’s words. Ti was of the essence. She reached into her pocket and pulled out an object. The professor’s eyes widened when he saw the red staff with intricate patterns.
"The Interdinsional Signal Device? Isn’t that an heirloom from your family? Didn’t you say it was dangerous to use?"
"I tried not to use it, but I have no choice now. The elders won’t like it, but if we don’t use the family’s power in a situation like this, when else would we?"
After saying that, she snapped the staff in her hand. The magical light that erupted from it shot upward, towards the ceiling.
As she gazed at the beam of magic traveling between dinsions, a small sense of liberation washed over her. The beam flickered as it faded, but the signal crossing the dinsional gap continued to blink in her hand.
It wouldn’t take long for the signal to reach her family. The Casscadia forces would be here soon.
"Don’t worry, everyone! The rescue team will be here soon!"
At the student council president’s words, the students cheered, despite their exhaustion. She felt a bittersweet emotion well up inside her.
"If I had used this earlier, that poor girl wouldn’t have had to sacrifice herself."
Despite fulfilling her duty as the student council president, she secretly blad herself. She should have intervened sooner, but she hadn’t been able to.
"I’m sorry, Violet. I know it’s selfish, but please, stay alive."
Stuffing her lancholy along with the signal device into her chest, Adella ran. She had students to protect.
Inside the dungeon, the agents of the Magna Nabis were leading a search for relics while commanding their troops. They saw the beam of light reaching up to the ceiling. While the beasts didn’t seem to notice, any experienced mage would have sensed the signal.
The agents knew exactly what that signal was.
"This damn thing! An Interdinsional Signal Device? It can’t be, right?"
The Vanguard commander looked up at the ceiling, flustered.
"The signal is pulsating from that direction. With our level of equipnt and manpower, we can track it."
Lera calmly analyzed the signal. After the staff released the beam, a subtle magical pulse was detected from behind their forward base.
"Damn it, it seems like so gold spooned brat showed up here."
"I’ll imdiately have the team check the dungeon’s entrance list. According to the plan, there’s no reason anyone with a signal device should be here. What the hell is going on?"
Relics that could bridge the gap between dinsions were treated as extrely valuable. Objects that could communicate with the outside world from a disconnected realm were rare.
Only high-ranking officials from the Four Great Clans, top executives from major corporations, VIPs from the federation, and certain mbers of old noble families could possess such relics.
Whoever owned the relic, they certainly had political and social influence on par with the Four Great Clans. The operation was in jeopardy.
The agents realized they had triggered a potential political bomb.
"Any progress on the relic search?"
"We’re still searching. We need more ti!"
Lera t the commander’s gaze. Even through the opaque, sealed mask, she could feel the urgency in his eyes.
"Still haven’t received the signal, right?"
"Given the chanism of the signal device, it can’t transmit information directly outside the dungeon. It takes ti to connect."
They reached a conclusion. No matter who the relic’s owner was, they needed to be dealt with imdiately. They also decided to eliminate the remaining survivors in the process.
"Let’s track it down. Ti is of the essence!"
"I’ll call all personnel except the minimum necessary. Everyone, gather at the designated coordinates!"
The combat mages’ strike team began to mobilize.
The Violet Squad rescued people who had been captured by a suspicious ard group and began to search the nearby area. A truck, with its engine running, waited nearby.
When the squad leader gave the order, bolts of magic flew.
"Ahhh!"
The magical bolts pierced through the truck, turning those inside into hedgehogs. The Violets collected the bodies and stored them in their inventory.
"Was it necessary to kill them all?"
"We have a prisoner. This one looks the easiest to handle."
Violet No. 350 grabbed the captured person. It was impressive how they had clung to the superior officer, trying to save the prisoner. For now, they decided to keep them alive.
"Interrogate them, and if they’re strange, kill them!"
"Yeah, yeah!"
While wandering through the maze-like alleys, her attention kept drifting to the woman with hair that shimred like a horse’s tail.
Her wrinkles deepened around her eyes.
"This girl, look at that hairstyle. It’s a ponytail!"
"That damn hair!"
Ponytails were a hairstyle worn by rebellious girls who didn’t have mothers or fathers. It was an experience. All those who had tornted Violet and hard her friends had been... ponytail-wearing girls.
56th of the headquarters compared each other’s sight and terrain, then marked a point on the map.
"You’re in a residential area right now. It’s hard to see due to the buildings, but the two teams’ positions are surprisingly close!"
That’s a relief. We should be able to join up soon.
According to Violet’s collective intelligence and spatial awareness using the V-navigation system, the rescue team and relic team are moving through the housing complex, while Violet’s team is heading near the shopping area by the main road.
I headed in the direction where my team mbers were.
"If you don’t answer properly when I ask later, I’ll hit you!"
"Yes, I understand... Eek!"
Along the way, I didn’t forget to give the prisoner a little hit.
