With a huge needle lodged in his head, Delta could not even change his expression. Only his lips managed to move on his twitching face, laboriously shaping words.

He forced them out.

"Wh-what... is... this...?"

"Huh? Where did the card go? Ta-ta-da! Here it is!"

SHLUK.

I pulled the spike out of his head. With the stopper removed, the pooled blood gushed out like a burst dam.

Bleeding from his head, Delta jerked like a broken machine as he tried to grip his gun again. But his hand kept clutching uselessly at the wrong spot. He reached for the trigger, only for his arm to veer right every time. His trembling fingers were pitiful.

I flipped the spike over. The spike that had just been inside someone's head vanished, replaced by a single bloodstained card. I shook the blood off it, then bowed deeply to Delta.

"Thank you for watching my show. You were quite a good audience, but I'm a magician! I can't die in a place like this."

"Y-you... me..."

"Whether he's chained up and dropped into a river or locked in a room full of explosives with their fuses lit, a magician has to make it out alive in the end. So I can't take part in your once-in-a-lifetime suicide-bombing spectacular. Sorry! I've decided to make Tantalus my stage and put on an escape act against all of you!"

Delta crumpled to the ground. With his brain damaged, he could no longer answer. Only his sporadic, fragmented thoughts told me he was still alive.

But even those would not last much longer.

I crouched down and met his eyes.

'Our... purpose... knew... from the start.'

"Of course I knew. How could I not? You came here prepared to die. It's not as though you'd have bothered thinking about what came afterward."

'You knew... tried... to trick me.'

"Tricked you? Well, who lied first? Your Boss, who promised to get us out without any intention of doing so? Or you, hiding behind a pretense of virtue and soul-searching while you silently let that lie stand? Can you really say you didn't deceive us?"

'No... I...'

"It doesn't really matter how virtuous you want to be. Justice that never finds expression in action is like undigested vomit. However much you treasure your own feelings, however you dress them up as a noble cause, your justice is ultimately nothing more than an expression of self-love."

'My thoughts... read...'

His thoughts gradually faded. Blood drained from the hole in his head while collecting on the other side. The pressure created by that imbalance crushed his own brain. As his brain broke down, so did his consciousness.

His final thought stretched on. Like the final word at the end of a book being drawn out, his lingering attachment continued through sheer inertia.

A book was coming to its end.

Having read enough of his thoughts, I looked into his eyes and whispered.

"Farewell, Elsie Clark. You're a failed terrorist. Whatever your past, whatever excuses you make, that won't change what you are."

'Ah... ah... ah.'

"But I'll remember you, and how you met your end."

'Ah.'

"Goodbye."

His thoughts ceased.

The book had reached its final period.

What had once been the living body of Elsie Clark, codename Delta, now lay sprawled on the ground as a corpse.

I passed a hand over the corpse's eyes. Its staring eyes closed.

That was all. An ordinary, short life had come to an end.

"Whew."

Fortunately, there was no need to clean up the blood. The blood spilling from the corpse was rolling toward the underground armory as though that were simply the natural order of things. As long as the vampire was here, there was no need for the tedious work of wiping blood away.

I rolled my stiff shoulders and muttered.

"Well. That's one job done."

The Boss was next. Until I caught him and the bombs he'd taken, this would not be over.

Now then, Boss. Let's read your thoughts and see where you are and what you're doing.

I closed my eyes and spread my mind reading outward. As my field of vision expanded like seeping mist, I traced the faint thoughts I could sense back to their source.

.

..

...

"Nine thousand nine hundred ninety. Nine thousand nine hundred ninety-one. Nine thousand nine hundred ninety-two..."

WHOOSH. WHOOSH.

An invisible sword cleaved through space. Sky Cherry Blossom, a sword with neither weight nor thickness. The reason a blade with no thickness made a sound as it cut through the air was that she swung it flat to feel at least a little resistance. Even so, sharp gusts from the sword spread outward as though they would tear apart everything around her.

"... Ten thousand."

The ten-thousandth swing was complete. Sweat streamed down in beads. Her loose trousers were made of breathable fabric, but that was nowhere near enough to cool her overheated body. Shei wiped at her short hair, which reached just below her ears. Beads of sweat glistening at its ends fell toward the ground.

Without thinking, on impulse, she cut the falling droplets. Once, twice, five times, ten. Slash upon overlapping slash.

A single fall became a total of 392 tiny impacts. The fragmented droplets scattered in every direction as they struck the floor.

"Whew."

Shei took her stance again. It was a perfected stance: a spare, efficient middle guard developed through her own deliberations over thirteen regressions.

It was well suited to the weightless Sky Cherry Blossom. Because the sword had no weight, there was no need to gather force beforehand. From a middle guard, a mere turn of the wrist could produce endless variations.

Of course, everything had two sides, left and right. The inability to store force in advance was also a weakness in its own right. Each individual blow lacked weight.

But that problem would be solved once she obtained Earth's Ripple, the sword of the earth.

