Saria—Defeated

In the distance, the lava giant continued venting its fury amid the ruins, each swing of its arms accompanied by the thunderous collapse of buildings.

Fortunately, it did not seem to have turned its attention toward the more densely populated districts farther away. That was the only good news.

Saria gripped her communicator tightly, her Originium Arts ready to be activated at any moment.

At last, Kristen's voice came through the earpiece again, still carrying that cool, businesslike tone:

"The communication has been established. The President agreed to postpone the military strike. But..." Kristen paused.

"He requires that the subsequent 'handling' be fully undertaken and carried through by Rhine Lab."

"I understand." Saria's voice was unexpectedly calm. She had long anticipated this outcome.

The trouble Rhine Lab had caused naturally had to be resolved by Rhine Lab itself—at least on the surface.

A brief silence fell over both ends of the line.

After a long while, Saria took a deep breath and spoke again, her voice low but clear:

"Kristen... after this incident, terminate the Flame Demon Project."

Her gaze swept across the infernal scene before her, and her tone carried an unprecedented weight and certainty:

"We've both seen it. This power... is simply not something humanity can control. Forcing its research and use will only bring destruction in the end."

Kristen was silent for a moment, seemingly weighing the proposal, before finally replying concisely:

"All right. I'll formally submit a termination motion at the board meeting."

Then, unusually, she asked one more question, her voice softening slightly:

"Do you... have anything else to say?"

Saria closed her eyes. Silence's worried face and Ifrit's trusting gaze flashed through her mind.

Her clenched fists loosened slightly, then tightened again.

"...Apologize to Silence and Ifrit for me."

"Tell them... I may... have to break my promise this time."

With that, she cut off the communication before Kristen could respond.

Without any grand declaration, Saria forced all her emotions back down into her heart. She gave the calcified crystals covering her body one final inspection and adjusted her breathing.

Then, she stepped forward.

Into the oncoming heat and the stench of destruction, she walked step by step toward the lava giant that was still wreaking havoc.

She knew the military could tear up the agreement at any moment. She also knew her chances of success were pitifully slim.

But for Silence, for Ifrit, for the countless innocent lives in this city...

She had to try.

Against the crimson backdrop of hell, the white figure walked resolutely against the tide of fleeing people, toward that burning abyss.

Elsewhere

Having eliminated those annoying "bugs," the berserk lava giant let out a satisfied roar. The tearing pain within its body also eased somewhat.

Its enormous head turned, its burning pupils locking onto more distant areas glittering with lights.

A strange feeling welled up inside it. Dully, it realized that the way it had attacked just now had allowed it to vent its pain for a brief moment.

That vague thought excited it.

It raised its mountain-like arm once more as violent energy began compressing wildly into its palm. A miniature sun radiating destruction rapidly took shape.

Just as the meteor was about to fully form and it prepared to launch it at the distant lights that irritated it, a strange sensation beneath its feet caught its attention.

It was... white.

Amid the scorched black, crimson red, and flowing lava that colored the surrounding landscape of destruction, a patch of pure white crystals emitting a faint glow spread outward from beneath its feet at a visible rate.

The abrupt color made it instinctively follow the crystals back to their source.

Then, it saw that tiny white figure.

Saria.

She stood there with her arms slowly extended to either side, her palms open to show that she held no weapon.

Like that, beneath the giant's gaze, she walked toward it one steady step at a time.

Her eyes pierced through the smoke and heat waves, staring directly and unflinchingly into those burning lava pupils.

That action, that posture...

The giant could not understand. It merely raised a hand—just as it had when attacking those bugs.

The unfinished meteor in its hand was hurled directly at her. It was not a perfect Explosive Flying Shield, merely a mass of forcibly condensed energy.

Yet the power it contained was still enough to wipe a small hill off the map.

Faced with the oncoming destructive impact, Saria's pupils contracted sharply as she pushed her Originium Arts to their limit in an instant.

No longer for attack or personal defense, she poured all of it into the ground beneath her feet.

"Rumble—!"

Thick calcified crystals, heavy as city walls, erupted from the earth, rising upward, folding inward, and interweaving.

Before the attack arrived, they barely formed a dense white crystal sphere above Saria, enclosing her completely at its core.

Almost the instant the crystal sphere sealed shut, the burning meteor slammed violently into it.

Fire and savage shockwaves instantly swallowed the area, while spiderweb-like cracks spread across the white crystal sphere's surface.

The entire sphere was driven brutally into the ground by the enormous force, smashing through the fragile foundation beneath and plunging deep underground.

"Pfft—!"

At the very core of the sphere, even with layer upon layer of calcified crystals cushioning the blow, the terrifying impact that penetrated through still made Saria's vision go black.

She coughed up a mouthful of blood uncontrollably, staining the front of her clothes red.

