The Girl in the Glass Tower
Sasha was inside that Glass Tower building — the one the zombies had stormed.
She was in danger. Simon had no idea what was happening inside that sealed barrier, but he couldn't just stand there and do nothing.
"I'm going to break through the barrier."
"That's impossible."
Kajan shook his head.
"This barrier is the same kind as the one that encircles the city of Pentamonium. It's no exaggeration to call it the highest grade of barrier dark magic can produce."
"If I use the Legion Commander's power, I can punch through it."
Simon opened his subspace and summoned Pier. Since this had been an external assignment, Pier had been waiting on standby in the subspace in case of emergencies.
[Kwahaha! So it's finally come to this!]
Simon draped his robe over his uniform to conceal it, then donned Pier's Bone Armour on top. Last of all, he took up Pier's beloved greatsword — the Sword of Ruin.
The real thing just feels different.
He'd briefly used Dick's greatsword during the siege battle, but it couldn't hold a candle to the Sword of Ruin.
Simon raised the blade above his head and drew in a long, deep breath.
Kajan, Serne, and Prince each took a step back.
Simon sank into the ritual he had performed so many times before, honing his focus to a razor's edge.
The sensation of cleaving—
His arms swung down in one smooth arc.
—through space itself!
CRUUUUUUNCH!
Astonishingly, the barrier Kajan had declared the pinnacle of dark magic split open with a massive wound torn across it.
"...Impressive."
Kajan's mouth hung slightly open, as if he hadn't expected it.
"Fufufu~"
Serne, on the other hand, was licking her lips as she watched Simon.
Feeling a faint chill crawl up his spine, Simon lowered the greatsword.
"Come on, let's get inside before it closes!"
[Let's go! Go!]
Prince led the way, and the others followed him through the barrier. The moment Serne — last in line — stepped through, the barrier restored itself as if nothing had happened.
Please be safe, Sasha.
Simon pulled down Pier's helm and strode toward the first floor of the Glass Tower.
Inside, it was utter chaos. The interior lights were dead — the mana supply must have been cut — and the sofas had been shredded to ribbons, tufts of stuffing scattered across the floor. Picture frames and potted orchids that had hung on the walls lay overturned, and bloodstains marked the ground here and there.
"This is no ordinary zombie attack."
Kajan wiped a droplet of blood between his fingers as he spoke.
"If even the necromancers guarding the Glass Towers of Pentamonium were overrun, it means there's something more than zombies in here. Let's move carefully."
"Right."
Simon headed first for the magic-circle elevator. But the circle was covered in gashes that looked like the claw-marks of zombies dragged across its surface. The damage was too severe to restore.
[Then we're taking the stairs.]
Prince clicked his tongue.
There was no time to deliberate. Simon's party left the lobby and made for the stairwell.
It was a spiral staircase — the center hollowed out in a wide open shaft, with the steps winding upward around it like a coil. The ceiling loomed far above.
Simon's face hardened as he spoke.
"Let's go."
37th floor of the Glass Tower.
Inside a special isolation ward.
"..."
A small girl in a hospital gown lay curled up, trembling all over.
Everything had happened far too suddenly.
When the alarms had begun wailing through the entire building, the adults had panicked and broken into murmurs. She'd caught fragments — the safe 50th floor, full evacuation.
"I'll be right back. Wait here for me, okay?"
That was what the researcher big sister had said.
Sasha always did as the woman told her, so she had waited in her room, just as she was told.
But no matter how long she waited, neither the researcher nor any of the adults came back.
And then—
"Uooooooohhh..."
A terrifying moan drifted in from beyond the door.
Squelching, dragging footsteps. No one could have mistaken them for a normal gait — the thing lurched and swayed, and every so often it lost its balance and slammed into the wall with a heavy thud... thud... Each time, Sasha flinched hard enough to jump.
What do I do if it comes in?
She curled herself up small as a frightened rabbit and shook.
Afraid that even the sound of her breathing might give her away, she held her breath.
Please walk past. Please, just keep going.
She shut her eyes and prayed.
...Cammy, big brother Simon.
THUD!
Sasha jolted and clapped both hands over her mouth. This time the sound had come from the very door of the room she was hiding in.
THUD! THUD!
"Uooooooohhh!"
It was trying to get in!
Every drop of blood in her body seemed to freeze — but mercifully, the monster apparently didn't understand how the sliding door opened.
Just as Sasha gathered her courage and started creeping toward the door—
SCREEEECH!
By pure chance, the zombie shouldered the door aside and lurched inside.
"Uooooooohhh!"
Drenched head to toe in fresh crimson, the zombie flung its jaws wide open and lunged straight at her.
"Kyaaaaah!"
She wrapped her arms over her head and crumpled into a ball.
And then—
SHLUK!
The sound of flesh being skewered rang in her ears.
Something warm, like a droplet of water, splashed against her cheek.
Trembling, Sasha lifted her head. A branch growing out of her own shoulder had punched clean through the zombie's chest.
"Ugh."
The moment Sasha thought how horrifying it was, another branch — entirely of its own accord — shot out and smashed through the zombie's skull.
"..."
Gasping for breath, Sasha pushed herself up off the floor. At some point, the spot where she'd been crouching had become carpeted with branches and leaves of every size.
