It had already been two weeks.
Two weeks had passed since the day the Tokyo Area was swallowed by that bizarre white fog.
Over those two weeks, the other countries didn't make any major moves. For the time being, they remained on watch. But within Japan, the four Areas of Sapporo, Sendai, Osaka, and Hakata all tried to reestablish contact with the people inside Tokyo, or at least probe what was happening in the fog.
To that end, they even dispatched Civil Security officers and troops this way.
However, whether it was high-powered Civil Security officers or fully armed military units, the moment they entered the white fog, contact was cut off immediately—and none of them ever came back out.
After losing quite a few people, they naturally got scared. They stopped blindly throwing lives away and instead chose a steady, methodical approach.
At first, they figured: if it's fog, then strong winds should be able to blow it away, right? The result, though, made their eyes bulge. The artificial gale they generated not only failed to disperse the fog—it couldn't even stop it from spreading. A level-10 storm could rip a tree out of the ground by the roots, yet it couldn't move a single wisp of fog. Isn't that ridiculous?
When wind didn't work, they tried shooting into the fog and launching missiles. But the moment that heavy firepower entered the fog, it was like a mud ox sinking into the sea—not even a sound came back out. It made everyone there wonder if what they were holding was just a toy.
No one could tolerate kids setting off fireworks at their front door—especially not day and night without stopping—so Nursery Rhyme sent out a few Jabberwocks and chased all those Civil Security officers and troops away.
...
President of the Osaka Area, Sogen Saitake, was currently in his study.
But he wasn't there to read.
He went straight to the deepest part of the bookshelf, pulled out a book with practiced ease, then inserted a key into a keyhole hidden inside the shelf and turned it.
In the next instant, the movable bookshelf—an electric sliding bookcase—powered on, and the shelf packed with books began to glide along its rails.
Before long, an entire wall of shelves had moved aside, revealing a passage into a new room.
When he entered, a soft crackling sound like something burning rang out, and a pale blue-green glow lit up from the floor. The light revealed a leather office chair. After Sogen Saitake sat down, that ghostfire-like glow kept spilling out like a fuse, tracing a massive pentagram and five intricately structured feathers across the floor.
At each of the pentagram's five points stood a leather chair, and Sogen Saitake sat in one of them.
Of the other four chairs, three were occupied, and one was empty.
Sogen Saitake was not only President of the Osaka Area, but also one of the highest-ranking executives of the Goshoukai. And for these three people to sit in the same kind of seat, their status clearly wasn't low, either.
"You're the one who called us here, and you're the one who showed up late. Looks like you're quite the busy man yourself."
The one speaking was the Goshoukai's top executive in Hokkaido, Jūzōji Tsukihiko—recently elected Prime Minister of Hokkaido.
Sogen Saitake completely ignored Jūzōji Tsukihiko's barbed tone. He turned his head and looked at the only empty seat, his face twisting like an enraged lion.
"That idiot Shigaki Senichi… still hasn't reestablished contact with us?"
"The fog over the Tokyo Area is too strange. Not only does it block all telecom signals, but no one who enters ever comes back out." The top executive from the Sendai Area shrugged, speaking with narrowed eyes. "You'd be better off not pinning your hopes on this. Just treat him like he's already dead."
"Whether he's dead or not doesn't mean shit to me. But he's our top executive in the Tokyo Area. Even the intel about that mysterious organization was something he learned first and passed to us." Sogen Saitake's beard practically bristled as he spoke. "And with what I know about that old fox, he's definitely holding back key information and only feeding us scraps. If the people under me were even a little useful, why would I care whether that old fox lives or dies? Didn't those researchers brag about having the most advanced technology in the world?"
They all understood what Sogen Saitake meant.
During this period, the Goshoukai's researchers had tried analyzing the white fog covering the Tokyo Area, but they couldn't analyze anything at all—not even identify its composition.
And there was also the flute they'd brought back last time—at the cost of two mechanized super soldiers and an entire squad. The researchers couldn't analyze that either. They couldn't determine its material, and they couldn't make sense of the mechanism behind how it worked.
When Sogen Saitake heard all this, he cursed them out as worthless trash.
Weren't you the ones who said you had the most advanced technology in the world? Then why can't you even decode a stupid flute?
What use are you?
If they could just figure out the principle behind that flute's control over rats and rat-type Gastrea—and then apply it—then ruling the world would no longer be a dream. It would be a future within reach.
The reason Sogen Saitake joined the Goshoukai in the first place was because he'd coveted the technology this organization possessed, believing it would help him become king of the world.
In the end, everything he did was for the sake of making Japan great again—and making the world kneel under his rule.
"I do know a little about the 'mysterious organization' you keep talking about." The Goshoukai top executive in the Hakata Area rubbed his chin, fell silent for a moment, then spoke. "Are you sure Tokyo's loss of contact this time is also connected to them?"
"Hmph. Is there any other possibility? Or are you saying there are actually lots of organizations in this world with technology that completely surpasses ours? If that's the case, then I really need to reconsider whether I should stay in this organization."
Sogen Saitake sneered with contempt. "Besides, according to Shigaki Senichi's earlier intel, during the 'Legacy of Seven Stars' incident, a group of Civil Security officers ran into strange white fog while pursuing Nursery Rhyme and Scorpio—and then they all lost contact."
That made it connect neatly.
What they didn't know, however, was that the "mysterious organization" they feared consisted of Nursery Rhyme alone from beginning to end—at most, plus the friends she pulled out of stories.
Then they moved on to the "mysterious organization's" objective—why it had covered the Tokyo Area in fog.
"What else would it be? It has to be about ruling the world!" Sogen Saitake judged others by his own mind, speaking with absolute certainty. "A new type of Gastrea Virus, and technology that can control Gastrea—if that kind of tech were in my hands, the world would've been mine already!"
