The high-rise had been reduced to little more than its foundations. Shattered chunks of concrete littered the area, and flames roared everywhere, while wisps of black smoke rose from every corner.
The explosion had damaged more than just the building. The flames that poured out had set the surrounding area alight as well, leaving the streets in ruins.
The cries of those grateful to have survived, the wails of people who had lost their families, and the vacant stares of the despairing all passed through the transparent glass and reached Shinjoh's heart.
"The cause of the explosion matches the attack pattern from the Kyrieloid's warning exactly. The ones responsible are the Kyrieloids." Hori had already found a lead.
"Captain, the damage is severe. It'll be difficult for just the few of us to carry out rescue operations." Shinjoh reported what he saw at the scene. "Damn it. Those accursed Kyrieloids."
Megumi Iruma replied at once. "I've already contacted the logistics department and the transport units. They're on their way to help."
"It's a shame we didn't catch those few Kyrieloids. If we had, we could've found the rest of them." Frustrated, Shinjoh struck his fist against his palm.
Shinjoh's complaint made Megumi Iruma's eyes light up. "Yazumi, contact the drunkards the Security Bureau arrested right away. Ask if they heard anything."
Yazumi picked up the phone beside him and carried out the order.
He hung up, his expression a little hard to read.
"Captain, the Security Bureau has already received some information."
?
Megumi Iruma had weathered plenty of storms, but even she froze for a moment at Yazumi's words.
Since when had TPC's law enforcement officers become so efficient?
"The drunkards said they'd overheard the name 'Lord Itabashi Mitsuo.' They guessed he was one of the Kyrieloids' leaders."
As Yazumi spoke, his fingers never stopped tapping at the keyboard.
"I used my access privileges to search for that name and compare it with the time of the previous Kyrieloid's death."
"Among the people who died around that time, there's an Itabashi Mitsuo. It should be him." Yazumi's precise search eased the tension in Megumi Iruma's nerves.
"I've sent Itabashi Mitsuo's residence to your PDIs."
"That's our TPC brain for you. You found him in no time."
Megumi Iruma praised Yazumi as if he were a child.
Just then, the automatic doors to GUTS headquarters opened.
"What the hell is going on? You still haven't found the enemy? We have to strike back as soon as possible!" Yoshioka Tetsuji's voice boomed like a barrage of mortars, echoing through GUTS's command room.
The hawkish old man was full of vigor, as if he wanted to tear the Kyrieloids apart with his bare hands.
"We've found the enemy's location and are preparing to launch an operation."
Yoshioka Tetsuji suddenly froze with his folding fan in hand, his body leaning back in disbelief.
Had he come in the wrong way? Or did this woman have some new idea today?
Since when had Megumi Iruma, who always leaned toward the doves, made such a decisive call to attack?
Megumi Iruma ignored Yoshioka Tetsuji, who seemed almost dumbstruck, and immediately issued her orders.
"GUTS will abandon all rescue work in the K1 District and head to the location shown on these PDIs as quickly as possible to evacuate the area."
"We have to get there before he launches a third attack." Her resolute words were met with a firm reply.
"Leave all the evacuations to my Security Bureau. You just get ready to fight." A faint smile appeared on Yoshioka Tetsuji's face, and he left GUTS headquarters even faster than he had arrived.
Yazumi looked at Megumi Iruma, puzzled.
"It's nothing. Director Yoshioka has always had that bad habit," Megumi Iruma explained kindly.
For a young genius like Yazumi, there was no need for him to learn about TPC's internal squabbles just yet.
Elsewhere, as Daigo drove the DeLaM Car, an unfamiliar voice suddenly sounded in his mind.
"Tiga, you want to become humanity's guardian deity, don't you?"
Daigo furrowed his brow, slowed the DeLaM Car, and quickly looked around. Then he called out, "Who are you? Where are you?"
Cars passed the DeLaM Car, and people walked along the streets as they always did. Daigo couldn't find the one speaking to him telepathically.
Itabashi Mitsuo watched Daigo's clumsy reaction and laughed to himself.
"That's a pretty funny reaction. As a reward for making me laugh, let's have our battle at my residence."
"That'll be where I avenge my people."
No matter how Daigo called out, Itabashi Mitsuo's voice did not return.
A trace of worry crept into Daigo's heart. He slowed the DeLaM Car even more, trying to buy the crowd time to evacuate.
"Hey, Daigo, what's going on? The crowd's finished evacuating, and you still haven't reached the designated location!" Shinjoh's irritated voice suddenly sounded through his helmet. Daigo immediately floored the accelerator. "I'll be there in a second."
The DeLaM Car reached the kind of speed it had once needed for emergency rescue missions with the transport units—drifting, drifting, and drifting again!
The instant Daigo arrived at the designated area, crimson flames suddenly surged up from the ground. A claw like a demon's ripped through the flames surrounding him.
Black and gray skin, streamlined muscles piled atop one another, and a crimson core exposed on the body's surface, pulsing like a heart—it was the Kyrieloid.
Daigo took out the Spark Lens without hesitation and transformed into Tiga in a flash of light.
"Hmph, Tiga." The Kyrieloid did not attack right away. Instead, it spoke as if they were having a casual conversation. "Before you appeared, humanity on this planet had been waiting for our Kyrieloid leadership—"
A crimson beam, redder than the setting sun, suddenly blazed into view, cutting off the Kyrieloid's blathering.
A majestic figure plunged down from the sky. The earth welcomed his arrival with a burst of sand and stone that leaped dozens of meters into the air.
The seventy-meter-tall giant folded his arms and looked at the Kyrieloid with eyes that seemed "kind and gentle."
"When you say leadership, do you mean the kind that saw Tiga thirty million years ago and ran away? Or the kind that saw that other being and retreated to another world?"
Jostar showed the Kyrieloid no mercy. He exposed its shameful past and even offered it a warm greeting.
"And your proof that you can rule Earth? What a small-minded ambition, you idiot."
You blow up just one building and think you've proved you can rule Earth? You must've been kicked in the head by a donkey.
The Kyrieloid felt as if its lungs were about to burst. Its crimson core began beating much faster.
"Then I'll take both of you out today!" Its sharp claws suddenly spread wide.
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