Chapter 18

"Eo…! You all right, Eolyne?!" I hissed as quietly as I could.

His body, dressed in the dark-blue uniform of the Integrity Pilots, lay slack on

the ground, and behind the mask, his eyes were closed. I put a finger to his

neck; unlike in regular VRMMOs, you could detect a pulse here, but his was very

weak, and his skin was shockingly cold.

I had a feeling it was an effect of using Hollow Incarnation twice in quick

succession like this, but I had no idea how to help him recover. I'd given him a

healing solution after the first time, but it hadn't had any apparent effect

beyond helping freshen him up a bit.

He needed rest in a safe location. That was the only way, I decided. I sat up,

put my arms around his torso, and lifted.

Suddenly, a piercing pang of sorrow stole my breath. It took me a moment to

understand why.

This was so similar to the top floor of Central Cathedral, just after defeating

Administrator. So similar to when I had lifted Eugeo, who had been fatally

wounded.

The grief and longing that had crystallized in my heart began to loosen and

melt, running through my veins again. The sound of my late friend's voice came

faintly to my ears:

Our paths separate here…but our memories remain eternal.

And it means we'll be friends forever.

Then he gave name to the sword that still hung on my hip before leaving the

Underworld forever. His lightcube reinitialized, and his fluctlight was gone.

Was I still searching for Eugeo's shadow within Eolyne, despite knowing all

this? I had thought that when I saw Eolyne's unit ID in the mechamobile, too,

but realizing it was completely different from Eugeo's, I had sworn to stop

chasing impossible miracles.

I shut my eyes and tried to stop the thoughts.

At this moment, the only thing I should be thinking about was getting Eolyne

out of here.

The Excellency had ordered security to be strengthened around the first-floor

exits. I couldn't use Hollow Incarnation, so there was no way to get past them

without being spotted. If I wanted to give up on stealth, I could just burst

through all the floors of the building to the roof, but whoever was making use

of this base would go into hiding and possibly kill the Divine Beast to hide the

evidence of their actions.

So no—I had to escape quietly.

With that in mind, I lifted up a few more inches and peered into the isolation

chamber through the window. The door to the analysis room on the left wall

had just opened, and the authority figure and two researchers were emerging.

The researchers were still wearing their protective suits, but the Excellency

wore only the coat. Despite being over sixty feet away, the figure's freezing

aura and unearthly beauty were palpable from here.

The trio came to a stop some distance away from the comatose black serpent.

The Excellency then approached, close enough to touch the beast, and peered

right into the massive mouth with the tubes running inside.

"…The stasis measures seem to be holding up as desired," the person said,

voice audible through the speaker in the ceiling.

One of the researchers replied, "Th-that is true…The chemicals are being

administered in the proper dosages."

"Good. And where is the juvenile you say you've found?"

"W-well…"

The researchers looked at each other, both seemingly resisting the pressure

to report first. Eventually, one of them gave up and said, "We…we lost sight of it

when we evacuated the chamber. I believe it should still be somewhere in

here…"

"In other words, both the juvenile's source and destination are unknown."

"W-well…at present, I suppose that is true…"

"Find it and capture it."

Their voice was so cold that even separated by thick glass and so much space,

I hunched my shoulders guiltily. The researchers shot upright in terror, but did

muster up a brave attempt at a rebuttal.

"B-but, Master Istar…if we attack a juvenile, we might once again draw an

Incarnate attack from the Divine Beast…"

That told me the researchers believed that when Eolyne and I destroyed the

syringe with Incarnation, it was the work of the Divine Beast itself.

No, wait a second. Didn't they just say a name? Is…Istar. That's what it

sounded like to me. I don't know if that's the first name or last name, but that is

the name of our Excellency down there. It sounds like the Mesopotamian

goddess Ishtar, but I doubt there's a connection…

Istar turned on their heel, coat swaying, and faced the researchers directly.

Under the bright lights of the isolation chamber, I could see that their flowing

black hair actually had reddish highlights. Between that and the pale-blue eyes,

my initial impression of cold flame seemed quite accurate still. I would never

want to be in the path of that gaze if I were one of those subordinates.

"…Even if the Incarnate attack came from the Divine Beast, the target was the

syringe, wasn't it?" said Istar, cold voice now containing a hint of irritation.

The researchers stood at attention again. "Y-yes…that is…accurate, but…"

"In other words, if you do not attempt to kill the juvenile, you will be safe. If

you wish to continue this argument, I would be happy to do so in the

interrogation room above."

"N-no, Your Excellency! We have no quarrel! We'll begin searching for the

juvenile now!"

The researchers were apparently soldiers, too, because they saluted through

their protective helmets and then split up to search. It wasn't much of one,

because there were absolutely no machines or containers or anything of the

like in the isolation chamber, only tubes on the floor coming from the wall to

the left, and the coiled Divine Beast in the center. The "juvenile," the baby

snake Eolyne and I had followed here, could only hide behind the tubes or

under the beast. As a matter of fact, when we destroyed the syringe, I saw it

wriggle under the Divine Beast's head.

The two researchers lifted smaller tubes and peered behind larger ones for

now, but they would eventually try under the creature. While it was a juvenile,

the baby was three feet long and nearly two inches thick, so once the light hit it,

there was no way for it to hide and go unnoticed.

Istar watched the researchers work, arms folded. If we were going to escape

to the first floor, now was probably the time. Besides, if Eolyne hadn't trapped

the baby snake in frost elements and I hadn't healed it with dark elements, it

would have blown up and died already.