"Ability, power, and status—when those elements accumulate to a certain point, they become fertile soil. A far greater ambition will naturally grow from it. They stop being the end point and become a staircase, luring you to look higher, to crave more control, to conquer farther, until you reach territory you never even dared imagine."
"This is a hopeless world. Every country has suffered a devastating blow from the Gastrea and fallen into decline. In a situation like that, whoever can seize control of all Gastrea first can rightfully become the savior—and king of the world."
"If not, then why would an organization this powerful keep lying low? Why not make its technology public? It's the same as us—they've got their own ulterior motives!"
Sogen Saitake's tone was full of disgust and wariness toward the "mysterious organization." Like repels like: as an ambitious man who wanted to rule the world, he instinctively rejected other ambitious men.
But he wasn't an idiot.
A piper that could control rats and Gastrea, a new type of Gastrea with an indestructible body, that bizarre white fog… Just the tip of the iceberg this "mysterious organization" had shown already left the Goshoukai at a loss. Starting a war with them rashly wasn't wise.
"I've already given the order. Let some information about this organization leak out," Jūzōji Tsukihiko said flatly. "Once other countries learn it exists—and what it wants—they won't just sit and watch."
"Good. Let those idiots test how deep this 'mysterious organization' really is for us. We'll keep lurking in the shadows and wait to reap the benefit." The Sendai executive took over. "Their first move made a commotion this big—are they really not afraid of making an enemy of the entire world?"
The meeting continued, and they moved on to the next topic.
Then, suddenly, the light in the room began to flicker rapidly, as if the system had malfunctioned.
The flickering stopped quickly, but the light didn't return to normal. Instead, it dimmed… like a clear day abruptly swallowed by thick storm clouds.
A stirring piece of music seemed to ring in their ears.
Even an ordinary person could feel it—the presence that had suddenly appeared in the room.
A presence that made your skin crawl, like your soul was being harvested, like a hand was clamped around your throat.
At that moment, everyone present felt it—
The aura of BLACK.
As if a black shadow had gained substance, as if condemned death had descended upon the human world.
It rode an ugly, terrifying black horse and gripped a black lance. Horror and bone had forged that imposing suit of armor, and its dark red cloak looked as though it had been soaked through with sinners' blood.
Black Vanguard—Lindamea—had appeared.
"Sinners… your sins run deep. Your souls are stained black by darkness. Then let us, the Judges of Black, end your lives. Prepare yourselves!"
This was Lindamea's mercy: letting sinners know why they would die, and who they would die by.
Sogen Saitake didn't even get the chance to scream before Lindamea's black lance pierced his body, ending his sin-laden life.
It happened so suddenly that the other top leaders of the Goshoukai were terrified out of their wits.
Sogen Saitake… was dead, just like that?
"Who are you?! How did you get in here?!"
They were startled, but in truth, including Jūzōji Tsukihiko, these four top executives still had a certain confidence. They weren't worried they themselves would be killed by the Black vanguard in front of them.
Because what was here in the room, meeting with Sogen Saitake, was only their projection. They themselves were still in the Areas they controlled. More than anything, they wanted to know the intruder's identity—and whether the Goshoukai's information had been exposed.
Faced with their aggressive questioning, Lindamea offered not a single reply.
Everything about it was hidden beneath shadow. The fully sealed armor made it impossible for them to see its face.
The floor's light began flickering again. When it returned to its original brightness, Lindamea's figure vanished together with the surrounding shadows, disappearing before the four of them.
If Sogen Saitake's corpse weren't still lying there, his blood already pooling beneath him, they might've believed it had all been an illusion.
"This… was also that mysterious organization's doing, right?"
Jūzōji Tsukihiko broke the silence first, his mood heavy as he glanced at the others.
"There's only that possibility!"
"No one else could come and go like a ghost like this!"
The top executives from the Sendai and Hakata Areas nodded in agreement.
As for that black knight in armor, setting it aside for the moment—what mattered more was the mount it rode.
That black "horse"… it was less a horse and more a monster shaped like one. It was too ugly, too terrifying.
There was no way nature could produce a horse that horrifying. It had to be a Gastrea.
And for it to be a Gastrea, yet not act on instinct to attack humans—and instead allow itself to be ridden—meant there was a very high chance the black knight came from that "mysterious organization" that could control Gastrea.
"AAAAAAAH!!"
The Sendai executive let out a scream, sudden and piercing.
The same flickering lights.
The same shadows swallowing the room.
Lindamea, mounted on its black horse, appeared this time in the Sendai executive's room. Its low, magnetic voice seemed to carry a kind of power that could easily dredge fear from the depths of a sinner's heart.
"You cannot escape. Until I have fully settled your sins and taken your blackened souls, the iron hooves of my beloved steed will not halt. Prepare yourselves!"
And so, the Sendai executive died beneath Lindamea's lance as well, in his own secret meeting room.
After witnessing that with their own eyes, how could the Hakata executive and Jūzōji Tsukihiko stay calm?
They'd just been thinking they were safe, sitting in another city—unless the attacker could teleport.
And what they'd just seen… Could it really perform spatial transfer?!
Driven by fear, both men bolted from their own secret meeting rooms, each sprinting toward what he believed was the safest place.
The Hakata executive went into an underground shelter he'd built at enormous cost and locked the door tight. But it didn't become his refuge—it became his prison, his coffin. When Lindamea appeared before him, he had nowhere left to run.
Jūzōji Tsukihiko called in countless powerful Civil Security officers and mechanized super soldiers to protect him. Lindamea judged all of them as sinners to be executed. One rider(?), one mount(?), one lance—twenty minutes.
Sinners executed: 1,045.
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T/N: lindamea is from black souls