"Those guys disappeared right here?"
"Yes, Instructor Minamiya."
Gazing at the area ahead, Natsuki Minamiya's expression darkened. After a moment of thought, she turned to her subordinate and issued an order.
"Go notify the companies inside and evacuate everyone from this area. We're going in to search."
"Uh… Instructor Minamiya, we haven't been granted authorization for this, and isn't this a bit over the top? Many of these are properties owned by the upper echelons of the Gigafloat Management Corporation."
Silently glaring at the questioning youth, Natsuki Minamiya brought her fan down sharply on his head.
"I don't care. Clear everyone from this area immediately."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Watching the youth run off to relay the order, Natsuki Minamiya turned her gaze back to the area ahead. Her expression shifted between anger and determination as she recalled the earlier battle, clenching her teeth and muttering under her breath.
"That presence just now… the Lion King Organization. If Itogami Island is destroyed as part of your plan, don't even think about escaping."
Still, a thought involuntarily crossed her mind.
Koyomi Shizuka, surely the Lion King Organization hasn't messed things up again, have they?
During her final clash with Koyomi Shizuka, just as she was about to defeat her, an extraordinarily powerful surge of ice energy erupted from the hospital room where Kojou Akatsuki had once resided.
Normally, an ice energy fluctuation wouldn't be unusual. Natsuki Minamiya knew that Nagisa Akatsuki, Kojou's younger sister, harbored a Fourth Primogenitor's Beast Vassal. This surge was likely caused by the vassal awakening in response to danger.
What was astonishing was that beneath this surge, Natsuki Minamiya clearly sensed an aura comparable to, if not surpassing, that of a True Primogenitor. It effortlessly overpowered the Beast Vassal within Nagisa Akatsuki.
Realizing this, Natsuki Minamiya's attack on Koyomi Shizuka stalled for several seconds, giving her the opportunity to escape.
After fighting so hard, the target she was about to capture had slipped away—but Natsuki Minamiya had no time to dwell on that.
A being capable of defeating a rampaging True Primogenitor Beast Vassal just by aura—regardless of the vassal host's limited vitality and Magical Power—was undoubtedly an SS-class powerhouse, capable of single-handedly sinking Itogami Island. It wasn't impossible that this figure ranked among the world's top fifteen.
Compared to such a powerhouse, Koyomi Shizuka—specialized in single-target attacks yet unable to beat her—was nothing more than a weakling. She could simply track her down and expel her. The immediate priority was determining this powerful figure's intentions. If they were merely passing through, that would be best.
Unfortunately, when Natsuki Minamiya arrived at the source of the magical power, all she saw were several Therianthrope corpses and battle traces left by the Lion King Organization's Shrine Maids.
Seriously, has the Lion King Organization lost its mind? The current Kojou Akatsuki can't even defeat one of the Three Saints, yet they've drawn an enemy capable of sinking the entire island?
At this point, Natsuki Minamiya could only focus on evacuating civilians, praying that all of this was part of the Lion King Organization's plan.
Unlike Rudolf's invasion last time, which relied on their deliberate leniency, this time there was no guarantee. Even if things went wrong with a rampaging SS-class powerhouse… there was no one on the island who could contain it.
…
"Ha… ha… ha… this mission… is just inhuman… guh!"
Leaning against a wall, she sat down and coughed up blood, performing basic first aid on herself.
As she treated her wounds, Koyomi Shizuka's face was filled with resentment. She felt utterly unlucky—she had nearly been killed by Natsuki Minamiya's Guardian!
Over a week ago, she had been carrying out the Lion King Organization's "Awakening the Fourth Primogenitor" mission, thinking it would be an easy win. How much trouble could a mere Rudolf really cause?
But the outcome… The Sword Shaman sent to contact the Fourth Primogenitor failed entirely, and then Kojou Akatsuki awakened his First Beast Vassal only to be defeated by Rudolf, who seemed to cheat. Left with no choice, she had to intervene personally.
Then, after attacking Rudolf, Shadow appeared, she became the noob.
