The Crimson Stage
I pushed open the shattered glass door, and the first thing that met us was a vast open space. Just as I'd expected, the building had once been a church; light filtered through enormous stained-glass windows painted with unrecognizable figures, casting the whole interior in a faintly dreamlike glow.
What filled the floor, by contrast, was a collection of rusted machines and half-ruined facilities. The flooring was crude, and the wide, uncleaned expanses felt more empty than occupied. A faint noise drifted down from the second floor, which suggested the first was little more than a showpiece.
"I cleared out the nearby sensors so we could get in," Erika said, "but that means they've almost certainly noticed something's off on their end."
"So what do we do?"
Erika tightened her grip on her sword and pointed toward the staircase visible in the distance.
"There aren't any hazards installed on the first floor, so we'll do a quick sweep and head that way—"
"Hic—hik!"
What snagged both our attention mid-conversation was a high, thin voice. She was small and slight—not quite a child, more like a girl who had only just become an adult. A strange mechanical device was clamped around her neck.
"Hello…"
"S-save me—!"
Before I could even finish the greeting, Erika's blade was already leveled at the girl's chest. The girl went rigid on the spot, her face drained of all color.
"Hic… hik."
My head tilted of its own accord.
"You're not going to kill her?"
She'd cut down those men without a second's hesitation. And now she was sparing this girl?
Well—after dealing with a bunch of burly thugs, coming face-to-face with a fragile, pretty little thing would soften anyone's heart.
"I get it. I understand how you fe—"
"It's not like that."
Erika sheathed her sword and scanned the surroundings.
"The mana I can sense from her is weak… She's nothing like the resident Awakened listed in the reports. She was probably just caught up in this group by accident."
The wanted list of Awakened from the reports had definitely been stacked with high-rankers. In other words, this girl was someone with circumstances of her own—or so Erika seemed to have concluded.
"Hic… hngh… haah…"
The girl, for her part, was still trembling.
"Nice to meet you."
"Ah—h-hello…?!"
She clutched at her heart and managed a greeting, only to flinch even harder and stumble backward the moment her eyes met mine. Hmm. She looked like a terrified puppy.
"You don't have to shake like that. We're safe people."
Probably.
"Y-yes… Thank you… thank you…"
"You're not with them, are you?"
At Erika's voice, the girl lifted her head.
"N-no. Th-the truth is, I was just a wanderer staying here for a little while, and then… a week ago, people suddenly showed up and…"
"They captured you."
A rapid nod.
The rest was a familiar story. Odd jobs, menial chores—she wouldn't have been particularly useful labor to them either. Had they sent a kid like this downstairs today because of the commotion? She looked about the same age as me.
"We'll get you out of here."
Erika looked at her with that calm composure she always wore, and with an angelic smile she never once showed me.
"R-really?"
"In exchange, you'll need to help us a little. We're about to go upstairs and eliminate everyone up there."
The girl's face went stiff.
"Ah—it might be hard to believe, but I'm with the Association."
"Me too."
Erika shot me a look of pure disbelief. The Association mark on her uniform was hard to miss.
"I-I don't know how to fight or anything…"
"That's fine. I'll handle all the combat. Just follow at a distance, and if—"
What? Why is she looking at me.
"—if things start looking dangerous, using this one as bait is a perfectly good option."
"That's harsh."
"This face has a lot of impact."
Well, she wasn't wrong. At the very least, anyone in the Gyeonggi region would know who I was.
"You're not actually going to use me as bait, are you?"
"Y-yes?"
"I said, are you going to use me as bait?"
"Ah—n-no…"
The girl stammered and fumbled for words until Erika's request that she lead the way smoothed everything over.
The second floor.
The atmosphere was entirely different from below. Dark-painted walls and fixtures, carpeting, a scattering of ornaments—all of it caught the eye. Because they'd simply appropriated the old church layout, rooms and corridors stretched out in long rows.
"Th-that way… there are a lot of people in the inner rooms… And, um, I don't really know, but… that red door over there—no one's allowed in. I think there's something inside."
The noise was definitely twice what it had been on the first floor.
We moved down the corridor, turned a corner, and the moment I leaned out—
Fwt—a dagger came flying and skimmed past Erika's throat by a hair.
