My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister - Book 6: Chapter 8

To be honest, no one was able to react.

The Vampire Archenemy rushed at us completely out of the blue. It was my older sister, Amatsu Erika. An undead was attacking me with bloodshot eyes and I was only human. Anastasia was a maid fairy and the Sylpheed was a finger-sized fairy who could only use her sniping ability from a distance of several hundred meters to a few kilometers, so they could not fight indoors. That meant no one could stop my sister.

So.

When our lives were saved, it naturally came from someone else within Absolute Noah.

A slender arm grabbed my older sister’s shoulder from behind while she made her charge. The accumulated inertial force did not matter. Erika’s body was thrown back inside Absolute Noah like she was being sent back the way she came or like she had an invisible elastic cord around her neck.

We had been saved by…

“Ayumi!? You’re hurt!!”

“Fuguu. Stay away from here, Onii-chan! The hell inside here isn’t something a human should see!!”

Ayumi yelled back at me and then moved back inside. She disappeared into the depths. No, she was forced to fight back to make sure Erika did not get back up and attack again.

But what was that?

Why was my kind older sister growling like a beast!? What had happened inside the ark? Was the Calamity really that indiscriminate!?

“User, the door will relock in another 60 seconds. Whether you stay outside or go inside, make a choice you will not regret.”

Once it closed, there would be no opening it again. And if I went inside, I could not safely get back out.

But the choice was obvious.

“Sorry, Anastasia.”

“Oh, you are not going in there alone. If we’re doing this, we’re doing it together.”

“I only wanted to open the door so I could save Lady Charlotte. If things are even worse than I had thought, that is all the more reason to go in. What other choice do I have now?”

Whatever the case, we had no time.

We still could not accurately judge the risk, but we nevertheless stepped inside the hell that Absolute Noah had become…

The door closed behind us with an especially loud noise. There was no turning back now.

“So this is the place…”

Now that I had set foot inside the “real” ark, I found it was too large to imagine its overall form based on what I saw.

It was called a boat for convenience’s sake, but what was it really? A shelter, a rocket, or a submarine submerged in the dam? The interior was made up of windowless metal doors and lots of pipes, so it made me think of a warship tilted vertically. That said, it did not feel at all cramped and had to be even larger than a warship.

According to my stepmom, Amatsu Yurina, they could only give out a few thousand tickets and the rest of the 7 billion people would be carried on to the next generation by having genetic samples kept in cold storage.

…But that meant this single facility had enough room for all the necessary living space and storage facilities. Since a school could only hold a few hundred, this was definitely extraordinary. Even a nuclear aircraft carrier would have a hard job providing “sufficient” living space. If this really functioned as some kind of vehicle, it had to be a world record.

There was no sign of Ayumi or Erika.

But there were strange dents in the walls and floor. Not to mention dark red stains. I did not want to imagine which one of them had left those. It was inappropriate and wrong of me, but part of me was hoping that it came from a complete stranger.

“I wonder where everyone is,” said the finger-sized Sylpheed.

Everyone.

It shouldn’t have been surprising, but she used that one warm word to refer to all the people here. With the exception of my family, I viewed them all as complete and utter villains, but the Sylpheed would see it differently since she was here to save them.

In that case, her goal would be even more difficult than mine. I only had to save the few members of my family, but the Sylpheed had to save everyone.

Anastasia grabbed onto my clothes and spoke up.

“But…yes. This is strange. I don’t know how large a space this is, but there are thousands of people closed in here, right? Isn’t it eerily quiet for having a small village’s worth of people gathered in a single location?”

It was not that we had seen no signs of life.

At the very least, my Vampire older sister and Zombie little sister were still active.

But what about “everyone” else?

Where were the Absolute Noah members, including Amatsu Yurina?

And weren’t we forgetting something?

My sisters had a certain special trait.

They were a Vampire and a Zombie.

Those undead could spread at just about the worst rate imaginable.

“…It can’t be.”

A groaning voice left my mouth. It sounded like I had vocalized my cold sweat and it seemed to be revealing how I was already distrusting my own family.

“That can’t be!!”

“Ah, Truth! Stop!”

I could not even hear my small friend urging me to stop.

Ayumi and Erika were my precious family. I could not suspect them. Yet my mind kept churning away. It told me there was no other explanation. It told me it was most logical to assume those two had bitten everyone!

I had no idea what had triggered it. After all, this was the middle of enemy territory. Even if everyone around you was celebrating, wouldn’t you feel worried with thousands of fanatic end-times believers around you? Could you really tell yourself to hold back on using your weapon?

Of course not.

If I was an Archenemy, I wouldn’t have been able to bear it. I would have given into the pressure and started biting people to increase my numbers. I would have tried to secure my safety by stealing away the “power” of the majority.

So could I forgive my sisters for what they had done?

Could I just smile and accept it?

There were blood stains and scars of violence everywhere. Could I just accept that those Archenemies had silenced thousands of people to protect their own lives!?

“Uuh, ugh, bghbh, cough, cough!”

My tension and confusion grew to the point that I nearly vomited. I must not have swallowed the stomach acid very well because I felt a scorching pain in my esophagus.

I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t bear it.

Where was I? My vision had narrowed. There were steel walls and thick pipes everywhere. I didn’t even know if this was a vehicle or a building, so how was I supposed to know what role this room played? What even was Absolute Noah? A spaceship? A submarine for a sunken world? A time machine? It was absurd, but shouldn’t I assume a facility I had never seen before might be able to do things I had never seen before? Anything could be waiting for me up ahead. Anything could pop out from the shadows, from the gaps between shelves, or from the stains on the walls. Common sense no longer applied, so I had to defend myself on my own. I thought I was calmly cautious as I walked through a few doors, but…how odd. What was this? Why did I have a butcher’s knife in my right hand?

Oh, right. This was a kitchen.

Did the time machine have a kitchen?

“…Sato…ri?”

I heard a scratchy voice.

I turned around and saw someone giving me a disbelieving look from the kitchen’s entrance. It was Archenemy Lilith, one of the leaders at the center of the Absolute Noah group. My stepmom looked back and forth between my face and the knife in my hand.

?

After all her plotting, what could possibly make Amatsu Yurina look that shocked? I mean, it was surprising to find this bizarre facility had a kitchen, but with everything going on, wasn’t it perfectly normal to grab a knife to defend yourself?

“Ahh, ahh.”

But she was more flustered than I had ever seen her. Instead of struggling or shouting, she simply sank down to the floor.

And she spoke.

“Ahh! But Erika did nothing wrong. She was only indiscriminately threatening everyone to protect me, Ayumi…and all the Archenemies from the humans’ witch hunt!!”

…eh?

why would she bring up erika here???

and something felt off to me. a wet sensation and a rusty smell. something flowed down between the knife’s grip and my hand. wet, so wet. when i grimaced and stared, i saw something placed on top of the cold silver countertop. no, something laid there. was it a large animal? or a fish maybe? it was too covered in red to tell, it was shaking just a bit, it didn’t look at all like food, and i knew i shouldn’t waste food, but even in that horrific state, it smiled and spoke.

“Don’t worry… This isn’t your fault, Satori-kun. You were just affected by the spreading mass insanity of the Calamity…”

ah.

ahh.

ahhh…

“Wha-…ah…eh?”

I immediately threw away the knife that clung to my palm with a strange stickiness. What…what in the world was happening!? Why did I have my older sister on the stainless steel countertop while I chopped her to pieces like a small child who had no idea how to cook!?

“Don’t look, Satori!!”

Seeing my panic must have brought her back to her senses because my stepmom looked up and quickly shouted at me from the floor.

But it was too late.

The red below my fingernails disgusted me. What was that wet and squishily soft feeling on my palm? What had I done? What had happened during the blinding gap in my memories!? What had I done!?

“Thank…goodness.”

Erika.

How can you smile after this happened!?

“I’m so glad…you managed to snap out of it…”

If she had wanted to, she could have easily fought back. She could have easily grabbed the knife and crushed it and my hand with it.

But she hadn’t.

She had refused to let anyone die. She would not let me die and she would not let me kill someone else. So she had continued to draw my attention while unable to attack someone as fragile as me. Because while I was busy destroying her, I could not turn that blade on someone else, like Ayumi or our stepmom.

So…

Even as it continued on and on…

“Satori!”

My stepmom hugged me so that her body blocked the view.

“This is the horror of the Calamity. It isn’t something you can fight on your own. The fear and confusion push explosively in from outside and there is nothing you can do. So, Satori, you don’t need to feel guilty!”

…What did that matter?

“I’m a Vampire…cough. So as long as…I’m not hit in the…heart and don’t have my head chopped…off, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. This won’t even leave a scar…”

…Was that supposed to lessen my crime here?

I had no memory of it. I had committed such a horrific crime, but the depths of my heart were still trying to pretend it hadn’t happened! I’m such a piece of shit!! I had such a remorseful look on my face, but I was trying to just forget any of it had happened!

Could I really go on living?

Right!? Could a creature as grotesque as this really be allowed to continue breathing!!!???

“No! Mom, attack Satori-kun! Cough, he’s going to bite his tongue!!”

“So it’s just like depression. The more serious and responsible the person, the more easily the Calamity pulls them down. I’m sorry, Satori!!”

Something wrapped around my neck.

At some point, my stepmom had moved behind me.

I felt something pulsing on the sides of my neck. The pulsing grew and grew until it seemed to fill my entire head. There was nothing I could do. The term “carotid artery” came to mind, but I was not a judo fighter. My already narrowed vision shrank further and was finally enveloped in darkness.

I felt a dull pain like my brain was being slowly massaged.

“Uuh…”

After I grimaced and groaned, I found Erika, Ayumi, and our stepmom staring down at me.

“Wah! Ahhhhh!? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

It was heartrending.

I was too much of a coward to get up, so I simply screamed. I showed off my weakness to try to earn their sympathy. Given who was the victim and who was the perpetrator, I should have bowed down in apology, but I robbed my sister of the right to be the weaker one.

“It’s okay.”

Her gothic lolita dress was in tatters and stained with lots of blood. That showed just how gruesome a scene it had been, but she still smiled kindly at me.

“You’re crying because of the regret and self-blame. That means you’re still a human being who loves us. So don’t be afraid. The world isn’t going to take anything more from you.”

No.

That wasn’t what I wanted to say.

I tried to speak up, but my throat and tongue were shaking too much to form the words. But if it wasn’t that, what was it? You coward. Did you really have the courage to accept the blame for what you did?

In the end, I had been hoping my family would smile and forgive me for breaking. There had been no other compromise for me.

I had tried to take the easy way out with death. I was enough of a fool to stop thinking there, so I had never thought of any option other than having someone else reach out to me.

I was a coward who had avoided facing the thorny path needed to make up for my crimes, so what good was trying to save face now?

“Sorry…Erika…I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay.”

She was not an idiot.

She had to have seen through it all as she smiled at me like that. And she would have done the same thing no matter how many times she was placed in the same situation. If the alternative was killing a family member, she would accept the blade. That was the noble path she would choose.

