[The Ghost] Miss is Standing By

What the phantom said was true.

After verifying the fragments of blessing runes she had provided, Lóni could confirm it without a doubt. It was exactly what he had been searching for—the Elves' fourth trump card.

"After realizing your inevitable defeat, die in disgrace~~"

How utterly laughable. This ultimate trump card of the Elves was engraved with such an epitaph in the Dwarf tongue. Yet it was precisely this absurdity that cemented its authenticity for Lóni.

No one understood that arrogant Eighth-Tier Magician better than he did. This was exactly the sort of thing that smug, self-righteous, pointy-eared person would do.

"Laughable, truly laughable… You're such an amusing character, Miss Ghost." Lóni laughed aloud. "Well then, as the price for this deal, what is it that you wish us to provide?"

"Move the testing site for your 'bombs' elsewhere," Kurumi said lightly, pointing to the western coastal forest of the Lucia Continent.

"You're disturbing my sleep."

"The coastal forest…" Lóni froze for a moment. That area was the territory of the Werebeasts.

"What's the problem? Is that an issue?" Though only her golden clock-eye was visible, Lóni could sense the teasing lilt and mischief in her tone.

"No problem at all!" He laughed uproariously. "Those fools were already part of the cleansing plan anyway."

"For the Divine Fire Furnace!" Lóni roared, and the Dwarf engineers behind him echoed the chant with fervent cries. Beneath the raucous chorus, however, faint tapping signals—a disguised communication in code—indicated that a reverse trace had been completed.

"Miss Ghost, are you a friend… or a foe?" Lóni asked, silencing the crowd with a raised hand. His right hand rested on the hilt of his enchanted sword as he confronted the projection of Kurumi.

His answer was the abrupt termination of the signal link, leaving behind only a wilting rose on the waiting screen.

"Where is she!?" Lóni barked.

"The trace indicates… uh… she's in… Hardenfell…" the engineer stammered.

"Tch…" Lóni's frown deepened. Of course, it wouldn't be so simple.

Hardenfell—the industrial capital of the Dwarves located ten thousand meters underground and home to their god.

Hand in hand with Schwi, Kurumi calmly exited the wreckage of the downed steel warship. Scattered across the ground were rows of green G-14 grenades, each one beginning to glow with an incandescent white light.

Boom—

With an earsplitting explosion, the remaining angular script on the ship's hull flared briefly before vanishing into specks of spirit particles. The 200-meter-long warship disintegrated into a charred ruin.

Kurumi walked away without a backward glance, Schwi at her side.

The gears of revolution were turning, and Kurumi's face lit up with a mischievous grin. She relished the feeling.

She had judged correctly. That boy named Rick, a youth both deeply calculating and disarmingly pure… how fascinating he was.

She couldn't wait to see him grasp the Star Grail and mock the gods to their faces.

"Hey, hey… So this is the Star Grail? How does it feel, everyone?"

The clouds shifted restlessly overhead as days and nights blurred together.

The Dwarves, true to their unrestrained nature, had delivered as promised.

"The essence of Dwarf mechanical engineering and magical theory is 'Don't think! Just feel!'"

A peculiar delivery had been sent to the western coastal forest of the Lucia Continent.

Having arrived early to monitor the situation, Schwi sent Kurumi an affirmative signal.

"Miss Tokisaki…" a hunched figure emerged from the shadows of a crevice, forcing a pained smile. Gritting his teeth, the man swallowed a chunk of Black Ash.

Instantly, a searing pain tore through his insides. He coughed violently, his pale face contorting in agony—it was Ivan.

This was a necessary ritual. Without it, the Werebeasts, perpetually ravenous, would tear his throat out for food, or worse, discover his true identity.

Kurumi herself could not play this role directly. For one, Ivan, already marked on the "death list," wanted to make his contribution. For another, the distinctive traits of the Ghost Miss were best kept from appearing too often.

As black, snowflake-like scars began to spread across his skin, Ivan stumbled forward into the Werebeast hunting grounds, clutching a map.

The forest rustled ominously as Ivan clenched his trembling fists.

