The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Vol. 5: The Promised Land

Guiding guns were outlawed weapons.

Those illegally distributed without the Faust’s knowledge rarely included sniper rifles, and few people were proficient enough with the scarce weapons to truly call themselves snipers.

In fact, this was the first time Momo had even been shot at by one.

She had learned how to deal with them as part of her battle training, though—which was why something seemed off to her about the interval between the first shot and the second.

“They’re not…moving?”

When one attacked from far away, it was a common tactic to change positions between each shot, yet there was no change in the direction or sound.

Either this person was a terrible sniper, or they were underestimating Momo. Maybe they had a guard nearby and were confident no one could reach them? Momo tapped her foot on the ground, thinking hard.

Judging by the amount of time between firing and the sounds, the shooter was probably about four hundred meters away. With Guiding Enhancement, Momo could try to move in closer to them.

She closed her eyes for a moment, tracing the route in her mind.

“Let’s do this, shall we?”

Momo was swift to act when her resolve was steadied, and she dashed forward.

The second shot.

Just as the echo faded, Momo rose to the challenge and came charging straight toward Sahara.

She was sitting atop the head of a tall monster with her knee raised in order to keep watch on her opponent’s movements.

After the first shot, she’d elected not to move. Momo had sensed that Sahara didn’t intend to hide and came after her.

Exactly as she’d planned. Sahara had remained where she was to give herself away intentionally.

“Simpleminded moron.”

Momo was a heavily impulsive person. When faced with a contest of perseverance, she naturally grew impatient and ran straight for the source.

And Sahara would be waiting to take her down.

She aimed for the pink-haired head as it sped toward her. Her right arm—now a sniper rifle-style Guiding gun—absorbed her Guiding Force and produced a bullet of pure power. Feeling it snap into place, Sahara squeezed the trigger.

The third shot.

For a second, the friction of the Guiding Force bullet lancing through the barrel shook the air. The heat warped Sahara’s view through the scope, but she saw Momo bend backward.

Got her—wait.

Momo hadn’t stopped moving. She was unharmed despite taking a direct hit, and Sahara knew why.

“Barrier.”

She’d used the barrier crest in her priestess robes to block the projectile, just as Sahara knew she would.

Guiding guns were dangerous weapons because anyone could use them. Still, they were also easy enough for members of the Faust to deal with for one simple reason: They weren’t powerful enough to pierce the barrier crest conjuring inside every priestess’s robe.

However, crest conjurings took two or three seconds after each invocation before they could be used again. A few ultra-skilled users could produce a second crest conjuring in less than a second, but that was exceedingly rare. The only examples Sahara knew of were Menou, Master Flare, and perhaps a few priestesses of the bishop rank or higher.

Momo didn’t have anywhere near Menou’s Guiding Force finesse. Her barrier was down. If another shot came now, her only choice was to evade. The next few moments hinged on whether she could dodge that next shot. At least, that was undoubtedly what Momo believed.

Sahara lowered the still-warm barrel and stood. Though her approach didn’t slow, Momo looked puzzled by this un-sniper-like move.

The distance was too short for sniping now, and that was perfect.

Sahara wasn’t much of a sharpshooter anyhow.

Guiding Force: Merge Materials—Prosthetic Arm, Inner Seal Conjuration—Activate [Skill: Medium-Range Strafing Form]

Sahara’s gun arm reconstructed itself again.

The slender silhouette was replaced with a thick, crude, round shape. The barrel became a combination of several cylinders.

Sahara was beginning to understand exactly what her right arm was.

The Primary Color conjuring materials that made up her prosthetic limb… They were basically an aggregation of minuscule conjured soldiers.

Although inorganic, they could transform into something organic. The materials of the three Primary Colors were capable of combining into anything at will. Depending on how they were ordered, it was even possible to form a consciousness. The conjured puppets of Primary Colors were the ultimate realization of that: a man-made, intelligent, nonhuman life-form.

