The Traitorous Vessel

The world was frozen over.

The cold, dry air blew over the pale moon, which was the only light source in the silent desert. The chilly beams of light were faded in places, shining down on the ruins that sank into the sand as if to seal them there for eternity.

This was the middle of the Wild Frontier in the central part of the continent. It was especially remote even for the enormous desert, where no one was ever likely to tread.

The quiet moonlight illuminated the ruins of what was once a residence. Humans had abandoned this structure in the face of the harsh climate, but now shadows flitted through in silence like spirits of the dead.

There were three of them. One was shouldering a sack large enough to contain another person. A muffled groan escaped from the closed top of the sack. Judging by the way it was squirming around in protest, there had to be a person inside.

The three men were unmoved by the resistance, which seemed more irritating than anything, as they ran along their hidden route through the desert. Even in the dark of night, with only the moonlight to guide them, they moved with trained precision, never hesitating or sinking into the sand.

As further proof that they were highly experienced, they were all cloaked in faint light that drove away the pitch-black night—a power called Guiding Force that could be drawn from the soul, the root of life, to boost their physical strength.

The Guiding Enhancement made their strides fast and strong. Eventually, a metal gate appeared in their path.

The gatekeeper approached and had a brief exchange with the men. In the guard’s hand was a weapon that the Faust forbade to be produced, distributed, or possessed: a Guiding gun.

Once he peered at each of their faces, the gatekeeper nodded and signaled toward the entrance. The doors opened with a heavy metal grating, and the men stepped into the facility.

The gatekeeper returned to his post. It was a taxing job, but his face was alert as he looked around.

He, however, didn’t realize that an intruder had slipped through when the gate opened moments ago.

The men were being followed.

It was no surprise that none of them had noticed. The mysterious individual was more like a wisp of air cloaked in darkness than an ordinary human. In the already low visibility, someone who was disguised in the color of the night would be all too easy to miss.

Once inside, the intruder let down the technique she’d been using.

“…Whew.”

The darkness seemed to melt away, revealing a lovely young woman who looked to be in her mid-teens.

She wore an indigo priestess robe, a yellow cape, and a skirt and held a scripture in one hand—all clear indications that she was a member of the Faust. The right side of her skirt had a slit that exposed her leg, but it was by no means a fashion choice: it was a modification so she could access the dagger belted to her right thigh.

“Let’s see…”

Having followed the men and infiltrated the facility, Menou licked her lips. As she looked around, her light-chestnut hair swished behind her, secured in a ponytail by a black scarf ribbon.

Guiding Camouflage—a technique that involved changing the color of the phosphorescent light produced by Guiding Enhancement to fool the eye—required very precise control of Guiding Force. It was an incredibly difficult technique that only a few people could use, but recently, Menou had mastered active Camouflage, the art of matching her color to her surroundings.

Using this to transform into someone else was an even more difficult feat. With her current abilities, Menou could cover her face with a mask, but changing her natural features was harder. Even keeping up Guiding Camouflage while following the men in the dark of night was not easy at all.

“They’re skilled, all right. I’ll have to be careful.”

As she recalled the movements of the men she’d followed, Menou checked her surroundings again, her expression still serious.

This place must have been built on preexisting ruins; there were simple clay buildings everywhere. She spotted some tents and huts being used as barracks and a five-story building in the middle. Judging by the tight security, that was probably the center of the operation.

It was all surprisingly thorough for something in the middle of the Wild Frontier.

Menou scowled, annoyed to have to infiltrate such a place without any prior research. And it was all because of the contents of the sack those men were carrying.

Yes, the person inside the sack was Menou’s traveling companion: Akari.

She was a naive, carefree, happy-go-lucky girl. But she was also a lost one, a person summoned from another world with a strange and formidable power attached to her soul called a Pure Concept. There was no shortage of people who would want to get their hands on her power, which could even undo the will of the world.

The men had attacked as they were crossing the desert to escape the Wild Frontier. There were a total of five in the party who jumped them in the middle of the night. At first, she’d assumed they were just some delinquents who thought they’d stumbled across two defenseless women, but they turned out to be far more skilled than expected. While Menou was cutting down two of them, the other three captured Akari and fled from under her nose.

It was Menou’s fault, even if it had been a surprise attack. She was motivated by the urge to destroy their base; it was the reason she’d continued following the men after she tracked them down.