"Ah, shit. Almost."
Several men's voices rolled down the hallway.
There was no room for hesitation. Speed and agility were what the moment demanded.
I felt the sudden emptiness at my side, then heard the screams and the clash of metal.
I glanced over and found the girl clutching the wall, trembling, her fingers twisted in her hair. She looked better than I'd expected. I'd thought panic would swallow her whole, but maybe a life of wandering and getting tangled up with criminals had toughened her—beyond the tension, she was holding it together.
Good. I was looking forward to watching her fall apart later.
I smiled faintly and rounded the corner. My eyes met Erika's as she finished putting two fallen men down for good.
"I sensed something was off, but this confirms they've made us. We may need to level the entire building."
Wipe them all out before reinforcements arrived—or maybe the reinforcements were already on their way. Not a bad idea.
Erika was suddenly at my side again. She guided me and the girl toward the stairs, shoved us into an empty alcove, and checked the surroundings.
"Stay here for a moment. I'll be right back. And you—"
Her gaze dropped to my restraint suit.
"—stay exactly as you are."
I answered with a slight smile.
Erika sprinted off. The girl watched in silence. Commotion, noise, and then several explosions in succession.
I hated it, but the environment was familiar. It was also an excellent place for the mind to work at full speed.
How many more situations like this would I face? Would I face them alone—or with Erika beside me?
My ears ached, but my smile only deepened.
Leaving the girl behind—hands clasped, still taut with nerves, frantically scanning the interior—I slipped away quickly.
I ignored the voice calling after me.
It was a massive explosion. The second-floor flooring and the first-floor ceiling had both been blown apart; the surrounding fixtures and walls were cracked and ruined. Since the target was the second floor, it seemed she'd deliberately dropped everyone into the wide-open first floor—out of their nest—and opened the fight there.
"K-kill her!"
"Aaaagh!"
The ring of clashing blades, a feast of blood flooding the floor. The thick, muddy scent of rampaging mana mixed with everything else and stung my nose.
From behind the staircase leading down to the first floor, I fretted at the stifling restraint suit and watched Erika work.
She was fighting well, no question. High-rank Awakened were hardly a match for a Ranker. Still, when the resistance was this fierce, it was bound to eat up a little time.
I'd been curious whether she'd lean on close combat or area attacks. She was using both.
Wave after wave of sword strikes sent charging Awakened flying, coughing blood; the stragglers were cut down the instant Erika closed the distance.
I was twisting a lock of hair beside my ear, lost in the thought, when ragged breathing approached from behind.
"Hah… hah…! Y-you were here…!"
"Yes."
I felt nothing in particular. Of course the girl would come this way. It was the natural next step.
"You made it somehow. I came over here because it was dangerous back there."
The girl gasped for air, her face a mask of confusion.
"What? Are you angry? Because I left you behind? Did abandoning you in the middle of all that chaos upset you?"
"W-what are you talking about…"
"If you'd stayed there, you would have died. What a shame. I saw monsters swarming the third floor earlier."
If she thought that because Erika had been kind to her, I would help her too—she was wrong. The only thing I could offer was a greeting.
And I'd already given her two. Hello. Nice to meet you.
"You managed to get all the way here, and now what? She's being pushed back."
The girl's wavering eyes rolled past me. Residual blasts and smoke made it hard to see clearly.
"The fight's winding down, and the remaining Awakened will come for me. I'm an intruder, after all."
She swallowed dryly. The device around her neck made even that look painful.
"And the same will happen to you. They sent you to the first floor to search, so why are you still alive? Did you take their help? Did you follow their orders and join this raid?"
"Th-that's a lie…"
"Is it?"
I laughed softly.
Another explosion rolled through, and screams filled the space. The feast of blood and the groans stained everything around us.
The girl shuddered.
"Th-then… w-what am I supposed to…"
"Hmm? Why don't we both just humbly accept death? Predetermined outcomes and fixed fates aren't things you can defy."
"B-but you—y-you're strong!"
Her tone was sharp. It tore through the air and scraped at my ears.
"N-no matter what… even if you're a criminal… p-people are in danger…"
"What does people being in danger have to do with me? Let them die. You and I are going to die anyway."
