Editing Kami-sama no Inai Nichiyoubi:Volume6 Chapter2 (section)

===Part II===
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—uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu—!!

They had noticed that ‘thing’ when it was seven kilometers away from Ostia.

"Ahhh, test test, mic test. Do you hear me?"

"Shut up! Stop right now!"

"Sounds like you can hear me. Thanks for your cooperation."

"Shut up!"

The equipment for the Ostia guards was truly shoddy. The man serving as captain was riding right alongside that ‘thing’, shouting at the top of his voice.

"Hey! That truck…, no, train…no. Argh whatever! That ‘thing’ over there! Stop!"

The guard captain could not find the appropriate term to describe it. It was a car, a train, a horse, a man, an incomprehensible mass.

The only thing he could understand was the threat.

"Hey, stop! Damn it! You're going to run us into the city!"

Reluctantly, the captain pulled the trigger of his shotgun. The slugs, which could kill a bear in one hit, were no better than toy fireworks when facing it.

To describe it, it was a lump of meat and machinery.

A cheetah's legs, a car engine, a sailboat's sail, a praying mantis' sickle. It was a giant fast-moving object that was ana amalgamation of all these things, one that would appear in a child’s nightmare.

"I'm begging you, please stop~!"

The guard' cries went unheeded, of course.

The ‘thing’ then charged into the city of Ostia on its hooves, tires, and tentacles.

The people who had gathered at the distribution center instantly disappeared under the huge body.

The guard captain screamed like a maniac.

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At the same time, in the town hall.

—uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu—!!

"Someone do something about the owner of this damn siren right now!"

Bendo Gram was shouting, his perfectly set bangs disheveled.

"I don’t care if you got to use bombs, cannons, anything! What's the guard captain doing?"

Behind him, the staff whispered,

"Hey, sounds like this whole thing is the work of Coven."

"No way…why are the Witch's people here…?"

"What do we do? We’re going to get killed…no, it's going to be worse than death…"

"You people there! Enough with the idle talk and get a messenger! Get every citizen to the town hall!"

Bendo clicked his tongue loudly, emphasizing his frustration and shouting at the people around him.

A cloud of dust could be seen on the cityscape beyond the window. The smoke traversed the city as it pleased, and somehow made a sharp turn when it reached the graveyard. It made another turn on the main street, and each time it turned, screams could be heard in the air.

"I didn't think…you'd be so forceful…you underestimate me…I'll never forgive you… How dare you… attack my town?"

Bendo swore as he clawed at the window sill, almost crushing it.

"? M-Mayor? Is that thing—"

Then it completed its final turn.

"Coming to us …."

The centipede's legs, each one made of a different creature, rumbled on the ground.

"…I’ll never forgive you."

"M-Mayor! Let's run!"

The ‘thing’ swallowed the city hall in a straight line, ignoring roads, buildings, and everything else.

"I’ll never forgive you!"

Bendo's cry was not heard by anyone.

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However, that ‘thing’ did not hurt anyone. The legs that supported the giant body moved with precision, as if each one had a will of its own, and passed the obstacles like the wind. If someone with good eyesight had witnessed the scene, they would have noticed that several people in particular had been taken from the path it took.

"Ladies and gentlemen, dear citizens of Ostia, please listen to this broadcast."

The loudspeakers and parrot heads atop the ‘thing’ started to blare loudly.

<i>"We are the Witch Independent Justice Troupe (Coven). We are the Witch Independent Justice Brigade, and I am the executive representative, Madame Express Legion's Hive. We will like to inform you that we shall be handling the case henceforth."</i>

The ‘Madame Express’, which had been hopping from house to house like a liquid, bowed its head.

<i>"We are here to bring the guilty to justice."</i>

Softly skipping over the last hill, the Madame finally reached the destination. It was right in front of the black surface, in the middle of a crowded schoolyard. People ran away, and Madame's huge body fit perfectly into the empty space.

<i>"To that end, we are currently gathering the necessary people."</i>

And then the Madame collapsed.

What had barely resembled a train crumbled into pieces. The building materials that used to be walls reassembled themselves into tables, and the furry tigers ran and became carpets. The ground was covered with cotton fibers, and various deformed animals slit their throats, staining the carpet red. The red oak pillars rose up with a roar, and the walls formed by themselves.

The schoolyard quickly turned into a deformed hall.

The hall had seats for the audience, for the defense, for the accused, and for the judges.

The last task was to spit out a few people. Ai, Alice, Julie, Scar, and dozens of other people were rolled into the hall. It was the same people Madame had just taken.

Then, in the middle of the hall, the presiding judge's seat rose up. A man was spat out. He was a thin man with an unhealthy complexion, his psychotic looking eyes narrowed and he leered. His body was covered in a jet-black robe that could not be stained by anything, and on his forehead was a legal chain made of pure gold. His name was engraved on it, along with the slave chains on him. Shaun Sullivan. The look truly did not fit him. He resembled a barbaric youth who had killed a millennium old king, arrogantly putting on a crown.

Shaun scanned the hall, ensured that everyone was seated, and raised his hand..

<i>"—Now, the Witch trial shall begin."</i>

<i>Kan, kan, kan.</i>

<i> </i>
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Ai did not know what was going on.

Just moments ago, she was talking to Dee in the graveyard when there was a sudden siren, and she was swallowed by a large object. She had no idea as to why mere minutes later, she was taken to such a place.

The chairs and desks before her were neatly lined up in an orderly fashion. There was no such place in Ostia, so where was she? Did the monster have the power to carry people far away in an instant? So she wondered, only to spot the black surface in the middle of the hall

Did that mean they were in the middle of the schoolyard?

"I don't know what's going on…"

"It's all her work…"

Dee replied, cupping her head in pain.

The Madame Express Legion's Hive, the locomotive, this courthouse, it's all one person."

"Eh?"

Ai stood up involuntarily. The chair then followed her and basically said, ‘Make yourself comfortable’. On a closer look, the tables and floor in the hall were moving like living creatures, breathing.

"Kya?"

"These things are harmless, for now. …"

It seemed Dee was used to it, <i>thanks,</i> she mumbled, and sat down in her chair.

"There are all kinds of Dead people who can move. In the old days, those with ingrained common sense people wouldn’t be able to move with their heads blown off, but nowadays people can move even if they are bones—and then there are some who can control prosthetic eyes and hands even if it’s not their bodies. Madame has reached the pinnacle of this skill. She’s able to recognize everything she owns as part of her body."

"Hu-huh…?"

Thus was the true form of this apparition, the Madame Express Legion's Hive.

"As is common with such people though, her ego has collapsed and she is now being used by these guys …"

"Those guys?"

Dee answered with a glance. The man, Shaun Sullivan, stood on the platform in the center opposite the black surface.

At this moment, he lowered the gavel.

<i>"—Now, the Witch trial shall begin."</i>

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