Dark Side (2)
After a night in which so many things had happened.
Morning also dawned on the small city at the southern tip of Thailand, which had been shaken by the sudden commotion.
It had only been a few hours since an incident occurred that might have caused the entire city to vanish.
But since they had survived and had to return to their daily lives somehow in order to keep living, the citizens of the city moved about busily as usual, as though there had never been any disturbance.
“Hey, you saw it too, didn’t you? That night...”
“Of course I did. Good grief, I thought I was dreaming.”
“I was so shocked, wondering if a war had started...”
Of course, not everything was exactly the same as usual.
The disordered atmosphere of people gathered in groups of three or five and whispering among themselves, along with the fatigue hanging over their faces from having barely slept, clearly showed how much the previous day’s events weighed on them.
And such reactions were not limited to those living in the area.
— No signs of a missile attack have been found. It is currently presumed to have been terrorism by an Awakened. An investigative team will be dispatched to Yala to determine more specific details.>
It was the nature of the age that videos vividly recording the situation at the time flooded the internet and drew public attention.
Ability terrorism was an everyday occurrence, but incidents of this scale and spectacle were rare.
Who could help but be interested in a mysterious being that intercepted, one by one, the tremendous explosions erupting in succession high in the sky as it raced through the heavens like rays of light?
—Even watching it on video, the pressure is insane. Doesn’t the surrounding space distort every time an explosion goes off?
└It really does;; If all of those had fallen on the city... But why did something like this suddenly happen? What could possibly be in that backwater town?
—Is that really an angel? It was filmed from too far away, so I can’t see it well.
└There’s a photo taken with a high-magnification close-up. It’s an angel wearing armor with three pairs of wings.
—That armor looks strangely familiar... Could it possibly be that otherworldly saint named Heinrich?
└Huh? It really is him?
Quite a few people among them had deduced that the angel’s identity was Heinrich, but there had been no intention of hiding that fact. They had plans to make use of this incident, after all.
Of course, not many knew why the incident had occurred, how it had unfolded, or how it had ended.
Except for those involved in the incident who had gathered here.
“Then allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Frey, leader of the Burning Torch. Once again, I would like to thank Masquerade for its assistance.”
The leader, Frey, who had been unconscious throughout the battle, bowed politely and expressed her gratitude.
She addressed Heinrich, who sat across from her as Masquerade’s representative, and Ken, who had joined them because of his long-standing connection with the Burning Torch.
Heinrich smiled gently and accepted her greeting.
“I merely did what naturally had to be done. The Transcendence Society is an enemy of humanity that all of us must face together, rather than a problem concerning only some of us.”
He continued by pointing out that the “humanity” he referred to did not consist solely of Earthlings, and gazed at Frey with strange eyes.
“But are you feeling all right? It seems that your body was taken over by that Mimic for quite some time.”
“Ah, I’ve recovered considerably. It’s all thanks to you, Lord Heinrich. I was fortunate as well. Thanks to my Unique Skill, I was able to endure without being completely absorbed.”
She gave a bitter smile and flexed her fingers.
Unlike someone who had spent all this time pretending to be a burly man with a beard overflowing from his chin in order to maintain the dignity of a leader, her gestures were as feminine as those of any young lady.
“Although I never imagined that the Unique Skill I thought only changed my appearance would have an additional effect like that.”
“You didn’t invest much in your Unique Skill, I take it?”
“...I heard you were from another world, but you’re remarkably knowledgeable. I surpassed the Wall by training my aether rather than my Unique Skill. Well, creating a perfect body suited for training and no longer having to deal with disputes over my gender did help quite a bit.”
Having just won a victory against a common enemy, the conversation between the two sides proceeded smoothly.
Once Ken, who had been glancing at Heinrich uneasily, and Ann, who had been looking at Frey with concern, began to add a few words of their own, the atmosphere became even more cordial.
That was, until Ken casually voiced his regret.
“It’s a shame we let that Executor escape. We should have dealt with such a dangerous enemy decisively when we had the chance.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than Frey and Ann’s faces visibly darkened.
They could hardly have reacted otherwise.
Frey, who had confronted him directly and been captured, knew how terrifying the enemy was. So did Ann, who had witnessed the battle from close by.
It was obvious where he would strike first if he returned, so they could not help but worry.
After all, stopping him with the Burning Torch’s power alone would be nearly impossible.
“Oh, didn’t I mention it?”
But their concerns did not last long.