"..."

My eyes fell on Eolyne, who was still unconscious in my arms.

When the researchers tried to poison and kill the juvenile, I was the one who

had destroyed the syringe bottle with Incarnation, but it was Eolyne who

shattered the needle itself. In other words, despite his air of calm rationality,

the pilot commander possessed enough emotion to perform a risky maneuver

to rescue a strange, alien creature. I didn't want to completely disregard and

betray that emotion.

Wasn't there some way we could escape from this base with the baby snake?

Say, covering our faces with cloth, then breaking the glass window right here,

scooping up the little creature, racing up the stairs, and trying to force our way

out the back door…?

I might be able to pull off something like that alone, but the slash Istar

produced was so fast it rivaled the speed of the onetime elite Integrity Knights.

If I had to go into battle with an unconscious Eolyne under my arm, there was

no guarantee I would make it out unharmed. Plus, if they learned we had

infiltrated them, they might tear down the base before an investigation team

could arrive from Cardina anyway. In the end, whether or not I used

Incarnation, it seemed that sheer force could not solve the problem…

But wait. Hold on.

Couldn't I use as much Incarnation as I wanted right now, and they wouldn't

know it was me? For one thing, their Incarnameters only raised a fuss in

response to the strength of the Incarnation and couldn't even point in the

direction of the signal source. Of course, I couldn't jump out into the open and

raise hell, but if I used Incarnation in some way that convinced them it was the

Divine Beast…

I stared up at the ceiling of the isolation chamber. It was dark in the middle,

where the light didn't reach, but I could make out what looked like a large

square hatch. It had to be a transport route up to the roof, which they'd used to

bring the Divine Beast inside.

On the floor, the enormous snake lay limp. I said a silent apology for using it

as a replacement or a hiding spot, picked up Eolyne under the arms, exhaled,

inhaled…

"...!!"

I unleashed my imagination in a way that was more significant than before, at

least one or two gears higher.

The Divine Beast's many eyes glowed red. Its massive head rose quickly. The

catheter tubes stuck in its mouth and body pulled out easily, spilling toxiccolored chemicals as they came loose. A moment later, the sirens attached to

the Incarnameters began blaring again.

"Aaaah!!"

"Wh-what happened?!"

The researchers inspecting the tubes fell on their bottoms. But Istar merely

took a step back, watching the Divine Beast without drawing that sword. It was

important they didn't have time to see through my ruse.

The hatch on the ceiling wrenched downward in a shower of sparks. As I

suspected, it was nothing but a dark hole on the other side. One of the two

thick hatch panels landed near one of the researchers, and the other fell right

before Istar, creating even more sparks and a tremendous noise. Even Istar had

to jump out of the way of that one.

At the same exact moment, a small and thin—only in comparison to the giant

serpent—shape lifted off the floor and attached to the Divine Beast's head,

although the three humans would not have seen it.

This would be the climax of a great, dramatic escape.

The Divine Beast's eyes flashed again.

The metal walls of the isolation chamber and the glass window before my

eyes shattered to pieces, shooting many glittering pieces through the air.

Soon after, all of it was converted to dark elements. There was absolutely not

enough spatial resource to directly generate this many dark elements all at

once, but by converting matter, you could make as much as you wanted, so

shattering the window was killing two birds with one stone.

The multitude of elements immediately formed a mist configuration, clouding

the isolation chamber with purple gloom. I hugged Eolyne to my side, placed my

foot on the window frame, and leaped for all I was worth.

I used no wind elements, jumping with nothing but pure Incarnation. We

passed through absolute darkness and up into the ceiling hatch. I didn't forget

the Divine Beast, either, pulling it along with Incarnate Arms.

Soon the mist of darkness thinned out, and a red light was visible ahead. It

was after three o'clock on Centoria right now, which meant it would just be

dawn on Admina.

I flew up the square transport tunnel at full speed until I burst through into

the sunrise. For an instant I glanced down, just long enough to register the

many guards rushing out of the front and rear entrances of the base. Only a

minute or two had passed since the incident in the isolation chamber

underground; their reaction speed was tremendous. If I wasn't quick about it,

they'd spot us.

Focus on the sky. I shot upward, pulling the Divine Beast behind me. We shot

through dense-looking clouds and out the other side, putting us above the

clouds in just seconds. They wouldn't be able to see us from the ground now.

At last, I could let out the breath I'd been holding. The first thing to do was

check on Eolyne. He was still unconscious, but it did seem as though his cheeks

were slightly more colored than before. Another bit of relief, then.

To the left, the black serpent floated, using the white clouds as a bed. Its six

eyes were covered with gray membranes. The red lights underground were a bit

of sleight of hand, using the light from heat elements with steel-element

mirrors to make it appear as though the eyes were open and baleful.

All the tubes that had been administering chemicals were gone, but whatever

"stasis measures" Istar mentioned being applied would probably take longer to

wear off. Plus, there was no guarantee the beast would be friendly to us if it

woke up. To a Divine Beast, we were just as human as Istar, so it was probably

more likely to simply attack with no provocation.

So the best thing to do was to return the Divine Beast to its domain before it

woke up. But then it might just get captured by the people at the base again.

What to do? I had to come up with an answer.

Just then, I heard a discordant gweee! right behind me and felt a burning,

piercing pain shoot from my back through my chest.