episode_0406

The tactical map updated its information. Contrary to expectations, it wasn’t a completely absurd location. Triangulation, calculating the distance between clones, swiftly computed the position.

Calculation, tracking, analysis. Fortunately, it was within the southern district of Academy City. Even broadly speaking, it shouldn’t be far from where the pursuit began.

The Violets let out sighs of relief. The opponent didn’t seem to possess continent-spanning mobility.

“But something’s fishy! What is that person?!”

The eyes of the girls on site alternately scanned the woman in front and the armed warriors behind her. Forty red eyes behind masks and goggles scanned the targets up and down like airport security scanners.

The number of clones pulled along by the sudden movement was just over twenty. According to Violet’s judgment, this was a sufficient state for unimpeded action and thought, ideal for analyzing the enemy.

Thus, fifteen thousand immense wills converged on one point in an instant. Though individual capabilities might be insignificant, just as individual raindrops form a mighty river, their wills united as one.

Highly sophisticated computational and analytical abilities meticulously analyzed the target.

No expression, no lip movement, no visible attire, not even the slightest facial muscle twitch was missed.

The collective intelligence first meticulously examined the woman’s appearance.

Flowing hair with a reddish, blood-like tint. Beneath her cascading hair, an elegant and refined dress enveloped her body.

Her demeanor was as graceful as a doll.

Except, perhaps, for her somewhat outdated style.

“Victorian?”

“No, ‘classic Tristian style’ would be more accurate.”

The Violets exchanged silent glances about historical attire. To the exile, their silent scrutiny simply seemed like staring.

Soon, within that silence, she detected a surge of invisible information. It was a unique phenomenon that only those who understood Aether, dimensional physics, and spacetime manipulation could perceive.

Even then, had she not known beforehand, she would never have been able to recognize it.

From the sky above the ceiling, countless streams of information were converging on this spot.

The moment she witnessed the vast flow of information, Exoria was temporarily gripped by a hallucination of countless red eyes staring at her. The other Arcit agents, unaware of the situation, stood by blankly.

She, however, considered herself fortunate. Though not as oppressive as Monad’s tyrannical child, the pressure was considerable.

If an ordinary person had been directly exposed to the sight she was witnessing, they would have gone mad.

Not in the distant future, but right now, with biological weapons and tracking satellites neutralized, there was no way to subdue this entity.

To faithfully commit to the present was her only remaining option.

“You must have been startled by my sudden appearance. I apologize for that, Ariel.”

The fan in her left hand folded smoothly as if drawn in. At the sharp snap, the Violets’ index fingers instinctively moved to rest on their triggers and sword hilts.

In response, Exoria offered a troubled smile and raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Excuse me, but is there any problem with the title I just used? If not, I will continue to use it.”

“Call me whatever you want.”

No sooner had she finished speaking than the agents behind Exoria holstered their weapons. The Violets, unable to hide their bewilderment at the sudden change in attitude, tilted their heads as if demanding an explanation.

The otherworldly exile was relieved that communication through dialogue was still viable.

“So, who are you? What organization do you belong to?”

The woman replied with vacant eyes, gazing into the distance.

“Excuse me, but I cannot tell you about my organization. However, I can tell you my name.”

“Your name?”

“My name is ‘No One’.”

“What kind of name is that?”

“Then, how about another name?”

Exoria continued speaking slowly, as if carefully choosing her words.

“I have many names. Utis, Nesuno, Niemand, Nemo, Canenas. Exilium, the one who walks the path of no return…”

At the sudden wordplay, the collective intelligence began to grow angry.

“Hey! What kind of nonsense is that? If you don’t want to talk, just say you won’t!”

“I apologize. It is classified.”

Some of the Violets in the back boastfully pulled out larger weapons.

Exoria cautiously raised both hands again, signaling her lack of resistance.

“Calm down, Ariel. It’s regrettable that there are many things I cannot tell you, but I did not come to fight.”

“Huh?”

The Violets, who had been silent, spoke again.

“…I want to apologize for the sudden spatial teleportation earlier. We also had personal circumstances that left us short on time to explain. But I want to tell you just one thing: our purpose aligns with yours in a certain aspect.”

