"That Giant Mudfish was pretty cunning. After I scared it off just now, it never showed itself again. I can only sense that it's still nearby. It must be waiting for an opportunity!" Kanna had been on Terra for some time now, but this was the first time she had encountered such a troublesome opponent. Never having faced anything like this before, irritation rose within her. Her usual round blue pupils narrowed into vertical slits.
Purple lightning swirled through those blue eyes, and an ancient, vast, desolate aura spread from Kanna's body.
Sensing that aura, the smaller mudfish following behind seemed to have slammed into an invisible wall and stopped where they were. Only that enormous figure, after trembling for a moment, still chose to continue following the convoy.
Inside the vehicle, ACE suddenly felt a chill run through his entire body. An immense pressure descended from above. Looking out the window, for one instant, he seemed to see a gigantic eye staring coldly and lifelessly at everything inside the vehicle. The next second, the crashing rain woke him. Outside, there was still only the torrential downpour, so heavy that the road was nearly impossible to see.
Without the protection of those little mudfish, the gigantic figure finally entered Kanna's line of sight.
Seeing the big creature still refusing to give up the chase, Kanna waved a hand and sent two Lightning Wedges flying, one to either side, blocking its path. As the mudfish instinctively twisted its body, trying to dodge the incoming wedges, the Lightning Wedge beside it suddenly became Kanna. Before it could react, Kanna kicked off a nearby rock and slammed straight into its head.
Kanna's body was now covered in electric currents. In the rain, the electricity rapidly spread in every direction, instantly enveloping the monster completely.
"Take this, my Great Electrifier!" Grabbing its head with both hands, Kanna generated intense lightning around herself. In an instant, the surging current within dozens of meters completely evaporated the rain pouring down like a waterfall.
Even from several hundred meters away, through the storm, everyone in the convoy could hear the massive thunderclap clearly.
At that moment, ACE noticed that the Lightning Wedge which had remained inside the vehicle had disappeared at some point.
The moment he could no longer find the Lightning Wedge, dizziness overwhelmed him, and all strength suddenly left his body.
Provence in the front seat noticed that something was wrong with ACE behind her. "What's wrong? You don't look so good."
"Nothing. Keep going!" Though he wanted to turn back and see what had happened, they were still in the middle of a Catastrophe. Any hesitation or stop would be irresponsible toward the entire convoy.
After saying that, ACE picked up the radio. "ACE calling Kanna, please respond. ACE calling Kanna, please respond. ACE calling Kanna, please respond..."
His repeated calls were met only with silence. Provence's face also turned pale, because she had guessed why ACE's expression had changed so drastically.
"We—"
"Keep going..." Before Provence could finish, ACE gritted out the words. At that moment, he had never hated his own powerlessness more.
If he had to choose again, he would rather fight alongside Kanna in a situation like this. Even if he died in battle, he would never choose to hide inside this vehicle like a coward.
Just as silence settled over the vehicle and the air seemed ready to freeze, a sudden thumping sound came from outside.
ACE looked up and saw Kanna hanging outside, her face covered in rainwater, waiting for him to open the door.
At that moment, ACE felt as if he had seen an angel. He hurriedly opened the door, then hugged Kanna without caring in the slightest that she was practically soaked through.
"Hey! Uncle ACE, you're squeezing too hard..." Kanna was still wondering what illness had struck ACE. She herself was uncomfortable being drenched like this, yet he was hugging her so tightly. Could honest, dependable Uncle ACE actually be a lolicon?
"It's good that you're okay. It's good that you're okay..." ACE, who usually presented a calm and reserved image, rarely lost control like this. There was even a faint sob in his voice.
"Wait, Uncle, you didn't think I couldn't even beat one Giant Mudfish, did you?" Seeing Provence in front with both hands over her face, tears streaming down, Kanna finally understood. They had thought she was dead.
Earlier, after that round of lightning, Kanna had electrocuted the Giant Mudfish until it was six-tenths cooked. It had more air going in than coming out. Even if she did nothing else, it looked like it would not live much longer.
Kanna jumped down to the ground and used the rainwater to rinse away the dead skin burned onto her hands from touching it. She shook her head.
Honestly, if the creature had stopped chasing them, she would not have attacked it. All things had spirits, and something that had grown this large clearly could not have appeared under normal circumstances. If it had not been for protecting the convoy, Kanna would not have wanted to kill it. Of course, the bigger reason was that it looked too disgusting. If she did not have to, Kanna did not even want to touch it.
Perhaps, like Pompeii, it was a rare super-mutant born from Originium.
Unfortunately, it had failed to recognize its place. Otherwise, if it had lived another few hundred years, perhaps it really could have developed intelligence, like the Great Beasts that had once existed across Terra and left behind their own legends.
