Even having left the Dungeon, the homeland that bore them, monsters would never — not without provocation — all sink at the same moment, for no reason at all, into a madness that stripped away every instinct for self-preservation.
A rampage this perfectly in step.
There was only one explanation: something had struck at them, all of them at once, somewhere in the last half hour and more.
And once that thought landed—
what rose highest in Shakti's mind was fear for the god Haimer.
If this riot was aimed at him — if the remnants of some house he'd purged were trying to fish in muddied waters and strike at his residence — Shakti didn't dare follow the thought further.
The consequences were unthinkable.
"Damn it."
Shakti tightened her grip on her spear and let her Lv.5 agility loose.
Her boot smashed an empty crate at the street corner; she kicked off it into the air, ran along eaves paved with blue tile, and shot toward the upper-class residential district like a streak of blue afterimage.
At that same moment.
On the sloped brick-and-tile roof of a tall garret a hundred meters from the Haimer residence.
Four Pallums in heavy sand-colored armor, each hefting a different enormous weapon, lay silent in the shadow behind a great chimney.
—None other than the senior officers of the [Freya Familia], the "Four Warriors of Flame Gold": the Gulliver Brothers.
What was going on?
The one with the giant hammer frowned, his gaze sweeping the distant blocks where firelight kept flaring up.
"Why would this many low-tier monsters start howling all over Orario in a single night?"
"From the look of it, somebody released something into the air — some kind of gas that drives monsters berserk over a wide area."
"And the smell's much fainter here, sure."
"But going by the way the night wind's blowing, the source seems to be somewhere close by."
"After all, his lordship's mansion is the only place in all Orario right now that openly keeps a pack of monsters…"
"Should we go in and check on his lordship?"
"Let's not."
"Better not to move rashly."
"If he learned we've been watching him from the shadows, it would only put him out of temper — and if Lady Freya heard of it, she'd just lay the blame on us."
"Right. Besides, the strongest monster his familia can field at the moment is only a Siren hovering somewhere around Lv.5."
"By Lady Freya's estimate, his lordship's own strength since descending to the Lower World should be around Lv.6. So even if that Siren really did go mad, it couldn't scratch him."
"The four of us just have to hold our assigned positions."
"So long as that lord is in no real danger of his life, it isn't ours to meddle in."
"As for the monsters in the streets biting a few civilians to death, or trampling a few houses — that's for Ganesha's gendarmes to worry about. Nothing to do with us."
A few short exchanges and the four brothers had their consensus, and they settled back into the chimney's black shadow.
As for right now.
Inside the Haimer residence, at the very center of the affair.
The mansion shut out some of the din, but the unbroken roaring of beasts still dragged the girls, only just asleep, out of their dreams one after another.
The guest room doors on the second floor banged open in a string.
"Nani?! What's happening? Have the monsters from the Dungeon fought their way up to the surface?"
Hestia came rushing out of the master bedroom.
And the instant she was through the door,
she saw Amou Kirukiru vault straight over the solid-wood railing of the second-floor corridor.
Both feet slammed down steadily onto the lawn of the central courtyard below.
The other girls came hurrying down as well, in thin nightclothes, weapons in hand, gathering on the ground floor.
Hegel, the Hellhound Xenos, had been settled on a thick cushion in a corner of the hall.
His black nose worked at the air, and, roused by the scent,
he lifted his head, meaning to let out one truly thunderous howl.
"Awoooo—!"
The result, however.
That howl came out of nowhere and caught Lili square as she rounded the corner of the gallery and started down the stairs, scaring her half out of her skin.
Lili's shoulders jerked and she nearly went tumbling down the steps.
The others turned as one, eyes wary.
"What's going on — has Miss Hegel gone berserk too?"
At a moment like this, the girls assumed Hegel might start smashing the place apart like those howling monsters outside, and every one of them went on guard.
But no.
Having finished his howl, Hegel seemed to catch on.
He saw the wary faces coming down the stairs.
Realizing his own voice had woken the mistresses who lived under this roof with him,
his head drooped at once, and he put on the most innocent look imaginable.
"Kyu!"
