Chapter 37 — If This Was Part of Her Plan, She Is Pretty Impressive

After seeing the annihilation of the Immortal Corps through Masayuki's eyes, Lain cut her connection. It was best to be safe; she knew how far away Yogiri had been from the Dominator when he killed him, so there was no guarantee that his power wouldn't reach her through Masayuki as well.

"I believe your methods are incredibly dangerous, Mistress. Just watching may have an effect on you," Euphemia advised her, standing at her side. It seemed she was being careful not to underestimate Yogiri either.

"Euphemia, how dangerous do you believe this Yogiri Takatou to be?"

"More than any Sage, Swordmaster, or mythic creature. I believe it is best not to interact with him any further. As it is now, I believe he has no interest in us."

"So you're telling me to run away? I'm afraid I can't do that."

As rulers of the world, Sages had to be an absolute, unquestionable existence. There couldn't be anything that would threaten their lives, and certainly nothing that would make the lower classes believe their lives could be threatened.

Fulfill your own desires. That's what the Great Sage had told them, but there were some restrictions on that. The first was that any behavior that would call the absolute power of the Sages into question was forbidden. It was fine to ignore an enemy or let them escape, so long as it didn't make the Sages look weak.

But this situation was completely different. Now that she had already made a move against him, backing down would be a mark against the Sages' honor. As such, it was necessary for her to settle things with Yogiri Takatou, one way or another.

"But what can you do?" Euphemia asked timidly.

That was a rather refreshing response for Lain. As a member of her bloodline, Euphemia's loyalty was unquestionably sincere. And she was honestly concerned about Lain's own well-being. It was the first time someone had shown such concern for her since she had become a Sage.

Which meant that Euphemia believed Yogiri Takatou was stronger than Lain.

"First, I wish to know his limits. Why don't we test that?"

From where they were, Lain could now reach the city's barrier. That would make changing the conditions in the city relatively easy.

 ◇ ◇ ◇

It looks like a form of mind control. Of course, I have protected you from that attack.

Like Mokomoko said, it appeared the people of the city were being manipulated in some way.

"What about Takatou and Ryouta?"

"Maybe she's on guard against a counterattack from me."

"I am an attendant of the Sages, so I'm very high level. There's no way such a wide-ranging mental attack would have an effect on me," Ryouta said, though with an undercurrent of unease. After all, if this was an attack by Lain, as one of her subordinates, he must have felt he was in a rather dangerous position.

"But what is she planning on doing now?"

Being entirely surrounded, there was no way for them to escape. But besides surrounding them, it didn't seem the crowd had any intention of moving in yet. Yogiri could easily kill them all if he wanted to leave, but massacring such a huge number of people who were being controlled against their will wasn't something he would be happy doing.

"Since they are being controlled, can't you just attack the person controlling them?"

"This is a bit different than with Tachibana. His case was more like a hive mind."

But standing around doing nothing wasn't an option either. As Yogiri decided to try something just to see what would happen, he was preempted by a change in the crowd.

Brandishing a knife, a single person leaped from the throng and rushed at him. Yogiri wasted no time in dispatching them, feeling their plain intent to kill. A split second later, two people broke away and rushed him from opposite directions. After dealing with them, four more came at him from all sides.

"Well, this is a familiar feeling. This is generally what happens when someone tries to test my abilities."

Sensing killing intent aimed at Tomochika, Yogiri quickly extinguished the source. The same thing happened with Ryouta, and he decided he might as well kill that one too.

"Ryouta, please get a little closer. If you stay that far away, it'll be harder to keep you safe."

"Are you sure?" Ryouta's face showed clear surprise at Yogiri's offer of protection. "I'm one of Lain's people, so I figured you were just going to kill me after all."

"I'm not interested in killing people who haven't done anything wrong. Of course, I only plan on protecting you while it's convenient for me to do so, but if you step out of line I'll probably end up killing you by reflex."

Yogiri eliminated someone expressing killing intent from far away. They must have had magic, or some sort of projectile weapon. It seemed they were testing him from a variety of ranges now.

"This is kind of getting annoying."

If Yogiri wanted to protect himself then he didn't have much choice, but using these innocent civilians to test him was getting on his nerves.

One of the people in the crowd before them exploded, chunks of meat and blood spraying towards them. Yogiri sidestepped the pieces of iron shrapnel mixed in with the gore coming his way. He wasn't able to avoid the spurt of blood, but at least he hadn't been injured.

"This is never going to end!" yelled Tomochika. "What do we do?!"

"If we just want to end it immediately, that's possible," Yogiri said, glancing over at Ryouta.

The lord of the city's face bore a twisted, bitter expression. From that expression alone, it was clear that he treasured the people of Hanabusa. For being an attendant of the Sages, he actually seemed to be a decent person.

"If that was part of her plan too, then she's pretty impressive," Yogiri muttered.

Realizing that she couldn't hurt Yogiri physically, it seemed she was now targeting his emotions. If he was up against an opponent who would take even that into account, he couldn't let down his guard for a moment — there was no way she would be satisfied with just throwing the residents of the city at him.

As Yogiri was trying to figure out what her next attempt might be, an intense intent to kill settled over them.

