Chapter Thirty-Two: CiRCLE / Chapter Thirty-Three: Aether, Stars

Until the very last moment, when the screen went completely dark.

"Miss Niiki..." Kita sprawled over the screen, trying to find some switch that would turn it back on. Nijika steadied the control console beside her. Hitori and Ryo stood rooted to the spot, completely motionless.

It was the first time they had witnessed the sacrifice of someone they knew with their own eyes.

Kita searched to no avail. She slammed her fist into the screen. The glass shattered and cut her skin, sending blood flowing. How ridiculous. She thought. This is actually the most serious injury I've suffered since crossing over!

She turned toward everyone and shouted, "We have to avenge her!" The hoarseness of her voice startled even her.

"That's right." Nijika stood up straight again. "But first, we have to listen to the final words she left behind! Prepare for battle, and evacuate if necessary."

"It may not come this way. But we have to be ready for anything. Defense won't work. For now, we'll do our best to disguise CiRCLE."

Compared to everyone else, Nijika remained the calmest as she assigned tasks, as if Miss Niiki's death had not affected her at all.

Even Hitori noticed that her eyes were brimming with tears.

"Little Shiko, think of some kind of transportation that can move quickly across the Gobi."

Shiko did not hear what she said. "This all happened because of me..." She crouched down. "Because I crossed over, all of this happened..."

Nijika clenched her fist and suddenly rushed over, forcibly hauling her to her feet. "Who can prove that your crossing over has anything to do with this? Don't even think about taking all the responsibility on yourself! Right now, you're our partner! Pull yourself together!"

Everyone was startled by Nijika's completely abnormal behavior.

She drew a deep breath and released Shiko. Once again, she looked around at everyone and ordered, "Gather on the roof. I'm going to find Marina." Then she left as well.

Kita raised her palm. At some point, the wound had already healed.

Hitori walked toward Shiko. Shiko was still hanging her head. Hitori approached her, wanting to pull her up by the hand.

Suddenly, Shiko raised her right hand and slapped herself hard across the face!

"Shiko!"

Shiko lifted her head. The confusion in her eyes had settled. She called out to the remaining people, "What are you waiting for? Hurry up."

When the group reached the lobby, Nijika was arguing with Marina about something.

The moment the two saw everyone, they stopped. Marina seemed to have recovered her usual expression. "Let's go to the roof."

As Nijika passed Shiko, Shiko asked in a low voice, "What happened?"

Nijika shook her head without speaking.

Chapter Thirty-Two: CiRCLE

The sky remained clear, unchanged by one person's life or death. At that moment, the five people from CiRCLE had gathered on the roof, and all their hearts were tethered to the distant horizon.

"Put another pile of rubble here... No, make the stones bigger and more irregular..." Nijika directed the work of disguising CiRCLE. They intended to make CiRCLE look like a natural pile of rocks. Shiko was responsible for creating the rocks, Ryo for simulating wind erosion, and Kita and Hitori for dealing with the exposed outer walls of CiRCLE. Nijika herself handled command and support. Marina stood behind the telescope Shiko had hastily made, keeping constant watch on the distant movements.

The advantages of the roof were its wide view and convenient escape route. CiRCLE's two-story height was not much to them now. With the gradually rising pile of rubble, they could escape in any direction at any time.

But Shiko thought of a better means of transportation than traveling over land.

"A hot-air balloon?"

"That's right, a hot-air balloon." Shiko took the water bottle Nijika handed her and drank.

"Ground transportation is very slow in this terrain, but the same may not be true of the sky. The aerial vehicles I can create right now are hot-air balloons and hang gliders. Between the two, hot-air balloons are more reliable. Besides, that thing doesn't seem to have any long-range attack methods. As long as we stay in the air, it won't be able to threaten us."

"Can we guarantee its safety?" Because of certain past incidents, Nijika still had some reservations.

"No." Shiko admitted it readily. "Everything I know about hot-air balloons comes from some basic physics knowledge and magazines in the lounge. But we do have experience with emergency landings from the air." She looked toward Ryo. Ryo's face twitched slightly, but in the end, she nodded.

Nijika pressed a hand to her aching head. "All right. There isn't a better option anyway."

A hot-air balloon large enough to carry everyone was soon assembled on the platform. The flame had been lit early, while the ballast and ropes held the basket firmly in place, ready for takeoff at any moment.

While the others made these preparations, Marina never took her attention away from the distance.

There was no moon that night, but the stars still shifted across the sky. The movement of the galaxy reflected in Marina's telescope. Amid the eternal dance of starlight, the horizon remained unchanged.

Everything they could do had been done. Everyone stood behind Marina.

"Maybe it won't come this way." Hitori tried to reassure herself.

No one answered her. It was the first sleepless night of their lives. The night was unbelievably long. Time flowed neither quickly nor slowly, while the sun showed no sign of appearing.