Now it went from a long-distance sniper rifle to a machine gun for dominating at close range.

Momo had reached the bottom of the monster Sahara was sitting on. She was well within range of the naked eye.

This also happened to be the perfect distance for the machine gun. Just as Momo started attacking the monster to knock Sahara off, she abruptly froze.

“This is for my younger self, who hated you for beating me up…”

With the words of one who clearly still held a grudge, Sahara activated Guiding Enhancement. Her body glowed with Guiding Light to brace against the recoil of using her weapon.

“Now it’s your turn.”

She opened fire.

The barrel of her machine gun arm rotated rapidly.

Guiding Force bullets rained down with an endless barrage of sound. Sahara was sweeping the entire area without bothering to aim. The volley felled several nearby monsters in the process and would certainly be impossible to dodge.

Menou could have blocked it with a scripture conjuring, but Momo’s crest conjuring wasn’t ready, so the bullets cut right across her body.

Sahara’s victory was set in stone from the moment Momo carelessly ran toward her.

Her Guiding Force drained away with the bullets that sprayed all around. The friction was causing her right arm to heat up faster than the vents could counteract.

If Sahara kept it up much longer, the barrel might bend, so she slowed her attack to a stop.

Lowering the barrel as inertia kept it turning, she beheld the results. The ground had been battered by the spray of bullets, sending up clouds of smoke.

There was no way Momo had escaped unharmed. Sahara thought she would have to search for the body once the dust settled, but she was quickly proven wrong.

A coping saw flicked out of the smoke like a whip and wrapped around the neck of Sahara’s mount.

“Huh?”

Sahara gaped, frozen in shock. Momo was alive.

Her priestess robes and tights were in tatters, and blood was trickling from several places, but she was far from mortally wounded. And based on the way she was dragging the struggling monster down by the neck, she was fighting fit.

Perhaps Sahara hadn’t used enough Guiding Force. The higher number of bullets meant that each one was considerably weaker than the sniping shots. But the barrage had been powerful enough to shred the surrounding monsters.

How had Momo endured?

The answer was simple.

Phosphorescent Guiding Light glowed around Momo’s body.

She’d used Guiding Enhancement, manipulating Guiding Force without a conjuring to strengthen her body enough to withstand the hits.

“Now,
that
huuurt…!” Momo snarled in annoyance.

Using a barrier conjuring from a crest or scripture was one thing, but it was hard to believe someone could deflect bullets with pure Guiding Enhancement. An attack that was strong enough to turn monsters into mincemeat, even weak ones, had to be agony.

“Momo…! I see you’re still a Guiding Force fiend.”

“Excuse me?”

Momo looked up.

It had been around ten years since Sahara left the monastery. When their eyes met, Momo looked Sahara right in the face.

“Who are you supposed to be?” A vein throbbed on Sahara’s forehead. Momo lowered her voice, shaking out her pink pigtails. “It’s bad enough when someone I know casually uses my name. What gives a total stranger the right to talk like that to meee? How do you know my name, hmm? Are you a stalker? I’m going to kill you right now, before you creep me out any more.”

A second vein rose on Sahara’s temple.

This girl had attacked her in the monastery again and again, even resorting to stealing her clothes, and now she’d
forgotten
her?

Momo wasn’t mocking or provoking Sahara—she truly didn’t remember.

“Well, whatever. If I don’t remember you, that means you didn’t matter in the first place.”

Momo filled her coping saw with Guiding Force, still using it to restrain the monster.

Guiding Force: Connect—Coping Saw, Crest—Invoke [Oscillation]

The coping saw whirred and quickly sliced right through the creature’s neck.

Its head fell to the ground, and the rest of the monster followed suit. As Sahara dropped with it, she turned her prosthetic arm back to its original form and landed on her feet. Now the two girls were looking at each other on level ground.

Seeing Sahara’s clothes, Momo snorted.

“A nun? Wow. How embarrassing to still be wearing a habit at your age.”

