A Chance Encounter in the Ruins
I glanced toward the heart of the ruined city. The sky had grown far murkier than before, as gray clouds gathered thickly over the crimson flames that still roared upward. A faint, cloying scent of fungus drifted between the acrid gunpowder smoke—early signs of the spore storm.
We had to move fast. The storm would hit any minute, and we needed to be gone before it fully swallowed the city.
“Got it, got it,” Red muttered, her tone annoyingly light. “When your partner’s in this much of a hurry, I’m not gonna complain.”
She sounded almost relaxed. Not surprising, I guess—my body was fake, after all. But this woman was human. And she had to carry some bad memories of spores.
Whatever. Red’s always been like this.
I decided not to overthink it.
The deeper we went, the worse things got.
Humans twisted and staggered around us, minds long gone. They looked exactly like the corpses they were—limbs flailing in that mindless, broken way. That was why cities refused to take in refugees anymore.
Monsters were bad enough, but a spore storm was a disaster all its own. Once the infection started, it was basically a death sentence for anyone caught in it.
I didn’t need to fight. Our goal wasn’t a brawl.
Every time something bigger blocked our path, Red’s pistol would fire a few explosive rounds and carve a clean path through the horde. We had walked a fair distance across the blood-slicked ground when a burst of gunfire suddenly rang out from somewhere ahead.
Elite soldiers were forming ranks, weapons swinging in perfect unison.
“…That’s them.”
Just when I was wondering how to find Makahina without drawing attention, a perfect solution dropped right into my lap.
Red and I veered toward the sound.
A collapsed commercial building.
We leaped silently over the rubble and looked down into the chaotic plaza below.
It was pure pandemonium.
At least dozens of infected rushed in like a wave.
Elysian Athens agents held their line, backs pressed together, weapons raised. Even in the middle of battle, they kept scanning the surroundings with a desperate, almost frantic edge—like they were looking for someone. Or something.
What exactly are you searching for?
That was when the agent from the elite team shouted up at us from the rubble where we were perched.
“Top side! There’s someone up there!”
All the soldiers jerked their heads up at once, rifles still smoking.
They were staring at me like I was a monster.
My face must have shown through the haze of smoke for a second.
“…Huh?”
A stunned voice slipped from one of their mouths.
One of them widened his eyes in disbelief, then cried out in a trembling voice, “Elia…? Is that… Elia?!”
Of course they were shocked. I had died. A living comrade had just appeared before them.
In the past, I had been their rock—the one they trusted most through life and death on that brutal ground.
I looked down at them with a perfectly blank face. Deep inside, though, a tiny spark of something almost like relief flickered.
Among the agents facing the monster horde was the most important person.
The Administrator… and Libera.
“Elia…”
The moment our eyes met, Libera’s voice cracked. Her lips were pressed so tight they almost bled, as if she was seconds away from leaping onto the rubble and attacking. But at least she was holding onto her sanity—barely.
Her gaze flicked to my side, and the atmosphere shifted instantly.
Red, standing right next to me, waved cheerfully at the Athens agents. To anyone who didn’t know us, we looked like old friends chatting.
“You…”
Libera’s lips curled in pure venom. Her eyes burned with the kind of rage that promised slow, painful death.
Huh. I thought she’d hate Red more.
Then another Elysian Athens operative asked, voice dripping disbelief, “Elia? No way… it’s really Elia?”
Hold on.
I propped my chin on my hand and watched the chaos below without a sound.
Has Libera not reported my return yet?
The fact that I was alive—more precisely, that the Receptor was now inhabiting the body of the supposed dead Elia—was news to her.
Libera had faced me directly just days ago. We had even fought. She had to have heard about it from the Administrator and shared it with the others. But judging by her reaction, this was the first time she learned I was alive.
I turned my head slightly to study her.
Libera’s lips remained sealed as she stared up at me. From her face, I could already guess the truth.
She hasn’t said a word yet.