“Why did you come to Absolute Noah, Satori-kun? I can only imagine it was my indulgence. You heard me in the communication tower, didn’t you? You heard me in a moment of weakness.”

“…”

That was true.

But I didn’t want to blame her here. This was my crime. I couldn’t let anything else lighten that burden.

“I tried to drag you into this in that moment of weakness, Satori-kun. Even though I knew better than anyone what it was like in here. While wandering through this atmosphere of death, I just wanted to see you again and I didn’t think about the consequences. There is no excuse for that. I don’t want to place the blame on the Calamity.”

…This was the power of the mysterious and formless Calamity.

It was a madness and violence that was explosively infectious. It had even worked its way into that noble sister’s heart and created that moment of weakness.

I had stopped the chain reaction started from Wild@Hunt’s collapse, but what would have happened if this had spread across the entire planet? This ark was meant to survive the destruction of the world. The method may have been extreme, but my stepmom’s fears may not have been entirely unfounded.

I had to change how I looked at this.

The Calamity had spread through the enclosed environment of Absolute Noah. My dad and the rest of my family were in here, but so were Anastasia and the Sylpheed. There was no time to spare. There was a risk that everyone had ended up “like that”, so this ark containing thousands was no different from an insane island on which some gloomy ritual was held. Despite the thousands of people in this closed space, I had not seen any other people like you would at a large train station, but that meant they were all packed into a smaller area. If something caused a shift in that distribution, they could come pouring in here. Whether they meant harm or not, when shivering chickens huddled together for warmth, the ones in the center could be crushed to death.

“Mom, Ayumi, and Erika. I’ll make up for what I did later, but I want to know the situation. Some people came here with me and I can’t lose them here.”

According to my panicked stepmom back in that hellish kitchen, Absolute Noah had split into a human side and an immortal side and the humans had grown hostile toward the Archenemies.

Since they were weaker individually, they had used their numbers to begin a witch hunt, so Erika had been playing the role of a violent Archenemy to deter them.

Did that mean the humans were in the majority?

And was Ayumi fighting with Erika as a part of the act, or had Ayumi been fooled by Erika’s act?

It was my stepmom, Amatsu Yurina, who gave me the details.

“Currently, Absolute Noah has been split in two. The Archenemies like us are holed up in the central command while the humans are using the engine room as their base. Mutual trust has completely collapsed. It looks like a balance of power has settled in, but the humans fully control the power supply and they can neutralize all of the electronic locks with a total blackout. That means they can make an attack at any time. And in the absolute worst case, they can overload the engine and kill us all in a giant explosion.”

Central control?

Engine room?

…That made the place sound like an unbelievably large ship, submarine, airplane, or rocket, but I did not have time to ask about it now. Moving the ark would not give us a way of safely reaching my dad or Anastasia, so I didn’t need that.

“Let’s assume the worst. How large would this explosion be?”

“…Big enough to not just destroy Kukyou City, but to blow away the 5 closest prefectures and rip the Japanese Archipelago in two.”

What the hell!? Did this ark have a nuclear engine!? And we weren’t talking about a midair explosion! Even if you set off a nuke deep below the dam, wouldn’t the thick bedrock suppress the blast like during underground nuclear tests!?

I decided to set aside my own mistakes for the moment.

“…Mom, you really need to think about what you’ve done. You’ve gone way too far.”

“Yes, that’s finally started to hit home. I’m doing some real soul searching…”

They must have never imagined the infectious madness would spread through the ark and hijack the engine room. The ark legend required the inside of the ark to be a sanctuary.

“Where is Anastasia?”

“Um, is she here?”

Amatsu Yurina’s confusion told me what I had to do: locate Anastasia and the Sylpheed.

“Next comes dad. You said you were bringing him here in the truck, but is he not with you?”

“I said the humans and Archenemies split apart, didn’t I?”

…I had a bad feeling about this.

This was even more complicated than I had imagined. Or should I think of it as a single ray of hopeful sunlight?

“Your father was caught in the initial confusion and ended up on the human side. We have not heard from him since. It wasn’t like he wanted to join them. It was more like being caught in a crowded train and unable to get off at your station… He also used to be a Bright Cross researcher, so they might be forcing him to do some kind of work in Absolute Noah’s engine room. …I just hope he isn’t repeating the mistake of taking the Archenemies’ side without reading the room first.”

That gave me a second objective.

We needed to find a way to get my dad out of the deepest and most dangerous depths. And he had to be alive.

However.

His actions down there could prevent the giant explosion of the worst case scenario. He held the golden key that no one else could touch.

“…I don’t like it, but we just have to go for it. Maxwell!”

“Sure.”

“I don’t remember it, but I must have caused you some trouble. We’re really getting started now, so prepare the necessary processing space. Create a new simulation file and flag it as a top priority task.”

“What shall I name the file?”

I took a deep breath.

And I answered.

“How to pick a fight with the end of the world.”

We had to start with the basics.

“This is the relaxation gym. Simply put, it’s a large room for getting some exercise. That might sound silly, but it is a necessity for people to survive in a closed environment like Absolute Noah.”

Even the strictest prison would have an exercise room. So even the most violent of criminals would break if they did not have this.

“It would be best to picture Absolute Noah as a giant tower located at the bottom of the dam’s reservoir lake. It would be about 40 stories tall, I think. But unlike normal, Absolute Noah isn’t made to detach pieces during the ascent. As I said, the engine room provides such a massive amount of energy that there is no real weight limit for the payload.”

“That alone would make this truly extraordinary. The weight is a standard concern for both ships and airplanes. This completely defies the science of planes and ships.”

“Our technology has surpassed that of humans alone, Satori.”

It was true I had seen the Sylpheed who could break the sound barrier on her own, so it was possible Archenemies had some crazy ideas about flight tech.

“The blocks related to life support tend to be at the top and the blocks necessary for movement tend to be at the bottom. That means we are relatively near the top and the main airlock you entered through was on the very top level. Meanwhile, your father is in the engine room at the very bottom.”

“Hm.”

“Also, the middle levels contain everything else. Most notably, the storage facilities for the wild flora and fauna and the genetic samples for the people who were not chosen.”

“…So if we’re going to search the entire structure, we’ll need a safe way of moving up and down.”

“There are emergency stairs and a freight elevator. They weren’t given much focus because normal gravitational calculations wouldn’t really be necessary when Absolute Noah is running properly.”

…Surely she wasn’t going to say they would produce artificial gravity from the centrifugal force of spinning the entire cylindrical structure.

“Fuguu. What about the old standard of ducts?”

“They’re full of toxin filters. Even if you forced your way through, I think you would only end up sliced to pieces by the giant fans.”

“…Ayumi-chan, this is a huge vertical structure, so most of the ducts would be vertical as well,” said Erika. “But if you want to fall to your death in that narrow gap, I won’t stop you.”

“F-fuguu…”

Ayumi was already deflated. While I hadn’t said anything, I had been seriously considering the same thing, so I was in no position to laugh at her. I couldn’t help but give my little sister a head pat as I spoke up.

“What about the computer that manages the internal security cameras and sensors?”

Those would be invaluable for locating Anastasia and the Sylpheed and we also wanted to avoid having the witch hunt humans know what we were doing. A few thousand people was more than 10 times the population of a normal school, so internal trouble was a distinct possibility. They would surely have some kind of self-defense organization that played the role of police or administrators. Expecting a society of equality and smiles inside this ark was being far too optimistic, so they would need a surveillance and control system.

But my stepmom had this to say:

“You can ignore the cameras and sensors. They are set up, but the central computer meant to process the data was never installed.”

“?”

“Maxwell, Laplace, and Ghost Cat. The plan was to borrow all of the computers you had gathered, hook them up in parallel, and use them as the guardians of the law within Absolute Noah. All to support the simplest law enforcement system after inviting you in as a bridge between the humans and Archenemies.”

“…You can’t just take other people’s possessions…”

So did that mean I would be hell’s Minster of Justice?

On walkthrough sites that provided information on the legends used in games, you would sometimes see a ranked list of medieval demons. The demons’ names were listed alongside titles like “executioner” or “chef”, but it was never clear what exactly those positions meant.

“Really, I was mostly using that so you had an excuse to bring those inorganic machines aboard Absolute Noah,” said my stepmom. “Maxwell was one thing, but Laplace and Ghost Cat were recent additions and it took some doing to work them into the plan. All of it proved unnecessary, though.”

She smiled bitterly at that.

“But is that all? There are no other large computers on Absolute Noah?”

“There are computers in each individual section, but they use a different format and can’t be used to analyze the security camera data.”

…So was this really a vehicle? Whether the arc was a rocket or a submarine, installing multiple computer formats on a single payload was generally a bad idea. That would increase the amount of maintenance tools and spare parts. To reduce the weight, the design would eliminate any competing functions to get rid of every last gram possible.

“So for better or for worse, no one can use the security cameras? No, wait.”

“Onii-chan?”

“Maxwell, wake up Laplace and Ghost Cat. Make a wireless connection and enter standby mode. I’ll be sending you security data from Absolute Noah, so analyze it using all three machines. Then we alone should be able to use the security system! Oh, I’m so glad we have Laplace and Ghost Cat!!”

“…”

“Hey…? Please stop using those dots to express your jealousy!!”

“That was entirely your own fault, Onii-chan. Fuguu.”

Whatever the case, data was our greatest weapon. Knowing the distribution of people throughout the structure would give us a great advantage. It was as unfair as playing hide-and-seek while the person who was “it” watched everything from an airborne drone.

“If the human side doesn’t have the whole picture, they’ll have people posted at the crucial junctures to monitor and control the flow of people with minimal personnel costs. They’re sure to have checkpoints set up at the stairs or elevator. If there isn’t a secret way around, we’ll have to break through there.”

Unlike before, Ayumi, Erika, and my stepmom were all Archenemies who specialized in combat. They might be in trouble if a large group rushed into the limited space, but they would be quite reliable when it came to defeating a few people separated from the group.

“That also means you could create an opportunity by sowing the seeds of doubt by hinting at the existence of a secret route not present in the designs,” said Maxwell. “Shake them well enough and the checkpoint guards may temporarily move elsewhere.”

“Could we make noise and vibrations in the walls?”

“To use the ducts you mentioned before, simply blowing hot air into the chilled stainless steel ducts would cause a denting sound.”

“Oh, like when you pour the hot water from your cup yakisoba into the sink. That might indeed trick them into thinking someone is crawling through the duct.”

It would be effective if it worked, but it was not exactly repeatable. We had to see it as just one option available to us.

“Satori-kun, you’ve been eating that kind of junk alone at night? You’re not immortal like us, so you need to take care of your health.”

“We can discuss that later, Erika.”

“That’s right. Fuguu, you should’ve shared it with me!”

“That was not my point, little sister. Now, mom, about the security cameras. You said the computer itself wasn’t installed, but the internal wiring is all in place, right?”

“I believe so. The law enforcement system should be ready to activate as soon as Maxwell and the others are installed.”

“…Then let’s start with that. Where were the computers going to be installed? Let’s construct a relay system that gathers all the data from the cables and sends it outside.”