Incidentally, Momo and Menou just happened to be exceptional; it was perfectly normal to remain a nun until the age of twenty or so.

Knowing this perfectly well, Momo smirked provokingly.

“Did you join up with the taboos out of despair for your own talentless, empty future? What a sad little example of an inferiority complex grown out of incompetence and stupidity. But don’t you worry. I’ll put an end to that sad little life of yours right nooow. Be grateful, okaaaaay?”

“…Hey, Momo.”

“I told you not to use my name. Didn’t you hear me? I’ll say it again. Don’t. Say. My. Naaame.”

She put nasty emphasis on every syllable, but Sahara ignored her and expressionlessly gave a thumbs-down with her prosthetic arm to declare her intentions.

“You’re the one who’s about to die.”

“I refuse.”

The second round began.

Momo closed in. Hand-to-hand combat was her specialty. With her innately high Guiding Force, she could give herself ridiculously intense strength. Her Guiding Enhancement increased her physical prowess to the point where she didn’t even feel a need for scripture conjurings, a typical priestess’s main weapon.

Most living things perished if you beat them to a pulp.

As she always did, Momo followed that rule of thumb, raising her fists.

Sahara, on the other hand, stood bolt upright.

Having experienced death, she had placed her faith in her right arm, which was far more powerful than the rest of her. Sahara knew she didn’t have any talent. She hadn’t even been able to become a proper priestess.

Still, she had the false limb.

Guiding Force: Merge Materials—Prosthetic Arm, Inner Seal Conjuration—Activate [Skill: Silver Gauntlet]

The two girls’ fists crashed into each other.

The collision of their blows reverberated all the way to Elcami’s skin.

It happened a second time, then a third. The far-reaching shock waves and sounds were more than enough to indicate the ferocity of the battle.

Unconcerned, Elcami sent more Guiding Force into her scripture and activated another scripture conjuring.

Elcami’s fighting style was nothing like Momo’s. She used frequent scripture conjurings, extending them so that the effects never paused.

Her scripture conjurings were delicately detailed and sublime.

The Guiding Force bell rang on, church walls surrounded the monsters, stakes spread into a fence and impaled enemies. The continuous scripture conjurings spread her territory and claimed total control of the battlefield. Elcami could no longer be seen amid the scripture conjurings she’d erected around her.

This was the true path of a priestess of the Faust.

Stepping into the darkness unafraid and lighting up the area as a symbol of hope. Such pure strength as a priestess was beyond those like Momo and Menou, who had been raised as Executioners.

The monsters couldn’t so much as draw near the archbishop in the face of her multiple scripture conjurings. Unable to physically overcome the conjured walls, the monsters that once numbered at least a hundred rapidly declined. The only ones that survived were those that had managed to flee from the area around Elcami.

However, the archbishop had never been interested in the horde.

“Well… It certainly doesn’t look like she’s only pretending to fight.”

Momo’s intense attacks betrayed no sign that she was holding back. Her savage bloodlust, strong enough for Elcami to sense it as she observed from a distance, was undoubtedly the real thing. The girl wasn’t aiding the monsters in the slightest.

“Was I overthinking it…? So few monsters couldn’t possibly threaten us.”

Elcami turned her attention to the one who could be called the leader of the monsters—a cherubic little girl in a white dress. She looked utterly harmless but was, in truth, the most dangerous of them all.

“Little finger. What did you come here to do?”

“Oh, so I guess the heavy hitters
do
show up every now and then.”

The girl beamed, evidently content not to answer Elcami’s question.

Pandæmonium’s entire body had been run through with Guiding Force stakes, pinning her in the air.

“People who are almost unbelievably strong. People who are loved by Guiding Force. People who were blessed with strength from birth… They’re the envy of someone as weak as me, I must say.”

Even as her blood dripped to the ground, Pandæmonium seemed carefree as she spoke. She couldn’t even die in this state, preventing her from sacrificing and resummoning herself as she so often did.