But now that she saw the scale of that base, she was regretting her choice.

“I should’ve gotten in touch with Momo right away…”

Momo was her junior and her aide. Picturing the girl with the two pink pigtails, Menou sighed.

She’d assumed that some desert bandits couldn’t be more than a few dozen people, but their headquarters was practically a military base. Judging by the amount of materials and number of personnel in sight, there had to be over a hundred people here, and they must have been part of a bigger organization.

There were few towns with bases of this scale, even in populated territories. Bringing it down was a task far too large for one person, including an Executioner like Menou.

“…I guess I’ll focus on getting Akari back.”

Who had made a base in the middle of the Wild Frontier, and why? It was Menou’s duty to pass judgment on those engaged in forbidden activities, so she wanted to know what was happening here, but she couldn’t investigate until she accomplished her main goal of recovering Akari.

Steadying herself, Menou set her sights on one of the buildings: the one the men had just entered with the sack that contained Akari.

It was an unrefined single-story building, evidently made with stone from the ruins. Menou drew close to the window and scratched the glass. With scarcely a sound, she broke the pane near the lock and opened the window before slipping into the room.

There was no sign of anyone inside. A Guiding lamp, a vessel for Guiding Force, illuminated the space.

Menou slid down the hallway, her footsteps silent. Conveniently, she soon caught up to the men who were hauling the bag.

The men who’d been sprinting in silence outside were now chatting as they ambled down the hallway, their guards down now that they were inside their base. None of them seemed to notice Menou. As she continued trailing them carefully, they reached a room lined with iron bars.

It appeared to be some kind of prison. This building must have been for holding captives, then. Menou grimaced, imagining what it might look like if the place were full.

The men opened one of the empty cells and moved to toss the sack containing Akari inside.

It was Menou’s turn to strike. Her targets were the three men who had captured Akari. And having followed them into the room, Menou was between them and the exit.

Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Invoke [Guiding Thread]

She stealthily invoked a crest that created thread around her dagger’s hilt.

Still behind them, Menou matched her breathing to the men’s, calculating the perfect timing. How many of them could she take down with a surprise attack? Her focus tightened like a bowstring being drawn.

Her main target was the man holding Akari. The last thing she needed was for him to use her as a shield. Concentrating her focus to the tips of her fingers, she pictured a perfect hit on her target.

Then she threw the dagger.

“Ngah—”

The dagger drove into the back of the man’s head and through his brain stem, killing him instantly. He crumpled to the floor with the blade still attached, letting Akari’s sack crash down.

The other two reacted immediately.

“Tch!”

“Dammit! We were followed!”

Despite the fact that their comrade had just died in front of them, the men assessed the situation calmly and shifted into battle mode. Their movements were smooth as they pulled out knives and small Guiding guns and pointed them at Menou.

They were skilled, Menou had to admit. As she inwardly clicked her tongue, the two fired at once. When they pulled the triggers, the unusual barrels drew out their Guiding Force, which was condensed into bullets that shot toward her with a bang.

Their aim was smart. Rather than trying to hit her, they fired warning shots to try to move Menou away from the exit. Most likely, they hoped to catch her flank when she moved out of their line of fire and take control of the fight.

Since she could tell that was their plan, however, Menou was under no obligation to go along with it.

Guiding Force: Connect—Priestess Robes, Crest—Invoke [Barrier]

The barrier crest etched into her priestess robes activated. A wall of faint light formed in front of Menou, bouncing the projectiles back.

“Mmph?!”

Akari squirmed around on the floor like a caterpillar, either out of pain from hitting the floor or alarm from the sound of gunshots. At a glance, it didn’t look like she’d been hit by any stray bullets. If Akari tried to do anything, she could cause all kinds of trouble.

Menou snapped at her. “Akari. Stay still!”

“Mmph. Mmmph!”

Though her words were incomprehensible, Akari at least stopped moving. Deciding that she’d be okay on her own for the moment, Menou concentrated on the two men.

In a pause between the gunshots, the barrier disappeared, and Menou dashed forward. She yanked on the Guiding Thread attached to her dagger to pull it back into her hands. As she readied the blade, she closed in without hesitation, keeping the distance short enough that they wouldn’t have time to aim.

Menou lashed out at one man’s throat, and he just barely managed to block with his knife.

