Nidhogg Returns from the Abyss, Laden with Corpses

The hand gripping the sword had gone numb.

The Altered User's viscous blood mingled with the torrential rain, seeping through her numb fingers and slowly sliding down.

The situation on the western front... was far worse than on the eastern front, where Tsukuyomi Fuyu was stationed.

Yarai Kenha had once been merely a Fourth Sequence Altered User.

Although she had long since advanced to the Fifth Sequence under Su Youzi's nourishing check-in rewards... she was still only a Fifth Sequence. Against a Sixth Sequence Altered User--

She was simply too weak.

Relying on the talent Machinery Expert and the great number of Conceptual Weapons provided by Manifest Manufacturing, Yarai Kenha could barely hold back her opponent's advance.

But--

Every charge from her opponent sent a spray of blood rising along the Empire's Assault Force's battle line.

And facing a monster like that--

All Yarai Kenha could do was remain silent.

What was more... her opponent was not alone.

She had an army at her back.

In the pouring rain, pairs of dark-golden vertical pupils blazed like torches, coldly watching the destruction and death of the Assault Operations Unit.

"Nanami..."

"Captain..."

"Is that Nanami?" Behind Yarai Kenha, the girl who trembled as she hugged her rifle, yet had remained by Yarai Kenha's side all this time, finally seemed unable to hold on any longer.

The girl could not withstand such immense mental pressure. Her will collapsed along with it.

Aoki Nanami--

Their former teammate.

And Yarai Kenha's most important deputy.

During an operation, she had accidentally fallen into the abyss and instantly degenerated into an Altered User.

In the end... Yarai Kenha had slain her with her own hands.

At the time, Yarai Kenha had tried to persuade her, hoping she could pull Aoki Nanami back from the abyss. So what