episode_0260

Inside the exhibition hall, screams echoed. The roars of mutated humans and the groans of people in pain mingled together. In that chaos, a girl was huddled under a desk.

‘I’m scared… Please, someone help me…’

Every time a scream rang out, Ariel’s body trembled. If she hadn’t quickly hidden herself in the crowd when her parents transformed into grotesque monsters and rushed at her, she wouldn’t have escaped.

The monsters, which had been indiscriminately attacking people in front of them, turned their attention to more threatening beings when the hunters’ weapons were aimed at them. Ariel seized the opportunity and crawled under a desk in an unknown company’s booth.

—Crash! Clang! —Bang bang bang!

Still, all around, the roars of monsters, the shouts of battle, and the sounds of gunfire and magic rang out.

Engulfed in fear, Ariel quietly sobbed. She never imagined her parents would turn into monsters…

‘No. That wasn’t Mom and Dad…’

It couldn’t be. How could a person turn into a monster? Denying the situation, Ariel muttered. It must have been a fake. A monster in Mom and Dad’s form, and her real parents must be somewhere else.

‘They must be looking for me.’

So she had to live. She had to endure this situation somehow.

Nevertheless, the horrific scene from moments ago kept replaying in Ariel’s mind. Her parents’ distorted faces, never seen before, their voices calling for her. The sight of them twisting and contorting before her eyes was impossible to forget. And that wasn’t all.

Her head throbbed and ached terribly. Her eyes stung as if they would pop out, and she had no strength left to run anywhere.

She hid like that for a long time. She didn’t think anyone would save her. With her head burning hot with fever, she couldn’t even conjure up enough hope to wish for salvation. She just wished for this nightmare-like time to pass. The girl crouched helplessly in the corner of the desk.

From somewhere, scraping footsteps grew closer. Ariel quickly clapped a hand over her mouth.

Beyond the tablecloth, shadows cast by a pair of eerie, dark legs passed by. Every time the shadows swayed chaotically and grew larger, Ariel tightly closed her eyes and held her breath.

‘Please, just pass by!’

The shadows approached the desk where she was, then moved away in disarray. Just as she felt relieved, wondering if they were chasing someone else, one shadow stopped.

—Clunk!

“Found you!”

The monster lifted the desk and threw it aside. Ariel froze, unable to even think of escaping. Inside the dim exhibition hall, what faced her was…

“Now, for the great throne!”

Beings that were once human, drooling from their grotesquely twisted, four-pronged jaws, snarling. The monster at the front raised a limb that had transformed into a sword-like appendage.

“Ah…”

The bleak reality instantly made the young girl understand what death was. All sorts of thoughts flooded into her mind like a tide.

Will I die like this? I really wanted to get into Aegis Academy… I wanted to make lots of friends, earn a lot of money, and make Mom and Dad comfortable…

For some reason, the last thing that came to mind was the blonde girl who might become her senior. Anticipating the coming pain, Ariel squeezed her eyes shut.

—Blast! Blast! Blast!

The successive gunshots brought her back to reality. The monster staggered backward, shredded by the impact of rapid shotgun fire. The dull thud of footsteps vibrated around her.

“Die! Monster!”

“Ugh! I got hit in the head!”

When Ariel opened her eyes, instead of the monster, a girl in combat uniform stood before her.

“Ugh… It’s stronger than I thought…”

A broken perception-dampening device and a torn mask. Violet, who had been grumbling, belatedly realized that the girl in front of her was staring intently at her.

“Violet Unnie?”

“Oh, wow! It’s Ariel! You’re alive!”

Her cheer was short-lived as Ariel cautiously asked a question.

“Um, Unnie. What are those things? And those people…”

“Oh, this? This is Unnie’s equipment, and those are Unnie’s clones. And—”

Violet’s face, which had been diligently making excuses in front of her potential junior, suddenly stiffened.

“Long live the Ariel Group!”

Ariel’s eyes narrowed as she heard the war cries shouted by the other Violets. Just as she was about to ask more questions, Ariel stumbled and collapsed into Violet’s arms.

「Oh my god! Her fever is no joke!」 「We need Daphne!」

“Um, Unnie, surely—”

“Answers later! Let’s evacuate first!”

Violet 2103 carried her junior on her back and ran to a safe place. She wasn’t the only one running.

「Advance! Advance!」

On the dual front where mind and body intersected, countless Violets ran.

**

In the middle of Violet Square, the Apostles were thrown into confusion by the sudden unfolding of two fronts. Even for a race proficient in segmented thought, a situation like this was absolutely, completely unfamiliar.

「Kill them! Kill them!」

Of course, the Apostles had plenty of excuses at the moment. Even scientists suddenly confronted with rats exhibiting Von Neumann-level intelligence engaging in a labor dispute wouldn’t have been as surprised as them.

「How did humans construct such a mental space?」

The keen intuition of the race called Eidos precisely examined the structure of the Violet Network even amidst the crisis. The incoming information was even more despairing. The Apostle lamented.

「Is such a thing theoretically sound? Is it even possible to implement this?」

What they perceived now was a structure only discussed in theory, even within Eidos’s philosophy of mental topology. Of all things, to be discovered in an inferior race compared to them.

「This is absurd!」

The Violet Network. The true nature of this mental space, named by this inferior bug after herself, was a high-dimensional structure with no inside or outside.

The Apostle grabbed the head of the Violet clinging to its shoulder and burst it. The Violet, whose head had burst, immediately regenerated on a nearby rooftop and jumped down again. They tried to drop and fight the Violets repeatedly to drop them. They needed to be undisturbed to escape this place. Each Violet acted like a magnet, constantly anchoring a part of their minds.