"Maybe it won't come this way." Kita clenched her fists.

No one answered her. The only sound beside their ears was the wind stirred by the flames. That little glow was their only hope before sunrise.

"Maybe it won't come this way!" Nijika prayed devoutly.

The sun was about to rise. The morning star hung at the edge of the sky, and a sliver of dawn had appeared along the eastern horizon.

The pitch-black sky gradually faded to milky white, then to golden yellow.

"The sun is rising!" A ray of gold burst forth, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

After a night of grief and exhaustion, joy appeared on Nijika's face for the first time.

"Well, at least we can rest for a while. But this area isn't safe anymore. We should prepare to relocate over the next couple of days and go find Roselia..." She turned to the others. "Little Shiko, aren't you a Roselia fan?"

As soon as she finished speaking, a piece of rubble rolled off the platform.

Nijika's smile froze. Everyone's eyes focused on the distance, toward the canyon.

Beginning at the mountaintop, a moving black mountain was drawing near.

The black mountain awoke from its slumber. There was an ant beside it, but it paid no attention. Yet the ant injured it, something that had never happened in its infinitely long life. Its shallow consciousness could not determine the reason, but it needed food to repair itself—even an ant would do. It had already devoured some of its kind, but it was not enough. So it walked toward a nearby place that attracted it intensely—a place with many ants.

"It's coming here." Marina quickly reached the conclusion. "Evacuate."

There was no other choice. Shiko looked at the building beneath her feet. This was her first home in this world. She had spent countless bright, shining days here—and CiRCLE meant even more to her than that. This should have been the place where dreams came true. Was it really going to be destroyed here by an earthquake or trampling?

Shiko forced herself not to think about it. One after another, everyone climbed into the basket. Nijika and Marina were still on the ground.

"Miss Marina, Ijichi-senpai, hurry up and get in." Kita reached out to the two of them. Neither moved.

"Hurry." In the distance, the mountainside was about to rise above the horizon.

Nijika lowered her head and silently stepped into the basket. Marina remained completely still.

"Miss Marina?"

"She can't get in." Nijika said this instead.

"What do you mean?"

"Actually, I haven't been able to leave CiRCLE from the very beginning." Marina explained calmly.

Everyone who first entered this world had a [Shine]—that is, a maximum ability limit—of 150. Thus, no one's ability limit could become too outrageous. But Marina's CiRCLE seemed to have no such restriction. It provided a perfect shelter, granted various powerful and rare bonuses regardless of distance, covered increased stats, remote support, damage absorption, and many other functions, and even came with a technology tree. Such power did not come without a price.

CiRCLE used the resources required for their growth as fuel. Shiko had once thought that this price was perfectly fair.

She recalled everything that had happened since arriving at CiRCLE. No matter the circumstances, Marina had never taken even half a step outside CiRCLE—not even when the monsters nearby had fled in all directions and the surroundings were completely safe.

She had thought it was merely Marina being cautious.

But now, no matter how hard everyone tried, Marina's feet seemed to be fused to the ground. She could not lift them even slightly.

"You all go. It may not destroy this place." Of everyone, Marina herself was the calmest.

It was a lie that not even a three-year-old would believe. Yet Marina's expression was so natural that there was not the slightest trace of fear.

Shiko looked toward the distance. The mountain peak was drawing closer and closer. She gritted her teeth, leaped out of the basket, and ran toward the ground over the pile of rubble she had built earlier.

"What are you doing?" Nijika reacted too late and failed to catch her.

"I'm going to draw it away!" Shiko absolutely could not accept leaving anyone behind. Since Miss Niiki had been able to seriously injure the black mountain by sacrificing herself, then if Shiko fought with all her strength, drawing it away should not be a problem!

An invisible wall of sound rose before her, trying to block her path. Water rapidly closed in. She tossed a jade slip over her shoulder. It emitted a blinding flash, temporarily robbing everyone of their sight. The ropes snapped at the same moment, and the hot-air balloon carrying the four members of Kessoku Band began to rise.

The jade slip had originally recorded Nijika's starlight. Shiko had actually concentrated all its power into a single instant and turned it into a flashbang!

By the time the four recovered their vision, the hot-air balloon was already floating in midair.

"Senpai Ryo, push the hot-air balloon that way!" Kita pointed in the direction Shiko was running.

Propelled by sound waves, the hot-air balloon quickly approached Shiko, who only had two legs. Kita controlled the flames, and the balloon gradually descended toward the ground.

When Shiko saw them, she took out another jade slip. Before she could throw it, Hitori reached out to her. "The hot-air balloon is faster. Let's draw it away together."

Shiko paused slightly. Then she gave a self-mocking smile and grabbed Hitori's hand.

