Chapter 92 87 - Conflict Escalated

Later

With Phaethon Siblings and Victoria Housekeeping

Ballet Twins Tower

"That should get the electricity running," Wise says as the light stops flickering.

"Damn, there's so much manual labour here," Belle comments. "How were you guys able to handle all of it?"

"We are all trained in discipline doing housework; this manual labour is nothing," Lycaon explains.

"That explains so much," Belle says dryly. "Knowing the rich people, they would be lying on the couch or bed like lazy people, making a mess left and right, piling up stuff for the butlers and maids to do all the chores."

"...no comment," Lycaon says as Rina giggles behind him.

"Oh, you have no idea, Proxy," Ellen grumbles.

"Ellen, reminder not to badmouth our previous clients in front of another," Lycaon says sternly.

"I was being subtle," Ellen mutters as Corrin giggles.

"Now that everything is done, we could go back to the atrium now since we can open up the partition," Belle exclaims before she starts groaning. "Remind me, why is the one building the Ballet Twin tower had to put the central control room and the generator room so far away!?"

"To be fair, this is an old building," Rina says with a chuckle. "Back then, the architect didn't consider the tower would get swallowed by the Hollow."

"I don't think you need to consider the possibility of being swallowed by the Hollow to realize that this is a bad design," Belle grumbles.

"Luckily for us, the tower has an elevator," Ellen says as they all enter the elevator. Silence filled the elevator as they waited to reach their desired floor.

"...it's so strange not hearing any music while riding an elevator," Belle comments.

"Probably broken when Hollow swallowed everything," Lycaon comments. "I suppose that should be added to the list for maintenance."

As they arrived at their desired floor, they slowly approached the closed partition. Glancing around to see if any Ethereal might appear, Lycaon picks Eous up and approaches the manual control after finding out there was no danger. Wise controls Eous to open up the partition, and much to their relief, it worked.

"It opened, great!" Corrin exclaims happily as they continue their journey.

"It's thanks to our great guide that we're able to restore the power quickly," Rina compliments the Phaethon siblings. "Our master will surely be grateful too."

"Don't mention it," Wise replies modestly. As they walk, they notice a small backpack lying on the floor. "Hm? What's over there?"

"A backpack?" Corrin comments in confusion as Eous approaches the backpack, shaking it to check what's in it.

"Do you recognize this backpack?" Lycaon asks curiously.

"This...this belongs to Rain. So, she's truly been here..." Wise says seriously. "There might be a clue inside."

Wise opens the backpack and starts rummaging through it. The Victoria Housekeeping glances at him curiously as Wise manages to find something in it: a device with a timer set.

"Eh?" Wise mutters in surprise before noticing the timer as it almost reaches 0. Without thinking, Wise controls Eous to toss it aside as the Victoria Housekeeping takes several steps back while guarding Eous. As the timer reached 0, the device didn't explode as they expected, but music started playing from it.

"Music?" Wise asks in confusion before Eous reaches the playback device. "It seems to be on a timer, and it doesn't seem to be dangerous - huh?"

Without any warning, something had appeared behind Eous and no one in the group notices if not for the sudden tap sound it made when landing on the railing behind Eous. It turned out to be an Ethereal shaped like a ballerina dancer, with veils covering the lower part of its faceless head, an oversized skirt, and a pair of giant claws.

"Watch out!" Rina yells as the Ethereal reaches its claws toward Eous. Without any hesitation, Ellen and Corrin jump forward, swinging their weapon with the intent to knock the Ethereal away from the Bangboo.

But the Ethereal proved to be more agile than they expected, as it dodged the attack by backflipping several meters away and landing gracefully, akin to a professional dancer. Both Ellen and Corrin move forward to shield Eous from the Ethereal, who takes a pose akin to inviting someone to a dance.

"Where did that come from?!" Wise asks in surprise as Lycaon and Rina step forward, joining Ellen and Corrin to shield Eous from the Ethereal.

"Since we've been invited to a dance, I suppose we should oblige," Lycaon says before politely bowing to the Ethereal.

The Ethereal starts charging at Victoria Housekeeping as it spins its body and blades protruding from its skirt, acting like a spinning buzzsaw. The group dodges the incoming attack as Rina blasts electricity at the Ethereal, but it merely grazes the creature.

The ballerina Ethereal continues to spin, and the blades from its skirt start flying around the area. The Victoria Housekeeping manages to dodge all of the attacks, but the Ethereal proves to be far more aggressive than it seems as it starts charging at Lycaon with a spinning tackle.

Lycaon doesn't seem concerned as frost starts covering his legs and he tries to block it, but it seems that neither of them expected that the attack would freeze the Ethereal's blade into Lycaon's prosthetic leg. Before either of them could react, the ice around the Ethereal's body starts gnawing at it like wolves tearing its meal apart with their fangs. In a matter of seconds, one of the Ethereal's legs falls off as it starts having trouble maintaining balance.

Before either of them could start attacking, the Ethereal's missing leg starts to glitch. Everyone seems confused by this before the glitch subsides, and much to everyone's disbelief, its leg is fully restored.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Ellen mutters in disbelief. "The Ethereal could remove any damage they received?!"

"Oh no, this is Dead-End Butcher all over again..." Corrin whimpers.

