Chapter 346: Evacuation from the Hollow
However, Hoshimi Miyabi's clear, cold voice cut through the tension, ringing out with decisive confidence. "No matter."
Those two simple words carried an immense, unshakeable weight. Her sharp gaze swept over her teammates before settling on the pitch-black depths of the gloomy passage stretching out ahead.
"I am here."
It wasn't blind arrogance. It was a quiet, powerful belief forged from absolute strength, instantly steadying the squad's morale. As long as she stood at the vanguard, the hidden explosives were merely obstacles to be handled, not an inescapable doom.
Hesitation was meaningless.
Section 6 quickly reached a silent consensus—they would push forward. Objective: Pearlman.
Their subsequent advance became terrifyingly efficient. Fairy had successfully breached the enemy's encrypted communication network, stripping away their tactical advantage. For the squad, it was akin to activating full map vision and real-time enemy unit markers across a fog-of-war battlefield.
Guided by Wise's precise, analytical voice over the comms, the four members of Section 6 moved like phantoms. Their trajectory became entirely unpredictable. They struck with blinding speed from the most cunning angles, consistently slipping through the enemy's weakly defended blind spots and un-marshaled zones.
They shattered physical barricades along the way with overwhelming, synchronized force. Whenever the mercenaries attempted to spring a trap, Fairy's early warning system chimed in. The squad would smoothly pivot, swiftly evacuating the blast radius mere seconds before the pre-set bombs could be remotely detonated.
Simultaneously, Fairy operated at maximum capacity in the background. using her newly acquired network permissions and monstrous computing power, the AI actively scanned the shifting environment, analyzing the alternate Hollow exits that the mercenaries had deliberately jammed and concealed.
The single "safe" exit the enemy had deliberately left open was, naturally, a meat grinder riddled with deadly traps.
However, the opposing commander wasn't entirely incompetent. Their reaction to the squad's flawless evasion was extremely swift.
The mercenaries quickly realized their communication network had been compromised. Their internal command structure showed clear signs of panic, and Section 6's movements were simply too "smooth" to be mere luck. Realizing the breach, the enemy commander decisively ordered a radical shift in tactics. They altered the bomb placements, scrambled the detonation sequences, and began manually activating backup, non-networked explosives.
This sudden shift immediately caused discrepancies in the tactical warnings provided by Wise and Fairy.
The battlefield grew chaotic. Several times, corridors that were supposed to be engulfed in violent explosions according to the original data remained eerily quiet. Conversely, sudden, deafening roars of detonating Ether erupted near pathways previously marked as completely safe.
"The enemy has changed the bomb layout! Some detonation commands are no longer being issued over the network," Wise's voice crackled through the earpieces, laced with sudden urgency. "The reliability of our previous path predictions has dropped significantly. Please proceed with extreme caution!"
"Understood," Tsukishiro Yanagi responded, her tone remaining perfectly level as she quickly adjusted their formation. "Miyabi, the Ether readings in the forward area are becoming chaotic. There might be unmarked explosives ahead. You take the vanguard and focus on path safety. Soukaku, watch our flanks. Harumasa, expand your reconnaissance range."
"Understood!" the rest of the squad replied in unison.
Fortunately, Section 6 possessed Hoshimi Miyabi—a steadfast, unshakeable anchor.
Whenever sudden explosion threats or violent Ether turbulence flared up, she relied on her extraordinary perception and lightning-fast reflexes. She would either detonate the hidden traps in advance with a sharp, precise wave of sword aura, or directly lead her teammates through the collapsing danger zones with superhuman speed.
Her earlier promise—"I am here"—transformed into the most solid guarantee imaginable. It allowed the team to maintain their terrifyingly high advancement efficiency, even as the environment around them devolved into a lethal, unpredictable maze.
But an unforeseen variable ultimately shattered their rhythm at the most critical moment.
Guided by an increasingly clear life signal, they were just about to breach the large, abandoned central control hall where Pearlman was being held. Then, the entire Hollow shifted.
BOOM—!!!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!
It wasn't a pre-set, methodical detonation. It was a frantic, desperate chain of violent explosions. Deafening roars echoed simultaneously from multiple sectors of the Ballet Twins Building, the shockwaves tearing through the very corridors they had just traversed.
