BlazBlue:Spiral Shift - Hyokujin no Eiyu Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Accumulated death / He is near

Part 1

Jin learned that after a month of living in the jungle, it is easy to lose track of what day of the month it is, what time it is, and other things that he used to unconsciously pay attention to.

The unpleasant heat and the suffocating smell. The occasional arrows of rain, the unrestrained splashing of mud. The food was poor and the beds were far from clean. It wasn't the most comfortable living environment, but even so, Jin was beginning to feel more comfortable in his new surroundings.

Then, one day. The 9th squad, including Jin, received a request from the Librarium and were ordered to sortie to a place far from the jungle that he just started to get used to.

The location was a certain research facility near the mountain area. The building looks like a large block with gray walls, blending in with the rocks and barren trees.

There were very few windows and on top, the ventilation system roared low like the sleep of a giant creature.

Undecorated lighting lined up at regular intervals in a seamless, perfect flat corridor with no visible horizon. The dimly lit white walls were all fitted with black doors of exactly the same design.

The inside of the laboratory, with an interior that seems to have been assembled inorganically, has been... cruelly destroyed.

There were large holes in the doors and walls and many cracks in the ceiling and floor. Lights were broken and shattered and pieces of glass were scattered everywhere.

Only a small quantity of lights were left. The few that remained barely gave off a faint glow that seemed to be about to fade, but it was not enough to light up this large laboratory at all, making the area be bathed in an eerie dimness.

It was awfully quiet.

It smelled terrible.

"This is horrible..."

Standing in the corridor where some torn and burnt papers were scattered with pieces of shattered furniture, Honoka said aloud in dismay.

It was a sight that could no longer be described as anything other than that.

There were countless corpses lying at Honoka's feet as he stood stock stil and all around inside the destroyed laboratory, which still bore the scars of an obvious battle that took place. The corner of the corridor where Jin was looking, as well as under the gaze of Karenjina, who walked around and looked into the nearest room were the same.

Soldiers in the uniform of the Librarium were lying on top of each other, creating a small red fountain on the floor.

Right next to them, laying down dead, was an old man wearing a white coat over another uniform. He must have been a staff member of this institute, or in other words, one of Sector Seven’s personnel.

This is the research facility of Sector Seven.

Sector Seven is a group of rebels who disagree with the methods of the Librarium and work to disrupt their current order. The mission that Jin and the others were called up for this time was to retrieve a certain "Nox Nyctores" that they had stolen from the Librarium.

But Jin and the others arrived two hours late.

For some reason, the 9th squad was not notified until the last minute. In addition, arrangements for an Ars Magus Vessel to travel nearby were also delayed.

But still, it was just two hours. The number of people at the scene were not that many to begin with, but there was still a battlefield that took place here. Why weren't there some reinforcements? Still, even if the conflict was over, they wanted to help with the aftermath. That’s what they decided to do and hurriedly made their way with the jeep to the place from were they were at moments ago.

“Looks like we're too late.”

Bending down, Jin let out a heavy breath when he saw that the fallen Librarium guard had no pulse.

“But what the hell is this all about? Did the mission fail?"

Karenjina shook her head in disbelief after looking into a room that seemed to be some kind of office and came out with an face full of anguish.

“I didn’t receive a confirmation about that yet.”

Answered Grimwood, who had entered a another room, came out into the hallway and shook his head in denial. It seems there weren't any in this room either. Survivors.

Whether they succeeded or failed in retrieving the Nox Nyctores or if the operation had produced any results in the past two hours, it would have been reported to the NOL. Outside the research facility, there were a number of vehicles that the guards of the Librarium must have used for transportation. All of them were equipped with communication facilities and the guards themselves were also equipped with communication devices.

But when Jin and the others had left the Ars Magus Vessel for the jeep about thirty minutes ago, they had not received any such information.

One possible explanation for why there has been no contact is that the operation was still ongoing in the depths of the facility. Then there is the possibility that there was no one left in the Librarium to contact...

(But that's unlikely, because the other party is Sector Seven.)

Jin's expression clouded in thought.

The basic philosophy of Sector Seven is the convenient development of seithr through pure science, rather than through Ars Magus. Because of this aspect, the people who belong to Sector Seven are mainly researchers with a wealth of scientific knowledge. Many of them are considerably rational, logical and pragmatic.

(...although I can't rule out the possibility if it makes the most 'sense'.)

If possible, that was a possibility he didn't want to consider.

Grimwood stepped over a lied-down corpse in a white coat and into the corridor leading to the back of the building.

"Let's check ahead. There might still be survivors."

As things were, there was no point in dwelling here dumbfoundedly counting the bodies, smeared in the smell of blood and rust. No one disagreed with Grimwood as he looked toward the end of the long corridor. Grimwood was in the lead, followed by the soldiers of the 9th squad and Karenjina, then Honoka, with Jin at the tail of the line.

Everyone's footsteps were careful as they walked, keeping a distance that would allow each of them to move around sufficiently.

They opened all the doors they saw along the way and checked them. Some of the rooms seemed unharmed, only slightly ransacked and not particularly destroyed. But in non were living people.

The hallway grew darker and darker as the lights became less and less useful. The air was cold with a metallic odor and the temperature seemed to drop even lower as they stepped into the darkness. While they continued on with their handheld lights, they found a staircase leading up and down at the far end.

As a test, someone peeked upstairs and shone a light on it. There was still a dead body lying on the stairs, with a red thread dripping down from the top to the bottom.

"Is anyone there?"

Jin raised his voice in a pitch, but the only answer was an empty echo.