So what she needed to do was train. Before obtaining Earth's Ripple, before a mighty treasured sword overshadowed her own strength, she needed to shed another layer.

That was why she had come to Tantalus, and why she had learned blood manipulation.

Shei took her stance again.

It was perfected. There was nothing to fault. Yet to advance further, she had to dismantle that perfection and find flaws even where none existed. Only by breaking out of one shell could she see a larger world.

Long ago, in the early loops she could barely remember, she had desperately wielded a wanderer's swordsmanship to survive. Now that she had halfway transcended it, it only held her back. The time had come to abandon even the swordsmanship that had sustained her for so long and died alongside her.

To tear it down completely and build anew.

Shei gripped Sky Cherry Blossom again.

"Hah. Hah."

She had gained quite a lot in Tantalus. She had witnessed the prison break she had only heard stories about, and met both the vampire and the King of Dogs. On top of that, there was an unexpected variable.

... A variable.

Her sword faltered. Its trajectory twisted. Shei stopped swinging and gritted her teeth.

That man, with his easygoing, relaxed demeanor. Whenever Shei thought of him, she felt something go awry. He did not exist in the future she knew. Yet here he was, living in this place with an unmistakable presence. He was closer to Azi than anyone else, and Tyrkanzyaka, too, quietly took an interest in him. Even if he vanished now, his presence would remain firmly etched in their minds.

Above all, Shei herself was paying him far too much attention.

"Tch. If only I hadn't been caught there..."

Every time they became involved, she felt herself getting drawn into his pace. It was unpleasant, but had the man actually done anything wrong? Not really. There was simply something strangely irritating about everything he did.

And he was hiding something. Otherwise, there was no way he could have seen through her stealth technique at a glance and anticipated her eavesdropping.

She could win if she fought with everything she had, but he showed no particular hostility at present. She saw no need to exhaust all her resources in a fight to the death. So she had decided to leave him alone for now. She would not attack unless he picked a fight.

It would be troublesome if he ambushed her while her guard was down, though...

"Troublesome? That would be better, actually. Then I'd know he couldn't be trusted."

If she died that way, she could move on to the next loop. From then on, the moment that man crossed paths with Shei, he would have his limbs cut off and be subjected to interrogation.

Stray thoughts had crept in. She swung her sword as though to shake them away.

She made her two-thousandth swing. Sweat dampened the floor, and her breathing was gradually growing labored, but she was still not satisfied. When she tried to add power through her newly learned blood manipulation, her balance went awry. When she made a clean, efficient stroke, it felt like reverting to her old swordsmanship.

Blood. She had thought something might change if she fully understood blood and could feel its weight flowing through her body.

Was her talent insufficient? Was she unable to find a stance that could accommodate all her strength?

If only she had a useful sparring partner at a time like this... Someone like that man whose depths she could not fathom...

"Huh!"

Had she been too deeply absorbed? She had not even sensed someone approaching. Shei stopped swinging her sword and glared at the uninvited guest as she steadied her breathing.

The intruder wore heavy armor. She identified the model at once. Military State military equipment: military armament. Judging by the outdated design and signs of poor maintenance, someone had apparently stolen a model due to be scrapped for its age and was using it.

Wiping her face with her sleeve, Shei muttered.

"Resistance?"

"Wh-what? How?"

The young man looked startled.

It was simple logic. However outdated the model, the Military State would never leave military armament, the pinnacle of its military technology, lying around. Every unit was collected and either scrapped or dismantled for use in building new military armament.

If someone was wearing such a model, they must have stolen or seized military armament slated for disposal.

That could only mean the Resistance.

After a moment of fluster, the intruder laughed off his discomfort and spoke.

"Haha. It seems the fame of our Resistance has spread far and wide. Even a young boy like you recognizes us... Boy, are you a laborer too?"

"No. I'm a prisoner."

Shei's reply was curt, spoken without any desire to continue the conversation.

Then she noticed something odd in the young man's words. More importantly, what did he mean by "too"? There shouldn't be any laborers here now.

Before she could point that out, the young man began making a fuss.

"To lock such a young boy in Tantalus! The Military State truly is a heartless, merciless country! What crime could a boy this young possibly have committed?"

"I sat in the middle of a city and said I'd give a gold coin to anyone who could beat me. People swarmed in, and I defeated them one by one. Later, the army came, and I defeated all of them too. Then someone called a general came and arrested me."

"Huh?"

The young man began sweating profusely. Faced with a response unlike anything he had expected, he finally thought to take a proper look at Shei.

The body before him was frail and slender, perhaps from poor nourishment. Despite being a "boy," the bones seemed naturally delicate. The slim ankles visible beneath the loose trousers looked as though a light tap would snap them. It was not a body suited to fighting.

But those brilliant eyes seemed to shine with an inner light, without a trace of fear, and that upright stance had the edge of a finely honed blade.

Not a human, but a sword. Even breathing seemed chilling, as though merely standing still were enough to cut down an opponent.

The young man instinctively adjusted his military armament.

CLACK.

