What rang beside her ears was a terrible roar, as if the sky and earth were collapsing.
What her skin felt was the vicious heat coming from burning buildings.
A painful dead end, like the end of the world itself.
As always, it was reflected in Tokisaki Kurumi's eyes.
"Ah... I failed again?"
Walking slowly along the empty sidewalk, Kurumi spoke in a hoarse voice.
How many loops had this been already?
Kurumi could not help asking herself that question.
Ten tis? Twenty tis? Fifty tis? Or had it already gone past one hundred?
Honestly, she had long since lost the strength to count.
Every single ti, no matter how hard she tried, she could not change the fact that he was killed.
Even with mories from the previous loop, even if she avoided the fate of death she rembered, a new misfortune would soon co to his side.
And Kurumi could only watch helplessly as the person she loved died beside her again and again.
At first, Kurumi could still feel anger and sadness toward the tragedy before her eyes.
But as the number of loops slowly grew, as she chanically processed the sa events again and again, those emotions grew weaker and weaker.
It was as if she had beco numb. Even when she personally witnessed his death, her heart barely moved.
Perhaps she was losing the feelings a normal person should have.
It could not be helped—Kurumi told herself that.
Extra feelings would only beco noise and affect her judgnt. If she did not beco numb, then these countless loops would surely torture her until she broke.
She did not know how long she had walked before she finally reached her destination and stopped.
It was that person.
More accurately, it was the corpse of what had once been "that person."
His head and body had been cruelly separated.
Perhaps so ti had already passed. The bright red blood had flowed across the ground, mixed with gravel, and hardened into black clots.
"Zafkiel——Dalet."
Calmly summoning her Angel, Kurumi skillfully restored the soulless corpse back to its original state, kissed his lips, and took back the power of Vav.
"It's all right... Shido-san... Next ti, for sure..."
Kurumi spoke in a trembling voice and moved the flintlock pistol in her hand to her own temple.
Yes. It did not matter if he died this ti.
After all, there would still be a next ti.
As long as she did not give up, he could not be considered truly dead.
As long as she kept going, this loop that seed impossible to solve would one day show a crack.
However—
One day?
When exactly was that?
[Holding on to revenge will not change anything. You should understand that better than I do.]
"Guh——"
The warning her collaborator had once given her echoed in her heart. Kurumi could not help pressing her lips tightly together.
Her chest felt as if it had been crushed under a stone weighing thousands of tons, making it hard to breathe.
At the ti, she had denied the other person's words with a mocking tone. But deep in Kurumi's heart, she had already admitted that she was right.
Revenge would only bring destruction in the end, not salvation.
If she lost herself because of her emotions, she would only beco a clown dancing in the palm of fate.
If she could not find a way to change things, then no matter how many tis she repeated it, the future would never change.
Yes.
Tokisaki Kurumi understood that better than anyone.
But understanding sothing with reason and accepting it with emotion were two completely different things.
"...How could I possibly do that!!!!"
Her cheeks twisted in pain. Kurumi roared into the empty street.
"Mio took my ho! My place to belong! My best friend! My whole life, and turned everything into a ss! What right does she have to be forgiven?! Everything I've done for more than ten years was all to kill her! And now you want to give up revenge? Don't joke with !!"
For the sake of revenge, she had endured pain and torture beyond count.
She had trampled on the lives of countless unrelated people.
The force that had pushed Kurumi to this day was without doubt the fla of revenge burning fiercely in her heart.
Kurumi knew clearly.
The mont she gave up on revenge, everything she had done until now would lose all aning.
And she would no longer be herself.
If she continued to seek revenge, what awaited Kurumi was an endless loop with no exit.
If she gave up revenge, it ant denying the entire life Kurumi had built until now.
An unreasonable contradiction stood before her.
The mont she realized that, Kurumi's right hand, the hand holding Zafkiel, began trembling uncontrollably.
"I... I..."
"Kurumi!"
At that mont, just like in the previous loops, a familiar voice rang beside Kurumi's ears.
In an instant, a tightly stretched string inside her heart snapped.
The pistol slipped from her hand.
Kurumi collapsed weakly to her knees, threw away all her stubborn strength and all her disguises, and cried out loud.
Why?
Why must I suffer like this?
I've had enough!
I've already had enough!
I don't care anymore!
I...
