Symbol of Peace (5)
“Clones really are wonderful.”
Libra smiled and stepped into the city.
“With more than one body, you risk nothing, and you can use them strategically like this.”
It was fortunate that Gemini had produced several bodies before locking himself in his room. Thinking of him, who had hardly ventured outside since facing Ursa Major, gave Libra a headache.
‘Taking payment and then going on strike—insane.’
This was why he disliked working with monsters. So thoroughly enslaved to desire, they calmly committed acts no rational mind would ever choose. Too many acted purely on whim, never calculating.
“People are easy to calculate, compared to monsters.”
Before him stood at least a hundred soldiers he had prepared in advance. Every one of them a quality product nearly on par with A-rank monsters.
“Fortunate they fled. A Guardian who hides his identity must face all sorts of difficulties.”
If even one of them had realized they were bait, the plan would have been twisted. Sagittarius’s bombardment was reliable, but there was no guarantee that everyone there would have worked together to block it.
Han Jae-jung’s and Jo Ah-yoon’s transformations were, however, fundamentally secret. Transforming in front of people who did not know the circumstances was not an easy undertaking.
Ordinarily, before anyone could deeply consider the significance of Libra’s appearance, they would flee, transform out of sight, and then return.
Libra had aimed for that.
Placing distance between Red Vega and Han Jae-jung, he probed them before they could cooperate.
A truly rational plan. Since it succeeded, it was a rational plan.
The marks of the two arrows Sagittarius had loosed shaking the city were quite impressive. Smoke rising in the distance, as if from a genuine missile strike, brushed past Libra’s face.
Asphalt and brick shards, shattered as easily as cookie crumbs, were ground to powder beneath his feet.
“That brute. His strength is monstrous.”
With a low scoff, Libra turned his right palm upward.
What is offered is capital and a little starlight.
What is obtained is a barrier more selective and unyielding than anything.
The barrier that blocks only magical girls—the same one he had used to imprison Red Vega in the past.
While using it, Libra’s defense weakened, and it had a one-hour limit, but those were negligible drawbacks.
Even with weakened defense, who would attack him? And one hour was ample time to finish the task and leave.
Residents held their breath and looked down at him from behind windows. They locked their doors tightly and barricaded them with bookshelves. They clutched illegally modified monster-suppression grenades and electric shockers. But they knew too: such measures were useless against a monster.
“Search. Go through everything and find them.”
Some prayed to gods, some prayed that the magical girls would save them, and some left the last dregs of their mirth online like bloody handprints.
Now, nothing seemed to stand in his way.
“Show these fearless, rampaging seals an object lesson!”
But Libra himself did not see it that way.
Every nerve taut, he watched for whatever threat might strike. His attitude resembled a soldier entering a minefield.
Half of his vigilance was directed at the Argo Family, his reason for invading. The other half was due to the person who had been at the blast’s epicenter.
‘He wouldn’t have died from something like this.’
The bombardment just now had been, simultaneously, a process of dealing with a troublesome foe and a trial imposed on the one who claimed to be a Guardian.
Could he survive the bombardment or not? Only one capable of properly resisting a surprise attack possessed the right to endure the most just sacrifice.
And if it was him, he would probably return alive. Libra did not suspect—he was certain.
Precisely because he had survived mortal peril so many times, he was all the more guarded.
Moreover, he had recently acquired new power and grown even more troublesome.
But he could not let caution ruin the task. Libra’s bronze monsters began to comb through the city as if hunting rats.
Leaving dark footprints on roads coated in all manner of dust and smoke, they began gathering people in earnest. By force, of course.
They entered every building without exception and dragged the people who had been quietly holding their breath inside out onto streets still heavy with the acrid afterimage of destruction.
The operation was smooth. Any resistance was merely ordinary people; harming monsters was impossible.
“P-please spare us!”
“You—fuck! Let go! I said let go, you bastards!”
“Uwaaah... Mom... Mom....”
A hellscape of pleas, curses, and wailing blended together. Men and women, young and old—every last person was dragged out and displayed on the street. In less than three minutes, about thirty people were gathered and kneeling on the debris-strewn road.
“I can’t overlook this.”
The Argo Family, suddenly appearing in Korea one day. He had no interest in their grand history—why they had left their activities in America for this land, what their purpose was.
But if they came here and caused trouble, that changed the matter.
Under the pretense of recruiting comrades, they were forcibly abducting people and demanding that they join them.
A declaration of intent to increase their forces, plain as day.
For Libra, who had his hands throughout Asia, such an attitude could not be overlooked.
The location was also a problem. D5 City was practically a safe zone. Yet it was suffering not isolated but ongoing disappearances.
“No sense of business ethics. How do they not understand that you must establish the minimum necessary safe zones for monsters to safely achieve their goals?”
To maintain the ecosystem, you had to establish at least a human preserve. The moment humans became scarce, the ones in trouble were monsters.
Compared to the number of monsters, humans were far too few and fragile.
The rumor that the Argo Family had secretly declared this city their territory and that their comrades hid among the people was famous in the underworld.
