War

It vanished? How did it leave?

Gripping her sword hilt, Rosaline stared uncertainly in that direction, nearly suspecting that everything had been nothing more than an illusion.

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After scanning her surroundings, she turned and headed toward the Magic Skateboard, having no intention of lingering here any longer.

But at that very instant, an extremely faint movement behind her sent warning bells ringing in her heart. She spun around and raised her blade horizontally. The incoming bone blade slashed viciously against the Alloy Combat Blade, erupting with a piercing metallic crash and a shower of sparks!

Just as expected, its departure had only been a feint! It had actually hidden silently in the shadows beneath the rooftop, taking advantage of its prey's anxious urge to flee to launch a deadly sneak attack!

"Bzzzt—crackle!" The effects of High-Frequency Oscillation and High-Voltage Current activated instantly. Rosaline stepped forward fiercely with the momentum, driving her blade forward in a bold counterattack.

But the attacker had no intention of continuing to exchange blows with the girl. It retreated the instant they made contact, pulling dozens of meters away and hovering beyond the rooftop on two pairs of thin, dragonfly-like wings.

Then it lowered its head and looked at the bone blades on its arms. The grayish-white bone was clearly not as sturdy as the Alloy Combat Blade. After that brief clash, several chips had already been shaken loose.

Yet strangely, its face still bore that contemptuous, malicious smile, as though it did not care about the damage to its bone blades at all.

The next second, under Rosaline's wary gaze, it became a pitch-black afterimage almost impossible to catch with the naked eye. In the blink of an eye, it vanished into the shadows of the ruined high-rises without a trace.

"Twin-Blade Demon..."

At dusk, after learning of this unusual humanoid Mutant from her apprentice's Grayport City exploration report, Ivette set down her teacup. Her fingertips unconsciously brushed over its warm, smooth surface as a slight frown formed between her brows.

Twin-Blade Demon was the name Rosaline had given that humanoid Mutant. Considering its uniqueness, there was no harm in granting it a proper name.

Ivette had long suspected that the survival-of-the-fittest conditions among the Mutants on this island would eventually produce high-level Mutants even she would have to fear. Today, one had finally appeared—though that was also related to how she preferred staying in Ish City and rarely went to neighboring Grayport City or Luya City in the far north. If she had patrolled around the island whenever she had the time, she might have been able to nip the threat in the bud.

What a troublesome creature... she sighed inwardly.

If it had merely been powerful in a direct confrontation, that would have been manageable. But the Twin-Blade Demon was clearly an assassin skilled at hiding and ambushing, and it was so fast. To fragile mages, it posed an enormous threat. Ivette could keep the Scarlet Armor active in a low-mana-consumption state while she slept to guard against sneak attacks, but Rosaline could not.

Fortunately, Rosaline had considered counter-surveillance on her way back. Rather than returning directly, she had traveled through the city sewers, which had become underground rivers and retained a natural ecosystem. Otherwise, if their address had been exposed, an attack in the middle of the night would not have been impossible.

"Teacher, I think that Mutant may possess intelligence close to that of a human. It ambushed me, and it even smiled... It was completely different from anything I'd seen before." Rosaline spoke with deep concern. Whenever she recalled that humanlike smile from the daytime, she felt certain she would have nightmares tonight.

She wondered whether her teacher would allow her to temporarily move into her room to sleep...

"Then we'll classify it separately. A third tier above the evolved type Aberration—we'll call it... an elite type Aberration. Its most obvious trait is possessing relatively high intelligence. It may also be very good at scheming."

Ivette pondered for a while before speaking solemnly. "Tomorrow, you and I will go to Grayport City. We'll see if we can deal with it, then investigate the source of the Tideworm disturbance."

Early the next morning, Ish Island's midsummer remained bright and sunny, with not a cloud in the sky.

But at the thought of the abnormal Mutant activity in Grayport City, both Ivette and Rosaline wore serious expressions when they set out.