We needed to know where exactly Anastasia and my dad were if we were to rescue them. The best way to do that was to have Maxwell and the others process the data from all the cameras and sensors.

Luckily, I knew from the communication tower incident that the communications did work. Plus, the card-sized car navigation system was still linked back to the container at the harbor. I didn’t have to worry whether or not there was a way to get the data out.

My stepmom naturally knew the most about Absolute Noah’s internal structure, so she led us to our destination.

“Mom…how did the three of you avoid the Calamity’s effects?”

“We don’t really know. I’m not confident it isn’t infecting me as we speak.” She sighed and seemed to be smiling bitterly as she walked out ahead. “I think it’s like motion sickness. It’s somewhat influenced by your inherent traits and by your condition on that specific day…but there is no real way of choosing whether or not you will be affected. Everyone there is being constantly shaken by the motion and it isn’t something you can suppress through your own effort once the signs show themselves. If only there was a way to just vomit it out until you had left the winding mountain road.”

Your inherent traits and your condition…

That may have only been a metaphor, but it was true I had not gotten much rest while fighting with the supernatural hackers and Wild@Hunt. I was mostly masking my exhaustion with the energy drink Anastasia had given me.

I had “vomited” once.

And it could always happen again.

I could not afford to forget that. I was in an unstable condition that normally would have warranted locking me behind bars to keep me away from everyone else.

“…”

We arrived at our destination without seeing anyone else along the way. I wasn’t sure if that should make me happy or scared.

“This is the place.”

My stepmom opened an airtight metal door with a round handle to reveal a large chilly room.

A few LCD maintenance monitors and keyboards were installed near the wall and a few dozen fiber optic cables lay on the floor, but none of them were hooked up to anything.

“Then let’s get started. Simply relaying the data shouldn’t be too difficult.”

If we had to carefully assign the proper destination to each piece of data on the giant spider web of the internet, we would probably need a largescale server machine, but we just needed the one pipeline, the burden on the relay machine was greatly reduced.

These days, the smartphone social games everyone played might be hooked up to a giant server system that filled up an entire building. It used a lot of data overall, but the relay antenna bases located in cafes or subway stations were small enough to hold in your hands.

“Have you found a suitable computer?” asked Maxwell.

“Let’s borrow this thermo controller in charge of the giant cold storage room’s temperature control. It isn’t needed without a computer to cool.”

I removed a likely wall panel and stuck a bundle of fiber optic cables into the exposed machinery.

Supercomputers were sometimes stored in rooms larger than a gym, but you could not just cool the entire room. If you did not use sensors to locate the heated sections and provide cooling there, the machines nearest the vents could freeze over. Well, modern air conditioners could check the state of a room and the location of people before sending in the air, so just think of it like an even more incredible version of that.

This of course required a fair amount of data processing, so it could play the role of a small server.

“Copying necessary settings files…done. The thermo controller has been remade into a data relay system. Taking control of Absolute Noah 00’s security devices and beginning data processing.”

This was not so much hacking as it was hooking Maxwell and the others up to the machines they were originally intended for. There was no reason why it wouldn’t work.

“This card-sized car navigation system is a pain. Maxwell, use all the maintenance monitors on the wall.”

“Sure.”

Now, what fate awaited us here?

Life was breathed into the monitors and information on Absolute Noah spread out before our eyes.

“Uuh…!!!???”

Vivid red and black.

The silver corridors were packed full of crowds endlessly producing explosions of self-made anger and fear.

Each of them had the light of madness in their eyes and the canine teeth visible from their opened lips were even more frightening than those of a Zombie or Vampire.

“Are all of them human…?”

I had to question it.

My stepmom and sisters all looked more or less human, so it would be hard to tell if an Archenemy was mixed in. But at the very least, I saw no one with wings on their back or the lower half of a snake.

The humans were either forming barricades or taking their anger out on the machines because there were walls of abandoned objects blocking the way all over. But was there any logic to it? They were all industrial workstations larger than a refrigerator. Whatever their specs, with discretionary pricing they would probably cost far more than Maxwell. Seeing a super hacker’s machines piled up like that felt like watching a bunch of crazed wannabe philosophers holding a sacrificial festival while rejoicing in their destruction of civilization.

Simply seeing it felt like a form of torture. The visual provided enough pressure to make the human mind give up on the world.

It was like negative scriptures.

I gulped and stared at the hellish scene on the screen. Data was our weapon here, so I could not save Anastasia or my dad if I looked away.

“Actually, what is this? What are they doing?”

The colors red and black were dancing in disarray on multiple screens. At first, I thought some Archenemies had been surrounded and were being gruesomely executed, but that did not seem to be the case.

“Are those hunks of beef they have hanging up there…?”

Ayumi was right.

Pieces of frozen red meat as tall as I was had presumably been dragged out of the food storage. After hanging the dead meat from the ceiling using thick ropes, the angry mob was shouting dirty words at them and beating them with metal pipes and poles they had torn from their surroundings. A translucent red liquid flowed from the partially-dissolved meat and the raw-smelling liquid splattered all over them like the blood of an enemy.

…Were they really this far gone…?

Ayumi and I tilted our heads at this strange “ritual”, but Erika and our stepmom groaned.

“Is that an exorcism…?”

“Fuguu?”

“In the West, they believed formless demons could possess things other than humans. Because there are cases where livestock like bulls or pigs will gore or bite a human child to death.”

“They might be trying to drive a demon out of an animal like that, but that seems unlikely. The Western churches have judged and executed animals, but I have never heard of them purifying one back to normal. Of course, that might be why they keep doing this over and over.”

…Did that mean they were so ruled by fear that they could not eat a simple meat and vegetable dish without doing this?

There was a red substance splattered on the walls and floor elsewhere too. No, it was most noticeable on the doors. The thick metal doors with a round handle in the middle were covered in red.

Was that animal blood?

It was like seeing a trade fair for the kinds of sinister writing and patterns seen in RPGs.

Come to think of it, I had seen something similar on the walls of the abandoned hospital basement holding my biological mother, Magatsu Taori.

“Are those talismans, Erika?”

“…Yes, but it’s more like something from the Salem Witch Trials.”

Did that mean they wouldn’t actually work?

That was no reason to relax though. That crazed mob had become completely detached from reality as they relied on something nonexistent. I didn’t want to imagine what would happen if they were told the only way to slay the monster was a knife wet with the blood of a virgin’s heart.

The calming actions taken to distance oneself from madness could sometimes look like mad themselves.

If all that meant was attaching a magical talisman to your room’s wall, that was your business. But what if one was not enough for you and you covered every centimeter of the walls? Then it became hard to say whether that was fighting the madness or creating its own madness.

…I couldn’t leave an Archenemy out there. These people truly believed they were safer if they hung dead meat from the ceiling and beat it up. These actions came from the same mindset that led someone to double-check the gas before they went out. So how far would this explode if they saw one of the Archenemies at the source of their fear?

“Things look different here. It’s like spying on a wake… Are these the Archenemies?”

Most areas were boiling over with anger and fear, but there were some small rooms that were cut off from that. A few men and women sat silently behind thick metal doors with their arms around their knees and their backs against the walls. They looked like children shutting their eyes to the cruel reality and waiting for the storm to pass.

“Mom, what is the population ratio of Absolute Noah? Between humans and Archenemies, I mean.”

“About 8-to-2 in the humans’ favor.”

“Since there are a few thousand in all, that means there are fewer than 1000 Archenemies…”

The ratio may have been modeled after that of Earth’s population.

If they had wanted to, they could have put together an organization of just humans or just Archenemies. Neither species would die out if they stored the DNA. Archenemies were superior on the individual level, so if they were in the minority, it meant they had given up most of the seats. They had swallowed their fear of death and extinction, they had trusted in the plan, and they had been fair. And this was how they were rewarded? I doubted the humans were going to give any thought to how they had gotten their seats on the ark.

…And while a concentrated attack had yet to begin, those thick airtight doors would eventually be broken through once the mob realized who was behind them.

“Now we know the overall situation. Basically, Absolute Noah has been transformed into an inescapable island of freaks where the witch hunt continues in the modern age. And there are possible victims awaiting rescue in places. Maxwell, let’s collect as many of them as possible. Figure out what all you can control with your security privileges: doors, shutters, the fire system, the air conditioning, and so on.”

“Sure.”

“But Anastasia, the Sylpheed, and dad take top priority. Let’s bring the scattered Archenemies back together to create a single large base.”

“Should I begin with the orthodox method?”

“Yes. Use the security camera records to track my dad and the others via facial recognition.”

Part of me wanted to see the result, but part of me did not. Even though I was the one who had given the command.

It only took a few seconds to find the answer.

New footage taken from the corner of the ceiling was displayed on the monitors lining the wall.

“Anastasia!”

“No. The security cameras do not have speakers.”

A finger-sized fairy hovered near the small blonde girl’s face. Good, the Sylpheed was with her. Good!

I had dragged them here. And I had abandoned them in the confusion. I had brought that small girl to this inescapable hell. I couldn’t allow any more mistakes. I had to safely regroup with her no matter what it took.

“Shall I contact her portable game system?” asked Maxwell.

“Yes…no, wait.”

I just about agreed, but then I hesitated.

I had forgotten because of how shaken I was by events, but why hadn’t Anastasia contacted us? Because she didn’t know my address now that I had exchanged my smartphone for a car navigation system? No, Anastasia might not know Maxwell’s location in the harbor container yard, but she had made direct cyber-attacks for fun. There was no way she could not contact us.

In that case…

“I’m guessing Anastasia is afraid of connecting to the internet via Absolute Noah’s internal system. She might not want her location being traced from the connection.”

The details were more complicated, but Maxwell, Laplace, and Ghost Cat were meant to be used as Absolute Noah’s official system. That meant it could not be hacked or cyber-attacked. Meanwhile, Anastasia would be afraid of triggering an alert if she simply sent out a signal inside here.

Which meant…

“First, check the surrounding environment. Let’s find out if there is an actual risk in contacting Anastasia. And if there is a risk, we need to eliminate it and construct a safe line for contacting her.”

“Sure.”

I was entirely reliant on Maxwell for the data processing. Meanwhile, we stared at the screens to check on small Anastasia’s situation in a physical sense.

My stepmom, Amatsu Yurina, placed a hand on her slender chin and spoke.

“That looks like the mid-level genetic storage area. There are so many identical facilities in there that I couldn’t tell you the exact sector or number, though.”

“And?”

“Those are freezer facilities, so she can’t stay there long.”

I looked again and noticed Anastasia was not leaning against the wall or sitting on the floor. She was standing in the middle of the room and wrapping her arms around her shoulders like she was cold. Her breath was white too.

…Was she afraid of her bare skin sticking to the floor or wall because of how little her clothing covered?

“She’s closed up in there? What are things like outside?”

“Fuguu!? It looks pretty bad, Onii-chan! Look at this!!”

Ayumi was right.

The corridor beyond the metal door was full of the “witch hunt” humans. It was like a packed train or a TV report on a shrine on New Year’s. I didn’t know how strong that metal door was, but it was being dented by metal pipes and crowbars pounding on it from the outside. There were too many people outside for them to make full swings, but that was not very reassuring.

