The casual words hit the crowd like a physical blow.
"What...What are you saying, sir?"
"Please tell that’s not true."
"Oh no. We’re going to die! We’re really going to die!"
"It’s all over!"
Terror rippled through the command center and across every monitor.
Hardened soldiers—n and won trained to face death without flinching stumbled back, their faces pale, their eyes wide.
They had watched Mika perform miracles today.
He had dismantled five bombs simultaneously, orchestrating the entire operation from a single screen while flirting with doctors and cuddling a Battle Angel.
Because of that they had placed all their hopes on him. Every last shred of faith.
So hearing him now say he couldn’t dismantle this bomb felt like watching their last lifeline slip away into darkness.
Even Fauna couldn’t help but frown deeply. She grabbed Mika’s shoulders and started shaking him in frustration.
"What are you talking about, Mika?! This isn’t sothing you would say! You’re not soone who gives up like this!"
Her voice carried genuine distress.
"Please—just tell us it’s a joke!"
Nadia stepped forward as well, her normally composed face showing clear confusion and concern.
"I don’t understand, Mika. How can you possibly say you can’t dismantle a bomb like this? I’ve seen you accomplish impossible feats before."
"So, taking down an explosive device shouldn’t be beyond your capabilities, should it?"
Cecilia said nothing, but her worried gaze bore into him, silently pleading.
Mika scratched the back of his head, looking at the building with sothing between frustration and reluctant admiration.
"You want to know why I’m saying I can’t do anything about this bomb? Well..."
He chuckled, but there was no humor in it.
"It’s because this bomb was never ant to be turned off in the first place. It was going to go off sooner or later—no matter what."
Confusion rippled through the crowd. Nadia’s brow furrowed. "What do you an?"
Mika turned to face the anxious faces on the screens and the people gathered around him.
"The previous five bombs were designed with a failsafe. A master key. A code. As long as you had it, you could deactivate them."
"That’s why the cult used them for negotiation—they could turn them on and off at will."
He gestured vaguely at the bombs behind the monitors.
"That’s also why I was able to dismantle those five bombs. I found the failsafe, found the loophole, and worked around it."
"But this one?"
He pointed at the children’s hospital.
"No failsafe. No master key. No code."
His smile turned wry as he explained,
"This bomb was never intended to be disard."
"Even if we had agreed to every single demand—released every prisoner, handed over every resource, bowed to every whim..."
"...this bomb would still have gone off."
He shook his head slowly as he gloomily added,
"It just has a tir. A countdown to inevitable detonation. Nothing more, nothing less."
This was absolutely the worst possible news for the bomb squad specialists, as they imdiately understood the implications.
A bomb without any failsafe or shutdown chanism was usually completely impenetrable to standard defusal techniques.
If it had been a much smaller-scale device with simple construction, they might still have had options for dismantling it manually.
But this was sothing on an unprecedented scale, using chanisms and technology they’d never even encountered before.
And for bombs of this complexity without any failsafe protocols, gaining access to the detonation systems was nearly impossible or at minimum would require far more ti than they currently had.
Realizing they were dealing with this type of device was genuinely horrifying.
One of the subordinates spoke up hesitantly,
"Does that an they never actually wanted to negotiate with us in the first place? Was this entire thing just an elaborate hoax?"
Others echoed similar questions, voices tight with fear and betrayal.
"Oh, they probably did want the negotiations to succeed in so ways." Mika replied casually.
"They wanted to secure the release of their imprisoned mbers, wanted to establish safe passage, wanted to extract concessions from the governnt."
He paused, then continued with a note of dark amusent entering his voice.
"But at the sa ti—regarding this sixth bomb—they also planted sothing else here."
This surprised everyone.
"There actually is another device hidden on this property." Mika explained. "But it’s not a real bomb. It’s a completely inert mock-up that won’t actually explode."
"It’s designed to register on scanning equipnt as containing explosive materials, but there’s no actual volatile payload inside."
Understanding began dawning on people’s faces, along with mounting horror.
"That’s why no matter how thoroughly you searched earlier, none of your teams could find anything." Mika said. "The fake bomb is hidden well enough that discovering it would seem like a major achievent—but it contains no real threat."
He smiled without humor.
"At the ti of discovery, we naturally wouldn’t realize it was a dud. We’d just be relieved and happy that we’d finally neutralized all six bombs."
"We’d think the threat looming over the capital was finally gone."