Grimwood then looked at the stairs leading to the lower level. The light from a thrown light revealed a lift-like elevation device just ahead.

"So, what now? Up or down..."

Honoka asks softly about which way they were supposed to go, while peering cautiously into the lift.

Grimwood pondered for a few seconds, then looked at Karenjina. Karenjina squinted at the tip of Grimwood's light, and shook her head after a moment.

"I'm not sure about down below. But upstairs... there are probably no survivors."

"Okay. Down it is then. Everybody, get on the lift."

After making his decision, Grimwood's movements were swift. He quickly got into the lift while giving instructions, and Jin and the others followed him. One of the soldiers checked the lift's control panel and flipped a few switches. A yellow light came on in the control panel and the lift began to slide silently, descending diagonally downward.

A faint orange glow told them that there were walls and a ceiling, but it made it impossible to see where they were going. Still curious about what lay ahead, Karenjina grabbed the thin railing at chest height and stared at the destination of the lift, her voice irritated with frustration.

“What's even going on? It's just a mission to get one weapon back, right? Is the Nox Nyctores so great that it has to cause this much damage?"

"You don't know what a Nox Nyctores is, do you?"

The soldier who was operating the panel mischievously said to Karenjina, who choked on her words now and puckered her lips in frustration.

“...It’s an old, awesome weapon, right? You talk big game, but do YOU even know what that thing really is?"

Staring at him, Karenjina appealed to her colleague to explain. The soldier who had been making a joke of it immediately flinched and averted his gaze.

“It's a, um... an old weapon yes. I believe it was made a very long time ago..."

“See, you only know as much as I do."

Karenjina took a step forward as if to accuse him. The soldier moved back by that same amount.

Grimwood, who was watching the scene, shook his large shoulders and laughed briefly.

“Nox Nyctores are superweapons of extraordinary power that were created during wars long ago.”

Leaning his beloved great axe on his shoulder and placing his muscular arm on top of it, Grimwood answered his subordinate in a calm tone. He had a soft smile on his face, but his eyes were glaringly sharp.

"The Nox Nyctores were created about a hundred years ago during the Dark War. When a monster called the Black Beast was trying to destroy humanity, one of the Six Heroes developed them in order to defeat that monster.”

The Six Heroes. The name was well known to both Karenjina and the soldier who teased her.

They were the legendary heroes who defeated the Black Beast, the monster that caused the disaster that nearly destroyed the human race. As young children, they would encounter them in fairy tales. When they grow up a little, they become the subject of make-believe games. And when they are older, they meet them in biographies and history textbooks, in stage plays and in various other media. Time after time.

Everyone has admired them at one time.

Against the background of the faint driving sound of the lift sliding quietly down, the soldiers of the squad, intrigued by the term "Six Heroes," were drawn to Grimwood's story.

Jin watched from a short distance away, leaning against the railing.

“These weapons were all different in shape. Each of their uses and abilities also differed. There were 8 or 9 of them in total I believe... Anyhow, the Six Heroes used them to defeat the Black Beast. But after the end of the Dark War, the Nox Nyctores were lost. Only few people know where or what they even are now.”

“So," Grimwood continued, looking at Jin. He made a boyish face for a moment.

“It's a pretty miraculous coincidence that he's got one of those.”

Karenjina and the soldiers turned to Jin as they were drawn into the story. One of them was Honoka. The petite boy nodded his head repeatedly, looking deeply moved.

"That's right. That sword might have been used by one of the six heroes too!"

One of the soldiers muttered, to which Honoka nodded in agreement. Jin's shoulders slumped in disgust at such a reaction.

"I don't care how it was used in the old wars. I only use it because it's in my possession."

Jin said curtly and turned away from them.

But that was a bit of a lie. He doesn't use it because he has to. He has to use it, because he can't let go of it. This is a curse placed on Jin. All the while, it is also a testimony.

For what he did — to his brother.

“Sorry, my bad. Don't be mad, 'kay?”

“I am not particularly..."

Perhaps his voice was more prickly than he realized. The admiring soldier laughed and held up his hands in surrender. It must have been his bad habit again. It wasn’t that he was angry. It was not even something to be angry about. He was going to say that, but before he could finish the words, the lift came to a silent stop.

At the same time, the view around Jin and the others opened up. They had arrived at the bottom of the stairs.

It was a much larger space then the facility above.

It was surrounded by square walls, dimly lit by orange emergency lights on the walls and a few white bulbs left on the ceiling.

It was large enough to accommodate the five jeeps that they had driven here.

They might have been using this lifts to carry large items up and down on a regular basis. There were several large dollies lying on the wall, probably used for transportation.

The ceiling was high, probably higher than two stories of a normal building. They have been down here long enough to have wasted a lot of time talking, so they are anticipating rooms and facilities beyond the ceiling or there may just be a thick layer of ground separating them from the surface. Thouge at this point, it didn't matter what the underground structure was.

The yellow light on the lift's panel went out. The handrails slid down, creating a doorway.

Grimwood descended first to the end of it. Then Jin, Karenjina, and the rest.

No one spoke a word now.

Maybe he had imagined it somewhere in his head. At least, when Jin saw this scene, he was naturally convinced that it would be so.

The underground lift station was a pile of dead bodies.

There were a number of bodies lying around the room in a state of disarray. Most of them were wearing the uniform of the Librarium, as could be seen from their scattered clothes.

“What happened here...?"

Karenjina asked in a weak voice, not to anyone in particular. There was no one who could answer her words. Rather, everyone was thinking the same thing.