“What aspect?”

As the Violets questioned her, Exoria elegantly extended her right hand and replied. Her slender index finger pointed to the bound killer held by the Violets.

“We came here to apprehend that atrocious murderer.”

No sooner had she finished speaking than chains shot out from beneath the warehouse floor with a fierce metallic clang.

While the startled Violets quickly retreated, the chains ferociously bound the killer. His body, momentarily free, was tightly constricted by a powerful force, rendering him immobile.

“…!”

“We did not come here to cause any friction with you. We merely came to execute that man.”

“Why?”

Violet asked. It felt rather absurd to them that these individuals had suddenly appeared, acting as apostles of justice. While they possessed extraordinarily extraordinary abilities for someone after a bounty, their overly courteous demeanor was also peculiar.

“That is—”

“You’re hiding something. Answer me. What’s the reason?”

Some of the Violets tapped their index fingers on the hands holding their weapons, as if in rhythm.

The sound reminded Exoria of a rattlesnake giving a warning before striking its prey.

“If you hide anything or lie, we’ll kill you all.”

At the quiet but powerful threat, the agents behind her faltered imperceptibly. Feeling their unease, Exoria turned back and smiled slightly, and then their trembling ceased.

The exile’s keen senses confirmed that the opponent was scrutinizing them in detail with a collective awareness. It seemed best to answer with some truth.

‘This much is within the Administrator’s permitted scope.’

“It’s a shameful matter, but that person belongs to our organization. During training, for some reason, he lost control of his power and ran wild, then escaped from the training grounds. That is why we have come to clean up the mess we made.”

“What? So you’re responsible for this situation?”

“Sadly, yes, Ariel, it is true. We deeply acknowledge our responsibility for this.”

As she finished speaking, the Violets’ eyes caught the woman’s sorrowful expression.

“Furthermore, we intend to anonymously compensate the victims for all damages incurred thus far. Ariel, would you please hand that person over to us?”

The Violets were silent. The collective intelligence meticulously analyzed the entire conversation.

Thousands of analyses were added to each expression and every word, and it didn’t seem like a complete lie.

However, the fact that she was hiding much still made them uncomfortable.

“Wait, is it right to just let them go like this?”

“Right! That prey is ours. Capture? No way! We have to kill him.”

There was no way to verify the truth. More than anything, other things aroused the Violets’ suspicions.

The woman before them was somehow unsettling. A bizarre quality, like that of a puppet made from a well-preserved corpse.

“Is that even a person?”

This being was like an uninvited guest at a ball, wearing ill-fitting clothes. If they were to split a single second into tens of thousands of frames, an indescribable, unpleasant squirming could be felt beneath the figure’s outer skin.

An awkwardness masquerading as composure, a disguise acting as a smile.

A subtle sensory dissonance, difficult for an ordinary person to discern.

The Violets knew such beings well. They had encountered one before.

“Are they them? Surely not?”

The collective intelligence rapidly constructed a logic.

Enemies of democracy, pawns of imperialism, and human-aligned organizations that might cooperate with them.

“We must inform the Inspector!”

But a momentary possibility caught the collective intelligence’s apprehension.

What if, just what if, their words were true?

“What if it’s someone like Bernike? If it’s an appropriate psycho villain, we could cooperate. If it’s someone like Auntie Ennis, it’s even more troublesome.”

Then, suddenly, the Violets remembered an effective test.

The most reliable way to identify a tyrant, as taught by the otherworldly democratic battleships.

“Kale’s logic might work!”

The Violets chuckled inwardly at the intriguing idea.

“Alright, is that the truth?”

“Yes, it is.”

The Violets softened their posture, as if to ease the atmosphere.

“Alright, we’ll hand him over. But what will you do with that guy, Sebastian?”

The Violets spoke brightly, as if letting down their guard.

“…Ah, as for him, we’ll simply erase his memories before handing him over. Ariel, that would be more convenient for you as well, wouldn’t it?”

Exoria gestured for the limp Sebastian to be lifted.

The Violets nodded, seemingly satisfied.

