Published at 31st of August 2019 2:34 am

Chapter II: That Which Resounds from the Abyss

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029

An impassable trench.

No one ever comes to save me, so it must be because they can't cross it.

The trench is scary.

Whenever I try to stand on the greenness, my body trembles and my legs get cramps.

It's as if they were saying that the trench will never go away.

Yes... why can I never cross the trench?

Because no one ever comes to save me.

Because no one will ever come to save my lonesome self.

Why am I thinking of crossing the trench?

Why?

030

The Church of El Elemia.

Inside its magnificent walls, there was another assembly taking place: another one that extended for hours on end without coming to a satisfactory conclusion for anyone.

The Oracle Fayma was engaged to, Moralys, behaved energetically and once again took the center stage during it.

"We have received information on several incidents that have taken place in our city of Nemo during the last few days. Clearly, this points to nothing else but the fact that the belief that gave stability to the hearts of the people is gradually fading away. I think that we must take appropriate measures to strengthen their belief, so we may combat this lamentable situation."

The reports about the [quarrel] had already reached even the Bishop's chair in which Radolf sat. While the increase in the prices of the items was the problem in which they were involved the most at the moment, the reports of the fight between humans and Reyvateils also got mixed up into this. Particularly, the bit stating that the Reyvateils had used their Song Magic against the humans. Therefore, it was a matter that couldn't be ignored.

After all, it had been decided long ago that Reyvateils were forbidden to use Song Magic except in a few circumstances in which they were allowed to do so. This was particularly more harshly enforced in urban areas like Nemo itself, where they were pretty much forbidden altogether from using it, no matter the reason behind its usage.

That Song Magic had been used in such a way was what Moralys called lamentable in the speech he was giving that moment.

"Then, does that mean that there were no officers present when the Song Magic was crafted?"

"...Huh? Lord Radolf, what is it?"

Fayma was standing at Radolf's side, but it didn't seem like she heard the question he just asked. She was paying her full attention to the speech of her fiancé, so Radolf just repeated the question to her. She nodded with a pensive face.

"According to the reports, the only ones that were gathered in that place were the Reyvateils who sang at that time. We didn't receive any information of them being accompanied either by Church Oracles or Tenba employees"

"Why did they sing then...? They should have known that doing this would be breaking the law..."

"Yes..."

Fayma nodded. All the inhabitants of this world were perfectly aware of the restrictions that were placed on the usage of Song Magic.

"Maybe they were in an emergency situation? Or their lives were in danger?"

"I wonder. And weren't we able to apprehend any of the Reyvateils that actually sang in that place?"

"As for apprehending them... we have no proof yet that these girls did anything wrong, correct...?"

"Ah, right. Sorry about that. But still, that means we should confirm what reason they had to sing in a populated area, and therefore, we must talk to one of them."

"Y-yes, you're right. P-please... forgive me for my insolence"

"Hmm…"

As Radolf continued listening to the speech, which seemed to continue extending itself endlessly, he also looked at Fayma's face from time to time. She looked so sagacious...

He had even gone and chosen her as his secretary... but the reply she had just given him didn't sound like her.

Maybe it was because she had gotten emotional due to her fellow Reyvateils being involved in this incident, but this possibility didn't cross his mind.

"Were there any casualties?"

Fayma raised her eyebrows at Radolf's sudden topic change, and softly shook her head.

"Unfortunately, there was one wounded person. It doesn't seem his life is in danger, but we have been informed he was taken to the nearest inn as soon as it was possible."

"To an inn you say? Was he a traveler? That's something we'll have to look into later on. Can I trust you with this, Fayma?"

"Yes."

Fayma nodded with a stern expression.

The speech then was taken over by one of the young Oracles of the self-titled Radolf Faction. He had the typical enthusiasm of the young men... but as painful as it was to say this, he also seemed to have the flaw of speaking without bothering to listen to what others had to say.

"We're being told that we have to regain our believers’ faith, but do you really think that people will pay us attention if we just tell them to read the holy scriptures and listen to our sermons when they are worrying about their current lives? The first thing we should do is go to these people and distribute provisions among them!"

"If you're saying that we should just go and distribute food, then you haven't thought things through as much as you should! What a naive way of thinking!"

Radolf accidentally stole a glance from Fayma. Apparently, her fiancé didn't have qualms with interrupting others' speeches. He had a very flammable personality.

Moralys stood up again and continued.

"If you try to offer free assistance to those that lack belief on us, they will never feel any gratitude for the Church and instead will be filled with laziness!"

"It's true that some people may be like that, but the actual situation we're dealing with right now is that the people of the city are starting to get troubled by the rising prices of items, to the point they don't know if they'll even have anything to eat tomorrow. It's absurd to say that those that have such worries despite working so hard will become lazy!"

"You say they are troubled for how they will go on with their lives, but so far we haven't received any reports about anyone dying from starvation."

"Then you're saying that we should stay still and do nothing until someone actually does!?"

More than a dispute, this had already devolved into a quarrel in which both participants were each only trying to find openings through which they could attack the other. This wasn't the kind of discussion Radolf wished for.

"You both, we all should have a short recess, don't you think? If you aren't more tactful when talking to each other, your throats will run dry."

Both quarreling men glared at Radolf, but they didn't have any objections to his proposal. Both had on their faces an expression that clearly said that they could have defeated the other's argument if they had put more effort into it.

(Even though the goal here wasn’t for people to beat each other’s arguments.)

Radolf got a headache.

After he announced the recess, he walked out with a gait from the assembly hall, feeling as if his legs were made out of lead. In comparison to these two, who were practically frothing at their mouths, he didn't seem to have talked much, but he still felt his throat completely parched.

"Fayma, can you make me some tea...?"

But he cut himself off when he noticed that Fayma wasn't at his side.

"Where could she have gone to?"

As he muttered this, he pondered for a while the idea of going to look for her.

However, in the end he came to the conclusion that it would more prudent to wait for her instead, so he decided to go back to his office. Just as he decided that, he heard a soft voice coming from the other side of the corridor. He headed to the source of the voice, as he thought it sounded very similar to Fayma's own voice. He walked over the elegant carpet that was spread from an extreme to the other of the corridor. While the long tufts of the ancient carpet that sunk under his shoes as he walked were quite ancient, Radolf himself thought that putting such elegance even a place like this was unnecessary and it was one of the things he wanted to reform. If they had told him they were going to put such carpets, he would have replied with a "It'd be a great problem to clean the corridor carpets if they're all this large."

After a short while walking, he could hear the voice clearly, and it was then he knew he was right: it was Fayma's voice.

(But when did she become the kind of girl that raises her voice so much?)

The voice coming from around the corner could be very well described as shrill. While it might be a bit excessive to say this, anyone would have thought that it was impossible for someone who was so quiet all the time like Fayma to sound like that.

"Why don't you understand!?"

"I do understand, but I have duties I've got to attend to as a member of the Church and..."

"Duties this, duties that! What's so important about them!? Why do you care about them more than me!?"

Apparently, she was having a quarrel with her fiancé, but the zeal and passion he had back at the assembly hall seemed to have gone away. In front of this girl burning with rage, this Oracle seemed like he had absolutely no power or influence over anyone.

"If I you’re asking me to compare you to my duties in the Church, then..."

"But I should be important enough to you to the point such a comparison shouldn't even cross your mind! You humans are all the same! You always think about whatever you want, but you never think about us!"

"Fayma..."

Apparently, Moralys was swallowed by his fiancée’s threatening attitude. Even Radolf, who was eavesdropping from a place where they couldn't see him, never thought that Fayma would ever say such words.

“It’d be better...."

Fayma's voice suddenly changed in tone.

(What?)

Her voice suddenly became lower and softer, yet strong enough to be heard.

“It’d be better if the humans just disappeared."

"Fayma!"

Then, footsteps were heard on the carpet, which began fading away in the distance. Most likely, that was Fayma running away.

"..."

As anyone would expect, no one could see such a scene and walk away from it unfazed. Radolf left the place very distraught.

When he finally got to his office, some news about anomalies being spotted at Skuwat Village reached his ears.

"Skuwat Village? You mean the ruins? Sorry for repeating the question, but what happened in that place?"

The person Radolf was questioning was a young Oracle, who stood immobile as he gave the Bishop his report.

"Several Reyvateils have gathered there and are starting a rebellion!"

While he was greatly shocked to hear that Reyvateils were doing such a thing, Radolf couldn't just accept the report like that. He asked the Oracle for more details.

"A rebellion, you say? But what could they accomplish at these ruins? Couldn't it just be a normal gathering? The first thing we should be doing is trying to find out the reason why they have gone to that place..."

"That isn't the case, sir!"

The Oracle retorted.

"Tenba's armed forces already began conducting a siege as soon as they set foot on the site, and it looks like a skirmish has already started between them and the Reyvateils!"

"How foolish!"

