BlazBlue:Spiral Shift - Hyokujin no Eiyu Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Foolish man / Left behind

Part 1

They left the tent where the wounded were crammed and walked through the desolate wilderness.

The night breeze was chilly, cooling down the euphoria of the battle they had been in just a few hours before.

Once they were some distance away from the encampment, Jin stopped in his tracks.

There were many clouds in the sky and the moonlight was scarce. They had come out without lights, so the only source of light allowing them to see each other's faces was from the campfires burning at a distance.

"You said you had a way to end the war. Tell me."

As soon as they faced each other, Jin immediately broached.

The area was dark. The land was empty. From the vantage point, it would have been easy to see from the camp that Jin and Grimwood were together. But at the same time, the clear view made it obvious that there was no one nearby.

Indeed, there was no one nearby.

Grimwood propped up his wounded body with the great axe that had taken the place of his staff, and grinned at him from a distance suitable for their secret talk.

“Are you ready to believe me now?"

"I don't believe it. But if it will end this war, I will cooperate."

“Even at a time like this, you're this weirdly composed."

The reason Jin doesn't say he trusts him is because there are things in his mind that take precedence over that. Ending the war. Whether that will come true with the card that Grimwood has. Grimwood understands that this is the most important thing for him right now.

In the same way, it was important to Grimwood whether or not Jin would cooperate with him, so he trusted in Jin’s cooperation, even if he said he didn’t believe him.

"I've told you before that there is “someone” behind the Ikaruga Civil War who wants to prolong it.”

"Yes. The war is being dragged out for the purpose by these 'someones', right?”

That's the reason why he and Karenjina joined this war in the first place. There is something wrong with this war, it is distorted. There was someone somewhere controlling the war. He couldn’t help but feel that way himself after hearing about that thing. That thing... The specific reason lies in the relationship between Tenjō and the Imperator, but before that, as a mercenary who has spent a long time on the battlefield, Grimwood couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.

This became more apparent the more as he got involved.

Irrational operations, opaque organizational structure and incomprehensible instructions. The development of the war was so amateurish that it was hard to believe that it was the work of a huge organization trying to win the war, the greatest authority in the world no less.

“In the end, we still don't know who's behind all this, but I was able to find out a little bit about its purpose, the purpose of the Second War of Ars Magus... Jin. Have you ever heard of a weapon that can stop the activity of seithr?"

At Grimwood's question, Jin's eyes sharpened.

“I've never heard of it. I don't even think... such a thing can exist."

Since the Dark War a hundred years ago, the world has been flooded with a large amount of seithr. It has become a matter of course to have it.

It is for this reason that the use of seithr has developed and taken root as Ars Magus. Even many transportation systems use seithr, as represented by Ars Magus Vessels. It is not only used in warfare, but is now deeply involved in the daily lives of ordinary people.

"If it existed, it would be a tremendous. It would be able to stop everything in the world, even a war.”

One huge button that could stop the whole functionality of this world. Something worth to fight wars over in some peoples eyes.

Grimwood nodded his head in agreement. If it connects to the acquisition of the weapon in question, it is a reason to continue the civil war that divides humanity.

“You think that's the reason of this 'someone'?”

“Very likely."

When Jin asked sharply, Grimwood replied firmly.

There is no proof that the weapon that stops seithr is the objective of these people. But in his own way, Grimwood seemed to be confident in his assumption. And the most important thing is not whether or not the weapon to stop seithr is a so-called third party objective. The fact that it might exist is what is important.

“If there is a weapon and it's for 'someone' elses purposes, we can't let that person get what they want, no matter what. They are still trying to get it in a civil war that is in such a horrible state. I don't think it will be used for any good purpose.”

What could be more horrible than a war? Grimwood tightened his grip on the handle of the axe that supported his body.

"Then... The one who uses it will be you? Grimwood?"

Jin asked, looking at him carefully.

If they could use a weapon that can stop the activity of seithr, they could stop the war right away. Small weapons, large weapons, Ars Magus that greatly affects these battles, they cannot be used anymore if seithr is gone. Even the vehicles used to move around the battlefield would not work. It becomes physically impossible to wage war.

But that means that the world will be under the control of one persons decision. If Grimwood uses it, then at that moment, Grimwood has taken control of the world.

Is that really stopping the war?

Jin's suspicion went straight to Grimwood.

He shook his stout head in denial.

“It's too much for me to handle. I can't use it. I don't even know how to use it."

“Though, if there was a polite explanation attached, I might think about it a little.” Grimwood smiled as he added that.

Jin couldn't help but gasp along with him. It didn't seem like Grimwood was the type of guy who would read the manual and learn how to use it.

With a single blink of an eye, Grimwood's expression changed to one of sincerity and he assured Jin in his typical unflappable voice.

“I'm going to destroy it when I find it. If someone wants to use the Ikaruga civil war to get their hands on it, then the weapon itself should be gone. Isn't that right?"

“That's a wild theory, but not that wrong.”

And in typical Grimwood fashion, Jin shrugged his shoulders at his logic.

No matter how long you prolong the war, if the objective does not exist, it is meaningless.

“And if there is a weapon that can stop seithr, even if this civil war is over, another one will start and there would be many more over that weapon. We have to avoid that.”

“...I agree."

Jin pulled his chin once toward Grimwood's serious face.

In fact, Jin was more concerned about that than about anyones "purpose."

If a device capable of influencing the activities of seithr were to fall into the hands of any individual, the order of the world would be turned upside down in no time.

Jin held out the Yukianesa he carried to Grimwood to show him.

“If you find it, I'll destroy it.”

Grimwood laughed, his eyes flashing.

“Actually, that's what I was hoping for when I approached you. It must be a huge weapon to stop seithr and I don't think it can be destroyed by a little bit of effort.”

In this regard, he trusted the Nox Nyctores, the Causality Weapon that had a run-in with the Black Beast. In fact, what else can it be destroyed with?

"So it's not me, it's the Nox Nyctores that's of use."

Jin carved a smile on the corner of his mouth even as he used the word self-mockingly.

Now it was Grimwood's turn to relax his cheek.

“That's not all. Rather... The next thing I want your help with is the main issue."

“What is it?"

When Jin tilted his head, Grimwood twisted his head to look behind him. He could see the lights from the torches and bonfires that had been lit. There were still many soldiers moving back and forth, looking busy. There were more than twice as many injured people moaning in the tents.

What Grimwood saw was a tent where the 9th squad was helping to treat the wounded.

"You remember the other day in the basement, don't you? That thing with the Necromancer."

“Yeah.”

“I want you to work with Karenjina to locate it, just as you did then."

It goes without saying what kind of place it is. This is the location of the "weapon that stops the activity of seithr".

“...Is it around this area?"

There was still no sign of anyone around, but Jin couldn't help but lower his voice even lower.

Grimwood growled crisply.

“I've done some research and I think I know where it is, but I don't know the exact location. Even with Karenjina's ability, I couldn't pinpoint it."

So, just as Jin helped Karenjina find the Necromancer that she couldn't identify that night in the basement, now it's time to find out where the weapon was.

He understood what he was saying, but at the same time he had his doubts.

Where did he get the information about the weapon and its location in the first place? Doesn't he know too much information for a simple mercenary?

At this rate, he might still have a story hidden away that Jin has never heard of.

(Does he have any special connections to the Librarium or to the executives of the Ikaruga Federation? Where is this guy chained to?)

