Chapter 210: OZ (7)

Elsewhere.

Team B clashed with Oz's researchers.

“...Do you really think that's possible, Miss Caitlin?”

“I said it was a hypothesis. Still, I think it's worth a shot.”

The two stood back to back, keeping watch in every direction.

They exchanged a few brief words.

“We're sticking to the plan.”

“But that method would put far too much strain on you, Miss Caitlin...”

“Ah, shut up. I said I'll do it. You really do talk too much. Or do you have a better idea?”

“I don't, but...”

“Then follow along quietly. Whether it's a burden or not isn't your business.”

“It is my business. We may become family someday.”

“What? W-what the hell are you saying at a time like this...?!”

“I was asking you not to get hurt. I don't want to see that.”

“...Fuck. Is it true that people grow alike when they're in love? You're getting more and more like that bastard.”

Caitlin turned her head as if disgusted, though she was clearly embarrassed.

She jabbed Javert in the back with her elbow for no reason.

“Shut up and support me properly. We'll only get one chance.”

“Understood.”

The two readied themselves.

Researchers rushed toward them from every direction.

Killian swung her whip, driving Caitlin and Javert back side by side.

“Heeey, what are you two whispering about? Getting scared now? Think you can't possibly win?”

“Sounds like someone's dentures are clacking.”

“You fucking bitch...!”

Killian had tried to provoke them, only to get thoroughly riled up instead.

Javert threw a punch at her.

-Droit Style Martial Arts, Fourth Form-

‘Extinction’

Bang, bang, bang!

The researchers' bodies exploded one after another.

Yet within seconds, they returned to their original forms.

“Ha ha! You still think you can kill us?”

Killian wore a bright, mocking smile.

Her thoughts, however, were thoroughly sinister.

‘Your heads must be about to burst by now, wondering what gimmick lets us come back to life.’

The researchers' gimmick lay in the space itself.

This laboratory extended twenty floors underground.

Oz's influence covered the entire place.

-Oz Style Life, Unique Magic Third Form-

‘Life and Death’

Oz's masterpiece.

Those bearing his mark could regenerate their bodies infinitely within the designated area.

‘So what if you figure it out?’

Knowing the gimmick changed nothing.

To kill the researchers, they had to dispel Oz's unique magic.

‘In other words, they have to kill Lord Oz, or at least incapacitate him...’

As if that were possible.

The one called the Cult's true leader would never lose to insects like these.

‘No matter what you do, you'll never defeat me...!’

Killian couldn't hold back her sneer.

Killing intent boiled inside her.

“I'll tear you apart and kill you in the most painful way possible...!”

“Hup...!”

A shout cut through Killian's wandering thoughts.

Javert unleashed Divine Power.

-Droit Style Martial Arts Fifth Form-

‘Incineration’

The researchers were crushed into particles of light all at once.

Then their scattered remains began regenerating from their hearts.

-Great Dark Mage Binding Art, Second Form-

‘Holy Rope’

Javert didn't miss that brief opening and spread a rope of Divine Power.

Nearly twenty researchers were bound at once.

Shrrrk!

For roughly seven seconds after reviving, they couldn't move.

Javert had used that moment to tie them up.

‘But what's the point of this?’

Even if they were bound, they could just free themselves a few seconds later.

Killian remained relaxed.

It didn't take long for her expression to twist.

“Now, Miss Caitlin!”

“Yeah, hold on tight...!”

The girl who had seemed to be preparing something behind Javert's back opened her eyes wide at the signal.

Light flashed.

-New Caitlin Style Lightning Magic Secret Art-

‘Lightspeed’

Kwoooong!

A thunderous blast shook the tenth underground floor.

Before the ringing in their ears could fade, a fleeting afterimage snatched the rope from Javert's hand.

“...!”

The rope and afterimage vanished, and the tightly bound researchers were dragged away.

Their view shifted.

A fierce headwind, constant impacts, scenes rushing past in a blur.

The researchers couldn't even move because of the stun.

‘What is this...?!’

They could only realize that they were tied to a rope and being dragged at incredible speed.

Through the rushing wind, someone's voice faintly reached them.

It was Caitlin, racing through the underground levels with the rope in hand.

“If the domain is the problem, we just have to drag you outside it, right?”

The next moment, the researchers stood somewhere entirely different.

The first floor of the branch.