Radolf said as he slammed a fist on his desk.

"If they try to attack each other, it's obvious that the Reyvateils would be stronger than any armed human! If they start singing, these troops will be nothing more than sitting ducks for them! Trying to send their armed forces for this... what in hell are they thinking!?"

Radolf left the office as he mumbled to himself. He was followed right away by the Oracle.

"Bishop Radolf, where are you going...?"

"You shouldn't need to ask that. I'll depart for Skuwat Village at once."

"Y-you shouldn't, sir! It's almost time for the assembly to reconvene!”

Reflexively, Radolf turned back and looked at the Oracle. Then, he let a long and deep sight out: one that took him around three full seconds to do.

"...Very well. I'll head back to the assembly hall right away."

As soon as he returned to the assembly hall, an unpleasant atmosphere had settled itself upon the room. Apparently, the news of the Skuwat Village incident had already spread among all the members of the Church.

Radolf began talking as soon as he stood above the stand.

"I think everyone present in this hall should know this already, but a piece of extremely grave news has just reached our Church. Apparently, an attack that we shouldn't overlook has just taken place at Skuwat Village, and therefore we, the Church of El Elemia, will consider this as an emergency to which we must respond posthaste. I want everyone here to begin making preparations, as we will be departing right away...”

"Please wait, Bishop Radolf."

One of the elder Oracles raised his hand. Radolf allowed him to interrupt his speech, and the Oracle began speaking in a calm tone.

"What do you mean by treating this incident as an emergency to which we must respond? What plans do you have in mind?"

"The current plan is forming a squad from our knights and sending them to the village in order to diffuse the situation..."

"But doing that wouldn't be like pouring oil over the flames?"

The elder Oracle then raised his hands, as if there wasn't any point in continuing this discussion.

"Tenba has already dispatched part of their forces, so doesn't this mean that they are going to suppress them? You should just leave this whole conflict in their hands."

"You say that as if I was planning only on sending our knights to fight..."

"Oh, isn't that the case? Then, what are you planning to do?"

But this time, who replied back wasn't Radolf: it was Moralys, who Fayma had just screamed so harshly at.

"What are you... telling us to do...?"

"If you still don't have a clear plan, we won't be able to do anything even after we get to that place. And according to the report, the participants in this conflict are Tenba and several of the Reyvateils that were employed by them and by the Church. And even if there are really Church Reyvateils there, we don't know if that's true or what the current situation is, so we don't have the information needed to take a proper decision about this. So I say we should stay here and watch over the situation."

"...You aren't being serious, are you?"

"W-what did you say!?"

As soon as he was refuted, he gave Radolf a faltering glance. Radolf then began talking with a strong tone he had never used before.

"I asked you if you were being serious. So far, I have kept silent whenever you started talking about spreading belief throughout the world, but I had enough of it already. This discussion ends here!"

"Bishop Radolf, that way of speaking is so..."

Moralys made an indignant face in response to Radolf's sudden rage, but he completely lacked the mood to talk back. Radolf then continued talking, this time with a voice louder than ever.

"Traditions and belief... both exist for the sake of the people. That was what I believed all this time. And if the Church's members are the only ones that will be led on this path, then that makes belief and such unnecessary! It’s high time we stopped these infertile arguments!"

"Bishop Radolf..."

"Lord Radolf!"

"If the Church wants to follow the path I want it to follow, we'll somehow make everything work out. And now, as its most devoted believer, I'll head to the side of those that seek our help!"

All of the Oracles that were sitting down on the chairs lining the hall were dumbfounded from the sheer pressure his angry face gave.

And giving them a sidelong glance, Radolf determinedly left the assembly hall.

A young Oracle followed him, visibly upset.

"L-lord Radolf, where are you going?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'll go to Skuwat Village. If the Church doesn't want to fulfill its role in the world, then I'll go by myself!"

The cape of the Oracle got stuck on his feet, making him trip and fall face-first on top of the rug. However, Radolf didn't mind him at all and continued walking.

"I should have done this from the start. After all, I was never able to carry out the duties expected from a Bishop such as holding discussions. Isn't that right, Lyner?"

The Oracles that were left behind in the assembly hall just looked at each other's faces for a while, completely confused about what had just happened.

After a while, some awkward smiles began appearing on their faces.

"What does he think he'd be able to do by rushing there all alone?"

"If you ignore the power of the Church, that'd only make the incident more serious."

"How imprudent! Who does he think that's supporting him in the first place!?"

While most of the Oracles were only making harsh comments on Radolf and the way he left the hall, Moralys kept himself completely silent.

031

"Come on! I have to keep holding you down for a bit because you're not letting me treat you!"

"Ouch! I told you I'm fine, Misha."

Misha grabbed Lyner, who was trying to escape from her, with both hands to then start checking his wound.

"To think you were so badly hurt... No, you're not fine! And remember that Song Magic can't heal everything!"

She scolded Lyner with an unusually overbearing attitude.

"I know and I told you already. So, use all your power and... owwwww!"

Lyner looked at Misha completely overwhelmed. Anyone who looked at him as he was at the moment would never believe this was the hero who had saved the world.

While Shurelia looked at both of them with some envy in her eyes, she immediately turned to Jack and Claire, who were in the same room as them with serious expressions on their faces.

"So, have the Reyvateils in Nemo always been so belligerent?"

Claire instantly shook her head.

"Of course not. You should know that too, Miss Shurelia."

"Yes. As far as I have seen through the Tower, I don't think a Reyvateil would ever sing to harm another person in the middle of a city. That wasn't the case during the period of time that tragic war lasted, but I’m at a loss as for why something like this is happening right now. According to Lyner, it wasn't just a Reyvateil who sang: it was pretty much the entirety of the Reyvateils who were gathered in that place. So can't we say that at least all of those particular Reyvateils were belligerent?"

"No way. Are you sayin' that sumthin’ that ridiculous happened? I've never heard of a Reyvateil gang or anythin’ like that."

Jack shrugged off. Claire agreed with him.

"I don't think that Reyvateils would actively initiate and take part in a conflict, and that's because most of them aren't unhappy about the living conditions they have alongside the humans."

"But it’s different for eccentric Reyvateils like you, Claire. Isn’t that right?"

Claire nodded with a bitter smile at Jack's words.

"Well, even I consider myself an eccentric, so it’s true. But on the other hand, I can also say that there shouldn't be many Reyvateils like me, who think that they'd rather draw a line between them and the human-made society in some way."

"Draw a line?"

Lyner decided to participate in the conversation now Misha had finally completed the first phase of her healing.

"Yes. I didn't want to tie my life to someone else in exchange for the Life Extending Agent. That's what both Tenba and the Church do, right?"

Jack nodded "Yeah, yeah!" upon hearing that.

"So that's why you manage this bar all by yourself? Bein' a lone workin’ woman must be pretty hard. But if it ever gets too tough, you can always call..."

"Harm!"

Jack was steadily getting closer and closer to Claire, but as soon as Misha called him out, he got stiff.

"By the way, there's something that just came to me... but it's no more than a hunch..."

"Could you tell us in more detail?"

Shurelia asked Lyner as he was deep in thought. He pondered for a few moments how he should say it, and then he began putting his thoughts into words.

"Somehow, they looked like Aurica when she got angry back then... they were irritated, unsatisfied... and more importantly... I think the reason why she got so angry could be very important... at least that's what I feel."

"Maybe it's mass hysteria, or... ugh..."

Upon seeing how the women were looking at him, Jack turned to look elsewhere.

"But we don't know anything about it..."

Claire sighed, visibly perplexed.

"It'd be great if no other quarrels happened. Not everyone in this world is as sturdy as Lyner."

Misha muttered.

"But I think I got pretty badly beat up... Isn't that what you mean, Misha?"

Lyner said staring at Misha while he softly poked his wound, which was now covered in bandages.

"It's because I was so worried about you! I don't ever want to worry about anyone like this... Is that clear, Lyner?"

"Y-yeah."

Lyner then stood firm, visibly flustered. Misha began mocking him for this.

"You got yourself a good scoldin’, man."

"And the same goes for you, Harm!"

"Egh!"

And as soon as Misha scolded him, it became Jack's turn to stand firm himself.

"You both are lost cases. Are all men like you?"

Lyner was taken aback upon hearing Misha's words of disgust.

"By the way... Aurica said something like that too."

"What happened to Aurica?"

Lyner began squeezing out his memories in order to answer Shurelia's question.

"Now I remember, the Reyvateils who sang in the city and Aurica said very similar things."

"Something similar?"

Lyner nodded in response to Shurelia, who was leaning towards him.

"Umm... it was something like... we'd be better... more or less... we'd be better if the humans disappeared, or something to that effect... I remember thinking it was pretty weird for Aurica to say that if she was just angry with me..."

"And the other Reyvateils were saying that same phrase?"