A reliable squad leader wielding a large axe. Jin couldn’t help but feel a disturbing shadow over this man that can't be contained in such a position.

He still couldn’t trust him.

(No. I didn't trust him in the first place.)

A thought popped into Jin's mind, as if to excuse himself. He was not trying to work with Grimwood because he trusted him, but because his arguments spoke to his own interests.

But there was something that was bothering him, because he was unhappy that Grimwood hadn't revealed everything to him, so that he wouldn't have the option of not trusting him.

(Maybe it's that I want to trust...)

He didn’t even know how to do that. He was too inexperienced. Maybe he was a little taken aback by the trusting relationship between Grimwood and Karenjina and her fellow mercenaries, as if logic doesn't matter.

"...Okay. Let me help you."

“Thank you. I am relying on you.”

"But remember. If you ever try to get on the side that disrupts the order of this world, I will cut you down without mercy."

Even if that process stops the war, it must be stopped if it results in a disruption of order. This was not a sense of justice or morality, but an instinctive feeling engraved in Jin. A higher "power" obligating him to restore "order" for the world. If it disturbs the world, it will be eliminated. No exceptions.

Grimwood looked back into Jin's sharp, glaring eyes and saw a contrastingly calm color in them.

"All right, then. When it looks like that to you, don’t hesitate."

And then, with a hand that formed the shape of a hand knife, he made a gesture as if to cut his own neck. There was no alertness here.

That was a little less interesting to Jin. The more Grimwood trusted him, the more he felt a kind of innate difference between himself and him.

“...For now, you don’t seem to be 'evil'."

This was the extent of trust that Jin could show to Grimwood now.

When he focuses his attention, Jin can see. It's a black thread that leads to "evil" that disturbs the order of the world.

But it's fun around Grimwood and his squadron.

He couldn't fully trust this Grimwood fellow, so Jin decided to trust in his own abilities, which only he could understand and which were too sensual to share with others.

"Well, now that that's settled, let's get moving. When do we leave?"

Grimwood raised the body that had been supported by the ax. Looking at the white bandage wrapped around his tight chest, Jin thought for a few seconds.

“How's your wound?"

“It's no big deal."

The reply was immediate. It seemed that Jin already knew what he wanted to do.

Then there will be no need to hold back. Jin told him as he started to walk away.

“Right then."

“Roger that," came a low, gruff voice from the man walking right next to Jin.

Part 2

Upon returning to the camp, Grimwood gathered Karenjina and the three soldiers.

The location was on the outskirts of the encampment.

The first aid for the injured was finally completed, but the real medical care has yet to come. There might have been injured people or stragglers from other units still rolling in. In the midst of the confusion of information leaks, each of them had to do what they could now. Under such circumstances, no one cared if a few soldiers gathered in a corner and talked in private.

Briefly, he explained to Karenjina and the others the story of their trip out to the wilderness just a short while ago.

When she was told they were leaving right now, Karenjina hung her eyes and grabbed Jin by the chest.

"Are you insane!? Grimwood has just been treated for his injuries and just look at all this chaos here! Are we supposed to just walk out of here!?"

Karenjina looked back at the base and spread her arms, asking Jin to look at the situation.

From a distance, the state of the base could be objectively viewed.

They looked like they were able absent, not wishing to be here and just confused. No one even looked back when Karenjina shouted. Everyone had their hands full with themselves and their surroundings. Jin reaffirmed the correctness of his decision and pulled away from Karenjina’s hand.

“Because of this distortion in order, we have to.”

"What?"

Karenjina’s indignation was against the act of abandoning her friends even if they were fighting within the same framework of the Librarium.

She took the initiative in the tent to give first aid to the injured, as she had some experience in this area. There must have been many badly injured people that she could not help but to feel sorry for.

"But now is not the time to let cheap sympathy and camaraderie drag us down." Jin spoke with calm, emotionless eyes as he looked at Karenjina and the soldiers.

“It's about a two-hour walk from here to the place Grimwood is trying to find. It would be too conspicuous as an extra-operational activity if we headed there after things had settled down. Now it's the perfect opportunity to go off on our own without attracting suspicion."

Karenjina's lips tightened. Her fist that she clenched as she lashed out was unraveled

Jin continued.

“Furthermore, this area has just finished a large-scale battle. There are no extra civilians wandering around, liners have been temporarily suspended and civilian facilities, if any, have been closed. In addition, the amount of seithr consumed is far greater than normal.”

This was after a large number of weapons and Ars Magus had been used. Seithr drifts in from everywhere, but it does not recover instantly. If it is consumed locally in a short period of time, the amount of seithr in the air will temporarily drop to a certain level, making the use of Ars weaken if even impossible. That was now.

"I see... Less noise you mean, huh..."

Karenjina voiced her admiration bitterly.

Karenjina’s Seagull Drive probes her surroundings all at once. The more targets she investigates, the more confusing and ineffective the information will be, just as it was when she was underground with the dead.

But now, she should be able to find what they were looking for in a much clearer and a more orderly state than usual.

It's now or never. In fact, now was the best time.

Jin's words gave Karenjina and the others an immediate sense of resolve.

“All right. Let's go."

Karenjina said, and the other soldiers nodded.

Packing the bare minimum, Jin and the others quickly slipped out of the small encampment and ran through the uneven wilderness, skirting the shadows of the rocks.

Honoka was left behind on purpose. They didn’t even explain to him that they were slipping out.

It all started when Grimwood told them that he could not be trusted. Karenjina and the others have been working with Grimwood for a long time now and they were fighting with the same goal of ending the civil war.

But Honoka was different. He was a guard assigned by the Librarium to serve as Jin's caretaker and monitor. If anyone was going to leak information about Grimwood and the others selfish actions to the NOL, it would be Honoka first and foremost. Honoka was in a position where the Librarium should take precedence over mercenaries, Jin and squad members. He didn't trust him and he didn’t think it was in their best interest for him to be drawn into this.

Jin agreed with that decision.

Jin, more than Grimwood, had a hard time trusting Honoka.

On the way, he ran and hurried to reach his destination in the shortest possible distance while letting Karenjina use her "Seagull" to grasp the terrain.

It was about an hour and a half after leaving the encampment when Grimwood stopped and said that it was around that area.

The landscape had changed from a wilderness to a mountainous area. Although one might say, the land has probably turned barren. The trees were thin and weak, and vegetation was scarce. The ground seemed to be rocky, with complex silhouettes forming here and there from the rocks jutting out from the earths surface.

Upon finding a place as open and flat as possible, Karenjina put her hands on the ground.

"The range is quite large. It's a bit overwhelming, but..."

Standing a little further away, Grimwood looks apologetic.

Karenjina looked up and shook her head so loudly that her gathered hair swung from side to side.

“This is my job. Let me do it. I'll use all my strength."

“Take it easy. The less seithr you have, the less noise you'll make, but the heavier your burden will be. Worst-case scenario..."

“I know."

Crisply, Karenjina interrupted Grimwood's words.

In order to activate the drive, seithr is consumed as energy. However, if the output is greater than the amount of seithr that can be consumed, it is the soul of the practitioner that will be used up as an energy source.

Worst case scenario, you die.

“Jin."

With her hands still on the ground, Karenjina now was looking up at Jin. Instead of replying, Jin's eyebrows moved slightly.