Honestly, I hadn’t expected that.
Libera was the kind of person who drew clear lines between right and wrong. The moment she confirmed I was a Receptor, she would have told everyone. The devastating truth about the person they trusted most would have spilled from her lips.
But she couldn’t bring herself to say it.
Instead, an old comrade shouted with raw desperation, “Answer me, Elia! It’s really you, isn’t it? What the hell happened to you all this time?!”
Maybe he wanted the moment to hit even harder.
Right then—
Bang!
A deafening explosion ripped the air right beside me.
No. Correction. Gunfire.
“Eek!”
“What the—?!”
The Athens defensive line shattered in an instant.
The agent who had been shouting was just behind the one who had yelled about the person on the roof. He had been moments from being torn apart by the monster lunging at him—until Red’s shot took the monster out in a burst of crimson flame. Black ash and blood splattered across the agent’s uniform.
“Ah, damn. It’s a mess.”
I turned to see Red already drawing her pistol. She blew a puff of thick, smoky exhaust straight from the muzzle. Her red eyes were so cold they could freeze blood.
“You all just decided to throw a flower garden on your heads in a group? You’re not even paying attention to the situation…”
Red shook her head.
“This is the middle of Phaestus, crawling with infected. And up in the sky? Looks like a spore storm is about to drop any second. And what? Elia? Calling out her name so affectionately, are you guys having a tear-jerking family reunion or something?”
“…”
“Save the drama for when we all go to hell together later. If you don’t want to die, shut your mouths and hold your weapons properly. You can see the monsters drooling, right?”
…What?
I narrowed my eyes slightly.
Why did she suddenly sound like she used to?
Because we’d run into Elysian Athens.
Her words were slurred, but the message was clear: Snap out of it.
Earlier, when I’d seen Libera, I’d expected Red to hate the entire Elysian Athens organization with every fiber of her being. But here she was acting like this. I asked her, keeping my voice so low that only Red could hear.
“…You helped me?”
“What? Did my actions look that suspicious to my partner?”
“It’s not a joke.”
“…You still remember Elia’s memories, right? I used to eat with those guys every day back then. I just… looked pathetic, that’s all.”
Red shrugged like it was nothing.
I answered calmly. “Not anymore.”
“…”
“You’d better be careful. We’re Sandrobel. Don’t forget that.”
I gave Red a quick sidelong glance.
Her face remained stone-cold. She didn’t reply.
I turned back down toward the plaza.
Thanks to Red’s gunfire, we had barely escaped the danger, but the agents still gripped their weapons tightly, eyes wide with a mix of shock and confusion as they stared at me.
The me they thought was dead.
Red, the traitor who helped—or mocked—them, without them knowing which.
Her mind must have been a whirlwind.
“No need to be so on edge. I’m not here to fight you today.”
“…Huh?”
“I’m only here to pick someone up.”
At that moment, the Administrator suddenly jumped in.
“Pick someone up?”
“Yeah. Um… a little darker-skinned kid who doesn’t look like some pathetic refugee, but a kid all the same…”
The Administrator’s face lit up as she exclaimed, “Is her name Makahina?!”
“…Where is that kid?”
There was no proof, but I felt an unshakable certainty that Makahina had run into them.
Makahina was a key figure in the story, and the Administrator standing here was the protagonist of this world. The people at the center always seemed to drag others into fate’s web.
“You’re looking for Makahina?”
“That kid is with Sandrobel. If you’re not going to tell me where he is, I’ll kill everyone here and find him myself.”
The Administrator shouted, “Push from the right! Secure an escape route!”
The agents moved in perfect formation.
One side of the monster encirclement finally gave way.
“Now! Retreat!”
We fell back toward the building, maintaining ranks.
The Administrator never took her eyes off me. She narrowed her gaze as if calculating, then called out toward me with a determined voice.
“Hey, Elia? Is that okay?”
“…”
“You said you were looking for Makahina, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then… will you come with us for a while?”