Their eyes met. While Menou’s expression was perfectly cool, the man was clearly panicking. The girl’s slender arm was pushing back his thick, muscular one. She was using Guiding Enhancement to make up for the natural difference in their strength and even surpassing him in power.

“Damn…you…!”

The other man snarled and moved to aim his gun at Menou, who shifted immediately to place his comrade between them as a shield. She was positioning herself to stay in a one-on-one battle instead of one-on-two.

They had a visible difference in skill. It would only be a matter of time before the fight would end.

The men quickly made a judgment call.

“Listen! She’s too strong for us. Bring out you-know-what.”

“Got it!”

Menou didn’t know what they were referring to, but given the timing, it was probably some kind of reinforcements. Were they going to sacrifice one man so the other could go get help? She prepared to stop them, but her assumption was wrong.

Instead, there was a flash of red light from within the man in back. Menou’s eyes widened at the all-too-familiar sign.

He had a Primary Red Stone embedded in his body.

“Are you insane?!” Menou cried.

The man laughed fiercely in reply.

The next instant, he contracted inward with a squelching sound. The red stone inside him absorbed his body from the inside. Unlike the terrorists Menou had once encountered on a train, this man didn’t seem afraid at all.

It wasn’t self-destruction. He was giving up his life to transfigure himself into an even more troublesome foe. He’d chosen a sacrificial strategy just to stop Menou.

“You—!”

“Not a chance!”

Menou tried to destroy the core before it could activate, but the remaining man stopped her. This, too, was a terrifying act of commitment to the cause. The man grimly used his knife and gun to buy enough time.

Guiding Force: Merge Materials—Primary Red Stone, Inner Seal Conjuration—Activate [Primary Red, Six-Armed Soldier]

A red soldier manifested from the primary hues that colored the world.

Shaped like a deity with six arms, the conjured fighter impaled the man who was struggling against Menou with a swing of its swords. Then it brought a red blade toward her from her blind spot.

“What?!”

Menou knocked away the weapon, and she immediately jumped up high into the air. The man who’d been stabbed from behind by the conjured soldier smirked.

“Heh-heh…! Too late. You’re not getting out of here alive.”

Even with his dying breath, the man never once cursed his fate.

His body shriveled. The sword that had impaled him was absorbing his blood as sustenance. And it wasn’t just that man. Each of the conjured soldier’s six swords was moving toward the man Menou had first brought down—and toward Akari, who was still in the sack.

“I won’t let you!” Menou shouted angrily.

If she hesitated at all, she’d never make it. Heedless of the danger, she sprang directly toward the girl as quickly as she could.

The red sword sliced through the air, just barely missing her.

All six swords swung toward Menou at differing speeds, trying to surround her. As she dived in a straight line, the conjured soldier predicted her movements all too easily. If anyone else was there to witness this scene, they would surely expect to see Menou’s innards splattered everywhere in the next moment.

But the attacks, coming toward her with triple the limbs of an ordinary human, didn’t even graze her.

Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Invoke [Gale]

Just as the swords moved, there was a burst of wind from Menou’s dagger.

It was a speedy, expertly used crest conjuring. The sudden gust propelled the priestess even faster, allowing her to slip past the arms.

“Mmph?!”

Sliding past the conjured soldier, Menou grabbed the sack without slowing down. The sudden movement must have surprised Akari, who exclaimed from inside, but Menou ignored her. As she shouldered the sack and its pleasantly soft contents, she jumped back to put distance between her and the conjured soldier.

The enemy didn’t try to chase her down. Instead, it impaled the man Menou had first brought down to absorb the corpse’s blood.

Menou clicked her tongue.

“A Six-Armed Soldier…”

This was one form of autonomous conjured weapons: a knightlike construction modeled after a human.

Conjured soldiers were incredibly tough. Their entire bodies were hard, and they could keep moving as long as their core was intact. This was a poor match for Menou, who specialized in sharper, more targeted movements. To make matters worse, the person it was based on had been very strong. If she had to cross blades with those six swords, she might get pushed back.

Menou wasn’t likely to lose to it in a one-on-one battle, but this was an enemy base. If she got surrounded by reinforcements while she was fighting this conjured soldier, they would be in big trouble. And if she made any big moves, that was likely to bring more enemies running.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle the conjured soldier in front of her; it was the overall situation that had her worried.

What should she do?

Menou was gritting her teeth at her limited options when she heard a loud clang.

One of the iron-bar doors in the back of the room was rattling.