Unable to win, she resigned herself, but was then nearly killed by the rampaging Fourth Primogenitor's wide-area attacks. After the Shadow healed her, she suffered immensely on the escape as her stamina and Spiritual Energy reached near zero.
Having faced death several times, she had accepted her fate. At the Council of the Three Saints, she proposed ending the Fourth Primogenitor Project, but the vote went 2-to-1 against her. Since Itogami Island was her responsibility, she remained tasked with guarding the Fourth Primogenitor.
Now, with the second phase of the Fourth Primogenitor's awakening underway, she was once again hunted and beaten by Natsuki Minamiya. Had it not been for the sudden appearance of that aura, she might already have been captured and expelled from Itogami Island.
After escaping, she even considered surrendering outright. She had sensed the aura then as well. Contrary to Natsuki Minamiya's assessment, she had fought Kojou Akatsuki in his rampage state, and the aura she felt… was stronger than his.
Though Kojou in rampage—with incomplete bloodline and vassal, and no sanity, ranked at the very bottom of SSS-tier, anyone stronger than him in that state would undoubtedly be among the world's top fifteen.
At this thought, Koyomi Shizuka's face twisted into a bitter grimace. She had a sinking feeling things had gone wrong again. Worse still, as one of Japan's top combatants, she had no excuse to retreat. Reporting back would only earn her orders to continue surveillance.
...
Crawling through the ventilation duct, Cid paused and glanced back. Seeing Sayaka Kirasaka trailing far behind, he raised an eyebrow but waited patiently for her to catch up.
"Haven't your stamina and Spiritual Energy recovered yet? We might have to fight soon. If not, I suggest you stay here. I don't mind dragging a dead weight along, but I don't want to be distracted protecting you mid-battle."
"I've recovered a little. As long as I don't use high-consumption spells, a short fight shouldn't be a problem. Though…"
After assessing her condition and giving an honest answer, Sayaka Kirasaka switched gears and started complaining.
"What kind of unorthodox healing ability is that? I was badly injured back then, yet you managed to heal me completely within minutes without leaving any side effects, but my Spiritual Energy and stamina didn't recover along with it. It's the strangest healing technique I've ever seen."
Sayaka Kirasaka had been itching to vent. With the injuries she had sustained, even modern medical treatment combined with a healing-type Sacred Gear would have left her bedridden for three days.
But Cid's treatment had taken less than a minute. Broken bones had fused together, her hematopoietic stem cells, stimulated and nourished by Magical Power, rushed to produce blood, and her nearly depleted life force was fully restored. Even the hidden injuries from past training had healed.
The hardest injuries to treat were gone, yet her stamina and Spiritual Energy, which should have been easiest to restore, remained empty.
As a combatant for the Lion King Organization, Sayaka Kirasaka was no stranger to injury and subsequent treatment.
Practice makes perfect. Though she lacked medical skills, she knew enough to understand treatment principles. In medicine, bones are the hardest to mend. Once broken, they must be replaced or forcibly set. Blood comes next, since even slight damage to hematopoietic stem cells can be catastrophic. Flesh is simplest, though it still relies on time to heal.
By comparison, restoring stamina and Spiritual Energy is trivial. With enough energy, a clear mind, and a functioning body, they recover naturally.
To revive her within a minute after all three aspects, bones, blood, and flesh, had nearly collapsed, yet leave her stamina and Spiritual Energy untouched, seemed utterly absurd. Sayaka Kirasaka judged this ability perfect for logistics, but ill-suited for battlefield healing.
"Actually, it's not that I can't restore your stamina and Spiritual Energy…"
Cid replied casually as he crawled forward, ignoring her complaint.
"Huh! Hey, what do you mean by that? You're not deliberately withholding my Spiritual Energy, are you?"
Sayaka Kirasaka's gaze instantly sharpened, locking onto him.
She didn't want to doubt Cid, so she had previously blamed the inability to recover stamina and Spiritual Energy on a flaw in his healing. But hearing his remark made suspicion unavoidable.
