Shiina Mahiru stepped over the two burning men with trepidation, hurriedly keeping up with the youth who looked to be about the same age as her.
She felt her heart racing wildly.
Rather than violence, she was the type of girl who preferred using words to persuade others, but after seeing that Pope hollowed out by insects, she understood that not everyone in this world could be reasoned with.
"Is it really okay to leave these people here like this?"
Despite her inner anxiety, the girl couldn't help but ask the back of the person walking in front of her.
"You can take them with you if you want, but I'm not responsible for providing the labor..." the other party said with complete indifference.
"That's not what I meant..."
For a moment, Shiina Mahiru didn't know how to explain her complex emotions.
"Then I'll say it one more time..." the youth stopped, glanced back at her, and said, "They are already beyond saving." Then he continued walking briskly forward.
There wasn't a hint of warmth in his eyes; in that moment, Shiina Mahiru felt as if the blood in her veins had frozen over.
Immediately after, the warmth from the flames on her body made her realize again that the other party wasn't as cold as he appeared.
"What about the people in the banquet hall? Are they all beyond saving too?" Shiina Mahiru plucked up her courage to ask him once more.
This question was very important to her because her parents were still there. Even if her parents had never shown her the care she deserved, the kind-hearted girl couldn't help but worry for them.
Moreover, having listened to the conversation between the youth and the Pope of the Happiness and Peace of Mind Church, and hearing the middle-aged man say those insects could influence the thoughts of their hosts, Shiina Mahiru couldn't help but secretly hope that her parents hadn't actually been that cold—that giving her to the middle-aged man as a human sacrifice was just the influence of the insects, not a genuine lack of care for her...
"That's not the case..." Asakura said.
After all, he could more or less sense the strange aura brought by the insects. Compared to that middle-aged man, the symptoms of the people in the banquet hall were much lighter. If anyone was truly beyond saving, it would only be those fanatics in the Happiness and Peace of Mind Church.
He turned his head to glance at the girl, whose eyes were starting to sparkle with hope, and then said coldly: "I reckon it's better to state beforehand not to hold too much expectation. While these insects can indeed influence a host's thinking, it's more of a 'going with the flow' kind of change."
"For example, if you believed in this church from the start, the insects would increase your level of faith to make you a fanatic; if you didn't care about the Happiness and Peace of Mind Church, the insects would subtly make you start paying attention to it; but if you were very resistant to the church from the beginning, at most they could only reduce your disgust toward it—they wouldn't easily flip your thinking to make you love it. Human will is a quite interesting thing. If forced, it would likely only make their movements stiff, giving off a feeling of uncoordinated limbs like a zombie."
He continued: "By the same token, if your parents truly valued you... no, even if you just held a small place in their hearts, they wouldn't have handed you over to that guy so easily. Do you understand what I mean?"
I don't want to understand.
The girl said in her heart.
But the light in her eyes had already dimmed.
"We're here."
Suddenly, the youth walking ahead stopped and spoke.
"Ugh..."
Because she was still wallowing in melancholy and hadn't stopped her pace, Shiina Mahiru bumped directly into the other party's back, letting out a small cry of surprise. "W-What? Where are we?"
B... no, could it be a C? Is this kid the type who looks thin in clothes but is actually well-built like Hitori?
Asakura glanced at the girl, the thought flashing through his mind before he dismissed the soft sensation against his back.
"We've reached the place to settle things..." Asakura said.
Hearing this, the girl looked around and found herself in an ordinary corridor surrounded by standard hotel rooms; she couldn't see anything special about this place.
Just now, in the conversation (or rather, the interrogation) with that middle-aged man, no location was mentioned either?
The girl was completely bewildered.
Just then, Shiina Mahiru felt the ground beneath her feet vibrating slightly.
No, considering this wasn't the ground floor but the seventh or eighth floor—having been immersed in sadness, she hadn't noticed the elevator floor—it shouldn't be the ground vibrating, but the entire building!
Could it be an earthquake?
Just as she was thinking this, a massive object, looking like a discarded tram car, suddenly burst through the floor, crashing violently into the adjacent wall and kicking up a cloud of dust.
Subsequently, Shiina Mahiru realized that it was a giant, elongated... mutated lion with many legs?
"Cough, cough... Kuroneko, can't you be a little more careful about safety? I'm still just an ordinary person..."
Looking somewhat disheveled, Yukinoshita Yukino ran out from the dust, stumbling and coughing incessantly.
This was the first time Asakura had seen her looking so pathetic.
"The shortest distance between two points is a straight line."
Gokou Ruri, covered in [Scale Patterns], appeared to be far more at ease. She had clearly been sitting at the very front just now, but crashing through the walls hadn't caused her any harm or impact; there was just a bit of dust on her clothes. "Skill issue, practice more."
A small snake was still coiled on the girl's shoulder. In a situation where Asakura had expanded his Domain and all communication systems had failed, it was this little snake that guided the girl to this location.
The body of the long, lion-like creature broke apart, turning into chunks that fell away.
Shiina Mahiru looked closely and discovered those were actually tables used to make long dining tables and the marble slabs laid on top of them.
"How's the situation?" Asakura asked Gokou Ruri.
"A mess." The girl cast a subtle glance at the girl enveloped in flames beside Asakura, then shook her head: "I feel like if this continues, the people over at the banquet hall are all going to be 'Konan-Borg-ified.' If it spreads out, we might just have to find a parallel world to live in."
"What a shame, I don't have that kind of ability..." Asakura laughed and raised a finger. "But it's fine. From the very beginning, I've used the [Scale] curse to lock down this hotel. No insects are allowed in or out. This is the center of the entire hotel, so let everything end here."
"[Candle]"