o city to search for that power. But Nina still lost to the Heaven's Blade successor Lintence even while she possessed that power. Was it because the strength of a Heaven's Blade was stronger than a Military Artist with a Haikizoku? Or that because the person who possessed the Haikizoku was Nina?

Why did Grendan want the Haikizoku?

"Do you not care about Zuellni as long as you have power?"

"That's not possible!"

"Then please think calmly of what you need to do next."

"I've been calmly......"

"Stubbornness is your strong point but we only think so when it can help you guide us. If we don't want to follow you, then it's not a strong point."

"......"

"Please think carefully."

Felli buried herself in the sheets.

Nina couldn't sense the sleeping presence. This meant Felli was only lying down. She was still interfering with Grendan's Psychokinesists. Interfering with their senses. Nina wasn't all too clear on the technique of Psychokinesists, but she felt it must be something incredible.

Felli was really incredible.

But even Felli judged it tactless to stay in Grendan. She was implying that it was useless for them to stay even if what Nina said was true.

(Am I forcing myself to be reckless?)

No, this was why she was being reckless. Nina couldn't think of what she was like without being reckless. She had been acting recklessly from the beginning till now, and in the future if she was right about it.

If they were in Zuellni, they would follow Nina's recklessness.

Perhaps. But Zuellni didn't have Heaven's Blades and the Queen. There was no choice but to do it herself. But Grendan was different. It didn't need Nina. The Heaven Blade successors with the Queen at the top of the power chain were here, and there was also a large number of strong Military Artists. There was no place for Nina whose power was still immature and only knew to move recklessly.

Perhaps that was the case.

But....

(Is this really all right?)

She didn't know. Besides, she had another thought too.

"...... What is Layfon thinking?"

Would Layfon leave Leerin behind in Grendan? Leerin was different from him. Grendan didn't exile her. She had only returned to the place she should return to.

But this explanation bore no relationship to Nina's current problem.

What was Layfon thinking? This was the most important problem to Nina now.

"...... I don't want to think about that." Nina heard Felli say after a long period of time.

◇

Saya held her silence.

A feeling that some kind of noise was about to assault them filled the air, but she couldn't hear it clearly. It must be a noise outside here. The thick walls, glass and curtains were blocking off the outside noise. But still, the noise managed to enter Leerin's ears.

Saya kept silent. Her pupils, bright and translucent like gems, were watching the curtains. No emotions showed on her face. It was impossible to guess from her expression why she wasn't moving.

Leerin also didn't think this was the time to ask why. In the first place, she could never think of her as someone who would engage in unnecessary conversations.

(No.... She's older than me.)

It didn't feel right to call her a child.

Based on her appearance, Saya looked about the same as a senior student, but in fact, she existed since before the birth of this world. It should be more appropriate to say she had gone beyond such thing as age. But how should Leerin call her then? Was this an important or unimportant question? Either way, it was inappropriate to call her a child. However, her appearance was like a child's.

It might be an unimportant problem, but Leerin couldn't think of an answer to the other problems. They were things that she only barely knew of. And she couldn't sleep now. This was the only thing she could ponder about.

".... What is it?"

Saya turned around as if she had noticed something.

"Ah, well........"

Looking at Saya's face made her unable to calm down. She felt she was getting a little used to her but that beauty under the moonlight still seeped through to Leerin's heart. It had only been two to three times when they met face to face.

Looking at Saya staring at her in silence made Leerin impatient. Leerin had prepared herself so she talked a lot in the Inner Court when she met Saya. It wasn't that she was more relaxed now so she didn't talk. But she couldn't keep herself this tense forever.

(What am I doing?)

She finally gathered her courage and spoke.

"Uh...."

"........"

Being watched by Saya weakened her,

"Well.... I don't know what I should call you......"

"Call me?"

"Yes. You.... How should I put it? Well.... Aren't you the one who created this world? Then aren't you like a god? So I must be careful when I call you."

"That isn't important. Just call me Saya."

"Is that all right?"

"Yes. I haven't done anything that is worthy of being called a god."

"I think you've done some very great things......"

Saved many people, created this world. Was it very easy to make a world in Saya's generation? But not everyone could save others in a collapsing world.