Deep, profound eyes that had the color of the night sky stared straight into Jin's green eyes with the purity of a wild beast.

“I don’t like you.”

"...I know."

“But..."

A grin. The fleshy lips carved a challenging smile and disappeared.

“I trust you.”

Jin was bewildered and at a loss for words when he was told.

Trust. That again. He was getting fed up. Anger swelled inside. Grimwood, Karenjina and the others were quick to look at him that way.

Ignoring Jin's furrowed brow, Karenjina took a deep breath, focused and lowered her eyelids.

“...Let’s begin”

She strongly put it into words. The next moment a dull gold light emerged from her hand, and the light spread out in an intricate pattern.

The scale was different from what she had viewed in the basement of the research facility of Sector Seven. The light spread out and traced the surface of the earth at 360 degrees.

“...Ku”

A muffled groan escaped from Karenjina's throat. Her brown forehead was sweating profusely. The small amount of seithr was quickly consumed. Even so, Karenjina expanded her range.

Not yet. She still couldn't find it. Karenjina shouted as she continued to expand her range.

“Jin, do it!"

Without pausing, Jin stood behind Karenjina and pressed his palm against her back. His senses sharpened as he followed Karenjina's concentration.

When he closed his eyes, he could see the dull gold light emitted by Karenjina spreading out all around him. Jin searched, in the light that spread so finely and traced the terrain

Black... A black line.

They were easy to see. Rather, there were too many of them. Countless black lines running in Karenjina’s lights.

They were all stretched straight toward a point.

(What the heck is this...?)

He had never seen a line like this before. Most of the time, lines were more or less irregular, wavy and curved. However, the lines that he saw now were all straight, undisturbed and without hesitation, as if they were drawn by a machine, converging on a single point.

Jin followed Karenjina's consciousness further to the end of the black lines.

The distance was about ten kilometers from here.

(Where is... What is this line? Where are you gathering...)

He wanted to know where the line led to. As he desperately traced the line, he suddenly felt a shock as if he had been pushed from the inside and Jin collapsed on the spot.

"Uhh!"

It was such an unexpected shock that he fell to the hard ground without even taking any precautions. He let out a distracted and pathetic voice. A terrible headache followed. It was as if his brain was being pushed open from the inside. At the same time, a wave of nausea rushed through his internal organs, and Jin quickly clamped his mouth shut.

At the feet of the fallen Jin, Karenjina had collapsed. Unlike Jin, she was already unconscious and was convulsing violently.

“Karenjina!”

Grimwood rushed over and held her, but there was no response. The spasms only became somewhat more mild.

One of the soldiers took her pulse. From the look of relief on his face, it seemed that her pulse was fine. The blood from her nose slid down her cheek and stained it.

"...Are you okay?"

Swallowing down the nausea and holding his head against the terrible headache, Jin sat up.

Karenjina must have been under a load many times greater than the one he had been under. Even so, she did not stop the Drive until the limit. If her survival instinct hadn't refused to continue, she might have used it until she really died.

"She's just unconscious, but breathing fine."

One of the soldiers spoke up and Grimwood finally felt relieved as he laid the small body he was carrying on the ground. His brown fingertips, not even slightly relaxed, rubbed the soil and drew short lines.

“Did you find it?”

Grimwood asked Jin in a low voice.

Jin stared into the distance to the west. He remembered clearly where the lines had gathered.

"Yeah."

“Really?”

Without answering Grimwood, who leaned forward to ask, Jin stood up unsteadily.

His gaze remained fixed on the west, where the line had run.

“That’s.... What the-?”

When he remembered it with his limp brain, a tar-like fear crept up from his feet to his head. His body naturally cowered and trembled.

He has never felt this way about these lines before. Was this fear? Or was it something else?

His head was numb and he couldn’t think straight.

It was not coherent, but that invasive discomfort at the end of the line that seemed to absorb all evil was stuck to the back of his skull and won't come off.

Jin shook his head, trying his best to push that tremendously disgusting image to the edge of his consciousness so that it would not interfere with his minimal thinking.

“Th-There's something about ten kilometers west of here. It was very different, disgusting to be exact. Never was there nothing else that looked like this, so it was probably there."

"Ten kilometers... So far, huh."

With a sigh of surprise, Grimwood looked down at Karenjina.

The range of Karenjina's "Seagull" is usually limited to a radius of about one kilometer. If it reached ten kilometers away, that means she has searched a hundred times the usual area at once. With a sly grimace, Grimwood moved Karenjina into the shade of a nearby rocky outcrop. Here, the jutting rocks and the short trees that nestled against them would conceal her from a distance.

That would mean the choice to leave her here.

“Are you sure?"

"It's not like there were any enemy soldiers hiding in the vicinity, judging from using the Seagull earlier. But even so, leaving a woman alone in the middle of nowhere like this was a moralists unnecessary sense of ethics poking at something as trivial as the conscience."

Grimwood replied to Jin's question as he backed away from Karenjina.

"I wasn't planning on taking her with me originally. If it weren't for Seagull, I wouldn't have told her about this either."

With that, he turned away.

“I see." was all Jin said as he stepped out in front of Grimwood. Now that Karenjina had fainted, Jin was the only one who could see their destination.

(Ten kilometers west...)

That's where the black line ended. Was it the weapon that Grimwood was talking about to stop seithr, or was it something more sinister than that?

Still having that uncomfortable feeling inside his head, Jin ran down the slope where the earth was exposed.

The night had been quiet, but now there the wind blew strong.

It wasn't a dark night anymore. The moon must have risen very high.

The clouds that had covered the sky thickly were being swept away by the strengthening wind. The navy of the deep night resembled the color of the eyes of a female soldier, cowering in the shade of a rock.

The wind rustled the thin branches of the short, overgrown trees.

Karenjina, still unconscious, had not opened her eyes. Her limp, weak body laid on the dry ground, her cheeks motionless, her hair curling in a peculiar way.

Beside her, there was a foot.

It was a corner of the wilderness where a war was going on nearby. And yet, a pair of brown leather shoes with not a speck of dirt on them was right next to the fallen and sleeping Karenjina.

“Oh dear, you were left behind.”

The owner of the foot spoke to her with theatrical sympathy.

Karenjina couldn’t hear him.

The owner of the leather shoes bent his tall, slender body into an exaggerated peek at the face of the woman who was not speaking.

The clouds were peeled away and the moon appeared, illuminating the earth with its cold moon white color.

“Oh, I feel sorry for you."

Brown leather shoes, a black suit, and a black hat. The green-haired man grinned in a sadistic manner.

Part 3

The clouds that had covered the sky had gone away and the white moonlight was faintly illuminating the ground.

Before they knew it, the reddish-brown soil under their feet had changed into a grayish pebbly soil.

He walked down the gentle slope, then up, then down again. After repeating this process several times, Jin stopped for the first time in a while at the destination he had reached.

“This is it.”

Grimwood stepped forward from behind Jin. One of the soldiers illuminated it with a light from his equipment.

As Jin and Grimwood looked at each other, they saw a cave in the rocky wall, a mixture of rock and earth. It was not a natural cave. The entrance was chained, and the dark passage was reinforced with wood.

“It has the air of a mine... Do you think it’s a coal mine?"

The soldier with the light said and another soldier gave him a difficult look.

“Coal mines, who uses coal nowadays?”

“Who knows?”

“No, it doesn't look like a coal mine."