Schwi had already scouted ahead: a small squad of three Werebeasts, including a Blood Break individual, was closing in.

Blood Break was the Werebeasts' signature ability—sacrificing their bodies to gain incredible power. A high-ranking individual could even instantaneously kill a top-tier magician of the Elves.

The shadows lunged.

"Planning to eat me?" Beneath his tightly wound hood, Ivan forced a weak grin. "Go ahead… but I guarantee I'll taste terrible."

Ivan spoke in the Werebeast tongue.

The creatures, initially assuming him to be one of those "monkeys," halted, their guttural language vibrating at a frequency beyond human hearing.

—He smells awful… Black Ash? A death-marked one?—

For now, let's call him "some living thing." After all, he was just another schemer.

"...Who are you?" the Werebeast leader demanded.

"Ah, does it matter?" Ivan chuckled, then coughed violently, spitting blood.

"Your base… in the coastal forest, right? The Dwarves have already chosen it as the testing site for their ultimate bomb."

The Werebeasts exchanged tense glances as Ivan continued, his grin growing wider.

"It's called the E-Bomb—a weapon capable of killing even the gods."

Relying on their unique senses, the Werebeasts scanned Ivan's body and words for signs of deception. Despite the interference from the Black Ash, they detected no falsehoods.

"You should probably check for yourselves," Ivan said, tossing them the map. "But remember—don't try to destroy the weapon. Otherwise…"

He mimicked an explosion with his hands, then limped away, his steps faltering.

Slumping against the trunk of a tree on the forest's edge, Ivan spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with blackened chunks. He quickly stuffed a crude medicinal herb into his mouth.

He would die—soon, surely. His fingers were numb, blackened like charred wood.

Still, Ivan forced a pained smile. After all, he should have died long ago.

Just… don't die in front of the leader. That kid already had enough to bear.

A small glass vial was tossed at his feet.

It was an unusual container, filled with liquid that was half blue, half red, separated cleanly despite the lack of a visible barrier.

Ivan looked up and saw a pair of crimson eyes staring back at him.

"Geez, old man. Just drink it already. You look like you're about to kick the bucket," Kurumi said, turning to leave as she flicked her bangs out of the way.

In the glint of Ivan's grateful gaze, the golden clock-eye gazed toward the horizon.

The Dwarves' research facility was located near the coastline adjacent to the Bay Forest. The deep crimson, punk-styled droplet-shaped dome could be seen from hundreds of meters away.

Black smoke curled faintly into the air, carrying the acrid scent of slag and spirit ash. The Dwarves and the Ex-Machina were the two races most adept at polluting the world with Black Ash.

Kurumi sat perched on a sharp, jagged cliff a kilometer away from the research facility. One leg was drawn up, hugged close to her body, her chin resting on her knee. The other slender leg extended out from beneath the hem of her coat, swinging lazily in the air.

A faint glow of deep orange Deathfire burned on the surface of her skin, instantly dissolving any Black Ash that came into contact with it.

Behind her stood Schwi, her gaze as sharp as the most advanced telescope, observing the distant facility with clarity that no ordinary eyes could match.

Under normal circumstances, Schwi would simply scan the entire area to gather intelligence. However, she refrained from doing so now because another group of hunters was watching the same place.

This was an entire squad of twelve Werebeast hunters.

Although the Werebeasts, like humans, could not utilize spirits to perform magic or cast spells, they possessed extraordinarily acute senses and a terrifying ability known as Blood Break.

If Schwi used her weapons to scan the area, the Werebeasts' heightened senses would undoubtedly detect the icy precision radiating through the air.

Kurumi didn't even look in the direction of the Werebeast squad. Instead, she let Schwi, who had no "heart," serve as her eyes. If the Werebeasts' higher-ups were serious enough to dispatch a high-ranking Blood Break individual, even something as simple as direct observation might provoke their wariness.

And as it turned out, Kurumi's suspicions were correct. The Werebeasts had indeed sent a full Blood Break squad. Every member of the team was a valuable combatant.

A pack of lions crouched silently in the forest, led by a petite wildcat.

