Somewhere in Kivotos, inside a narrow alley.
Several figures fled into the alley in panic, only to find a tall, solid wall blocking their path.
"W-we're trapped..."
The green-haired girl looked around in alarm.
"This is a dead end..."
Trying to retreat and find another route was already impossible.
The black-haired girl at the rear quickly checked the only remaining passage.
"...No good here either. We've been completely surrounded."
As if confirming her words, the next moment, swaying beams of light illuminated the faces of the Arius Squad girls, some expressionless, some frightened, some sorrowful, some bitter.
A group of Arius students dressed in white robes and wearing gas masks blocked off their last escape route. Without hesitation, they raised their rifles and aimed them at their fellow students who had been cornered.
The squad leader did not attack immediately. Instead, she said coldly,
"Give up. You have nowhere left to run."
Not long ago, Saori had imagined this very moment.
With the entire world against them and no one left to help them, their desperate escape was bound to come to an end.
But she had never expected that ending to arrive so suddenly.
"...We're almost completely out of ammunition."
Misaki spoke softly before glancing at the blue-haired girl leaning against Atsuko, her face twisted in pain.
"The captain's injuries are serious too. If this keeps up, forget escaping. She might not survive."
Saori frowned and pulled something from her pocket.
"...We still have one last option. If we use this..."
Hiyori's pupils shrank.
"D-don't tell me..."
Misaki murmured the answer as she looked at the remote control.
"...The halo-destroying bomb."
"Misaki. Hiyori."
Saori's voice grew urgent.
"While I buy you some time... take the Princess... and get out of here."
"...Saori."
"Leave... and then..."
Her voice became weaker, her breathing uneven.
"Go find... him... and beg him..."
"Saori."
Only after Atsuko called her name again did Saori snap out of her daze.
"...Princess?"
"It's enough."
Atsuko gently lifted Saori's arm from her own shoulder and handed it to Misaki.
"We've already tried our hardest."
Then she stepped forward and addressed the Arius students.
"The one that woman wants... is me, right? I'll go with you. So please... let the others go."
Saori's eyes widened.
"Atsuko!? What are you trying to do!?"
"...It's enough, Saori."
The purple-haired girl looked back with a gentle smile.
"Everything... is meaningless now. There isn't anywhere left in Kivotos where we can live in peace. Before our time runs out, even if it means going..."
She stopped herself there.
Saori lowered her eyes and bit her lip, unable to refute a single word.
Shaking her head, Atsuko continued,
"But that's only because I'm here. Saori, Misaki, Hiyori... all of this happened because of me. So let me be the one to end it."
"You can't, Atsuko."
Saori desperately tried to stop her, but stumbled as soon as she took a step.
"If you go back... they'll definitely kill you... You know that, don't you?"
"...Until now, I've never really made any decisions of my own."
Atsuko's voice remained calm.
"So... just this once... can you let me decide for myself?"
Without waiting for an answer, she turned back toward the Arius students.
"Will you promise me? Let them go afterward."
The squad leader fell silent for a moment before nodding.
"...Please wait. I need to ask Madam for confirmation."
She took out a communicator and briefly explained the situation.
A moment later, Beatrice's thoughtful voice came through the device.
"Oh? I see... Understood. But before that... I have one question for all of you."
"What is it?"
"Tell me."
Her voice carried an unusual weight.
"Where exactly... did you wound Sensei?"
Atsuko blinked in surprise.
"Why ask that all of a sudden...? Is it really that important?"
Beatrice let out a cold laugh.
"Compared to your lives, which do you think matters more?"
As she spoke, the Arius students once again raised their guns.
"...I understand."
Atsuko glanced at the dark muzzles pointed toward them before calmly answering.
"His side."
It was hardly a secret.
Beatrice merely wanted confirmation directly from Arius Squad. Had their answer contradicted the intelligence she already possessed, she would simply have verified it elsewhere.
"...A hollow-point round? No... that part..."
The woman on the other end grew even more solemn.
"So before inflicting that wound... you shot all four of his limbs first, correct?"
"That's right. Is there a problem?"
"Heh. Very good... One more thing."
Beatrice continued,
"Which one of you fired the final shot?"
Before the exhausted Saori could admit it herself, Atsuko answered first.
"I did."
Silence filled the other end of the communicator.
"...Heh... I see."
Finally, Beatrice chuckled softly, a trace of delight hidden within her voice.
"So that's how it is. I never imagined that a student with royal blood could also be considered... Heh... I see."
Apparently having discovered something capable of lifting her foul mood, she addressed Atsuko.
"In that case, I accept your request."
But Atsuko was not satisfied yet.
"In your own name."
"I swear it."
"...In my name?"
Beatrice's voice became displeased again.
"Is that really necessary?"
Atsuko answered with the very same words Beatrice had used moments earlier.
"Compared to the obedience of your sacrifice... which matters more?"
Beatrice fell silent once again.
Amid the stillness, broken only by the sound of her own heartbeat, the purple-haired girl quietly clenched her fists.
"...Heh. Interesting. Very well."
Beatrice answered casually.
"I swear upon my name, Beatrice, the name dreamed of by every pilgrim in this world, that I will honor my agreement with you."
Only then did Atsuko finally relax.
"...All right. It's a promise."
As she spoke, she began walking toward the line of Arius students.
Several students immediately stepped forward respectfully, one offering her a familiar mask identical to the one she had once worn.
"Princess, this way, please. It is Madam's order. If you remove your mask without permission... it puts us in a difficult position."