I turned my back and stretched. Everything felt stiff.
"And besides—I'm not strong."
I'm weak.
I gave a little hop. The restraint suit swayed and made a strange sound.
"That pretty girl over there put this on me—a restraint suit that suppresses mana. One that can never be removed."
Her pupils changed.
Her faltering steps wandered across the landing.
"There's only one thing left for us to do. Sit still and wait for the death that's coming."
"I-I don't want to."
And at the end of it, what surfaced was distortion.
The grotesque shape of a girl sinking into a swamp. She tore at her hair and squeezed her eyes shut, thrashing so she wouldn't have to see what was in front of her.
"No, no. Save me. I don't want to die. Mom, Dad."
"How does it feel, spending the last moments of your life with me? Never seeing the people you love, rotting away in a place like this, dying beside a criminal who'll end up on the news?"
"No. I don't want to. I-I don't."
"It's fun to wonder how you'll die, too. Limbs crushed. Heart pierced."
"Stop. Stop it. Shut up. I hate it. Be quiet."
Clumps of hair came free in her fists as she slammed herself into the corner.
"Did you know?"
I approached quietly and whispered beside her ear.
"You, paralyzed with terror—you're incredibly charming."
"I-I hate it!!"
Shunk.
What I felt was a familiar sensation. A slight stabbing pain, and with it a red mass welling up from my mouth that groped after old memories.
Listening to the cry of the girl who had driven a knife into my abdomen, I turned my gaze.
"Ah—ah—n-no. Ah."
Saturated with emotion, she was a painting in herself. The colors I had never possessed—the ones I had lost—seemed to mock me as I looked at her.
"I've been waiting for you to pull that out."
The restraint suit that had been strangling me—torn and split—soaked red with the blood pouring from my body.
Until the filthy black scraps of cloth slowly dissolved and revealed what lay beneath.
I drew a small breath and smiled faintly.
There were more of them than expected. Reported intelligence was never free of even a millimeter of error, and she had kept that in mind—but this time the margin had been a little wider than usual.
Even among criminal organizations, this was the kind of group headquarters wanted wiped out. That she had overlooked that fact was, without question, her own failing as well.
Erika breathed hard and grimaced behind the wall as bullets poured down without end.
It wasn't a critical situation. But it wasn't smooth, either.
Her abdomen bore the scars of several stab wounds. Bullets were lodged in her arms and legs.
It hurt.
She wanted a calm breath, but even that was impossible—she had to keep track of the ones behind the wall while inhaling acrid smoke.
Honestly, she was irritated.
Whenever she was with Orly, something always went wrong. She followed the plan, and yet the problem started somewhere she couldn't pin down.
"Go in! Breach!"
"B-but, boss…"
Why, even in a situation like this, was she thinking about her?
Looking back, slipping into reverie mid-combat was actually the familiar pattern for her. Whenever she faced Orly, she was always thoroughly, completely broken and shattered until she could barely breathe.
What were they doing right now? She'd put the restraint suit on her, so there shouldn't be a problem. That knife the girl had been carrying earlier did bother her a little… but surely no one would die or get hurt—
Boom.
Before she could finish the thought, the wall she was leaning against exploded outward. Debris shattered and flew through the space, crashing over her.
She snapped her eyes open. What filled her vision was—
Weapons charged with countless threads of mana. Guns trained on her.
And above them—
A girl falling from the sky.
A ring of bloodlight swept the area and cracked the space itself. The air currents shuddered. Every living thing standing on the ground was torn to shreds, spraying crimson fountains.
Space warped. Blades traced arcs. The scattering red petals transformed the chaotic environment, in every fleeting instant, into a silent theater.
And the girl who landed upon the stage danced at its center.
Lightly—and desperately.
Weeping one moment and laughing the next, she swung a pale knife.
Screams became the audience's cheers. Blood became the red flowers thrown to the girl standing on the stage.
The girl wept.
She chased a spotlight that would not shine on her, and she wept with all her heart.
She stumbled, fell, crawled across the floor, and only when she finally reached the light did she look back at herself and smile a beautiful smile.
For a moment, Erika felt as though she were witnessing exactly that scene.