Then his grin widened, taking on a mocking, sarcastic quality as he said,
"Little would we know that the sixth bomb was completely fake...and the true bomb was this entire building we’re standing next to."
He spread his arms wide in a theatrical gesture.
"And eventually, at the assigned ti, it would detonate. BOOM! Everything collapses—the buildings, the people, the roads, the infrastructure."
"The entire capital would take a devastating hit that would destroy decades of hard work and countless lives in a matter of seconds."
The horrified expressions around him deepened as the full cruelty of the plan beca clear.
Mika looked up at the sky thoughtfully.
"And those bastards would probably be watching from their secure locations, laughing behind their screens as it all unfolded."
"They gave us hope, made us think we could actually survive this day, made us think we’d won—only to crush us in the most devastating manner possible at the last mont."
His voice took on a note of genuine, if dark, appreciation.
"It really is quite an ingenious and utterly cruel plan. They’re even willing to sacrifice their own subordinates’ lives—the low-level cultists who probably don’t even know about this twist."
"This was clearly a top-secret contingency known only to the highest-ranking officials in their organization."
He shook his head slowly, almost admiringly.
"I really have to give them credit. I didn’t expect a cult to devise sothing this devastatingly clever."
But while Mika was indirectly praising their enemies’ strategic thinking, everyone else was facing the horrific reality of their situation.
So personnel actually fainted on the spot, overco by the revelation.
Others had to physically lean on colleagues for support, legs too weak to hold them upright.
So broke down into tears as they realized they’d been playing directly into the cult’s hands in the most horrible way imaginable.
Three minutes left.
The knowledge settled over them like a shroud.
"We’re going to die, aren’t we? We’re really going to pass on today..."
"I guess...it’s just our ti."
"At least we tried..."
But then sothing strange happened.
Instead of panicking, instead of screaming or running or begging—most of them seed to gain a strange sense of peace.
Almost as if seeing their deaths clearly before them—they chose dignity over panic.
They also didn’t want to run after hearing how elaborately they’d been manipulated.
Instead they wanted to have a final stand, a final defiant gesture toward the cultists who’d orchestrated such a cruel plan.
So despite the dire circumstances, they instead stood taller, pushed out their chests in a brave manner, and faced their fate with heads held high.
The leader of the search team managed a defeated but sincere smile. He looked directly at Nadia and Fauna.
"Lady Nadia, Lady Fauna." He said formally, which imdiately caught both Battle Angels’ attention.
"Please get out of here. Fly as far away as you can, as quickly as possible."
His voice was steady despite everything.
"We’re already dood. And even if we could run far enough to escape the blast...we don’t want to. It’s our duty to stay here. We failed our mission, so it’s our ti to go."
He nodded respectfully toward both won.
"But you two can survive this. You can definitely get away from the explosion radius if you leave right now."
The others imdiately agreed, voices overlapping:
"Yes, Lady Nadia, please leave!"
"Lady Fauna, don’t stay here anymore—go!"
The team leader spoke again, more urgently.
"We absolutely cannot allow anything to happen to either of you. You’ve already sacrificed more than enough for this world. You’ve given us the peaceful lives we currently enjoy."
He looked at them with complete sincerity.
"So please...run away right now. Don’t waste another second here."
"Lady Fauna, don’t stay here any longer!"
"We can’t let anything happen to you. Please—run. Now."
Everyone had the sa gaze—sincere, selfless, ready to die so that their heroes could live.
Fauna and Nadia stared at them, genuinely shocked.
For so long, they had been the protectors, the ones who shielded others from harm.
Now, these ordinary n and won were telling them to run, to save themselves while others stayed behind to die.
It was such an unexpected role reversal that both Battle Angels were struck montarily speechless.
The others, anwhile, felt a strange sense of peace settle over them.
They were going to die, yes.
But they were going to die with dignity.
With purpose. With the knowledge that they had done everything they could.
But just as everyone started to accept their ends—Mika started waving his hands.
"Hold on, hold on—what’s going on here?!"
He looked around at the solemn faces with an expression of genuine confusion.
"Why is everyone writing their wills and looking like they’re about to et their ancestors? What the hell is happening right now!?"
The search team leader blinked as he carefully said,
"I an...aren’t we going to die? There’s no chance of saving us, right? You said you couldn’t dismantle the bomb, after all."
Mika stared at him with a scrunched gaze.
