Hollow Zero.
Clack, clack — the metal leg armor rang out with a few soft but crisp clacks against the concrete floor.
The long-unfelt weightlessness of passing through the spatial rift stirred Hoshimi Miyabi awake. She'd been sleeping the whole way, slung across Andrew's back.
Honestly, no one could blame her for dozing off.
After all, during those days at the Astral Outpost, she'd spent every waking hour either soaking in some new experience or training — and in the process, the Ether energy in her body had long since been drained bone dry by all that testing and drilling.
And this world had no Ether energy to top her back up.
She'd actually meant to keep a baseline reserve of Ether energy in reserve, but the newly acquired Velkhana Tachi — the Icebrink — was simply too tempting for a weapon fanatic like her to resist.
And as everyone knows, the first thought upon getting a new weapon is always: try it out.
So when she couldn't help but put it through its paces, she'd unconsciously burned through every last drop of Ether energy left in her body.
Right after that came the return trip — flying alongside Andrew for a full day and night without rest.
Somewhere along the way, exhaustion finally caught up with her, and Hoshimi Miyabi, carried on Andrew's back, drifted off to sleep without even realizing it. The very noise that had short-circuited her when she'd first arrived had, by now, become nothing more than soothing white noise that lulled her under.
Whether that was because she'd fully adapted to this new life, or because of Andrew's presence — or perhaps a bit of both — she couldn't say.
Meanwhile.
The moment Andrew stepped through the spatial rift, an unprecedented pull erupted from his body, dragging every trace of Ether energy in the surrounding space straight toward him.
The Ether energy that only ever saturated the air within the Hollows kept converging on the two of them without pause.
But unlike the erosion a high-concentration Ether environment usually inflicted, this rapidly absorbed energy simply happened to top off the deficit inside Hoshimi Miyabi as a side effect.
The sudden fullness of energy jolted her spirits awake.
In mere moments, the Ether energy she'd completely burned through had been swiftly restored, right along with the change in environment.
Here in the Hollows, the Icebrink — which had lost nearly all its effect once her Ether energy ran dry — was fully unlocked once more, which also meant Hoshimi Miyabi's combat strength had leapt to a whole new level compared to when they'd left.
The newly acquired Icebrink for monsters, the old faithful Wuwei for people.
Every blade had a bright future ahead of it.
But compared to the boost in combat power she'd always cared about most in the past, this time Hoshimi Miyabi's first reaction was, instead, to glance back — a little reluctant — at the spatial rift she'd just stepped out of.
Coming back meant this journey with Andrew had come to an end.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
As the very source siphoning all that Ether energy, Andrew felt it too the instant he stepped through — the strange shift rippling through his Kushala Daora Armor the moment it made contact with the Ether energy in the air.
Or rather, it would've been strange NOT to notice a change in energy that drastic.
While the rest of the Kushala Daora Armor showed no change, the Dragon Jade embedded within it — which had been nearly dried up — was now visibly replenishing itself as Ether energy poured in.
Earlier, while they'd been racing through the sky slung beneath the Flying Swallow —
Andrew hadn't just been practicing to master his control over hurricanes; he'd also been using the wind to further speed up their flight.
The whole way, he'd kept experimenting and fine-tuning his control, careful never to compromise his combat readiness in the process.
Once he'd realized they were close enough to the return rift, he'd thrown all caution aside and poured everything into acceleration, burning through every ounce of energy stored in the Dragon Jade.
But now, in the span of just a few seconds, the Dragon Jade had already recovered a full quarter of its energy.
At this rate, it would be fully topped off in another ten-odd seconds — fast enough that Andrew felt like he'd switched on an infinite-ammo cheat in some video game.
And one thing was certain:
any Ether energy he spent while inside the Hollows from here on out would recover at this same blistering rate.
No wonder the Second Fleet Master had said treasure tools underwent a completely different transformation once brought back to a world matching their corresponding special energy — this was basically an infinite-energy cheat code.
Andrew could feel that the wind field under his control might even be capable of expanding to blanket the entire Hollow, reshaping its environment outright.
And that wasn't all.
As Andrew tried out the Kushala Daora's storm-commanding power inside the Hollow, a nagging sense crept in that this power was capable of more than just this.
As if... it were tacking something extra onto the surrounding Hollow?
No.