Shurelia asked to confirm whether this was the case. Lyner nodded in response.

"We'd be better... was that what they said?"

Claire's expression stiffened the more she listened to the conversation they both were holding.

"What is it, Miss Claire?"

Shurelia asked.

"No, these words... are what..."

As she spoke, she began holding herself as if a sudden chill had struck her. This made her cleavage even more prominent.

"Didn't I say that same phrase back then?"

Lyner and Shurelia looked at each other in shock after Claire said this.

"What do you mean by back then...?"

Misha asked.

"Ah, of course you don't know. I suddenly got very irritated a while ago while we were tending the bar..."

"But that was when that drunkard grabbed Aurica by the arm and..."

But as Lyner was talking, Claire shook her head and continued what she was saying.

"No, that wasn't it, Lyner. Like I told you this before, that wasn't the problem. For some strange reason, I got irritated all of a sudden...and I began blurting out "we'd be better... humans"..."

At that point, she cut off the rest of what she was about to say at the same time she surveyed her surroundings.

"Now I think about it, it's as if I had gotten possessed and someone was using my mouth to say whatever they wanted..."

"Miss Claire... please, tell me more details on that."

Upon hearing Shurelia's words, Claire was taken aback as she got stiff.

"What do you mean, Lady Shurelia!?"

It was quite unusual for Lyner to talk back to Shurelia. However, Shurelia didn't pay attention to what he said and instead looked at both sides, as if she was looking for something in the distance.

"The Songs are..."

Her delicate body was softly trembling inside her suit of armor.

"Several Songs... are being all sung at the same time... what does this mean...?"

"Songs? Do you mean Song Magic!?"

And at the same time Claire said this; several screams were heard outside of the room.

"This is terrible! Tenba's troops have been dispatched to Skuwat Village!"

Everyone looked at each other at the same time.

"Hey, what happened?"

Jack had gone outside of the room and grabbed the first man he saw to interrogate him. The man began screaming his lungs out in reaction to being suddenly grabbed by the neck by a metallic hand.

"Humans and Reyvateils have started a war in Skuwat Village... Tenba's army is going to attack them right now..."

"A war? Their army?"

"But Tenba doesn't really have an army!"

Misha angrily shouted as she came out from behind Jack. However, the man rebutted her as he made his eyes narrower.

"But I saw them! A large crowd of people equipped with large guns were heading for Skuwat!"

"Tenba's armed forces..."

Claire and Shurelia came out from the room.

"This can't be... is that tragedy destined to repeat itself...?"

It was impossible to find out her expression due to her armor, but her voice was quivering, so it was quite obvious she was very tense.

"Anyway, we should go and check it out ourselves!"

"But you're still wounded, Lyner! You can't go like that!"

Misha screamed as soon as she saw Lyner's face, who was the last one to leave the room. He was running very excitedly, but she stopped him with her hand.

"I'm okay. I won't commit the same blunder twice. Lady Shurelia, we won't be able to learn anything if we just stay here. Let's hurry to Skuwat Village!"

"Yes, that would be the best course of action. Perhaps the Songs I heard were coming from Skuwat Village's direction."

"So these Reyvateils are singing..."

Lyner muttered.

"Ah yeah. Well, that's Lady Shurelia for ya. No matter where is, she knows everythin’ that's up with this world."

Jack said in great admiration of Shurelia's abilities.

"It isn't as convenient as it sounds, as I can only do this because it's directly related to the Tower's resources. That is the only reason I'm aware of it."

"Heheh"

On the other hand, Lyner was putting on his armor much faster than usual.

"Even if I tried to stop you... you wouldn't listen."

Lyner smiled sweetly at Misha, who had been frowning at him.

"I'm sorry, but I've gotta go now."

"I know. You've been like this ever since I’ve known you."

And smiling in a slightly lonesome way, the girl began helping him put on his armor.

032

A long time ago, Misha was kidnapped due to Falss' schemes and imprisoned for a long time in Tenba's facilities. By removing her, who had the duty of singing to be the protector of this world, he planned to lead this Tower to its destruction.

Ultimately, his schemes were ruined by Lyner and his friends, and Misha regained her freedom. However, Falss' actions also brought a great damage to everyone involved, as he also was the cause of several tragedies that extended up to the present day. One of them was Skuwat Village.

While Falss wasn't directly involved in the events that took place in this village, it was because of his schemes that it became a war zone and was razed to the ground.

After they left the inn and arrived at Skuwat Village, Lyner and his friends were speechless.

There were flames, sounds of gunfire, and apparent flashes that made clear the Reyvateils were using Song Magic all over the place. And just in their range of vision, there were several men and women collapsed on the floor that didn't give any signs of ever moving again. Maybe they had already been killed.

Lyner began gritting his teeth.

"Are they planning to reduce Aurica's hometown to ashes again...?"

Skuwat Village was the place where Aurica was born.

After the battle that left the village in ruins, she was forced to leave this place, but she had the fortune of meeting Lyner and being able to travel at his side. However, Lyner knew pretty well that her heart still belonged to this place.

And that same village was being ravaged by the fires of war once again.

"Jack! Misha! Lady Shurelia!"

Lyner screamed as he unsheathed his sword and began swinging it around.

"I'll trust you to help me protecting them! However, don't forget we're here to stop this battle!"

"If you're charging in there, I'll be going too!"

Radolf rushed into the scene carrying his spear.

"Radolf! What are you doing here?"

“Isn’t it obvious I've come to put an end to this foolish battle too? Anyway, we'll talk later! Let's go now!"

Lyner replied with a "Yeah!" as he tightened his grip on his sword once again. However, Shurelia screamed that precise instant.

"Wait a second! There is something strange happening here! These Songs..."

Shurelia put both of her hands on her head and took a deep breath.

"What is this!? The Songs are being amplified in an abnormal way! Who is...!?"

A scream was heard that instant... or at least it was something Lyner thought was a scream.

However, when he turned to face the direction the voice came from, he understood immediately that it hadn't been a scream. The lights of the Song Magic that were being used throughout the village were extending up to the sky, as if they were pillars made from light.

"Lyner, this isn't normal Song Magic!"

Radolf screamed.

"What does this mean, Lady Shurelia!?"

"These Songs... are being incarnated in the real world! Everyone, be careful!"

And while Shurelia screamed this, several eerie figures began emerging from the pillars of light.

Silhouettes that had crooked horns...

"Is that... Mir?"

"No, but..."

The monsters that appeared from the pillars of light were very similar to the Reyvateil that tried to destroy the world: Mir. Or better said, the monsters looked very similar to the embodiment of her hatred, as Mir herself had the appearance of an innocent girl.

However, once they got a better look at them, they noticed they had several differences, and this was something they should have known because they were the ones that fought against Mir.

The shape of their horns and the appearance of their joints were conspicuously different from that of the Mir they saw.

(But for an instant, they looked very similar to her...)

Such were the thoughts crossing through Lyner's mind as he gripped his sword even harder than before.

The sudden appearance of the monsters took both the Tenba troops and the Reyvateils by surprise, and left them confused.

This was especially true in the case of the Reyvateils, who were extremely frightened upon seeing these monsters, and between this and the way in which they looked at these creatures as they floated in the sky, it became clear that these beings weren't being summoned because the Reyvateils willed to do so.

A gunshot was heard and one of the monsters’ horns fell down covered in flames. As if it had just been useing this time to check its possible preys, the monster swooped down: it was going to attack.

"Here it comes!"

Radolf rushed in followed by Lyner.

After it landed on the ground, the monster grabbed two Tenba soldiers with its arms and threw them into the air. Overwhelmed by the power of a monster three times their size, the Tenba soldiers didn't even have any time to scream before they crashed into the ruins.

As the other soldiers were paralyzed with fear when the monster went to attack them, Radolf jumped in between them and the monster.

"Eternal Rain!"

In a second, he thrust multiple and repeated times his spear into the monster, which hit it several times both in the arms and horns. As it was protected by a hard skin similar to a shell, this didn't seem to cause much damage to it. However, this at least made the monster take notice of Radolf.

It then roared to the enemy that had just appeared before it.

"I'll be your opponent! Lyner, go and protect the Reyvateils!"

Lyner did as Radolf told him and changed the direction he was running in to rush another of the monsters.

The monster he rushed was going to attack a large group of Reyvateils, large enough that they looked like an enormous mass of people.

As they were fundamentally weak at physical combat and were extremely frail battle personnel, they would be completely defenseless in front of such a creature. Among all of the Reyvateils that were stupefied and thus, unable to move out from the fear, there were a few brave ones that were frantically trying to craft out their Songs, but when the danger drew so close to them, they were unable to sing them.

"I'm your opponent!"

Lyner slipped in between the Reyvateils and the monster at the last second, and with the tip of his sword, he struck the monster with enough force to slice off a rock, cutting into its arms.

With its attack interrupted, the monster let out an insecure groan.