“Oh, look there. T-there is an interior..."

Honoka, who was cowering at the very back, his face pale, pointed ahead with a trembling hand. At the back of the square room, there was a rectangular opening that probably had a door in it, and another room seemed to be leading to it. The back of the room seemed to be even bigger than this one. They could see a few pale blue lights, probably emergency lights.

“Let's go.”

Grimwood announced lowly, still leading the way as he walked off. It was hopeless to look for survivors in this room. If the room ahead was a dead end, that would be their last hope in the basement.

Through the square entrance, Jin also stepped into the back room.

Then he let out a long, deep breath at the sight of despair spreading.

At the back was a semi-circular room. Its purpose was not clear, but various machines and devices were set up along the curving walls, and they were arranged in such a way that they observed the larger devices that took up most of the room.

The large device looked like a giant lid. Various cables, large and small, moored together, and at the end of the mooring was a circular mouth that seemed to open.

However, the mouth was tightly closed and half of it was buried by the rubble of the collapsed ceiling, so it was not in a condition to be opened and checked.

In this room, the most quantity of people were lying on the ground yet, as if to mock what they had seen so far as trivial.

The room was large. It was very spacious.

From the moment they entered that large room to the opposite end of the room, dozens of meters away, there were people lying everywhere.

None of them moved. There were so many of them that it didn't feel that they were corpses anymore, but instead they looked like a pile of discarded dolls.

Even more bizarrely, there were countless boxes strewn around the large device, which added to the eeriness of the scene. The boxes, neither blue nor black, were just large enough to hold a single person.

They were like coffins.

Some of them were twisted and cracked as if beasts had eaten through them, and a thick human-like fluid was flowing out from inside.

The moment he saw it, Jin's heart leapt.

"Ugh..."

A crushing moan was caught in his throat. Jin instantly lost his balance. It would look like dizziness from the outside, but it was different. He felt as if he had been swallowed by something, consuming his darkened consciousness and then...

he saw it.

A "Cauldron" that swirls the unworldly and submerges emptiness beyond the throbbing heat.

It's approaching from behind. It comes. It overflows, and it takes shape.

Black... a black beast. A black monster with sharp fangs, a thick neck, a giant jaw and all.

The creature dragged its indistinct body around, eating people at random, killing them as it went.

But the fangs do not tear flesh. The jaws do not crush bone.

All it had to do was slip by the living and occasionally let out a loud roar.

When touched by the black head, a black mist overflows from the human body. The human body collapses, losing all its strength, as if its life had been sucked out along with it.

The word associated with it would be predation. The black mass ran around the vast underground room like the winds of death, sucking and devouring the life of every human being in the room.

The head suddenly turned to look at Jin as if it had noticed something.

It looked more like an exaggerated version of a head, with only fangs and jaws. On top of its ferocious mouth, there was a glittering eye.

A red eye. Among the countless red streaks that run across the surface like blood vessels, the eyes that seem to have collected and hardened the most ominous reds in the world stared at Jin.

— Kill.

Someone's voice whispered to Jin.

— Kill it.

Yes. I have to kill it.

There is no other choice but to kill it.

(Who... is the monster?)

The higher the concentration of the seithr the more the urge swells inside Jin.

A murderous intent. It is a straightforward, pure, and single-minded murderous intent that is like nothing else.

(No, what I, what I... want to kill is...)

It's not a monster. What I want to kill is. What I want to kill with my own hands is...

A spark of lightning flashed behind his eyes, and Jin's vision instantly turned orange.

— It’s burning.

The whole area was ablaze.

This is a memory. Inside Jin, they were the pages of a burned and scorched memory that got torn to pieces and disordered.

In the flames, Jin was standing with his sword in his hand. In the hot, blazing flames, he was holding a cold, freezing Yukianesa.

Someone collapsed in front of him.

Who is the one who was down? It could have been someone, it could have been no one.

The boy was lying there helplessly. Bright red blood was pouring from his small back.

Red. Red. Everything. Red.

The rush of exuberance was so cold that he didn't feel any emotion when the burning church roared to life and collapsed, even when the hot wind blew against it.

The moon was laughing in the distance.

The bright red crescent moon was laughing joyfully.

No, it's not. It's a shadow. The shadow of a person. Laughing behind all.

A pair of pitch-black eyes stared at Jin.

The dark gloom kept staring at him, firmly, without a single motion.

Part 2

──in!!

The sound revived him.

The roaring sound of flames receded like a wave and in its place is now the dull drive of machinery along with the sound of human voices flooded Jin's consciousness.

“Jin!! Hey, Jin! Stay with me!"

"......ah... what is...?"

As if with a click of a switch, Jin's vision became clear and fixed.

The area was dimly lit and surrounded by achromatic colors such as black and gray. The small lights were pale, and the air was cold as metal. Before his eyes, stood a figure of a man with a large high stature. He grabbed Jin by both his shoulders with his large hands and shook him.

When Jin blinked a few times and looked up, Grimwood, the man who had been holding his shoulders, dropped his broad shoulders and breathed deeply.

“Don’t give me that. You suddenly stiffened and stopped moving in a panic. What in the hell happened to you?”

“...No, I was...”

As he tried to answer, Jin lost track of his words. He had no idea what had happened.

(A hallucination?)

He hasn't been snapped back for a while now, but he still had a numb feeling in the back of his head.

“I'm sorry, I'm fine. I just got dizzy all of a sudden..."

Holding his cheek and forehead with the palm of his hand as if to confirm that he was really here, Jin let out his voice along with his choked breath.

