Xio and the Fool

Outside a house on Tuck Street, Baron "Kangwa" watched his target Teleport away, powerless to stop her.

After all, with only his head left, he could not move. Mrs. "Austin" was still under Jane's command and could not budge.

MI9 had already evacuated the nearby residents under various pretexts, so he could not find anyone suitable to use in rebuilding his body.

About a minute later, Mrs. "Austin" finally broke free of Jane's command. She picked up the baron's head, carefully concealed herself, and flew toward East Borough.

Not long after they left, an ordinary-looking, gray-haired old man slowly emerged from the badly damaged house that served as the exit to the sealed space.

He stared in the direction the baron and Mrs. "Austin" had gone and murmured thoughtfully, "There was no reaction... Could it really not be him?"

Then he turned his gaze toward the independent space created by "1-010," as though the Grade 1 Sealed Artifact's confinement meant nothing to him.

"The military obtained '1-025'... Whose scheme was that? And the Tyrant actually allowed it..."

While the old man pondered, the elite MI9 squad that had rushed over after receiving the call for help came out through the exit.

They covered one another and advanced in turns, plainly on guard... Yet strangely, the old man stood at ease not far away, and they took no notice of him, as if he did not exist at all.

In an unknowable space, a Mummy wrapped in yellowed bandages hung in midair, pierced by countless brown branches.

Its belly bulged high. Now and then, one spot would swell and sink back, as though it were nurturing new life.

The Mummy's mouth opened and closed as it screamed without pause, evidently in terrible pain.

But after a Saint of the military