If they left the Argo Family alone, countless similar cases would arise in the future. According to them, this was merely their first territory.
“So, come out. This is my final mercy. Come out now and make a pact with me. I will count to ten. If you take no action before I finish, this city perishes today.”
Regrettably, it made sense to offer this city as a sacrifice upon the scales.
No organization whose territory and comrades were attacked would stay still. Surely they would take measures.
They would have no choice but to show their faces from the safe refuge where they hid.
“If you want to save the candidates for your comrades, come out. If not, I will kill the humans before me one by one.”
Libra drew an elegant golden pistol from his coat and aimed it at the young man in the front. Perhaps he had not eaten properly for days; he looked haggard.
“One.”
And there was one person overhearing all of these words. She was not among those Libra had been watching for.
‘Wh-what...?!’
Orange Altair. She was the one who had stormed out after Jo Ah-yoon told her to leave. Even after exiting the café and wandering the city, the moment she heard the tremendous sound that erupted, she transformed and moved to find a sniping position.
The moment she found a suitable building, bombardment fell upon the city and Libra’s forces invaded. The strange barrier she had seen before was an unwelcome bonus.
‘Coming out... means me, right?’
And she was badly mistaken.
“Two.”
‘By comrades, he means A-hee or Haru... and Ah-yoon. What about our cute Pinky?’
“Three.”
‘I-I knew it! There’s no way that bitch died so easily! He says he’ll spare them, so they must still be alive, right?’
Right after the bombardment fell, she had immediately checked the location but saw nothing. Not even bodies. Literally, no trace of human beings at all.
“Four.”
‘Then where are they now? There should at least be signs of capture somewhere....’
Orange Altair guessed it was because Libra had already secured them. She could not deduce how he could have secured them faster than she had confirmed the site right after the bombardment, but....
He was a monster.
That single reason could explain most absurdities.
Of course, this guess was also wrong.
“Five.”
‘Wait, negotiations? With me? I-I’m terrible at that sort of thing, can’t even speak properly... Ah, whatever.’
Jo Ah-yoon. Short, foul-mouthed, wearing pointlessly heavy makeup, an idiot with no actual accomplishments.
Still, she was a comrade. She was human.
Putting aside her irritation, she ought to save her. After finishing her own brand of rationalization, Orange Altair rose from her hiding place.
“Six.”
“F-fine!”
There was no chance of defeating Libra alone. Every monster present was A-rank or above. Before she could even deal with them, she would be beaten. A fight worse than pointless wasn’t even an option.
Having resolved to lose before fighting, Orange Altair decided how to achieve the best possible defeat.
“Orange Altair here—I’ve come!”
“I-it’s a magical girl! We’re saved!”
A citizen murmured that. Unfortunately, the way she would save them would differ from their expectations. Orange Altair smiled bitterly.
“As promised, a place for negotiations....”
“Seven.”
“Can’t you hear me?!”
Naturally, Libra paid her no mind. He had not predicted there might be one more magical girl hidden, but she was not worth his attention.
The magical girls’ starlight had shown steep growth recently, but one like her was beneath consideration. She would clearly fall without even handling half the monsters here.
Really. An assassin who should be sniping from afar had boldly shown herself in the open. It was no different from madness.
“Eight.”
“Hey! Hey! Why aren’t you stopping!”
Libra did not stop counting. Orange Altair shouted in alarm.
“Nine.”
“Hey... Hey....”
Faced with Libra’s utterly resolute attitude, Orange Altair realized something was going wrong.
Even as she grew bewildered, her body drew the bowstring without hesitation.
“Hey! Hey! Why won’t you stop?”
The taut bowstring vibrated heavily once, and the arrow traced a beautiful arc as it flew toward Libra’s pistol.
“Ten.”
Libra pulled the pistol’s trigger without delay, but the bullet spurting from the muzzle did not even graze the man’s head. An instant before the bullet touched his skull, the arrow struck it aside.
Libra regarded her with displeasure.
“Do not interfere.”
“Wh-what’s the problem! Why won’t you stop! I came out, didn’t I! Ah—is it my attitude? My posture and the way I talk? Sh-should I change it? Should I kneel? Just tell me what to do!”
Orange Altair was practically on the verge of tears. A butterfly flew past her tears.
Not one butterfly but a hundred. Every single one of them alighted upon the foreheads of Libra’s bronze monsters.
“What. Do not ask the obvious.”
Then, lightning struck like divine punishment.
“Hold yourself with dignity.”
Butterfly Kick.
A bladed kick swept through the heads of every monster the butterflies had touched.
The lightning set Libra ablaze.
“Because you acted rightly.”
A figure walked out from where the lightning had struck. Watcher. He was the monster recently spotlighted as the most dangerous. Slung over his shoulder, limp as if unconscious, was another monster.
“I can hear property values plummeting from a thousand li away.”
He swung an axe as large as his own body and gave vent to his fury. The shape of that fury was cold and vivid lightning.
“Are you going to take responsibility for our shop? You damn monsters...!”
His voice was quiet and could not be heard, but he looked more enraged than ever before.