Yet fettered as she was, Pandæmonium reached out her hand. She pressed it against the pristine church wall that surrounded her, leaving a bloody handprint.

“But you know…”

Guiding Force: Sacrifice—Chaos Collusion, Pure Concept [Evil]—Summon [How cute, cries the child.]

The red handprints on the white edifice suddenly multiplied. It was as if a group of invisible children was throwing a tantrum, trying to break the barrier. With each blow, one of the nearby monsters offered as a sacrifice melted away.

Eventually, the barrier shattered before the monster sacrifices ran out completely.

The Elcami visible past the broken wall was not an old woman in the latter part of her life.

She looked to be somewhere in her twenties, so youthful that her pristine bishop robes appeared strange on her. However, her irritable facial features and fierce, fiery eyes definitely belonged to Elcami.

Seeing this young Elcami, Pandæmonium exclaimed with glee, “Mm, I knew it! I figured that was why you’re so strong. You’re an Elder, aren’t you? And a recent one, at that. Am I wrong?”

“……!”

The youthful face of Elcami, also known as the Magician, twisted at the remark.

It was Guiding Enhancement on a cellular level, something possible only to those with innate high-output Guiding Force and incredible Guiding Force manipulation skills. Elcami, archbishop and Elder, was beloved by Guiding Force and had reached the heights of Guiding Enhancement. As a result, she had unintentionally unlocked the ability to make herself younger.

“Immortality is a requirement to be an Elder and has been for a thousand years. But why do you act like an old lady when you could be young all the time? Don’t tell me you want to age like a normal person or something?”

“Silence, you…!” Elcami shouted with youthful-sounding rage at the all-too-accurate guess.

Of course she wanted to age.

Elcami didn’t want to leave someone else behind. She didn’t want to be the one abandoned, either. The look on her friend’s face when she found out was burned into her memory.

They had climbed the ranks of the Faust side by side, fellow priestesses from the same generation. Elcami had always admired her.

She was a true holy woman, unlike the lowly unbelieving Elcami. More pious than anyone, more devoted to the path of righteousness…Orwell.

Orwell’s face when she saw Elcami in all her restored youth would live in the archbishop’s mind forever.

Ever since, Elcami had raged against her own power and her title as Magician.

“Don’t worry. You’ve got plenty of time. All your friends will die, people will avoid you, and you’ll get to totally immerse yourself in despair. Why not live life to the fullest?”

Although Pandæmonium was in no position to fight back, she taunted Elcami. The little girl who had lived for over a thousand years beckoned to the newly baptized immortal.

It was nonsense. Elcami dismissed the Human Error’s words.

“I don’t want to hear that from you Otherworlders. Not when you get the right to trample over everyone else’s gifts, efforts, and passions just by being brought here.”

Even when facing the opponent who had given Menou and Ashuna so much trouble, Elcami’s bishop robes were spotless.

“Oh my. Do you hate us that much?”

“Who could possibly feel anything but enmity for you? And now we finally have the chance to get rid of you all with the return of the Lord.”

“‘Lord’?”

Pandæmonium’s eyes widened.

The Lord written of in the scriptures was a great being said to have established modern civilization here in the holy land after it was destroyed a millennium ago.

“The return… Hmm. I see! I can’t believe that silly Billy is still doing such things!”

The girl who had brought about the end of society giggled.

As a Human Error, Pandæmonium had lost her original personality, but she wasn’t incapable of thought. It was difficult for others to understand, but Pandæmonium made decisions based on what best suited the Concept of Original Sin, and she acted accordingly.

“Who gave you the idea to come here, and why? This is far too arbitrary for a random whim. What is the point of offering up your little finger here?”

Pandæmonium was now nothing more than a child who couldn’t die.

Unsurprisingly, it was impossible to reach an understanding with such a being.

“The point? Hmm… Does there need to be one? Do I need a reason to try to kill you or to let you kill me?”