“…Will the door…hold up?”

“Acquiring airtight door spec sheet,” said Maxwell. “It would do damage to the humans in the corridor as well, but if more than 150 of them pushed at once, they could destroy it.”

“You’re kidding…!”

“The door has only survived this long because Miss Anastasia sprayed water on the door and let it freeze.”

“But wait. Satori, look.”

My stepmom pointed at a change from before.

The densely-packed wall of people was being forcibly parted. Something was scaring that pack of excited wolves enough for them to move away and whatever-it-was was approaching the metal door guarding Anastasia.

It was…

“What are they carrying on their back? A burner!?”

“No, that is probably an arc welder that uses an electric arc.”

“Weld…er?”

Those incredible things that joined metal together instead of cutting it apart?

At first, I thought they were using heat to melt the ice through the door, but that was not it.

“This is bad, Satori. They’re trying to weld the door shut so Anastasia-chan can’t get out!”

“…!?”

Breaking down the door was not the only problem.

If Anastasia could not leave that below-freezing room, her life would still be at risk!

I could hear the voices from the corridor:

“Outta the way, outta the way! Stand back if you don’t want to be blinded!!”

“What? We’re sealing it off now!?”

“Not touching the dirty infection source is best. Just get it over with!!”

…To hell with them.

What had Anastasia done? And unlike my Vampire older sister and Zombie little sister, a maid fairy like a Silky had no obvious form of infection.

Had I been like this too?

Had I been this hideous when I pushed my older sister’s body onto the countertop and raised the butcher’s knife!?

“Maxwell, search Anastasia’s surroundings! Is there anything we can do from here!?”

“We could lower the shutters to split up the humans, but that is unlikely to stop the man performing the welding in front of the door. We could also gather all the Archenemies hiding nearby, but it is unknown if they would work to rescue Anastasia.”

“Kh! What about that arc welder on the bastard’s back!? Just blow it up!”

“It is not an IoT device. It is a primitive device that cannot be controlled via the internet.”

“Dammit!!”

…What would we do?

There were more than 150 men and women with bloodshot eyes. Even if I ran there myself, what could I do? My Vampire older sister and Zombie little sister had more than 10 times the strength of a normal person, but that meant they could be crushed by a group of more than 100.

“Y’here that!” shouted someone on the screen. “It’s too late to cry and scream now!! It’s time you froze solid in that freezer! Got that!?”

“I doubt she can hear you.”

“And that means her voice can’t reach anyone either. Die! Die cold and alone!!”

“…Goddammit…!!” I cursed.

What I hated most of all was myself for just sitting here based on my risk assessment.

I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t do anything!!

Why was I so powerless? I couldn’t face this mistake head on, plow through them all, and rescue my friend! It was my fault! I let the confusion of the Calamity affect me and I abandoned those two! So why? Why was I nothing more than a puny human!!!???

“Uuuh. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

I clenched my teeth and just barely held back the tears. I couldn’t give up. I had to keep observing. I did not have a legendary sword and I didn’t have a saint’s blood in my veins. I was nothing more than a technician who worked behind the scenes. So I couldn’t run away from a geek’s weapons. I couldn’t let go of my greatest weapon: data!!

“…Huh?”

Just then, something seemed to stand out on that screen of despair and madness. Yes, I had noticed something familiar mixed in. Just one person in that mob of crazed humans was calmly observing the hell that had appeared there.

It was the kind of middle-aged man who could blend into the background anywhere. He had unhealthy-looking skin, stubble on his chin, a twisted dress shirt, and slacks.

He glanced up at the security camera on the ceiling, as if he had noticed us observing them.

I gasped.

Yes, I knew who that was.

“Dad!?”

His gaze was that of a rational person. And he had the look of someone who had decided to face a mistake.

He did not speak.

But his lips were clearly moving.

He risked his life to send a silent message without those around him noticing.

“Maxwell, analyze that footage and convert it into words!”

“Sure.”

I wasn’t alone. I had my family with me. My stepmom, Erika, and Ayumi were all focused on the screen.

And the words appeared like a movie’s subtitles.

Is that you, Satori?

…He had noticed. He really had noticed!?

“He’s focused on the turning of the camera. He knows only Maxwell and the others would be confirmed as a proper security server, so did that make him think of me!?”

My dad glanced over at the metal door and the chaos there, but then he stared at the security camera again.

That Archenemy was not registered. Is she a friend of yours?

I wanted to respond to him in some way, so I had the security camera shake up and down. Like it was a nodding head.

On the screen, my dad seemed to exhale.

I will take care of the people in front of the door. That will create an opening, so you get her to safety in that time.

“What…?”

Dark and heavy unease rose in my chest.

What was my dad planning on doing? There were so many fully-grown adults there! Even a Vampire or Zombie would likely be killed if they attempted it head on!!

Meanwhile, he kept his eyes on the camera and moved his lips.

Are you ready?

I could not respond.

Are you ready to act?

But what could I do but nod?

What option did I have but to move the camera up and down to say yes!?

Good.

He narrowed his eyes a little.

He seemed to be smiling.

Sorry.

How?

How could he be so resolute? I had hesitated. So had our Archenemy family members. But my dad alone was different. Even though Anastasia was a complete stranger to him.

And yet he had definitely said it.

This was something I should be doing and it was something I had been too afraid to do, but he had done it so readily.

But I can’t just ignore this.

It happened in an instant.

Truly just an instant.

“Ahh!?”

My stepmom and his wife held her hands to her mouth and cried out.

While inside that mob packed as closely as a rush-hour train, my dad poured his full body weight into a tackle.

He moved toward the distant metal door.

Maxwell had said this could break that thick door if the conditions were right. But my dad was intentionally starting a domino effect in order to stop the welder idiot in front of the door.

Just how dangerous an act was that?

The Japanese constitution was powerless here. If it was found out he had done this intentionally, he would be exposed to the same vigilante justice that was threatening the Archenemies.

“…Kh…”

I clenched my teeth but still managed to shout from between my teeth.

“Maxweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!”

“Sure. I will divide the people with the shutters. While distancing the rioters as much as possible with those barriers, I will connect the closest Archenemies to Miss Anastasia’s door.”

Could I really trust in that?

I wiped the tears from my eyes and turned around. I grabbed some zip ties meant to organize cables. I knew exactly where to go. My dad had given us this chance to rescue them and I wasn’t going to let it go to waste just because no one else chose to help!!

“Satori-kun!”

“Fuguu!! C’mon, mom, you come too!!”

Yes, that was right. I wasn’t alone. No one could stay silent after seeing that.

“That fool…” groaned Amatsu Yurina. “He’s always like this. When he was with the Bright Cross, he did nothing but think about the Archenemies, lost his place there, and broke his family apart. Why does he never even consider stopping…!?”

“…That would be because he’s our dad.”

He was not particularly strong, he could not use any kind of supernatural power, and he could not spread an infection

But he had stood up to them.

He had shown true strength by challenging that hopeless mistake while powerless.

I couldn’t lose him.

Not him, not Anastasia, and not the Sylpheed! I wouldn’t let anything damage their honor even a little bit!!

Face forward.

Work with what he gave you.

Who was I? I was his only son!! So find what you inherited from him and show that same resolve!!!!!!

“Descend the stairs to reach the mid-level area,” said Maxwell. “I will construct a suitable route by opening and closing shutters, but do not forget that the rioters are wandering around here. Be prepared for spontaneous battles.”

I was well aware of that.

I was sick of clenching my teeth and not fighting. I wasn’t patient enough for that. I grabbed a fire extinguisher from a corner of the corridor and ran down the stairs with my family.

Fight.

Break through!

Secure this path toward everyone’s survival!!

Down the stairs, we found a section full of similarly-structured rooms. It was a seemingly endless series of intersections laid out in a grid. All of the shutters were closed to separate the rioters, but…

“I will open the shutters for a route on which you will encounter the minimum number of people. That said, the number is not zero. You will run into some trapped rioters.”

“Understood, Maxwell.”

A shutter rose with a heavy metallic noise and around 10 young men and women awaited us in a small space.

I might have hesitated earlier. I might have rationally said we should find a way around and avoid a fight.

But I was not going to hesitate any longer.

I held the fire extinguisher in both hands.

“Outta the way… Outta the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

This may have been a complete disaster for them.

With 100 or 1000 people gathered in a small space, they could push back even an Archenemy, but once they were divided up by the thick shutters, they only had around 10 people. And while I was a complete amateur, Erika and Ayumi would be unstoppable as long as they had enough space to move around.

After all, they were 10 or 20 times stronger than a normal person.

And the rioters would not have a chance to recover. We would not give them one. We would open one shutter at a time to gradually wear down their numbers without letting them regroup. Their damages would only grow.

“No, this is some kind of mistake. No!!”

“I’m a victim. I’m just a victim!”

“Why does everything have to happen to us…?”

This was the result when you robbed a mob of their greatest weapon: anonymity. The more I heard, the more the blood rushed to my head and the more I beat them down and bound their hands behind their backs with the zip ties. I had seen exactly what they had done. Trying to fix it with words felt profane.

“Pant, pant! Dammit, Maxwell!! How many more shutters before we reach Anastasia!? Dammit!!”

“Only three more.”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

I gathered strength in my trembling arms once more and charged through the next boxy ring with the fire extinguisher raised. Was this the conscience of humankind? Were these humans full of the kindness worthy of their position here? Like hell they were. They were no different. In fact, they were even uglier. They were delighted at being chosen, just like the deus ex machina endings of Cinderella or the Ugly Duckling. Don’t abandon your family for that! How am I supposed to respect people like this!? Stay down! Don’t get back up! Stay knocked down forever!!

“This is the last one. I will now open the final shutter before Genetic Cold Storage Room C9 where Anastasia awaits.”

With a low rumble, the metal shutter opened straight up.

A large man stood in front of the door with a flamethrower-like device on his back. It must have been hit by the brunt of the pressure from the domino effect my dad had started. Something like a compressed gas cylinder was badly bent and a sound of escaping air came from a socket-like part.

“…You…monster…”

He faced me with awkward movements.

“You…this…arc…monster…do you have any idea who-…”

“I don’t give a shit who you are!!”

The metal spear attached with a hose was aimed toward me, so I raised the fire extinguisher in both hands and threw it like a soccer ball.

The large man immediately swung the arc welder’s electrode around to knock it down, but that move was a big mistake.

The fire extinguisher was a highly compressed container. Damage it and it would explode.

The fire extinguishing foam was colored more pink than white and it scattered in every direction along with the metal shards of the ruptured container.

“…Leave my life and never come back, you garbage.”

I approached the collapsed and unmoving man, lightly kicked his head, and then removed the equipment from his back. Lastly, I bound his hands behind his back with a zip tie.

“Anastasia!”

I pounded on the bent airtight door and shouted, but there was no response.

Was it not made so she could hear me, or was she too cautious of any action from outside?

“Who has control of the door? Can’t you open it, Maxwell?”

“I have already unlocked the electronic lock via the software, but the door has physically frozen and will not open.”

That was fine.

I put the man’s welder on my back.

