“What do we do now?”
“I want time to search for whatever Miss A was talking about once we arrive in the sanctuary. You will have to stop them here, Jiyuuni-san.”
“Don’t blame me if I kill them!”
Ange raised Prominence toward those charging in at her.
“Syzygy!!”
The fire burning within her sword turned to plasma and erupted out.
It grew to a beam large enough to fill the entire elevator shaft and was launched upwards. It took less than a second for it to envelop the two pursuers.
The inside of that was hotter than the center of the sun. Not even FeTUS had heat-reduction devices capable of enduring that, so the only defense was to transport the dimension itself like Machina did. But they would have to first stop their fall to create a “staring point” for that transport.
Or they should have.
“Lancelot!!”
“Eh? Wait!”
Lance-wielding Ren charged straight down the center of the beam.
Ange panicked when her collar was grabbed. Machina was surprised and distracted too, but…
“We are here because Adam has given us life. Do not defy him, for that is defying the very laws of nature.”
“Gh!”
Schwarze also caught up and grabbed Machina’s hand.
Machina tried to send out golden thread to bind her, but the thread unraveled and vanished like dust as soon as if touched Black Cat’s skin.
“The Anti-Code? That was fast.”
“This is the law of nature. Defying us is defying your very nature as a living being.”
All of FeTUS’s tools were programmed machines. There was an Anti-Code that would neutralize all of them and all of the Witches could use it.
However, it was supposed to take a fair amount of time to insert the code, but Miss C had done it in an instant. Even though that had never been her forte since she preferred to fight more directly.
Those two’s energy boost had been far greater than they imagined.
“Tch. Adam’s doping? Play fair!”
“What a rude thing to say. Obeying him is an inevitability for and the duty of all women.”
Ange tried to resist, but she could not at all keep up with Miss B’s speed or strength, despite having fought on equal footing with her just a few weeks earlier.
The women chosen by Adam could draw out more than 100% of their body’s strength. That power had helped Ange a few times in the past, but now it was working in those two.
“Come with us. We can live in eternal bliss with Fujita.”
And more than that, their enthusiasm was much greater.
While the fleeing three were only trying to get away, Ren and Schwarze truly thought they were doing the right thing.
“I realized over the past five days that this world has gone insane. When those men were introduced to ‘Haramiya Koishi’ as a girl with the misfortune to be born poor, not one of them felt a twinge of sympathy. They laughed, greedily indulged in her body, and said nothing at all to her while thanking the man who had sold her to them.”
“Society is fundamentally broken. I was created to kill people more efficiently. The politicians who used me to bring down their rivals are now heroes in their countries. The people who kill most efficiently and deceive most effectively are the ones who receive all the praise.”
“People’s souls have been corrupted by discord. They are corrupted to the core by original sin.”
“Fujita is attempting to correct that, so you should help. This is the only way to rid the world of its insanity. We can only rely on the Perfect One!”
“Jiyuuni, you must understand. Metatron, the flame of indignation at the source of your power, is supposed to be anger toward the world’s discord.”
“…”
Ange flinched when they touched on her personal weak point.
Only once it was put to words did she realize that she and Metatron were the same as the people supporting Fujita Mutsuki now.
They were the same as her when she turned herself into an all-destroying bomb out of her rage toward the human world.
They said Mutsuki was the one who had felt that same rage and turned himself into a being who could change it all.
“Oh, shut the hell up.” Lucia flipped around while falling and circled behind Schwarze and Ren. “Who cares about the laws of nature? I love Mutsuki-kun, and that’s why I don’t like what’s going on here.”
He sent a karate chop toward the back of their heads to end this instantly.
His karate chops could pass through flesh, so they could directly attack the human nervous system. A single attack could knock them out.
“!?”
Except his attack was stopped before they hit.
An arm grew from Schwarze’s back and grabbed his hand. It was a slender, female arm.
“Ohhhhhhh!”
A moment later, the arm grew as thick as a log and punched Lucia away.
The power was great enough to cancel out the energy of his fall and he was launched upwards. The arm returned to normal thickness while the owner reverted her tall body to normal size while riding on Schwarze’s back.
And she fixed her maid uniform that had shifted out of place.
“You too, Miss D?”
“Please stop this resistance, Miss E. FeTUS exists to stabilize the human world and the time for our greatest task has finally arrived.”
It was Daima Makoto. There had been three Witch pursuers from the beginning, but she had shrunk down to hide behind Schwarze.
The fall ended just them. The five of them landed at the bottom level of FeTUS HQ, a hallway lined with countless doors. Lucia landed a short time later.
They glared at each other – three against three.
“What are we supposed to find here!?” asked Ange.
“We need time to search, but it does not look like we will get it,” replied Machina.
“Tch. They’re only human. I can stop them by myself,” said Lucia.
Being punched must have pissed him off because he stepped out in front.
But Makoto did not seem remotely intimidated by a demon, despite the supposed compatibility issue. She adjusted her white lace glove that continued past her elbow, and…
“That is impossible.”
A moment later, her fist grew large enough to fill the entire hallway.
Lucia and the other two stared in shock as that fist was mercilessly swung their way.
They were sent flying.
Ange and Machina put up their guards and Lucia tried to escape by turning himself to liquid, but all three were launched with the exact same force. The glove must have been made to repel water, so Lucia could not get to her skin.
“Gh…damn her.”
“Miss D was the final guardian of this sanctuary. That means her abilities have been customized to be most effective within the HQ.”
“I would prefer not to punch students, but you leave me no choice.”
She raised her left hand and it too grew large enough to fill the hallway.
It was large and powerful.
She had a power boost from Adam, but there was also no way to defend against this simple attack. At this rate, they would be knocked out by the simple impact rather than anything related to skill.
“Get inside where we have some defenses!”
Machina struck the floor.
A door down the hallway flew open to reveal a grassy field and blue sky.
The three of them rushed inside simultaneously. The fist was too large to fit through the door, but the doorframe was shattered from the blow.
From the field side, the door itself disappeared as soon as the frame was destroyed. They had temporarily managed to isolate themselves from their pursuers.
“They’ll be in here soon, so we need to search! Miss A must have left something for us!”
“But what!?”
They had escaped in here, but the grassy field really was just that. Miss A’s beloved table sat in the center. It contained a washed tea set and a few cookie tins. A game of chess sat there unfinished and the stuffed rabbit she always played against was there too.
A new door appeared in the grassy field. Without bothering to check who had accessed it, Machina bound it in gold thread to prevent it from opening.