"Uh...what's wrong? I don't like that expression you've got at all."

"A strong killing intent suddenly appeared all around us. Normally, it's like a black line between me and the source, but now it's more like a black haze over the whole area."

It was similar to what Yogiri had felt when they had parted ways with the robot and started walking to Hanabusa. As they approached the city, it had grown weaker and weaker until he could barely feel it once they'd reached Hanabusa itself. But now they were right in the thick of it again.

"Ah, that danger forecast thing again?"

"In forecast terms, we're above fifty percent."

"That would mean it's definitely going to rain in a weather forecast, right?" Tomochika frantically began looking around.

"It feels like...things are drying out?"

It was just a subtle, uncomfortable feeling, but now that it had been put into words, it was hard to think of it any other way. The wind had turned dry, the air itself taking on a rough quality.

"Wait, what is that?!" Tomochika pointed towards the distant sky. Following her finger, Yogiri saw an enormous black figure towering in the distance, slowly approaching the city.

"No way...an Aggressor? Is that the Darkness?" Ryouta muttered, staring at the figure in dumbfounded shock.

"You know what it is? Wait, aren't Aggressors supposed to be robots?"

"The Darkness is an Aggressor that appeared recently. Sir Santarou drove it off, apparently, but...dammit. Is this what Lady Lain was fighting?!"

A scream echoed in the distance. Apparently, Lain's control didn't extend to the entirety of the city's population, as those who saw the Darkness approaching were now fleeing to the central square. Meanwhile, the Darkness casually stepped into the city, oblivious of and unaffected by the barrier. Paying no heed to the buildings in its way, the shadowy figure walked into a skyscraper, passing right through it. In an instant, the building vanished.

"Damn it! First we're trapped here by civilians, now an Aggressor?! What am I supposed to do about all this?!" Ryouta wailed under the unbearable stress of the situation.

Even if it looked like it was moving slowly, the creature was just too big. Compared to ordinary people, it was also too fast. Even if they gave an evacuation order now, there wouldn't be enough time.

The shadow of killing intent from the giant was growing steadily darker, proof enough that the monster was heading straight for the central square.

◇ ◇ ◇

Although she had spent the time trying to test Yogiri Takatou with her attacks, all Lain had learned was that he could sense them coming before they happened. Not just those nearby, but even the ones who'd tried to target him from a distance with arrows or magic had died before they could launch their attacks. Whether he could see them or not, he was able to deal with them anywhere in the city.

"If killing him directly is impossible, how about indirectly? How about doing something that would bring about his death by happenstance, with no direct intention to kill him?"

For example, a stray bullet or an accidental shot. There would be no specific intent to kill in that case. In a similar fashion, something like an area attack that didn't target him specifically, or a time bomb could also work. In fact, the spray of blood had managed to connect, even if it hadn't actually harmed him.

"But is such a thing possible to set up at this stage?" asked Euphemia.

"I'm sure you already know, but we conveniently have an Aggressor heading towards the city. Let's make use of that."

Lain wanted to do a bit more research into exactly what constituted "killing intent," but if she was to make use of the Darkness, this was her only chance.

"Certainly, no human could survive being touched by such a thing. But do you really think it will affect him?" Euphemia was uncertain. She seemed to believe that Yogiri could kill even an Aggressor, despite its lack of a perceivable physical form.

"Well, I guess we can't just relax here forever."

Euphemia's eyes went wide with surprise. Lain had suddenly become two people. They were virtually identical, a sight that should have only been possible with a mirror.

"I have the ability to regenerate in an instant even after being completely annihilated. Using that power, it's easy enough to create copies of myself."

"I, umm, I understand your power is incredible, Mistress...but to what end?"

"I would like to ask that as well." It was impossible to tell the difference just by looking, but it must have been the newly created Lain who answered.

"Hm. I guess we'll call you Lain B. Though you are a copy of me, I have intentionally removed all of your memories regarding a certain person. Now, you cannot have any intention of harming that person."

This was a measure she had taken just in case. Even the thought of killing Yogiri might be enough to provoke a counterattack.

"Hmm. I don't really understand, but I suppose that's on purpose."

"Go up into the sky and wait. When I give the signal, attack the city."

Just as she was told, Lain B flew up into the sky. Even if she didn't know exactly what was happening, she'd been given instructions by Lain herself, so there was no reason to question it.

The original Lain continued to make more copies, sending them up into the air one by one. In the end, there were more than a hundred of them. Seeing so many beautiful women clad in the same red dress floating in the sky was quite a spectacle.

"Excuse me, but if you plan on attacking the city, could you not just use a magical attack of some sort?" Euphemia asked. She must have thought the plan was rather boorish.

"Unfortunately, no. I'm not all that skilled with magic, after all. Simply throwing them into the city will be more effective."

This was a plan that Lain was uniquely capable of. Her flying speed easily broke the sound barrier — no ordinary person could see it coming. With a full-power kamikaze charge, they would slam the overwhelming strength she possessed as a vampire straight into Hanabusa. Even without a clear objective, the shockwave of the attacks would be enough to destroy the city.

Lain stopped forcing the civilians to attack, instead opting to watch through their countless eyes, waiting for the precise moment that Yogiri would unleash his power against the Darkness.