Chapter 55 - EP.2 Mountains of Corpses, Seas of Blood 9

Holding someone off without hurting them was quite difficult.

“Damn it, there's no end to them!”

Siren shouted as she swung her sword. Rather than cutting into flesh, her outstretched blade merely knocked away the liquor bottle in her opponent's hand. Shards flew everywhere, scratching the cheek of the woman who had held it, but she simply staggered closer, her eyes hazy, seemingly unable even to feel pain.

“Damn!”

Zero and his siblings were having just as much trouble. They used their own bodies to block the slowly advancing women much of the time, pushing them back or knocking them down as carefully as possible to avoid injury. This battle was several times more demanding than simply swinging their swords and cutting through everything before them. Having never fought this way before, they found these opponents more troublesome than the mercenaries on the main stage or the gang members in the staff corridor.

'This is harder than I expected.'

Zero knocked a charging woman unconscious with the spine of his sword and looked toward the far side of the VIP lounge, where Ash had disappeared. He had no doubt that Ash would put an end to everything, but the endless human barrier was slowly eating away at that faith.

It happened just then.

“... Huh?”

The women staggering toward them all stopped at once.

“Ugh... ah...!”

Then, as though a vicious headache had struck, they clutched their heads in unison, as if on cue.

“Aaaaaah!”

Agonized groans filled the lounge. Moments later, the women crumpled limply to the floor like marionettes whose strings had been cut.

Every last one of them, at the same instant.

At this bizarre yet long-awaited sight, Siren and Zero instinctively looked at each other.

“I think Mr. Ash did it!”

Zero answered Siren's bright exclamation.

“Let's join him!”

After that quick exchange, the two sprang through the fallen women and raced toward the Chamber of Contemplation. The other three ninjas followed in silence.

“That must be it, right?”

With no one left to stop them, they soon reached their destination. Passing through the golden door crumpled like a sheet of paper, they finally entered the Chamber of Contemplation.

There they found the unconscious, half-wrecked Aria, an unconscious old man, and, standing motionless in contemplation against that backdrop, the humanoid Ash.

“Sir.”

Ash turned at Zero's voice. His optical sensors blinked.

“... You're here. What became of those you were fighting?”

“They've all been incapacitated. I take it the signal amplifier was here?”

“It was.”

“Excellent! Then it's all over!”

“I would like to believe so, too...”

Ash raised his head toward the densely packed monitors.

“But I have a bad feeling about this.”

“What? What do you mean—”

Just then, Siren, who had been looking around, murmured in bewilderment.

“That vortex logo...”

Her dark eyes trembled faintly.

“Isn't that Vortex Energy?”

Ash answered her murmur.

“So it seems I wasn't mistaken after all.”

Vortex Energy.

A megacorporation supplying most of Sanctum's electricity.

Not a light or system in the city could even operate without its permission. One might say the corporation literally held Sanctum's blood vessels in its grip. That immense influence had given it a somewhat unusual position: even the three great corporations known as Trinity could not treat it lightly.

But why?

Why had its signature vortex logo appeared here, in Memoryphilia's headquarters in the squalid back alleys of Underland?

Ash looked up at the array of vortices still displayed across the monitors. At the same time, he activated his main core and began piecing together the important clues scattered like fragments.

Thinking back, quite a few things had been strange.

There was the Maestro's inexplicable confidence, for instance. Until Ash tortured him, he had certainly displayed a bizarre degree of self-assurance.

He had also stalled for time, using not only mercenaries and gang members but even women robbed of their memories as shields. Even when Ash reached the Chamber of Contemplation, he had tried to waste time with pointless chatter, though he would have been better off fleeing instead.

He had put even his own life on the line to buy time.

'Wait. He put his life on the line?'

As far as Ash could tell, the Maestro—the old man still lying unconscious—was not someone with that kind of nerve.

Yet if he had bought time instead of running...

Ash's optical sensors suddenly flashed.

'No. What if he couldn't run?'

A more terrifying enemy.

Could a fear far more overwhelming than Ash and his companions tearing through Inferno have held him in place? What if he knew that fleeing the threat would only leave an even more horrible death waiting at the end?

The fragments of thought swirling like Vortex's emblem gradually began to come together.

'Is Memoryphilia a subcontractor for Vortex?'

That thought brought another question.

What could a colossal corporation like Vortex possibly lack that would make it join hands with an Underland gang?

'They even have their own independent Society...'

Suddenly, something Santa had once said surfaced in Ash's main core.

[“Vortex Energy is the same. Their core value is ‘efficiency.’ They judge emotions and desires to be inefficient and eliminate them completely.”]

Dreamweaver was a technology that could edit human memories at will and turn people into puppets. Surely it could remove emotions and desires as well.

A connection between efficiency and Dreamweaver.

Wasn't that quite the coincidence?

Ash's optical sensors gleamed.

