Inside the vast, cold steel laboratory, Cid stood before the large hole he had torn open, staring strangely at the enormous experimental tank filled with an unknown liquid.
A silver-haired girl floated inside. Tubes extending down from the top of the tank were inserted into the two pairs of pure-white wings on her back, while her vacant eyes stared straight at Cid.
"That should be... Kanon, right?"
Cid sounded uncertain as he looked at the girl before him.
He knew her. She was a friend he'd met by chance, but he remembered Kanon leaving Itogami Island about a month ago because of changes involving her family's work.
So why had she suddenly turned up here?
Cid met the girl's empty, unfocused gaze for several seconds, then took a step forward.
Her pale blue eyes shifted with his movement.
"Are you conscious? That's a little troublesome."
Rubbing his chin, Cid muttered to himself in confusion, then tentatively took another step forward.
When Kanon Kanase still showed no sign of attacking him, he finally moved to the experimental tank at normal speed and carefully examined her current condition.
"Hey, Kanon. Can you hear me?"
Cid raised his voice.
Although she looked very similar to the two mask-wearers he'd fought outside, Kanon Kanase was completely different from them in Cid's eyes.
At the very least, Kanon Kanase was still alive.
Those two were already dead. Their souls were gone and everything.
The difference between them was enormous.
If Cid had to put it in gaming terms, it was like comparing the first stage of a class to its third stage.
Not only was Kanon's body completely intact, but that strange presence had already spread throughout her entire body. Every organ from head to toe had been renewed and replaced.
Even so, Cid still couldn't tell whether Kanon Kanase could be saved.
She was simply too unresponsive.
He had called out to her three times without getting an answer. She merely stared blankly at him, making him wonder whether something was wrong with her brain.
"Whatever. If her brain really is damaged, I'll just dump Kanon on Natsuki-chan. I'm sure Natsuki-chan will be overflowing with compassion and heal her. Yeah, let's do that."
Faced with something outside his area of expertise, Cid thought for a moment.
When he still couldn't come up with an answer, he decided there was no point thinking about it any further and simply acted.
Actually, this might even be better.
If Kanon Kanase really was unconscious, then she probably wouldn't remember Cid rescuing her.
He wasn't disguised at all right now, so having his identity exposed would be troublesome.
Even as he thought this, his hands didn't slow in the slightest.
In an instant, Cid cut a hole large enough for a person to pass through the tank's isolation glass.
Yet the liquid inside remained perfectly still, as though the opening didn't exist. Not a single drop flowed out through it.
Cid reached through the hole and plunged his hand into the unknown liquid.
Feeling it slide across his fingertips, he extended his arm toward Kanon Kanase and touched her body.
Kanon neither resisted nor cooperated when his hand reached her.
She simply watched him in silence and allowed herself to be pulled out, drifting along with his movements.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
Once outside, Kanon Kanase's bare feet landed on the floor.
After stumbling several times, she fell against Cid.
Yet her entire body was completely dry, without the slightest trace of having been submerged.
The strange barrier across the opening had stripped away every drop of liquid clinging to Kanon before she passed through, preventing Cid's clothes from getting wet.
That would have been embarrassing.
Cid placed both hands on Kanon Kanase's shoulders and steadied her in place.
He stared straight into her empty eyes, looked her over from head to toe, then frowned.
Was she conscious or not?
"Kanon, take two steps forward?"
Cid spoke experimentally.
Thinking back to something he'd once read in Eta's research reports, an idea occurred to him.
[Don't even dream about it. A Faux Angel cannot be controlled by external forces. It's just as absurd as your so-called method of awakening a soul through emotion. Once a complete Faux Angel is born, it is destined to ascend to a higher dimension and reach the side of the Gods.]
Although Kensei Kanase had confidently insisted that his Faux Angel couldn't be controlled, Cid didn't quite agree.
Once, when he had nothing better to do, Cid had gone through Eta's experimental reports to broaden his knowledge.
He remembered reading that when an intelligent being was either completely focused on one thing or mentally absent, it would instinctively obey commands transmitted to the brain from outside unless subjected to an intense stimulus.
It also wouldn't remember anything that happened during that period.
The situation before him felt very similar.
