As for Koleda's situation — we'll set that aside for now. Geno's side of things, on the other hand, had taken a somewhat awkward turn.
He'd gone in thinking it would be nothing but a pack of ordinary Ethereals. Even hamstrung by debuffs, he figured he could cut through them like paper.
What he hadn't counted on was what came after the small fry — the pathetic little Ethereals he could knead like dough — because right on their heels came someone he recognized all too well.
"Hey~ Long time no see. How've you been?"
Geno's mouth twitched into a stiff, hollow smile. Whoever had just shown up in front of him, it was clear he was having serious trouble keeping it together.
"ROAAARRR!!!"
A massive axe came crashing down from above. Geno barely managed to get his blade horizontal in time to take the blow.
The impact rang out like a struck bell. Geno felt his knees nearly buckle from the sheer force of it.
This bastard wasn't holding back even a little.
But more than that, what Geno couldn't wrap his head around was why the Dead-End Butcher was showing up inside the Crete Hollow.
That's right — the thing that had appeared before Geno was none other than that notorious Ethereal who had once chased him and Nekomata halfway across the city: the Dead-End Butcher.
As Geno recalled it, back then he and Nekomata had used the backup power reserves at the subway station to hit it hard enough to seriously wound it.
He'd never gone back to the Dead-End Hollow after that, but according to the Hollow Association's investigation report, the Dead-End Hollow had been slowly shrinking in scale.
At the time, he'd figured the Dead-End Butcher was either dead or crippled beyond recovery.
He never imagined he'd run into the old 'friend' again like this.
"How?! How did this thing even get here?!"
Geno redirected the Dead-End Butcher's strike with a deflecting step, then backpedaled sharply to open up distance between them.
The Dead-End Butcher lunged right back in. That abstract, almost artistic mess of a face radiated pure excitement, all of it accompanied by a torrent of feral roaring.
Geno didn't need to guess what it was saying.
'Finally found you, you little brat!'
That was about the long and short of it. Honestly, if Geno had been put through the same ordeal, he'd have written the other guy's face down in his little black book too.
"Still — catching up with old friends isn't exactly the top priority right now."
Sweat beaded on Geno's forehead. He was a far cry from who he'd been back then; facing the Dead-End Butcher at his own level now, a real fight didn't actually scare him that much.
But Geno wasn't fighting alone. Behind him were Grace and the pile driver.
If they got dragged into the battle, there was no way he could guarantee the safety of one human and one machine.
"Grace! I'll draw this thing away! You get a message to the Proxy and the others — tell them to come reinforce you!"
"But—!"
"No buts! I've fought this thing before — I know how it works!"
Getting beaten up by it still counted as experience.
Luring the Dead-End Butcher away was the only plan Geno could come up with to keep Grace safe. After all, its grudge was entirely against him — once he left, there'd be no rea—
Bang!
"ROAAARRR!!!"
A nail gun rattled off shot after shot, slugs peppering the Dead-End Butcher square in the face. The Butcher, who had been charging furiously at Geno a moment ago, went completely ballistic.
It abandoned its pursuit of Geno on the spot and turned to stalk toward Grace.
"You idiot! What are you doing?! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?!"
Geno was about to lose his mind. He'd put himself on the line to get Grace to safety, and now this woman had gone and offered herself up on a platter!
A deadweight teammate. The most textbook deadweight teammate imaginable.
But Geno had no choice — he couldn't just stand there and watch her get killed by the Dead-End Butcher.
He flash-stepped forward and threw himself in front of Grace. Their weapons clashed, and that same teeth-grinding screech of grinding metal rang out once more.
"Geno, hang on! I'm coming to save you!"
"I told you to run! Are you deaf?!"
Geno was done. How could this woman be so impossibly stubborn?! Did she even know whether she could win or not?!
Just as that thought crossed his mind, he heard something being hurled from behind him, followed immediately by Grace screaming at him to get down.
His body moved on instinct before his brain caught up. He deflected the Dead-End Butcher's axe and dropped flat to the ground — and then came a thunderous BOOM, as a brilliant firework bloomed right in front of his eyes.
Who could have guessed that what this woman had just thrown was a high-explosive grenade?!
Thank god Geno's reflexes were fast. If he'd taken a direct hit, he'd have been signing his own funeral rites.
"Geno, are you okay?!"
"I — yeah, I'm fine. Grace, where did you even get something that dangerous?"
Geno stared at the smoke cloud that hadn't yet fully cleared and swallowed hard, his heart still hammering.
Grace answered with complete nonchalance: "Oh, that? I made it myself. Used the latest-generation coupling arrestors — top-of-the-line batch in terms of yield."
Handmade?! Of course. Art students save the world; STEM students end it.
The old saying never lies.
"In that case — let's move! Now!"
"We can't leave yet. The data's almost finished processing — we can't throw away everything we've worked for at the last second!"
Even as she said it, Grace's hands moved faster, racing to decode the coordinates of the prototype unit with every second she could buy.
"Got it. I'll hold the Dead-End Butcher off!"
Seeing no other option, Geno gripped his greatsword tight and squared off against the Dead-End Butcher, buying Grace every additional second he could.
But the Dead-End Butcher had no intention of letting its ingredients enjoy extra fermentation time — if they went off, all that effort would be wasted.
"ROAAARRR!!!"
A scene Geno knew all too well: right in front of him, the Dead-End Butcher shifted once more into its [Feeding Form] — the one with four arms.
Geno immediately scrambled to his feet and lunged toward Grace, ready to throw himself between her and the killing blow.
But what happened next caught him completely off guard — the Dead-End Butcher leapt into the air without a moment's hesitation. Its four limbs bent into grotesque, slingshot curves, and then all four claws drove — not at Grace — but at Geno, who was right beside her.
Hey — why are you stabbing ME?! I wasn't the one who blew you up! If you're going to stab someone, stab HER!
In the chaos, Geno took the hit and was sent flying. The Dead-End Butcher pressed its advantage without missing a beat, launching itself at Geno again.
Ethereals at the Dead-End Butcher's tier had developed something approaching the intellect of a human child — roughly speaking.
So the Dead-End Butcher knew, with crystal clarity, exactly who it was here to take revenge on.
It hated Geno so intensely it was nearly feral with it. Only the heavens knew what it had felt like — getting caught in a massive Ether energy explosion and then buried alive under tons of earth.
But it had clawed its way back, and now fate had dropped its old enemy right into its hands.
This time, it would not give this little runner any chance to escape — not a single one. It would pour every last drop of its power into this, and make absolutely sure this insufferable bastard was put down for good.
"Geno!"
"Don't worry about me — handle the signal source first!"
He called out for Grace to keep working as he was sent crashing into the wall with a bone-juddering impact.
But Geno's face, which by all rights should have been twisted in pain and desperation, instead broke into a smile he couldn't quite suppress — making it clear he was nowhere near as badly off as it looked.
"Surprise, Dead-End Butcher! This is my escape route!"
____
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