He suddenly felt a sharp gaze on him and turned around, and there was Karenjina, glaring at Jin with a face that was clearly in a bad mood. Her deep navy eyes collided with his gaze and Karenjina blatantly looked away.

(...She's like a jealous child.)

She likely didn't like the fact that Jin had worried Grimwood, but he didn't have the time to point it out and get himself in trouble. Letting out another sigh, he shook off the annoyance and looked around with eyes that finally reflected a sane reality. While Jin was in a daze, the soldiers had apparently gone to check on the equipment they had lined up. The three who had dispersed came running back to Grimwood.

“Captain, all the equipment's been destroyed. It's unlikely we'll be able to see the data inside."

“No luck here either. What is the cause of all this violence? Communications and recording facilities are also dead."

“I see..."

Grimwood's face twisted in bitterness. One of the last to return opened his mouth, his words and expression muddled, as if he was having trouble saying it.

“Err. There's one thing that's been bothering me...”

“What is it?”

“Aren’t the corpses in this room too "clean"? I didn't check all of them, but compared to the ones before we went down here, they are completely uninjured. It's as if only their souls have been pulled out... It's creepy."

With these words, he must have remembered some of the faces he'd seen while checking the equipment. The soldier shuddered and rubbed his arm vigorously. Without saying a word, Jin approached the nearest body. It was the one that had fallen right next to the entrance. It was lying with its arms outstretched in a desperate attempt to find a way out. When he turned the body over from its prone position, he saw that it had died with a miserable expression on its face, twitching with fear.

Honoka, who peeked in with Jin, let out a twitching scream and backed away to escape.

Indeed, there was no resemblance of any injuries. In fact, there was no reason for the corpse to have died, as if only the soul had been extracted.

(The soul... You don’t mean the hallucination I just had was-)

With a tingling headache, Jin remembered the head of the Black Beast that had popped out of the Cauldron earlier.

The monster that sucked up the souls of humans just by touching them. The black head that absorbed the human of that time was probably the seithr from the Cauldron. Jin wondered if that scene had actually happened here. If so, what the hell was that black head?

“Tsk…..”

As he thought about it, another sickening sensation crawled up his spine and he shook his head, trying to stop thinking about it. He didn't know what's going on with him, but he needed to get rid of any signs of strangeness. He was on a mission as one of the 9th squad.

Grimwood looked around again and placed the great axe he was carrying on the floor.

“...I heard that Kokonoe of Sector Seven was here, but... it seems that she escaped.”

The giant captain muttered while pondering something.

Honoka looked up quickly at his words.

"Does Kokonoe mean the Dr. Kokonoe? Isn't she the famous Grimalkin of Sector Seven?”

Jin had heard that name before. She is a scientist belonging to Sector Seven, and her genius mind is said to be unrivaled. She has the blood of a beastkin, and the ears and tail of a cat, which gives her a special appearance.

Grimwood looked down at Honoka and nodded.

“Yeah. I've heard that she was taking part in the Nox Nyctores research that was being conducted here. I was told to 'politely' take her in if I found her. ...... but there's no sign of her."

“If Kokonoe of Sector Seven was here, no wonder they deployed so many troops.”

Jin said quietly as he moved away from the corpse and looked at the large device at the back of the room.

You could say that Kokonoe was the brain of Sector Seven itself. If Kokonoe could be eliminated, it would be easy for the Librarium to overpower Sector Seven. That's how important she is and that's also why she is considered as so troublesome. With this in the picture, it could be seen that this was not just a usual laboratory.

If a person of Kokonoe's talent had been in and out of this place, she must have been doing some kind of special research. What it was, though, was something they had no way of knowing now.

“What do you think, Karenjina?"

Grimwood turned and asked Karenjina, who had been crouched down for some time and was just about to stand up.

Jin didn't understand the meaning of Grimwood's question. What is the "What" here? But despite Jin's small doubt, Karenjina's expression clouded over.

"...No. There are no survivors. Underground's wiped out."

She clearly said so.

How did she know? Jin was puzzled further. Grimwood not so. Why were they asking her? It was another group of soldiers who had been searching the room to check the equipment. Before Jin could ask that, Grimwood looked around at his men and said in a thick voice.

“That's it for the investigation. I'm going back upstairs. I'll contact headquarters."

“Oh, if so should I contact them? There are some things I haven't checked yet. If you want me to go back to the car and call them, I can do it by myself.”

Honoka put his hand on his chest and stepped forward, but Grimwood shook his head with a difficult look on his face.

“No. Let's all go back. I have a bad feeling about this place. We should get out of here as soon as possible-"

In the middle of his words, he suddenly heard a noise.

The sound, which was neither a rumble nor a thud, sounded like a creature crawling out from under something and for a moment everyone held their breaths and fell silent, then Grimwood turned and raised his axe that he just picked up from the ground earlier.

“Who's there?"

“Grimwood, t-that can't be!”

“I know."

Trying to calm Karenjina with his hand, who called out to him in panic, Grimwood stared at the area where the sound had come from in alarm. The sound came from the area where about five people were folded up and dead, slightly in front of a large device in the room.

There was no immediate reply. Honoka slowly retreated, and Jin prepared to move at any moment.

There was no sign of life. None. But...

The pile of corpses stirred, and one of the people underneath sluggishly got up.

“Wha…!?”

Karenjina choked out in astonishment at such absurdity.

"A Survivor?"

“No. Wrong.”

The soldier's words, shouted in an expectant but trembling voice, were dismissed with alarm by Jin.

