Kurumi, Hu, Taka, Aryu, Mika, Jhun, Takamura… They were the only “pieces” left from that massive operation. Everyone else had been swallowed by the children of that bottomless darkness—the Void Creatures.

  And now, they were the new targets of that insatiable hunger. The drool leaking from the creatures’ enormous mouths was like a bloody preview of the dismemberment feast that was about to begin.

  「Haa, Haa……!」

  Kurumi’s knees could no longer hold, and she collapsed trembling onto the stone ground. A few drops of sweat slid down her pale skin, mingling with death’s cold breath. She was too young to die. She hadn’t achieved anything yet, hadn’t touched her dreams, hadn’t even… said goodbye to Amy.

  (I don’t want to die… Please, not yet…)

  That single sentence spilling from her mind was a silent scream echoing in the void. The Void Creature’s massive claws tore through the air, coming to erase Kurumi’s existence from the world. Kurumi shut her eyes tightly.

  Her only wish now was that the pain would be brief.

  「――――」

  One second passed. Two seconds… The expected blow did not come.

  Realizing she was still breathing, Kurumi slowly opened her eyes. Right in front of her lay the owner of the massive claw that had just spat death at her, sprawled on the ground in a pool of blood. On the creature’s neck was a flawless cut, delivered with surgical precision.

  「―Huh!」

  When she lifted her head to understand what had happened, her dark eyes collided with those icy gray ones.

  Sae.

  Sae spun in midair like a storm around his own axis, swinging his sword, and vanished from sight for an instant. A fraction of a second later, as if he had always been there, he reappeared on the ground. Along with him, three more Void Creatures collapsed in slow motion, bearing that invisible kiss of death on their necks.

  Mika murmured breathlessly: 「This… the Vice-Leader of the Veil of Shadows cult, Sae-kun…」

  Sae was not alone; his personal unit and the soldiers of the 1st Company emerged from his shadow as well. At their head was Chuya, who had taken the leadership seat after Chuya Tora’s betrayal.

  Sae turned around. His gray eyes, shadowed by long lashes, locked onto Kurumi’s terror-filled black ones.

  Sae: 『What’s going on here, rookies? Report.』

  There was a cold curiosity in his voice, as if questioning how this absurd disaster had come to pass. Kurumi was about to open her mouth when Hu spoke first, snatching the words from the air.

  Hu: 「We began the operation to take the Shogun District with 200 soldiers and 10 veterans, following Rex’s sudden decision… But everyone… everyone died. Only me, Kurumi, Taka, Aryu, Mika, Takamura, and Jhun are left.」

  Sae nodded silently and turned forward. His eyes fixed on the few remaining creatures still approaching. In an instant, he vanished as if evaporating.

  Kurumi: 「How… how fast…」

  As that thought echoed in her head, the ground shook. When she turned her gaze, she saw another creature’s lifeless body slam into the ground. Sae had already taken down another. He had no intention of stopping; with his next move, he leapt into the air, formed icicles with his hands to blind the creatures, and with a single sword swing severed both of their heads from their bodies.

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  There was no longer a single living Void Creature left in the Shogun District. The area was ready to fall under the absolute control of Veil of Shadows.

  As Chuya’s troops began preparations to return, Kurumi still looked around in shock. Her mind couldn’t comprehend this speed, this brutality, this “success.”

  (200 people… 200 lives lost! Sae—doesn’t he think the mission was successful thanks to these people? Does he not care at all!?)

  Sae cast an icy glance around and gave his order:

  Sae: 『Everyone, prepare to return to the cult. For now, our business here is finished.』

  Kurumi’s heart pounded against her ribcage. It couldn’t be this easy. It couldn’t be this soulless. She had to speak. She couldn’t accept this silence and this sense of “completion.”

  Kurumi: 「N-No… I can’t be ready!」

  Sae slowly turned toward Kurumi at her sharp, reckless outburst. There was neither anger nor regret in his gray eyes. Only a deep, boundless emptiness…

  Sae: 『Why are we stopping? We don’t have much time. We need to move quickly.』

  Kurumi clenched her fist. The pain of her nails digging into her palm competed with the ache in her heart. Kuryi… had sacrificed his life for someone as useless as her. Even if Sae didn’t know that, this “indifference” toward so many lost lives was absurd to the extreme.