“Maxwell, download the specifications document and user’s manual from the maker’s site. I’ll use this to heat the door and melt the ice on the other side.”

“The electronic lock is already open and the deadbolt has opened, but try not to hit any of the door’s moving parts.”

I followed Maxwell’s instructions to set it to low power, press the light at the end of the rod against the door, and heat up the thick metal.

It was already unlocked. It must have opened a bit and broken the airtight seal because clear water eventually seeped out along the floor.

“Is that enough?”

“Yes, but the door should be extremely hot.”

My jacket…wouldn’t be enough. Its synthetic fabric would melt. I removed my belt, passed it through the round handle in the center of the metal door, and pulled straight down to turn it.

A dull sound rang out.

And this time…!!

“I’m opening the door, Anastasia!!”

I pulled the heavy door toward me with all my might and shouted at the top of my lungs. A white mist approached at my feet. More than just cold, it stung my skin. Were Anastasia and the Sylpheed all right!?

“…Uuh…”

Just a bit ago, the security camera had shown her standing in the middle of the room to avoid touching the walls or floor.

But now she was curled up on the floor.

No, did she not have enough strength to stand up!?

“Dammit!”

“No. Picking her up risks tearing off the skin where it has frozen to the floor.”

“Is there anything we can burn!?”

“Even if it is an industrial cooler, the basic structure is no different from an air conditioner or refrigerator.”

“Let’s remove the filter!”

I pulled out something like a fine window screen that was long widthwise. They could have used a synthetic material, but they had apparently gone with luxurious silk thread. I pressed the arc welder’s rod against it and it burst into flames.

With that torch in hand, I only had to move it close to Anastasia’s skin to melt the parts frozen to the floor.

“Slowly. I need to do this slowly.”

“I have predicted the heat distribution based on the room temperature and floor material. Please use this as a guide.”

She ended up almost completely soaked, but I was finally able to lift Anastasia up.

“…Sorry.”

I could not help but bite my lip.

Even though apologizing was meaningless when she could not hear me and had not blamed me for anything.

“I’m sorry, Anastasia…!!”

I escaped the genetic cold storage room with the Sylpheed flying weakly alongside me.

“Dammit. That leaves dad. Maxwell, are you tracking him?”

There was no response.

“Maxwell!?”

“No. I am continuing to track his location using facial recognition. However…”

“?”

My stepmom and sisters gathered around the card-sized car navigation system as well.

“Starting from the outer areas of the mid-level section, they have begun prying up the shutters with tools. He seems to have met up with those people.”

“Fuguu? You mean we’re back to square one!? What will happen to dad!?”

“No. It appears he intentionally regrouped with them and is leaving this place with them. It does not appear he is being taken into custody as the culprit behind the domino effect.”

“…His battle isn’t over yet,” said my stepmom who had seen my dad from a different angle. “As a technician on the human side, he has access to the engine room at the bottom level. He plans to use that position to prevent a chain-reaction explosion.”

…If so, it was far too dangerous.

They had not noticed he had caused the domino effect that saved Anastasia, but those who had been knocked over had not died. One of the injured people could accuse him after being retrieved and treated. They could say he was the one who had pushed them. …In fact, it didn’t even matter if it was true. Whether it was a lie or fake news, whoever shouted an accusation first would win.

He had to have known the risks.

So why had he bought this time for us?

The answer was obvious. I had seen what he had said through the camera lens:

But I can’t just ignore this.

“…Dammit!!”

Complaining was not going to help.

I was sick of having my family split apart. I had to save my dad from that den of madness and violence.

What steps did I need to accomplish that?

Maxwell guided me to the answer.

“The previously hidden Archenemies have begun to appear in the corridors. They may have relaxed now that there is no sign of the rioters.”

“…That’s right.”

What we lacked were numbers and a safe zone.

If we could rearrange the Archenemies into a single organization, they might have the strength needed to push back the human rioters who had numbers on their side.

“At the very least, we need them to protect Anastasia and the Sylpheed while they’re weak. Can you manage that, mom?”

“Eh? Yes. You’re right…”

I couldn’t really blame her for the half-hearted response. Behaving like normal in this situation simply wasn’t possible.

I had Maxwell open a few shutters so we could meet up with the hidden Archenemies.

“Wah!?”

“Who are you…? I see a human with you…”

“Madam Lilith. So you were safe.”

Some of them looked no different from humans, but there was also a girl whose lower half was that of a giant horse. And among them, one girl spoke to my stepmom instead of me.

“It was a small black-haired girl in a work jumpsuit with a loudspeaker hanging from her shoulder.

“The girl from Las Vegas’s Hoover Dam…?”

“I am Nese Orlando, aka Archenemy Banshee. It is a pleasure to see you again, Son of Lilith.”

There was a lot I wanted to say, but securing our safety came first. This would all be for naught if we were stabbed in the side in the middle of recovering and it all collapsed.

We had already learned that the metal shutters could be pried open with special tools, so we could not rely on them forever.

“Maxwell, search the security cameras for the largest Archenemy shelter and any isolated Archenemies we can pick up on the way there.”

“Sure.”

“And don’t lose track of my dad’s position.”

He was probably prioritizing the prevention of an explosion from Absolute Noah going berserk over his own safety. That was the kind of person he was.

So we would save his life. We could not afford to fail here. We had to bring this through to the end.

“For the time being, the humans should be focused on digging out and saving the humans who have been separated and isolated by the shutters,” explained Maxwell. “You should return to the mostly Archenemy-held area on the upper levels while they do so.”

“Yeah…”

We could not use the same method twice.

It would grow even more difficult to pass through the mid-level area and enter the lower levels which were controlled by the humans.

We climbed the stairs and knocked violently on some of the closed metal doors on the way. The people inside generally held their breath, but when the Banshee used her loudspeaker to call out to them with ultrasonic waves that humans could not produce, the Archenemies hesitantly poked their heads out.

“Wah! What’s that white fuzzball!? An abominable snowman?”

“I am not a man. I am a female Wendigo. So at least call me an abominable snow woman.”

“You’re okay with the abominable part…?”

As our numbers grew, so did the variations. It was starting to look something like the Hyakki Yakou or Halloween. And the higher we climbed, the less on edge everything felt.

…Was I actually more comfortable with them than with the humans?

“Turn right at the next corner,” said Maxwell. “The largescale laundry has become an Archenemy base.”

“Laundry? Like a coin laundry?”

“When besieged, the most important necessity is food, but if you do not account for the others, you will end up creating a hotbed for infectious disease. This is a crucial facility.”

Well, just like even the strictest prison would have an exercise yard and a cafeteria, they would also need a linen room full of washing machines.

I followed Maxwell’s instructions and guided everyone inside.

As soon as we turned the corner, a certain scene came into view.

“Line up facing the wall!! Put your hands in the air and line up, human scum!!”

“Just kill them!! We can protect ourselves on our own!!”

…Dammit.

Had they lost control here too!?

At the end of a straight corridor with a door presumably to the coin laundry on the right, some men and woman with battered and swollen faces had their hands raised. There were about 10 of them. And it was obvious why they did not turn their backs and face the wall as instructed.

…Once the preparations were complete, the actual executions would begin. So they could not afford to complete that first step.

And what were those people that were beating them? They looked human enough, but their arms were covered with fur as hard as wires.

My Vampire older sister groaned.

“…Werewolves. They’re supposedly powerful enough to get confused with us.”

I did not know the details, but it would be best to assume these people could tear out a human’s flesh and blood with a swing of the arm, just like a tiger or bear.

They seemed to be the “soldiers” while the onlookers stuck their heads out from the laundry door to the side. They did not want to be treated like those soldiers, but they also wanted to watch.

…It was also wrong to view Archenemies too positively. They were exactly the same as humans.

But I still felt faint when I saw a small children looking out from the cracked-open door.

“What are you doing!?”

When I shouted at them and approached, the Werewolves turned toward me. They clenched and unclenched their hands to produce a solid clacking of their claws. Hearing that, Erika and Ayumi gave off a murderous pressure as Archenemies.

This was a touchy situation.

The battered humans looked back and forth between the two sides – including me – with looks of disbelief. They seemed to be asking whose side we were on.

I wanted to tell them I wasn’t on their side.

“Who the hell are you!?” roared on of the Werewolves. “I haven’t heard anything about a mixed unit!”

“…”

“You feel sorry for them, human? They only look like frightened bunnies because they’ve lost the violence of numbers. The second they get back with the other humans, they’ll be right back to being an anonymous part of the group thanks to that group psychology! If we don’t reduce their numbers here and chop down the trees of that human forest, they’ll just keep throwing stones at us!!”

“So it’s justified to kill them before they kill you? Do that and you’re no different from the humans and their preemptive witch hunt!!”

“Human scum!! Do you think you alone have some special right to an impartial view!?”

“Yeah, I’m a human! So what!? Are you some amazing Archenemy who could choose what he was born as!?”

Nothing I had said was wrong.

They may have thought they were the winners now that they had turned the tables on the humans who had made them suffer, but that was no different from the bullied kid become a bully. What did that get you? Could you really hold your head high and say you had conquered that unreasonable pain? They had just become a slave to the bonds known as bullying.

One side had gone berserk and the other side was being dragged down with them. This wasn’t justice. All I could see were people drowning in madness!

I had thought everyone would see this the same way.

But a stir ran through the Archenemies behind me, rather than the Werewolves in front of me.

“But it was the violent humans that started this…”

“If we can’t leave here, we need to defend ourselves.”

“We’re supposed to fight our fellow Archenemies now? Why? What for?”

“…Wait…”

The voices were coming from behind me. From the Archenemies we had rescued.

I could not turn around.

I was afraid of turning around and confirming what I had heard.

This was not an argument between two incompatible groups. Both sides were Archenemies. Was that what was happening? Their sympathy only resonated with other immortals, so a human like me was trapped between them!?

“Warning!!” said Maxwell.

I was surrounded by noise. With me in the center holding Anastasia, my stepmom, Erika, and Ayumi were singled out along with me.

What about the Sylpheed?

Or the Banshee girl?

“…”

“…”

No good. They were watching to see what happened. They might be waiting for the right time to strike like with my dad hiding in the human group, but I doubted that would come to fruition.

I had to save my isolated dad, so I couldn’t have that possibility cut off here!!

“Wait! The others are Archenemies. So is Anastasia I’m holding here!! Can’t you at least take them in!?”

“Onii-chan…!?”

“What are you saying, Satori-kun!?”

…I would keep as many of them alive as possible so they could save my dad. That was all I could do. There was nothing else to bet on!

But one of the Werewolves spat out a response.

“Human sympathizers would only throw us off balance. We can’t accept them. Besides, I hear Archenemy Lilith has taken a human husband. She might as well be human herself.”

“…!!”

Did this guy want me to kill him!?

Meanwhile, Amatsu Yurina silently narrowed her eyes.

“I see. So that’s what this is about.”

“I have no idea what you mean.”

“The accident itself was coincidental, but you decided to use it. You wanted to drag me down from the leadership, give up on coexisting with humans, and only allow the immortals to survive the Calamity.”

…Oh.