It was Jin who said this to the soldiers who were tilting their heads. He walked up to the entrance of the cave and picked up a small, black ore lying there.

Only about the size of a thumbnail. It had a tough texture and was much lighter than it looked. When he put pressure on his fingertips, it cracked and crumbled like dry clay.

A blue light flashed momentarily on the small section. Jin raised an eyebrow slightly.

“It's the same as the crystallized seithr that the Titan used back then.”

The rock giant that ran amok in the forest when Jin first went out with the 9th squad. Come to think of it, they still didn't know who on either side of the camp had summoned that Titan.

“It was probably made here."

Grimwood muttered bitterly as he stared into the cave.

“Our enemies have ties to the Librarium, the Ikaruga Federation and even Sector Seven. Coming along with all their distributing weapons.”

He took out a light from his equipment and led the way, illuminating the area as he went.

(Again...)

The entrance to the not-so-narrow cave was filled with huge bodies, and as he followed Grimwood's back, Jin's mind dripped with disquiet. Grimwood said that it was not a prediction, but a fact that the "enemy" was distributing weapons in various directions. Perhaps it is true.

But then, where did he find out? How did a mercenary who was running around the battlefield day in and day out know so much? Grimwood was the one who connected all the dots, wasn’t he?

(Oh well. If he's an “enemy”... Then I'll cut him down.)

Jin warned himself to not be too eager in trusting him as he leaned toward the man walking in front of him as the captain. When the time comes, he won’t let his cutting edge wander.

The cave soon turned into a long staircase. The stairs seemed to go on and on, downward with no end in sight.

"Hmm......"

After more than ten minutes of descent, Grimwood stopped and groaned quizzically.

It was a dead end. There was a landing slightly wider than the width of the stairs and the landing was cut off by a flat wall of earth.

But something didn't feel right.

“Grimwood, step aside.”

Pushing his body forward, Jin slowly pushed the tip of his Yukianesa against the earthen wall. The tip of the scabbard touched the wall and then dug in. The space was filled with ripples that can described as plunges into water, shaking the view of the earth wall.

He dug his sheath further into the ground and eventually buried himself in the earthen wall.

Then the view Jin looked at changed. The stairs, which had been a dead end, turned into a passageway and continued onward.

“Camouflage Ars Magus.”

When Jin said it out loud, it seemed to convey the understanding to the rest of the group. After Jin slipped through the wall and entered the back, Grimwood and the others followed him inside.

He wondered if the air had changed a little. It was hotter and more humid than before.

He had the chilling feeling that he had entered the body of a reptile. It was not a good feeling.

“Stay sharp.”

Muttering quietly, Grimwood turned off the light. Following suit, the soldiers who had their lights on also turned them off. 　 Then it was pitch black, he couldn't see a thing around him, not even the faintest bit.

It was not so easy to stand out in the dark with lights on. Now that they had passed through the camouflage Ars Magus, they should consider this to be enemy territory. Jin also pulled himself together and moved forward, keeping an eye on his surroundings.

As long as they were careful, the darkness was not a problem if they just wanted to keep going. They put their hands on the wall and walked forward, using each other's breathing as a guide to the distance.

“It's going downhill...”

One of the soldiers behind them said. The road was indeed gently descending.

After descending so many stairs, were they still going down? Growing more cautious with each step, Jin carefully pumped his saliva into his thirsty throat.

There was one more thing that grew on them as they went on. The smell.

It was a stinking smell that Jin, Grimwood and the other soldiers remembered. Rather, they were familiar with it for some time now

It was the smell of death. Naturally, they all remembered the incident with the ghouls in the basement. Come to think of it, the lift had gone down a long way that time too.

"Oh, light."

Jin, who was walking in the lead, took a small breath and sharpened his voice in alarm.

He saw a pale blue light down below. Once they reached the bottom of the hill, they arrived at the place where the light had been. It was a room with a domed ceiling. At least it was much larger than the two-connected tents of the ninth squad. The walls did not seem to be bare earth, unlike the passageways they had come through. The area was dark and the color and texture were visibly not clear, but it was seamless.

There was nothing that looked like lighting anywhere in the room. The blue light that Jin saw was actually water that was shallowly soaking the floor of the room.

There was water all over the floor, almost to the level of Jin's ankles. The water glistened with a blue light, illuminating the area around his feet.

When he stepped on it, it felt a little heavier than water. Still, it was not so heavy as to interfere with his walking.

“...Liquid seithr?”

As he said this, Grimwood walked past Jin, who stopped to look around, and dragged the sound of water to the center of the room.

The light was the same as the momentary glow of the section of mineral Jin picked up at the entrance. But he didn’t know where it was coming from.

“Captain, up there.”

One of the soldiers pointed at the ceiling. Jin looked up with Grimwood. The ceiling was inscribed with what looked like ancient letters, spreading out in a circle around the apex of the dome. In the center of the circle of letters was a coffin-like object.

“Jin, can you read?"

Grimwood asked, looking up at the letters with his eyes. Jin was also looking up at the strings of letters on the ceiling, looking for something to help him decipher them.

"No, I've never even seen them before..."

"Oh, yeah. Ancient ruins or something?"

Such is the look of the place. Giving up on deciphering the words on the ceiling, Grimwood turned his head around. He stopped his gaze at a point on the wall.

"This may be a hit"

As Grimwood said this, there was what looked like a door in the corner of his eye. The border of the wall, not found anywhere else, was made up of squares. There was more to it in the back.

Grimwood made his way to the door, making a sound of the water. He folded the handle of his great axe on his back so that he could remove it at any time and placed one hand on the handle of his back weapon.

The soldiers followed, guns ready. After some delay, Jin also started walking. But... Suddenly.

He could hear a voice.

— Niisama.

A young girls voice, stuttering. Jin could not immediately remember whose voice it was. But he knew it was a voice he should remember. It was a voice he had heard before.

At the same time, a feeling of discomfort like mud rose up in him.

He reflexively reached out and summoned Yukianesa, then turned around and positioned himself low.

“Jin, what's wrong?"

As he opened the door, Grimwood turned and asked. Without looking in his direction, Jin replied sharply.

“Go ahead.”

“But-."

On the verge of saying something, Grimwood bottomed out his words.

He felt a presence from somewhere. Something was there. It was an overwhelming and bizarre presence that grabbed up every instinctive fear in Grimwood. Even though he couldn't see it yet, his throat slumped and he heard the sound of air escaping.

The water at his feet, the walls and ceiling right there, and the empty space in front of him all seemed to be coming at him with mass and pressure, and he felt frightened. The fear of not knowing the reason or identity of such a thing led to more threads of fear that sewed Grimwood's spirit.

"Jin... This is..."

“Go! You're in the way."

He spat lowly. Grimwood understood what was unreasonable in that harsh but overwrought voice.

He pushed the soldiers, who were already hunched over and trying to escape to the next room, into the door and turned around.

“Finish up quickly!"

"I know, I know. I’ll catch up soon."

With Jin's reply, Grimwood and the nineth squadron left the room.

At that moment, the door slammed shut behind Grimwood with a sound like scratching metal.

With no time to interrupt anything, the doorway was blocked, and Grimwood and his soldiers held on to it, pulling and pushing with all their might, but it did not budge.

"Damn it!"

Unable to bear it, Grimwood slammed his fist against the door. The impact was oddly dull.

