Chapter 48
"......"
He looked down at the fox cradled in his arms.
A girl with auburn hair shedding tears, her face buried in his chest.
He gently patted her trembling back with a calm touch.
Though she looked haggard, there were no signs of injury or experimentation.
It seemed he had managed to save her in time.
He quietly embraced the fox's chilled body.
He hoped she would regain stability, even if only from his faint body heat.
'You must have suffered a lot.'
Bergen Belzen.
How much pain had she endured during her stay in this laboratory?
In real-world time it had only been a day, but in this place with its twisted time axis, a week would have already passed.
It was enough time for her spirit to be broken.
[EP6. Bergen Belzen]
-Lost Girl, Monsters That Can't Cry-
The darkest episode in the original work.
Perhaps due to its uniquely gloomy and unpleasant atmosphere, it was a story that strongly divided users' opinions.
It was based on an actual historical tragedy.
As such, it was difficult content to enjoy with a light heart.
'I should have come sooner.'
He had trouble because it was land not marked on maps.
It was also beyond imperial territory.
He was able to track the facility's location based on information obtained from the previous "Abandoned Laboratory".
That was fortunate at least.
"It was my oversight."
He hadn't imagined the fox would get involved.
She was originally a character with no connection to this episode.
He thought he just had to prevent Regia's kidnapping, but a problem occurred in a completely unexpected place.
He inwardly let out a sigh.
"Miss Irene."
"...Mm."
"Did you perhaps meet a girl named Anne here?"
"......"
Her expression suddenly hardened.
Seeing black eyes welling up with tears again, he could be certain.
'So you did meet her.'
Though the character experiencing the episode had changed, it seemed the detailed flow remained the same.
The pilot also started her part by meeting Anne.
Irene grabbed his sleeve with trembling hands.
She seemed to be suffering from a terrible nightmare.
He quietly calmed the fox.
As he soothed her continued sobbing for a while, a voice was heard from behind.
"Commander."
It was Neria.
She who had stepped out to clean up the surroundings was now waiting in a proper posture, having apparently finished her role.
The guards' corpses were scattered in rows along the corridor.
The other members were the same.
They were each keeping their places as if waiting for the next order.
It was time to move.
He whispered quietly.
"Miss Irene. We intend to clean this laboratory from now on."
"......"
"Though I'd like to tell you to rest like this... I'll ask first. Will you join us?"
"...I want to go together."
"It probably won't become a good memory."
"I know. But still."
The fox slowly separated from his embrace.
Though her face was a mess from tears, her eyes were alive and not dead.
Her pupils held transparent sadness.
"I have to... confirm something with my own eyes."
Perhaps it was lingering attachment.
The girl seemed unable to let go of hope.
"I'll respect that."
He nodded.
This was the fox's choice.
It wasn't something he could arbitrarily force.
He who had belatedly appeared as a mere extra simply turned his back and gave orders.
"Then... shall we start in earnest now?"
Pure white robes fluttering.
As he took steps towards the tightly closed door, the footsteps of the members following rang neatly.
Killing intent dyeing thickly filled the corridor.
He recited.
"It's time for logging."
It was time to cut down the wicked trees.
***
'Bergen Belzen.'
A laboratory where all kinds of inhumane experiments were carried out.
One of the main strongholds of the cult group 'Baob', and also a place of massacre that left the most victims every year.
It was a facility serving as a pillar of the organization.
The location was also messed up.
Wilderness surrounding all sides.
It was land untouched by human feet due to its harsh and fierce geographical characteristics.
Numerous valleys split the land, and the laboratory was located in the deepest underground among them.
Thanks to that, it was impossible for outsiders to set foot in the facility.
Only those allowed could come and go through teleportation.
-The day Belzen falls will surely be the day the world meets its end.
It was truly an impregnable fortress.
As such, the meaning Belzen held was special.
Thanks to the strangely twisted time axis, experimental results could be efficiently extracted, so there was no reason for headquarters not to support it.
As a result, many personnel gathered despite the facility's not large size.
-It's a force that could easily trample an average count's family.
-If we steadily accumulate research like this... we'll soon be able to realize a grand hell in this world.
The research director evaluated it like that.
Over 300 elite troops were stationed at the facility.
It was a level no branch of similar size could match.
