Sure enough, a violin lay quietly inside the box.
Kanna unceremoniously took out the violin and walked over to Dona. "Dona, Dona, can you play the violin?"
Kanna's voice jolted Dona out of her daze. She looked at the violin in Kanna's hands in surprise. She recognized it—it was Lucy's favorite instrument, one she normally never had the chance to touch.
Then she thought about how she did not have long to live anyway, so there was no need to care about other people's feelings. She reached out and took the violin from Kanna. "A little, but I'm not very good."
As she spoke, a somewhat halting melody began to play inside the room. Outside, Kal'tsit heard the violin and slightly opened her narrowed eyes.
Downstairs, those people heard the music drifting from above as well. They could not help sneering. They still had the mood to play the violin? Soon enough, they would not even have a place to cry.
To avoid alerting Kal'tsit, who stood outside, the ten people split into two groups and came up the staircases on either side at the same time. Once they reached the second floor, they stopped, then headed beneath the room where Dona was.
Kal'tsit was somewhat puzzled when she heard them enter and head straight up to the second floor. If they were here to cause trouble for Dona, why had they stopped there?
She looked down through the stairwell and found that they had no intention of going up to the third floor at all.
She had found it strange at first, but then her expression turned ice-cold. Their target had to be Dona. Since they had chosen not to go up to the third floor, they must have had another plan—to launch an attack directly on Dona's room from below.
She turned toward Dona's room just as a tremendous crash erupted from within. She immediately rushed over with mon3tr. When she entered, she found the room empty, with only a glaringly broken hole in the floor.
She walked to the hole, crouched down, and touched its damp edges. Kal'tsit guessed that Kanna and Dona had encountered the same thing she had earlier.
She left the room. At that moment, Ilena heard the noise and hurried over from the main entrance, meeting Kal'tsit at the doorway.
"What happened?" Ilena looked through the door and found the room empty except for the large hole.
"It should be the same as what happened to me during the day. They were pulled somewhere else by a spell. With Kanna there, there's no need to worry. She'll deal with any danger. What matters now is preventing any more trouble in the church."
At that moment, an opening had appeared in the church as well. Some people had heard the commotion and wanted to come over and take a look.
With that in mind, the two did not linger and headed for the church.
After she began playing the violin, Dona visibly relaxed.
Kanna had been about to praise her when she suddenly felt a disturbance beneath her feet. She pulled Dona behind her, shielding her with one hand while grabbing the weapon case that had been sitting nearby with the other. A gust of sea wind blew in through the hole.
The next second, the two vanished from the room, and then the door was thrown open as Kal'tsit charged inside.
Before they even landed, the surroundings abruptly changed. They had gone from a spacious, brightly lit bedroom to a dark, damp limestone cavern.
When Dona saw where they were, her entire body began trembling uncontrollably. This was where her nightmare had begun.
Feeling the body behind her shaking nonstop in fear, Kanna picked up the violin that had fallen nearby and held it out to Dona.
"If you don't know what to do, just play the violin. If you're still scared, close your eyes and play."
Dona's eyes widened at Kanna's words. She could not understand how fearless this girl was. They had clearly both reached a dead end, yet Kanna still had the mood to tell her to play the violin.
Kanna surveyed their surroundings. This was a small hollow surrounded by rock, with a single entrance some distance away.
At that moment, a constant rustling came from the entrance. Kanna ruthlessly hurled the box in her hands toward it.
With a splatter of fluid, the noise stopped. The people and monsters outside had never expected the people inside to be so fierce. Before they had even seen anyone, a massive wooden box slammed into the ground at the entrance, crushing several Frenzied Ones into pulp.
Deep-Sea Seafood Buffet
The situation outside did not allow Kanna any more time to help Dona mentally prepare.
She kicked off with both legs and shot to the entrance. With one punch, she shattered the already half-broken wooden box, then pulled the greatsword from inside.
Kanna's savage movements stunned the Sea Creatures outside. The next second, they recovered and answered her actions with piercing shrieks. Then hundreds of Sea Creatures of all kinds charged toward the cave where Kanna and Dona were.
Kanna swung her greatsword as countless currents poured from her body and coiled around her. The next second, red and blue light shone from the blade.
"Say, Sister Dona, could you play a violin piece to get me fired up?" As she spoke, Kanna swung her greatsword and effortlessly sliced apart the Sea Creatures charging at her.
She grabbed half of a Flower Madman—the remaining upper half of one that had been cut in two, still twitching atop the greatsword—and casually dragged it along the red edge of the blade. The entire Flower Madman convulsed even more violently.
Under the terrified gazes of the nearby Sea Creatures, especially the Abyssal Cultists hiding in the darkness, Kanna swallowed the half-roasted Flower Madman in one bite.
"Tsk! It doesn't taste good roasted. The fishy smell is a little too strong. How about trying sashimi?" Casually cutting a Frenzied One that tried to slip into the cave from the side into two, Kanna looked at the Sea Creatures in the cave. Her eyes turned vertical once more.