My stepmom, Archenemy Lilith, was one of Absolute Noah’s leaders. Before even thinking about persuading these people, she should have been able to just order them around.

But she could not.

The humans and Archenemies had gone berserk and someone who could give them orders was trying to force my stepmom out of their minds.

A rogue unit had destroyed the chain of command.

…That explained why they had no interest in listening to me. These incarnations of violence would not listen to Lilith at the top, so of course the peaceful argument of an outsider wasn’t going to reach them!

“Why did the humans secure the lower levels so quickly!?” asked my stepmom. “Was it because you took over the top levels, guiding them down there!?”

“…”

“But I don’t understand. You can turn the humans into villains by having them blow up the engine room. But that will blow away Absolute Noah as a whole. Then you can’t take control and start oppressing the humans. You’ll be reduced to ashes along with them!”

Yes.

What was it they wanted to accomplish here?

Absolute Noah had boiled over because of the Calamity. But according to my stepmom, the humans had taken over the lower levels and the incredibly dangerous engine room because they had been guided in that direction. If so, why? It was like asking the humans to deliver a finishing blow.

After thinking it through that far, a chill ran down my spine.

Wait.

It couldn’t be.

It just couldn’t. Even imagining that possibility felt like a terrible sin!!

“None of that matters.”

It was a saccharine female voice.

This was not one of the Werewolves who had been out in the corridor. The laundry room’s door had opened wide and someone slowly appeared from within while rubbing the heads of the Archenemy onlookers.

There was a somewhat decadent sense to it, but she had a bewitchingly beautiful woman’s body. Her bright white skin seemed to reflect the light. Her long hair had the color of dried grass and it dangled down to hide her ample breasts, giving her an extremely defenseless look.

On the other hand, below the thin cloth wrapped around her waist, she had the slimy body of a large snake. Her hair and scales were like dried grass, but perhaps because her beautiful face was reminiscent of a sweet aroma, they looked more like milk tea. Also, her hair and scales glittered with rainbow colors that changed depending on the angle, like a disk’s surface. The colorful light was like a charm that seeped out even as she tried to suppress it. Despite the dry grass decadence, she possessed an eternal beauty. She was undeniably an Archenemy. And she stood in a position that allowed her to speak on equal footing with Demon Lord Lilith.

My stepmom called her name.

“…Charlotte Fregula.”

“That is only a temporary name. Please call me Archenemy Echidna.”

That was a half-human, half-snake monster from Greek Mythology. She would stick just the top half of a beautiful woman out from her cave to lure in men and then feast upon them once they were within the lethal range. She was also the womb of chaos who had mated with many inhuman monsters to give birth to Archenemies more powerful and violent than herself, such as the Cerberus and Hydra.

…Lilith was also said to have once given birth to all sorts of demons and evil spirits, like a downloader virus that spread its many evils around the world. In that sense, they were equals. They were uncelebrated mothers whose offspring became incarnations of ruin.

“Lady…Charlotte?”

The Sylpheed spoke up in apparent surprise. Come to think of it, she had mentioned a “Charlotte” a few times. But the Echidna with pure white skin and milk tea hair did not even glance at her faithful servant who had set foot in this deadly place for her.

My stepmother, Demon Lord Lilith, opened her mouth.

“What have you done?”

“This is nothing so simple. After all, I have little power on my own.”

The Echidna reached her slender white hand toward the corridor wall. I doubted it was because her snake lower body was unstable.

There was a sticky sound.

The wall looked as solid as stainless steel, but it throbbed like an internal organ.

This was not meaningless.

It was covered in scales that were the color of dried grass yet glittered with a rainbow light, just like the Echidna.

“An insulator.”

It looked like a giant soft bag…but that was not all.

There was more on the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Many things dripped down like a cascade of flesh covered in rainbow-glittering scales. Were they attached to the solid walls, or had the solid walls been transformed into them?

They were either covered in dry grass scales or had broken through them while they throbbed to make their presence known.

One was like a screw made from a circular collection of giant bird feathers, one was a distorted ball made from bat heads, one was a flesh tube that wriggled on the floor like an umbilical cord…

“A centrifuge, an ultrasound machine, and an ultra-precise dropper. The oxygen and nutrients are over here. I can also prepare a blade or saw if you like. Live births and egg births both work.”

Her horribly twisted surroundings made the beauty of the Echidna’s face and body stand out all the more.

“My children are powerful, but if they are too large, my belly cannot contain them. So I start by producing a womb capable of birthing my child. In modern terms, I suppose you could call this a biology lab. …At this point, they are not yet alive. A soul only resides within them once they are born from here.”

I had a bad feeling about this.

No matter what she was thinking, would she really just reveal all this here? And I didn’t mean in front of enemies like us. I meant to the Werewolf soldiers and the onlookers. If she stood at the top of the pyramid, would she really reveal her true character in front of those she ruled? A king might have absolute power, but that would evaporate once they lost their charisma. If they lost their standing, a cruel fate awaited them.

Why was she not afraid of that?

And why had the Archenemies suddenly separated from us while none of them questioned that suicidal plan?

“But I can use this lab’s equipment to efficiently control their minds.”

Kh…

“Mom! Erika, Ayumi!?”

I shouted and backed away with Anastasia in my arms. I did not know anything specific, but this had truly eliminated the chance of everyone getting along. An unknown infection source was coming from that laundry. It was all over if we went in there. No, not even this corridor was safe!!

Something like a mini-sandstorm burst from below the door. It was…

“Are you familiar with the Myrmecoleon? It is a cross between an ant and a lion. The monster has a lion’s head and forelegs, but an ant’s abdomen and hind legs. But the lion’s mouth can only consume meat and the ant’s belly cannot accept that thick meat. Thus, the twisted lifeform can never live for long.”

The Echidna licked her lips with an oddly long and skinny tongue.

“Such interesting traits. It just makes you want to test out all sorts of things, doesn’t it? And my lab has plenty of materials. Now, what would happen if I changed that crossbreeding? For example, what would happen if I crossbred a tiny blood-sucking tick with a fierce man-eating snake woman? Why, it would function as a small dropper or capsule, wouldn’t it?”

Was that what all of the specks making up this storm were!?

“I created the owners of the world’s smallest fangs at just 0.12mm. Yes, even without a soul, they can still use their fangs. It is difficult to remove a lethal amount of the target’s blood with those small bodies, but there is no restriction against spitting the blood back out. Thus, by clinging to the target’s blood vessels while continually sucking out blood and returning it to target’s bloodstream, you can technically ‘suck a lethal amount of blood’ without actually changing their total level of blood by a single drop. You can see them now because they are gathered in one place, but when they are spread out across a wider area, the naked eye cannot see them even when they are attached to your hair and clothing.”

“That’s not possible. There’s no Archenemy legend anywhere in the world with such a convenient infection source!!”

“Weren’t you listening? These are not Archenemies. They are equipment for my biology lab. They are tools used to deliver my children.”

The Echidna revealed another frightening side of herself. She was a monster who could secure whatever she wanted in order to produce whatever supernatural phenomenon she wanted. And she had released that microscopic blood-sucking control medium modified from a Myrmecoleon. Maxwell had already said that a laundry room was an important facility since it kept things clean and prevented infectious disease. Had she taken advantage of that by scattering these landmines to every part of Absolute Noah by infecting the clothing and bedding provided in the building!?

The 0.12mm blood-sucking ticks were not the only part that felt like cheating. That woman could procure any number of weapons on that same level. She controlled everything related to the birth of the bizarre. How could you play chess or shogi when you didn’t know about all of the pieces in advance? Not even relying on a supercomputer would save me! It was simply too dangerous!!

“Maxwell! Use your security privileges to access the fire equipment and activate the sprinklers!!”

“Sure.”

“Oh, dear.”

When the rain poured from the ceiling, the Echidna spoke quietly while shaking her hair that looked like dry grass or milk tea but glittered in rainbow colors depending on the angle. If they were too small to see, then each one could not have much strength. The drops of water would capture them.

And now that they had been knocked from the air and immobilized on the floor…!!

“Ayumi, Erika!!”

“Understood.”

“Fuguu!!”

We did not have to think about defeating all of them. …The humans by the wall were a shame, but the odds were good they had blood-sucking ticks in their hair and clothing. It was just like taking an injured person and placing them over a mine to lay a trap for anyone trying to rescue them.

I did not dare approach them while holding unconscious Anastasia in my arms.

I turned back the way I had come.

The Wendigo, Centaur, and other Archenemies were waiting there, but my stepmom grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall and sprayed its foam around. The sprinkler was working against that attempt, but it still functioned as a smokescreen.

This was the optimal answer I had reached and accepted.

But…

“Please wait! Don’t leave us here!”

“No! They’ll kill us! I don’t want to be executed!”

“…!!”

“You can’t, Satori! The injuries to their face are proof enough that the tick-covered Werewolves have physically touched them, so the ticks are almost certainly on them as well!”

I knew that.

I knew that, but still!!

“Oh, so it didn’t work.”

I heard a mocking voice behind us as we fled.

“But a righteousness that always chooses the right answer looks plenty insane if you ask me.”

The only voice I heard belonged to the rainbow-decorated Echidna while her sweet milk tea hair covered her pure white chest.

In other words, the wailing survivors had suddenly stopped. Like a switch had been thrown.

So it really had been a trap.

The infected victims were only being made to act like humans.

“Dammit…!!”

We had to leave.

Absolute Noah had fallen even further into chaos.

The upper and lower levels were dangerous.

On the middle levels, the humans rioters trapped between shutters were still being rescued.

We finally had nowhere left to go.

We could not solidify our position enough to rescue my dad like this.

“Banshee, Sylpheed…!”

Losing them had hurt the most. If I had been a little more careful, the Archenemies following us might not have become victims!!

“…It might be too soon to despair,” said my older sister. “If those blood-sucking ticks really can indiscriminately spread damage without being seen, the Echidna herself could be affected while inside that laundry room she has transformed into her nest. In that case…”

“Are you saying there’s some way of resisting it, Erika?”

“Yes. The primary condition for a lab is for it to be safe. So she must have something, be it a vaccine or antidote. There might be a way to heal the victims who have been stripped of their souls.”

“Fugu. That would be wonderful, but this lab equipment is an infection using Archenemy fangs, right? Is there really a way to save yourself from that?”

A Vampire and Zombie would understand just how fatal such infections were. That was why they did not wield their power too easily. That was the first rule for living in society.

However…

“Did you forget, Ayumi-chan? These blood-sucking ticks are not natural. They are reused lab equipment created for a certain purpose.”

“Oh, I get it. The Echidna might have left an opening in the specs for her own convenience. A way to quickly correct a problem if something unexpected happens to her.”

Looking at it as a means of attack, it would be uncontrollable without that. Unlike an ultimate weapon from a movie or drama, actual biological weapons were failures if the virus would cover the entire planet. Maybe they could only reproduce for a short period, maybe they were weak to the outside air or UV, and maybe a defensive line could be set up by disinfecting with fire or alcohol. Whatever the case, if you did not build in a weakness and could not limit the area over which it spread, your virus would eventually reach the other side of the planet and infect your own family.