Lyner addressed the girls he had behind himself.

"Hide behind the buildings! We'll cover you!"

And without turning back to check if the Reyvateils heed his orders, he slashed at the monster.

"Hyaaah!"

With a shrieking battle cry, he swung his sword towards the monster, cleanly cutting through its thick skin.

Despite their firearms, the Tenba troops were unable to make even a scratch on the monsters' skins, while Lyner's attack had a brute strength that these weapons could never hope to match.

Frenzied by the pain, the monster let out a fearsome scream and charged against Lyner, swinging its arms around to hit him. The attack would have been strong enough to destroy a house if it was received directly, but if Lyner blocked it with his sword, the attack's destructive strength would be greatly dampened.

However, Lyner didn't take even a single step back and waited for the monster's attack.

"Come!"

The arms of the monster, now looking like a fierce storm, drew closer. But on the last second, Lyner's figure vanished from the monster's sight.

Lyner had leapt high into the air at the last instant, leaving the monster unable to react. He was at an altitude high enough to make anyone wonder if he had wings, but as he came down again, he used the gravity's pull to land a devastating blow to the monster from above.

The tip of his sword deeply pierced into the monster's head.

A terrible scream came out from the monster's mouth, and it then collapsed in the ground. The land greatly shook from the impact of its large mass hitting the ground, causing the ruined walls to crumble away.

"Lyner, get away from there!"

He heard a voice call out to him: one that had a characteristically delicate vibrato when talking that also had the sound of a Song echoing over it. It was Misha.

Lyner withdrew his sword from the remains of the monster and backed away from it, as the corpse then began being consumed by lancet-shaped flames.

As anyone would expect from flames crafted by a powerful Song Magic, the monster's corpse was reduced to nothing in just an instant.

Once he made sure the threat had been completely neutralized, Lyner began looking around: he noticed Radolf was now helping the Tenba troop, meaning he already had defeated the monster he had been fighting against. There was still one monster remaining and Jack was firing wildly at it with the gun in his right arm as he covered the Reyvateils. Behind him, Shurelia was enshrouded in the shine emitted by Song Magic. Obviously, their battle was about to end.

Lyner nodded as he went to look for more enemies. By jumping high in the air again, he spotted three more monsters: these seemed to be the only ones remaining.

"Misha, please cover me!"

And without waiting for her reply, he rushed in direction of the three monsters.

"Ah, wait up!"

He didn't mind at all that Misha was so flustered as she tried to catch up with him: he already had his eyes completely fixed on the monsters... or more strictly speaking, it should be said that he had his eyes set on the people the monsters were trying to attack.

Misha knew very well the kind of personality Lyner had.

He always had to go help those that were in trouble and he didn't care at all about getting himself in danger whenever he did it.

"He forgot completely about the wound on his arm. I'm sure of it."

This was the kind of thing that always made Misha want to sigh in exasperation. He wasn't keeping in mind that the people he was going to help this time were the Reyvateils that had been fighting against the humans. He wasn't even imagining that they could try to backstab them.

Apparently, the monsters decided to act together when they saw their new enemies appear. The three creatures then charged at the same time in Lyner's direction.

"This isn't good!"

Misha stopped running and began singing right away. It seemed unlikely she had enough time to craft a powerful Song Magic, but if she couldn't delay their attack, Lyner would be alone facing against the three monsters, and despite being so strong, he would still be in great danger.

A clear singing voice began overflowing out of Misha's lips and its melody began drawing out energy from the space around her. The world was resonating with her Song.

The energy instantly gathered to the point in which it became possible to see it with the naked eye, becoming particles of light that began fusing into each other at the tune of Misha's Song, until it changed into a large ball of light.

"This is... my limit...!"

Misha could have gathered energy to enlarge the ball as much as she wanted had she been able to use her full power, but she didn't have much time at her disposal right now.

While the circumference of the ball of light wasn't really large at the moment, Misha still decided to activate it as it was.

After it was given a vector through the Song, the energy was thrown straight ahead in the middle of the monsters' path.

The ball of light exploded into a bright flash as it made contact with the ground, but this didn't do much beyond delaying the monsters' movements for a few seconds. It was to be expected, considering they were strong enough for firearms to have no effect on them.

However, this momentary delay was essential to Lyner, who had already calculated the timing for hisattack.

Without saying anything, he ran between the monsters and cut off the neck of one of them. He then used its corpse as a screen of sorts to get into the blind spot of another of the monsters.

"Go, Lyner!"

And as she cheered him, Misha began crafting her next Song: she had to continue supporting him with her singing.

However, Misha suddenly realized something as she sang.

These monsters were the same as her Song Magic... and if they were crafted out of the Songs the Reyvateils sang, why would they go and attack even the same people that had given life to them?

However, there was no point in dwelling further on this, as Lyner's movements seemed to be more awkward and clumsy than ever. Most likely, it was because of the wound on his arm.

Misha fully concentrated fully singing.

"Hey, Lyner! You seem to be havin' some trouble!"

Jack commented as he saw Lyner's battle after he made sure that the monsters were splitting up.

"Let us help him. He has been wounded."

"Aye! And I mean that in a way that won't make anyone worry 'bout me! Let's go, Lady Shurelia!"

"H-huh? But I'm always worrying about everyone..."

The armored girl said a bit confused to Jack. He just shrugged it off.

"Okay okay, let's go then! And where has Radolf gone to? There's still one more guy here we hafta take down!"

They kept searching for the Bishop, who had suddenly disappeared, as they continued running, but Jack didn’t catch even a single glimpse of him.

033

Meanwhile, Radolf had sustained injuries from an extremely strong attack.

"Fayma, why are you here...?"

And standing dazed, there was the Reyvateil he was sure to have left at the Church just a few hours ago.

And similarly to Radolf's surprise at seeing this, Fayma seemed to be quite surprised herself.

"Why did you come here, Lord Radolf...?"

Fayma's voice, more than expressing surprise about Radolf being in this place, rung as if she was finding a fault with the fact that he had even come to this place in the first place.

"That was because..."

But as he talked, Radolf began faltering. Now he began thinking the facts over, while he felt he was doing the right thing by rushing out from the Church, he didn't really have a legitimate reason for doing something like that.

It was just because once he heard the news about the conflict between the humans and the Reyvateils, he couldn't hold himself back and rushed off as fast as he could. He didn't even prepare a suitable reason to keep his dignity as Bishop.

But during the short time he was at a loss for a reply to give her, a Tenba soldier had stealthily gotten close to them from behind.

"Die, you Reyvateil!"

He then fired his gun.

However, Radolf put himself between the bullet and Fayma, blocking it with his body.

"What are you doing!?"

Radolf didn't receive any injuries because the bullet bounced off the full-plate armor he was wearing, but he realized this meant this place was not safe for the Reyvateils. The soldier screamed at Radolf once again, whose intervention had made him irate enough already.

"Why are you protecting a Reyvateil!? They're attacking the humans!"

"Idiot! It's unthinkable that a Reyvateil would...!"

But then, a singing voice was heard behind him.

"Fayma!"

And when Radolf turned around, he saw Fayma singing right behind him. Some hard-to-make-out words were coming out from her mouth.

"Humans... I'll destroy you all!"

"Fayma, stop...!"

When he drew closer to stop her, the sound of the Song changed abruptly. Fayma's expression stiffened as her face paled from horror.

"W-what? No! I don't want to sing something like this...!"

Fayma attempted to cover her mouth with her hands, but her movements were awkward and slow, as if she didn’t have proper control over her own body. During that time, the Song began gathering energy at high speeds.

"This speed... is only comparable to that of Lady Shurelia's Songs...!"

But before Radolf had any time to express his surprise at this, the Song Magic abruptly materialized itself.

Before his eyes, a form colored in black emerged from the light and emitted a brutal roar.

It was one of the monsters.

"No, stop...! I don't want to keep singing something like this...!"

Fayma screamed, but the monster didn't seem to hear the words of the person who had crafted it.

And with another roar, it attacked Radolf. He screamed as he blocked the blow from one of its log-thick arms:

"Fayma, run away! This monster is not normal!"

And as she stiffened her pale face, she clumsily walked to get away from the place.

Radolf used the tip of his spear to keep the monster from moving while he waited for the right time to attack.

"This thing is made from Song Magic, but the singer herself is unable to control it..."

The monster rushed in to attack.

Radolf nimbly jumped out of harm's way, so he was barely able to avoid a brutal blow.

"Anyway, it'll be quite problematic for us if we can't know when it'll stop being sung into existence."

034

"How many more of these guys are going to show up!?"

Lyner's forehead was covered in sweat.

After they finished defeating the three monsters, several others appeared and went to attack the group as soon as they spotted them.

He had managed to defeat one of these things with his sword, but he was also beginning to show signs of fatigue. The wound had started taking its toll on him.