Indeed, there may not have been a purpose for the attack on the holy land at all.

“You certainly are strong. I can’t even beat you myself. But did you know? If I use myself as a guidepost, I can connect for just a moment.” A childish smile flashed across Pandæmonium’s face.

Guiding Force: Sacrifice—Chaos Collusion, Pure Concept [Evil]—Summon [Tall and skinny old thorn]

The gate to hell opened up.

A huge shadow spread across the ground.

The massive monster that had appeared a few months ago destroyed an entire small island just by coming into existence.

Pandæmonium wasn’t creating it anew. It was just a summoning conjuring that brought a monster that already existed in some far-off place to where she was now.

Elcami had heard the reports about the massive losses in Libelle.

“How unpleasant.”

The Guiding Force that sprang up from her soul filled her body. It seeped into every cell, rejuvenating them, bringing her back to the prime of her life. The scripture clutched in Elcami’s arms was aglow with sacred light. In the form of a twenty-something young woman, Elcami connected to the earthen vein with a scripture conjuring, taking complete control over it.

She brought all that Guiding Force into her scripture and crafted an attack conjuring.

Guiding Force: Connect—Scripture, 14:3—Invoke [Reach higher than the heavens, stretching all the way to the moon.]

A shining sword pierced through the creature’s gigantic body.

The outflow of the earthen vein that took the shape of a luminous blade eclipsed even Pandæmonium’s monster.

In moments, the creature was cleaved in two by enough Guiding Force to power an entire city.

Pandæmonium’s monster was enormous and mighty, but not so much that there weren’t individuals who could combat it.

The Commons had the monster, Genom Cthulha. The Noblesse had the strongest, Experion Riverse.

And the Faust title of archbishop was no less a marker of strength than the other two.

“Did you really think I, the archbishop, couldn’t handle a single giant monster?”

“I never thought that for a second. Like you said, it’s only one.”

Pandæmonium, who could summon countless monsters, didn’t look surprised. She hadn’t called that creature for an attack. What she was truly calling was far vaster. It was beyond even the infamous Pandæmonium’s control.

“See? Here we go.”

White fog billowed from her body. It appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around Pandæmonium’s small frame, clinging to her tightly, surging ceaselessly.

The white mist pouring out around Pandæmonium seemed to go on forever. Indeed, it would never run out nor clear up.

Elcami scowled at the sight.

“I see. So that’s what you were after.”

The holy land was a powerful barrier city. Yet in the south, the misty barrier dubbed Pandemonium, which kept Pandæmonium’s true form trapped within, was just as potent.

Two mighty barriers would cancel each other out. Ironically enough, this vapor that was meant to contain monsters within also allowed the dangerous creatures to roam free wherever the fog pervaded.

As the pale mist flooded, monsters began crowding into the holy land. Even Elcami’s mastery of scripture conjurings wasn’t enough to repel them as they swarmed from every direction, including overhead. Destroying Pandæmonium would bring an end to this, yet even as a little finger, it was the child’s ability to overcome death that made her one of the Four Major Human Errors.

“The holy land isn’t just any old city,” Elcami spat.

The monsters that invaded the holy land were eradicated in the blink of an eye.

This was a place inhabited entirely by Faust members. They were highly trained elite priestesses. A few monsters wouldn’t get the best of them.

Elcami deliberately allowed her body to age. She needed to grow old normally in order to exist as the archbishop. A person who could restore their own youth couldn’t mingle among ordinary humans.

Eventually, she would have to fade into the shadows like the other Elders.

But that time had not yet come. Before she was the Elder Magician, she was the archbishop who stood at the front and center of the stage.

“There’s not a coward among those who live here.”

Not one of the members of the Faust would lose to the monsters that Pandæmonium’s little finger had beckoned.

Just as things in the holy land were suddenly heating up, the one priestess who did consider herself a coward was singing a little tune.

“The best thing about glasseees…is even if you look down and cryyy…no one will see your teeears…”

Though her improvised song had a cheerful melody, the lyrics were distressingly morbid.