Atsuko nodded and quietly put on the mask she had long since grown accustomed to wearing.
The communicator spoke once more.
"Treat her carefully. Don't let her get hurt. The ritual will begin tomorrow morning, at sunrise."
Having long accepted the fate she had been born to bear, Atsuko took a deep breath.
For one final time, she looked back at her companions and smiled gently.
"...Take care of yourselves. Saori... everyone... goodbye."
Escorted by several Arius students, she soon disappeared from Arius Squad's sight.
"No... Atsuko..."
Unable to stop any of it because of her wounds and exhaustion, Saori stared into the empty darkness with blurred eyes.
Her body trembled as she whispered,
"If... if I couldn't even protect you... then my convictions... the things I wanted to protect... if they're all gone... then what have I been living for until now...?"
Lost in the confusion, regret, and despair welling up inside her, Saori slowly lowered her head.
Her lips moved soundlessly.
"What... have I... been living... for...?"
After confirming that Atsuko had been escorted far enough away, the Arius student leading the squad respectfully spoke into the communicator once more.
"...Madam, what should we do with the remaining Squad members?"
The reply came in a cold, almost mocking voice.
"Dispose of them. All of them."
From the very beginning, Beatrice had never intended to honor her promise to Atsuko.
This was Kivotos, and she had sworn on her own name.
But she was an adult. How could someone like her possibly allow herself to be bound by the wishes of mere students?
Besides, in the Arius she ruled, traitors and those who defied her had always shared only one fate.
After giving the order, Beatrice immediately ended the transmission and turned her attention to matters she considered far more important, such as the meeting that was about to begin.
The squad leader lowered her head respectfully.
"As you command."
Then she raised her hand.
"Fi..."
"What!?"
Before the order could leave her mouth, gunfire and explosions erupted.
Cries of pain and alarm burst from the Arius students, accompanied by a woman's voice dripping with disdain and ridicule.
"Hehehe... So you ran all the way to this miserable little corner, only to end up at the mercy of trash like this. A pack of bitches that betrayed their master, how pathetically laughable."
In an instant, the entire situation changed.
Wrapped in the flames of exploding shells, the fox-masked girl charged straight into the enemy formation competing for her prey, cutting them down as she laughed coldly.
"Good thing I got here in time. Otherwise someone else might've stolen you from me again. Joumae Saori, how could I possibly let anyone else have the privilege of tearing you to pieces!?"
Hearing those words, Saori froze.
She had just been about to use their final trump card, the halo-destroying bomb, to cover the escape of her remaining two companions.
Her expression shifted constantly, her eyes filled with conflict.
"Captain."
Misaki spoke.
"Should we escape in the confusion? Just like before. If we stir things up now, we probably can... Of course, if you've lost the will to keep going and would rather just wait here to die, I don't object either."
Although it sounded like she was provoking Saori on purpose, Misaki's perfectly flat tone made it clear she genuinely meant every word.
"The Princess is almost..."
Hiyori murmured dejectedly.
"Th-that woman doesn't look like she'll let us go so easily... Ehehe... A life this painful... what meaning does it even have...?"
The despair weighing on her two companions naturally spread to Saori.
She was right.
Even if they escaped again like they always had... what then?
Very soon, the person most precious to them would be taken back to the Arius Satellite School and offered as a living sacrifice.
In such a short amount of time, in their current condition, they couldn't even defeat an ordinary Arius squad.
How could they possibly invade the Arius District itself and rescue Atsuko from Beatrice's stronghold, a place she had ruled for years?
Was that...
Really possible?
If Atsuko lost her life...
Could the three of them really continue dragging out their miserable existence in this dark world with nowhere left to belong?
Question after question flooded Saori's mind, threatening to drown her in despair.
She desperately forced her sluggish thoughts, dulled by pessimism and her injuries, to keep moving, searching for even the faintest glimmer of hope.
Until she remembered the strange question Beatrice had asked moments ago.
And the faint hint of...
Fear.
Realizing that perhaps things were not as she had always believed, Saori finally looked back toward the past with sorrow and bitter self-mockery.
Toward the choice she had possessed from the very beginning.
The choice she had abandoned over and over again.
The choice she instinctively rejected.
The choice she could no longer avoid facing.
But if she chose that path...
Then what had everything she had done until now been for?
Suppressing the unnecessary ache in her heart with what little reason she had left...
Saori, who had always been the one her squad relied upon in the world they had survived together, quietly spoke to the two girls still patiently waiting for her orders.
"...Go ask for her help."
Her voice was as calm as ever.
"...H-help... whose?"
Hiyori asked blankly, startled.
"...So in the end... it still came to this."
Misaki sighed quietly.
Then...
Arius Squad joined the battle.
...
"...Well done."
Back at Schale, sitting on the sofa, I praised Wakamo.
Her fox tail immediately began wagging happily.
Then I turned toward the captured members of Arius Squad, now restrained.
After looking over the three of them, I frowned.
"Where's the girl named Atsuko?"
Standing nearby, Wakamo lowered her head apologetically.
"I'm sorry. By the time Wakamo arrived... she had already..."
"Sensei!"
Saori suddenly shouted.
Then, moving with astonishing speed, she made a sudden motion that startled me.
A moment later, my alarm faded, only to be replaced by even greater confusion.
Saori dropped to her knees.
Tears streamed down her face as she cried out,
"Sensei... Atsuko... that woman... took her away..."