“Great! Oh, and one more thing I want to ask. It’s nothing big, just a simple thing. Will you answer?”

“What is it?”

The Violets spoke with the cheerful innocence of a curious girl their age.

“Say, ‘Monad’s Sovereign is trash!’”

“…Ugh!”

A short groan escaped Exoria’s lips.

The effect was intense.

**

At the Violets’ words, Exoria’s composed face shattered like a plaster statue dropped on the floor. She violently clutched the back of her neck, like an alcoholic waking from a hangover.

Though surprised by her intense reaction, the Violets shouted again.

“What, you can’t? Why can’t you? Repeat after me! Repeat it!”

“I, I refuse.”

The woman, flustered, fumbled at her neck and the back of her head. The golden artifact devices at the back of her head briefly flashed with a rainbow shimmer.

“Come on, the Emperor of Monad, or whatever, that piece of crap is the worst kind of trash. Eidos is an enemy of humanity that should be ground to dust! Why can’t you say it!”

“Cough…!”

As the condemnation of the alien enemy intensified once more, Exoria coughed briefly. Despite being suppressed by the artifact, the prohibition was potent.

But to the Violets, it merely appeared as an overly sensitive reaction.

“Why can’t you? As expected, you’re not human, are you?”

“Just a moment, Ariel. I am not the kind of being you think I am!”

Exoria hastily cried out in dismay, but it was already too late to explain.

Moreover, in the Violets’ eyes, the warriors behind the woman had already drawn their swords and bows, aiming at them.

“Kale was right! They can’t badmouth their boss!”

At that reaction, the Violets became even more convinced.

And an enemy of humanity was, by extension, an enemy of Violet and democracy.

Perhaps the time had come to use the techniques they had been saving.

“Headquarters reports: No questions, swift resolution!”

As Exoria barely suppressed the limits of the prohibition, she caught sight of a Violet assuming a peculiar stance.

The warehouse floor shattered. Fragments flew.

By the time she comprehended the reason for the situation, it was already too late.

“Adjust stance! Bend knee angle 5% more! Increase mana allocation to ligaments and muscles by 15%!”

The temporarily elevated heat escaped with her breath. White vapor billowed from her mouth.

Violet leapt.

—Boom!

An imperfectly executed Raix-Haiburn Style, First Form, propelled Violet forward like a bullet.

The charge, amplified by time acceleration, appeared as nothing more than a faint blur in Exoria’s vision.

Superhuman pressure instantly closed the immense spatial gap.

“Join us, Apostle!”

In a flash, Violet’s hand touched the exile’s head.

Instantly, a small flash of light obstructed their vision.

**

A very brief, yet seemingly eternal darkness.

Then there was light.

Exoria gazed at the scene before her. Inside a desolate building, a horrific scene unfolded within a pale green hemispherical barrier. The woman standing there with an arrogant posture exuded quiet cruelty.

Her shimmering blonde hair glistened dazzlingly in the sunlight, and her ruby-red eyes held a burning intensity within their sinister expression.

“So, that damned woman locked me up, did she? Ha! But don’t think this is the end. I’ll soon send you and your glorious comrades to join her!”

The woman forcefully kicked the headless female body and slowly approached. Before her stood a black-haired man with a face distorted by despair, and young boys and girls filled with rage.

Intense fury and a terrible stench of blood filled the air. Exoria blinked, feeling a strange confusion.

This was not the present world.

The scene shifted again. Beyond the horizon, a vast, yellow, undulating expanse of land, like waves. Approaching closer, the landscape was revealed to be a dense mass of countless human beings.

From afar, the golden waves of hair resembled a field of wheat.

On a wide platform, the mature woman she had seen before was shouting herself hoarse.

“—The world is ours!”

The woman’s fist punched the sky. At that moment, a forest of countless sharply glinting blades erupted from the yellow land.

The planet was engulfed by countless girls. Through fire and smoke, the girls advanced, drinking blood. Screams, destruction, and bizarre laughter mingled together.

Those who fled were caught, and the girls and the woman smiled as they placed their hands on the captives’ heads. Their screams instantly morphed into bizarre laughter.