Hooseyard was full of self-loathing at her own timidity. She was holing up in the cathedral while her subordinate was sent out onto the battlefield.

“It’s just too scaryyy…”

Monsters were flooding into the holy land. Even Hooseyard was a competent enough priestess to take on one or two, but she didn’t dare venture out to meet the creatures. Deep down, she knew she wasn’t made for fighting.

Even if the monsters had gotten into the holy land, there was no physical entrance for them to get into the cathedral.

“If I just keep holding down the fort…”

“You.”

“Bwah?!”

As Hooseyard was about to voice her resolve to remain hidden, she was abruptly interrupted by Elcami. The appearance of the elderly archbishop made Hooseyard automatically straighten up.

“A-Archbishop Elcami…? I thought you were out fighting off the monsters with Miss Momo?”

“Since when do I need to explain myself to you?”

“Never, ma’am!”

Hooseyard could never stand up to that withering glare.

“This monster business is the least of our problems. More importantly, how is the teleport conjuring circle to the land of salt coming along?”

“Very good, ma’am. I’ve connected the Guiding Force route! The path to the land of salt is complete. Just say the word whenever you’d like!”

“I see. Just as the report said. So how long will the teleport conjuring circle remain stable once it’s been invoked?”

“Hmm?”

Keeping the portal stable for an extended period of time… Was that mentioned in the assignment? Of course, she had included enough time for travel both ways in her estimates, but if there were going to be additional demands, that would be a problem. To put it simply, Hooseyard would no longer have time to sleep.

“S-since the heavenly vein will eventually shift its course, the Guiding Force route will evaporate within about thirty-six hours after the appointed time and date… Is that a problem?”

“No, not at all. Good work, Hooseyard. Let me see it for myself, just to be safe. Lead the way.”

“Y-yes, ma’am!”

A compliment. Hooseyard’s expression brightened immediately.

This had to be a fairly serious matter for the archbishop to check her work personally. Hooseyard led her boss to the Dragon Gate to show off her accomplishment.

“I see… So you did use the Dragon Gate for this.”

“Pardon? You already knew that, didn’t you, Archbishop Elcami?”

“Yes, it was just such a long time ago. Once the Guiding Force is connected, invoking
Teleport
will be simple enough. Activate the path and solidify it at once.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Hooseyard promptly set to her task. Before long, a new path appeared at the Dragon Gate.

“It’s ready! All that’s left is to set the route in the station building, so anyone can…”

Hooseyard trailed off. Elcami’s appearance had crumbled before her eyes.

What remained in her place was a young girl wearing indigo priestess robes. A strange gasp of confusion left Hooseyard’s lips. She took pride in the fact that nobody entered the cathedral without her knowledge, which plunged her further into confusion.

No longer in disguise, Menou dealt the stunned priestess a barehanded chop to the back of the neck.

“I do feel sorry about this, just so you know.”

Hooseyard’s consciousness plunged into darkness.

A little earlier, while monsters assailed the holy land, Menou noticed the chaos outside from within the cathedral.

She overheard the conversations and saw the battle from her room in the south tower. If Pandæmonium was here, Manon undoubtedly had put her up to it.

However, Manon’s attack was all part of Menou’s plan.

It was worth the extra effort of stealing a kimono when she left the hot springs town in the mountains. It hadn’t only been for her disguise—the theft also informed Manon of Menou’s intentions. That girl was too clever not to figure it out. Combined with the fact that Kagarma had disappeared at the same time, Menou guessed that Manon would deduce what was happening and follow her to the holy land.

And if Manon intended to enter the holy land, she would have to do something about the barrier.

That definitely required some kind of monster attack.

Menou could easily predict what the priestesses in the holy land would do if monsters struck.

First, they would need to get a grasp of the full situation and determine what was happening. The information that would be sent to Hooseyard, who was in charge of all travel into and out of the cathedral, would no doubt include what Menou needed to know: the state of Akari Tokitou and the teleport gate to the land of salt.