There was no sound from the other side of the door. Jin must have heard the door close, but he didn't see any reaction to it.

"What should we do, Captain...?"

One of the soldiers asked anxiously.

Beyond the door was another passage. It stretched without side passages into the unseen depths of darkness.

“...Jin said he would catch up. Let's just trust him now and move on."

If anything, at least a Nox Nyctores would be able to destroy this door.

He was very curious about the presence he had felt in that room, but there was nothing he could do standing here. Grimwood began to walk down the corridor with his men behind him.

Part 4

When the door was completely closed, the area was filled with silence. It was so quiet that the sound of his own breathing and heartbeat became noisy.

Jin stood in the shallow water and focused his attention. He was aware that he was separated from Grimwood and the others, but he didn't have time to focus on that right now.

— Kill.

An impulse whispered in his head.

— Kill. Kill. Kill. Slay. Murder. Slaughter.

Regardless of his intentions, the nauseating feeling of something that was not himself were penetrating Jin's nerves like cold water seeping in.

But no. This was not the voice he heard earlier.

It was not like the voice of Yukianesa, who always comes up with something to shake Jin's spirit and give him the will to kill in the hand that holds the sword.

Earlier, the voice that he heard was...

“.......Rugrurururugrururu...”

In place of the girls voice, which had sunk somewhere in his memory, he heard what sounded like the low roar of a beast. But at the same time, a voice with a strange undulation that would never be uttered by a beast approached from beyond the darkness where Jin was looking, beyond the blue glow of the liquid seithr.

Suddenly, the darkness moved. A shadow abruptly struggled as if it had a mass in the deep blackness and without a sound, a reddish-black line ran like a crack across its surface.

A pair of large eyes blinked at Jin.

And out of the darkness, it emerged.

A large head that seems to have developed only a jaw.

It crawled out of the darkness and fell to the surface. It didn't have a clear torso under its head, and it seemed to be dragging the darkness it had crawled out of.

It was as if only the neck had been forcibly pulled out of the torso and some of the flesh had been peeled off. The head was large and the top was higher than Jin's. Jin would be like a toy to that head. He could easily be swallowed whole.

But even so, Jin felt that the head was still on the small side of its kind. He didn't even know what kind of head this was, yet he was able to tell that.

Jin noticed that his breath was trembling. It was terrifying. The head that appeared in front of him. The very existence of it. The fact that it existed. His soul shriveled up in fright.

But a wave of murderous intent washed over it.

The urge to kill shook Jin.

His head was a mess. He wanted to escape, but he wanted to kill. He wanted to kill it even though he was afraid. He wanted to slash at it, cut off its jet-black flesh, bathe it in black blood and gouge out its red eyeballs.

Kill, Kill. Slay. Murder. Slaughter. Destroy.

"Argh! Shut up a already!"

The voice in his head was ranting and raving, and Jin resisted by biting his lips.

It was the voice of the Nox Nyctores, Mucro Algesco: Yukianesa that urged him to kill. It was Yukianesa's will. If he let his impulses take over and slashed upon the beast, Jin's consciousness would be easily swallowed and bend Yukianesa's will.

Whether looking at Jin or Yukianesa, the black head trembled as if it were rattling. The jaws, lined with huge black fangs, opened wide.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!"

It barked in a voice so loud that it gave the illusion of the earth shaking.

That was the signal to start the battle.

"Haaaaaaa!"

The water that had dissolved the seithr splashed up and Jin ran.

The urge crawling up his neck made Jin pull out his sword. The silvery white blade froze the air around him. As the cold air spread, a black feeling spread inside Jin.

“I'll kill you!”

Shouting unconsciously, Jin swung his sword sharply at the throat of the head.

The slash made a sound of wet flesh and cut off the heavy object.

But it was not the throat of a black beastly head, but one of the countless black tentacles protruding from an irregularly shaped body part extending from it.

The tentacle that flew through the air splashed up and fell behind the head. As it was, the tip of the tentacle melted into the water and disappeared. The rest of the tentacles attacked Jin at once. Some glided across the surface of the water, while others leapt up high and swung down like whips.

Jin responded to this with the blade of Yukianesa.

He flashed his blade to the left and right, cutting and discarding at random.

But no matter how many tentacles he slashed, the number did not decrease. In fact, the number seems to be increasing instead, and finally, one of the tentacles that he couldn't handle and missed, plunged deeply into Jin's abdomen in a horizontal cut.

"Fu...gu."

His lungs rumbled as he was forced to exhale. He was blown away with such force that he slammed into the wall behind him and fell into the shallow water.

"Ku... Cough!"

When he woke up, choking on the air he hadn't been able to inhale properly, countless tentacles were already closing in on him. He jumped sideways to avoid them and rolled in the water covered with seithr. As if chasing after him, the tentacles slammed into him one after another.

The flying droplets fell like rain.

Jin managed to pull himself up, shoveling his wet sticky hair into a muddled mess and raising his sword.

The sliced tentacles flew up again and fell into the water, melting and disappearing.

The tentacle that had been severed in the middle trembled finely and immediately regenerated from its cross section. The black whip that flew out came at Jin's face.

He almost evaded the powerful thrust, but the force of the graze sliced through Jin's ear and shoulder. The pain that raced through Jin's body disturbed his nerves. Something black was slowly rising from the bottom of his stomach.

He groaned and tried to swallow it, and when he looked up, he thought he saw a black head... laughing at him.

It ridiculed him.

Red eyes twisted, deeply cleft corners of mouth distorted, fangs lined up.

The inside of Jin rumbled.

"Ah...... Hah... Aah. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

— Kill, kill. Kill the beast. Kill that pitch, black “BEAST!”

His throat trembled, and an unbearable scream rose up. His lungs filled up. His throat collapsed and he stopped breathing. It was as if black water of murderous intent began to circulate through his body instead of his blood. It was as if he was being swallowed whole.

He became awre of so immediately.

But before he could resist, a black emotion rushed in and engulfed Jin from the inside.

"Come on, this isn't like you."

“...Huh?”

Jin's movements stopped as he was startled.

He wondered if I had finally lost his mind. If not, he might have been temporarily addicted to the seithr that soaked his feet.

A voice that shouldn't have been heard over any other voice, but it was so close.

A calm, low, gentle voice. Yet, because he spoke with a coarse inflection, his voice sometimes sounded intimidating and even scary.

The voice of his brother.

"Don't get so hot tempered, you idiot."

It was right behind him. Or maybe it was at his feet. Anyway, the voice of his brother, who had no form, spoke to him as if he was melting into the air around him.

With a single breath, it washed away Jin's spirit, which was coated with Yukianesa's murderous intent.

Like a receding wave, Jin's heart became lighter. The sludge-like heaviness recedes from his internal organs.

His vision stabilized and his breathing was normal.

"Huh... Hehehehe... Yeah, that's right. This is not like me."

Wiping his dirty mouth, Jin smiled thinly.

Jin Kisaragi is calm and collected. In his school days, he was so polite to everyone that he was well-liked and was even made student president.

If he could talk to his brother about such things, he wondered how he would look at him.

Would he be surprised? It would be nice if he was, but he was sure he didn't know much about the school system, so he would probably just ignore it, without much interest.

Whatever it was, his brother is gone.

Jin killed him.

Thinking of this, his disturbed mind was flattened and he felt terribly calm.