"Lyner, there's no end to them!"

Misha's face showed a lot of exhaustion when she came running to him.

"But we can't just run away!"

"I know that, but... at this rate..."

Misha's gaze was fixed on Lyner's left shoulder.

"If we change our battle tactics..."

And while he said this, they heard the roars of the monsters mixing up with a scream.

"Over there!"

A worried Misha followed Lyner as he ran off.

While this was only a bunch of ruins now, it used to be a street lined with several houses. Given how much the debris was obstructing their vision, Lyner and Misha crossed over them, taking a detour from the derelict houses and fixed on finding where the scream had come from.

When they finally found the place, they discovered what had caused these screams and Misha had to keep herself from screaming as well.

There were two exhausted Reyvateils at the feet of a monster and there was another one dangling from the monster's mouth, suspended by the sharp fangs the creature had. She was screaming as loud as she could, but due to her lack of physical strength, it was impossible for her to break free from these jaws.

"Damn you!!"

Lyner rushed in.

He tried slashing at the monster with his sword, but it had been grabbing the Reyvateil in a way in which it could use her as a human shield. Apparently, it was planning to challenge Lyner while using the Reyvateil as a cover.

And as if it intended to mock Lyner, it jumped away at a low altitude.

"Shit! What should I do...!?"

If he could put some distance between the monster and the Reyvateil, he could have a chance of defeating it. However, there was no guarantee that the Reyvateil would be safe by the time Misha had finished singing a Song Magic of her own.

It seemed that the only thing he could do was slashing at it with all his strength. However, as he bent forward, resigned to having to attack both the monster and its victim, the shadows of multiple people carrying spears attacked the monster from its sides. These attacks were quite powerful, but the monster easily avoided them. The attackers then clumsily tripped and fell to the ground.

However, this gave Lyner a chance.

During the time the monster was distracted by the attack, Lyner rushed in like a gale and brought down his sword on the monster's head.

"Hyaah!!"

Now he had cut the fangs from the monster's mouth, the Reyvateil fell to the ground.

With the corner of the eye, he made sure that Misha ran over to her to check how she was and he then launched a second similar attack at the monster's eyes.

While it flinched from having its fangs cut off, the monster began recklessly spinning its arms around, as if it was to keep Lyner away from itself. However, this left its backside unprotected, so the people from before went and attacked it again.

The sharp spears pierced the monster.

For the first time, Lyner noticed that the ones that were helping him on this battle were men that wore armors similar to Radolf's.

"Oracles... from the Church of El Elemia?"

While they wore similar armors, it seemed that these Oracles weren't anywhere as strong as Radolf was, as several of them got hit when the monster retaliated from their attack, but at least they didn't flinch from this. One of them addressed Lyner cheerfully:

"So you're Sir Lyner, the hero who saved this world! We came here as fast as we could!"

"Y-you guys are...?"

"We're the Oracles that have decided to go and save the people from any crisis, right as Lord Radolf ordered us to!"

"I-I see..."

Lyner didn't really understand what was happening, but he couldn't deny that they were a valuable asset in this battle.

"Well, in that case... hyah!"

He struck the coup d'grace on the monster they had attacked from all around and had as their target.

It let out a final roar as it collapsed to the ground. It then began disintegrating.

After making sure his sword was still in good conditions, Lyner talked to the Oracles.

"If you're really Radolf's companions, I'll make this brief: you gotta help us to defeat these monsters and stop the conflict!"

"Very well! Aside of us, there are around other twenty Oracles coming here right now! As long as Sir Lyner and Bishop Radolf allow us to, we will assist you!"

035

Having succumbed to terror, Fayma ran among the ruins.

The screams came out of her like spasms and didn't stop. She knew screaming like this would put her in danger, but she was unable to hold them in.

The streets of the ruined village had become quite complex due to the buildings that had crumbled away, so the place was like a labyrinth.

She staggered as she wandered around this ruined maze.

All while she wondered: "Why did this happen?"

The only thing she wished for was that Moralys, who always showed such a frank opposition to Bishop Radolf, who she loved and respected so much, would talk to him in a way that would allow them both to get along better.

And while she was thinking about how obstinate he was and how their conversations would always become quarrels at some point, she said something she didn't have in her mind at all.

"It'd be better if the humans just disappeared."

Her rage began swelling up uncontrollably and she remembered the disparaging words she screamed at her fiancé.

Now she looked back on it, she didn't think it was necessary to go to such extremes.

Because no matter what happened, Moralys had always been gentle to her.

She left the road covered with rubble and began walking into one of the buildings to find a place to hide.

The thick dust layer that covered the floor of the place, combined with the fact she was covered in sweat, made her extremely uncomfortable. She sat down on the dusty floor, wiped off the sweat from her forehead and tried to calm herself down, but the terror that these ominous monsters instilled on her made her legs tremble uncontrollably.

Due to the tasks the Church assigned them, she had lived several experiences in the battlefield, but right now she had fallen prey to panic. Covered in dust and sweat, she began running from a place to another in the ruins like a mouse.

"Moralys..."

She instinctively whispered the name of her fiancé.

She tried to support herself by placing her quivering hands over a wall, but it collapsed as soon as she did, causing her to fall down to the floor due to losing her balance.

The collapsed wall became a pile of rubble and whipped up a large cloud of dust. She turned her face away to avoid breathing it, but then, she saw right before her a man that seemed to have gotten away from the street.

As he was carrying a firearm over his shoulder, it became obvious that he was a Tenba marksman.

"A-A Reyvateil..."

The man was dumbstruck for a second, but the next instant he was pointing his gun to Fayma.

However, before he could have the chance to pull the trigger, something black and large sent him flying away from her sight.

Then, the unpleasant sound of something soft being struck by something hard was heard at the distance.

"..."

But as soon as she heard a monster making a roar that sounded like a sneering laughter, Fayma understood right away that the black thing that had struck and sent the man flying away was an arm the creature had been swinging around.

After it landed from its jump, the monster stood again on the ground and slowly began approaching Fayma.

A cruel light was shining in its eyes.

It perfectly knew that unlike the man from before, she didn't have a weapon to defend herself. This particular monster, despite being quite wicked, did possess some intelligence.

"I-I... don't know... what I should do now..."

Unable to stand up again, she just looked gazed up at the monster as it roared again.

It was going to kill her...

She instinctively closed off her eyes. Images of the horrible death that awaited her began surfacing on her mind.

However, the pain that she should have felt right away didn't come.

"..."

She timidly opened her eyes.

And there, it was a man with her back against her, wearing an impressive armor.

It was a kind of armor Fayma had never seen before. And she could see the thin blades of the two swords he was gripping jutting out at around the height of his chest.

On the tip of the swords, she saw how the monster had been cleanly cleaved off in half and both of its halves fell in opposite directions as they began disintegrating.

"That was quite a close call, wouldn't you say?"

The swordsman said as he turned around.

He was quite handsome.

His voice sounded pretty masculine, but his looks were so neatly arranged that even Reyvateils didn't reach his level of beauty.

Fayma instantly forgot the terror she had been feeling and began looking at the swordsman's face.

He didn't mind Fayma's reaction at all and continued talking as he sheathed his swords.

"You would do well to avoid singing for the time being. An abnormality has been rising in the Song Magic... no, it would be better to say that it's among the Reyvateils."

Fayma was partly stupefied, so while she did hear the swordsman's words, he disappeared before she realized he was gone. It was like he had never been there in the first place.

She stood still for a short while, but she then ran off to give treatment to the man that had been sent flying by the monster's blow.

036

After Lyner nodded at the Oracles, everything began going dark around them.

"What's this...?"

When he looked up, he saw a gigantic silhouette that resembled a fish flying through the sky.

A machine equipped with Symphonic Power discs on its backside that emitted a noise similar to that of an earth tremor as they spun was floating right above Skuwat Village.

"That's an airship! Why did it come here out of nowhere... who's coming in it!?"

And as if it were in response to his question, an announcement was heard from the airship.

"Here are orders from Ayano to the Tenba employees present here: Cease your attacks on the Reyvateils at once and concentrate on eliminating these monsters. There are my orders. I repeat; your only enemies here are the monsters."

"President Ayano..."

The president of Tenba had taken an airship expressly for coming to this place.

A large crowd then took their decision.

There were a few monsters remaining in the area, but even the Reyvateils themselves had noticed that their Song Magic was producing more of them, so they tried to stop themselves from singing further. But then, the Oracles that came running from the Church and the Tenba soldiers, who had regained their organization in acting as soon as Ayano gave the order, formed a single group and began attacking the monsters together. It was clear that the monsters had no chance of winning anymore.

A short while later, the monster eradication was complete and the airship had landed on the village. The Tenba soldiers that had finished fighting gathered around it. On the other hand, the Oracles from the Church gathered at Radolf's side.

As for the Reyvateils, they were unable to stop singing, so they just surrounded the airship from a fair distance.

