Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume7 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 1===

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
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hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Kyousuke no longer remembered how far he had run through the white crystal cave or what route he had taken.

In fact, no amount of struggling could have let him escape the White Queen before his eyes. She was already the strongest at just one, but there were now enough of her to fill the city like an army of the dead. There was no hope. In that case, it was obvious what had happened.

“Thirty-oooone, thirty-twoooo, thirty-threeeee…”

That counting continued from somewhere.

That lovely voice echoed endlessly like she was starting a game of hide-and-seek. And that was not the only voice. After all, there was more than one Queen this time. The voices arrived from all directions as if to surround poor Kyousuke. She seemed to be toying with him using the madness of a group, something she had never had before due to being unique.

She was letting him escape.

She was clearly just having fun.

“Nowww, then. Brooootherrrr, what will you do?”

“Will you continue with your plan to destroy me, the White Queen you hate so much? Ee hee hee!”

“But, but. I can ''infect'' people this time. Nowww, who am I using as a host for this one? A member of Bridesmaid? Or a villager from Houbi Village? Oh? But can you just kill them? Well, can you, bunny???”

“Ugwah!! Aghaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

They were not here.

The Queen’s voice echoed in from a distant location, using the complexly curving cave like a speaking tube.

The mass of sound seemed to envelop him.

“Ready or nooooot, here I cooooome!”

“Ready or nooooot, here I cooooome!”

“Ready or nooooot, here I cooooome!”

“…!!!???”

“Broootherrr, let’s flirt and smooch. …Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!”

“Broootherrr, let’s flirt and smooch. …Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!”

“Broootherrr, let’s flirt and smooch. …Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!”

A strong but dull sound burst out.

It was not Kyousuke slipping and falling. The silver-haired shrine maiden named Meinokawa Aoi had grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the crystal wall.

“Calm down, you fool!!”

“Eek!?”

“I’m honestly amazed you managed to pick up Olivia’s unconscious body and flee in that situation, but if you just keep running aimlessly, you’ll only end up right in front of one of the Queens. And if she’s using her numbers to surround us, escape by normal means will be impossible.”

With that said, Aoi pulled Kyousuke forward instead. She wrapped her arms around his head as if holding him to her large chest.

“Do not worry.”

“…”

“Listen to my pulse. I might be artificial, but the structure is no different. You can tell how calm I am, can’t you? That means I haven’t let it affect me and I can buy enough time for you to calm down, too. …As a shrine god, that is my purpose. That role was admittedly forced onto me, but I will not abandon a human child seeking my protection.”

Kyousuke’s heart rampaged in his chest and he was clearly hyperventilating, but this allowed him to finally regain control of his mind that was madly running full speed ahead.

“Pant, pant…phew…”

“Good, good. Do not worry. If you try to take care of it all at once, you will simply be overwhelmed. Let’s take our time and solve it bit by bit. Understand?”

Biondetta had pursued Kyousuke along with Aoi and she shook her head over and over with a hand on the side of her head as if to shake away a nightmare.

“Urp. An atmosphere of death filled with multiple Queens and heavy bedrock overhead. Really reminds you of the Queen’s Miniature Garden, doesn’t it, sir?”

“Oh, right… I just had to remember that… This isn’t the first time the Queen has multiplied… This was a known phenomenon…not something entirely incomprehensible… I’m fine…I’m still fine…”

“However.” Biondetta added more while lightly kissing the white snake that slithered out of her cleavage. “''Multiple Queens working together'' is definitely unprecedented. We should assume this is even more dangerous than the Queen’s Miniature Garden.”

That meant this was the worst situation in history. That was enough to make him feel faint and he had to focus his mind to avoid blacking out in Meinokawa Aoi’s chest.

This absurd situation was not some grand final objective; it was something done just for fun.

She was truly the greatest cheater.

But that was no reason to abandon all thought. They had a veritable mountain of problems to deal with, but that was exactly why their only option was solving them each one at a time.

Kyousuke finally stopped leaning on Aoi and managed to support his own weight.

“Whatever we do, we have no time,” he groaned. “The White Queen will start searching for us – just for fun – before long.”