Then he rubbed his forehead in irritation and finally shouted,
"Of course not, you fool!"
The leader’s mouth fell open.
"I said I couldn’t deactivate the bomb. I said it was going to explode."
"...But did I say that any lives would be lost?"
"...Did I say that any of you were going to die?"
Mika pointed at each of them in turn.
"Did I!? Did any of you hear say those words?!"
Confusion rippled through the crowd. They looked at each other, trying to recall his exact phrasing.
"No." Cecilia said slowly, her brow furrowed. "You didn’t. You just said you couldn’t stop it from exploding."
Nadia stepped forward, her eyes sharp. "What do you an, Mika? What are you trying to say?"
Fauna shook his arm. "Just tell us, Mika! Stop doing this nonsense buildup thing you always do!"
Mika had the decency to look slightly guilty. He gave an awkward chuckle, then straightened.
"Let ask you all a question. It’s a bit of a quiz."
He looked around at the assembled officers and technicians.
"Do you know why normally, when it cos to bombs like the ones we just dealt with, why we can’t just transport them sowhere isolated?"
"Why can’t we just take them to a deserted realm and blow them up there?"
A young technician raised his hand hesitantly.
"Because they’re location-sensitive. Most high-yield explosives have GPS triggers or sothing similar."
"If the bomb is moved outside a certain range, or if its orientation changes by even a fraction, it will detonate imdiately."
"The people who make these bombs aren’t stupid. They plan for that."
"Exactly right." Mika pointed at him with an appreciative smile. "That’s why it’s never an easy task. You can’t just move the bomb away, not without triggering it."
"The five bombs we dismantled earlier were location-sensitive too. If we had tried to transport them, they would have exploded on the spot."
"That’s why we dismantled them in place, without disturbing their surroundings."
"But this bomb..."
Mika then chuckled, as if he’d figured out an amusing puzzle before he looked back at the cheerful children’s hospital building.
"...this bomb is on another level entirely and is nothing like a common bomb."
He walked toward the building, gesturing at its walls.
"Just think about it. It’s not sothing you could move even if you wanted to..."
"...It’s an entire building, after all!"
He said enthusiastically, while enjoying everyone’s focused gaze on him and went on to say,
"An entire building—plus the ground beneath it and the gardens around it. The earth itself has been infused with explosive arrays and runes."
"The grass, the soil, the concrete foundations—all of it is part of the bomb."
People looked down at their feet in renewed horror, realizing they had been standing on death this entire ti.
Mika continued. "So even if you had the ability to transport sothing this large, you’d have to take up the entire plot of land. Every brick, every blade of grass, every grain of soil."
"And then you’d have to do it all at once, in one smooth motion, without jostling anything, without changing the orientation of anything, without triggering the sensitivity triggers."
He held up two fingers.
"Now, after hearing all that, you should realise that there are two reasons why the cult probably thought they were safe."
"One—they never expected us to find this bomb in the first place. Honestly, it’s a miracle that the beautiful Cecilia over there noticed sothing was off."
Cecilia blushed furiously.
"And two—they never believed that anyone could transport an entire building, along with the land around it, in such a short amount of ti."
Everyone nodded their head like it totally made sense.
"Even if we knew about soone with levitation abilities..." Mika continued. "...moving sothing this massive would be beyond even an S-class blessed."
"Even Multiple S-class blessed working together would struggle. And they’d have to do it in one go—no pauses, no adjustnts or risk setting off the explosives."
He paused. Then he grinned.
"But they seem to have totally forgotten about the fact that we have a SSS-Class Blessed whose entire blessing revolves around manipulating earth and gravity?"
He turned to look directly at person in question.
"...Isn’t that right, Nadia?"
The mont those words left his mouth, everyone’s expression transford into sudden realization.
They all turned toward Nadia with hopeful, expectant gazes, as if she’d suddenly beco the answer to an impossible equation.
And Nadia herself imdiately understood what needed to happen.
What only she could accomplish.
The mont she grasped the plan, she didn’t hesitate even for a second.
"How much ti is left?" She asked crisply.
One specialist quickly checked his equipnt.
"One minute, thirty seconds!"
Nadia’s eyes flashed with determination.
"That’s more than enough."
She imdiately looked toward everyone assembled and spoke with absolute authority:
"Everyone—get out of here! Leave this area right now. Run as fast as you possibly can unless..."
"...you want to take a trip to space."
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