Only after observing it for a while and confirming that it was thoroughly dead did Kanna leave. After she departed, the little mudfish that had failed to keep up swarmed over and quickly devoured the massive corpse clean.
On the way back, Kanna had intended to use Lightning Wedges to teleport to the convoy, only to realize that she had used them all during the battle. The final one she had transformed into had not been on the vehicle when she switched forms, since she had been in midair at the time, so the vehicle had not carried it away.
She wanted to use the communicator to tell ACE that the danger was over, but she discovered that her previous attack had probably been too powerful. The communicator had not held up. Aside from its outer shell, none of its functions worked anymore.
With no other choice, she had to flap her little short legs and chase after the convoy in the direction it had gone.
Fortunately, the convoy was not moving very fast in the heavy rain. After chasing it for just over a kilometer, she successfully caught up.
These off-road vehicles accounted for the possibility of scavengers hijacking them in the wilderness, so their doors could only be opened from inside while they were moving. Kanna could not open the door from outside, so she had to knock and have ACE let her in, leading to the scene from earlier.
After hearing Kanna's account, ACE stroked her head. "Don't be so reckless again."
Kanna nodded.
"I know. It was just that there were too many mudfish at the time. If we stopped, it would have been easy to suffer losses. Didn't I have Lightning Wedges? I figured that if I couldn't beat them, I could still run away. That was better than having a whole group of people wait there to die in the Catastrophe. Besides, that mudfish couldn't beat me at all. It was only hiding behind the little mudfish, so I couldn't see it. See? The moment it showed itself, I took care of it."
As Kanna stood with her hands on her hips and spoke proudly, ACE noticed that she seemed somewhat different from before. When he saw her eyes, the freezing sensation from not long ago instantly surged back into his heart.
"Kanna, your eyes..."
"My eyes? What happened to my eyes?" Kanna touched her head in confusion.
She turned toward the window, using the dark weather outside as a mirror, and noticed the condition of her eyes as well.
"Ah! How did this happen? My eyes... They aren't pretty like this!" Seeing that her pupils had become vertical slits like a snake's, Kanna covered her face.
"How about you get some rest, Kanna? As far as I know, some races on Terra undergo drastic changes similar to Ancestral Regression after receiving stimulation. But for most people, those changes slowly disappear once they calm down," Provence suggested from the front.
"Okay! Kanna will sleep first. I hope my eyes are back to normal when I wake up tomorrow." After hearing that, Kanna hurriedly closed her eyes. Without caring that her entire body was still damp, she shut her eyes and prepared to sleep.
But it was clearly impossible to sleep while completely soaked, and the vehicle was not particularly spacious either. She could not guarantee that using electricity to generate heat and evaporate the water would not hurt the people beside her.
Fortunately, nothing else happened along the way, and the convoy soon drove out of the Catastrophe's range.
After leaving the rainstorm zone, Kanna shot outside the moment ACE nodded.
After a burst of crackling in front of everyone, Kanna returned looking refreshed and dry.
Just as the convoy was preparing to leave, two heads poked out from nearby.
Seeing the two Casters suddenly appear in the distance, the Operators responsible for security immediately became tense.
Fortunately, Provence noticed them. She walked over and brought the two into the convoy.
"Whew! Good thing you two didn't go in. It was really too dangerous in there. If something had happened to you inside, I would've committed a huge sin." Provence looked extremely happy when she saw them and brought them over to ACE.
"Let me introduce you. This is Mr. ACE, the rescue specialist I invited from Rhodes Island, along with his team. These are fellow Catastrophe Messengers, Reinhardt and his partner Ayers. Didn't I tell you that before going to Rhodes Island, I informed other Catastrophe Messengers about this? I was talking about these two."
The two sides briefly shook hands. Reinhardt surveyed the convoy and relaxed after discovering that it contained not only young adults, but also many elderly people, women, and children.
"After you told me the news, Ayers and I hurried here. But that rain was too terrifying. We tried several times and couldn't get through. When your convoy passed by earlier, Ayers spotted it. We guessed that once you rescued the people, you would definitely return by the same route, so we waited here." Though both of them looked young, the blond Reinhardt was clearly the leader. He calmly explained their earlier actions to Provence.
"Yeah! That rainstorm was too terrifying. Without professional equipment, it was impossible to move around inside, and there were other living creatures within the Catastrophe."
"What? There were other living creatures inside the Catastrophe? That's a major subject of study. Did you see them with your own eyes? What did they look like?" Although Reinhardt specialized in minerals and explosive engineering, he was interested in everything within Catastrophes—especially creatures that could survive and even move freely within one. His ears immediately perked up.
"Uh... to be fair, visibility was too poor, and we were in a hurry to break through, so I didn't see them clearly. The only person who got a clear look and actually made contact was that little girl..." Provence was somewhat embarrassed by Reinhardt's question.
