"…If I remember correctly, Senior… the line you're quoting should be—"
"Yep. Exactly what the little donkey said."
Bai Ling turned his head and cleanly cut off Eyjafjalla's attempt to continue. He wore an easy smile as he did it.
Eyjafjalla flushed slightly, her small face going a touch red, but she didn't argue again.
Calling Amiya a "little donkey" wasn't some taboo thing back on Rhodes Island. Amiya herself occasionally had complicated feelings about it, sure—but she'd never truly been troubled by it.
Eldera, on the other hand, was quietly puzzled by why Bai Ling would describe one of Rhodes Island's former leaders that way…
She genuinely couldn't understand why he would deliberately call a rabbit a donkey.
In her memories, that little rabbit had been truly brave—so young, yet already carrying the weight of leadership for Rhodes Island.
Even with the same memories, the difference in lived experience created a huge gap in perception.
Watching the two lambs' reactions, Bai Ling found it easy to distinguish them completely.
"We should be close, right?"
Even without a vehicle—and with his body still a bit weak—their pace wasn't slow.
After all, the power station shouldn't be that far from the planned campsite… right?
…It was actually pretty far. But the road was good, and that made up for a lot.
"Mm. We're almost there, Senior," Eldera replied gently.
Eyjafjalla, meanwhile, carefully observed the surroundings, trying to pick out any information they could use.
When the three arrived near a small plain that didn't even look like a real base—just a few temporary tents and sheet-metal structures—someone finally came to meet them.
Before long, two people approached, looking like engineers.
"You're the Endfield Industries people Teacher Klaue mentioned? You don't look like the particularly capable type."
"…Capability has never been proven by talking," Bai Ling answered casually, his gaze drifting toward a drilling device set up not far away.
When you don't have Originium Arts available, leaning on technology was a perfectly valid choice.
"Is that so? Then you must have something you're good at?"
Clearly, neither of them trusted outsiders. Their words came sharp.
"Unfortunately, I'm just an ordinary guy—at most I can see—"
Bai Ling was mid-sentence when—
In his vision, the Originium energy that normally lay quiet and evenly spread across the world suddenly began to tremble, as if it had gone berserk.
"Senior! Something is fluctuating!"
Eyjafjalla also sensed it. She tightened her grip on her staff.
And then—
A terrifying wave of energy bloomed outward.
"Where is that direction?" Bai Ling's voice hardened, a bad premonition spiking straight up.
"It's the Valley Fortress!"
"Then the surveying here might have to wait," Eldera said.
She was about to add something more, but her wristband lit up.
"Eldera! Have you arrived at Valley Four?!"
Perlica's voice came through the device—urgent, compressed.
"Yes. I'm currently at the Power-Supply Highlands, the planned construction zone."
"…We've already received an abnormality report from Qin Jiangchi. A severe erosion reaction has occurred in Valley Four—right near you. The Administrator and I are heading from the Dijiang to Valley Four to provide support!"
"Sounds serious," Bai Ling muttered.
As Perlica's tense voice filled the air, Bai Ling and Eyjafjalla stood behind Eldera. Against the escalating urgency, the two of them looked almost… out of place.
"Maybe it's worse than serious, Senior Bai Ling," Eldera said quietly.
The moment the call ended, everyone present felt an inexplicable pressure descend, as if something massive had just "arrived."
Bai Ling merely turned his head slightly, fearlessly staring into the sky.
Countless blood-red threads began to gather in empty air—condensing, knitting together, spreading, expanding.
Almost instantly, the intangible became physical.
The structures of the earth clung and fused into a central core, forming a gigantic elongated rhombohedral pyramid—an unsettling, almost beautiful geometry.
From its base, an unknown, horrifying fluid surged out like a crimson tide.
It only had to flow across the ground for the air around it to take on a warped, twisted quality.
The workers who had been around—including the two mouthy engineers—fell silent.
"It's EROSION!!! Everyone, get out of here!"
"It has components of a Catastrophe… but it isn't the same as a Catastrophe," Eyjafjalla judged instantly, her staff already aimed at the colossal thing that had appeared out of nowhere.
Just as she prepared to attack, a chorus of howls erupted—sending the fleeing crowd sprinting even faster.
The ground shook.
Several monsters—each larger than a person, their bodies built from Originium ore—charged out from some unseen corner.
"They're Angels! You two—battle positions!"
…
As if by instinctive coordination, Eyjafjalla and Eldera moved in tandem—one in front, one behind—shielding Bai Ling in the middle.
Bai Ling stared at the incoming Angels, his expression turning… strangely complicated.
He could see energy flow. He could usually judge an enemy's "size" with ease.
But these Angels were different.
They weren't "creatures with energy."
They were living energy bodies—and the Originium crystal "shell" was merely a polymerized mass clinging to them.
Did Terra… ever have anything like this?
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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