Menou hadn’t realized there were any captives here besides Akari. She snapped her head around to look at the cell and saw a girl in a nun’s outfit.

“Nice to see you again, Menou.”

Nice to see you again. Menou’s eyes widened at this greeting—an extremely unexpected one—and the person who said it.

The girl was around Menou’s age, with eye-catching silver hair in loose waves. Her droopy emerald-green eyes made her look drowsy, but that wasn’t necessarily the case. It was just her natural eye shape.

Menou knew this girl’s name.

“No way… Is that you, Sahara?”

“It is.” Sahara nodded and reached her left hand through the bars. “I see you’re still wearing that ribbon.”

Had she been captured and locked up, or did she end up here some other way? Menou had no idea, but there was no time to wonder.

“Could you let me out of here? I’m sure I can be of some help.”

“All right.” Menou needed any help she could get. She broke the lock with her dagger and opened the door. “Sahara. I know it’s been a while, but catching up will have to wait until—”

“Listen, Menou.”

GRRRGL. A stomach growled.

The possessor of said stomach, Sahara, spoke in a listless drawl. “Sorry. I’m so hungry, I don’t have any strength left.”

“So are you saying you’re going to slow me down?!”

The enemy, of course, wouldn’t stop and wait for them to finish this silly exchange.

Menou quickly pulled Sahara down to the floor to save them both from the soldier’s attack.

“They’ve been giving me the bare minimum amount of food so I can’t break out… I figured if I didn’t say I could help, you’d abandon me. Sorry about that.”

“Of course I’d save you! You’re an old friend!”

In fact, even if she hadn’t been a familiar face, Menou still would have rescued any innocent person being held captive by this criminal group. How heartless did Sahara think she was?

She’d tried to increase her allies and ended up with even more baggage instead. At this point…Menou let Akari out of the sack.

“Oh, hey, cutie,” cooed Sahara in a voice that was far too relaxed for their current predicament. The person who emerged from the sack was a very cute girl.

She had black hair and round, lively black eyes. Though her face looked young for sixteen, she was far curvier than the average girl.

“Ahhh! Mmm! The air is so fresh out here. Thanks, Menou! Hmm? Who’s this lovely silver-haired lady—whoa, what’s with the red guy?!”

As soon as Menou untied the gag, Akari took a deep breath, immediately celebrated her freedom, tilted her head at the newcomer, and finally exclaimed in shock at the conjured soldier pointing its swords toward them—in that order. As always, she was very expressive.

“Hey, I’ve seen that kinda thing before! Y’know, from back when we first met. Am I right? The thing on the train, remember?!”

“That’s right. This is a similar situation. So I beg of you, Akari: Just be quiet!”

As Menou tried to silence the noisy abductee, Sahara casually interrupted. “Nice to meet you, Akari. You have very pretty black hair and eyes. I’m Sahara. I’m a nun, but you could also call me Menou’s old flame.”

“Huh? ……Who are you?”

“Save that for later.” Menou had no time to deal with this at the moment. After scolding them briefly, she draped her arms around Akari, whose eyes had gone dark for some reason, from behind.

“Wait a minute, Menou! I want to hear all about you and…um, Sahara? Right this sec—”

“Akari. This is an emergency. I’m borrowing your Guiding Force.”

Guiding Force: Connect—Akari Tokitou—

“…Aahn!”

As Menou whispered in Akari’s ear, her Guiding Force entered the Japanese girl. Akari’s shoulders trembled from the sudden sensation.

Normally, trying to connect one’s Guiding Force with another person and manipulate their power would be met with painful resistance, but Menou and Akari were an exception. The pain was dependent on the level of trust the giver had toward the person trying to connect to them. When these two synced, the opposition was reduced to little more than a tickling sensation; thus, Menou was able to pull off the feat of using Akari’s Guiding Force.

Extract [Power]—via Menou—

“Hnng…hmph. I-if you think you can…distract me with th…mmm!”

As she tried to resist the ticklish feeling, Akari squirmed, her eyes damp and her breathing heavy and suggestive. She never quite formed the words as to what she was protesting.

Menou sent the power she’d extracted from Akari into her scripture and focused on constructing a conjuring. Sahara whistled, presumably in admiration of her mastery of this skill.

“Connecting Guiding Force…? Leave it to you, Menou. When it comes to seducing women until they can’t tell up from down, you’re second to none.”