It seemed she didn't plan to continue this conversation. Saya turned around to face the curtains again. Was something on the other side of this blocked window? Leerin couldn't obtain any information from her face. She only noticed she herself was being attracted by her beauty.

"What are you doing?"

Noticing she was being rude, Leerin came to but was then attracted by that beauty again. This process repeated many times till Leerin asked that question.

"Something is happening outside."

"Uh?"

"It's a familiar feeling."

"Is it an enemy....?"

"I don't know...."

"What is it?"

"If my speculation is correct, that thing does hold hostility towards me. But this doesn't mean it'll be an enemy."

Leerin didn't understand her, but what was about to happen was slowing revealing itself. This was what she felt, and she couldn't help but hug her shoulders.

And at this time, Saya's shoulders shook.

"It's here, please be careful."

"........Eh?"

No time to even be surprised.

Saya jumped away from her spot. The glass that the curtains covered shattered at the same time.

The curtains were blown apart, blocking Leerin's sight and preventing her from seeing who leaped in from the outside. The humidity in the air entered the room and Leerin's nostrils along with the sound of shattered window. She could tell from the sound that it was raining outside.

Strange changes appeared on Saya's right wrist, but Leerin's eyes could catch those changes that were impossible for a human. Saya already held a metal rod of strange length when Leerin noticed it.

If you were to look at its appearance, it liked similar to a Military Artist's Dite.

"Wait a minute."

Leerin knew from the voice that the person who entered the room was a man.

"Your response is surprisingly fast."

"It seems you're someone I've seen before...."

"Hey, hey, didn't we see each other recently?"

The man's voice didn't hold any hostility. Leerin didn't understand battle but that wasn't the reason her tension eased. The sudden tension and anger in her suddenly disappeared and she herself found it strange too. She had been very confounded. But what was happening now?

And what was about to happen?

"Perhaps so. To me, it was something that happened in a dream."

"Really."

The curtains stopped moving. Leerin saw the man's face. It was a man with red hair.

And someone was behind him.

Leerin saw that person and was shocked.

It felt like a mirror but she immediately noticed the difference. She wasn't sure how to explain it, but the impression was not the same. The feelings exuding from them were different if you were to put them over one another.

Either way, Saya was holding a huge weapon whereas the other side held nothing. She was only standing behind the red-haired man. But it was enough to make Leerin's heart move just with her standing here. She was exuding a demonic attraction that was stronger than Saya's.

".... Nelphilia?"

The person whom she met in Zuellni, who looked exactly the same as Saya.

And she was the younger sister of the owner of Leerin's right eye. Saya's original. The man who became the moon floating in the sky, who protected this world from Ignasis's hostility.

The woman behind the man looked at Leerin and revealed a beautifully flirtatious smile, as if she was confirming Leerin's thoughts.

"Since time is short, let's hurry up and resolve the problem. The most troublesome thing in this city is about to arrive in ten seconds," the man said quickly. "There's only one thing I want to know......"

At this time, a distant explosion sounded so the man's words didn't enter Leerin's ears. Leerin looked around for the source of the noise as the entire house shook.

Just what did the man ask and how did Saya answer.... Leerin missed it all.

"Thanks."

The man smiled and bowed by the time Leerin noticed him. The sound of explosions continued. Only the man's relaxing expression was genuine in this tense situation. He didn't say anything else and suddenly left. The time limit had probably arrived.

The sound of explosions continued, but this time it was the door.

"Leerin!"

A sound filled with tension rushed into the room. The wind pressure had messed up Alsheyra's hair, who was wearing her night clothes. She was watching the direction where the man had left with furious eyes.

"Don't get ahead of yourself!"

Leerin couldn't see anything from her position. Perhaps Alsheyra saw that red haired man as she was shouting, pointing at the window with anger.

A streak of light shot out from the elegant tip of her finger. Everything quieted down. Leerin could tell what the result was judging by Alsheyra's infuriated expression.

"Unexpectedly difficult," she said and spat.

But her expression changed all of a sudden.

"Wuah~ Are you ok, Leerin-chan? Are you fine? Really, that trash. How dare he enter a girl's room in the middle of the night? What rubbish he is."

Leerin couldn't catch up with her speedy change. Alsheyra was hugging her tightly, pressing down on her face with her breasts. Leerin couldn't think of anything but confusion.