“He's not alive anymore.”

It was a corpse. The corpse had suddenly risen and was heading straight towards them with the awkward movements of a puppet.

"W-WHAAAAA!! Lieutenant! Lieutenant!!"

Before they could fully comprehend the current situation, Honoka screamed and shouted. He shuddered exaggeratedly and pointed to a room with a lift in the back.

He could have guessed what was going on without looking, but he still looked back.

Just as expected. On the other side of the square entrance, countless corpses that were supposed to be lying in the room had all risen up and were heading towards them. Indeed, each corpse, one after another inside the room were starting to rise. It was not a number they could count on the spur of the moment.

"Wha-what should we do, Captain!?"

In dismay, one of the soldiers asked the obvious.

The first corpse that stood up was almost upon them. After slashing the body in half with a swinging axe, Grimwood turned around and shouted.

“Everybody, run!! Get to the lift!"

At that moment, as if he had been pushed back, Jin ran, knocking down the moving dead corpses that had been positioned between the room swith a single swing.

Part 3

With his scabbard, he hit the corpse that ran towards him at the side of its head and kicked the other one that came at him from the other direction with his leg that made them cracked like a whip. Several bodies were caught up and lost their balance when they were slashed together in one go with Jin’s Iai technique. After that, he stepped over the collapsed ridge of bodies and moved forward.

The underground space, which had been so quiet when they arrived that the only sound present was the driving force of the running machine, was now filled with a ghastly noise.

The corpses revived, or to say arose like they were waking from a slumber, now attacking Jin and the others without hesitation, as if they had no other choice.

At first glance, the bodies with few external injuries looked like living people. However, their faces were unmoving from the expression of fear and anguish they had shown when they died and their open eyes were as vacant as a cloudy glass ball.

"Shit! What in the hell are these things??"

"A trap from Kokonoe!?"

As the soldiers whined and cursed, they fired their guns at the ghouls, who were slowly closing in distance. The sound of wild gunfire blasted away the arms and heads of the corpses, but they continued to move without a care in the world.

Grimwood used his large axe to flick them all the way to the wall with every ounce of his strength.

“No, Kokonoe would never use these kinds of Art. Necromancy Ars Magus is the most detestable means on the battlefield. She is a genius far beyond the average, but she is apparently also a woman of common sense when it comes to such things!”

"Apparently," he said, but Grimwood said it as if he knew her personally. Jin wondered if they might have known each other, but now was not the time to mention it.

Jin reversed his grip on the ghouls arm and slammed it to the floor, crushing his head with his hard heel. A gunshot rang out right next to him. It was Honoka who fired the shot. He seemed to have completely gotten cold feet and turned terribly afraid, but his shooting skills were accurate. One by one, he carefully hit the moving corpses right between the eyes.

"Whoever did it, we are in big trouble, because of them now!!"

When Honoka shouted in a shameful, falsetto voice, to which Grimwood's mouth twisted up in a bitter, twisted smile.

“Sure we are.”

Then Grimwood swung his great axe again and blew off the tops of three corpses at once.

Karenjina shot an approaching corpse in the forehead with her short rifle and responded to a near one with a large knife she held in her other hand. She kicked away the corpse that had its throat quickly slit and immediately pointed the muzzle at the next one.

The corpse took several bullets to the face and fell down in a big heap. It jumped around for a while, but eventually got up and joined the fray with a distorted head as if nothing had happened.

Jin clicked his tongue at that.

“Necromancy, is it?”

Grimwood nodded.

It was possible to use magic or medicine to make the corpses move, but in that case they will attack on their own in a disorderly fashion. However, it was clear that the mass of corpses that filled the underground room was moving under the direction of someone.

They did not indiscriminately attack the dead bodies in front of them, nor did they move unevenly. They knew that the target is Jin and the rest of the 9th squad and they also knew that their path of retreat was the lift.

"Nonsense! You can't control all these bodies in here at the same time!"

While firing her gun, Karenjina’s voice rang with impatience.

Jin thrust the tip of his scabbard down on the dead man's head, who had grabbed his leg.

"It doesn't matter if it's possible or not. These guys can sustain a head injury and still get up and move with no trouble."

A corpse that can move by Arts or medicine acts according to its ego, albeit poorly. They think and move with their dead brains, so if they lose their heads, they lose their functions movement. However, a necromancer is someone that can manipulate a ghoul at will. A moving body is nothing more than a puppet for the practitioner. Even if the head is lost, the body will continue to move as long as the chain of connection with the practitioner is not broken.

"If it's a necromancer, then wouldn’t defeating the practitioner stop these guys from moving!”

To the right and the left. Grimwood asked in his crude voice as he swung his large axe and cleaved down any approaching corpses. Jin replies calmly.

"Yeah. They are controlling so many of them, they can't be that far away."

“Karenjina, find them!”

“Understood!”

When Grimwood gave his instructions, Karenjina responded quickly and took a few steps back, shoving her gun into the holster on her hip. She bent down on the spot and pressed her hands against the cold floor. Grimwood wedged himself in front of Karenjina. He used his great axe as a weapon and shield to protect Karenjina from the hands of the ghouls.

In the meantime, Karenjina took a long breath and closed her eyes to focus her attention.

A dull golden crest spread around her hands with a thin, high-pitched squeak that sounded like ringing in the ears.

“Wait, it's a Drive!”

Jin's voice jumped up uncharacteristically in surprise.

Drive.

It is a special kind of power that is inherent in the individual, fundamentally different from the kind of power that can be used to some extent through training and Arts, such as an Ars Magus.