The armor shifted to cover his neck and the underside of his jaw. Shei had not even shown hostility yet, but he had already frightened himself into protecting his vital points.

She stared at him with a gaze that seemed capable of cutting him down.

"Why would the Resistance come to Tantalus...? Surely not for something as ridiculous as rescuing the prisoners. You're here to carry out a terrorist attack, aren't you?"

Apparently stung by the accuracy of her guess, the young man hastily waved his hands and shouted.

"What are you talking about! Do you think we're terrorists?"

"Yes."

After that flat reply, Shei continued coldly.

"The Resistance... A bunch of losers with no vision, just vague grievances. All you do is rush in like moths to a flame and commit terrorist attacks..."

Disappointment and disillusionment that sounded born of firsthand experience—no, that actually were born of experience. A cold finality filled her voice.

The young man flinched, perhaps sensing her feelings.

"You must be steeped in their indoctrination! We are the Resistance, an organization fighting for freedom. We will defeat the military government that has unjustly seized power and bring true freedom to this country!"

"I tried that. Not much changed. No, it got worse."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You don't need to understand. I don't intend to explain, either."

Shei rested Sky Cherry Blossom on her shoulder and glared at the young man.

"You plan to bring down Tantalus? What a joke. Tantalus won't collapse just because rats like you squeak and gnaw at it. You'll fail. Because it isn't time for it to fall yet."

"No! We'll succeed! The Boss is already working on it. Once he's finished, this legendary prison will collapse, and we'll go down in history as liberators!"

Unable to contain his excitement, the young man blurted it all out. Shei snorted.

"You just said it yourself. You're here to carry out a terrorist attack."

"Gah!"

Now that he had said it himself, he could not even deny it. The young man's face twisted. He raised an arm threateningly and muttered.

"... Not bad, kid. Leading questions, was it?"

"Dumbass. You've just got a big mouth. If that counts as leading questions, the Military State Security Bureau's profiling must be mind reading."

The repeated taunts snapped the young man's restraint. Forgetting his Boss's warning, he shouted with blazing hostility.

"That's right! Tantalus will vanish into the bottomless pit! We will destroy this symbol of oppression! So what are you going to do about it?"

"If Tantalus collapses, you won't get out unscathed either, will you?"

"It doesn't matter! We came prepared to die! The Resistance is always ready to die for our country!"

"Hmm. Your country, huh."

People who went on about their country never seemed to be sane. Shei chuckled and raised her arm.

"Well, I doubt that man will just stand by and let you."

Tantalus would fall.

But not now.

In a little less than a year, "she" would arrive. After that, Tantalus would collapse, and true despair would crawl out from beneath it. Pieces of the apocalypse. Monsters that, left alone, could bring the world to its end all by themselves.

That was why these people could only fail. Even when Shei had not been here, they had not merited a single line of mention. If a mere handful of terrorists could bring Tantalus down, it would hardly have been called the bottomless pit.

It was not a problem she needed to worry about. That man would probably take care of it himself. He seemed adept at this sort of thing.

"That aside, there's no reason for me to leave you alone either, is there?"

SHING.

A clear note rang out. Shei had drawn Sky Cherry Blossom away from her shoulder and swept it through the air. A sharpness whose very ring possessed a cutting edge revealed itself to the world.

She muttered fiercely.

"Not when a training dummy has walked right up to me."

"A training dummy?!"

In response, the man hurriedly operated his military armament. The helmet folded behind his head sprang up with a clack. A solid helmet enclosed his face, and the visor dropped. Steel scales emerged over vulnerable areas such as his neck and armpits.

Steel locked together.

CLACK. CLACK.

Regular, mechanical noises surrounded him. Greaves appeared on his legs and gauntlets on his arms, a gun muzzle loaded with six armor-piercing rounds on his left hand, and an enormous greatsword capable of shredding even blades attached to his right.

Fully armed, the young man roared at Shei.

"A training dummy? No! This is military armament! Do you think you can beat me with nothing but your bare body?"

With a biometric terminal, enough mana to support the alchemy, and the strength to carry it and move—

Even an ordinary person could wield a knight's level of force with this full-body alchemical equipment. Military armament.

Clad in that power, the young man advanced menacingly and shouted.

"You'll regret running your mouth!"

"Hmm. My bare body. Just my body..."

Shei, however, was not remotely surprised by the military armament before her. Instead, she assessed it. Her opponent's strength, her own, and what she lacked.

"All right. I needed a real fight that would push me to the brink. I'll face you with just my body."

Immediately, Shei stopped using her energy arts.

She also withdrew the mana enveloping her blade.

Now all that stood here was a frail girl holding a treasured sword far beyond her station.

With only one person's skill and experience, she would have to overcome a weapon built upon the Military State's blood and history.

Could she do it?

That did not matter. Shei smiled.

"Let's find out."

The worst dying could do was kill her.

Holding a single invisible sword, the girl approached the military armament as it began to move. Meeting the sound of interlocking metal, Sky Cherry Blossom sang a long, thin note.