CHAPTER 43: THE BATTLE OF INVICTUS (7)

Back to the present

Captain Bernard was stunned by what he was witnessing. Everyone who heard the sound seemed to fall into a trance, one after another. That music had the power to transcend words, reaching straight to the heart. Even he couldn’t help but shed a tear, although he understood that, like everyone else, he was under the influence of that girl’s power...

He could have broken free from it if he truly wanted to. But he didn’t. At his age, every chance to relax was a precious gift.

Of course, he hadn’t forgotten his duty as an officer. Taking advantage of the moment, he began preparing to reorganize his troops. But a cry from the distance caught his attention.

"Hmm... he’s coming."

---

Grégoire was holding his head in his hands, as if consumed by unbearable pain.

"No... no, that can’t be. It’s impossible..."

He kept muttering those words on repeat, as if caught in a loop of madness.

He wasn’t the only one. Everyone carrying a parasite in their brain had just received a flashback—memories of reality returning while they were still under the trance induced by the melody.

The reactions varied. Some, upon realizing the deaths of their loved ones, collapsed into regret and dropped their weapons. Others, struck by the truth, became aware of the acts they had just committed and vomited their guts out.

It was a natural reaction for any ordinary person who suddenly realized they had just committed murder—worse, against an Enforcer.

The parasite was a Psy, and a very skilled one, but all he did was hide the truth, repainting the reality of his hosts in order to better control them.

Iris, on the other hand, couldn’t manipulate reality. Her resonance simply didn’t allow it.

However, she had woven words into her music that the brain couldn’t process, but that resonated directly with the soul.

She had brilliantly combined her gift for music and acting with her resonance to achieve this feat.

Over the past days, she had patiently planted and watered seeds of doubt whenever she could through innocent questions, lighthearted jokes allowing people to reflect without alerting the parasite.

Is what I’m living real? Am I truly happy?

Simple questions, and yet they pushed the mind to question—even for a brief instant—the truth it believed in.

A seemingly insignificant moment... and yet a very real one.

Still, this came at a cost. Iris had to expend a massive amount of ether to influence so many people at once. Alone, she would have never managed. But thanks to Carla, it became possible.

Even so, her range remained limited. Her power was useless if she couldn’t see the person. And it could be broken if the target’s will exceeded her own.

That was the case with Grégoire. He stubbornly refused to face the truth. Even though he knew what he’d experienced—the orders he thought he received—were false, fabricated, he rejected it all out of fear of the consequences.

The others, meanwhile, were too shaken to move. But Iris no longer bothered to motivate them or try to shift their emotions.

In their current state, even if the parasite continued to deceive their eyes with false images, doubt had already taken hold of them. Like her and Carla, they could now perceive the difference between illusion and reality, as if a split-screen played out before their eyes.

In any case, they were out of the fight.

What Iris needed to watch for now were the Enforcers still inside the building, too far from her line of sight. Thanks to her eyes, she could detect the presence of a parasite within their brains. She remembered that during their clash with parasitized Initiates, the parasite had spread like a plague—through saliva from bites, or via pre-infected weapons.

Unfortunately, those Enforcers were beyond her reach, and thus hadn’t been influenced by the Soul Eyes. But she wasn’t too worried: the other Enforcers had already regrouped to hold them off.

At this point, Iris could’ve said the situation was under control... if not for one thing. She saw something approaching the fortress at high speed from the other side. And yet... she couldn’t sense a single drop of ether in them.

Every human even a newborn contained a minuscule amount of ether, which accumulated over time until it saturated the soul and triggered awakening.

Awakened ones, on the other hand, carried immense reserves of ether, which continued to grow as they climbed the ranks.

In other words, the only living creatures in this world with absolutely no trace of ether...

Were Calamities.

---

Moments earlier, inside the old cave

Count Mephisto shivered at the sight before him. A pawn had rebelled without him understanding how, dragging the rest of its kin along, effectively neutralizing his army of puppets.

"Fascinating... Humans never cease to amaze me."

Those were the only thoughts in his mind as he watched the way Iris had neutralized the parasitized Initiates.

"Has the plan failed?" asked Count Albart.

"No. For a reason I haven’t yet uncovered, the Trojan horse managed to escape the influence of that human... A few remain, but they’re insignificant."

"I see."

"It’s time to entertain them. Just for a moment... before hell is unveiled."

"Haha! I was hoping I wouldn’t need to get involved. Even better," Count Albart chuckled, as he unfurled his massive serpent body, opened his gaping maw, and devoured the larva hanging from the cave ceiling in a single bite before plunging into the ground... as if diving into water.

He moved underground like an earthworm, making the cave quake on the surface.

It didn’t take long for Count Albart to spot the fortress of Invictus. His enormous head burst through the earth, mouth wide open to devour the world.

He had already chosen his first target: Iris. The human who had surprised Mephisto would be a fine delicacy.

The drool dripping from his mouth was already falling on Iris, as though she were already in his stomach...

But then, something unexpected happened. A spear shot out at blinding speed, knocking one of the Count’s fangs clean out and forcing his entire mass to recoil, lifting a mountain of dust into the air.

A man had been waiting in the shadows, hidden, watching his prey.

The Major had finally made his entrance.