“…Let’s review the problems here.”

While soaking wet, we began the discussion in a locker room positioned halfway between the upper levels and middle levels.

This area would not last long either. Either the humans or the Archenemies would make their way here.

“Absolute Noah is divided between the humans and the Archenemies. The humans hold the engine room on the lower levels and the Archenemies hold the living areas on the upper levels. But the Echidna is actually using blood-sucking ticks to control the Archenemies and is using their movements to force the humans into the lower levels. That pressure has triggered rioting among the humans. In other words, the Echidna holds everything in the palm of her hand.”

“Satori-kun. Is it possible all of the human side has been infected by the blood-sucking ticks as well?”

“I doubt it. If so, there would be no need to divide everyone onto two sides. The Echidna could simply rule as the queen of the ark. Also, it wouldn’t make any sense for dad to be acting independently.”

But why not?

Wouldn’t it be faster to infect the humans like Erika suggested?

“Fugu. What if?”

“Ayumi?”

“Even for us, wasn’t it odd that we managed to escape that wide variety of Archenemies while protecting you, Onii-chan?”

“…What? Are you suggesting the Echidna’s group went easy on us?”

“Or what if someone controlled by the blood-sucking ticks can’t use their special abilities as an Archenemy? Like a mermaid’s song.”

So were their movements simplified like with Zombies? If the Echidna wanted the humans to do something, was she intentionally leaving their intelligence intact while guiding them in that direction?

We couldn’t find an answer to that, but something else was actually more important.

Yes.

“…Then what happened to the Calamity?”

“Fuguu?”

“I mean, think about it. If the humans went berserk because they succumbed to the pressure from the Archenemies and the Archenemies are being controlled by the Echidna’s blood-sucking ticks, then everything is explained. There’s no room for the ultimate moral hazard we call the Calamity.”

…Were we overlooking something?

No, the Calamity definitely existed. Urp. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have pushed Erika onto that kitchen counter and raised the butcher’s knife.

In that case…

Where had that gone???

“Ugh… Truth, where are we? I feel like I missed a lot.”

“Don’t worry about any of it. It’s all my fault.”

Anastasia’s eyes were darting around while I held her in my arms and she seemed to notice Erika and Ayumi.

Then she spoke.

“…Truth, you’re the one that doesn’t need to worry about it. If you managed to find your sisters, then you did what you needed to do.”

“…”

I could not respond.

I had done nothing worthwhile since entering Absolute Noah. I had turned a knife on my sister in my confusion, I had abandoned Anastasia, I had placed my dad in danger to recover from that mistake, and I had let the Banshee and Sylpheed be infected by the Echidna’s blood-sucking ticks…and turned into devices for her creature lab.

So it was all my fault.

But I could not stop here. I simply could not.

No matter how terribly I had been doing, this would never improve if I did nothing. Pulling back my hand would not shrink the wound. So I had to keep rolling the dice and bear with it until luck was on my side once more.

It was time to show some human strength.

“There’s so much we don’t know, so let’s think through it together.”

“…Right.”

Now that Anastasia was awake, I began speaking again.

“Mom, there’s something I want to know. How much did Absolute Noah’s members know about the Calamity? This giant ark had to have been created based on some kind of data. Earthquake shelters and typhoon shelters are designed entirely differently, so what exactly is this?”

I was talking about concrete data on a disaster so frightening that everyone wanted to shut their eyes and pretend it did not exist. Just like a prophecy of destruction, it had bound so many people’s hearts with negative emotions.

My stepmom held her soaking wet body in her arms and breathed out a bit.

“Well, it began with gathering old wall paintings and oral legends. We knew something had happened in the distant past, but what exactly was it? We began by comparing multiple sources and organizing the information.”

“So not much different from investigating large earthquakes…”

“Once we had a vague idea of the Calamity, we gradually revealed its outlines with function calculations using numbers on paper and slide rules, but an explosive advance was made in the previous century. That was the arrival of computers. Specifically, a simulator using vacuum tubes.”

“…”

“Absolute Noah’s roots go back to antiquity, but its advances are not proportional to the flow of time. It is much more closely related to the history of calculation technology, memory storage technology, and data processing. God will only save the chosen from the flood and we know that ‘we’ will not be chosen. So we can’t just rely on others for this. By bringing together those afraid of that general apocalypse, we managed to acquire a large boat.”

“…So right now, a computer like Maxwell is being used as the one-and-only and inviolable scriptures of an organization large enough to move the world?”

…There was a chance we could use that.

The Archenemies would not listen to anything we said since they were fully controlled by the Echidna’s blood-sucking ticks. But what about the humans? They had gone berserk from fear of the Archenemies, but what they feared most was the Calamity and the end of the world.

I didn’t have to rely on the idea that there was innate goodness in everyone. I only had to overwrite their fear with a greater fear.

“I don’t know what led the Echidna to do what she’s doing, but that book of prophecy has to reside deep within her heart as well.”

“Y-yes. Otherwise, she would not have joined Absolute Noah.”

“Mom, that book of prophecy should be accessible by anyone inside here. I want to see it. Maxwell, let’s try predicting the Echidna’s thought process based on the prophecy data.”

“Sure. If we could recreate Archenemy Echidna’s actions within my system, we could predict her actions and that would greatly increase your odds of survival.”

“Fugu? You mean we don’t have to figure out a password in some special room?”

“There’s no charisma in a book of prophecy no one can read. Mom.”

According to Amatsu Yurina, any terminal inside Absolute Noah could indeed access the simulation data. They had built this ark while watching the world breaking, like they were viewing a train schedule.

Of course, it only let us read it, not rewrite it. But our goal was to read what it said so we held the same thing that the Echidna did. If Maxwell could use that to reproduce her thoughts, we would have an easier time understanding her goal and predicting her actions.

“Anastasia. Let’s use the panel next to the barrier.”

“Understood. I’ll spoof a connection from a different access point, so wait just a second. After all, we have Maxwell-chan as a host.”

She removed the protective cover, connected her small robot dog with a cable, and did some detailed work. Once we had called up the barrier control panel’s system screen, we reconnected to the internal network.

“There we go, there we go.”

“Let’s take a look, Truth.”

And we found…

• Rioting.

• Reduction in normative consciousness.

• Ruin.

• Takeover of the ruling class.

• Deterioration of tragic memories.

• Explosive expansion.

• Global mass hysteria.

• Resignation.

• Ephemeral hedonism.

• Outlets for frustrations based on discrimination.

• Desire for ruin.

• Negative chain reactions.

• Moral hazards.

• Concrete actions.

…These were not Nostradamus-style vague phrases that could apply to anything.

This gave an organized list of the ways to make someone hate the world and it backed it all up with numbers.

There was no sign of emotion there. It calmly described how humanity would break as if reading off the answers at the end of a textbook.

It was like an immutable schedule describing everything from the beginning of the end to the end of the end.

“…What is this…?”

I was apparently not the only one whose legs grew weak. Ayumi placed her hand on the wall and Erika was trembling despite supposedly supporting our stepmom. Amatsu Yurina would have already known all this, but she groaned quietly at seeing it again.

This was a poison.

You could not view it or touch it. It was a powerful poison with a strong pull that would cause your worries and doubts to endlessly grow until you checked on it for yourself, despite knowing nothing good would come of that.

Getting tangled in this would destroy anyone. You would begin to view yourself as wise for taking early action against the coming ruin and you would see yourself as a lonely but just person who paid no heed to the criticisms of the ignorant and peace-dulled world.

It could be bad for your mental health when something was too simple. Some people claimed not to believe anything they had not seen for themselves, but this was the ultimate argument that would force them to change their view.

However.

“User.”

“What is it, Maxwell?”

“Part of this makes no sense. There are no parameters for the target access point. What am I connected to?”

“What…?”

This was the planetary simulator that had precisely calculated out the ruin of the entire human race. Wouldn’t it be a supercomputer larger than a school building?

“What do you mean there are no parameters? Are you saying these are corrupted packets without the proper values inside?”

“No. That kind of trick would only trigger an error report.”

“…So it’s a nonexistent computer?”

The data on the screen was indeed the worst I could imagine. And my stepmom’s group had built the ark based on it.

But where had it come from?

What was the identity of this ghostly simulator?

“No. That is not it. How should I put it? It uses a format I have never seen before. Perhaps you could say electric signals alone cannot explain it because it is managed with more than just 0s and 1s.”

What was that supposed to mean?

But Maxwell would not intentionally lie. In that case, the words had to mean something.

And just as I thought that, something happened.

“Oh? I really should compliment you for noticing something was off using just a handmade machine.”

A voice intruded as if speaking over the phone.

It was Archenemy Echidna.

Charlotte Fregula.

…She had already broken into the signal!?

I quickly turned toward at Anastasia, but the tiny white hacker shook her head and pointed at her robot dog.

“I’m not receiving an alert. And there shouldn’t have been any way to detect the connection!”

Since Maxwell controlled the security network which primarily included the security cameras, physical observation was out of the question. But then how had she detected our actions!?

“You are looking at this wrong. You have come into contact with me simply by reading the book of prophecy.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You don’t know? Not all processors are made from silicon wafers. All of us come equipped with a much more impressive organ.”

The blood vessels on my temple throbbed disconcertingly.

No.

It couldn’t be, no, there was no way!

“My brain. That is the identity of Absolute Noah’s planetary simulator and this generation’s book of prophecy.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

It wasn’t possible.

It just couldn’t be possible!

“Wait, Charlotte! I know the Echidna cannot use intelligence that advanced as a weapon!”

“Of course not. But have you forgotten, Lilith? I can procure everything I need. That way I need not give up on those violent children who I could never give birth to with my own belly alone.”

“…?”

My stepmom had argued back on reflex, but even she was confused by this one.

However, the worst possibility gradually dawned on us.

“You don’t mean…!”

“Yes, I myself am one of my lab creations. I am an artificial living simulator that can be used for evolutionary experiments. In other words, I am a version of myself with a more developed brain. The brain and organs have all been fully updated. All to optimize the brain chemicals, hormones, and chemical reactions in the blood.”

“…You’re kidding, right? But you said your creations don’t have a soul.”

“I was not created from scratch in the lab, so I think the soul has transferred into this body. But during the many modifications, who can say how much of that formless thing has been carved away. And no matter how much you try to deny it, I have achieved my goal and I exist here in the form I took for those children. Of course, the outer appearance was perfect already, so I left that untouched. Perhaps it is like fully replacing a car’s engine and suspension. And after around 79 such customizations, my specs have reached the level needed for a planetary simulator.”

This was different from a Demon Lord who possessed great power as an individual. It was also different from a Zombie or Vampire who could cause a pandemic throughout the city.

This was the Echidna.

What she laid out was somehow different.

“Why…?”

“The book of prophecy is the core of Absolute Noah. By placing myself as that indispensable pillar, the organization cannot eliminate me no matter what I do. Just like all those silly old people in positions of power. This was no more than the necessary insurance.”

“No, not that. Why do you hate the ark so much, Charlotte!?”

“You don’t get it? No, the others might not, but you must understand, Archenemy Lilith. Because we are the same.”

