For a moment, silence reigned. Dust hung in the air where the Gashadokuro had crumbled, its fragments scattered like shattered glass across the academy grounds. Garrison kept his rifle raised, chest heaving, his instincts telling him not to lower it just yet.
Then the radio at his hip crackled.
"Garrison!" a stern voice cut through the static. Authority bled from every word, cold and unyielding. "This is Commander, Rayne. Report."
Garrison stiffened. "Enemy neutralized. Casualties controlled. The Gashadokuro has been—"
"Neutralized?" The voice scoffed, sharp with disdain. "dont be foolish!"
Garrison's jaw clenched. "We tore it apart. My unit saw it fall."
"You've seen nothing," Rayne snapped. "A Gashadokuro cannot be killed by conventional means. Not by your rifle. Not by the reckless outbursts of children. That creature is born from malice and starvation, bound to the realm of death itself. It regenerates as long as its core remains unbound."
As if summoned by the words, the ground trembled. The fragments of bone scattered across the courtyard twitched. Slowly, impossibly, they began to slither back together. Splinters of ribs fused, vertebrae snapped into place, a skull reformed with glowing sockets of hunger.
"No…" Angelina whispered, clutching her arms to her chest. "We… we destroyed it—"
"It's healing," Adam muttered grimly, eyes reflecting the flickering glow. His fingers twitched as if already calculating their dwindling options.
Chino clecnhed his teeth, sparks erupting from his palm. "Damn it! All that—for nothing?!"
The radio hissed again. Rayne's voice was calm now, almost mocking. "This is why we issued you the electromagnetic mines. They were not to restrain it temporarily, Captain. They were the only means of capture. Anything less is wasted effort."
Garrison swallowed his anger.
"Deploy the remaining mines around its core," Rayne ordered. "Synchronize their frequencies and overload the field. Containment—not destruction. That is the only way to end this engagement."
The Gashadokuro rose to its full height again, its body riddled with fractures yet reforming with each second. Its roar thundered through the ruined academy, shaking the survivors to their knees.
"Adam!" Garrison barked. "Coordinate with the mines. Use your constructs to stabilize their signal."
Adam nodded sharply, fragments of metal already swirling around his hands. "On it."
"Angelina, protect him. Chino, focus your blasts—drive that thing toward the minefield!"
Despite their exhaustion, the three moved as ordered. Angelina's telekinesis cleared a path, Chino's energy blasts hammered the monster's legs, and Adam's glowing constructs patched circuits into the humming mines. One by one, the devices lit up, a web of blue arcs stretching across the battlefield.
The Gashadokuro staggered, shrieking as it was forced back into the trap. Sparks lashed against its skeletal body, binding it tighter with every second.
"Now!" Garrison roared, slamming the final mine into the ground.
The field surged, light erupting in a dome that swallowed the monster whole. The Gashadokuro thrashed violently, bones snapping against the electromagnetic walls, but this time the chains held. Its howl echoed through the ruins before being cut short, its towering form frozen in place, locked in the prison of searing light.
Silence fell once more. This time, it was final.
The radio crackled again. Commander Rayne's voice was colder than ever. "Containment successful. Do not forget this lesson. Bravery without knowledge is nothing but folly."
Garrison lowered his rifle, his hands trembling—not from fear, but from rage he dared not let show. His brother was gone, his unit scarred, and now his cousins voice claimed all his efforts were foolish.
He looked at the glowing prison where the monster writhed silently. His reflection stared back at him from the field's surface.
Leventis… if you can still hear me, I'll find you. No matter what I have to face.
And with that silent vow, the battlefield grew quiet once more.