CHAPTER 436: DESTROYED ROAD.

At some point, things stopped making sense to Marie. Her hands were still trembling, the sensation left by the trigger she pulled still fresh in her mind. She had done it. She had shot the monster. Before her shocked mind could fully grasp that, she was pushed toward a very dark curtain.

Instinctively squeezing her eyes shut, the girl braced herself. Seconds passed, but nothing happened. Eventually, she gathered the courage to gaze at her surroundings. The place she found herself in felt like another world.

Cracked roads, shattered buildings. A dark sky with not a single star in sight. Spotlights hung from corners. Though she was finally outside, though she had finally escaped the confines of that accursed mansion, Marie was unable to feel any joy. Something about the place she found herself in felt very odd, something other than it looking like the scene of a disaster.

Fear kept her rooted in place, but it was what caused her to move as well. She wandered the streets with careful steps, her little mind wondering what had happened to this place. Just as she was starting to get used to the silence, a loud bang almost caused her heart to jump out of her chest.

She looked around, frantically searching for a way to escape. Though she had tried to avoid it, her gaze ultimately fell on the thing that had startled her, causing the terror grasping her to grow stronger. When the dust cleared and she got to see beyond it, her fear settled, if only a little bit.

A massive machine rested a few meters away, and the ground beneath it shattered under its weight. Though it appeared to have arms and legs, they were larger than most adults, covered in lustrous alloy plating, the color of which was a dark purple. Its joints glowed with a vibrant violet that seeped between the gaps of its outer shell.

As it struggled to lift itself, further crushing the ground under it, Marie got a glimpse of its head. Though it looked different, it had a round glass-like visor much similar to that of the black machine that had saved her earlier.

[Haha...] All of a sudden, the black machine let a broken cackle. [Hahaha... hahaha... hahahaha...]

As it laughed, its imposing shell began to shatter, turning into countless threads of pure white light. The threads vanished one after the other, disappearing into a single point, and as they did, the laughter lost its unsettling tone and gradually became more human.

As the light faded away, something fell to the ground where the large machine had been. Marie realized it was a person. For some reason, it never occurred to her that a person was inside that machine, even though it made a lot more sense.

Though hesitant, Marie tried to approach the person, hoping to get a closer look at them. Her steps halted when they suddenly moved, flipping over on their back and stretching their arms wide.

"Hahaha...hahaha....hahahaha...hahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

The person, an older boy with deep crimson hair, started laughing out of nowhere. It was weak at first, as if he was struggling to breathe, then got progressively louder and more unhinged, so much so that Marie couldn’t help but be afraid.

As she backed away, tears returning to her eyes as she held both hands to her chest, the long sleeves of the jacket she wore came into sight. That jacket was handed to her by the black machine, which he now realizes might have been another person wearing a machine over their body.

Looking it over, she turned her gaze to the red-haired boy. His laughter soon subsided, and as she continued to watch him, silence returned to the destroyed road.

~[ ]~

The mission was a failure.

Even though he was in their grasp, Jason still managed to get away. Things took a turn when the monster with the horns appeared. He was soon removed from the picture by the mysterious intruder in the red power suit, but even then, they failed to recapture the target, forcing them to make a hasty retreat.

Jason had some power that allowed him to break anything he touched. It was unlikely that Eidolon chose him to be one of their Genomes, so the more logical explanation would be that he took the rumored Catalyst. No matter the case, that power had allowed him to slip out of their grasp just when they managed to catch him the second time.

The mansion was already swarmed by then. Having lost their chance, Rose gave the order to retreat. They had to fight their way back to the basement, but just as they reached the first room, Rose realized that Dante had yet to return.

Before she could think of going back to look for him, a violent earthquake shook the whole mansion. The deafening thunderclap that accompanied it painted a clear image of the approaching disaster, then, just as suddenly, an eerie silence swallowed everything.

Something felt very off, but no one could tell what it was. That feeling only got stronger when those who entered the basement room first called, asking them to come check something. When she went inside, Rose learned that the hole they had dug was no longer there.

At first, she thought that they had entered the wrong room, but it couldn’t have been the case since they were following the 3D map Dante had left for them. Just when they thought to check the other rooms, it came to their attention that their enemy had yet to continue the pursuit. As the oddities continued to pile, Rose took two of her crew members and went to check.

On the way, she noticed that the mansion looked strangely clean for a place where a shootout had just taken place. Her crew hadn’t exactly been careful during their retreat, so they broke quite a few things on the way. Despite that, there was no trace of the mess they caused. Not even a single bullet hole.

By the time they reached the first floor, Rose started to get the feeling that their enemies were gone. Just when they thought that might truly be the case, a faint noise drew their attention, and their weapons immediately snapped I its direction. Fortunately, none of them had their fingers on the trigger.

Up there at the end of the stairs leading to the second floor, Rose spotted a little girl wearing a maid’s uniform.