“We dealt with the Executor conclusively on our end, so you needn’t worry about him anymore.”
Heinrich’s next words, delivered as casually as if it were nothing important, swept away all their worries.
“...What? Is that true?”
“When did you...?”
Everyone, including Ann, who had realized that Phantom was absent, could not help but be shocked.
It would have been a lie to say they had not secretly hoped for such an outcome, but they had never expected the matter to be settled so quickly.
Frey and Ken, who had fought the Executor themselves, felt much the same.
‘So the forces that came here weren’t all of Masquerade’s strength after all? Just where have people like these been, and what have they been doing all this time...?’
Frey gazed at Heinrich with deeply sunken eyes and let out a sigh.
A secret organization that even had an otherworldly saint and angel among its members.
It had already been several years since she had realized the threat posed by the Transcendence Society and begun taking action, yet she had never dreamed that a force like this existed.
‘...Still, there’s no doubt that they’re currently opposed to the Transcendence Society. For now, I have no choice but to trust them.’
She should avoid placing complete faith in such suspicious people, but at present, she had no other alternative.
For the sake of those who had trusted her and followed her all this time, she could only place her bet on the possibility that seemed most promising.
Having firmly made up her mind, she met Ann’s gaze beside her and slowly nodded.
Heinrich quietly observed the reactions of everyone present, then wore a confident smile at the corner of his lips.
‘That was a proper show of force. There’s no way the three of them could have failed to capture him after personally taking the field.’
Things had ended up looking like a full-scale Masquerade assembly, with even the avatar’s Dark Side being dispatched to Earth, but... that was not necessarily a bad thing.
They had gained quite a bit in exchange for going all in like this.
For the cause of bringing down the Transcendence Society.
And for the rise of the secret society known as Masquerade.
***
“Phew. All right. I suppose that means we’ve achieved every objective of the deployment to Southeast Asia.”
The effort to establish relations with the Burning Torch had concluded smoothly.
The two organizations still resembled independent forces bound by an alliance, but for the time being, that was enough.
The damage the organization had suffered was so severe that they had no choice but to rely on us for their survival.
As time passed, a hierarchy would naturally form between us, and without our having to do anything in particular, they would settle into the role of a subordinate force.
‘The Southeast Asian branch of the Transcendence Society, too... Well, now that we’ve captured all of its leadership, it’s practically been dealt with already.’
The task of wringing them dry, down to their very souls, could be left to Hans, who had been dispatched there.
In the process, we would also be able to obtain information about branches with other Transcenders among their members, so it was practically no different from having already far exceeded our original objectives.
‘The avatars that came to Earth can gradually be sent back one by one.’
As usual, I sat in a massage chair and slowly closed my eyes, surveying the avatars remaining on Earth.
The first avatar I sent back was Harris, the High Elf.
His helmet, along with his entire outfit, was a magical artifact imbued with effects including air purification, but even that was insufficient to suppress the suffocating feeling that came from sensing the surrounding natural world itself.
‘He could endure it if he tried... But there’s no reason to go that far.’
Harris, who had become one with nature and was leisurely in all things, was a kind of mental stabilizer for me.
He was an avatar who not only relieved the stress that inevitably accumulated from operating numerous avatars, but also helped me sleep comfortably.
Moreover, since he existed in an environment where beautiful music constantly sounded from every direction, he was the sort of entity whose mere presence was beneficial, even if he did nothing more than lie there.
‘Let’s see. Next would be—’
Hesperon, who had been summoned to Earth first, was still hard at work.
He had mobilized not only all the supercomputers filling the interior of the integrated data center, but also Titan and 「Mechanical Eye: Callicas」 to create public sentiment that would further heighten awareness of the threat posed by the Transcendence Society in connection with this incident.
‘But... as expected, this isn’t so easy either. There must be a reason they’ve remained hidden beneath the surface all this time.’
Even though we had tied them to an incident currently making headlines, the effect was not as great as expected.
Well, if they intended to conquer the world in modern-day Earth, this level of information warfare would be the bare minimum.
With a doctor who was practically the pinnacle of the technological field on their side as well, it could not have been all that difficult.
“I knew they were thorough from the moment there wasn’t a single piece of information about them on the internet... but this is something else.”
There might even be a modified artificial intelligence like the one on our side.
Just in case, I thought we should pay closer attention to the security of the data center Hesperon was using.
We had to make sure we were not traced in return after letting our guard down.
‘Heinrich has been handling external affairs all this time. Then the ones remaining are...’