I have to close the door.
Sasha crawled on all fours until she reached it. Pulling it shut with as little noise as she could manage, she poked her head out just a crack to check the corridor—
!
A mistake. Her eyes locked directly onto the zombies shuffling through the hallway.
"Uoooooh!"
"Uuuuh!"
The zombies came surging toward her in a tide.
Ah.
Paralyzed with terror, Sasha shook uncontrollably. She was so frightened, so overwhelmed, that her legs simply would not carry her.
[Isn't that acting a little too pitiful?]
Then, a voice spoke up.
[You're a bigger monster than any of those things, you know.]
It was Sasha's own voice.
Her power had gone berserk. She had awakened as a Saintess. She had turned into a giant tree and been rescued. She had become a test subject in Pentamonium.
Trial after trial that an ordinary person might struggle through once in an entire lifetime had hammered into her, one after another.
To keep her alive, her brain had erased most of those horrifying memories — but the memories it had rejected went on festering beneath her subconscious, and there they had bred a second personality.
[Fight.]
Urged on by that voice, Sasha pressed a hand to her chest, feeling her heart hammering wildly against her palm.
The adults here had told her never, ever to use this power without permission. But there was no other choice. She activated the permanent magic circle etched into her chest.
SHAAAASH!
SHAAASH!
Then something astonishing happened.
Branch after branch burst from her body, and every one of the ten-odd zombies was skewered like meat on a spit. Jet-Black rippled and shimmered along the surface of the branches.
"Hah!"
Sasha swung her arm. The branches swiveled, smashed through the window, and hurled the impaled zombies outside. She could hear their wailing voices fading into the distance.
"Uoooooooh!"
Then — a fat zombie, three times the size of any other, came scuttling down the wall straight at her.
She thrust out her arm and sent her branches at it, but—
THUNK!
They couldn't pierce its thick, blubbery hide.
But Sasha immediately seized one of the branches hard and squeezed her eyes shut.
<Enchant>
The branch's color turned black as coal. The enchanted branch plunged clean through the fat zombie's torso and slammed it into the wall.
"KIIIIEEEEK!"
The fat zombie thrashed in agony. Sasha laid her hand once more on the branch running through its body and closed her eyes.
And there, astonishingly, a curse was forming in her palm.
<Daphne>
The curse flowed along the branch and reached the zombie's body. Trunks and leaves began sprouting madly from the fat zombie's flesh, just as they had from Sasha's once before.
"Keck! KEEEHHHCK!"
The tree trunk swelled larger and larger, while the fat zombie's body withered away, shriveling like a husk. The creature fought desperately to tear itself free — but Sasha was just as desperate.
At last—
"Hah... hah..."
The fat zombie was gone without a trace. All that remained standing in its place was a single great tree.
Sasha collapsed where she stood, sweat pouring off her.
[Good girl. Very good. Keep doing exactly that.]
The other Sasha whispered. Feeling suffocated by it, Sasha screamed:
"G-go away! Stop trying to confuse me!"
[Confuse you? Confuse you? I am what you truly are. Don't play the innocent, Slaughterer.]
The voice slithered around her ears like a serpent's tongue.
[Remember? When your power went berserk and you became that great big tree? You killed everyone in your village.]
'No! I didn't kill them — that wasn't me!'
[Is that so? Are you sure?]
'Stop it!'
The other personality laughed.
[Fine, fine. Let's talk about something else instead. You want to get into Kizen, don't you? You want to go see big brother Simon, don't you?]
'...'
At those words, Sasha's face flushed scarlet.
[But you and big brother Simon barely have any connection at all. You met him once, on a mission — that's it. And soon enough, he'll stop thinking about you entirely.]
Sasha's courage crumbled at once.
'Th-then... what do I...'
[They say big brother Simon is Special Admission No. 1 at Kizen. If you want to become someone worthy of standing beside him, you already know what you have to do, don't you?]
'...'
Just as her small fists clenched tight—
Tap. Tap.
Footsteps echoed from the far end of the corridor. Sasha, having just chased off the other personality, jolted upright in alarm.
There are still more zombies?
But the figure that emerged into the corridor was a human being.
An adult man draped in a cloak of black feathers, his belly jutting out noticeably.
"There you are. You're Sasha, aren't you?"
She hunched her shoulders, wary.
"Wh-who are you?"
"I am a necromancer of Kizen. You may call me Evangelos. The researchers asked me to come rescue you."
"Ah!"
At those words, Sasha's eyes went wide.
Kizen — the same place as Simon and Camibarez! Someone trustworthy!
Her wariness crumbled in an instant, and relief came flooding in like a tide too late — filling her eyes with tears.
"Yes, yes."
Evangelos approached with a gentle smile. He placed a hand on the shoulder of the sobbing girl and spoke kindly.
"I'm here now. You don't have to be afraid anymore."
"Is big brother Simon safe?"
"You mean the student from our school? He's perfectly fine, so don't you worry."
"Thank goodness! Oh, thank goodness!"
Sasha buried herself in his arms and wept and wept.
And then—
Evangelos, who had been gently patting her back with that kind, warm smile, wore a cold and glacial expression before either of them knew it.