Could he be deliberately leaving her weakened, hoping to take advantage of her?
Considering the man in front of her, the one who would throw away the dignity of a powerful warrior for coins, combined with his reputation as a scumbag, it felt completely plausible.
"You think I don't want to? The problem is, healing is addictive."
"Addictive?"
"Yes. Once I restore someone's stamina and Spiritual Energy, they'll become addicted to my healing magic."
Unaware of Sayaka Kirasaka's thoughts, a flicker of reminiscence crossed Cid's eyes. At some point, his body had undergone a strange evolution in his healing ability. The life force converted from his Magical Power now carried a dependency effect. It was baffling. What purpose did this ability really serve?
He first noticed it roughly two months after Eta had brought him milk.
He had come across a dying puppy on the road. The puppy was cute, and it wore a tag showing it had an owner, so he felt safe enough to heal it.
After being healed, the puppy became extremely clingy. At the time, he assumed it was simply gratitude toward its savior and didn't think much of it.
It wasn't until he found the puppy's owner and was returning it that he sensed something unusual.
The puppy acted aggressively, repeatedly trying to leave its owner to come to him. The moment he disappeared from the puppy's sight—just a few seconds—the owner screamed. Less than ten seconds later, the puppy appeared before him, blood at the corners of its mouth.
Everyone else dismissed it as an accident, assuming the puppy had rabies. But Cid's instincts told him otherwise. After experimenting on several animals, he reached a conclusion: his body had evolved again.
Healing bones, blood, and flesh alone wasn't unusual. These were lifeless, without spirit. Unless the soul, body, and mind were fused like his, his life force couldn't affect the inner self.
But when he restored stamina and Spiritual Energy, it flowed through this conduit, gradually influencing the inner self and creating a withdrawal-like reaction toward life force.
So what was the point of this ability?
Cid had no answer.
"Let me ask you something. You said those you heal become addicted to life force. Did you observe this in humans or animals?"
Sayaka Kirasaka furrowed her brow, recalling something as she narrowed her eyes at Cid.
"Animals. But if it affects animals this way, then humans…"
"Stop!"
Cid tried to explain further, but Sayaka Kirasaka cut him off impatiently.
"Restore my stamina and Spiritual Energy."
"But—"
"Restore my stamina and Spiritual Energy."
"Hey, didn't you hear me just—"
"You're overthinking it. Animals aren't very smart; it's normal for them to get addicted to high-concentration life force. You don't need to be so cautious."
"What? That's normal?"
Cid recalled the lab mice. Before seeing him, they had been hyper-aggressive, killing each other frantically. After seeing him, they had slammed themselves into the glass just to reach him, even risking death. He widened his eyes and shook his head.
"No, no, no. That's not a normal reaction by any stretch."
Seeing his disbelief, Sayaka Kirasaka exhaled and shifted her gaze slightly. The thought of being taken advantage of because of this made her flush with frustration.
"Do you think people in the real world get addicted to life force?"
"Wait, what do you mean?"
"It's not just animals. I've seen people in combat units addicted to the life force they get from treatment. They'll deliberately get slightly injured on missions just to receive healing afterward. The most extreme even derived pleasure from both being beaten and being healed at the same time.
So if mentally sound humans can get addicted to life force, imagine animals."
Thinking of a certain man named "Dou M", Cid felt a flicker of doubt—had he really been overthinking it?
"I… I suppose that makes sense."
"Then help me recover."
After a brief hesitation, Cid nodded, and an emerald glow lit up his palm.
"Alright, but if something feels off, you must tell me."
"Fine, fine."
He placed his palm on Sayaka Kirasaka's shoulder, and the light shimmered.
After a moment, the glow faded. Seeing her refreshed and energetic, Cid had to admit he had overthought it. Still, the result was good. With her stamina restored, Sayaka Kirasaka moved much faster.
Where's that scent coming from?
As they continued, Sayaka Kirasaka's nostrils twitched, and a thought crossed her mind.
Don't think about it—saving Yukina takes priority.