“Lord Rubel, what is the meaning of this?”
Rin’s gaze turned to the holographic map of District 30 floating in the center.
Red dots were spreading across the map. A section of ruins inside the barrier wall. A place that had, until moments ago, been marked as off-limits.
“This is reckless. A bombardment on an area we went to the trouble of designating as forbidden?”
Rubel only turned his head.
Red eyes faced Rin.
“Count-class or not.”
He smiled.
“If mages start drawing lines because they’re afraid, who will do work like this?”
Rin’s hand stopped over the terminal.
“It is Count-class. And an unreported high-ranking noble at that. Caution is only natural.”
“Who doesn’t know that?”
Rubel turned his eyes back to the holographic map.
“The Chief Executor is still receiving treatment.”
Rin’s eyes hardened.
“That is not the issue.”
“And so that person has arrived, and we have also received a report that the Taiji Sword Sovereign is moving from Wudang’s side.”
A sneer caught at the corner of Rubel’s mouth.
“There’s no reason to halt the purification operation over a single Count-class.”
“It’s an area we have no need to touch. The inner part hasn’t even been fully confirmed yet. The reason we designated it as forbidden—”
Rin’s words cut off.
A blue-haired girl was standing beside the holographic map.
Her hair flowing down like ripples was blue, and so were the eyes revealed between her folded lids. She looked as if she were smiling, but the girl’s fingertips were already pointing to one part of the map.
“I was the one who requested it, Sister Rin.”
“It’s been a while.”
For a moment, Rin lost her words.
“Eos.”
Eos was smiling with her eyes curved shut.
Rin looked back and forth between Eos and Rubel. At the corner of Rubel’s mouth remained a faint smile, as though he had known all along.
“Why are you here?”
“I arrived a little while ago.”
“A little while ago?”
“Just a little before you got angry at Lord Rubel.”
Eos spoke as if it were nothing.
Rubel lifted his chin.
“Do you understand now? There’s no way I would run an operation like this while excluding Asterion’s foresight.”
Rin’s fingers slowly curled over the terminal.
Asterion.
Among the twelve magical families, the only family that possessed foresight. They were not a group that could be judged by rank alone. Even if Eos was only First Rank, the fact that she was here meant something entirely different.
“Eos.”
Rin opened her mouth again.
“You requested it?”
“Yes.”
Eos was still smiling.
---
—Snake!
The back of my head rang.
—Can you hear me? Hey, right now inside your body—
Quiet.
—This isn’t the time to be quiet. Up above, another—
Be quiet.
AI’s words cut off.
The shock was still reverberating inside my head. Something had struck the ruins above me, and the aftermath had dug all the way into the narrow gap. Shards of metal and concrete dust poured down from outside, but the inside had not collapsed entirely.
Even so, my body had already been shaken.
My scales scraped against the wall material. For an instant, the inside of the narrow gap seemed to turn upside down, and my sense of up and down no longer matched. Dust and iron filings clung to the tip of my tongue.
I had no leisure to check outside.
The sensations continuing beneath my slough had been thrown into disarray by a single impact.
The Daoist power and demonic energy that had been meshing and rotating split apart. The Daoist power surged toward my head, while the demonic energy rushed toward my torso and belly. The inside of my eyes burned hot, and black energy began to spread beneath my scales.
I tried to align them again.
The inside of my head rang. If I moved my body even a little, the old slough and the new layer moved separately. The Daoist power lingered behind my eyes, and the demonic energy flowed beneath my scales, changing my body as it pleased.
If I touch it, it will break down even more.
The moment that thought passed through me, the gaps between my scales opened.
The old slough lifted.
It hurt.
Far more than I had expected.
I had thought it would end with only the outer layer peeling off. But wherever the slough split open, it felt as if the flesh beneath were being overturned. The sensation of each scale finding a new place spread through my entire body.
My body twisted on its own.
My belly brushed the wall, and my tail folded halfway. A shard of metal caught inside the gap scraped against my slough. I could not tell whether I was bleeding or peeling.
—Snake.
AI’s voice became cautious.
—Are you okay? No, I can see you’re not okay, but… stopping this looks even more dangerous.
I know.
But knowing did nothing to make it easier.
The inside of my eyes heated again.
Gold remained only in my pupils, while black spread around them. The edges of my vision wavered for an instant.
Something dark was also rising beneath my white scales.
I could only vaguely sense the color that had started at my belly spreading toward my flanks. I had no leisure to examine it properly.
My body had lengthened too.
The gap, which had not been narrow before, scraped my scales. The tip of my tail caught on a piece of metal it had not touched before, and when I tried to lift my head, the concrete near the ceiling entered my sight.
I folded my body again.
It did not fold properly.
The places where the slough had half-peeled caught on the wall, and where the new scales had been exposed, even the brush of air felt hot. Each time the demonic energy passed beneath them, the black grew deeper.
—Hey, don’t move. No, should you move? Wait, this is my first time seeing this too—
Quiet.
—Fine. Fine, okay. But at least breathe. No, are you even structured to breathe?
I had no room to answer.
The inside of my body turned over again.
This time, it was my head.
Daoist power flashed and whirled behind my eyes. The black inside my eyes deepened, leaving only thin golden pupils behind.
My vision widened for a moment.
Movements outside the ruins were caught all at once.