The hot-air balloon soon reached a sufficient distance from CiRCLE. They hovered in midair, and the giant peak appeared before them in its entirety. Its condition was terrible. Its whole body was covered in solidified basalt, severed limbs protruded everywhere, and the roads it had walked were stained crimson with blood. Yet it continued advancing toward CiRCLE.

"Want me to fire one?" Kita raised her palm toward the mountain.

"No. Your ultimate skill consumes too much, and you still have to control the hot-air balloon. I'll do it." Shiko took out a scarlet jade slip. She had made it when Kita first released [Dawn of Atonement], and now it was finally coming in handy.

She locked onto the mountainside, then snapped the jade slip in two.

A destruction identical to the previous one descended from the sky, melting the black mountain's newly solidified shell once again. Lava flowed from the mountain's body. That was its blood.

"It worked!" Shiko saw it beginning to change direction, moving toward the hot-air balloon. "Quick! Get higher!"

The similar damage had clearly enraged the black mountain. It abandoned its easy prey and turned toward the tiny flying insects over there. The insects were faster than it had expected. Even at full speed, the distance between them showed no sign of shrinking. Instead, they were moving farther and farther from its former prey.

So it stopped where it was. Layers of basalt shell peeled away, and a massive fragment flew toward the distant hot-air balloon!

"Climb, climb, climb—" The group turned pale with fright. They had not expected that thing to possess a long-range attack! The earlier recording had not shown it simply because it had never had a chance to retaliate!

The hot-air balloon rose at a dangerous speed. The enormous rock barely grazed the bottom of the basket before falling below. Shiko looked back toward the "black mountain." A twisted giant arm stretched out from beneath the former shell. At its root was a massive gray human face, constantly shifting. Both the arm and face were severely burned, but now the giant mouth opened, and an enormous amount of energy began to gather!

It was over. Shiko completely lost hope. Who could have imagined that beneath the rock shell was a human face capable of spitting out a beam of light? The hot-air balloon's evasive ability had limits. They absolutely could not dodge this attack.

But they still had to struggle. Ryo wrapped the hot-air balloon in layers of sound walls. The miracle from the Book of Daniel descended once again, filling the space with starlight. Shiko came back to herself and filled the gaps between the sound walls with solid alloy.

Only Hitori had no way to help. What use was soft water at a moment like this? Normally, water provided everyone with countless conveniences, but now it could not block anything.

No! Hitori refused to think that way!

She strummed her guitar. Water gathered in the air, but that was not enough! It needed to be harder!

As if hearing the desire in her heart, a speck of ice crystal gradually appeared within the water. This was not Shiko's doing. In the depths of despair, Hitori's ability had changed!

Hitori Goto

Ability: [Guitar Hero!] It could be as soft as water, and as strong as ice!

A wall of ice, no less formidable than Shiko's iron barrier, appeared before everyone!

"(I have to block it!)" Hitori exhausted her strength and collapsed to the ground.

At that very moment, a black beam of light shot from the giant mouth and tore the heavens and earth apart. It effortlessly ripped through the invisible sound walls first, and the copper walls and iron barriers behind them could not withstand it for even an instant. The beam did not lose momentum. The ice wall Hitori had raised with all her strength shattered into fragments. Before that black light that devoured space, even flame and starlight were like mayflies trying to shake a tree.

Was it over?

The darkness expanded before them.

At that moment, a phantom of CiRCLE enveloped everyone, and the black light came to a halt.

"Miss Marina!" Shiko saw Marina's phantom standing among them. She did not look at anyone, merely raising her hand. The wind stopped, and the water stilled.

The hot-air balloon shot backward like a bullet. Just before losing consciousness, Shiko seemed to hear Marina sigh.

There was regret in it, but also fulfillment.

The next moment, the basket crashed into the cliff. When the dust cleared, a new cave had appeared in the cliffside. Five people lay inside, and no one was injured.

The five returned to the place where CiRCLE had stood. The black mountain had disappeared without a trace. CiRCLE was gone.

Only ruins remained, along with a corpse buried beneath them.

Chapter Thirty-Three: Aether, Stars

Miss Marina lay quietly on the floor. She had no external injuries, and her eyes were closed, exactly as if she were asleep.

The radiance of the rising sun fell across Miss Marina's face, but she did not open her eyes as she usually did. Surging starlight had been poured into her body, yet she did not react.

The world in Shiko's eyes was blurred. Something had been making a racket in her ears for a long time. After listening for quite a while, she finally understood. Everyone was crying and shouting Miss Marina's name.

She turned her head. Kita was sprawled over Miss Marina, sobbing uncontrollably. Hitori sat collapsed on the ground. Nijika cried as she covered Hitori's eyes. Ryo stood to one side with her head lowered, both hands clenched into fists, her whole body trembling.

Impossible.

How could Miss Marina be dead? It was impossible. This was a girls' band project. How could something like this happen?

So this was a dream. Even if it was a nightmare, wasn't this too cruel?