"I'm very sorry, but I have some bad news for you. The only creatures not currently on my menu are humans, and you... aren't human!"
Broken violin music drifted from the cave. It was even worse than before, but to Kanna's ears, it sounded exceptionally pleasant.
"Good. A fancy seafood buffet needs some music to taste right!" Kanna twisted her hands, and the greatsword split into two longswords, one blue and one red, appearing before everyone.
"Now it's time to eat!"
Before her words had even faded, Kanna kicked off with both legs and shot from one end of the cave to the other. The two differently colored weapons drew beautiful trails of light through the darkness.
Every Sea Creature touched by those trails was split in two the next second.
Before they could react, Kanna had already rushed back to the cave entrance, grabbing a budding Flower Madman along the way.
Ignoring the Flower Madman's constant trembling in her hand, she opened her mouth wide and, with an "Awoo!" bit off its entire head.
"Ptooey, ptooey! Sashimi tastes even worse than roasted!" Kanna tossed the remaining torso in her hand to the ground with a look of disgust, then raised her eyes and began observing her surroundings again.
By then, even the Sea Creatures had been frightened into retreating again and again by Kanna's brutality. When fighting those Abyssal Hunters, even if they were minced to pieces, they were at least the predators.
But before this land-dwelling hatchling, they had become prey before they could even react.
Once they realized their roles had changed, the Sea Creatures began looking for a way to retreat. They were not afraid of death, but dying meaninglessly while making their opponent stronger was not part of the plan.
However, Kanna had no intention of letting them leave. You invited me into your home, then told me there was nothing to eat? How could that possibly satisfy Kanna?
Ten minutes later, Kanna sat by the cave entrance, surrounded by a dense ring of Sea Creature corpses. The people who had brought them here had been caught by Kanna and tossed aside.
Kal'tsit had said earlier that as long as none of the other side's people died, the spell would not end. Kanna was happily using Passion of Fire as a grill and enjoying her seafood buffet. How could she leave so simply?
The cavern became a nightmare for the Sea Creatures. More and more of them charged in through other passages, only to be instantly killed before they could pass on any information.
To the Sea Creatures, this cavern had become a black hole that allowed entry but no exit.
After sending Sea Creatures in several times without a single one returning, a jellyfish floated over with its brood.
Because Kanna had remained at the entrance the entire time, and because Dona could hear the dying wails of the Sea Creatures clearly, her fear gradually faded.
To her, that small figure standing at the entrance now looked like a towering giant, giving her an incomparable sense of security.
Just as she was about to ask what they should do next, Kanna, who had just eaten a freshly roasted Curious Egg at the entrance, looked toward a passage. The sensation coming from it told her that something big was coming.
"Dona, stay inside. Don't come out no matter what!" Raising her weapons, Kanna crouched low like a drawn bow, ready to burst forward at any moment.
Dona was about to speak when she suddenly realized that she could not make any sound at all. Only mysterious whispers swirled around her ears.
Great Silence. A term every Iberian had heard of, one the younger generation called a legend, surfaced in Dona's mind.
She drew her bow across the violin strings, but there was still no sound, as if she had gone deaf.
Terrified, she was about to go out when she suddenly remembered what Kanna had just said. She could not help hesitating.
Outside, Kanna had already collided with the "jellyfish."
The red and blue twin blades slashed mercilessly against the jellyfish's surface, which resembled a galaxy spread across the sky. Feeling pain, the "jellyfish" fiercely counterattacked Kanna.
But despite its enormous body, its reactions could not keep up with Kanna, who was going all out.
Even without Lightning Wedge, Kanna's full-speed burst was nearly instantaneous.
Amid a series of sonic booms muffled by the "jellyfish," Kanna cut it into dozens of pieces in less than ten seconds. From beginning to end, it did not even have time to say a single proper word.
"This thing looks pretty, but I wonder how it tastes!"
After the "jellyfish" died, the Sea Creatures that had followed it did not escape Kanna's slaughter either. Once she confirmed there were no enemies left, Kanna walked to the pile of "jellyfish" corpses and rubbed her chin in thought.
Inside the cave, Dona found that sound had returned to her ears and poked her head out.
Sensing Dona's gaze, Kanna looked over. When she saw it was Dona, she immediately jumped over to her.
"Wait a little longer. I'm fishing here for a while. Look! I just caught a big one. Too bad you can't eat this thing, so I can only enjoy it myself. Don't tell Kal'tsit I'm stingy when we get back, okay?"
Though Dona did not understand what Kanna meant by fishing, the Sea Creature corpses all over the ground showed that Kanna was a predator far stronger and more terrifying than the Sea Creatures.
The Enemy's Counterattack
Sitting on the ground, Kanna cut off a piece of the "jellyfish" and tossed it into her mouth... It was slick and springy like jelly, making her eyes light up.