"My brother is dead, so there's no one left for me to kill."

There was no one left to kill that can scorch his soul and freeze his heart.

Jin straightened his back and sheathed "his" Yukianesa, eyeing the head of that black beast. His hands remained on the hilt and he sat back.

“I just want to get rid of you."

(To go to the back of this room. To catch up with my friends who went ahead of me. I can't just sit around and wait forever.)

The beasts head roared and another wave of tentacles attacked Jin.

One by one, Jin slashed them away, dodging those that don't make it in time.

There was already no killing intent or fear. His cool green eyes calmly read the movement of the beast's attack. The trajectory was not complicated. He could dodge it if he calmed down. He didn’t have to focus on one thing, just look at the whole picture and slash as necessary.

The tentacles sliced off by Yukianesa fall off and disappear again.

At that moment, Jin noticed that the surface of the liquid seithr had taken on a blue glow. As if to absorb the light, a section of the beasts tentacles lit up and new tentacles regenerated from it.

In short, it sucked up the seithr in the water and used them to rebuild new parts of its body. In other words, the neck itself does not store an inexhaustible supply of seithr.

“...I see, that's how it works."

That small realization gave him a number of ideas on how to deal with it. So, he jumped backward to dodge the tentacles that came at him from above and below, as if they were trying to bite him and as he landed, he thrust Yukianesa to the floor.

At that moment, the water that had spread across the floor of the room, starting with Yukianesa, froze.

The black head reacted as if in agitation. Both he and his tentacles were half-buried in the ice, unable to move. Even so, a few of the tentacles flailed about, shattering the ice and lifting it up, but before they could swing down, Jin's ice blade struck through every last one of them.

The shredded tentacles fell and bounced on Jin’s ice. They didn’t soak up the seithr dissolved in the water and regenerate.

Perhaps sensing its inferiority, the beasts head roared.

As he shook his neck alone, countless cracks appeared in the ice. Without a pause, he jumped up as if to raise himself up, and his neck escaped the ice.

It went straight for Jin.

With that in mind, Jin swung his sword.

A blue-white light ran. Countless ice blades stuck out from below and pierced the flying black neck. The ice that spread out from there covered the neck, turning it into a lump of ice.

“Shatter...”

The flash that Jin released shattered it into pieces.

The cool, sharp sound of shattered glass work littered the area. The ice fell onto the still frozen floor and shattered again, eventually leaving no trace.

Jin puts his sword in its sheath and looked down at Yukianesa.

That murderous voice was no longer heard. It was quiet as if it were just a plain sword. The black head has been taken care of.

“You've taken up a lot of time...”

He wondered if Grimwood and the others have already reached the back. He said he would be right behind them, but it would be bad manners to keep them waiting and worrying too much. Jin turned his back on the frozen room and stepped towards the door leading to the back to follow Grimwood and the others.

Part 5

The pathway leading to the back of the building seemed to curve as they walked along the wall. A soldier walking right behind Grimwood, who was hurrying ahead without turning on the lights to avoid being spotted by the enemy, called out to him in concern.

"Lieutenant Kisaragi is all right, isn’t he?"

They couldn’t imagine what was going on behind the closed doors.

But just before the door closed, Jin noticed something and braced himself, which made the soldiers feel uneasy inside.

Grimwood replied calmly, without breaking stride.

"He'll be fine. He's the man chosen by the Nox Nyctores. In fact, it would be more dangerous for me not to be with Jin."

“I know, right?”

No matter what happens, Jin will get through it. Everyone, including Grimwood, had absolute faith in his abilities.

Rather than that, one person behind him said in a muffled voice.

“Hah.”

That was all Grimwood said.

He was worried about Jin, but he was more worried about the smell that was getting worse as he went deeper. The dense stench of death was almost nauseating. What could be in the back? He didn’t want to see another pile of corpses like the last time, Grimwood thought to himself.

Eventually, the passage was cut off and a gaping hole opened up at the end of it.

It was bright on the other side. A flaming orange light leaked out and illuminated the end of the passage.

They heard some kind of mechanical noise.

Cautiously and distractedly, Grimwood peered inside.

Then his eyes widened at what he saw.

“What is this...?"

He wandered into the room as if he were being sucked in.

It was a large room. The ceiling was domed and in the middle of it was a large......

“Gahh!”

“Wha-!?”

Suddenly there was a sound like the simultaneous crushing of air and a puddle of blood and Grimwood turned around.

The soldier next to him took a few steps back and let out a cramped scream.

A white arm protruded from the abdomen of the subordinate soldier who was right next to the entrance. Looking down at it, the subordinate soldier spat out a large amount of blood from his mouth.

“Cap...tain...”

“Owl!”

His subordinate looked up at him with eyes that didn't understand what was happening. Grimwood, in a scream, called out to his subordinates.

Grimwood stretched out his arms, not knowing what that is for.

However, before his hand could touch the body of his subordinate, it was thrown away without a second thought by a thin white arm protruding from his abdomen.

Owl’s body fell to the floor, drawing a band of blood.

Grimwood, who followed him with his eyes in dismay, was approached from the place where his men had been standing until a moment ago.

"You bitch... What are you doing here?"

It was a woman's voice that spoke with a smile of cold ridiculing mockery.

Grimwood turned around at the sound of the voice. It was an unbelievable sight, but it was real. Unmistakably she was-.

"You bastarrrrrd!"

With a grisly bark, Grimwood unfolded his battle axe and swung it wide.

The hem of a soft, white robe swept across his vision.

At the scream he heard, Jin was running in the dark.

The door that had separated him from Grimwood and the others opened straightforwardly with a flash of Yukianesa.

The passage ahead was dark and seemed to curve gently. Even without lights, it was not too difficult to follow the wall.

He was going along, paying attention to his surroundings, when he heard it.

He kicked the ground and ran down the long, narrow passageway as fast as he could. The dark walls echoed Jin's ragged breathing eerily.

Over there, behind here. The scream he heard belonged to the soldier who was with Grimwood, Owl. After a beat, he also heard Grimwood's angry voice, like the roar of a beast.

Something happend, else the calm Captain wouldn't have screamed like that. His heart was beating like a fast-ringing bell, alerting him continuously. He had a bad feeling about this. The blood in his body was rushing noisily. Seeing a flame-colored light at the end of the passageway, Jin abandoned his caution and jumped in.

It was an unexpectedly large room and Jin reflexively stopped in his tracks.

It was a circular room just like the previous one, with a domed ceiling as well. This structure also reminded Jin of that corpse-strewn underground facility of some time ago, but this one was much larger than that one. It was big and horrifying.

The room was filled with the stench of death, but no corpses were piled up this time.

Instead... Jin found them in a corner of the room.

Three corpses rolled around in a messy manner as if they were broken dolls.

One had a large hole in his abdomen. The other two had been torn to shreds all over their bodies. They were Grimwood's men who had been with him earlier.

“What happened...?"

It wasn't long before Jin rushed to the scene after hearing the scream. And yet.

He felt bad. It was a very unpleasant feeling. While enduring the discomfort that tugged at the back of his head, Jin looked around the room again, feeling slightly dizzy.

There was something bizarre about it.

A coffin.

A coffin-like box with some kind of writing on the surface hung in the middle of the room. Numerous pipes from the ceiling, walls and floor connected to it. It looked like a device of some kind. At the same time, he remembered the letters carved on the ceiling of the room before and the symbol of a coffin.