That was not the direction of praise Menou was expecting.

A vein pulsed on Menou’s temple. She had hoped Sahara would stay quiet so that she could concentrate. It was tempting to shout at her, but Menou didn’t have any time to waste. Instead, she grimaced through it and kept her focus on the conjuring. It was time to bring it to fruition.

Scripture, 3:1—Invoke [And the oncoming enemy did hear the tolling of the bell.]

An enormous bell made of power formed from the scripture in Menou’s hand.

It was a church symbol that traditionally told the time. Thanks to Akari’s enormous amount of Guiding Force, the conjuring in the form of a bell tower was big enough to cover the entire building.

And it was just as powerful as it was large.

The magnificent bell made of power began to swing back and forth.

Its air-shaking peals blasted the red conjured soldier to shreds. And it didn’t stop there; it sent out shock waves of power that bore down on the area all around them. The makeshift building was only able to hold up to the sudden pressure from the inside for a matter of seconds.

One, two—by the third ring, the entire building had exploded outward.

“Wah!”

Looking around nervously, Akari exclaimed at the new sight.

They’d been inside just moments ago, but now they could see the night sky. Rubble of all sizes was scattered around them. With Akari and Menou at the center, an entire building had blown away. Even Sahara widened her eyes at the unthinkable power of this attack.

“That was…crazy.”

“Menou, that was amazing! You’re the purest, most proper, most powerful priestess ever! But, uh…is this gonna be okay?”

“It’s fine, of course. This was clearly some evil facility built by people up to no good. The world’s better off without it.”

Executioners believed that people who got involved with anything taboo forfeited their human rights.

It was silent around them. People came running out of nearby buildings, but it didn’t look like they were on a mission to stop an intruder. From the looks of things, they were in a panic, trying to find out why a building had suddenly blown up from the inside.

We have to get out of here right now, Menou thought. Then, suddenly, Sahara was behind her, wrapping her arms around her.

“You have to do something about the Vessel…”

Menou began to question her, but the girl brought her lips closer to Menou’s ear.

“You have to kill me.”

It was an unexpected request.

By the time Menou turned to ask what she meant, Sahara had already pulled away.

Confused as she was, Menou decided she would have to ask about it later. For now, she picked up Akari bridal style, activated Guiding Enhancement, and added Camouflage to vanish into the night.

“All right, we’re making a break for it. Hang on tight.”

“Aye-aye, sir!” Akari replied cheerfully, already latching on to Menou’s neck.

“Wait, Menou. What about me? You’re not gonna carry me?”

Menou shot Sahara a chilly glare.

“I don’t care how hungry you are—run like your life depends on it.”

“This is discrimination… C’mon, you’re supposed to treat us like we’re equals…”

Menou and company made a hasty escape in the chaos caused by the building they’d blown away.

“How can I be like you?”

It was right before she entered the monastery. Putting on a nun’s outfit for the first time, young Menou asked this question of her just once.

Perhaps it was just an impulsive question from a child who knew nothing.

The woman Menou was asking was a survivor, an Executioner who had hunted down more taboo entities than any other. How much experience did she have under her belt, how many hellscapes had she fought through, what had she done to become like this? The answer was likely not meant for a child with very little natural talent, not to mention any memories of her past.

Even so, Menou asked.

As they stood on the pure-white expanse of sand, she resolved to become an Executioner. Witnessing this destruction—so much like what had happened to her own hometown but on a far bigger scale—she decided to be on the side that fought against these taboo entities. And her young heart looked to the woman who was always walking in front of her for guidance.

“I’ll become a pure, proper, and powerful villain.”

And when Menou said that, the woman responded: “Then I’ll drill everything I am into your head.”

So when the initial preparations were complete, and she put on her uniform for the first time, she asked: “How can I be like you?”

“What an idiot.”

The priestess with dark-red hair threw back her head and laughed with her mouth wide open at the innocent question.

She placed her hand heavily on young Menou’s head. She carried a scripture with her left arm, and her right hand was always empty so that she could pull out a weapon at a moment’s notice. So when she put her hand on Menou’s head, it was always with the hand that wielded a blade.

“Menou, if you’re going to learn everything I am, you’ll need to know one thing first. If you want to be like me, then you’ve got a long road ahead of you.”

Menou’s Master, Flare, twisted her lips sardonically.