Halli, the neutral mercenary who moved between both Light and Darkness.
And Hans, Heinz II, and Hella, who could unquestionably be called the Dark Side.
***
A space where all manner of negative energy whipped about.
“Hm. That completes everything I can do.”
Heinz, a member of the Dark Side who had helped capture the Executor, wiped his mouth and slowly rose from his seat.
He then left the space where unintelligible thoughts echoed and stepped outside the perfectly isolated pocket dimension.
Unlike the other two avatars, there had been no room for him to intervene beyond matters concerning blood, so his task had ended quickly.
[—! Is this the endurance of one who bears divinity in name as well as fact? You’re holding out longer than expected. Good, very good!]
“Heh~ If I extract this properly, I might even be able to use it myself. In this respect, it’s no different from a vampire. I suppose there are common denominators even across dimensions.”
As the excited voices of the avatars rang out from behind him, Heinz emerged from the artificially created space and drew a deep breath.
‘As expected, the air over there really doesn’t suit me.’
It would have been nice if other life-forms could have been placed inside 「Dragon Lair」.
Unlike the other two, who were more familiar with magical energy, he preferred nothing but blood, so he could not help feeling uncomfortable.
Still, now that the work of absorbing and analyzing the power contained in the Executor’s blood was finished, he probably would not have to go there again.
‘And I gained quite a bit from the process.’
An Eternal Great Demon, was it?
Even if demonic blood was not particularly useful to a vampire, the causality of having drained the blood of an opponent of that caliber had contributed considerably to the growth of his Divine Blood.
‘Of course, it couldn’t compare to the other two.’
Hella intended to draw out and devour the entirety of the karma she had accumulated as a ‘Demon King,’ while Hans planned to mar the Executor’s body and soul in the Abyss and turn him into a puppet.
Compared to them, Heinz, who had taken only a small amount of the power contained in his blood and a little causality, could be considered rather modest.
In exchange, however, he had drained the other captured Transcenders as thoroughly as possible without killing them.
Having finished the task assigned to him, he immediately moved to ‘his territory.’
A place in Seoul, Korea, protected under his name.
“Ah, it’s been a while, Lord!”
“Hmm.”
Heinz had just entered the office when he nodded at Jin Soran’s welcoming greeting.
This place was practically the heart of the Blood Alliance.
It was the Heterosis building, where Jin Soran worked while leading the organization in place of Heinz, its Lord.‘There’s no trace left of its former identity as an underground organization.’Heinz slowly looked around and nodded.
The scenery here, occupying an entire small building, was not much different from that of any other company.
The only exceptions were that the curtains were drawn even during the day, leaving the whole place rather dim, and that most of the employees worked at night.
“Still, I’ve been checking the reports every time. It seems like you still have a lot on your plate.”
“Mm, things have gotten a lot better lately. When Howard Industries first launched in earnest, I thought I might actually die from all this work… But it really is different once you put a professional executive in charge.”
She sighed as though merely thinking about those days made her break into a cold sweat, then shook her head vigorously.
“Exactly. You don’t have to do everything yourself. A captain’s job is simply to make sure the crew is doing theirs properly. There are plenty of experts who have devoted themselves to a single field, as well as plenty of capable people in the world.”
“…When you say it, Lord, it sounds incredibly convincing.”
Jin Soran, one of the crew being worked to the bone, looked at Heinz with an awkward expression.
Then she reaffirmed her resolve once more.
She would follow his example somehow, gather capable subordinates, and pass all the troublesome work on to them.
“There don’t seem to be any major problems at the moment. Is there anything unusual?”
“Anything unusual… Ah! The project I reported to you last time! We’ve finally finished preparing everything to put it into action.”
“Project?”
What else was there?
As Heinz stroked his chin, searching through his memories, Jin Soran, who had been smiling brightly before him, continued with a flash in her eyes.
“The Project to Improve Public Perception of Vampires.”
At that, a memory flitted through his mind.
Although the situation had eased somewhat with the launch of Howard Industries, the overseas perception of the Blood Alliance—“the vampire clan that had swallowed up the underworld of not only Korea but Europe as well”—was far from favorable.
The public sentiment had become so hostile that even Korea, the site of their headquarters, was being openly denounced in prominent newspaper headlines.
And the measure he had entrusted with full authority as a countermeasure was none other than…
“Entering the entertainment industry!”
It was a project titled:
—The Establishment of External Policy Following the Blood Alliance’s Entry into the Entertainment Industry.