  Kurumi: 「For these people… are you not going to do anything? Won’t you honor them, mourn them? Won’t you even apologize for being late!?」

  Her voice was like a scream echoing through the corridors.

  Kurumi: 「Are you just going to leave them and go, huh? Then what’s the difference between you and them? Is there nothing left inside you except killing!?」

  「――――」

  Silence.

  Hu, Aryu, Mika, Chuya, and all the other soldiers… everyone held their breath, watching Kurumi’s suicidal outburst. What she said was true and tore open a wound in every heart; but the person standing before them was Sae.

  Sae looked directly into Kurumi’s trembling pupils, without bothering to hide the fatigue in his gray eyes.

  Sae: 『Mourning them won’t accomplish anything. To ensure that the lives they sacrificed were not wasted… we must keep moving forward. That’s all.』

  Kurumi still refused to accept it. No—she hated being forced to accept it. No one wanted to live knowing they were a “disposable pawn” on a chessboard.

  Kurumi: 『…You,』

  The girl’s whisper echoed in Sae’s ears like a curse.

  Kurumi: 『If you had lost someone you loved… could you still act like this?』

  「――Hmm」

  That question was enough to shatter even someone as emotionally stripped as Sae, if only for a moment. This time, Sae’s voice wasn’t just cold—it froze to the bone.

  Sae: 『No one here is my friend or my family. My sole objective is to help Rex free Ayanon. A deal based purely on mutual benefit… You are nothing more than that to me.』

  No one could utter a single word in response to that icy confession. Sae turned his back, his cloak snapping sharply in the wind.

  Sae: 『Prepare yourselves. We’re leaving.』

  It was an order. Kurumi no longer had the strength or courage to oppose him. The gap in power between her and Sae wasn’t a chasm—it was an entirely different world. Hu quietly stepped beside Kurumi and placed a hand on her shoulder. She was right—but Sae was realistic too. You couldn’t die with the dead.

  The group left the blood-soaked borders of the Shogun District and moved toward the cult’s territory. Kurumi, Hu, and Taka walked side by side. Kurumi’s unease was obvious; she kept looking back at the battlefield turned graveyard.

  The scenes of Void Creatures devouring her friends alive were carved into her mind, impossible to erase.

  At that moment… the wind shifted.

  The air suddenly grew heavy. A strange, nauseating sense of unease blanketed everything. Sae abruptly stopped at the front of the group. As his hand went to the hilt of his sword, he scanned the surroundings.

  With 300 soldiers, the 1st Company, and Sae present… attacking here would have been either madness or suicide.

  Then came a sound that felt as though the sky itself was tearing apart.

  ???: 『Aaaah… Mortals. Haven’t you grown tired of always being down there? If you looked up just once, you might finally realize your own helplessness.』

  An ancient, authoritative, and spine-chilling voice.

  Sae, Kurumi, and the others all lifted their heads at once. The being in the air surveyed those below with its three eyes. Its blond hair was tied atop its head, the areas around its eyes painted completely black. But those eyes… they seemed to contain entire universes, clouds of stardust within them. Beside it stood another tall figure, also blond, wearing glasses.

  Sae slightly drew his sword from its sheath. His gray eyes narrowed with hatred.

  Sae: 『Who are you?』

  The three-eyed being grinned as if it had just heard an extremely funny joke. Its gaze fixed directly on Sae.

  ???: 『You’re terribly impatient, Sae-chan.』

  Kurumi’s heart skipped in fear.

  (Sae-chan? How… how does this being know Sae’s name!?)

  Everyone stood frozen, staring at the horrifying entity in the sky. Yet the being’s voice didn’t drift down through the air; it echoed directly inside their skulls, in the deepest corners of their minds.

  Haijan: 『Actually…… I am one of the six ancient beings—Haijan, Lord of Creation.』