The victims, now girls themselves, raced to the planet’s poles to propagate themselves.

Soon, all of Trist vibrated with endless laughter.

Exoria could vividly feel the terror of those victims.

An endless, multiplying, horrifying curse.

The fragment of a world glimpsed through the immense chasm of time and space sounded an ominous warning to her.

And the worst nightmare descended upon her again.

The most painful moment, one she never wanted to revisit, flashed through her mind.

The instant she peered through a tiny spatial rift, a group of humans, filled with both joy and fear, confronted her.

Young men and women in classic Tristian attire warmly grasped her hands.

“Welcome!”

“It’s true! It’s open!”

“I told you I was right! Surely, we are free—”

The foolishness of that day, when mere curiosity and interest carved an indelible wound into a young race.

She screamed.

“No, close it! Please!”

Amidst her cry of despair, Exoria gasped and opened her eyes.

In reality, only a few seconds had passed.

A few steps away, the girl from her nightmare was scratching her head with a confused expression.

“What the heck, why did the connection cut out…”

The girl raised her head and stared at the being before her.

“Anyway, Arcit, you say?”

Violet’s voice grew increasingly fierce.

“Did you, by any chance, open the gateway that started the Great War? You Arcit bastards, you were truly a bunch of traitors after all, weren’t you?”

The agents looked at Exoria in terror, as if seeking orders.

She fell silent for a moment. There was no way to defend against the century-old catastrophe.

Just as she felt the danger and was about to flee, she paused.

“You can’t escape! Don’t you feel the connection between us?”

Something was holding her back.

Her decision was instantaneous.

“Retreat. You are no match for them.”

“Exile-nim, no! This way… Madam!—”

She swiftly snapped her fingers.

The agents’ shouts vanished, and they too disappeared instantly.

“Phew, at least I stopped your escape.”

From the faint connection embedded in her mind like a brain tumor, the exile gained a cold realization.

It was now clear who had subdued one of the apostles that appeared in Restraid’s encroached zone.

Precise spatial teleportation was completely blocked.

Yet, a sense of relief washed over her.

Her agents would be safe. She would find a way to escape somehow.

The girl was increasingly understanding her, and this was a fatal threat.

“Hey, Arcit Apostle! Surrender!”

Fortunately, the situation was the same for both of them.

“…Violet Dunhind Ruzilin.”

As Exoria uttered the name, the girl hesitated for a moment. Her expression behind the mask must have been one of astonishment.

“You read it too?”

But the one who should have been astonished was Exoria herself.

The girl before her was not merely a warlord. In that fleeting moment, she saw everything.

People cruelly murdered, Trist’s downfall, humanity tragically absorbed and vanished.

That was a monster that would swallow and consume worlds. Another tyrant, comparable to Monad’s Sovereign. A mass murderer.

A being that would become the cornerstone of this world’s destruction.

“The Administrator and the analysis team’s predictions were right. I should thank them.”

Countless thoughts whirled through her mind.

Could she survive? Could she escape from here?

An invisible pressure could be felt around the warehouse.

The presence of others had increased, and the pursuers were steadily completing their encirclement.

“Administrator? Arcit? So you are confessing?”

No, she had to.

Exoria, the otherworldly exile, steeled herself.

“Violet, what kind of monster are you?”

Fumbling at the back of her head, Exoria thanked the foresight of Arcit’s first founder.

This artifact implant suppressing her served as a protective shield, momentarily preventing the monster’s assimilation.

“Chatter, chatter, so noisy. You alien monster! You can’t leave here anyway, you know that? Surrender quickly and join us!”

“That’s right! That’s right!”

The exile touched the back of her neck again and took a deep breath.

She had a debt to repay to this world.

She could not die until that sin was fully atoned for.

And, if she returned, she would find a way to stop both the tyrant lurking beyond the universe and this monster simultaneously.

By any means necessary.

Because that was for the sake of all sentient life on this planet.

“I will not yield.”

Exoria declared proudly, drawing her fan.

—Boom!

Humanity’s young apostle fiercely charged at Eidos’s exile.