"Hey, Ethereal!" Everyone, including the Ethereal, turns towards Eous, who's holding the playback device on its hand. The Victoria Housekeeping notices that the Ethereal is fully distracted and starts charging at Eous. Before either of them can react, Eous tosses the device away, and, to their surprise, it starts chasing it.

Another thing that surprises them is the device falling into a rift and consuming both the device and Ethereal, sending them to gods-know-where.

"I-is it gone?" Corrin asks fearfully.

"Yeah...the Ethereal is attracted by the music..." Ellen points out.

"So, the timer on the playback device isn't a coincidence," Rina adds.

"It's clear that someone is trying to use Ethereals against us," Lycaon muses.

"It couldn't be Rain, so who might it be?" Wise mutters before missiles suddenly come towards the group. Before Wise could take cover, Ellen blocks the path and uses her oversized scissors to block the attack.

Letting out an annoyed huff, she charges towards the direction from which the missiles come. As more missiles rain down upon them, Ellen dodges and cuts some of them down cleanly. She did it so fast that it took a few seconds before the split missiles exploded.

"Ellen! Leave one of them-!" Lycaon was a bit too late as they heard a loud girlish scream from the other side, followed by loud smacks, and silence. He could only sigh. "...conscious."

"...let's go and check on her..." Wise sweatdrops. "...and the people she knocked out..."

"Yes..." Lycaon mutters before they all rush after Ellen.

"Things have gotten a bit more complicated," Belle mutters. "I bet the Cunning Hares are having the time of their lives, experiencing the luxury of riding an airship."

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With the Cunning Hares

"I hate this! I didn't get the experience to taste a champagne!" Nicole exclaims as she slams her suitcase into an Exaltist member before she shoots a small but concentrated Ether bullet on the other members.

"And I didn't get to experience bingeing Monica's new show in an airship!" Billy yells as he shoots his gun, and the bullets ricochet through a group of Exaltist members.

"You all truly have prepared all the plans to enjoy your time on the airship, do you?" Qingyi comments before she smacks away an Exaltist member, extracts their memory, and creates an ice baseball out of it before smacking it into another Exaltist member. "Huh, I can see why Caelus loves using this."

"May I?" Anby asks, and Qingyi simply shrugs before passing it to Anby. Activating her W-Engine, electricity starts coating the baseball bat before she passes through the Exaltist group in the blink of an eye. Then, electricity starts stunning each member.

"For a group preparing for assassination, they sure aren't prepared to fight any possible opponents," Nekomiya comments as she sits on top of an Exaltist member while licking her hand.

"Indeed, they feel...underwhelming," Zhu Yuan says before shooting an enemy in the head using a stun round.

"Don't jinx it!" Everyone says in unison, causing Zhu Yuan to fluster.

"Sorry..." Zhu Yuan apologizes meekly as Nicole shoots the last member.

"Geez, there's sure a lot of members?" Nicole comments as she steps on one of the unconscious members. "So, who are they?"

"I have no idea, either." Zhu Yuan says with a frown. "There are no reports on them anywhere."

"They are the Exaltist," Qingyi says as holographic screens float around her, which she creates using her Remembrance powers. "They seem to be an old cult that has existed since the first Hollow Disaster. They seem to embrace the Hollow, believing they are the key to the next human evolution."

"...could this be the cult that Caelus once reported about?" Zhu Yuan mutters. "The one when we arrested Perlman?"

"Definitely. They all contacted the escaped suspect, and based on their memories, she seems to be one of the leaders." Qingyi says as she displays an image of them talking to Sarah on the holographic screen.

"Geez, to think that stopping a corrupt company from ruining innocent lives could lead to a crazy cult attack," Nicole comments before looking at Perlman. "So, why are they trying to kill Perlman?"

"From what I got, Perlman got information about them. It seems that he prepared them in case she tried to betray him, trying to drag her down with him..." Qingyi mutters. "I admit, the man seems to be smarter than he acts on TV."

"So, we can agree the suitcase is what Perlman believes to be his way out," Nicole comments. "But the woman gives a sleeping gas bomb instead."

"And they send their lackeys to finish the job..." Billy mutters. "But that doesn't make sense. The sleeping gas would be enough to take everyone out on the ship, so why do they need lackeys?"

"Maybe she has a backup plan in case nothing works?" Nekomiya comments, causing them to stare at each other in silence before they suddenly feel the ship steering in a different direction. Everyone rushes to the cockpit, and they discover the pilots are both unconscious.

"Crap, so we're definitely crashing down..." Qingyi grimaces.

"No! I don't wanna die!" Billy yells in horror as he starts hugging the Cunning Hares.

"Billy, let go!" Nicole complains.

"The ship's locked in autopilot, but the destination isn't the court..." Zhu Yuan mutters as she looks at the map. "It's the nearby Hollow, the Ballet Twin Hollow..."

"...she tried to make it look like an accident," Qingyi mutters before looking at the unconscious people. "Bu, why would she go that far?"

"...witnesses," Nicole mutters in horror. "She might've thought we saw her and could act as a witness, so she tried to get rid of us to stay hidden!"

"..." Both officers look at each other grimly as they stare back at the unconscious passenger, believing their situation has just gotten far worse than they expected.

To be Continued