Chapter 215

Anilas the trigger.

[Because it's difficult to separate the two chapters, I've combined them into one post.]

118. Showdown

"Bang--"

The sunglasses filtered the drifting "dust," and without a flash of fire, the bullet had already crossed the distance between Efnir and Anilas.

--Without holding back, Anilas's maximum firepower, and also her sure-kill blow.

A silver light shimmered in her palm. Efnir reached out with one hand, gripped it tightly, and suddenly pulled it up. The ground shattered instantly, and the soil exploded. The silver light abruptly pierced through layers of sand and gravel, precisely blocking the bullet's path. The silver light quickly solidified and connected with the silver light in Efnir's palm, and half of the spear's shaft appeared, meeting the blazing bullet head-on.

With a deafening roar, the white light from the bullet was severed by the silver flash, reflecting off the sky like a mirror. In an instant, the white light flashed across the sky, failing to penetrate the layers of clouds, but instead tearing open a coin-sized, light blue hole in the clouds. The next second, a fierce wind swept in, shattering the ground layer by layer. Gravel was whipped into the air by the gale, and countless blades of grass vaporized and vanished in the instantaneous heat. The immense wind pressure spread out like a tidal wave, then pushed back in.

Efnir shattered layers of rubble, piercing straight through the swirling wind like a sharp arrow. Her white robes billowed wildly, her hood billowing in the gale, and her black hair, from root to root, transformed into a moonlit silver-white, spreading across Efnir entire body. Her Battle Armament blurred Anilas's vision, and with each leap Efnir took, the silver light emanating from her body intensified.

She noticed that a corner of Efnir's sunglasses was broken, revealing blood-red eyes.

Anilas raised her pistol.

With a sharp crack, Efnir flipped her wrist, the gun slicing through the pistol's bullet, and in an instant, she was upon Anilas.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. At this moment, Efnir's black hair had not even completely faded, and her Battle Armament had not yet been fully converted. In other words, Efnir had not yet entered a state of complete Synchronization.

But it's clear that Efnir is now extremely dangerous for Anilas — Anilas can no longer unleash her finishing blows consecutively, and she can hardly gain an advantage in close combat.

Her only remaining weapons are the Order Weapon's pistol and dagger.

And Efnir's offensive was already upon them.

The gun tip swept diagonally, instantly scattering sand and sparks, cutting shocking cracks into the ground. The gun blade pierced through the vacuum, thrusting straight up towards Anilas's neck. Anilas gritted her teeth and held the rifle horizontally.

The immense force, as heavy as a mountain, nearly shattered Anilas's finger bones; half of her arm was numb and powerless, and the web of her hand had already cracked from the force.

The piercing wind had already dragged the gun tip through the rifle barrel. Anilas twisted her arms with all her might to deflect the gun tip away, while simultaneously turning her body to the side, narrowly avoiding the straight-stabging gun tip.

But a bloodstain was still left on the side of her neck.

A thin line of blood stretched between Anilas's neck and the gun blade, a stark contrast to the raw, viscous blood.

The rifle was damaged and temporarily unusable; Anilas was only using it as a close-quarters defensive weapon. Just then, Efnir suddenly twisted her hands back, causing the rifle to shudder and the blade to spring up. Anilas couldn't react in time; her hands, still numb, lost strength, and the rifle was sent flying from her grasp.

Anilas opened her path wide, Efnir, having sheathed her gun, stepped forward with the tip of her spear touching the ground. As Efnir intentionally caused, the ground shook and dust billowed. The ground beneath both Efnir and Anilas collapsed simultaneously. Efnir, stepping onto the Stairway, lunged forward, while Anilas, at the same time, had to step onto the Stairway to maintain her balance and retreat, attempting to create distance.

But Efnir's gun had already spun around from behind her waist and then swept out with the butt of the gun like a whip, striking Anilas's waist.

Now that things have come to this, Anilas, who has been brought close by Efnir, has already lost.

A flicker of resentment crossed Anilas's eyes. In an instant, she clenched her teeth and stopped her retreat, charging straight at Efnir without any defense. Just as the spear was about to pierce her unsuspecting waist, Efnir pulled the spear back, and in a flash, the spear turned into a silver flash and disappeared into Efnir's palm.

Efnir stopped.

Anilas had already closed in on Efnir, tightly gripping Efnir's right hand as she thrust her spear forward.

"Efnir... you're too soft-hearted!!"

Almost venting all the resentment in her heart, Anilas screamed recklessly, suddenly pulling Efnir off the ground. The silver light beneath her feet shattered the two of them, and they soared into the air. Taking advantage of her first move, Anilas spun around and leaned against the outside of Efnir's elbow. At the same time, all the power in her body surged from the soles of her feet, using her knees, waist, shoulders, and arms as fulcrums. The power accumulated in her arms reached its peak, and in the next moment, a tremendous force slammed Efnir to the ground.