Or maybe it was seizing something FROM the Hollow instead?
But no matter how much Andrew experimented, he found no sign of any additional change while wielding the storm through the armor.
On top of that, the sensation itself was maddeningly elusive — even after settling his mind and focusing on it for a good while, he couldn't pin down anything concrete.
It was like a thin sheet of paper stretched over a window: no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't poke through it.
In the end, with nothing to show for his efforts, Andrew simply filed the feeling away in the back of his mind, hoping some other event down the road might help clear up the mystery.
Either way, it definitely wasn't a bad thing — Andrew trusted the Second Fleet Master more than enough for that.
Rather than dwell on it, better to power up Eous first.
With that thought, Andrew pressed the wake-up button on Eous, rousing it from standby.
As the button clicked down, a string of loading messages began scrolling across the screen.
[Starting up...] [Searching for connection signal...]
[Signal search failed. Original matching signal source not found.]
Watching Eous grow visibly flustered right in front of him after failing to find the signal, Andrew's brow furrowed slightly.
That was odd.
According to what Belle had told him before he left, she was supposed to keep the channel Eous connected to permanently open, so he'd be able to link up with the H.D.D System from inside the Hollows the moment he returned.
So why couldn't it connect...?
Could something have happened to Belle and the others?
With that old fox of a Mayor backing things up, that shouldn't be possible — not unless New Eridu had been utterly wiped out in this short span of time.
Then maybe something had happened to the H.D.D System itself?
But before Andrew could speculate any further, the loading screen on Eous — originally green — suddenly flashed a deep azure blue, and a moment later, a familiar voice rang out from within it.
"This signal connection is... Andrew?!"
Through the implants embedded in his eyes, Wise — who'd been wearing a worried expression — watched the feed streaming back through the H.D.D System, his face instantly lighting up with delight.
He said, practically bursting with excitement:
"Thank god, you're back!"
There was no helping it — the sense of security Andrew brought with him was simply overwhelming.
Especially now, with their former strongest combat force forced offline by the enemy's scheme, Andrew's timely return let a thoroughly on-edge Wise breathe an enormous sigh of relief.
Phaethon's own exclusive Golden Finger had finally renewed its subscription right at the critical moment.
Wise, who'd been about to launch straight into a full rundown of the current situation, caught himself the instant he spotted Hoshimi Miyabi standing beside Andrew, curiously eyeing Eous.
His hesitation lasted only a split second before he pressed on, his tone just as urgent as before:
"Perfect timing, Miss Miyabi! Miss Yanagi left a message with me a few days ago, asking me to pass it along to you the very moment I noticed you'd returned!"
"Because the Frenzy Virus has pushed the environmental intensity of Hollow Zero up several tiers, the Hollow Special Operations Section needs you to head over and lend support the moment you're back, to help prepare for the coming Shiyu Defense!"
That awkward pivot in tone made Andrew — who knew Wise well enough — frown slightly. He could tell right away his friend was scrambling for an excuse to get Hoshimi Miyabi out of the way.
But given how little he knew about the current state of New Eridu, and his trust in Wise, Andrew ultimately chose not to interrupt.
At the same time —
Wise's words yanked Hoshimi Miyabi straight out of the lingering, cozy afterglow of the Monster Hunter world.
She'd been racking her brain for some excuse to stay with Andrew a little longer, but the instant she heard what Wise had said, her body snapped straight into combat mode.
The relaxed line of her shoulders tightened back up, and her hands instinctively drifted to the hilts of Wuwei and the reverse-sheathed Icebrink on her back.
Her expression turned serious at once, sharp eyes fixing on Wise as though she could see straight through Eous's screen and into his own.
"Is that true?"
"Mm."
Wise nodded firmly at her question, then added:
"To be precise, it's an emergency mobilization notice from the Hollow Special Operations Section regarding the Shiyu Defense, calling back every member currently on leave or non-urgent duty."
"A signal like that has only ever gone out in the past when officials predicted the pressure of the upcoming Shiyu Defense would far exceed all previous expectations."
At Wise's words, Hoshimi Miyabi already had a good guess as to just how serious this request for support really was.
Just then, a synthetic voice — gender-neutral but leaning distinctly feminine, and unmistakably artificial — suddenly rang out from Eous as well.