I don't want to fight anymore.
————————
March 15th, Thursday.
London, England.
DEM Industries Headquarters.
[Warning! Warning! Spacequake reaction detected at coordinates (XXX, XXXX). Spacequake scale: A . Beginning Spirit wave analysis——Individual ①: Spirit power type E. Inverse confird. Spirit identification code: Hermit. Individual ②: Spirit power type B. Spirit identification code: Hacker. All company Wizards, please prepare for battle imdiately according to orders. Repeating——]
"Oh... so they finally appeared?"
Hearing the alarms ringing throughout the company, Westcott showed an excited smile.
One month ago, under Westcott's plan, the boy with the power to seal Spirits, Itsuka Shido, had been successfully killed by him.
And the developnt afterward also went just as he expected.
After losing their most important emotional pillar, the Spirits fell into despair one after another and Inversed.
However, there was only one Spirit who was an exception.
Ryougi Yutsuki.
This Spirit, who was known as the most dangerous Spirit to humanity, did not lose her mind from Inversion as planned.
Instead, when Ellen and the others prepared to capture all the Inverse Spirits in one sweep, she kept interfering from the shadows.
In the end, Westcott could only watch helplessly as the Inverse Spirits, after causing enough trouble, disappeared back into the Neighboring World one after another. Ryougi Yutsuki herself also vanished to who knew where.
It was like drawing water with a bamboo basket.
His frustration was impossible to describe.
(Well, thinking about it carefully, trying to hunt down all the Inverse Spirits in one go was indeed a little reckless. Waiting for them to scatter and then hunting them down one by one is also a good choice. In that sense, perhaps I should thank Ryougi Yutsuki.)
Westcott shrugged and quickly adjusted his mood.
Always looking at unexpected situations from an optimistic angle was also one of his strengths.
And now, one month later, today, Westcott, who had returned to England, finally waited for the first Spirit spacequake reaction.
At that mont, the automatic door to the office suddenly opened. Ellen and Artemisia walked quickly in front of him.
"Ike, Ryougi Yutsuki has appeared."
Without paying much attention to the existence of an Inverse Spirit, Ellen imdiately stated her top priority for the operation.
Seeing his subordinate full of fighting spirit, Westcott could not help showing a satisfied smile.
"Mm, of course. To avoid a failure like last ti, this operation will prioritize killing Ryougi Yutsuki. The Inverse Spirit will be secondary. Artemisia, you will assist Ellen as her support in this operation. Any objections?"
"No, Westcott-san."
Artemisia nodded. Her beautiful, elegant face showed a rare trace of anger as her brows furrowed.
"I will kill Hacker and avenge Ai-san."
"..."
Hearing Artemisia's words, Ellen remained silent.
Westcott nodded and spoke with a deeply regretful expression.
"Artemisia. I completely understand your anger. Ai Mulian sacrificed herself after being ambushed by Hacker while protecting innocent civilians from the Inverse Spirits. Although she was only with us for a few months, there is no doubt that she was an excellent Wizard. Losing such a capable subordinate pains deeply. However, as I said before, Hacker—Ryougi Yutsuki—is an extrely cunning Spirit. Please do not let anger cloud your mind. I do not want to lose another excellent subordinate."
"...Yes, I understand. Thank you for your concern, Westcott-san."
After taking a slow, deep breath, Artemisia, who had cald down, nodded solemnly.
Perhaps unable to keep watching Westcott's fake performance, Ellen sighed and interrupted at a suitable mont.
"Then we will prepare to depart. Ike, are you planning to stay in the company?"
"How could I?" Westcott smiled and shook his head. "Although I have no intention of going personally into battle, I also do not plan to hide inside the company like a turtle. You two head to the target location first. I will arrive separately on an airship."
"Understood. Prepare to depart, Artemisia."
"Yes."
Ellen nodded, then left the office with Artemisia.
"...Now that both of them have left, perhaps you should show yourself, Ryougi Yutsuki."
Looking at his empty office, Westcott spoke with a aningful smile.
...
However, the only answer Westcott received was silence without a single sound.
"...No one? Well, that is normal too."
After confirming there was no sign of anyone else, Westcott rubbed his nose, smiled bitterly, and stood up to leave the office.
"Hello, Director Westcott!"
"Good day, Director!"
"Mm, mm. Keep up the good work, everyone."