It was dangerous, of course. Menou’s infiltration of the cathedral in the first place was extremely risky. It required her to team up with the Director, a man whom she didn’t trust in the slightest.

Still, she now possessed the facts she’d required.

“I’ll have to thank Momo again.”

By getting information from Hooseyard through Momo, Menou was able to move much more freely. She’d taken Elcami’s form to deceive Hooseyard and get access to the path leading to the Sword of Salt.

All she had to do now was to teleport to the land of salt. As she left, Manon would come in her place. Once Manon was there, it would be as if Menou had never been.

The real challenge was what came next.

Killing Akari was Menou’s duty.

Akari, who had become Menou’s friend.

All Menou could do for Akari was kill her while she was still herself. If she let Master Flare handle it, Akari would lose her personality. She would forget about Menou and end her life as nothing but a Human Error.

So Menou would slay the girl her way.

“This is more than I expected, though.”

Once Menou teleported to the land of salt, she intended to hide and stand by. Since Master Flare was also planning to kill Akari with the Sword of Salt, she would have to bring Akari there, even if Menou was lying in wait. Menou intended to secure the Sword of Salt in advance and gain the advantage over Master Flare.

Just as Menou stepped into the station building on the platform in accordance with the information from Hooseyard, she heard footsteps behind her.

They were light, frantic, and strangely familiar.

“Menou!”

Turning around, she saw Akari running up to the station. Menou was naturally surprised at the sudden arrival of a girl who should’ve been locked up.

“Akari…? What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean?! The racket from all those monsters reached all the way to where I was being kept! Something crazy must be happening, right? That red-haired priestess who was watching me ran off, and I escaped on my own!”

“Really…?”

“Yup!”

If what Akari said was true, it would be very convenient for Menou. All she would have to do now was take Akari through the Dragon Gate.

“But I wasn’t expecting to find you here, Menou. You really did come for me, huh?”

She was about three steps away, close enough to reach out and touch. As Akari giggled, Menou noticed the scent of smoke tickling her nostrils.

It was a familiar smell. Menou froze in place. Her outstretched hand became a warning, keeping the other girl from taking another step closer.

The difference was clear.

A slight pain formed in Menou’s chest.

It was a sharp sting, as if the prick of a thorn. Menou didn’t look down, keeping her eyes fixed on the person before her.

Akari looked at Menou curiously. There wasn’t anything in her hands, and yet…

Menou slowly raised a hand to her ribs.

There was something there that had just barely failed to pierce through.

She looked at Akari again.

“Master?”

At that, Akari blinked in confusion. Her face said that she had no idea what Menou was talking about, that it didn’t make sense.

Still, Menou didn’t lower her guard. Appearances meant nothing. She was well aware of the foolhardiness of being deceived by looks.

Akari’s face twisted as she barked out a laugh.

“You got it.”

The light around them warped. The ability to manipulate the glow of Guiding Light created when one used Guiding Enhancement and use it to deceive the eyes—Guiding Camouflage. When the ripples in the air settled, the person in front of Menou was no longer a young girl.

It was Master Flare.

Free of her disguise, the woman shook out her dark-red hair.

Menou stood stiffly in front of her, her expression hard. Master Flare, on the other hand, was behaving no differently than usual.

“Nice work getting here, Menou.”

“…Thanks.”

Menou offered only a word in response to what sounded like a sarcastic welcome. The Executioner knew going in that if she was going to secure Akari, she would have to fight her Master.

She’d been prepared for this outcome, or so she’d believed. Menou had been risking her life since the moment she’d set foot in the holy land.

However, now that she was actually standing in front of Master Flare, all the words Menou had intended to say vanished.

Menou unconsciously tried to swallow and found that her mouth had gone dry. She couldn’t even begin a conversation. Her feelings in that moment were not unlike those of a child caught shoplifting and brought before their parents.