They had escaped the underground laboratory and reached the ground floor in only a few seconds.

Only the bronze-skinned girl stood before them.

‘Impossible.’

Team B and the researchers had been fighting on the tenth underground floor.

Yet Caitlin had dragged every one of them to the first floor in barely five seconds.

“Urgh...”

Perhaps because of the severe recoil, Caitlin dry-heaved, then collapsed where she stood with another retch.

“Haa, haa...!”

Her breathing was ragged.

Looking down at the girl, Killian had no choice but to panic.

Oz's unique magic only applied to the laboratory's underground floors.

It didn't work on the ground floor.

In other words, if they died here, that was the end.

“Everyone! We need to get back underground right...!”

“Pfft... Too late, you crazy bitch...”

A drained voice rang out.

Killian and the researchers wriggled, trying to free themselves from the rope binding them.

But as Caitlin said, it was already too late.

The flash that had followed them was already throwing a punch.

-Droit Style Martial Arts, Fourth Form-

‘Extinction’

Red hair fluttered.

Killian could only stare blankly.

“...Ah.”

Javert had already reached the researchers.

Her green eyes blinked.

Her lips moved with chilling indifference.

“Got you.”

Kwoaaaaang!!

A savage roar of displaced air filled the ground floor.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the twentieth underground floor.

In Oz's laboratory, where the massive explosion had occurred.

<Ha ha... Ahahahaha!!>

A man rose amid the scattered debris.

Oz.

He looked almost completely ruined.

His right arm, shoulder, and a third of his torso had been blown away.

Crunch, crackle!

Yet those injuries didn't heal as they had before.

As if his body had lost its structure, the wounds only twitched without regenerating.

The damage was permanent.

Oz stood on unsteady legs.

Across from him stood the masked boy.

<I never expected you to come at me like this...!>

Oz laughed madly.

It was pure joy.

<Wonderful! Truly wonderful! I haven't felt such a thrill in so long...!>

“You're grotesque. You're laughing after losing your right arm, shoulder, and a third of your torso.”

<Of course I am! No one has ever pushed me this far before! This is the most exciting moment of my life! Garulik of the Slayers! You deserve to be called my friend!>

“I refuse. All the spots are already taken.”

<Then if not a friend, what about a companion? Become my companion! You and I could surely create a fun world together! I'll give you half the world!>

“Well, if your idea of fun fell within a slightly more normal range, I might have accepted.”

<Oh, my friend! Do you truly dislike the idea that much?>

Oz made an earnest courtship appeal.

The masked boy only looked at him coldly.

“Stop talking nonsense and start preparing to surrender.”

<Haa... What a shame. My heart was racing for the first time in ages.>

“That's arrhythmia. Please die quickly.”

<Ahem, I'll admit it! My friend is quite a troublesome opponent. I don't think I can defeat you unless I'm in perfect condition. Especially not when my body's in this terrible state!>

“Then quietly offer up your neck.”

<Don't be so hasty. Everything has an order to it. You've entertained me, so it would only be right for me to entertain you as well. I prepared something interesting. I'll show it only to my friend!>

“Something interesting?”

<Now, Unknown.>

“Wait, Unknown means...”

Project-Unknown.

It was one of the documents Lefil had gathered a few days ago.

Its contents had been impossible to determine because so much of it was censored.

‘Where? There's a bizarre presence somewhere...’

Kwoooong!

Demonic energy from somewhere slammed into the boy.

The sudden ambush forced Viktor to slide far back.

“Ghk...?!”

“Sir Viktor!”

His arm nearly shattered.

When he glanced upward, long white hair fluttered in the air.

One floor above, at the hole the earlier explosion had torn into the ceiling, stood a girl with red eyes.

Project-Unknown.

An experimental subject Oz appeared to have managed in secret.

But Viktor and the others couldn't help flinching when they saw her face.

“...That's...”

It was a familiar face.

She looked exactly like someone from Team A.

<Now then... Alice? Shouldn't you greet a face you haven't seen in a long time?>

Oz spoke with laughter in his voice.

Everyone's gaze naturally turned to Alice.

She seemed to be the most shocked of all.

The black-haired, blue-eyed girl stared blankly at the white-haired, red-eyed girl.

“That can't be.”

Then she murmured as if she'd lost her soul.

“Sis... ter?”

Project Alice-01.

Alice's older sister stood there.