After smiling and dealing with a few ordinary employees he happened to et, Westcott slowly made his way toward the airship hangar.
On the way, he summoned his Demon King——Beelzebub.
"Hmm... There are no traces of the company being hacked. The spirit power detectors are also operating normally... So I really was overthinking it?"
Westcott muttered to himself.
Beelzebub——a Demon King that could obtain all knowledge in the world, possessing the authority of omniscience.
That was what it was called.
However, it was not truly all-powerful. In this world, there were a few special exceptions that it could not investigate.
And one of them was Ryougi Yutsuki.
Although he did not understand the principle behind it, whenever he searched for Ryougi Yutsuki, Beelzebub always failed to return any information.
In the past, Westcott could still investigate the people around Ryougi Yutsuki, then use the information attached to their conversations to infer Yutsuki's movents and words.
However, that trick no longer worked.
The eyes that had been monitoring Ryougi Yutsuki were either dead or Inversed. Now that she had beco a lone wolf, she had completely beco an invisible person outside Westcott's field of view.
Precisely because of that, he had felt so doubt when the alarm ntioned the na Hacker.
But thinking about it now, he had indeed been too suspicious.
Although the Spirits had Inversed, they were still undoubtedly Ryougi Yutsuki's companions. And Hermit had appeared in a city with an extrely high population density.
With Yutsuki's personality, no matter how one thought about it, there was no reason she would just sit by and do nothing.
"This really is fortunate. If Ellen and Artemisia had not deployed first, I would have looked sowhat shaful as their superior."
With an awkward sigh, Westcott adjusted his mood and withdrew his Demon King back into his body.
However, at the very instant Beelzebub was withdrawn and Westcott lowered his guard—
—Bang!
A cold gunshot suddenly rang out.
A bullet appeared from behind him without warning and struck Westcott's spine.
In an instant, Westcott felt his whole body lose sensation. His body collapsed to the ground, no longer obeying him.
(Wh-what happened?)
Unable to understand the situation, Westcott could not help having that question flash through his mind.
(B... Beelzebub.)
Westcott hurriedly tried to summon his Demon King to protect himself.
However, things went against his wishes.
Just before he could summon his Angel, countless blue white sparks spread across his whole body.
The spirit power inside him not only failed to obey his command, but instead seed to be forcefully controlled by soone. It gathered from all over his body toward one point in his chest.
"Ah——aaaaaaaaaaaaah——"
It felt as if all the blood in his body were flowing backward.
An unimaginable wrongness and intense pain eroded his mind.
Although he could not control his body, Westcott's body still shook violently on instinct, like soone having a seizure.
Then his chest was torn open alive.
Westcott felt as if the Sephira Crystal inside his body had been brutally dug out.
"Sephira Crystal extraction successful. Thanks, Westcott. Thanks to you, I roughly understand which parts need improvent."
Finally, a voice rang beside his ears.
In Westcott's almost blackened vision, a blurry figure appeared before him.
"...Ryougi... Yutsuki."
Westcott weakly opened and closed his lips.
He did not understand why she was here.
To be safe, he had clearly used Beelzebub to investigate all spirit power and magic reactions in the area. Everything had been normal. And dozens of kiloters away from the company, her spirit power reaction had indeed been detected.
(Could it be...)
In an instant, an absurd possibility surfaced in Westcott's mind.
Although he had never tested it and could not be sure, if it was really true, then even Westcott could only admire Ryougi Yutsuki's madness.
(Really now... I thought I had gained the upper hand, but all I did was destroy the chains binding a fierce wolf...)
"Kill ... Ryougi Yutsuki."
Westcott spoke in a hoarse voice.
"...Fine. Although I would like to torture you until you die, my purpose this ti is not revenge. I will give you a quick death."
A calm and steady voice rang beside his ears.
Soon, along with the sound of a bullet being chambered, Westcott felt sothing hard press against the back of his head.
"Die."
With a cold word, a bullet burst from the muzzle with a tongue of fla and ended Westcott's life.
...
"D-Director Westcott?! Soone, co quickly! The director has been murdered!!"
As Westcott's corpse was discovered, all of DEM fell into an unprecedented uproar.
"..."
anwhile, Ryougi Yutsuki, wearing the work uniform of a low-level DEM employee, quietly left without drawing anyone's attention.
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