Below the floating coffin, there was a large hole in a circle. If the chain that hung the coffin were to break, it would easily fall into the hole. The hole was wide enough to do so, but narrow enough to cover the entire floor.

From within it. An orange light was flooding the room. It was similar to the color of a flame, it illuminated the room so brightly that he could see the whole room.

On closer inspection, the hole seemed to be boiling with a flame-colored sludge swirling inside.

It was like a "cauldron" filled with lava.

But he didn't feel any heat. In fact, the air was chilly. It was sticky and cold, like a corpse.

The sound of something hard hitting the ground came from the wall. He quickly braced himself and turned around, but as he looked back, a part of the wall slid out from under him.

It stretched out in a straight line until it reached the side of that lava-filled hole in the middle of the room, and then stopped. After that, a cheap driving sound started. 　 Jin ran up to it.

When he looked closely, he saw that the wall that extended to the side of the hole was like a conveyor belt. On the other side of the wall, he heard the sound of some heavy objects being dropped. The conveyor belt started to carry them away.

Jin froze in place in astonishment as the packages arrived in the room illuminated by the flaming light.

Unconsciously, his eyes widened and his mouth opened thinly, losing strength.

They were human beings that were brought to him. They were also ...... corpses. Some were wearing the clothes of soldiers of the Librarium, and others wearing the uniform of the Ikaruga Federation. He couldn’t tell which one they belonged to, but they were wounded bodies with bandages wrapped around them.

One after another, the corpses flowed in and were thrown straight into that hole.

It was as if they were stoking coal.

Suddenly, Jin's vision caught sight of a familiar figure. It was the corpse of a young man still wearing the uniform of the Librarium. His chest was stained black with blood that must have been his own. The face of a student soldier with a twitching expression and downcast eyelids that were the same as that of that student soldier who Jin took care of at the encampment and said he was a junior at the academy.

He flowed forward on the belt and eventually he too was thrown into the cauldron of heatless flame.

Immediately after that, the pipe above Jin's head made a muddy gurgling sound and swished. It was as if something was being fed into it. The end of that pipe was that coffin.

The idea itself was horrifying, but the device looked as if the corpses had been boiled in a cauldron and sucked up, then poured into the coffin.

A chill crept up the inside of Jin's spine.

He felt a different and more horrible fear than the one he felt when he confronted the black head earlier.

The smell of death lingered in the air unpleasantly.

And this crawling fear was much like the unpleasantness of the smell of death.

"Hmm? You're... Jin Kisaragi?"

Suddenly, he heard a voice. This time it wasn't an auditory hallucination. It was a human voice.

With minimal movement, Jin turned toward the voice.

He was so distracted by the large coffin and equipment that he didn't notice that there was a small figure on the other side of the cauldron. He couldn't see the details of the figure clearly because the light of the cauldron flame shining from below was too close. But he recognized her immediately by her voice and her clothes, which were too conspicuous for someone who belonged to the Librarium.

"You are... of the 'Zeroth Squadron'."

Meifang Lapislazuli. She was the commander of the Zeroth Squadron, whom he passed by at the Librarium branch in Yabiko.

The challenging clothes that deliberately expose her body lines. The fact that she exposes her true face without a mask. The unpleasant and conceited gaze, and the cruel smile. It's the same as that time.

Jin's heart thudded and trembled. The Yukianesa in his hand pulsated.

— Kill.

It whispered to him again. That she was a dangerous "enemy" and an "evil" that should be killed. A murderous intent lightened up in Jin.

(You're noisy... Shut up!)

For a moment, his mind went blank and he grabbed Yukianesa tightly as if to scold it, clenching his teeth to cement his stance. He resisted the urge to run and slash at Meifang.

But maybe that was a bad idea after all.

"Wha......"

When he regained his blurred consciousness, Jin was surrounded by white robed figures. Everyone of these figures wears a white mask over their face and a hood that covers eyes. The Zeroth Squadron. The "Garbage Disposal" squad. It is responsible for disposing of traitors who betray the Librarium in their own ranks.

Jin glanced around at all the white-robed people surrounding him, then glared sharply at Meifang.

"Why are you here? What have you done to them?"

He asked in a low, hostile tone. By them, of course, he meant Grimwood's men who were lying at the entrance of the room.

No one had passed them in that narrow passage before Jin came to this room. If a suspicious person had gotten to them, Meifang and the men of the Zeroth Squadron would not have let them escape.

The ones who killed them are the ones from the Zeroth Squadron here. No, it was definitely Meifang. Her white arms and the white robe she wore were covered with the red of blood.

"'What do you think you're doing?' That's my line. You 'renegades'."

Licking her blood-red fingertips, Meifang looked at Jin with emotionless, glass-ball eyes.

Jin clenched his teeth tightly.

It's true that they ignored orders and left the camp on their own. Acting on your own is a serious breach of discipline. Especially in an emergency situation like the current one, it is a serious crime.

But is it even possible to be called a traitor? Is it so bad to call for an end to the war as soon as possible so that no more unnecessary casualties will occur? It's absurd, Jin's stomach churned as he wondered if this was what an orderly world should look like.

But what Meifang continued to say was not exactly what Jin had assumed.

“This is a sacred place created for the "Imperator" of the Librarium... You were not only satisfied with trespassing, but you are also trying to sell it over to Sector Seven of all things. This is outrageous."

“Sector Seven?”

Why has that name come up? When Jin raised his eyebrows and asked incomprehensibly, Meifang licked off her fingertips and put her blood-soaked hand on his white cheek.

"Why didn't you know? Fufufu, was the man who could be the next head of the Kisaragi family used for such a puny mercenary?"

As she said this, she shook her loosely bundled hair and looked down at her feet. Underneath her high heeled boots, there was some kind of raised lump lying around. Grabbing it carelessly, Meifang lifted it with one thin arm.

"Uuu..."

The lump hanging lazily from the floor groaned. Jin was blinded by the sight. The one where Meifang grabbed a person by the neck and held him in midair.

"Grimwood!"

With an almost shouting voice, Jin called out the name.

His well-trained body, strong shoulders, sturdy arms and legs had no strength, and he was left hanging slackly. His whole body was wet with blood. His axe was also lying on the floor, smashed and broken. There was a muffled sound and blood bubbled in Grimwood's mouth as he was forced to look up. His ash gray mustache was stained with a sticky red liquid.

"You...!"

Jin braced himself with indignation.

Grimwood was quite strong. The soldiers in the 9th squad were also considerably powerful. It was hard to believe that she could so easily turn them into nothing.

But what he was seeing was undeniably true. It was an unforgivable fact.

Looking at the angry Jin with a tilted head, Meifang smiled smugly.

“What are you so upset about...? This is the man who leaked the information about our sides formation to the Ikaruga Federation during the last invasion. He is an informer and is also tied to that scum, Kokonoe.”

“......What?"

That's absurd. Grimwood was a traitor? On one hand, Jin also remembered that he had a number of doubts about his actions. Even Jin had looked at Grimwood with suspicion a few times, as he had been so well-informed. Was it that transparent?

Meifang made a deliberate sound of pity.

“Such innocence. You've been used.”

The next head of the Kisaragi family, a user of the Nox Nyctores. Jin was self aware of how he can be used in many ways.

But he was not easily convinced that Grimwood was using him.