Did she accept the event just like that?

"Nothing happened," Saya said behind Alsheyra. It took Leerin lots of strength to shake off Alsheyra's wrists. The weapon of the girl of moonlight had vanished.

"I won't let him off easy!" Alsheyra howled. "How dare he do that! That dirty man's fingers! I won't let him off easily if his fingernails touched Leerin-chan. I'll slice him into thin pieces starting from his feet when I catch him!"

Murderous intention exuded from her...... but Leerin wasn't scared. She knew she wasn't really mad. She was just worried about Leerin. Everything else was just pretense.

Why did Leerin have this feeling?

"Sen.... Your Majestic, do you know that person?"

"Eh? No. I don't know him. I just don't like his actions."

She gave a firm reply but Leerin felt something more in her words. She accepted it. Did she understand what she was thinking?

She touched the eye-patch over her eye. Her right eye hurt a little. Why? This right eye that was hers and wasn't hers...... No, this was what the right eye was from the very beginning. It didn't belong to her, but she had it now, and it was functioning as her eye.

Who did it belong to originally? The man who became the moon?

No.

This was just an imitated creation. It was made from the atoms that fell on the moon. The real thing was on the moon. The moon itself was the man's right eye. That must be it.

Then what about this right eye?

Thinking of this, a strange kind of admission came to Leerin.

Yes. This was originally Alsheyra's because Alsheyra had the blood of a Military Artist. Her body was made of atoms. It wouldn't have been possible without the royal families marrying one another. The imitation that was supposed to have been more perfect, Alsheyra, for some reason, deviation occurred in the process. The missing part formed another construction and entered Leerin's right eye. Perhaps an outside force had interfered to cause this. Leerin hadn't had this thought before, but the power in her eye had been discovered. She could explain this phenomenon of calling forth to each other.

(Are we the same person?)

That was why Alsheyra could feel Leerin was in a crisis far quicker than anyone else. Not because her strength as a Military Artist far exceeded anyone, but because a special connection that should have belonged to only one person existed between them.

If that were the case, what effect would it bring?

Leerin had lost the mood to figure out the conversation between the red haired man and Saya. She was more bothered by something else.

"Leerin-chan?" Alsheyra said, but she didn't give a reply.

Alsheyra hadn't noticed the feeling in Leerin but she could tell she was in danger? What meaning did this hold?

"What is it?"

Leerin shook her head. This wasn't a problem she could solve right now. She didn't know whether the speculation coming from a suspicion was correct. Perhaps she would talk about it when the answer was clearer.

Almost time. Immediately like a storm, it arrived.

"It's here," Saya said simply. She watched the window that the red haired man had shattered. Intense wind blew the curtains into the room.

The noise from the outside vanished, making the sound of the rain stand out more. The humidity rushing into the room made the temperature drop. The high humidity was uncomfortable.

Leerin thought she would see the outside better if she changed her position, so she stood beside Saya. Alsheyra was standing diagonally in front of her as if to protect her. No moon was outside. There was only darkness. The artificial light on the ground was feebly resisting the dark clouds and the smoke caused by the pollutants.

And lightning and rumbles in the sky dominated everything as if to mock this resistance.

It was just a split second, but she saw it clearly.

Cloud cover was behind the fog. The cloud layer made by vapor flowed in Grendan's sky like a large river. It showed no signs of stopping.

Something was between the cloud layer and the black smoke, separating the two colors. Something in a circular shape that was acting like a boulder trying to change the course of the river's flow. But the cloud layer didn't change its direction because of the boulder's obstruction. It continued to flow. If this truly was a river, the water would change its direction when hitting the boulder and create waves and foam. But not now.

It was a black hole.

"Delbone."

"Here. I already noticed it and have given the evacuation order. The Heaven's Blade successors have been called together for the emergency. The Military Artists are waiting on the third defence line. Is this fine?"

"Uh, yes."

Alsheyra stopped the short conversation with Delbone.

Leerin stared at the black hole. The light of seven colors shone from the edge of the hole. It wasn't bright but it stood out. The depth of the black hole seemed bottomless. It looked like a flat surface. Leerin hadn't seen it before but it felt like the thing that had appeared above Zuellni.

She couldn't help but reach up to touch the eye-patch.

Everything was about to begin.