No one imagined Belzen's downfall.
They thought it would continue its legacy forever.
But.
"We're under attack!! Unidentified intruders in the facility...!"
"Fuck!! How the hell did they get in?!"
"Everyone grab the experiment data!!"
"Kyaaah!!"
Trees are still just trees in the end.
They helplessly fall before a raised axe.
The facility was one-sidedly butchered.
"What are the guards doing?!"
"They're all dead!! It's already annihilation up to Laboratory 17!!"
"Where did these bastards come from...!"
"Everyone respond calmly!! Prepare incantations just in case!"
"Damn it! Die!!"
Pure white robes fluttering elegantly.
The intruders wearing pure white "cleaned up" the facility with skilled hands.
As if they had done this many times before.
People danced gracefully.
Attacks avoided like flowing water.
Then when they swung their swords in splendid lines, the heads of cultists blocking the way floated in the air.
They were swept away helplessly.
"These bastards, it's like they're reading our attacks... Gack!"
"Kyaaah!!"
"The chief researcher has fallen!!"
"Communication... Contact Laboratory 83 and request support!!"
"The signal's not connecting! It seems they've already been taken out!"
"Damn iiiit!!!"
A scene resembling a massacre.
Numerous deaths rolled on the floor.
Even in this scene of war with blood and flesh splattering, the intruders calmly moved their steps.
Trudge trudge-.
Their noble figures were like seeing white angels.
Silver blades judged sin.
"This is impossible... How could this happen..."
"We're no match for them!!"
"Hey, release the chimeras in the laboratory!"
"Retreat for now! Hold out until the director comes out!!"
Where had Belzen's reputation gone?
In their current state, they were no different from cockroaches being crushed.
In the end, the black magicians fled while retreating the front line.
News of the intruders reached even the devil.
"What did you just say?"
"I said it seems intruders have appeared in the research institute."
"Intruders...?"
Research Director Josef Kramer.
The man called the devil of Belzen muttered as if dumbfounded.
The director who had been wearing a dazed face soon burst into hollow laughter.
"Haha! They've got guts."
"......"
"Where are the intruders now?"
"According to the last report, they passed Laboratory 37. It seems they're heading towards the stairs to the lowest floor."
"Hmm, are they going where the failures are?"
The director muttered as if finding it interesting.
The lowest floor of Belzen. Coincidentally, that was the space where his "artistic spirit" was contained.
Do they know our information?
The director smiled fishy.
Whoosh-!
When he clenched his fist, dark red aura surged around.
The energy of black magic dyeing the air terribly.
It was an output that could destroy the entire facility right away.
"We can't leave these rats be."
The man stood up from his seat.
He prepared to greet the guests while wrapping his whole body in an explosive aura.
His mouth corners tearing grotesquely to both sides.
"I hope it will be an enjoyable artistic activity."
The devil took his steps.
***
Meanwhile.
The fox was running down the stairs.
"Haa, haa...!"
Breath exhaled roughly.
The breath rising from inside was hot.
It felt like her lungs were burning.
"Ugh...!"
Her consciousness blurred momentarily at times.
It was due to fatigue accumulated over the past few days.
Though she felt like she would lose consciousness and collapse at any moment, each time she endured by biting her lip.
Her slender legs staggered endlessly.
What she held was just one sword.
It felt heavy today especially.
As she chewed on dizziness that felt like splitting, suddenly a voice brushed her ear.
It was a conversation she had overheard a few days ago.
-What should we do with the failures we worked on today?
-Move them to the lowest floor.
-Yes, understood.
She had to go to the lowest floor.
There was someone she wanted to find.
If yesterday's experiment had ended properly, the girl would surely be on the lowest floor.
The fox ran down the stairs.
"Damn, an intruder!!"
"Don't let her go down!"
Obstacles blocking her way occasionally.
Irene swung her sword without hesitation.
Clang! Crack...!
A fierce sword dance bloomed like a flower.
Though she was pushed to her limits, her senses became even sharper because of that.
Her gaze was venomous to the extreme.
She advanced treading on a precarious life.
Slash-!
She cut down someone once again.
Behind the clean cutting sound ringing out, a tingling tremor spread in her fingertips.
Her vision flickered.
"Ugh, haa...!"
Irene didn't stop.
