The instant Helene caught sight of the charred banner atop Corpse Mountain, she felt her body cease to belong to her once again. Something seemed about to burst out from between her brows, while a stabbing pain shot through her neck, as though an invisible hand had seized her head and was pulling it upward.
She was not the only one. Lisa and Gusin, who had fallen back into the Physical World with her when the Special Mirror World was eroded and conquered by flames, landed atop the mountain and experienced much the same thing.
Out of the corner of her eye, Helene noticed that Gusin had already raised both hands to hold his head in place, suppressing its attempt to leave his body. He could not even spare a hand to cover his neck, where torn skin and muscle gushed blood. Lisa had landed slightly farther from Salinger's Blood Banner and was less affected, but her neck and limbs had also stiffened. None of the commanding presence she had displayed while directing meteors in the Mirror World remained.
Compared with Gusin, Helene, who was closest to the charred banner, still retained a measure of self-control. It made her wonder whether the Sealed Artifact had granted her some additional favor.
No, it should be because I read about it beforehand and was already contaminated. The "new" contamination is actually less severe for me. The other two must also know something about "0-01," or they would have become its puppets the moment they landed on the mountaintop...
As these thoughts ran through her mind, Helene struggled to move her loosened neck, whose skin had begun to crack. She turned her head and looked away from Salinger's Blood Banner. Only then did she feel the force threatening to tear her head from