Cid gave the command.
Kanon Kanase didn't move.
She simply stood there blankly, completely motionless.
More than twenty seconds passed.
Remembering what Kensei Kanase had said earlier, Cid was just beginning to awkwardly wonder whether his guess had been wrong and Kensei Kanase had actually been right when Kanon's body suddenly moved.
She walked forward exactly two steps.
"...Hahaha! What the heck? I'm actually kind of a genius!"
Cid paused for several seconds before bursting into laughter.
He hadn't expected to discover the method of controlling her so easily.
He really was a super genius.
Hahaha...
"Ahem, ahem... All right. Now that we've confirmed Kanon-chan can still be saved, let's take her with us."
After laughing to his heart's content, Cid coughed a few times and suppressed the urge to keep praising himself.
Objectively speaking, when it came to this whole Faux Angel weapon business, he'd only stumbled onto the control method by sheer luck.
Calling himself a genius was really just him showing off.
Still, whenever he remembered how confidently Kensei Kanase had claimed Faux Angels couldn't be controlled, Cid couldn't help wanting to laugh.
Hadn't he just succeeded?
Sure, there was a pretty serious delay, but that wasn't exactly a major problem.
He had no idea what Kensei Kanase had been thinking.
Such a simple method, and he hadn't even bothered trying it before insisting control was impossible.
Why had it been so easy for Cid?
Surely it wasn't because he was somehow special, right?
"Still... Kensei Kanase, Kanon Kanase. Kanase, Kanase... Those two names..."
Cid silently repeated the names to himself, then fell quiet for a moment.
His thoughts inevitably began to wander.
Using your own family member as a test subject was the kind of thing that belonged in science-fiction movies.
Even Cid found it a little difficult to wrap his head around.
Of course, he didn't regret attacking Kensei Kanase simply because the man turned out to be Kanon Kanase's relative.
He was just curious about what had actually happened between them.
The whole situation looked like it could be pretty entertaining.
"Whatever. It's someone else's family problem. I'll just dump Kanon-chan on Natsuki-chan afterward."
Cid didn't know much about Kanon Kanase's family circumstances.
Still, the fact that Kensei Kanase had been able to openly take her away and experiment on her for an entire month told him enough to make a rough guess.
Either Kanon was an orphan, or the rest of her family was working with Kensei Kanase.
Either way, handing her over to Natsuki-chan would save him some trouble.
"Follow me, Kanon."
Putting his curiosity about Kanon Kanase's family aside, Cid called to her and started walking toward the exit.
Kanon remained where she was for more than ten seconds.
Then she finally began moving and followed him out.
...
Meanwhile, above the hotel, inside the alternate dimension where Rias was being held...
"Aaaahhh!!!"
A miserable scream rang out.
The Devil lying inside the vessel on the ground continuously bled from every part of his body.
The amount of blood remaining inside him steadily dwindled until there was nothing left, reducing him to a dried corpse.
The Devil's blood extracted from his body was absorbed by the vessel surrounding him, then channeled into the enormous Cross to which Yuuma Tokoyogi was bound.
Another faint trace of crimson spread across its surface.
"Next. A human."
Katerea, who had been coldly watching the entire process from nearby, indifferently named the next victim.
Her subordinates immediately obeyed.
They seized one of the Human supernatural beings invited to the banquet and threw him into the vessel.
"Aaaahhh!!!"
Rias watched the people around her disappear one after another as they were dragged away and thrown into the vessel.
With each new scream, her face grew paler.
She tried to summon the Magical Power inside her, but it vanished the instant it emerged.
She struggled to rise, only for the magic restraining her body to hold her completely motionless.
"Sona... do you have any ideas?"
After a moment of silence, Rias quietly asked her best friend for a solution.
All she received from Sona Sitri was a bitter smile.
Ah...
Of course.
At this point, what could they possibly do?
If they'd had a solution, they would have used it already.
And even if they somehow recovered their strength, they still wouldn't be able to win.
The thought filled Rias with despair.
Their Magical Power had been tampered with.
Their bodies were restrained by magic.
And to make matters worse, they were trapped inside an alternate dimension.
Unless the alternate dimension itself was destroyed, they could all die here without the outside world noticing a thing.