Ayano appeared shortly later above the airship's upper deck. Her voice was amplified by the small microphone she held in her hand and it resounded throughout the entire village.

"This ends this pointless fight. To the Reyvateils here, please calm down. From this point on, neither the employees from my company or anyone else in this place will harm you. I give you my word as President of Tenba."

"This is all because you fired us!"

A scream was heard from among the Reyvateils. Ayano replied to this with a stern voice.

"That was a misunderstanding. My company has never intended to fire you Reyvateils in the first place. However, I understand it might be difficult for you to believe my words given the conditions and treatment you have suffered at our hands, so I request you give us some time in order to explain ourselves, if you please. But during that time, I'd like for you to help us with treating the wounded."

037

"I didn't think you would come all the way here"

Radolf said to another Oracle. The man nodded in response, but it seemed as if his mind was in an entirely different place from his body.

"Did you change your mind?"

And as he nodded in response to Radolf's question, the man's gaze began looking around himself, searching for something. Radolf had the hunch that this was the true reason he had come to this place.

"If it's about Fayma, she should be all right. I told her to run away when the fighting began."

This was the first time the Oracle... Moralys looked straight at Radolf.

"Is that true? Then where's Fayma?"

The respectful tone he used to employ had disappeared entirely. This showed how flustered he was.

"Well, she should be around that area, but..."

"What do you mean with should!? Fayma, Fayma!"

Moralys began walking around in search of the Reyvateil as he screamed her name.

"No matter what he says, he's really worried about his fiancée, huh...?"

A smile instinctively appeared on Radolf's face, covered in sweat and dust.

It looked like the Oracle had managed to found the person he was looking for near the limit of his vision range.

He began running with so much energy towards a girl that was standing still, completely exhausted, that he seemed he was going to crash into her. But he just go up to her and embraced her.

"Oh, Fayma! I'm so glad you're safe...!"

"Why... are you here...?"

Fayma asked with a voice that sounded faint enough to make anyone wonder if she was tired in extreme. Moralys replied with a somewhat confused tone.

"When I learned you had disappeared from the Church, I thought you maybe had come to this place... and I... I..."

As he said this, he embraced her delicate body with even more strength.

"When I thought of the things that could have happened to you..."

As anyone would expect, he was unable to say anything beyond that point and he caressed Fayma's back several times, as if he were determined to make sure that the girl was actually right there at his side.

"Agh... it... hurts..."

Despite her complaining about this, she surrounded the bulky body of the Oracle with her arms and embraced him back.

On the other hand, the Reyvateils finally decided to listen to Ayano's explanation and began gathering around the airship.

"Ah, so here's where ya had gone off, Jack."

Krusche greeted Jack, being the one that had developed the gun he still had mounted on his arm.

"As ya can see. And ya came with President Ayano?"

"She asked me to come with her. If she needed to bust some heads, I could help with that."

She lightly tapped on the large chainsaw she had over her shoulder. While she was an engineer, Krusche’s specialty in battle was fighting at close quarters and the chainsaw was the weapon she wielded in these situations.

"Though I wouldn't have gotten into a fight like this, no matter how much anyone asked."

Jack said as he looked around. Krusche agreed with his viewpoint.

"But why this happened in the first place?"

"Wasn't that because yer company fired the Reyvateils and made them angry?"

"No, that wasn't it!"

She told Jack the same explanation Ayano had given her. However, Jack didn't seem to have bought it.

"Ya know, there's something fishy here. I heard about the new contracts bit, but they really needed to come here and attack them?"

"You're right. It's true that this awful conflict happened because these guys from our troops ran off and started acting on their own without informing the rest of the company, but if we can get the Reyvateils to listen to our explanation until the end..."

The indifference of the humans she saw in the HR department most likely had deeply wounded the hearts of the Reyvateils, but that was also the reason why she didn't think they would lack the fortitude to listen to the explanation to the end.

"For starters, this whole incident caused the firing of several girls that were smart enough to be trusted with several tasks in my project. So, what's that fishy thing you were saying?"

"Ah, right. Reyvateils’re acting as if there was something they can't stomach. According to Lyner, even Claire supposedly began acting strangely."

"The same Claire we both know? That's really weird... and by the way, where‘s Lyner gone off now?"

"He was fightin' over there. Anyway, he should be able to see the airship, so I'm sure he'll come ‘round soon."

Jack began looking around, but he didn't see Lyner anywhere.

After the battle ended, Lyner left the wounded in the care of the Oracles and Misha, and began walking among the ruins all on his own.

"Maybe Aurica's here too..."

That was what he thought.

This village was Aurica's hometown after all, so if several Reyvateils had gathered in this place, it wouldn't be strange for her to be present in this place too.

And if there was anywhere in Skuwat Village where Aurica could be...

After a while, Lyner stood in front of a house whose roof had caved in and whose walls were halfway through crumbling away: it had become a place where no one could live anymore. The second floor had barely avoided getting destroyed in the collapses, but in addition to that, it didn't seem to serve any purpose than to increase the tragic impression that the building gave off.

This was the place Aurica had shown him around once: the house where her family once lived.

"Aurica! Aurica!"

As he took care to not misstep on the wooden floor that loudly creaked under his feet, Lyner advanced further into the building.

"Aurica...!"

He continued walking inside as he called out her name. Not even 15 years had passed since this place became deserted. However, its inside seemed to have suffered as much as if a full hundred years had slipped through it. Its appearance was enough to make anyone realize that no human hands had given it maintenance since a long time ago.

But at the same time, Lyner couldn't keep himself from feeling some anxiety from this abandoned building. He hadn't fully realized this yet, but he had the hunch that maybe, Aurica's heart was still as desolate on the inside as this building was.

"Aurica, are you there...?"

He went up the stairs and entered Aurica's room. As soon as he took a step into the door-less entranceway, he saw some slow movements in one of the corners.

"Aurica..."

He sighed out of relief.

Aurica was curled up in one of the room's corners and she looked at Lyner with eyes filled with fear.

"So here's where you had gone off to. I've been looking for you."

But when Lyner tried to approach her, she curled up even more tightly, as if she was trying to shrink herself.

"Don't come any closer..."

Lyner stopped walking.

"Why?"

Aurica weakly shook her head.

"Because... I... Lyner..."

As she talked, her eyes began filling with tears.

"I might do something terrible to you..."

"Something terrible?"

She then held her head with both hands.

"Whenever I think of you and of how you don’t understand my feelings... just by thinking that, my head begins filling with horrible feelings before I even realize it..."

"What kind of feelings are you talking about...?"

A puzzled face appeared on Lyner's face as he asked, unable to understand what Aurica meant. The girl, curled up as she was, looked at him with a face warped by horror and continued whispering.

"We don't need the humans. They should just disappear. Kill them all with your Song Magic..."

Aurica then looked at Lyner with a face filled with reproach.

"But that's wrong! I shouldn't be thinking these things! I love you, Lyner! Even if you're horribly dense sometimes, I still love you...!"

Yet she still continued squeezing words out of herself, as if the impetus of her declaration of love was pressing her on.

"That's why... If I end up doing something like killing you, Lyner... I... I..."

Lyner knelt to the ground and placed one of his hands on Aurica's shoulder.

"It'll be fine. I won't die so easily."

"Lyner, but I..."

"Everything'll be okay. Don't worry."

He then hugged Aurica.

"Ah!"

And then, he got his lips close to her hair and softly whispered in her ear.

"Everything's going to be okay. I'll always protect you, Aurica."

The stiff mental strain Aurica had been feeling immediately melted away. It left her at the same time she took a deep breath in.

"Come now. Let's go back to the others."

And when Lyner said this, she was already softly breathing in and out. She had fallen asleep.

038

Why am I thinking of crossing this trench?

Why?

I'm lonely, but as long as I'm here, I won't have anything to fear.

If I stay here forever, nothing fearsome will appear, no matter how lonely I feel.

Why do I want to go to the other side?

Why?

It's because that person is on the other side.

I don't want to be all alone anymore.

I don't want to be in a world where I'm all alone.

I want to go to the place where Lyner is.

Lyner...

That's why I have to cross this trench.

039

Lyner and the others boarded the Tenba airship, which took them from Skuwat Village to the Tenba Headquarters. The Reyvateils and Tenba troops that were wounded during the battle boarded the ship as well.

Ayano initially thought of allowing all the Reyvateils in the village to board the airship, but that would have exceeded the ship's maximum passenger capacity and it would also have caused the Reyvateils to be packed into it with the Tenba soldiers.

So to not make this an impossible situation, it was decided that only those soldiers that carried dangerous weapons and the Reyvateils that were needed to heal the injured would board the airship.

In exchange, some of the Tenba staff would remain in the village to give care and aid to those who were left behind. This was because they still had to explain to the Reyvateils why Tenba took the actions they did.

