"So, Ido, you're a mercenary hired for this mission too?"
Mike followed behind Kevin and Mei, confirming the girl's identity.
"More or less," Ido replied indifferently.
"It's been peaceful for so long that even kids can become mercenaries now—"
Before Mike could finish his remark, the tip of a spear was already pressed beneath his chin. The speed was so fast that he had no time to react.
Only afterward did he feel a gust of wind brush against his cheek.
"What? Want to compare? See whether Ido's spear is faster, or your gun?"
"Guess I'm getting old. Girl, that spear of yours is frighteningly fast." Mike deliberately put on a nervous expression and reached out two fingers, trying to pinch the spearhead. But before his fingers could touch it, the girl had already withdrawn the weapon.
"Don't touch Ido's spear!"
"Looks like you treasure it."
"I'm done talking to you."
While Ido and Mike bickered, the Far East Self-Defense Forces stationed near Nagazora City had gathered in response to the massive disturbance at Chiba Academy. By coincidence, they spotted the four of them—fully armed.
A man in a police uniform stepped forward, blocking their path.
"I am an inspector from the Nagazora City Police Department. What are you doing?"
Behind him, tanks and mechanized units rumbled toward Chiba Academy. Along the way, Honkai Beasts and undead were shredded under dense artillery fire. Even the five-meter-tall colossus they had encountered earlier could not withstand the armor-piercing shells of the tanks.
The mechanized forces advanced like an unstoppable tide. The ground trembled beneath their movement. Among them were high-tech weapons none of the civilians had ever seen before.
It inspired immense reassurance.
Surely, no matter how terrifying the monsters were, they would be annihilated under such firepower.
Kevin quickly pulled out a photo on his phone. "We want to return to Chiba Academy to rescue someone. His name is Su."
"Looking for someone?" The inspector glanced at their weapons. "Where did you get these firearms? Never mind. Leave immediately. From here on, it's military business. If there are survivors inside the academy, we will extract them."
He was surprisingly lenient, not pressing them further about the guns.
"Survivors? You'll be the last survivors if you go in," Ido retorted bluntly. "With this scrap metal? You're just walking to your deaths. Or is that your superior's order—to stall for time by sacrificing yourselves?"
The inspector's expression hardened. "This is not a playground for children. Leave now, or I'll arrest you under public security law!"
"You're the ones playing pretend! You've never seen a real Honkai Beast!" Ido shot back.
Rumble—
Before the inspector could respond, a nearby building collapsed with a thunderous crash. From within the rubble rose a towering Knight-class Honkai Beast over twenty meters tall.
The inspector swallowed the words he had been about to say. Facing such a colossal creature, he felt as though he had stepped into some giant monster film.
"Aim! Fire! Fire!" the military commander shouted.
An endless barrage of shells and bullets slammed into the Knight-class Honkai Beast, successfully halting its advance. Yet the rounds struck its thick hide and shield, deflecting with little visible effect.
Not far away, a maglev train sped past, attempting to flee the city.
With a single thrust, the Knight-class Honkai Beast's massive lance pierced straight through the train.
Electric arcs crackled along the rails as metal twisted with a deafening shriek. The beast lifted the impaled train like a skewer and hurled it into the mechanized battalion.
Explosions and screams erupted one after another.
Kevin stared at the monstrous sight, mouth agape. He turned to Mei, who was equally stunned, and clenched his teeth.
"Looks like we can't go back. Let's leave Nagazora City, Mei."
In truth, his earlier insistence on finding Su had not been his only motive. Kevin knew Mei, the bookworm, would risk her life to retrieve her research data—data she valued even more than herself. To protect her, he had used finding Su as the reason to return.
But what stood before them now severed all such thoughts.
[Su... you have to survive.]
...
When they returned to the place where they had first encountered Ido, it was already in ruins. There were no living people left—only more undead wandering aimlessly. Few Honkai Beasts remained; most had likely been drawn toward the military.
The group carefully avoided clusters of undead and moved along a side path. Just as they stepped out of an alley, a biting chill swept over them.
Ice sculptures.
Before them stretched a world of white.
Honkai Beasts and undead alike stood frozen in place—including five-meter-tall colossus-type Honkai Beasts. They did not move because they had been transformed into solid ice.
Snow blanketed the flowerbeds. A gust of wind passed, and a delicate crystal flower suddenly bloomed, its petals dissolving into glittering dust that drifted away.
It was as if the entire area had been scorched by liquid nitrogen.
What level of Honkai Beast could accomplish something like this?
They could only hope that whatever terrifying creature had done this was long gone—and that they would never encounter it on the road ahead.
Just then, the sound of a trash can toppling nearby snapped everyone to attention.
A small girl wearing a white hoodie with cat ears popped out from behind it.
"Hehe... you found me."
"Pardo!" Ido immediately recognized the organization's newest member and signaled the others to lower their guns.
Pardo dashed over to Ido and launched into complaints. "Sister Ido, this place is nothing like what Vill-V—uh, Boss—said about being 'completely safe.' It's total chaos! Monsters and zombie things wandering everywhere!"
"Sister Ido, we can really make it back safely, right?"
Ido smiled and patted Pardo's head. "Of course. I'll protect you."
"I remember Lecturer specially customized a personal aircraft for you, didn't they?"
"Oh, don't even mention it." At the topic of the customized aircraft, Pardo's expression turned bitter. "That wasn't an aircraft—it was refrigerated canned food! It was freezing inside!"
"They said, 'If you encounter danger, release the ultimate move and throw it out to freeze the enemy.' But before I even ran into danger, I was about to freeze to death in there!"
"So I found a place you might pass through and detonated it instead. Yep—right here." Pardo pointed proudly at the frozen sculptures.
Speaking of aircraft, she suddenly thought of something else.
"Sister Ido, what about yours? Don't tell me Boss Vill-V installed some weird function in yours too?"