As I ca out of the alley and walked for a while, I saw a large barricade made of piled-up junk nearby. In front of the barricade, there were beast corpses scattered around.
"Stop! Stop! Hands up!"
A powerful light illuminated the face of Violet No. 350, who was at the front. I squinted my eyes at the blinding light that even ca through the goggles.
"We’re allies!"
"We’ll see about that. Stay still!"
Standing with my hands up, a hunter holding a spear-like sword appeared from behind the barricade and examined us. It was a familiar face I’d seen in etings. He was the departnt head from the Atlas Clan.
"Oh, you’re still alive. Weren’t you bodyguards? Where’s that girl Ariel?"
When the departnt head asked, I answered with a stiff tone.
"Departnt Head of Atlas, personal reasons have separated us for now. By the way, Atlas Departnt Head, what’s this? Can we pass?"
"No, wait a mont."
Beside the departnt head, a man who appeared to be a wizard was holding a staff and scanning our group. I could feel the flow of mana, so it seed like he was scanning sothing.
"A voice modulator, huh? Quite the taste... Alright, it’s confird. Co in. But I hope you’ll follow our instructions. It might be unpleasant, but fanatic bastards might be hiding, you know."
I agreed. After having seen the fanatics stab others in the back, the departnt head’s actions seed reasonable.
"Still, these people aren’t cultists. I just rescued them from so weirdos."
"Rescue? Wait, why is the woman tied up like that? Are you planning to let those fanatics in?"
"Long story. Atlas Departnt Head, they’re not mbers of the Combine Faith. But sothing’s off. They might be able to answer so questions about the situation."
I had a short conversation with the departnt head as we passed the barricade.
"What? You’re telling they took hostages, interrogated them, and tried to execute them?"
The departnt head looked shocked at the sudden appearance of a third enemy.
"That’s right, Atlas Departnt Head."
"I don’t get what’s going on."
"I agree, Atlas Departnt Head."
"Hold on, you’re confusing sothing. Atlas is the na of my clan. Didn’t your superior tell you that? My na is Habarda."
Ah, I rember now.
Inside the barricade, there were people who had fled from various places. Strangely, people had gathered at a slightly distant spot and were working on sothing with bright lights and sparks flying everywhere.
"It’s a temporary elevator. It’s equipnt we set up early during the dungeon exploration, but after a large elevator was installed, it was abandoned. We gathered so technicians among the evacuees and are trying to get it running, but..."
Departnt Head Habarda frowned as he couldn’t finish his sentence. The large tal structure extending up to the ceiling was rusted in several places, and there were parts that had been cut off or collapsed a long ti ago.
Following the departnt head, I heard raised voices nearby. Looking back, I saw federal soldiers being scolded by the people.
"There’s a live soldier?"
"You bastards! Am I wrong? You were ssing around with the relics and this is what happened!"
"That’s not true! We’re also victims! Why would we operate that dangerous item? It needs to be disposed of!"
The officer representing the soldiers protested, looking aggrieved.
"Hey, that’s the officer who helped us out before, right? When we were saving the students."
"Let see, the na... Captain Klein? Oh, I rember now."
The departnt head quickly ran over to calm the people down.
"Everyone, calm down! We haven’t even figured out the truth yet, so don’t rush to conclusions. And this person stayed behind and helped with the evacuation. You shouldn’t treat a benefactor like that."
"But wasn’t the federal army the one holding the prism? Obviously, they must have been up to sothing! You look suspicious too. You didn’t do anything, did you? The feds can’t be trusted! They might even be in league with those fanatics!"
"If you hadn’t ssed with the prism, our staff wouldn’t have..."
"No, I don’t know anything! Damn it!"
So frightened soldiers raised their guns. The officer tried to stop them, but this ti, the hunters pulled out their weapons and aid them.
"Everyone, calm down!"
"Calm down? These bastards are the enemy too! Hey, why don’t you lower your gun?"
The situation was on the brink of exploding. The beasts were about to rush in, and internal conflicts were breaking out. It was bleak.
At that mont, the prisoner behind us muttered weakly.
"...I did it."
"What did you say?"
I imdiately called the departnt head when I heard the prisoner’s words.
"Why are you calling suddenly?"
"The prism! She said she did it!"
The eyes of the soldiers and hunters who were in a standoff all turned to the prisoner. The woman nodded with a troubled expression.
At the temporary elevator, an impromptu people’s trial was being held with everyone gathered. I forced the prisoner to kneel on the ground and took out a cara to start filming.
"Now, tell your na, age, and affiliation!"
The brown-haired ponytailed woman hesitated before speaking.
"My na is E, Ennis Lowell. I’m 28 years old. I’m the chief researcher of the 3rd division of the Mystic Investigation Departnt at Magna Nabis Group..."
"What? Magna Nabis?"