The environment had been too oppressive at the time. Even though they had rushed out of the encirclement and run over several mudfish corpses, no one had been in the mood to observe them. Looking back now, Provence could only recall their rough shapes.
Reinhardt followed the direction Provence pointed and saw a little girl lying sprawled over the back seat, sleeping soundly. "Her?"
Seeing Reinhardt's disbelieving expression, Provence nodded helplessly. "Though I don't want to admit it, that little girl's strength exceeds my understanding. Put simply, she was the only person who could move outside the vehicle in that environment without any protective measures. I saw it with my own eyes, so there's no doubt about it."
Although the expressions on Reinhardt and Ayers's faces were full of disbelief, that was the truth. Of course, if she had not witnessed it herself, she probably would have made the same expression if someone else had told her such a thing.
As they talked, the rescued villagers gradually got out of the vehicles as well.
Looking at the dark Catastrophe behind them, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief. Yet when they thought of their destroyed homes, many could not help crying.
"I'm going to send the situation here to the organization through the network. Being able to rescue everyone from an entire village this time counts as completing a perfect Crisis Contract. And that Kanna, in my view, is a genius capable of challenging high-difficulty Crisis Contracts on her own." Provence looked around. The Catastrophe was slowly moving away, and the most dangerous stage had already passed. All that remained was to take the villagers somewhere nearby, or to Rhodes Island, for medical examinations. Then this mission could be considered a complete success.
With that in mind, Provence found the villagers and had them elect a spokesperson. After hearing Provence's explanation, the spokesperson went back to discuss it with the others.
In the end, one-third of the villagers decided to follow the convoy to Rhodes Island, while the remaining two-thirds, led by the spokesperson, headed to the nearest town.
They were furious over the village chief's betrayal, so they intended to report him to the authorities—report the village chief who had abandoned his territory and people.
Neither the Catastrophe Messengers nor the Rhodes Island group intended to dissuade them. After all, their village chief had indeed behaved terribly. If they all reported him together and he did not have some powerful backing, even if he avoided death, he would be severely punished.
After all, every nation on Terra imposed extremely harsh penalties on officials who abandoned their territories and citizens.
On this land, it was already very difficult for a village to form and continue peacefully. If every lord ran away alone whenever trouble arose, the nation's prestige would vanish completely. Soldiers, food, taxes, and all the things that depended on these grassroots communities would collapse because of that distrust.
So they were not worried about the villagers reporting the village chief.
As ACE took in the remaining people, he discovered that most of them were elderly, children, or Infected. The first group lacked the stamina to keep up with the main party; even if they wanted to go, they simply could not.
The latter group had probably learned from certain Operators along the way that Rhodes Island was an organization primarily focused on treating the Infected. They realized that they might previously have escaped notice because they were in the village, but once they left, if they were discovered to be Infected, at best they would be refused entry to towns; at worst, they would be beaten to death or sent into forced labor.
Compared to that, going to Rhodes Island was practically like going to heaven.
Naturally, ACE had expected this situation. An organization that treated the Infected would obviously have many Infected within it, so ordinary people who had been indoctrinated by the relationship between the Infected and non-Infected would naturally be unwilling to go there.
Those who chose to go were all elderly, weak, sick, or disabled people with no other choice. And many of them would choose to leave Rhodes Island once they were capable of surviving on their own.
That was the bloody reality of conflict on this land. These villagers had only just been rescued by Rhodes Island, so the relationship between the two sides still seemed relatively harmonious. Under normal circumstances, once they learned it was an organization for the Infected, they might not even allow Rhodes Island personnel through the village gates.
Just as ACE's group was preparing to leave, Reinhardt suggested traveling with them.
ACE naturally welcomed the Catastrophe Messengers joining them. He arranged for them to ride in the two vehicles behind, while Provence wanted to exchange information with Reinhardt, a fellow Catastrophe Messenger, so she went to the back as well.
With no one disturbing her in the front vehicle, Kanna happily got some sleep.
By the time she woke up, the convoy had been traveling for nearly an entire day.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself lying in the arms of a Medical Operator traveling with the group.
Seeing Kanna wake up, the young woman looked very happy and took out a piece of jerky she had prepared beforehand.
Kanna's nose twitched at the scent of the jerky. Like a fish that had smelled bait, her body jerked, and she dangled from the young woman's hand like a fish that had been hooked.
"Ah!" The Medical Operator had never encountered anything like this before and was startled.
But after recovering, she could not help laughing at Kanna dangling like a salted fish. Fortunately, the young woman's arms were strong, and Kanna was light, so she barely managed to hold her up.
Once she fully woke up, Kanna shook her head, snatched the jerky from the young woman's hand, and devoured it in just a few bites. Before she could search for more jerky, she was carried back to her seat.