It was not based on circumstantial evidence or logic, but on a silly emotional argument that he was not that kind of person. He simply had faith in Grimwood. That's why he couldn’t believe what Meifang said.

"Jin..."

A muffled voice came from the other side of the cauldron, causing Jin to look up breathlessly.

Grimwood, who seemed to be unconscious, desperately reflected Jin in his eyes while hanging in the air.

"Run... This one's bad... She’s a 'monster'...”

Grimwood complained in desperation, spitting blood from his strangled throat.

The next moment, however, his expression became that of frenzy, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

"Gu, gaaaaah!"

The hand of Meifang grasping his neck was filled with a lethal force. Grimwood's neck creaked under the strain.

Narrowing her eyes as if enjoying the sound, Meifang sneered at the large, suspended man from below.

“'Monster'? Oh, who is the real 'monster'?

He was speaking very slowly, as if he was trying to make sure, as if he was trying to tell Jin something, but then his eyes were wide open and he was screaming like a broken man with rage in his eyes.

“You are garbage! You are trash who betrayed the Imperator, so watch how you talk!"

"Ohhhh..."

Her finger tips dug into his throat, breaking the skin and causing blood to flow.

“Stop it! No more!”

As Grimwood struggled to wriggle out with a completely weak body, Jin let out a cry of grief that surprised even him.

At the sound of his voice, Meifang glanced back at him, then huffed and relaxed the force that had almost snapped his neck.

Grimwood's body slackened and lost tension again. Jin wondered if he had fainted, but that didn't seem to be the case. He repeatedly opened and closed his mouth like a fish seeking oxygen and glared at Meifang with his light green eyes. Animalistic hostility can only describe his current image.

"Fufufu... Listen, trash. The Imperator is a generous person and they will give trash like you a chance to atone for your sins.

Meifang asked, looking back into Grimwood's eyes as he stared at her.

"Answer me. "Who” sent you here?"

“I don't know what you mean by..."

"Do I have to explain everything to trash like you so you can understand? I'm asking who's giving you orders? You're in the Librarium, right? It's someone with the equivalent authority of... Ah, yes. For example..."

She was about to say someone's name, but Grimwood interrupted her as if to shake her off.

"I don't know what you are misunderstanding... 'monster'. I'm here of my own volition, under no one else's direction..."

Grimwood's words were muffled in mid-sentence. Maifang's hand grabbed his neck and crushed it.

Looking up at the large man, Meifang made a smile with her mouth as she glared at him.

“I didn't give you permission to say anything. Well, if you really don't want to tell me, I'll thoroughly ask that woman eventually. Fufufu..."

It was obvious who "that woman" was referring to. Grimwood's face instantly changed color as he struggled, but he could not free his body.

"Hey, wait you bitc- Kuh!"

“I will not allow you to speak. You have disrespected the Imperator’s mercy. From now on, you are forbidden to speak at all."

With a tone of voice that judged any disobedience, Meifang licked her lips with her red tongue and traced them. A sign of decleration.

"Now, the charges. 'Disrespect' and 'rebellion' against the Novus Orbis Librarium and the Imperator!”

Meifang's high-pitched declaration reverberated through the basement.

Meifang tells her white brethren as he hangs up the sinner, Grimwood, even higher.

“With the blade of retribution and scales of judgment, I come to deliver... righteous justice! I am the condemner... I am the wing of judgment. This trial is over!”

At Meifang's sonorous declaration, the white-robed people surrounding Jin declared one by one.

“Death penalty!”

“Death penalty!”

“Death penalty!”

“Death penalty!”

The voices of dozens of people, seemingly endlessly repeating the words "Death penalty" one by one echoed loudly on the high ceiling.

Jin felt like he was going crazy with all the death threats blathering on around him. What the hell is this?

“Stop it... Let him go!”

Dazed and confused, Jin's voice was weakly overshadowed by the white robes that surrounded him. Eventually, the last one said, "Death penalty!”, and then…

Grimwood's body was thrust forward and Karenjina walked up to the cauldron.

"The Apostle's judgment is fair. Therefore, in the name of the Imperator, you, Grimwood Huster, are condemned."

There was already no response from Grimwood's body. The legs of his body slumped down and stopped over a hole that had the color of boiled lava.

With a grin, Meifang put a touch of torment on her lips.

“You are... sentenced to death!”

“Stoooooooooop!”

The sound of Meifang's voice echoing with ecstasy caused Jin to run. He had expected to be seized immediately, but the people of the Zeroth Squadron did not move.

Running straight ahead, he put his hand on the hilt of Yukianesa.

Meifang was watching him with amusement. The womans slender arms strangled Grimwood's neck with unbelievable force as she watched Jin run impatiently.

— For one moment, he thought he saw Grimwood jump.

But the next thing he knew.

Pop.

A wet light sound was mixed in with a heavy wet sound, and it made Jin want to cover his ears. The red liquid flowed and Grimwood's body and neck separated. The neck and body, separated by the bloodstained hand, fell apart.

It fell down, into the hole.

And was swallowed into the boiling cauldron.

A thick pipe moved above Jin's head, sending something into the coffin. The spilling sound felt like the pulse of life,

That... was Grimwood, wasn’t he?

At that moment, Jin felt something as cold as a snowstorm pass through his body.

— Kill.

The ice sword whispered.

An urge swirled inside Jin.

(Kill......kill.....kill....kill...kill..kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill.)

His legs ran faster than he've ever run before, and his eyes widened even more as he stared at the white flesh before him. He was going to slice through that skin, through that flesh, and he was going to spill everything that's in there. The color, the sound, the heat, everything, everyone, cut, mince, reject.

"I'll kill you, I'll kill you, you bastard!"

The taste of blood rose in his throat as he howled on his own.

He stepped forward and with the same momentum, Jin pulled out Yukianesa. The silver blader, colder than ice, sliced through the air and tore at Meifang's skin, ripping flesh from body.

At the thought, a moment of unbearable pleasure made Jin smile.

But immediately after, Meifang was not there. Jin gasped as he swung out his blade, which ended up striking the air.

"I'll dismiss your current rudeness as temporary insanity. Fufufu, be grateful."

"Wha…!"

The voice whispering leisurely and seductively suddenly came from right beside him.

That's absurd. What kind of reaction and speed is that? Who the hell is this Meifang Lapislazuli? Jin turned around, feeling an instinctive danger like prey being gazed upon.

"Don't get so heated... BOY!"

She smiled gently with lips that had red blood printed on them as if it was lipstick and Meifang's palm bottom plunged into Jin's side.

"Argh......ku!"

He didn't even have time to brace himself. In an instant, his breathing stopped and his consciousness became clouded as the shock shot up to his brain. His knees lost their strength, and despite his will, he collapsed and fell to the floor.

Maifang grabbed Jin's hair and held him back as he tried to fall, then looked into his eyes and put her face close to his ear.

"Oh, and didn't I told you to watch your language around your superiors. Or is that also... 'none of your business'?"

After she told him that, Meifang let go of his hand. When he was released, Jin did not have the strength to resist. He slumped to the floor, hitting his forehead hard. The floor was cold, and above his head, he could hear the sound of pipes rattling in the distance.

In his cloudy vision, he could see a cracked and broken ax.

Grimwood's axe.

After that, Jin's consciousness was cut off.

Back to Chapter 4: Promises and Vows / Listening

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Forward to Chapter 6: Hero / True face