Along the way, Ivette also explained some information regarding the Ish Mountains and Luya City.

"Those are the two largest Mutant nests on Ish Island," Ivette said.

"Nests?" Rosaline rolled the word around in her mouth.

"I've never gone inside, so I don't know much," Ivette said, shaking her head as she drove. "But if Mutants really can reproduce and increase their numbers, then the source should be in those two places."

Many years ago, after escaping from the Abyss Base within Crater Lake, Ivette had traveled around the island. Besides collecting uncorrupted books containing important knowledge, her main purpose had been to investigate the island's circumstances, determine whether any human survivors remained, and study the ecological details of its plants, animals, and Mutants.

She discovered that the distribution, intensity, and density of Mutants within the Ish Mountains and in Luya City at the island's northernmost edge far exceeded those in southern Ish City, Grayport City, and the ruins of the towns along the way. Thus, she determined that those two major gathering places were the most dangerous locations on the island. Even without considering anything else, their sheer sea-of-monsters tactics were enough to inspire dread.

The changes now occurring in Grayport City gave her a vague feeling that the Mutant ecosystem on Ish Island was undergoing some subtle transformation. But why it was changing, and what direction that change would take, remained unknown.

Compared with Rosaline's previous exploration experience, Grayport City was far quieter than before today. They encountered very few Mutants along the way, while many wild animals had gained the chance to come out and breathe freely, leaping and darting through the forest-like streets.

A short while later, after driving the hovercar near the harbor district, Ivette followed the route Rosaline had indicated and gradually approached the depths of Grayport City. Then they heard a chaotic clamor coming from the direction of the city center.

They continued forward and, sure enough, saw a vast army of Mutated Tideworms passing through the intersection ahead. Each was over a meter long, and there were several hundred, perhaps even a thousand of them.

But what was particularly strange was that although the Floating Magitech Motorcycle hovered around five meters in the air and should already have entered their aggro range, those Tideworms behaved as though they could not see it. They allowed the two of them to observe from the vehicle while continuing relentlessly toward their destination.

"Teacher, what should we do?" Rosaline was somewhat bewildered. She had already been preparing to use her poorly practiced ranged spells to cover their retreat, yet the Mutants had not reacted at all. It was truly baffling.

"Let's see what their destination is," Ivette said. She maintained a distance of roughly a hundred meters as she followed from the side.

"They won't suddenly attack us, will they?" Rosaline asked nervously.

"I'll handle it," Ivette said calmly.

Hearing her teacher's composed tone, Rosaline immediately felt at ease.

In truth, after acquiring the Alloy Combat Blade and honing her skills for three years, she had already gained considerable individual combat ability. Even in one-on-one sparring matches with her teacher, she could often hold her own. But clearing mobs remained her eternal weakness. The moment she saw a crowd of monsters, her confidence faltered—after all, no matter how powerful the Alloy Combat Blade was, she still had to cut down enemies one at a time. When there were too many monsters, how could she possibly kill them all? She would be overwhelmed within minutes.

A mage like her teacher, who could snap her fingers and clear an entire sea of monsters with equally overwhelming magical bombardment, was the most elegant and orthodox image of a mage that Rosaline admired.

After flying over several city blocks in succession, the hovercar landed atop a skyscraper that had been reduced to its skeletal frame and wrapped in enormous tree roots.

After getting out of the vehicle, the master and apprentice beheld a bizarre tableau of war unfolding below them in the distance.

On the streets, vast numbers of Mutated Tideworms formed an endlessly writhing crimson tide, advancing toward the city center.

At an intersection in the direction of the city center, a ragtag force of several hundred grotesquely shaped Mutants was also letting out earth-shaking roars as they desperately resisted the Tideworm army's assault—rotting worms spewed acid, multi-armed behemoths swept their fists through the air, and multi-headed birds dived and tore at their foes like dark clouds...

Watching this chaotic, bloody, inhuman, terrifying scene, Ivette narrowed her eyes.

Without a doubt, this was a war between Mutants.