Saria bit down hard on her tongue. The sharp pain jolted her nerves and forced her to remain conscious.

Seeing that the white "hard shell" had not been shattered in a single blow but had instead sunk underground, the lava giant raised its four enormous arms high.

They came crashing down again and again upon the spot where Saria lay buried.

"Boom!!!"

"Boom—!!!"

"Rumble rumble rumble—!!!"

Each dull impact sounded like war drums struck by a giant god, or the anguished cries of the earth's own heart.

Centered on the ruins of Rhine Lab, distinct seismic waves spread throughout the entire city of Trimon.

Panic spread through Trimon's city center.

Crystal chandeliers in upscale restaurants swayed wildly, while glasses and plates clattered together;

Office workers in corporate buildings frantically crawled beneath their desks, feeling the tremors beneath their feet grow stronger with every passing moment;

In residential areas, children wailed in fright, while pets barked anxiously and restlessly.

"What the hell is happening?! Is it a Catastrophe?!"

"I-I saw it earlier! There was a meteor! It flew over from that direction! The military... the military looks like it's been wiped out!"

"A meteor? What kind of nonsense are you talking about?!"

Panic, like a tangible dark cloud, hung over everyone's hearts.

At the center of destruction.

Every slam of the giant arms brought a terrifying effect like heaven and earth overturning.

The ground was pounded deeper and deeper. The surrounding ruins of buildings were blasted into the air, only to be torn apart midair by shockwaves.

"Cough... urgh..."

Inside the sphere, Saria curled up as every impact struck her like a massive hammer.

She gritted her teeth, blood constantly spilling from the corners of her mouth, yet she continued driving her Originium Arts with all her strength.

The outer crystals shattered and peeled away beneath the repeated bombardment, but she immediately condensed new layers to fill the gaps.

It was a process that consumed immense mental and physical strength. Her face grew visibly paler, while her breathing became rapid and difficult.

She did not know how long the bombardment would continue, nor how much longer she could endure.

She only stubbornly repeated the process of condensing and repairing, again and again.

She was gambling.

Gambling that this monster's frenzy was not endless.

Gambling that after exhausting its strength, it would regain that brief moment of clarity once more.

Gambling that she... could hold on until then.

The lava giant's mad assault continued. Its four arms pounded like tireless pile drivers, leveling the entire area and digging ever deeper.

Yet after its continuous savage strikes, the frequency of its attacks slowed slightly.

Had it run low on energy? Was it merely tired?

Saria keenly caught that subtle change.

Seemingly realizing that simple pounding could not crush the stubborn shell beneath its feet, the lava giant instinctively chose a more extreme method.

Blinding flames gathered wildly between the cracks of its dark-red carapace. It was destruction energy compressed to an extreme degree.

Terrifying red light, too intense to look at directly, flared simultaneously around the fists of all four arms.

"Roar—!!!"

With that roar, the four lava fists crashed down together upon the place where Saria was buried deep below.

A crimson pillar of lava erupted skyward from the point of impact.

What followed was a shockwave that swept away everything in its path, like an invisible ring of death reducing all it passed to ash.

A small crimson mushroom cloud slowly rose above the ruins of Rhine Lab.

At the very heart of the attack, the calcified sphere Saria had maintained with every ounce of her strength could not even hold for one additional second.

The instant it made contact, it shattered and disintegrated layer by layer like glass cast into a steel furnace.

"Urgh—!"

Buried deep within the sphere's core, Saria felt only an impact force that seemed capable of grinding her into dust before instantly losing all consciousness.

The shattered crystal sphere, along with the figure inside it, was blasted violently even deeper underground by that irresistible force.

The power of that strike far exceeded everyone's expectations.

Not only did it destroy everything on the surface, the terrifying kinetic energy it contained also punched directly through the relatively fragile rock layers beneath Trimon, breaking the geological fault line that maintained the city's stability.

"Rumble rumble rumble—!!!"

An even greater roar rose from deep underground.

Centered on the point where the lava giant's fists had struck, horrifying cracks spread rapidly in every direction like a spiderweb.

The surrounding earth began to groan under unbearable strain. The ground across the entire area, fragile as a biscuit, began collapsing and caving in on a massive scale.

The ruins of high-rises, flowing lava, twisted metal... everything slid down with the crumbling surface into the newly formed abyss below.

The lava giant, having just unleashed its attack, had yet to roar in victory when it suddenly felt the ground vanish beneath its feet.

It fell into the darkness together with the shattered earth...

The tremors spread throughout all of Trimon, and so did fear into every heart.

Rhine Lab's Director of Defense, along with the giant that had brought destruction.

Both vanished from the surface and sank into the unknown depths below.

Thus—

Rhine Lab's Director of Defense, Saria,

was defeated.