My stepmom slowly inhaled and seemed to be processing those words in her head.

“What am I supposed to understand? Should I assume your ultimate target is Archenemy Lilith?”

“Of course not. I said we are the same, didn’t I? Or is your heyday too painful to remember in front of your son and daughters?”

“…Charlotte, you…”

“Yes. Orthrus, Cerberus, Hydra, the Nemean lion. They were all children of mine. I designed them in my lab and those adorable children were far too powerful for my belly to contain them.”

I lived with a Vampire older sister and a Zombie little sister, but those names did not sound like anything from reality. It made me think of video games before mythology.

But that was who this was.

Her roots may have gone even further back than Demon Lord Lilith’s.

She was Archenemy Echidna.

“You understand how unfair it is, don’t you? You understand the heart-rending pain of seeing your adorable children – the crystallizations of your love – trampled underfoot until none of them survive, don’t you!? You understand the hell of experiencing the sorrow of seeing the child leave this world before the parent and seeing it happen over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, don’t you!?”

“…”

“We are the same!! The Echidna gave birth to the hideous children who would oppose the gods and Lilith gave birth to countless formless evil spirits and demons who would bring chaos to the world!! But none of it mattered. All because of those gods and heroes who declared them ‘ugly’ and ‘filthy’ and then attacked them. Yes, yes. Why did all of my children have to be slaughtered!?”

“…That doesn’t add up,” I said without thinking. “Then what are those blood-sucking ticks? And you repeatedly remade your body, right? If you can create all of that to make up for the gaps in your skills, you couldn’t possibly feel like that…”

“Don’t act like you understand, brat! My lab was meant to safely give birth to my adorable children. But what good are cribs and bottles when you don’t have any children to use them? No good at all! Yes, Orthrus, Chimaera, and Karkinos were complete failures, but Hydra more than made up for those failings. Oh, my adorable elite…”

…I kind of got it.

I felt like the core of Archenemy Echidna, aka Charlotte Fregula, had come into view.

“You…”

I must have had a look of utter astonishment on my face.

She had shown us all sorts of strange things so far, but…

“You ranked your children…? Even though you gave birth to them all!?”

“Oh? But everyone does that. Do you take the smart older brother or the dumb younger brother? Do you show your love to the beautiful little sister or to the ugly big sister? Who will inherit the family business, who is needed for a political marriage, who can you brag about as a parent, who will bring the most social status? You can say whatever you like, but everyone needs to have a favorite when you get down to it.”

…I.

I had been through a lot with my parents’ divorce, but I still truly believed I had been blessed all along.

After all, I had never once been subject to that absurd loneliness or anger. Ayumi, Erika, and I had entirely different specs, and were even from different species. To be honest, I didn’t stand a chance against my sisters in an intellectual or physical challenge. But we were allowed to be equal siblings in our family. Thanks to our parents.

Archenemy Echidna.

That mother had given birth to monster after monster.

But was that her children’s fault? Wasn’t it due to how she was? The Hydra and Cerberus had never been taught how to control the power they were born with and they were isolated from society, so wasn’t that why they had been made into a target for the heroes!?

“…So let’s say the Cerberus, the Nemean lion, and your other beloved children were killed in the distant past as a test of courage or whatever. Let’s say that isn’t just something from a fantasy game and the tragedy was real.”

“Yes?”

“Then what do you want here and now? What do you want with Absolute Noah!?”

“Isn’t that obvious? I have just one objective: revenge.”

…?

“How does that make any sense!? Those heroes are so long gone not even their bones still exist! Or are you saying you can’t forgive humanity as a whole!?”

“I honestly couldn’t care less about humans.”

This was no more than a voice from a panel’s flat screen, but it still shook me.

“But my fellow mother of monsters will know who my true target is. She will know what it is I resent.”

“…Mom?”

I looked over to see Amatsu Yurina’s eyes opened wider than I had ever seen them.

What was this? Were those words really such a shock???

“The story of the ark tells of people avoiding a worldwide disaster. But the story requires one precondition to function.”

No.

Wait. Don’t tell me…!

“It must begin with a formless god telling the people that a flood is coming and commanding them to build a boat.”

“That’s what you’re after…?”

“I don’t know what the gods are thinking, nor do I care to find out. But they might not like it if I raze the surface of the earth and build a large enough pile of corpses that the toxic smoke rises to heaven. …We will defile the world. We will do the last thing they want. Even if it is no more than the human race destroying themselves based on a nonexistent end-times theory.”

“You mean you don’t care about humanity and this is only meant to give you a chance to directly attack the gods at the source of it all!?”

“Of course. The heroes and humans are no more than pawns of the gods. If I am to avenge those children, I must remove the heads of the gods giving orders at the very top, don’t I?”

This had reached a level where not even a disaster environment simulator like Maxwell could keep up.

But whether or not she could actually strike back at the gods was not the issue. It only mattered that the Echidna had come this far believing that she could.

Did she see herself as building a Tower of Babel up to heaven!?

“But word of the Calamity hasn’t spread across the world to the extent needed to wipe out humanity. Wild@Hunt’s drone disaster was stopped and the world avoided a global depression caused by the giant corporation’s collapse. Absolute Noah only contains a few thousand! Are you saying the gods will make a visit over chaos on that level!?”

“Oh? But the scriptures will soon be spread all over the world.”

The Echidna’s tone of voice had not changed. Was all of this still according to her plan?

And just as I thought that…

“Why do you think I sent all the humans to the lower levels so they would take over the engine room? A careful investigation of the scriptures’ simulation data would eventually show a flaw, which is why it must be blown away and elevated to the level of an ‘unknowable legend’.”

“Y-…”

…You…!?

That’s what she was having my dad and the others do!?

“If Absolute Noah blows up and splits the Japanese Archipelago in two, there will be no covering it up. The existence of the ark will be public knowledge, with the extra knowledge that it failed and the end of the world is truly inescapable. So what will remain? The Calamity, a general fear of the world ending, and the fact that the only true prophetic simulation data is inside my head.”

It was just like the end of the previous century when everyone relied on Nostradamus…no, on writers and producers who borrowed his words.

The Echidna intended to inherit everything from Absolute Noah.

Was she trying to turn herself into the global book of prophecy that would bring misfortune and disaster so she could plunge the entire planet into chaos!?

“Let us speak of the lost prophecies. Everything was written there, but it was all lost in a foolish explosion. Thus, those of you who remain have no choice but to live in fear of unavoidable ruin.”

The panel whispered in a singsong voice.

“…Wouldn’t that have enough of an impact to create a few new myths and religions? Or perhaps it would trigger the Calamity much more simply than the collapse of Wild@Hunt.”

If the ark was lost, then she could not escape the Calamity either. She would be caught in the very fire she had set.

Was she only interested in confronting the gods and avenging her “adorable” children? Had she abandoned even the idea of her own survival?

“No matter how much logic you use in rational pursuit of an answer, you can never fully erase those nagging ‘what ifs’ and ‘could it bes’.”

There was only her laughing voice.

“The humans in the engine room are doing their job, oblivious to the fact that they were guided there. Their outward anger is no more than a byproduct of what fills their hearts: a deep-rooted fear and resignation. If the alternative is being bitten by the Archenemies on the upper levels and becoming a living corpse with no free will, they will choose to blow themselves up while they remain pure. …And none of them will know what trigger it is they are pulling.”

I glanced toward Anastasia who shook her head after fiddling with the small robot dog.

…So the Echidna really was better than her…

Then there was no need to hesitate. It would be very bad if Maxwell was infected.

I grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and swung it down on the barrier control panel we had been relying on. With a sound of shattering glass and some sparks, I forcefully severed the connection.

“Phew.”

What did we need to do? There was a lot, but we had to think through it all.

“One, we have to stop the humans down there with dad from detonating the engine room. Two, we need to find a cure for the blood-sucking ticks to save the Banshee, the Sylpheed, and the others. Third, we need to settle things with the Echidna. That’s three major hurdles.”

They all looked like separate tasks at first, but they were all aboard Absolute Noah. We could actually streamline them together.

Meaning…

“We need to find a way to the lower levels and meet up with dad and the others.”

“That would be great…but, Satori? Are you sure you want to prioritize family here?”

“This isn’t just about emotion. The blood-sucking tick infection hasn’t spread to the humans. The Echidna chose not to infect them so they could blow up the engine room, so the odds are good that the vaccine or cure is located with the humans. I just doubt they would recognize it if they saw it.”

“Fuguu. In that case…”

“We don’t need to think of these as separate issues. We start by heading down to regroup with dad, stop the human rampage, and prevent the explosion. Then we find the emergency cure and free the Banshee, the Sylpheed, and the others from the blood-sucking ticks. Finally, we bring the fight to the Echidna. It’s all one continuous ‘flow’. There are no wasted steps.”

There did not seem to be any objections.

In that case, the question was how to actually get down to the lower levels with all the rioters there.

“They have checkpoints set up everywhere, so we can’t use the stairs or elevators. The ducts and garbage chutes would also be difficult. We discussed all that earlier, but…”

“Oh?”

For some reason, Erika pressed her hands together in front of her large chest and cut me off with a smile.

She made a suggestion while still smiling.

“If we only have to get down to the lower levels, then didn’t you already give us the answer, Satori-kun?”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

“The garbage chutes. Unlike the ducts, they won’t be blocked with filters or fans and they will be built fairly wide so the garbage doesn’t clog them up. Couldn’t someone use one as a tunnel if they climbed inside?”

“No, wait. I don’t know how many levels Absolute Noah has in all, but it’s apparently at least a few hundred meters vertically. Fall straight down there and you’ll go splat when you hit the bottom.”

“Yes, of course.” Erika was already opening and closing the rectangular cover on the wall nearby. “But what if there was a soft cushion in the way? Although if possible, you should really hold out your arms and legs as brakes.”

“A cushion? Breaks? …Wah.”

I did not have time to question it.

Erika turned toward me so her back was to the open garbage chute. Then she wrapped her slender arms around my head, pulled me into her large chest, and held me tight.

No, the wobbling of my weight did not end there. It was like trying to dive from the edge of boat or performing a suplex. Wait, don’t tell me!

“Fuguu!”

“Sorry for stealing your thunder, Ayumi-chan, but we’re in a bit of a hurry here.”

From there, it was a trip straight down.

Erika held me in her arms as she fell headfirst into the garbage chute. We were swallowed up by that vertical pit that could lead down who-knows-how-many hundreds of meters.

[Support by] Garbage Chutes [DELTA brain]

A garbage collection system primarily seen in high-rise buildings. A chimney-like hole is opened inside the wall, doors are constructed at each floor, and garbage is thrown directly inside to be gathered in a bucket or container at the bottom.

This eliminates the need to go around collecting trashcans from each floor, but cleanliness issues have been highlighted (e.g., the difficulty of cleaning the chute’s inner walls and the garbage smell rising from the bottom floor), so it is not used anymore.

…Since it has garbage chutes installed, perhaps Absolute Noah took a very long time to construct. Just like how Western castles that took hundreds of years to complete often become a patchwork of different construction methods.

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