And right now, "one of these wounded that needed treatment" was moaning in one of the rooms in the airship.

"Agh, M-misha! Please be gentler! It hurts!"

"Stop screaming like a little girl! This wound got like this because you were so reckless!"

She retorted to Lyner as she sang.

"I couldn't do anything about it, these monsters were too strong... i-it's weird... a healing Song Magic should have a gentler feel to it, but... i-it hurts! A lot! Misha, are you sure this really is a healing Song?"

"Do you doubt me?"

She gave him back a glare that had a hint of danger in it.

"N-no, I don’t doubt you but... but this Song stings a lot..."

"Because you made me angry!"

Misha quickly replied to a flustered Lyner.

"And your Song Magic is expressing it? ...Anyway, why are you so mad at me?"

"Why am I angry?"

Her singing voice became a little more high-pitched.

"Because you run off in your own without paying any attention to the feelings of the people around you!"

"Damn, it hurts a lot! Misha, I don't know what I did, but it hurts! Huh, the wounds are healing..."

"If you were a normal person, these wounds would have killed you at least thrice over! Try to control yourself a little!"

"B-but this was... huh...? It feels a little..."

And when Lyner was about to ask Misha to weaken the effects of the Song Magic a little, he was enshrouded by her gentle embrace. She emitted a soft aroma that smelled like flowers.

"Misha..."

"I just wanted you to understand that..."

She softly whispered in his ear.

"About how much I worry whenever you get injured..."

"U-umm..."

Lyner didn't know how he should respond to the fact that Misha had suddenly and gently embraced him.

"Umm... umm... Misha... I..."

"Just be quiet for a second and listen."

She said as she continued with her Song.

She embraced Lyner a little more tightly.

"Be quiet, and stay with me like this a while longer."

After Misha said this with voice that was quite unusual in her, Lyner just stayed silent and nodded.

"..."

As he stayed silent in the arms of the girl, he began feeling a different sensation where her hands touched him.

Whenever she caressed him, whenever she moved her hands around his back, he felt an extremely soft sensation in his chest.

"Ah, Lyner..."

He felt great warmth whenever she called his name, as if the sound of her voice calling out to him was delivering that warmth to the inside of his body.

"Lyner... Lyner..."

And as she whispered his name one time after another, she rubbed her body against his several times.

"I'm sorry, Misha... for having made you worry so much."

"It's okay. I don't mind it anymore."

She replied as she clung tightly to Lyner's body.

"It's fine. I know very well I can't stop you whenever you get something in your head. If anyone should apologize here, that should be me for being so selfish..."

"Misha..."

Lyner was left at a loss for words again and just looked at Misha as she embraced him. He noticed that the aroma of flowers had gotten even thicker.

"Can we stay like this for a while longer... until I'm done singing?"

"Huh...? Ah, okay..."

"I don’t get a chance to do something like this often..."

While he was worried about how loud the throbbing of his heart was getting, Lyner felt very comfortable from receiving the warmth Misha was transmitting him.

He couldn't feel the stinging that was bothering so much anymore.

And a gentle Song surrounded him...

"Lyner! How are your wounds?"

By the time Aurica had woken up and ran into the room, Misha had already finished helping Lyner changing his clothes.

"They're fine now. I healed him up while you were resting, Aurica."

Misha replied with a nonchalant face.

"But I wanted to cure him!"

Aurica began pouting, while Misha just responded with a sweet smile.

040

"So, did the girls at Skuwat Village agree with this?"

Claire asked as she made a small wave with her hands on the surface of the bathtub's water.

"More than agreeing with it, I'd say..."

Ayano replied, still deep in thought. The warm steam was covering her body all around.

"They surfaced..."

"Hmm? Did you say something, Aurica?"

"No, nothing."

"I see. Well, as I was saying, more than agreeing with it, they seemed to be unable to believe what they themselves were doing."

"I guessed as much."

"And they surfaced over here, too..."

"What is it, Aurica?"

"It's nothing, Claire."

"You guessed as much? Did you have a hunch or something about it, Claire?"

"Yes."

Claire nodded as she wiped off with her fingers the beads of sweat that had started appearing on her forehead.

As soon as the airship arrived at the Tenba headquarters, Ayano told everyone to go to the bathroom.

"At times like this, we should first take a bath."

That was the reason she gave.

The responses everyone had to this fell in two categories: one was that they thought they had gotten themselves quite dirty in the turmoil at Skuwat, and as they were already familiar with the experience of a long journey, they decided to accept the offer because they knew how important it was to take a good bath. However, there were others that didn't care about bathing and for who it wouldn't be odd to spend more than a day with their entire bodies black from the cover of sweat and dirt they had around themselves, neglecting even the possibility of entering what they considered a stupid pool of water. This was what they all instinctively thought of when Ayano mentioned "bath".

However, what Ayano called a bath had an entirely different meaning to her.

It was an enormous bathtub that extended all over the place, enough to think it was a Tenba office building all by itself. The ceiling was quite high too and it covered the entirety of the bath. However, it wouldn't be odd for anyone to think the place lacked a ceiling.

"Hmmgh!"

While she submerged herself up to the nose into the bathtub, Aurica looked around the enormous bathtub.

Even if she didn't want to look around, she had two prominent features rising out of the bathtub at both sides of her head.

One was the owner of the bath, Ayano, and the other was Claire. And Aurica was submerged between them both.

Aurica then straightened herself up until the water reached up to her shoulders.

"They don't surface..."

Aurica scowled at how unfair reality was.

A little farther from them, Misha, Krusche and Shurelia were also submerged into the water.

The water felt more pleasant if the more the body was submerged where they were.

"As Lady Shurelia's already there, I wouldn't stand out if I went to that part of the bath..."

And while Aurica continued making a variety of comical faces, at her side Claire was softly replying to Ayano’s question.

"I felt something similar. It was as if someone else had been putting inside my mind words I've never thought myself, and they gradually swelled up..."

"But wouldn't that be the opposite?"

"No, it's a little different. That's a voice we can't decide if we'll obey or not, as it even makes you think as if you had thought these words yourself."

"Hmmm…"

Ayano crossed her arms.

"I-is it an intruder or something...?"

"What are you saying, Aurica?"

"No, it's nothing."

"So on hindsight, I could notice that I didn't actually think these things myself, but at the moment it happens... it's like a voice that echoes from the depths of your mind, so it ends making you think that you were the one who actually thought them up."

"And you imply it was because of this that all the Reyvateils went off at the same time?"

"Now this incident has calmed down, we can analyze it with a cooler head, but back then; these feelings only grew and grew. Whenever the humans did something terrible to us, we couldn't think of anything else but these horrible words."

"And that happened to you too, Aurica?"

"Huh? W-what is it, Ms. Ayano?"

"Hey, hey, haven't you been listening to a word we've said?"

"Are you not feeling well yet, Aurica?"

"No, it's not that, Claire. I'm feeling as good as always. It's just..."

"Just...?"

"What is it?"

Aurica made a face similar to that of a puppy being chased around when both began questioning her. That gaze caused them both a strange feeling in their stomachs.

"I’m feeling somewhat overwhelmed... Hey, it's true that men like women with bigger breasts the best, right?"

Aurica then sank down to the mouth into the water.

"Huh? What are you thinking?"

A shocked Ayano asked.

"Well, it's because I'm seeing you both like this and..."

A troubled smile appeared in Claire's lips in response to Aurica's gaze. However, she didn't make efforts to cover what Aurica was looking at. Maybe she felt quite confident about them...

"Oh my. That's not always the case, Aurica. It's true that men usually look for a motherly nature in a woman, but these men..."

"That bothers me too!"

Shurelia interrupted Claire as she was talking.

"Umm, do relationships with men bother you too, Lady Shurelia?"

"No, that isn’t the issue here!"

Shurelia then surrounded her chest with her hands, as if she intended to hide it from view.

"The figures of the women from the Lower World place too much emphasis on their chests for some reason... Having it stand out so prominently is okay with both of you, Ms. Claire and Ms. Ayano? Or maybe is it because men... are attracted by the size of your breasts...?"

Claire and Ayano smiled at each other.

"But when compared to the large armor you always wear, Lady Shurelia, our figures make it look as if we were naked..."

"That is different from how I normally am, Ms. Ayano."

"It's normal, it's normal."

"That isn't normal at all..."

Aurica sank further in between Ayano and Claire as they nodded in unison.

"Lady Shurelia, I think it'd be more important for us to find the cause for that incident rather than continue talking about breasts..."

Misha told Shurelia as if she was trying to make her come to her senses, but Shurelia didn't seem willing to give up yet.

"But that absolutely bothers me. I know Lyner intermittently looks at their breasts every once in a while... and you don't mind because you don't have such a problem. The type of figure you currently have also displays them because they have a good size and... Krusche, please come and say something about this too!"