「Why won’t it collapse!」

It was illogical. The ego of these beings did not collapse, no matter what they tried.

Even if a single individual was destroyed, it couldn’t be completely annihilated. The ego and consciousness of each swarm were bound to this mental network structure. Therefore, the Apostles had to accept that they couldn’t annihilate individual beings until they broke the structure itself.

「Don’t waste your strength! Killing a single individual won’t annihilate them! Focus on escaping!」

One Apostle flung off the Violets that were clawing at it with swords, then violently tore at the floor. A part of the network ripped, exposing a gap, but it immediately regenerated.

「…!」

The swarm consciousness structure could not be collapsed. This mental network structure was connected to and bound to each individual. The individual was the whole, and the whole was the individual.

If they didn’t collapse the mental structure, they couldn’t annihilate these individuals. However, it was impossible to destroy this network without annihilating all individual entities.

A mental structure built on paradox and contradiction. Were these really humans?

The Apostles felt fear at this circular and illogical reality. How long had it been since they last felt this emotion, this fear?

「Let’s escape! It’s impossible at our level!」

The first Apostle caught in the quagmire cried out urgently.

「To collapse this mental structure, it’s impossible unless it’s wiped out with a single, powerful force! Unless it’s those majestic Monad Lords…」

「And His Majesty would surely be able to. For now, extracting our minds completely from here and reporting is the best course of action.」

It was then that one Violet tilted her head.

「Monad? Your Majesty? What do you mean by that? Do you monsters have a country too?」

「…!」

The Apostles realized they had been there too long. The abyss was now beginning to peek into their deepest parts.

「Quickly withdraw your ego! I’ll hold them here! Quickly open the gate and proceed with the plan!」

—CRASH!

「Screech!」

「That one’s getting away!」

While its comrade bought time, the second Apostle finally succeeded in escaping the network with its segmented thoughts.

‘Who is that?’

While violently breaking through the network to escape, a strange sight was captured in the Apostle’s mind. On the periphery of the mental structure it had pierced through, a more mature entity than the ones it had been fighting lay dormant.

‘Is it another being? No, that’s not important. Before it awakens, quickly—’

The Apostle’s mind escaped the network.

A moment later, the eyelids of the woman, who had been quietly closing her eyes, fluttered.

**

As soon as victory was secured on the mental battlefield, we Violets returned to the real world. Saving those who needed to be saved was the priority.

“No, no… Don’t leave me… Don’t leave me…”

“I won’t leave you! I’m here!”

The Violet rescue team, quickly snapping back to reality, gathered Levi and Ballista and stood up. The Apostles from earlier were nowhere to be seen.

Next, the exhibition hall was cleared swiftly. Unexpectedly, strangely shaped monsters were running rampant inside the exhibition hall.

「Could that be…」

The moment I saw the monsters, some knowledge flowed into my mind. It seemed those Apostles had used some means to turn people into those things.

「M-my goodness! How could they…」

「I can hear you, you know? Shut up!」

While half of us were grappling with the illegal intruders in the network, we swiftly wiped out the puppets created by the Apostles.

“Um, Unnie…”

Fortunately, Ariel was alive. And I also encountered more familiar faces.

“Wow, I’m alive! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay! Now it’s time for revenge!”

I had a brief reunion with Lucian, who had been fighting with the survivors and flinging spells.

I also encountered Sophieel Unnie, who was catching her breath amidst the collapsed front line, burning armored vehicles, and soldiers’ corpses.

“Unnie! We’re here!”

“Violet, are you okay? Earlier you clearly were…”

Leaving behind gazes full of worry and concern, I moved forward. There was simply too much to do.

After quickly clearing the inside of the convention center, we headed towards the smoke-billowing defensive line. I took out artifacts from my inventory and held them up. As the flag-bearer Violet unfurled the banner of the Nameless Regiment, magic power scattered like particles.

Every time the flag unfurled, a little more strength surged within me.

「Regiment, advance!」

A wave of monsters surged forward. There was no doubt those Apostles were manipulating them. They must have moved like a strategy game, toying with people. It seemed the defenders here were futilely overwhelmed.

Within the network, the Violet strategic map unfurled once more. Spread before my eyes were red dots filling the map. And the fog of war obscuring my vision.

The games are over now.

「I’ll show you a true war!」

The soldiers and hunters were gathered, fighting behind armored vehicles and barricades. Had they heard footsteps? The people who noticed us turned their heads, their faces blank.

The leading Unit 10 raised a megaphone.

“Soldiers of the Federation, and hunters! Do not be afraid.”

Confusion grew even greater at the resonating voice.

“We are the Ariel Group.”

A few soldiers, appearing to be officers, forgot about the monsters and turned their rifles towards us. The hunters also started in surprise, glancing at us warily.

We won’t stop. Let them shoot if they dare.

“Don’t worry. We are on your side. We have come here to defeat those monsters.”

I proudly strode through the agitated soldiers, coming right up to the monsters’ noses.

“Well, well… You certainly arrived quickly…”

The officer desperately clutching the armored vehicle’s machine gun let out a hollow laugh. Major Klein’s dark, sweat-soaked complexion soon brightened.

“We are on humanity’s side.”

“We are the Ariel Group!”

The Violet Regiment was ready for battle. All that remained was victory.

Those Apostles who commanded the monsters, they called themselves Eidos, didn’t they? I could feel the thoughts of a resisting Apostle in my mind, little by little.

「Ranks? Grand Lords? Emperor?」

Emperor, Empire. Now I understood why these guys acted so arrogantly.

The enemies of Academy City, and of humanity, were imperialists.

「Imperialism!」

We must stand against the empire.

The Violets shouted.

“For democracy!”

The Violet Regiment clashed with the countless enemy forces.