"According to restored recent mission logs, 21 days, 8 hours, and 43 minutes have passed since the Nineveh Interception Battle, in which large numbers of Ethereals were eliminated."
"It is known that the infected Ethereals discovered during that interception represented only a fraction of all infected specimens, and the Frenzy Virus's infection source remains active within the Hollows. The number of infected Ethereals is rapidly rising inside Hollow Zero."
"Based on calculations, these objective conditions will ultimately drive the overall pressure of this Shiyu Defense to 63.7% above the previous historical peak, and raise the minimum personnel required to hold the line steady by 47.3%."
"However, should Miss Hoshimi Miyabi join as support, the minimum personnel required to hold the line steady would immediately drop by 32.8%."
"Conclusion: Miss Hoshimi Miyabi's participation would substantially ease the pressure of the defense battle."
The sudden torrent of statistics and calculations startled Andrew half out of his skin — before he'd left, he'd never once heard the siblings mention having any kind of AI system.
He blinked, then blurted out without thinking:
"The H.D.D System just talked? And it's turned into a girl?!"
"Andrew, that was Fairy talking — a new AI butler we added after you left for the original world."
Hearing Andrew's oddly familiar complaint, Wise was quick to jump in with an explanation.
The moment he finished, he shot a nervous, involuntary glance at Hoshimi Miyabi standing off to the side, as if worried she might pick up on something.
But to his surprise, Andrew didn't seem to take the explanation at face value at all — instead, he stared at Wise with a look of pure disbelief and said:
"Wise, even if you can't find a girlfriend, you didn't have to get so desperate that you modded the H.D.D System into... this, did you?"
"You absolutely cannot go around thinking, 'well, if I can't find a girlfriend in real life, I'll just build myself a virtual one'!"
?!?
Before Wise — frozen stiff by Andrew's sudden accusation — could even process what he'd just heard, the synthetic voice from before beat him to a response, and it was distinctly displeased.
Her tone shot up sharply, unmistakably charged with emotion:
"Negative!"
"I am a Type-III Master-Sequence Integrated General-Purpose AI Butler, development codename: Fairy. Even if you are the master's verified male master, you may not insult my taste on a matter like this."
"There is no possible way I would ever look twice at some Assistant Number Two whose support capabilities lag mine by several orders of magnitude!"
"S-sorry..."
Faced with that fierce, indignant voice, Andrew — who'd only meant to poke a little fun at Wise — instinctively bowed his head and apologized.
"Wait, no."
Catching himself a moment later, Andrew made no move to retract his apology — he just turned to Wise with a rather strange look on his face and asked:
"Wise, how exactly did you... go from being the number-one assistant to Assistant Number Two in such a short amount of time?"
At Andrew's question, Wise found himself momentarily at a loss for words. He opened his mouth several times as if about to explain, but in the end just let out a complicated sigh.
Too much had happened in too short a time, and he honestly had no idea where to even begin.
Watching Fairy converse with the two of them so naturally, Hoshimi Miyabi tilted her head and couldn't help but murmur:
"Your AI butler seems really smart, huh?"
"Ahem, ahem!"
Hearing that, Wise — well aware that Fairy's existence couldn't be revealed just yet — coughed a couple of times and quickly steered the conversation back on track:
"Anyway, I've already calculated the shortest route to the Shiyu Defense command center for you, Miss Miyabi, and I'm putting together an updated Carrot right now to help you reach the front line."
"How does that sound?"
At Wise's plan, Hoshimi Miyabi nodded without a moment's hesitation and agreed.
The balance in her heart had gradually been shifting — from believing New Eridu's safety mattered more than her own feelings, toward believing the two mattered equally now.
But given the current circumstances, she decisively chose to head for the front line regardless.
So after taking the freshly made Carrot from Wise, her hand resting on her sword hilt, she fell silent for a moment before speaking with quiet sincerity:
"Andrew, don't forget our promise."
"And once I've taken care of things, I'll make time to come find you."
Listening to Hoshimi Miyabi's parting words, Andrew smiled and nodded firmly:
"Of course. I'll be waiting."
____
👻🔥Heey! Pat_reon: Walnut-chan for more chapters!🔥👻
🔥 New history: Re:Zero: Wait, am I Pandora? — up now on The_Mikudayo
📚 40 chapters of early access waiting at Walnut-chan — that support is what makes the translations possible
Help us reach these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 universal bonus chapter