As the twin swords in her hands rose and fell again and again, Kanna ate the entire jellyfish under Dona's astonished gaze.
"It's fine to eat something after getting tired from fighting, right? Besides, these things aren't human. Don't tell me you're a vegetarian!"
Seeing Dona's expression, Kanna casually wiped the fluid from the corner of her lips with her sleeve. Only after letting out a satisfied burp did she speak.
Come to think of it, this jellyfish was worthy of being a high-ranking Sea Creature. Because of the consecutive missions, Kanna had only had about half her energy left, but after today's battle, she had recovered to ninety percent. This jellyfish alone had provided more than half of that energy.
The two waited another ten or so minutes. When no more Sea Creatures emerged from the cave entrance, Kanna shook her head regretfully.
"Looks like there are no more fish. Let's go back!"
Dona nodded at Kanna's words and quietly sat beside her.
Kanna stood up, flicked several stones into the air, and used the reassembled greatsword in her hand like a badminton racket. She sent each stone flying with a sharp smack, and the final destination of those "stone shuttlecocks" was the heads of the Abyssal Cultists who had been knocked unconscious.
As ten red-and-white flowers bloomed in the frigid cavern, Kanna and Dona vanished from within it.
Nearly half an hour later, new Sea Creatures finally crept inside furtively.
By then, there was nothing left inside but scraps from a meal.
In the blink of an eye, the two found themselves back in the room. The huge hole before them revealed the source of the attack they had suffered.
At that moment, noisy voices came from the church. Kanna and Dona stepped outside and found the people inside desperately rushing out while piercing shrieks echoed from within.
It was mon3tr. Kanna looked toward the monastery in surprise.
Kal'tsit had actually released it in front of so many people. Kanna did not dare imagine what the situation in the monastery must be like.
No wonder those ordinary people looked as though they had seen a ghost and were fleeing for their lives.
While Kanna was enjoying her seafood buffet,
Ilena and Kal'tsit entered the church. It was a mess inside. The commotion from the dormitory had been considerable, and the two locations were not far apart. Since there had been no other source of noise in the middle of the night, everyone inside wanted to know what had happened.
"Among those who went out earlier were Abyssal Church infiltrators. They ambushed Dona's room, but there is no need for concern. Dona is safe, and tomorrow, a Grand Inquisitor will arrive with reinforcements. Everyone only needs to wait patiently for one night!"
Ilena spoke to reassure the tense crowd.
"So whatever you say goes? Everyone was living perfectly well before you came, but after you arrived, people kept dying. You suspect this person and that person! I suspect you're from that Abyssal Church or whatever! Did you trap us here because you want to use us as sacrifices? Those people who died must have discovered your conspiracy and been killed for it!"
An agitated voice suddenly rang out from the crowd. Everyone turned toward it and found that it came from an attendant who often served at Father Green's side.
Before he could continue his impassioned speech, Ilena drew a firearm from her waist. Under the crowd's horrified gazes, a bang rang out, and the attendant's head exploded.
The Abyssal Church followers, who had been somewhat anxious after hearing that a Grand Inquisitor would arrive with reinforcements tomorrow, were dumbfounded.
They had been planning to stir up the ordinary people and force the others out of the monastery. They had never expected Ilena to act with such ruthless disregard for reason.
"I don't want to say this twice! Everyone will obediently stay here. If you have any complaints, you may report me to the Grand Inquisitor when he arrives tomorrow. But for now, I hope no one disobeys my orders again."
Ilena had not become an Inquisitor by being indecisive. Once she saw through their intentions, she acted without hesitation and suppressed them by force.
After all, letting these Abyssal Cultists escape would be far more dangerous than dealing with a series of problems afterward.
Seeing the situation stabilize once more, Ilena let out a breath and walked over to Kal'tsit, asking in a low voice,
"It's been so long, but there's still no news from Kanna and Dona. Could something have happened to them?"
Kal'tsit turned to look at the stars appearing in the night sky, then turned back and gave Ilena a reassuring look.
"Don't worry. As long as the weather above us doesn't change, it means Kanna's side is probably fine."
"The weather?" Ilena did not understand what she meant, but she understood that Kanna's side was most likely all right.
While they were talking, the heretics began to panic. Judging by Ilena's actions, she did not seem to be joking when she said a Grand Inquisitor would arrive with an Inquisition force tomorrow.
Once those reinforcements arrived, would they not be exposed immediately?
"What do we do? Should we contact City Hall?" Still unaware that something had happened at City Hall, they hoped the other side might have a way to turn things around.
At that moment, someone in a guard uniform rushed in from outside in a panic.
"This is bad, Director! All of our people at City Hall have disappeared. The city is in complete chaos now..."
Only after he finished speaking did he realize that something was wrong with the situation inside. There were not only many ordinary people present, but everyone was lying on the ground, too afraid to move.
"Our people? Could you tell me exactly who your people are? I'm very curious."
By the time he reacted, Ilena's longsword was already pressed against his throat.
Before you continue