Upon hearing the familiar na,Violet No. 350 couldn’t help but show an expression of disbelief. Why was that na here?
"Ma..."
"Because of you, one of our team mbers is dead!"
"Ugh..."
The prisoner was rcilessly beaten.
Captain Klein, who had been silent, stepped forward.
"Wait! Stop it!"
A gunshot rang out.
As the people retreated, the captain squeezed through and helped the prisoner up.
Then, he drew a large handgun and pointed it at the prisoner’s chin.
"Under the Federal Military Law, terrorism is punishable by imdiate execution. Do you understand?"
"..."
The woman closed her eyes with a resigned expression.
The Director placed his hand on the captain’s shoulder.
"Hey, give her to us."
"No. My subordinates, the Field Leader, died because of this woman."
The people who had stepped back now spat out their anger once more.
"Hey! Give her to us! She needs to be torn apart!"
"Hand her over! We’ll beat her to death!"
The crowd looked like they were about to rush in and tear the prisoner apart. I was a little flustered. We can’t kill her yet.
I decided to assert my legitimate claim.
"Wait! This prisoner is mine. So don’t decide her fate on your own."
"What? But..."
"I caught her, didn’t I? And I have a lot of questions!"
Violet and I, ard, asserted our legitimate claim.
The crowd, dissatisfied, took a step back under the pressure of our drawn weapons.
"Hey, there’s still sothing I haven’t asked, so answer quickly. Who’s your superior? What do they do?"
"My superior... the one our team leader killed, is the one you’re asking about."
I pulled a human head out of my inventory.
The people were horrified by the sudden appearance of the head. I quickly claid it was a relic bag and continued the interrogation.
"Is this her?"
I thrust the blood-dripping head toward her. Ennis flinched and nodded frantically.
"Eeek! Yes, that’s her!"
"Then, is she your commander? Or is there soone else?"
"She’s not our commander. Our team leader receives orders from soone else. We were dispatched to the field. There’s a separate person responsible for everything."
"Who’s that?"
I asked. Ennis, looking at the blade and the gun barrel in front of her, tried desperately to recall sothing from her mind.
"I don’t know their na or face. I couldn’t properly see their face due to a facial recognition jamr. But..."
"But...? But what! Hurry up and tell !"
Hesitant, she finally opened her mouth in a panic.
"Vanguard agents were dispatched. They seed to know each other well. I think they’re from the Intelligence and Strategy Departnt! That’s all I know."
The ntion of "Vanguard" caused a stir among the people.
"Magna Nabis Vanguard? The unit with those fishbowl-headed, machine-covered freaks?"
"Yes, that’s right..."
Ah, this is bad. If this prisoner’s words are true, this is a huge problem. I don’t know how strong they are, but they seed like formidable opponents.
Could this be related to the Chairman? I need to bring my team here quickly. There are other people around, and if things go wrong, I might have to try to escape by climbing the structure of that old elevator.
"Move the relics! We need to destroy them quickly."
Right. The relics. I can’t let those suspicious people get their hands on them.
Once my questions were done, Ennis asked.
"U-um, is the questioning over?"
"Yeah. For now."
After hearing my response, the prisoner looked at with lifeless eyes and slowly closed them. Surrounding her were angry hunters, workers, and soldiers. Had she already resigned herself?
Of course, I didn’t plan to kill her imdiately. I still had many more questions to ask. And, she was the type of person to give information politely when asked.
She was the first one who didn’t resist answering without going through complicated violent procedures.
The Director asked.
"What should we do with her?"
"I’ll hold off on disposing of her for now."
By the way, where are Adela and the students?
"I just t them!"
Just as I had that question, I received word that I had t up with my Violet team mbers. I began to happily think about when to reveal Violet’s survival.
"Let’s say she miraculously survived. That’ll be less embarrassing."
"Or how about this? We say we managed to defeat all the beasts... huh?"
I was about to think more when a group of jet bikes suddenly flew over our team mbers’ heads.
"It’s the Magna Nabis Vanguard! Kyaaak!"
"Lucian’s down! He’s out cold!"
"A sniper! Cloning has started! Daphne’s in danger!"
"Adela’s hurt!"
I jumped up from my seat.
"...What’s going on?"
Without answering the Director’s question, we dashed out. We left only two people behind as the rest of the team ran out of the barricade.
"Hey, follow !"
"What? Aah!"
I didn’t forget to grab the prisoner by the back of the neck and drag her along.
As soon as we crossed the barricade, we quickly increased the scale of our operation.
"Run! Hurry up! When will the reinforcents arrive? We’re losing people faster than we can kill them!"
"Ah! The bullets won’t fire! It’s jamd!"
Screams and the sound of fear-soaked radios filled the air. The Violet unit rushed into the main road.
Violet is dying.
They’re dying.
They are dying again.
As we t up with our team on the road, I could see them.
"...Who are you?"
Walking disasters, in the form of humans.
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