'... What if this isn't a subcontractor, but a laboratory? A laboratory hidden in Underland for human experimentation, just like Omni-Cell's!'

Of course, all of this was only Ash's hypothesis.

“Urrrgh...!”

Just then, the old man who could substantiate that hypothesis awoke.

The Maestro.

He barely managed to pry his reluctant eyes open, then darted them about at the increased number of people.

“Finally awake, Maestro.”

Ninjas dressed in black techwear approached the old man. A chilling bloodlust poured from them, as though they might tear him apart at any moment.

The one wearing the tiger mask—Zero—spoke in a growl.

“I hear my siblings owe you quite a debt. As their older brother, I ought to repay it, shouldn't I?”

Taking his blade in a reverse grip, he drove it down at the old man.

SWISH!

The sword plunged swiftly downward, only to stop in midair before it could reach the space between the old man's eyes.

“Hold a moment, young Master.”

Ash had intervened.

“... Sir.”

Ash, who had stepped over unnoticed, patted Zero's shoulder and continued.

“It will only take a moment. There's something I need to confirm.”

Zero looked at him briefly, then slowly stepped back. Ash crouched to meet the old man's gaze, his optical sensors glowing.

“Now, it's time for another round of questions and answers.”

“Eek! What now—”

“Is Vortex the one above you?”

The old man's eyes flew open.

He appeared quite surprised.

“That seems to be a yes. Then how about this? Dreamweaver was actually Vortex's technology, not Memoryphilia's?”

The old man's eyes opened wider.

He appeared very, very surprised.

“It's so easy to talk when everything shows on your face. One final question, then. Is Memoryphilia actually a subordinate organization responsible for Vortex's human experiments?”

The old man's eyes widened until they nearly popped out.

“H-how did you know that?”

“This has been a good conversation.”

Ash stood and addressed Zero.

“I've confirmed what I needed. Go about your business.”

“Are you sure? You won't be able to question him ever again.”

“I know.”

“In that case, gladly.”

Zero and his siblings approached the Maestro.

Meanwhile, Ash walked straight over to the signal amplifier he had activated moments earlier and plunged his blade into it.

CRUNCH!

At the same time, he sent the lightning energy circulating through him down the blade.

BZZZT! CRACKLE!

The machine screamed and burst into flames.

“Aaaaaaagh!”

The Maestro's brief death cry rang out at the same time.

Meanwhile, Siren approached Ash and spoke in a trembling voice.

“Mr. Ash. What does that mean? This place—Inferno—is actually Vortex's human experimentation facility?”

“So he says.”

Ash's calm affirmation only made Siren turn deathly pale.

“Then... that means we've just messed with Vortex's laboratory.”

“It wasn't our intention, but that does appear to be the situation. Vortex's reinforcements will probably arrive soon.”

“Oh my God...”

Her voice quavered.

Vortex Energy.

It was the weight that name carried. This was a problem on an entirely different scale from dealing with an Underland gang.

“What... do we do?”

“Hmm. There is only one course of action at a time like this.”

“You have a plan? What is it?”

“Of the thirty-six stratagems, retreat is best.”

“Thirty... what?”

Ash turned his optical sensors toward Siren.

“It means we run. Right now.”

* * *

Leaving the Chamber of Contemplation, they raced back the way they had come, moving incomparably faster than before.

Not a single person stood in their way.

Yet that silence filled them with foreboding rather than relief. It was like the calm before a storm.

When they finally reached the lounge where the Revenant was parked, their ominous premonition took shape before their eyes.

“... We're a little late.”

Beyond the shattered front entrance, a force too numerous to count had already surrounded Club Inferno.

Dozens of dazzling beams shone into the lounge, probably from handheld flashlights and the headlights of the vehicles they had arrived in. The glare kept the enemy from clear view. Only black silhouettes, aligned with flawless precision, loomed through the light.

“Damn...!”

Sensing the gravity of the situation, Zero drew his blade. His siblings and Siren did the same.

But Ash did not.

The instant he spotted the surrounding force, he opened the Revenant's door and climbed into the driver's seat.

VROOM!

The massive engine roared to life.

Everyone turned toward the sound at once.

“Uh... Mr. Ash?”

“Sir?”

Zero and Siren called to him in confusion, but instead of answering, Ash shouted urgently.

“Didn't I tell you? We're running. Right now.”

“That plan still stands?”

“Never mind that! Everyone, get in!”

At Ash's urgent shout, the others awkwardly sheathed their swords and scrambled into the Revenant.

“They're trying to escape! Fire!”

As though responding to Ash and his companions' movements, the surrounding troops' gun barrels spat fire.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!

The moment dozens, perhaps hundreds, of bullets rained against the Revenant's armor plating, Ash floored the accelerator without hesitation.

VROOOOM!

With a thunderous roar, the Revenant's massive bulk charged head-on toward Vortex's makeshift defensive line blockading Club Inferno.