Hearing the commotion, ACE turned around from the front and unconsciously smiled when he saw Kanna's unsatisfied expression.
"You're awake. We should be back at Rhodes Island around noon tomorrow. Weren't you looking forward to watching the baseball game? As far as I know, the game is the day after tomorrow. Once we get home, you can rest happily for a day, then watch the match the next day. But speaking of which, which team do you support?"
"Kanna doesn't understand baseball, but she promised Shelter that she would watch her game. Kanna can't break her promise." When it came to baseball, Kanna understood absolutely nothing. But that did not stop her from watching a match. She could not tell a hit from a home run, and she did not even understand what first, second, and third base were for, but that did not stop her from enjoying the spectacle.
Besides, if she refused to watch because she did not understand it, would she not remain ignorant forever? Even if she could not understand the game, she could still watch the people, right? Since Turtle was so cute, even if Kanna had no interest in baseball at all, it would not stop her from watching a game.
"That's true. There are quite a few competitions at Rhodes Island, most organized by the Operators themselves. For example, I've won third place in the rolling-chair competition for several years in a row." ACE spoke with a proud expression.
"I know about that. LOGOS is the champion. You requisitioned so many corridors in Zone B for that competition, and I heard Kal'tsit fined you for it."
Rhodes Island's rolling-chair competition was famous far and wide. In other contests, winners received prizes. Only in this competition were the top three fined by Kal'tsit every single time—the reason, naturally, being obstruction of traffic.
Yet the Operators were unimaginably passionate about the sport. Even though they were fined, they insisted on holding it. Of course, official Rhodes Island events had to be approved, and the rolling-chair competition obviously could not get past Kal'tsit. Every time, the little donkey secretly approved it for them.
Kal'tsit knew about that too, but turned a blind eye. Whether on field operations or internally, the Operators constantly accumulated stress in their daily work. If these activities could help them release it, that was naturally for the best. And it brought in some extra money as well, so why not?
When Kanna mentioned that someone else was the champion, ACE was displeased. His face flushed as he muttered things like, "LOGOS cheated..." "I wasn't in good form that day..." "The chair I chose was poor quality, the bottom was too rough to slide..." Everyone burst into laughter, and the vehicle was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
When the convoy stopped to rest, Reinhardt deliberately came over. Though Provence's account of what happened in the Catastrophe sounded fantastical, as a fellow Catastrophe Messenger, he believed she would not lie to him. After all, the protagonist of that experience was right here. Even if Provence embellished it extravagantly, would a little probing not expose the truth immediately?
Kanna did not resent Reinhardt's arrival or see his actions as a sign that he distrusted her.
After all, based on her appearance alone, she did not look like the sort of "great hero" who could save an entire fully armed convoy.
So she did not mind showing off a little.
After ACE agreed, everyone watched Kanna casually throw a Lightning Wedge to each side. The next second, Kanna appeared at the Lightning Wedge on the left and threw another Lightning Wedge toward the position on the right. Just as the two wedges were about to collide, Kanna suddenly switched places with the wedge she had just thrown and appeared on the right.
The Lightning Wedge that appeared on the left flew through the convoy and toward the right again. On the way, to avoid colliding with the wedge that had been moved into the middle when she switched places, she thoughtfully recalled it. The wedge then collided with the new Lightning Wedge in Kanna's hand.
In an instant, a massive thunderstorm descended from the sky, and the entire convoy shook. The villagers and children, who had no idea what was happening, were so frightened that they all hid inside the vehicles and did not dare come out.
Reinhardt and Ayers, as Casters, felt it even more deeply. With their sensitive hearing, they nearly believed they had gone deaf in that instant. It took them a long while before they recovered from the shock of the thunderstorm.
Now, as they looked at the Little Dragon Person crouching beside the campfire and drooling over a whole roasted lamb, they no longer retained their previous calmness.
After all, if she had previously been an adorable little Vayvan girl, then now she was an adorable little Vayvan girl holding an Originium bomb.
It was as if they heard a voice by their ears, a young girl's voice. "Originium bombs for sale! Fresh Originium bombs..."
The two exchanged glances, as though each saw the same image in the other's eyes. They shuddered, then obediently retreated to the back.
Kanna was also very happy. Although ACE criticized her on the surface, saying she had made too much noise and could easily attract the attention of people with ill intentions nearby, he was actually quite pleased.
After that single strike of lightning, he believed that even if anyone in the convoy harbored other thoughts, they would have to obediently suppress them. As for the surrounding area, it was deserted. Even if someone saw what had happened here, they definitely would not dare approach.
Kanna was happy too, because her eyes had changed back... Those vertical pupils had looked pretty cool, but they also gave people a faint sense of fear. They did not really suit Kanna's preferred laid-back lifestyle.
Before you continue