In that instant, Efnir's right hand, which had been grabbed, suddenly clenched back, locking Anilas's wrist like a steel clamp.

Anilas met Efnir's calm, even indifferent, eyes.

"Got you--"

A sharp pain surged into her wrist, and the next second she felt the force of a massive boulder dragging her body uncontrollably downwards. An irresistible force gripped her tightly, followed by the excruciating pain of her elbow being almost crushed, and the sudden feeling of falling.

With a deafening roar, the ground collapsed, creating a huge crater. Anilas lay within it, sweet-smelling blood gushing from her nose, staining her filthy cheeks.

"Cough--"

Anilas was coughing and gasping for breath with her head tilted back, her body almost falling apart and unable to move.

At that moment, a silver streak silently appeared in her blurred vision, and a sharp touch was already pressed against the side of her neck.

"Anilas, stop resisting, you've lost."

Efnir looked down at Anilas, the tip of her gun slowly withdrawing from Anilas's neck. She crouched down, her gaze meeting Anilas's dim eyes.

Anilas simply looked at Efnir quietly, while Efnir reached out and placed her hand on Anella's cheek.

You know perfectly well you can't beat me.

"I know... but... I have to do it no matter what..."

Anilas's voice was slightly off-key. She bit her lip, seemingly trying to suppress the pain or prevent herself from crying, as Efnir gently wiped the dust from her cheeks.

"Your mental state is very unstable right now, so I'll keep the Beacon for now."

As soon as Efnir finished speaking, the next second, Anilas's entire body was enveloped in starlight, and her battle attire immediately disappeared, revealing her still intact battle bodysuit.

"--!?"

Anilas looked up, a flicker of surprise in her eyes—she hadn't voluntarily disengaged from the Synchronization.

These are the Apostle from yesterday...

"I will hold your charges against you for now," Efnir said calmly, taking the ring from Anilas's hand without explaining anything. "I'll keep this for you. Until you calm down, I'm temporarily stripping you of all your authority as a Major General and Chief."

119. Discovery

The commotion caused by Anilas gradually subsided with her defeat.

The Engineering Corps soldiers moved their positions and set up a temporary secondary platform for operations and communications not far away. Efnir also took over command from Lapith again.

Lapith approached Efnir and watched the vehicle carrying Anilas drive away. Although Anilas was injured, she was actually fine. With the agent's powerful regenerative abilities, she only needed a day to fully recover. However, because her actions had caused obstacles and unease for the operations team, she was temporarily detained by the temporary base after Efnir confiscated her Beacon. Generally speaking, Anilas's behavior was likely to result in her being stripped of her agent status.

Kusei Maki did not immediately submit the application for punishment of Anilas. Although Anilas's mistake was serious, she was a valuable agent combatant second only to Efnir and Lapith, and there was a reason for the incident. After obtaining Efnir's approval, she would not be held accountable or punished for the time being.

The priority is the action at hand.

"I must say, what you did just now was actually quite dangerous," Lapith said, a mix of praise and subtle dissatisfaction. Efnir had ignored her willingness to cooperate, escalating the danger. However, since the outcome was good, she wouldn't complain. "But perhaps you shouldn't do such dangerous things again? Your sister will be heartbroken."

"Well, it's alright," Efnir said noncommittally, "I'm absolutely confident."

Efnir spoke confidently, Lapith glanced at Efnir again. "Well, never mind, maybe I'm just worrying too much about things that haven't happened yet."

Efnir's impromptu decision to mobilize all her power to enhance both her body and weapons, even sacrificing the priority of Battle Armament, was undeniably risky. If it were Lapith, she would never have done that; instead, she would have taken a more conservative approach, avoiding attacks or stalling for time before entering Synchronization Mode to launch an attack.

While Efnir's choice was undoubtedly the most efficient method, it was also extremely dangerous and allowed no room for error.

Therefore, Lapith thought highly of Efnir.

In fact, the most crucial factor in Efnir's choice was her right eye and Efnir understanding of Anilas. Over a month of interaction and numerous training exercises had given Efnir a thorough grasp of Anilas's attack methods and tactics. By using the judgment of the "dust" flow, Efnir gained an absolute advantage from the very beginning. She could predict when Anilas would fire, where the bullets would land, their intensity, and even when Anilas would prepare to retreat or engage. Efnir knew all of this perfectly.

Conversely, Efnir has never used her full strength in front of other agents, nor has she publicly revealed her special skills. Anilas's understanding of Efnir is limited to the glimpses she has shown during training.