“You know far too little. First, you must learn people’s hearts and minds, so you can crush them underfoot. Next, you must learn the ways of the world, so you can outwit society. Finally, learn the truth of the universe, so you can resign yourself.”

The most accomplished hunter in history. Just what had she seen when facing off and surviving against the inconceivable beings that continued to be born into this world?

“Know this: What’s right is wrong, justice is the true evil, victory and defeat are the same, and the beginning is also the end. You imagine the world to be fixable, but it’s a lot more hopeless than you realize.”

The Master pulled her hand away from Menou’s head. She had neither patted Menou’s head lightly nor tidied her chestnut hair.

“And once you’ve grown up a little and gotten a chance at happiness, you’ll probably realize you don’t want to be like me at all. That’s when you’ll finally take your first step closer to being me.”

With that, she set off.

“And that’s why I’m going to fill your head with everything I am.”

Menou watched as she walked away.

What exactly was her Master trying to say? Her head still tilted to the side, young Menou thought about it, but she couldn’t come up with an answer in the end.

Instead, she trotted after her Master, moving forward with that dark-red hair to guide her…just as she had always done.

And as she looked up at her Master’s back and chased after her, she knew that would likely always be the case.

She didn’t know what she wanted to protect.

She only had the childish feeling that she wanted to protect people.

Thus, Menou began to walk the path that was stained red.

“…The hell happened here?”

Two men stood in front of the building that had been destroyed beyond all hope of repair.

One was near his forties with a well-toned physique. His default expression was one more of ferocity than calm.

This man’s name was Wolff, and he was the leader in charge of the armed group Iron Chain that had its base here in the desert.

“The damned cells keeping our goods are all messed up. How the hell does the base of Iron Chain, the most notorious band in the desert, get into such a sorry state? I heard the team who went out on the attack came back, so I came to check out the products, and what the hell do I find? Tell me, Miller. What’s going on here?”

“I don’t think it’s that hard to figure out.”

The man called Miller appeared to be a young man in his mid-twenties. He was slender compared to Wolff, but he still looked formidable. His cold eyes were reminiscent of a reptile’s.

He was crouched down, inspecting the remains of the broken building. While everything was a mess from the explosion, he’d spotted some clearly unusual prints: three different sets that were unmistakably small.

All of their underlings at this base were men, and none of particularly small frame. That meant the people who left the footprints had to be outsiders. He narrowed his eyes and picked something up from the ground.

It was a long strand of chestnut hair.

Wolff could guess the whole story with one glance at the thing in Miller’s hand.

“Oh, I see. Chestnut hair, huh? Means it wasn’t the silver-haired nun who blew this building to bits, and the Otherworlder didn’t get outta here on her own, either. Otherworlders always have black hair, yeah?”

“Exactly. It’s gotta be a priestess.”

“So they let some wannabe bodyguard priestess invade our base, blow up a building, and get away… Well, I’m a generous guy. I’ll forgive the dead outta the goodness of my heart. This building didn’t factor into our plans anyway.”

“So what now?”

“Let’s see.” Wolff crossed his arms. “We’ll put kidnapping on hold for now. You get it, right? What we need ain’t people, it’s materials. The whole reason we chose this place without an astral vein is so the Faust wouldn’t notice what we’re up to.”

“I know. But people are materials. And we’re done remodeling this base. That Otherworlder’s Guiding Force might be all we need. Our goal is to set him free. If this place can connect to the eastern Wild Frontier—to the Mechanical Society, even on a small scale—we’ll accomplish our goal soon enough.”

The men nodded at each other.

“Guess we can spare a few more lives for that, then. Might as well roll the dice.”

Wolff looked into the distance in a specific direction. This desert was large, but there was one place any traveler was bound to pass through.

“Take some men and get ahead of them to the supply stop at the oasis. Look for a chestnut-haired priestess with a black-haired girl and a nun with a prosthetic hand. Three young women traveling alone are bound to stand out there. Best option would be to take them all alive, but—well, if you can’t, dead’s fine, too. I’d hate to lose the Guiding Force, but at least they’ll make good materials.”

“Got it. I’m always up for a fight.” Miller nodded at the leader’s order and blew away the strand of hair in his fingers. “I wanna level up, too, y’know?”

“Ha-ha-ha! Damn right. If we kill Flarette and free one of the Four Major Human Errors, we’re bound to move up in the world!”

His eyes glittering with danger, Wolff barked out a laugh.