The mechanism is not completely elucidated and there are those who can use it and those who cannot. It is more like a constitution than a talent. Its origin lies in the form the soul. Jin was also someone with a Drive, but it's not something that the usual person would carry with them. Infact it is very rare, so he didn't expect to encounter someone with Drive abilities in the 9th squad.

Behind Jin, who was unintentionally blinded by Karenjina's talent, Grimwood ran in and mowed down the ghouls.

One after another. There was no end to them.

“It's called "Seagull". Karenjina can sense the movements of her surroundings even though she can't actually see them, it's a power that has saved our lives many times before.”

Jin understood and was convinced at the same time. The questions that had been lingering in the corner of his mind were now resolved.

Why was the 9th squad able to disrupt the enemy lines and lead the enemy soldiers to their allies with such precision, as if they knew the enemys position? Why did Grimwood often ask Karenjina for her opinion on the situation, and why was she able to answer him without hesitation?

Karenjina was the too-good-to-be-true nose and ears of the 9th squadron, the Hounds.

But Karenjina, who had been concentrating on the crest that emerged with a faint light, distorted her expression as if in pain and finally stood up, holding both ears.

The crest disappears as it was sucked down to her feet.

"No, there's too much noise. I can't locate it!"

She must have dived into a very deep state of concentration, since they could see the greasy sweat on Karenjina's forehead. Grimwood impatiently frowned at Karenjina, who was breathing heavily, while keeping an eye on their surroundings and state of affairs.

Each of the ghouls was no great threat, but there were just too many of them. No matter how hard they tried to kill them, they kept coming as long as they had legs or hands. It was like a wave of ghouls.

"Oh, hey, there!"

Honoka, who was holding the gun with his hands crossed as if in prayer, shouted out in a most sorrowful voice.

Jin followed his gaze and looked up to see the path of the lift they had just come down. On top of it, bodies, probably from inside the facility, covered in wounds and blood, were descending towards them.

There was no doubt what their purpose was. The dead eyes, cloudy and empty, were all looking at the only seven people alive in this place.

"Damn it! I guess we should clear a path of retreat first."

Grimwood growled in abhorrence. The lift was already occupied by the bodies that had rushed in. It would be faster to run up the passageway than to retrieve it and use the device to move slowly forward.

“I'll make it happen. Follow me!"

Quickly, Grimwood regained his grip on his great axe and charged forward with a mighty yell from the pit of his stomach.

“Oooooooooooooohhhh!"

Grimwood swung his great axe from side to side as he ran with a much shocking force.

The large blade, swung with all its power, kept slashing, blowing and reaping corpses one after another as if it were reaping dead branches. Along with the sound of crushing flesh, there was the light sound of crunching bones.

Kicking away even the sound, Grimwood rushed forward and forcefully stepped into the lift corridor.

Exactly as the word "cut through" implies, a path was formed behind Grimwood. Karenjina and Honoka were ahead of him, followed by Jin, while the rest of the soldiers chased after the captain with their guns firing in a mess. But still the numbers were overwhelmingly violent. Grimwood's steps were gradually blocked and slowed.

A ghouls nails clawed relentlessly at his face and another corpse clutched at his big shoulders, trying to drag him down.

It was not just Grimwood, but also Karenjina and Honoka, who were following close behind, blocking their progress.

"Grimwood!"

Karenjina let out a thin scream right near Jin, who slashed down the ghoul in a wide arc.

Grimwood was pushing too hard for the ones in the back to catch up. A large number of ghouls interrupted the carelessly opened distance and quickly surrounded Grimwood with a thick wall of dead flesh.

On the other hand, more than a dozen corpses jumped at their side with such force that Honoka was knocked over by the momentum.

The head of the corpse that was about to bite his throat was chopped off by Jin with a single stroke. As the head flew off, the distance between him and Grimwood was no longer something that could be easily bridged.

"Captain!"

The soldiers shouted in unison.

It would be bad if he didn't join up. It was too dangerous for anyone to be isolated against this number.

But when he tried to run to him, the corpses formed a wall as if they were trying to keep him away from Grimwood. Punching and kicking down. There was no end to the shooting and slashing.

On the other side of the writhing corpses, Jin saw Grimwood still shouting and swinging his axe.

The axe that was swung down created shockwaves that were bigger than the eye could precive, blowing away a group of corpses.

“ِAbandon me! Run!”

That was Grimwood's decision.

Karenjina gave a horrified voice.

“I can't... I can't do that!”

“Go, Jin!”

“You cut it open, while I'm pulling most of the weight, maybe Jin can do it.”

Jin looked up at the top of the lift with a grim expression at Grimwood's words, entrusting him with a such heavy responsibility.

The number of corpses pouring in was small compared to the ones chasing them from underground, but it was not an easy task to get through. If they were separated by the narrow passageway, Honoka and Karenjna would be torn apart in a matter of seconds.

"Don't fucking joke with meeee!"

A swear word escaped from Jin's mouth unconsciously. If he was even able to run, he would have done it by now.

(Forcing a breakthrough is not a good idea. Then...)

Jin stabbed at his feet with Yukianesa. The impact blew up in a white color, instantly turning the surrounding corpses to ice.

Using it as a makeshift wall, Jin grabbed Karenjina’s arm as she was about to run to Grimwood.

"Hey. Use that Drive again."

“What? What are you talking about? I told you we'd never find the necromancer, so this is not the time at all!　Get out of the way and let me help Grimwood!!"