The entire Hollow space began to tremble violently. Huge slabs of concrete and twisted metal components peeled off the ceiling, crashing down around them in a haze of dust. The ambient Ether completely lost control, agitated by the chain explosions into a chaotic, swirling energy storm.
"This is bad!" Wise's voice cut through the deafening background noise, sounding unusually anxious. "The enemy has initiated a large-scale detonation ahead of schedule! They aren't following the preset sequence—this is a forced manual activation! The internal structural data of the Hollow is rapidly deteriorating, and the Ether field is extremely unstable!"
He rapidly typed across his console, his words rushing out. "The signals from the alternative exits Fairy calculated earlier are rapidly weakening! Some are completely disappearing! And... it seems the ground-level mercenaries didn't know about the premature demolition either. Their internal comms are in complete disarray. They're frantically demanding answers and trying to evacuate!"
The situation had taken a sharp, lethal turn. The enemy commander had clearly lost patience. Perhaps to ensure absolutely no witnesses survived, they were entirely willing to sacrifice their own grunts. By launching an all-out demolition ahead of schedule, they intended to completely bury the entire Ballet Twins Building Hollow, along with everyone inside it.
"Understood!"
The responses from the four members of Section 6 were concise and powerful. There was not the slightest hint of panic in their voices. They exchanged brief glances through the falling debris, seeing only cold determination reflected in each other's eyes.
Without another word, the four operatives instantly accelerated to their absolute maximum speed. Like four arrows released from a single bowstring, they charged straight through the continuously falling rubble and the raging Ether turbulence, making a final, desperate sprint toward the central control hall.
Pearlman was finally within reach.
They shattered through heavy spike nets dropping from the ceiling and vaulted over crude trap mechanisms spraying high-pressure Ether from the walls.
Tearing through the final barricade, the four members of Section 6 burst into the abandoned central control hall. The massive room was relatively intact, though the walls shook violently, shedding thick layers of dust with every external explosion.
Right in the center of the hall, a rusty metal trash can swayed slightly, rattling against the floorboards in time with the booming shockwaves outside.
"Help! Help me! I don't want to die! Someone save me!" A crying, utterly desperate male voice echoed from inside the muffled confines of the trash can.
Clearly, Pearlman had been violently crammed inside. The mercenaries' methods were extremely insulting—not only had they imprisoned the high-value target, but they had deliberately stuffed him into the most humiliating container available.
Time was running out. Every passing second was a matter of life and death as the Hollow collapsed around them. No one had the leisure to mock or comment on the key witness's pathetic predicament.
Miyabi's cold eyes swept over the trembling trash can. Without the slightest hesitation, she moved.
She darted to the front of the rusted metal like a crimson phantom. Her katana, Tailless, didn't even fully leave its sheath. There was merely a sharp, blinding glint of cold steel.
Clang!
The metal trash can was neatly severed in half along its central axis. The two halves clattered away to the left and right, revealing Pearlman curled up tightly in the center. His face was deathly pale with fright, tears and snot streaming down his cheeks in a pathetic mess.
Seeing the light of day once more, Pearlman didn't even have time to clearly register his savior before a violent shudder wracked his body. He was instantly intimidated by the swordswoman's freezing expression and the chilling, razor-sharp aura radiating from her frame.
Miyabi looked down at the middle-aged man. His face was an absolute mess of tears, and he reeked of garbage and sweat. She subtly furrowed her brows, clearly possessing absolutely zero intention of personally helping him to his feet.
Just as Pearlman clumsily struggled to climb out of the debris, Miyabi casually raised her foot. She lightly nudged the center of his back with the tip of her toe. The kick contained an exquisite level of martial skill—it didn't harm him in the slightest, but it provided a massive burst of forward propulsion.
Pearlman felt a gentle yet completely irresistible force shove him forward. With a startled yelp, he flew out of the broken trash can, his limbs flailing wildly in the air as he plunged directly toward Harumasa, who was standing a few paces away.
"Whoa, whoa!" Harumasa complained loudly, though his physical reactions weren't slow in the slightest. He agilely sidestepped the flying man, reaching out to precisely snatch Pearlman by the back of his collar, hoisting him up to keep him from eating dirt. "Good catch! Section Chief, really..."
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]