What was Master Flare going to say?

Would she be disappointed? Mocking? Furious?

As Menou stood in silence, Flare spoke.

“Akari Tokitou seems lost.”

From the very first word, she caught Menou off guard.

“She can’t run away, yet she can’t accept you, either. Funny, isn’t it? She’s torturing herself by overthinking things, unable to find anywhere she belongs. Truly befitting of a lost one.”

Menou hadn’t expected her to start talking about Akari.

The words pierced Menou to the core nonetheless.

“You’re not going to ask me anything?”

It was a strangely desperate question.

Master Flare was acting as if it was entirely natural for Menou to be here, but the young woman had stolen into the cathedral in direct violation of her orders. Her Master seemed content not to comment on that, though.

This felt oddly frustrating to Menou. Perhaps she wanted Master Flare to ask her reasons for coming.

“You found your own answer, right? I didn’t think you’d need any input from your Master after having left my monastery so long ago. Still, if I had to say something about it…I’d tell you that you’re making a mistake, Menou.”

“I know that much already.”

Menou’s objective was simple.

She was here to kill Akari, against her Master’s instruction. She wanted to slay Akari while the girl still retained her personality instead of letting Master Flare have her way.

“No, I don’t think you do.”

Her tone was downright scolding.

It was unsurprising that Master Flare didn’t accept her pupil’s reason, but this was a different angle than Menou expected. Her Master’s words shook Menou’s soul to an unbelievable degree.

“You’re here to kill Akari Tokitou, correct?”

“…Yes.”

“You want to put an end to this girl who’s become your friend before she turns into a Human Error. You must’ve thought of that after witnessing the state of Pandæmonium, right? So sentimental.”

“Is there a problem with that?”

What was Menou saying? She was getting carried away by the conversation, and even her own blurted-out question surprised her. Her thoughts were clearly disordered.

“Idiot.” Master Flare promptly dismissed Menou’s feelings. Her voice rang hollow as she spoke. “You want to find meaning in killing someone.” She took a slow step forward, looming over Menou with her superior height. “But you don’t need a meaning, a method, a motive, faith, or anything else. We execute people even if we don’t know why, no matter what happens, and we never let it slow us down. That’s what makes us the villains. I thought I taught you that much.”

Menou shifted her weight to her heel, carefully stepping backward.

Akari wasn’t here. There was little point in Menou fighting Master Flare now. It was unfortunate that Flare knew Menou had gotten into the cathedral, but all was not yet lost.

The reason Master Flare didn’t take Menou into custody last time they met was because it wasn’t her job.

Menou hadn’t turned against Master Flare in that moment. She’d accepted the mission given to her, though only in lip service, and let her teacher take Akari away. Menou had promised to come take her back, but Master Flare deliberately didn’t listen to that bit.

Master Flare would never prevent taboo.

No matter how obvious it was that someone was about to commit a crime, she wouldn’t attempt to stop them or dispose of them. The woman would only smirk at people’s confusion without offering a word of advice, keeping a close watch for the moment their desire to commit taboo got the better of their conscience.

Master Flare would only draw her blade as an Executioner
after
someone had committed taboo.

“There’s no saving people like us.”

Menou was now breaking and entering without permission, in violation of her orders. No matter the reason, she had perpetrated the grave crime of infiltrating the cathedral for an Otherworlder’s sake.

“Let’s see the measure of your mettle now that you’ve strayed from my teachings.”

Somehow, Menou would have to overcome her Master.

Fear crept up her spine, but she was quick to force it down. This was no time for dwelling on trivialities. She was already face-to-face with the strongest enemy she’d ever come up against in her life.

Menou drew the dagger from the strap around her thigh and filled the crests engraved in it with Guiding Force. At almost the exact same time, Master Flare activated the crest conjuring in her own dagger.

Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Invoke [Gale]

Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Invoke [Thunderclap]

The crest conjurings of Master and student collided.