Efnir possessed a thorough understanding of her enemy and held an absolute advantage in terms of information asymmetry. Anilas, on the other hand, had already abandoned her natural advantage in ranged attacks to confront Efnir. Therefore, Efnir's "adventure" was actually just a thrilling but ultimately harmless real-time combat simulation, which predetermined Anilas's inevitable defeat from the very beginning.

The armored vehicle carrying Anilas departed and returned to their temporary base.

After giving a few instructions to the soldiers present, Efnir connected with Shinomiyami Nami's communication.

"Nami, how is it?"

"I'm fine here, Efnir, are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

The battle between Efnir and Anilas started suddenly and ended quickly, lasting only a few minutes.

After a brief exchange on the progress of the investigation and learning about the situation of the Muse Squad after losing their leader, Efnir ended her call with Shinomiyami Nami and then contacted Herul, explaining the situation to her and appointing her as the temporary on-site commander to take over Anilas's work.

At the end of the call, Herul was clearly still worried and asked, "Um... Senior Efnir, is the captain... is she alright?"

"She's fine," Efnir said without hiding anything. "If you're worried, you can come find me after the investigation is over, and I'll take you to see her."

"Thank you, senior!"

"Oh, right," Efnir suddenly remembered something, "Herul, what exactly did Anilas discover before coming here? How did she know about Kaoru Yanase and Takuma Yanase?"

The investigations conducted by the Muse Squad and the Main Sequence Star Squad were not in the same location, and Efnir's hasty conversation with Anilas did not mention anything related to this. Therefore, Efnir still does not know how Anilas learned about her parents.

But judging from Anilas's situation at the time, Efnir had a vague suspicion—was this ICS, which belonged to those major research institutions, related to the institution where her parents worked?

If that's the case, Efnir also needs to gather information from it.

The words the Yanase couple left for Efnir more than a month ago were something Efnir couldn't help but care about. They involved some secrets of the research institution that were unknown to others. It was clear that the Yanase couple were also in trouble. They refused to tell Efnir everything, which made Efnir even more worried.

If she could help her parents, Efnir would naturally do so without hesitation.

Moreover, Efnir also wanted to know the things Anilas had mentioned. Anilas was a companion, and the fragile and extreme Anilas was in today was a stranger to her. Efnir wanted to prove her parents' innocence to her and also wanted to help her.

Therefore, Efnir needs to get more details from Herul.

"Oh? She didn't tell you...?" Herul somewhat surprised.

"No, she was very emotional at the time," Efnir paused, recalling Anilas's almost hysterical state, and shook her head, "Perhaps she just didn't want to tell me..."

"Then I'll pass on my findings here to you for now, senior."

Herul for a moment, then resumed his usual serious demeanor.

"It's already been sent."

"Received, thank you."

"These are mostly confidential documents from within ICS," Herul explained, "Which detail the processes and results of some very sensitive inhumane experiments."

As she spoke, Herul's tone turned somber. "Senior Efnir... this ICS research is not as simple as it seems on the surface. According to our initial speculation, those 'Mutated Entity' that appeared in the tunnel were actually part of the experimental project."

"Wait, you're saying 'Mutated Entity' were created by ICS?"

"It's just speculation," Herul replied, "But we are searching for and verifying this possibility. Personally, I think it's very likely, but we just lack conclusive documentation as evidence."

This means that it has already been subjectively affirmed.

Just then, a gunshot rang out from Herul's side, followed by cries of alarm.

"What happened?" Efnir asked immediately.

"Lan is injured!" Herul's tone was also uneasy. "It was Feng who did it!"

"Maple and Orchid!?" Efnir frowned slightly. "What happened to them?"

Maple was previously assigned to the vanguard unit where Efnir was stationed and fought alongside Efnir. Later, she followed Anilas and Efnir to explore the underground space. In Efnir's memory, Maple was definitely not the kind of person who would attack her teammates.

"I'm sorry, senior, I'll contact you again later!"

After saying that Herul cut off the communication.

120. The sound of arguing

"What happened within the Muse Squad?"

"Lapith asked curiously."

Efnir simply shook her head. "I don't know either, they're not usually like this..."

The Muse Squad is responsible for investigating the ICS Research Institute area, and Maple and Lan are the two working together.

In Efnir's memory, the members of the Second-Generation Agent team had always had a harmonious relationship, and there had never been any conflict or estrangement between Maple and Lan. Why did they suddenly quarrel and even fight during the mission?

"Hopefully they can coordinate things properly; this situation is affecting the mission."

Lapith's tone was flat, but she was clearly very dissatisfied.

From Lapith's perspective— Anilas's blatant violation of the rules and her conflict with Maple and Orchid during the mission, coupled with the fact that such incidents have occurred twice within the Muse Squad, constitutes a very serious disciplinary issue.

Agents carry out extremely dangerous missions, and therefore, in order to ensure that no unexpected mistakes occur during combat, agents are subject to very strict discipline, especially during mission execution.