Karenjina twisted and tried to shake off Jin's hand. but Jin would have none of it. He holded her arm even thigher and pulled her to him.

"Calm down, you'll only add to the bait if you jump in. Instead, I'll hit the necromancer."

“Shut up! You don't get to tell me what to do! Let go of me! Grimwood's at..!”

Karenjina flailed about in a mess, trying to escape Jin's clutches. He could feel Karenzina's nerves screaming in fright under her skin. It was as if he could feel the vibrations. Fear gripped her as she writhed and flailed. The fear that she might lose Grimwood was driving her into delirium.

That's how important he, Grimwood was, to Karenjina. This thought crossed Jin’s mind, but-

Jin shouted in frustration.

"Shut up, you piece of shit!!!"

At the sound of Jin's angry voice, which came from up close and personal, Karenjina’s eyes blinked as she forbore to speak.

She was pressured by Jin's change in attitude.

It didn’t matter, it's rather convenient like that. There's no point in making any more noise. Jin shouted at Karenjina with a intensity fitting for their situation.

“Just use it! Who else can do it but you? You want Grimwood getting killed along with you, or what!?”

If Karenjina ran off, she wouldn't be able to help Grimwood. They would dietogether in a pile of corpses.

She must not be so stupid that she couldn’t understand that. Karenjina opened and closed her mouth a few times, as if lost for words in the blazing cold eyes of Jin that were fixated on her. Then, immediately her eyes sharpened and her lips got frim in determinaion.

She shook off Jin's arm. This time, Jin let go of her hand obediently.

Immediately, Karenjina put her hands on the floor and focused her attention. A dull golden light was created under her palms as they touched the floor.

"Cover Karenjina. Don't let the ghouls near her!"

“Ye-yes!”

Honoka replied as he jumped up and raised his gun along with the other soldiers.

The guns could not fire indefinitely, but the soldiers knew that if they didn't hold out, there was no way out.

Seeing them start firing wildly without caring about the remaining ammunition, Honoka, who was upset, started firing randomly.

After all, Grimwood's squadron was excellent.

Admiringly, Jin stood behind Karenjina with Yukianesa.

A crest spreads at Karenjina’s feet. Immediately, her expression became distorted. Even through her back, Jin could tell that the level of concentration was different from before.

They couldn’t hold out much longer. Neither Karenjina nor the soldiers who were trying to fight off the ghouls and Jin, too.

Even if there is an abundance of seithr in the world, converting it into Ars Magus involves a great deal of wear and tear. In addition, when it comes to dealing with Nox Nyctores, the wear and tear can be life itself.

Therefore, no matter how powerful it is, Yukianesa's power cannot be unleashed. If he were to unleash it at full force, based on the amount of seithr in this place...

(One shot left...)

He will be at lose of power and they won't be able to get through here.

(...No.)

It's different.

If it's just a break through, it's possible. In that case, though, everyone but Jin will have to be abandoned.

“Keep your mind focused.”

He told her in a whisper, then pressed the palm of his hand against Karenjina's back.

He closed his eyes and concentrated, matching his own exhalation to the wavelength of Karenjina beyond the palm of his hand.

Karenjina's body jumped. Instantly, the images she was seeing began to flow into Jin's mind as well.

A dull golden light was spreading across the underground space in every direction. It was as if they were nerves stretched out. However, the spreading light was disturbed by the countless signs that filled the area.

(So this is the noise...)

It's true that they couldn’t explore anything with this.

Even so, he earnestly looked for a different way, in the middle of Karenjina’s spread-out senses.

The Power of Order - with that, “manipulation of corpses” appeared in Jin’s consciousness as a black line in the images he saw through Karenjina's Drive.

It was a special power that he possessed that even Jin himself did not understand, he isn't even aware that he is in posession of it.

However, through it, Jin was able to see. The evil from his standpoint, the opponent to slash, the black "line" that connects to it all, the "line" that he should cut.

The black line that stretched from Jin's feet snaked its way around the underground space until... it reached a certain point.

“......Found it.”

Gently speaking aloud, Jin opens his eyes. As usual, he was surrounded by a pile of moving corpses, but Jin didn't even bother with them.

In the corner of the room where the corpses were stirring, on the floor where the arms and legs that had been blown off by Jin and Grimwood were lying in shreds. There was a strange figure huddled in the shadows of the wobbling corpses.

He couldn’t see it clearly, but it was definitely “there”.

Jin pulled out Yukianesa and ran through the bodies, jumping over Honoka.

The pale, ice-covered blades cut down the corpses in his way one after another. As he kicked them away and iced the ones in his way, Jin headed straight for Grimwood.

It was in the opposite direction of the necromancer he found.

But as he hurled the blades of ice he had created around him at the corpses all at once, Jin called out loudly.

"Grimwood!"

He shouted and jumped high. At the foot of his low leap, an ice blade that he had created at the same time appeared. The flying ice blades slid through the air and carried Jin like a vehicle.

"Come on!"

As he swung his great axe to clear the way around him, Grimwood let go of his axe to meet Jin who was coming straight at him. Instead, he folded his hands and dropped to his haunches.

Jin jumped for his hand.

“Gooooooooooooo!!”

Jin's feet landed on Grimwood's folded hands. He used it as a foothold from which to leap and Grimwood threw him high into the air, swinging his arms with all his might.

After jumping to an unusual height, Jin stared downward.

He didn't know where it came from, but the underground room was filled with more dead bodies than he expected. But in one corner, in the corner of the room indicated by the line, there was a person without a uniform or lab coat, huddled in a black cloth.

