Chapter 57 - EP.2 Mountains of Corpses, Seas of Blood 11

A tunnel without a speck of light.

As the Revenant advanced with only its headlights to guide it, an incongruous burst of laughter rang out from inside.

It was not a human voice. It was electronic.

"Ahaha! Did you see those fools' faces? They couldn't even think to shoot. They were utterly stunned. Who could have imagined this enormous Revenant would take to the skies?"

It was Ash's electronic voice, oddly excited, with none of his usual gravity or composure. Siren watched him with a peculiar expression.

Faced with this utterly unfamiliar side of him, she spoke cautiously.

"Mr. Ash...? Are you all right?"

"Of course I am. In fact, I feel marvelous."

His turquoise optical sensors sparkled as though to prove it.

"Kunlun has a teaching: 'Where the heart leads, all things become a road!' Do you know what that means?"

"Uh... No?"

"It means that wherever the heart leads, a path exists in all things. So long as your resolve to go is firm, everything in the world will become your road, be it a wall or a pipeline. Is that not precisely what happened?"

Ash went on enthusiastically for some time about things no one had asked him. Apparently, he had thoroughly enjoyed the chase, particularly that final leap.

Kunlun.

His sect had originally been renowned throughout the land for its lightness arts. Racing like the wind, roaming the air as though it were home—that was the very essence of Kunlun.

It seemed that nature had manifested in a new form: driving.

Suddenly, Ash gave the steering wheel a few pats.

"This fellow is a true marvel! What a splendid creature. How can it be so obedient?"

He sounded as though he were praising a prized steed.

At this strange behavior, Siren edged toward the passenger-side door. She seemed a little frightened.

Zero leaned forward from the back seat and whispered.

"Um... Is he usually like this?"

"This is a first for me, too..."

Even as they whispered, Ash continued singing the Revenant's praises.

* * *

Ash's eccentric behavior came to an end.

They had reached the end of the long, long tunnel—at last, the exit to the surface.

The tunnel they were traveling through was the very one they had used to enter Underland.

In other words, it was the secret entrance controlled by the REST-men.

Another battle might await them. An uneasy tension began to spread among the vehicle's occupants.

Back to his usual self, Ash glanced behind him.

"Prepare yourselves. There may be a fight."

Everyone nodded.

At last, the Revenant emerged fully from the tunnel. A dawn sky rippling with golden auroras greeted them.

It was a liberating sight, in an entirely different league from Underland's sky. But there was no time to admire it.

Not with the people standing beneath it.

Contrary to their expectations, the people guarding the tunnel were not REST-men.

Gray body armor designed for maximum functionality, with sky-blue tactical overcoats worn over it. The standard Vortex uniform they had seen more than enough of in Underland.

There was one difference, however.

They neither aimed their weapons nor charged forward. They simply stared at the Revenant in perfect silence.

That stillness was all the more suffocating.

"They don't seem to be planning to attack."

Ash nodded at Siren's observation.

"So it seems."

"Then why are they standing there blocking the road?"

"I do not know either. Which means..."

The Revenant gradually slowed to a stop before them.

"We shall have to find out."

Ash got out and stood before the ranks of Vortex soldiers.

"..."

After looking around for a moment, he shrugged and spoke in his electronic voice.

"I cannot fathom what you think you are doing, blocking the road. Surely you are not proposing a sword fight here in Sanctum?"

No one answered him.

That did not mean nothing changed. Their ranks began to part to either side as though on cue.

A man emerged through the wide opening.

His attire alone set him apart.

His spotless white coat was neatly fastened all the way to his throat. Something about it brought to mind a priest of some religious order.

But the golden tactical goggles covering half his face, the two pistols at his waist, and the faint, acrid smell of gunpowder made it clear he was no ordinary man.

His manner, however, did not quite match that neat appearance.

The man glanced at the chronometer on his wrist, then let out a deep sigh.

"What the hell am I doing out here at dawn?"

Ash addressed the sighing man.

"Are you in charge?"

"Hm?"

"I am asking whether you command these people blocking the road."

The man shrugged.

"Well, for now?"

"I see."

Ash took a step forward, his optical sensors flashing.

"Then move aside at once. Or state your business, if you have any."

At the threatening gesture, the man stepped back. He waved both arms, looking troubled.

"Easy there, humanoid. Get that pushy, and..."

Suddenly, his eyes behind the golden goggles exuded a thick killing intent.

"You'll make me want to kill you right here."

Those words froze the air around them.

As killing intent poured from the man's entire body, Ash slowly raised his right arm and reached for the blade strapped to his back.