Crimson slit pupils fixed on the Dwarf research facility, several hundred meters away. Even at this distance, the Werecat could sense the overwhelming danger emanating from within. Her instincts screamed at her that it was a weapon capable of annihilating the entire coastline in one strike.

What the strange creature had told her was true. But what exactly was that being's objective?

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Shaking her head vigorously, the Werecat, Kunami, banished the intrusive thoughts from her mind. Whatever that creature's motives were, such a weapon could not be left in the hands of the Dwarves.

Emptying her mind completely, her pupils dilated, and her lazily swaying tail suddenly straightened, bristling with tension. Every strand of fur on her body turned blood-red.

If Schwi were observing through a thermal imaging system, she would clearly see that the Werecat girl's body temperature had soared beyond the limits of normal life.

—Blood Break—

The wind howled, and the earth trembled faintly.

Enhanced by Blood Break, every movement in her surroundings was captured by her heightened senses.

Thump, thump—

Thump, thump—

There were sixty-seven Dwarves inside the research facility. Kunami discerned their numbers through the rhythm of their heartbeats.

Among them were twenty-three researchers, forty-three armed guards, and one child.

Through subtle, low-frequency vibrations, Kunami conveyed this information to her team and issued the command to attack.

In a blur of motion nearly imperceptible to the naked eye, Kunami vanished.

Deep gouges, as wide as a child's arm, appeared on the ground and trees as she streaked toward the Dwarf facility. It took only a single breath for her to breach the perimeter.

She led the charge, while the remaining lions followed, their massive strides and blood-red forms surging forward like a crimson tide.

The Werebeasts were a race with physical abilities nearing the limits of possibility. Even without magic, their strength rivaled that of the Flügel.

Under the influence of Blood Break, they became fearsome assassins, capable of taking down high-ranking magicians in melee combat.

The Dwarves, while straightforward thinkers, weren't fools. Standing next to a E-Bomb that could obliterate them all, they didn't dare cast any spells.

Without the use of magic or spells, the Dwarves had no means to resist the rampaging Werebeasts.

Their only option was to flee.

The earth hummed as the Dwarves evacuated aboard high-speed Subterrain Vessels capable of burrowing through the ground.

This mode of escape was why the Elves had nicknamed them "groundhogs."

Schwi caught the sound of tearing metal—screeching and groaning as steel was rent apart. She gestured to Kurumi, who responded by lightly patting her on the head.

"Stay here," Kurumi said.

A lone Ex-Machina acting independently was far too rare and would risk exposing too much.

Kurumi leaped from the cliff and rushed toward the Dwarf research facility.

As she watched Kurumi's figure grow smaller, Schwi's ruby-like eyes sparkled, an inexplicable urge rising within her.

…"Want to follow her?"

Strings of error messages pinged across her vision, but Schwi had long grown accustomed to them. She dismissed each one without hesitation.

Her bright eyes shone like the most dazzling stars in the night sky.

…"Stars?"

A heart…

A gentle smile graced her face—not from any template or tracking system, but from an unexplainable sensation emanating from her core matrix. Her head whirred faintly as she settled into Kurumi's vacated spot, drawing her knees up and letting one leg dangle idly in the air.

Onee-sama had said to stay.

So Schwi stayed.

The Dwarves' research facility was vast, but most of its structures were underground.

Kurumi entered to find a massive pit with a spiraling metallic walkway descending to the bottom. Crimson eyes locked onto her from below—a Werecat, flanked by a group of cautious lion-like Werebeasts carefully handling a large, stubby bomb.

It was a terrifying weapon, the shadow of death and extinction hanging heavy over the Werebeasts. Retractable claws, sharp as spring-loaded blades, stayed sheathed as they moved the device with rare caution.

The Dwarves' creations were pseudo-technology, born from their belief: "I think this will work, so I'll make it!" Their inventions were closer to magical constructs than true science. By comparison, the Elves, with their precise and rigorous spell design, seemed more like true scientists.

Amid the rustle of fabric and faint echoes, Kurumi landed gracefully, blocking Kinami's path.

"Ara, Ara~~~ Little Kitty, can you hand over that big, chunky thing to big sister?"

"That kind of dangerous toy isn't suitable for you~~~"

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