She cut down mercilessly.
There were opponents she couldn't handle with her own strength.
At those times, the boy beside her helped.
"My, my... We're a bit busy!"
Snap-!
The guard disappeared when he snapped his fingers.
He scattered becoming a handful of ashes.
The fox's dash continued desperately for a while.
And.
"......"
Irene finally arrived at the lowest floor.
A wide space greeted her.
A scene of countless iron bars lined up.
It reminded her of the beast cages in the basement of the slave auction house.
-Sniff, hehe... Your hand is warm, sister.
Here.
There was someone she had to find.
Tak-!
The fox crossed between the iron bars.
The basement where chilly air lingered.
What was confined between the bars were none other than "failures".
<Kieeek-!>
<Gurk, grrrr-?>
<Aah... uwaah>
Things that were once human, but could no longer be called that.
Byproducts of ugly desire.
Irene desperately rolled her eyes.
While desperately wishing to find her, on the other hand she hoped the girl wouldn't be here.
A sad contradiction flowed down.
<Kuieek!>
<Hello hello hello hello hello hello?>
<Kyaaaah!!>
Like that.
Only after wandering a bit more could the fox find her.
A body lying in a corner iron cage.
"...Anne."
She muttered the name.
But it was laughable.
That thing appearing through the bars was no longer the girl she had known.
The fox silently stared at the floor.
<Kiruruk... kiruk>
A lump stuck to the ground.
Though its appearance was reminiscent of slime, the actual sight was more terrible than words could describe.
Irene didn't have the courage to describe it.
"......"
Thud-.
She collapsed as strength left her legs.
The scene she had tried hard to deny appeared as reality.
<Kiruruk...?>
Anne writhing.
Though she had become a monster, had she not lost her kind nature?
She didn't show hostility towards people.
Rather, that aspect made her heart ache even more.
"...Ha."
A hollow sneer bursting out.
Her vision blurred thinly.
Before she knew it, tears were falling drop by drop down her cheeks.
It was terrible despair.
"Really... this is too much..."
She had known.
That it would turn out like this.
It was a tragedy destined from the moment she was trapped in this hell.
But.
-Still... isn't it okay for such convenient things to happen sometimes?
Because she liked those words the girl had said.
For a moment, she wanted to have a similar hope herself.
"Miss Irene."
"I... I was too late."
"You did your best."
"What sin could such a good child have committed..."
The world is unreasonable.
At the same time, it is cruel.
Everyone must live their predetermined fate, and people simply dance on a grand script.
Sometimes she thought even life itself had no value.
"Miss Irene."
But.
The reason people still seek hope is.
"It's not too late yet."
Because sometimes convenient things might happen.
"It's too early to shed tears."
"...What?"
Words she couldn't understand.
Irene raised her lowered head and looked at the boy.
There were slit eyes smiling brightly.
The snake sang in a quiet whisper.
"I always like happy endings."
Trudge trudge-.
The boy approaching close to the iron bars.
Before the fox could stop him, the snake placed his hand on the soft lump of flesh.
Right after, he muttered.
"Shatter."
Crash-!
The sound of glass breaking was heard from somewhere.
At the same time, the shadow hanging from the boy's fingertips quickly wrapped around Anne's body.
"You?! What are you...!"
"Shh, be quiet."
Crunch, crunch-!
A strange noise.
The silhouette covered by shadows writhed.
After a moment that felt like an eternity passed, the covering shadows scattered into dust.
The fox couldn't continue speaking.
"An-ne...?"
A girl was sitting inside the iron bars.
The person she had been searching for so desperately.
The name that had stayed by her side for the past few days was sitting there with a body without a single wound.
Anne yawned softly.
"Yaaawn..."
Eyes blinking as if just woken up.
The girl who had been rubbing her eyes sleepily soon met gazes with the fox.
"...Eh? Fox sister?"
"Anne...!"
Irene embraced the small body.
Warm body heat dyed her embrace.
As she felt the reality of being alive, tears fell once again with affectionate feelings.
Her cheeks were dyed hotly.
"Huhu."
The snake quietly watched such a scene.
It was a nostalgic expression.
Though life may be a tragedy.
Sometimes miracles that can erase even such tragedies come.
And,
"It seems I am your miracle today."
For the two girls, it was now.