"Nah, I don't really care about it... about all that bigger is better stuff... so, Lady Shurelia, let's go back to the main topic!"

"Ugh!"

Although Shurelia wanted to get more intense and insist in discussing the topic even more vehemently, she grasped this wasn't the situation for this type of conversation and reluctantly returned to the main topic at hand.

"I think that Mir is the most likely cause for this situation."

"Mir!? But we already..."

Shurelia nodded in response to Misha's reaction.

"Yes, she isn't a threat to the humans anymore. And she also has quite a good son with her..."

"Then..."

"It's her echo."

"Her echo?"

She asked at the same time Shurelia finished replying. Right now, Aurica was the only one that had an ambiguous expression in her face.

Submerged in the water, Shurelia leaned her body forward, which made her look as the youngest among all the women present there, and continued her explanation.

"We must confirm it first, but Mir's Song has been resonating inside the Tower's systems since long, long ago. Therefore, I think that Song may still be resonating in several points of its systems."

"Is that the echo? But then, when I sang..."

Misha showed a downcast expression, but Shurelia smiled to cheer her up.

"When you sang, it was impossible for your Song to suppress it in every corner of the Tower's systems. This incident is something I could have never anticipated in the first place."

"That might be the case... But if it's my fault that this is happening to everyone..."

"I-I don't think so."

Aurica raised her face from the water.

"No one should ever be sacrificed to bring happiness to anyone else... that's what Lyner said..."

"Yeah, that's what Lyner said all the time."

Claire nodded.

Shurelia continued talking.

"The most likely scenario is that the echo of Mir's Song is the cause for this incident, but I don't think it is the only factor at work here."

"What do you mean, Lady Shurelia?"

Ayano asked as she leaned forward.

"If the echo had enough power by itself to cause such an incident, don't you think it's strange that it only affected the Reyvateils?"

"Yeah, that's true, but neither you nor Misha were affected by it, correct? Wouldn't that be due to the difference in abilities that exists between each individual Reyvateil? That would make it so the Reyvateils that are more susceptible to the echo would get affected by it first, so maybe it's that viruses appeared again, like the ones from a while ago..."

"But there aren't any signs of that, President."

Krusche said.

"So... what would happen, Lady Shurelia?"

"I'm thinking that if it could cause so much of an effect, but only on the Reyvateils, there might be another cause."

Shurelia continued.

"To begin with, both Misha and myself were born in a slightly different way from that of the Reyvateils from the current era, so that would make us exceptions. Still, you all are familiar with how it is possible to use technology to Dive into the mind of a Reyvateil, correct?"

Everyone nodded at the same time.

Diving was the technique that allowed another mind to look into a Reyvateil's mind influence it from the inside to a certain extent. While saying that entering the dream world of another person would be quite similar to it, it's fundamentally impossible to conduct a Dive into anyone aside of a Reyvateil, and the Reyvateil herself will have no recollection of the events that transpired during the Dive.

Of course, the Reyvateils aren't robots. They are born from human (and some Reyvateil) women... so considering them as humans with special abilities would be a better way of referring to them... therefore, it's considered a social faux-pas to Dive into a Reyvateil without her consent.

All of the facilities equipped with Dive Machines located in all cities, the [Dive Shops], are recognized as public institutions and they all require the consent of the Reyvateil before agreeing to proceed with the Dive.

...Therefore, this act was always used as the proof of a couple having reached a perfect level of mutual understanding and that was how it was considered by all the inhabitants of this world. However, there had been rumors that during a certain period of time, Tenba forced their employees to Dive.

The mind of a Reyvateil... the [Cosmosphere] is typically structured by strata, and the deeper the strata, the closer the Diver will get to the deep psyche and instincts of the Reyvateil.

Lyner had experienced reaching even what was said to be the lowest possible strata for both Aurica and Misha as he traveled with them (of course, thanks to Lyner), but Reyvateils that managed to pull off such a feat were considered exceptional. Typically, a Reyvateil would not allow her partner to see her mind beyond a certain point, so they would never manage to reach the deeper levels.

This was the kind of Diving that Shurelia was talking about.

"The Soulspaces of the Reyvateils, which we know as Cosmospheres, are structured by strata. Normally, these strata end at the level we call the deep psyche, but there is actually even more to the Cosmosphere beyond that point."

"Beyond that point? This is the first time I've ever heard about something like this."

Ayano's eyes became the size of platters. And she wasn't the only one: more than half of the people in the bathtub seemed to have never heard about this and their faces were brimming with interest in Shurelia's words.

"As it is treated as if it actually didn’t exist, it's no surprise you don't know about it."

"As if it actually didn't exist? This is beginning to sound difficult. What do you mean, Lady Shurelia?"

Claire asked, being the most pragmatic of the current members of the bathtub. Shurelia nodded as she continued.

"The deepest area of the Cosmosphere is the part we know as the deep psyche, and that is the point where the individual mind of the Reyvateil ends. Putting myself as an example, that stratum would be my mind as Shurelia: my individual ego and self, ends. However, the Cosmosphere actually runs deeper than that."

Shurelia cut off herself for a bit to breathe in, and she continued.

"Have you ever thought about why we Reyvateils can use Song Magic while the humans are unable to do it? About where the power for our Song Magic comes from?"

"Umm, so you mean the source of power for the Song Magic you all use is located a stratum further in?"

Krusche, being the only one that wasn't submerged in the water, squatted as she asked Shurelia.

While she had a very boyish appearance, the way her breasts unexpectedly swelled betrayed any prior impressions anyone could have of her. As she fixedly glared at Krusche's breasts, Shurelia nodded.

"Yes. Leaving aside the more technical and complicated details, that is how it is. When the power of the Tower was suspended a while ago, all Reyvateils became unable to use Song Magic, but if you follow our minds back to their root, you will see we are all connected to the Tower."

"To the Tower? I don't really feel it, but..."

Aurica looked up at the sky. While they weren't able to see the Tower from the bath, the image of the enormous Tower, which was even impossible to see on its entirety, was shared between all of them.

"It's natural you don't. The part that connects us to the Tower is located at an even deeper stratum than the part where our minds are located, so it is an area no one feels or knows about."

"No one feels or knows about... it can't be…"

said Misha.

"But isn't that the case? The deepest region of the Tower... in other words, the power source for Song Magic and the systems of the Tower... but if I went to that place, I wouldn't be able to maintain my ego in existence. Maybe we don't even have a way to refer to a region where we can't even fathom our own consciousness and that is an unknown to us all."

"I see."

"I'm thinking that maybe, the echo of Mir's Song remained in that region, therefore, that is the reason why it could influence all the Reyvateils at once..."

Shurelia ended her explanation at this point. She had come up with a few ideas, but she wasn't intending to tell anyone about them yet.

"I think that we should first go and check if that is the case."

"You mean we're going to Dive into such a deep region?"

Shurelia just stayed silent in response to Misha's question.

"Man, women take so frickin' long in the bath!"

Jack complained shortly later out of boredom.

The great bath was made by Ayano according to her own tastes, so it was naturally women-exclusive, while the men had to content themselves with a regular bathroom.

They just talked about what they would have for food, so after a while, they found themselves with too much time available and nothing to do during it.

"They must be talking about womanly matters."

Radolf replied in a very adult manner. Maybe he thought this was nothing in comparison to the irritatingly tedious assembly he ran away from.

"And I've gotten hungry..."

On the other hand, Lyner was completely exhausted. Due to the large wound he had sustained, even just taking part in that battle used up all the strength he had. And similarly to an army being useless without any provisions, he was completely devoid of energy.

"That's what you get for runnin’ around like that. Argh, I'm so bored! I'll go and peek on ‘em for a while!"

"That grin you have is quite weird, Jack."

Radolf pointed out in a rather cold manner.

"Uh? But what's so bad about it! It's frickin' Claire taking a bath, man! Don't you wanna see it?"

"I'll pass. As the Bishop of the Church of El Elemia, if I was caught peeking on a woman as she bathes, I wouldn't be able to repent for it even if I was burned at a stake."

Radolf shrugged off. Jack cooed at him.

"Heh, what a lame guy. Hey, Lyner! ...Hey, you shouldn't be there like that! What's up? Does it hurt anywhere or somethin'?"

He looked at Lyner, who was crouching and seemed to be unable to move at all. Staying like that, Lyner muttered.

"...I wanna get out of here quickly. I feel like I'm gonna gulp down the first thing I see if I don't..."

"You're right; I'm getting quite hungry myself too. Jack, can you please go and call everyone?"

Radolf said with a carefree voice.

"Wha? Don't be stupid! I'm so weak that if I waltzed into that place, they'd blast me ‘til I'm no more than a handful of mincemeat!'

While he was the one who suggested going to peek on the girls, Jack was now waving both hands around as he refused Radolf's proposal.

"Agh, I'm so hungry..."

Lyner moaned with a pitiful voice.

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