"Kill me?"

He unleashed the fighting spirit he had been holding in check, letting it surge from his entire body.

"Are you even capable of it?"

Killing intent clashed with fighting spirit.

If the man's presence was a razor-sharp blade, Ash's fighting spirit was a towering mountain crushing everything beneath it. The two forces, so different in nature, swirled between them.

At some point, the man had also lowered one hand to the pistol at his waist.

"..."

"..."

Amid the taut tension, the man was the first to let his aura dissipate.

As though he had never unleashed any killing intent at all, he shook his head with another deep sigh.

"Forget it. This isn't what I came for. Let's not waste each other's energy."

The man took his hand off his pistol.

Watching him, Ash released his blade as well.

"Then why are you blocking the road?"

"You've got something of ours."

"Something of yours?"

Ash rummaged inside his clothing and produced a memory chip. It was Dreamweaver's master key, which could be called the source of this entire affair.

"You mean this?"

"No."

Unexpectedly, the man shook his head.

"That's Business Support's responsibility. Nothing to do with me."

"... Nothing to do with you? Are you not all part of the same Vortex Society?"

"You've never worked for a company, have you, buddy?"

He had not.

"Actually, I'd prefer you never gave that chip back. Our department doesn't really get along with theirs. Let them get screwed over for once."

With no experience of corporate life whatsoever, Ash struggled to make sense of what the man was saying. But one thing was clear.

Whatever he was looking for had nothing to do with Dreamweaver.

"Then what is it you seek? Other than Dreamweaver, I have nothing belonging to Vortex..."

Ash stopped.

He had remembered another Vortex item in his possession.

Just then, the man spoke.

"See, I spotted something interesting on our field agents' bodycam footage."

He extended a hand and pointed at Ash's ink-black torso.

"The video was so low-res I couldn't be sure, but yeah. That's our product."

"..."

"Where'd you get it? That part isn't supposed to be out in the open yet."

After a brief silence, Ash responded with a question rather than an answer.

"... You stationed yourselves here to retrieve this torso?"

The man shrugged.

"No. I only came to check. I told you, didn't I? The footage was terrible. Sure, it'd be nice to finish retrieving it right now, too... but you don't look like a pushover. It'd cause quite a scene, wouldn't it?"

For an instant, his eyes flashed behind his golden goggles.

"So I'll wait. For the moment you head out into the Outer, Pathfinder."

The man checked his wrist chronometer once more, then jerked his chin behind him. At that tiny movement, the Vortex troops blocking the road all cleared the way.

"Confirmed. You can go now."

Ash glared at him for a moment before turning toward the Revenant. Then he suddenly looked back.

"... What is your name?"

"John. John Priest. Yours?"

"Ash Blade."

"All right, Ash. See you soon."

"Soon... Very well. I shall look forward to it."

Ash climbed back into the Revenant.

The armored vehicle glided unhurriedly between the Vortex troops who had cleared its path.

For a fleeting moment, Ash's gaze met John's from the driver's seat. Surely only the two of them could know what those looks meant.

* * *

Sanctum. The city of light.

True to that splendid name, countless lights continued to bathe the city in a rainbow of colors even as the sun slowly rose.

Skyscrapers stretched endlessly toward the sky, people and vehicles traveling between them. Holographic signs packed across the buildings looked down over it all.

The Revenant crossed that landscape.

It looked very different from when it had set out for Underland. Along with the scars of explosions and gunfire, armor plates across its body were dented or torn away.

The bloodstains that had yet to dry and the bullets embedded here and there hinted at the terrible struggle this steel beast had endured throughout the night.

Sanctum's citizens, out on the streets in the early morning, watched the Revenant with curious eyes as it passed.

Ash watched them go by from time to time, while in his main core he recalled the strange man he had just encountered.

'John Priest, was it...'

A languid man steeped in fatigue and irritation.

And yet, there was that clinging killing intent he had revealed now and again.

Ash felt they would meet again before long. In the Outer, just as John himself had said.

RRRUMBLE...!

As he steered, lost in thought, a familiar scene came into view.

Santa's Rest Stop.

The front door, broken in the earlier commotion, had apparently already been repaired; a sturdier-looking one stood in its place.

As the heavy exhaust note rang through the dawn, the rest stop's cheap neon sign flickered to life.

Lights gradually spread through the interior, stirring a small commotion.

Then the newly installed front door swung wide open.

"Mister!"

It was Akina who came running out.

Ash got out of the vehicle.

Without a word, he spread both arms toward the little girl running to him.

Curiously, the sight closely resembled that mysterious footage he had once seen.