Remembering the conversation she'd had with Cid when they first entered the hotel, Rias gave a self-mocking smile.
Back then, she'd confidently explained how seriously Diodora had taken this banquet, going so far as to construct a temporary alternate dimension as the venue to ensure everyone's safety.
In the end, they'd practically walked into a cage and let the enemy shut the door behind them.
There had been no way to anticipate it.
Who could have guessed that Diodora, the one who invited them, was working for the enemy?
Yes.
Based on the information Katerea had accidentally let slip earlier, combined with the suspicious way so many enemies had infiltrated without making the slightest disturbance and the ritual materials that had already been prepared in the middle of the banquet hall, even an idiot could figure out Diodora's true allegiance.
This entire banquet had been a trap.
A trap designed to lure all of them here.
Katerea needed their blood to accomplish some objective.
The only reason Rias was still alive was because Katerea was feeding people into the blood-draining vessels from weakest to strongest.
It was all to prevent the girl bound to the Cross from being overwhelmed by their power and dying instantly.
By introducing their strength gradually, from weak to strong, they were allowing her to adapt and become stronger.
Rias understood everything now.
But she could only lean against the wall, shake her head, and wear a sorrowful expression.
Even after uncovering the truth, what could they possibly do about it?
Their lives were no longer in their own hands.
"Don't worry. It isn't time for me to deal with you yet. Your deaths come much later. After all, you're the descendants of those traitors. I intend to repay them properly for everything they did to us..."
Rias had spoken quietly, but Katerea had been keeping a close eye on every little movement they made.
She heard every word clearly.
A malicious smile immediately spread across her face.
She sounded as though she were kindly explaining the situation to Rias, but every word was dripping with ill intent.
"Oh, and you, Serafall's sister. You can relax. If we have enough people to achieve our goal without needing to kill you, then I suppose I could let you live."
"Really?"
Katerea's casual remark immediately drew eager looks from several Devils and Humans nearby who were desperate to survive.
They wanted to know why Sona Sitri was special enough to be spared.
But neither Rias nor Sona Sitri believed a single word Katerea said.
There was no chance Katerea would be that merciful.
After all, Sona Sitri's older sister had taken the throne of Leviathan, a position that had been passed down through Katerea's family for generations.
The grudge between them ran far too deep.
"Of course. After all, when it comes to that bitch Serafall, the only way I'll ever see her cry and regret fighting against our Old Satan Faction is by killing her sister right in front of her and cutting her open. Hahaha!"
Listening to Katerea's venomous curse, Rias suddenly felt a little grateful that her own brother no longer lived on this island.
Otherwise, she might have ended up becoming leverage against her family just like Sona Sitri.
Rias and Sona Sitri stopped responding to Katerea's mockery and delusional fantasies about their miserable future.
They simply closed their eyes and remained silent.
Their attitude was obvious.
"Thud!"
Seeing Rias and the others deliberately ignore her, Katerea quickly lost interest.
She tossed them aside and returned to maintaining the ritual.
"Ugh..."
Rias hit the ground heavily.
She forced herself not to cry out from the pain, then sighed as she looked at the guards surrounding them on every side.
There really wasn't the slightest chance of escape.
After reaching that conclusion, Rias took a deep breath and tried once more to search for some flaw they could exploit.
Again, she found nothing.
"Hum..."
Just as despair was about to overwhelm her, Rias felt a faint vibration.
Her entire body tensed, and her eyes widened.
This is...
The warning sign before an alternate dimension collapses.
How is that possible?
How could the alternate dimension be collapsing this soon?
Unable to believe it, Rias checked again.
She reached the exact same conclusion.
Her gaze involuntarily shifted toward Katerea.
Rias had no idea why the alternate dimension was suddenly on the verge of destruction.
But if her judgment was correct, then once it collapsed and they returned to the outside world, both the restraints binding their bodies and the field draining their Magical Power would disappear.
In other words...
They were about to get their chance to fight back.
The moment she realized this, Rias stopped wasting strength resisting her restraints and began conserving what little energy remained.
At the current rate they were draining people, the alternate dimension would collapse long before it became her turn to be dragged away and have her blood extracted.