That's him.

“Yukianesa!"

In response to Jin's voice, a silvery-white blade sliced through the void. The sliding trajectory froze in the blink of an eye and the ice wrapped around the sword itself, changing its shape.

What appeared in Jin's hand was a bow. A pale, crystal clear bow of ice.

He put his hand on the string and an arrow of ice was born in his hand.

The only thing in the way was the corpses walking on the ground. With such a high jump, there was nothing to impede Jin's aim.

“Ice-Winged Moonsong!”

With a voice announcing this, a huge arrow was released from the ice bow. The pale blue arrow seemed to have a hint of light in it and with the icy wind in its wake, it flew sharply through the air.

The target was the necromancer, who looked like a blackened mass.

The arrow, too large to be fired at a single person, spun at high speed and was not well-aimed, ruthlessly destroying the surrounding walls, floors, and swarming corpses, including the necromancer.

The power was tremendous.

The corner of the room where the necromancer had been was instantly covered with ice, like the inside of a freezer and white frost stuck to it. What used to be the necromancer was stretched out on the floor like was like a remaining splat of abandoned trash, no longer moving.

Jin landed on the ground, returning the bow to its original form of a sword.

"..."

As soon as he did, his knees lost their strength and he almost lost balance. But Grimwood, who had rushed in front of him, supported him.

“You okay?”

"...Yes. I just used too much energy all at once."

“I see,” Grimwood said, his mouth twitching in a smile.

Jin heard a series of sounds like heavy objects falling from around him. It was the sound of bodies that had been moving, losing their strength and falling one after another. The corpse that was just about to bite him fell on him, and Honoka crawled out from under it, screaming.

Then he looked around in a daze and sat down.

“It’s not moving... Did we survive?”

As he let out his thin, trembling words, not a single corpse moved anymore. They collapsed on the spot like threadbare dolls and returned to being mere corpses.

The soldiers still couldn't believe what was happening in front of their eyes, rolling the fallen bodies close at hand to make sure there was no reaction.

Karenjina staggered over to Grimwood and Jin.

But Jin and Grimwood couldn't look up at the sound of her footsteps.

At Jin's feet lay a deadly Necromancer clad in black cloth.

The blow that Jin had unleashed with all his might had already left him breathless. No, he wasn't breathing to begin with.

Jin and Grimwood looked down at what had been the Necromancer, speechless with surprise.

It was not human.

It had long, slender arms and legs and an uncanny bloodless complexion. Wrapped in a black cloth, it was a doll.

"What is this...?"

Karenjina, who was finally standing next to Grimwood, muttered in a muffled voice.

The soldiers and Honoka both noticed the strange situation and looked down at the doll, all stunned.

"You mean the doll was a... necromancer?"

One of the soldiers said to himself.

“No," Grimwood replied lowly, holding Jin for support. “it wasn't a necromancer we were dealing with.”

"A Puppetmaster."

Staring at the battered doll, Jin's brows furrowed.

"What do you mean? Because a while ago, there was actually a body moving..."

Karenjina looked around. The lack of power in her voice was probably due to the fact that she used too much power on "Seagull". As she wondered, it was not a doll that actually attacked Jin and the others, but a corpse. There was no doubt about that. So that meant...

“The Puppetmaster had a puppet play the role of the Necromancer.”

“Such a thing...”

"There is no way. It's impossible, no matter how advanced that Ars Magus is."

"Unless it's magic..."

Magic. Everyone was rendered speechless by the words Jin had spoken.

Magic is an ancient Art that has been in gradual decline since the days of the Dark War due to a drastic decrease in the number of users. It is no exaggeration to say that it has been lost in the modern age.

If the owner of this puppet is indeed a magician, then the other party is not just a mere thing. At the very least, it was not something that a single squadron can handle. 　 And if the opponent was indeed a magician, it's not impossible to think about why all the guards of the Librarium died here.

“We are going back.”

It was too dangerous to stay here any longer. Grimwood carried Jin's arm on his shoulder and started to walk away.

The area was unusually quiet. It smelled of blood and dead bodies.

Jin and the others left the basement as quickly as they could, pushed back by the disquiet.

Part 4

There was someone who had been oberserving them closely.

Always observing. They have been observing the guards of the Novus Orbis Librarium descend into the basement while killing researchers of Sector Seven. The way they died there one after another and the confusion and struggles of the seven new samples who arrived late.

Always there. Observing.

A huge, motionless device, surrounded with countless coffins. From behind it, a man stepped out with small, clacking footsteps.

His golden hair was brushed back and he wore fine-looking clothes. If he had been in the right place, he would have looked like a noble gentleman, but the carpet of corpses under his feet, the golden mask covering the upper half of his face, and the eye-catching purple cloak turned that look of a nobel gentlman into a rather odd one.

"Seagull and... the Nox Nyctores, Mucro Algesco: Yukianesa. Hmmm. I've observed some pretty interesting stuff today."

The masked man put his white-gloved hand to his chin and spoke to himself in a voice that sounded impressed, but with little human emotion.

Behind him was another figure, even taller than him.

The smooth curves of her body were like that of a woman. The scarlet dress she wore was vivid, but on closer inspection, it was not a human being, but a very finely crafted doll.

The masked man started to walk away. The scarlet doll chased after him.

Eventually, as the undisturbed footsteps of the masked man and the scarlet doll receded into the distance, the basement finally became a space only for the dead.

Back to Chapter 2: Mucro Algesco: Yukianesa/ Laughing man

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Forward to Chapter 4: Promises and Vows / Listening