“First of all, I want to make sure you know that – unlike me – she is not simply borrowing those forms,” said Aoi. “If true White Queens are being mass-produced, then fighting her head-on would be reckless indeed. In fact, we could not defeat even one of them.”

“Since they’re working together, I suppose we can’t lure them into destroying each other this time.”

An unnatural gagging motion entered Kyousuke’s throat once more.

He knew this was different, but he could not help but think of Mary Ann destroying the other Queens. He also thought of the White Queen versus the Black Maw. But they could not use that method here.

“If we can’t fight her head-on or use any tricks, only one option remains.”

Aoi sighed somewhat sadly, perhaps because she no longer had anything to hold to her chest.

“I assume you mean the Material you are hoping can defeat the Queen. That does seem to be our only hope.”

“But we’re up against multiple Queens!” protested Biondetta. “You could easily call it an army!!”

“Yes, but each of the Queens has the same specs. So the rest depends on the situation. It would be difficult to singlehandedly defeat 100 people in a simultaneous game of rock-paper-scissors, but things change if you play them all sequentially in 100 different games. Both options are far from easy, but the first step is preparing the proper conditions and environment.”

Kyousuke breathed in and out.

The despair was too great for that to stop his cold sweat, but he forced his mind into motion.

“In that case, I’m curious about the fact that she’s infecting people instead of simply multiplying or copying herself. That Queen doesn’t care about anyone but me, so it seems odd that she would make herself need the bodies of other people.”

“…To act as hostages?”

“That means it’s possible ''she’s afraid'' that we could have a chance if she didn’t have that means of stopping us.”

Kyousuke spoke coldly.

He did not hesitate to use the word “afraid” when it came to that Queen.

“Also, we still don’t know how she’s infecting people. Depending on the answer, it might be possible to heal them.”

Biondetta was not the only one shocked by that suggestion.

Even Meinokawa Aoi’s eyes widened.

“W-wait. Are you saying you still haven’t given up?”

“That’s right.”

“You can look at this situation and still set your objective to ''saving'' them!?”

“Is that anything for a shrine god to say? Can’t you see them wandering in search of help? If I did anything else, the name Alice (with) Rabbit would lose all meaning. That’s the only reason the Queen would bother making more of herself when she’s already the strongest on her own.”

Yes, the White queen already reigned at the highest peak, so it was hard to think she would be trying to strengthen herself. Whether as an individual or a group, the strongest was the strongest. It was an inexact way of thinking, but when she was an infinite being from the beginning, there was no reason to gather a group of her. Then why the infection? The Queen always placed Kyousuke at the center of her world, so the answer was self-evident.

The Queen wanted to make Kyousuke hers by breaking his spirit and removing his attachment to all other things.

She longed for the moment when he took the easy route and relied on the strongest.

She was trying to create a dependency in which he could not survive without that strongest and he could find nothing else to hold pride in. Just as a soccer player would most hate having soccer taken from them and just like a student admitted to a prestigious university would fight desperately to not have their academic records taken from them.

In other words…

“She’s trying to get me to kill them myself. That is the Queen’s goal.”

Needless to say, accepting a game suggested by the White Queen was the height of folly, but he was free to save them in a way that surpassed the Queen’s expectations. He had to outdo her and present the answer without ever giving up. That was the proper course of action for Shiroyama Kyousuke.

He had to end his confusion. He had to regain his will of steel.

And after that, he had one important task to perform.

“Let’s observe the White Queen.”

“Are you serious, dammit!? I was hoping to suggest we hurry to the center, reach the cruise ship at the summit as soon as possible, create the vessel which can contain your trump card Unexplored-class, construct the Material itself, and immediately begin the battle to destroy the White Queen!!”

“There are too many questions concerning this infection. Accepting it as ''just something the Queen can do'' is the same as refusing to think. …If we can figure out how it works, we can make a further judgment about whether or not they can be returned to normal…no, about whether or not they can be saved.”

“…”

“Now, a question: do you want this to leave a bad taste in your mouth or not?”

“Okay!! Fine!!”