But it did not last long.
The pain descended into my torso again.
I curled my body while scratching at the wall. It did not go the way I wanted. Though it was a snake’s body, for a moment, it felt as if it were not mine. The old slough was still attached, and the new body inside it had already grown larger.
The two did not fit.
My body floundered.
My tail struck a metal plate. A dull sound spread through the inside of the gap. I hurriedly tried to stop my body, but for a moment, it felt as though I had forgotten even how to stop.
The molting was not over.
My body continued to twist on its own for a long while after that.
The light seeping in from above the ruins disappeared first.
Inside the narrow gap, only the smell of dust and metal remained. The sound of drones circling outside passed by several times. Human footsteps also drew away, and at some point, I could no longer catch them well.
I could barely move.
The slough lifted, peeled, and caught again. Inside my body, the Daoist power and demonic energy rotated separately, unable to find their proper places. If I forced my hand, it felt as though things would break down even more. So I simply endured.
The pain returned again and again.
Each time a new layer rose beneath my scales, my body twisted on its own. My tail struck the metal plate, and my head touched the crack in the concrete. Each time, I curled my body smaller. My lengthened body felt unfamiliar, as though it were not yet mine.
I did not know how much time had passed.
Only after darkness had completely settled did a very faint light enter again through the cracks above.
It was a murky light.
Light whose color had died, filtered through black dust and fallout. Even so, the night had passed. From above the ruins came the sound of metal fragments cooling, and in the distance, the humans’ equipment began moving again.
Only then did the ringing inside my head subside a little.
I slowly opened my eyes.
My vision was different.
Gold remained in my pupils. Black wrapped around it. A darkness like ink dissolved inside my eyes had settled there, and through it, the outlines of objects appeared colder and sharper.
My body had changed too.
The white that had remained after my metamorphosis had not completely vanished. But the black shading that had risen from my belly had spread all the way to my flanks, and dark lines had deepened between each scale. Even when I moved my body only a little, a wider surface than before touched the ground.
I slowly unfurled my body.
I did not move all at once. From my head, to my neck, my torso, and the tip of my tail. I checked the weight of my newly lengthened body one part at a time. Where it had grown stronger, and where it still did not quite fit. I examined the places where the Daoist power and demonic energy reconnected beneath my scales.
—…Snake?
AI’s voice, which had been quiet for a while, rose from the back of my head.
—Are you okay? Can you hear me? Hey, you were quiet for a really long time just now, you know?
Yes.
—Yes?
AI’s voice immediately rose.
—Yees? Is this something you can end with one little yes? No, what kind of people slam something down from above right when someone’s transforming? That’s just rude. They have no basics. Isn’t it common sense to wait during a transformation?
I loosened my torso a little more.
—Are you listening?
I am.
—Doesn’t seem like it.
AI continued grumbling. I left that sound at the back of my head and looked inward.
The pain remained as well. Wherever the slough had peeled away, the touch of air stung, and beneath the scales that had deepened to black, the demonic energy slowly settled. In my head, the Daoist power remained clear. The two flows that had been split by the impact were slowly meshing again.
My clear golden pupils were already looking upward.
The light of dawn was descending through the collapsed gap.
My divine sense stretched upward.
It pierced through the collapsed opening and rose straight toward the source of the impact that had just struck above my head.
Beneath the dark clouds, one end of a structure floating in the air caught on my divine sense.
—Huh?
The back of my head went quiet for a moment.
I straightened my body.
My newly lengthened body scraped through the inside of the gap. The black shading spread deep beneath my white scales, and darkness wavered around my golden pupils.
—Wait. What are you trying to—
The Azure Thunder Talisman placed on my scales heated first.
It did not mesh as smoothly as usual. The sensations after molting were still unfamiliar. Even so, I could see the path. The Daoist power stretched coldly from behind my eyes, and the demonic energy clung after it in black from beneath my torso.
I lifted my head toward the sky.
One scale near my tail shone white.
Vajra Talisman.
It was the point that would receive the recoil.
Immediately after, the Azure Thunder Talisman on the scales along my back blazed blue. The two powers interlocked atop my scales. The Vajra Talisman created a place to absorb the recoil, and the Azure Thunder Talisman layered acceleration on top of it.
The Daoist power and demonic energy inside my body gathered in one direction.
Azure Thunder Thread.
This time, I did not hold back.
Crackle.
A blue line stretched above the ruins.
The instant I fired it, the scales near my tail split first. It was the place where the Vajra Talisman had eaten the recoil and held out. Then the scale where I had placed the Azure Thunder Talisman also filled with heat before falling to the ground.
The sound returned late.
Boom!
Metal exploded in the distance.
What followed spread in an instant.
I did not know what I had hit. A white light flared wide from one side of the facility above, and red flames mingled inside it. Metal fragments shot into the air, and the delayed explosion shook the entire ruin.
Thud, boom-boom-boom!
Something collapsed in succession. The light flashed once more, and black smoke curled upward. The presences of the humans all wavered at once. One drone lost its direction and spun in circles.
For a moment, AI was at a loss for words.
—You.
I narrowed my eyes.
My body was still hot.
Power still remained.
—You, you… what did you just do?
Above, the flames were still spreading.
One more.
That thought came first.
—Snake.
This time, there was no grumbling.
—You’re acting a little strange right now.