Aruru, the Al-Miraj Xenos, had woken too and scurried out in a rush, her two long, fluffy white ears standing straight up. She even waved her short forelimbs in a little gesture to plead her innocence.
The girls watched all this, minds still turning it over, none of them sure what had actually changed —
until the spider legs of Rania's lower body tapped softly across the wooden floor, and the spider Xenos came out at last.
"There's no need for alarm."
Rania had thrown a plain robe over herself, and a rare gravity sat on her cool face.
"It's the smell in the air. It's as though someone nearby released a gas that draws monsters powerfully."
Rania walked over to the Hellhound and reached out a human arm to stroke Hegel's neck.
"That scent has a fierce pull on any monster."
"For monsters without reason, once they catch it their minds are stripped away entirely, and then they pour out the destructive urges that belong to monsters, endlessly."
"The commotion outside must be the monsters that were hauled up to the surface. They caught this scent and went mad together."
The explanation finished, understanding dawned on the girls at last.
So that was what all the uproar outside came down to.
"Then, Miss Rania — if all of you can smell this gas, will it affect you? Should you go back to your rooms and take shelter for now?"
Onigawara Rin pushed her blade back into its sheath and asked, worry in her voice.
Rania shook her head.
"It's true that those of us Xenos who already possess complete reason can smell it as well."
"But for us it's only something like a lift to the spirits — the effect you humans get from a strong stimulant."
"It won't rob us of self-control. If anything, it sharpens our senses."
"So that's how it is. As long as you're all fine, this is manageable."
With matters settled inside the house, Onigawara Rin's face returned to its usual decisiveness, and she laid out the next step.
"All of Orario seems to have come apart tonight. We're Constables, so we should go and ask Kami-sama what he wants done."
Onigawara Rin made the call at once.
The proposal could hardly have been more sensible.
But when Onigawara Rin turned, leading the others toward the study on the second floor,
she found something else.
Inaba Tsukuyo, who always trailed obediently along behind everyone else,
was, for once in her life, standing with her back pressed hard against the study's thick carved mahogany door.
She wore a thin white under-robe, her small frame sealing off the doorway almost completely.
Stranger still.
Tsukuyo's cheeks were red enough to drip blood, and even the tips of her ears carried an obvious flush of crimson.
"Tsukuyo? What are you doing standing there?"
Koharu, her dark-brown long blade held at her side, tilted her head, puzzled.
At her sister's voice, Inaba Tsukuyo jolted from head to toe and shook her head desperately.
"N-nothing! But nobody can go in and see Kami-sama right now!"
No one else knew, after all — but she had heard everything that had just happened inside that study with perfect clarity.
Something about a *** raw gemstone getting soaked with tea, and then big sister Mary and Miss Rei taking the hit and going down, the heavy ragged breathing, and Kami-sama's sighs…
Tsukuyo couldn't see, but the combination of those sounds alone, together with the images her "Mind's Eye" painted, was enough to leave a pure maiden like her ready to faint from shame.
So, in short — until Kami-sama had his clothes back in order, she, as a member of his Familia, was going to hold this door!
"Why? It's chaos out there. What if this is an attack aimed at the god? Move aside, now."
Amou Kirukiru raised an eyebrow at the girl barricading the door, impatience creeping into her voice.
"J-just no! Kami-sama is inside right now… and he's busy! Yes, very busy!"
Cornered, Tsukuyo stammered out an excuse even she thought was feeble.
An explanation that fit the situation so badly only baffled the others further.
"Even if something's going on with Kami-sama in there, at a time when the whole city's in crisis, shouldn't we be hearing his plan all the sooner?"
Aihara Enju stamped her feet where she stood.
And then—
just as the standoff held—
"Whoosh—"
The mansion's central courtyard was an open-topped atrium, hollowed out to let in light.
A hard gust came sweeping down through it!
Because the emergency allowed for nothing else, Shakti had come in her full armor, dropping cleanly out of the sky onto the lawn of the central courtyard.
"Bam!"
"Is Lord Haimer here?"
She wasted nothing on greetings. The instant she landed she swept the hall with a glance, took in the scene, and called out.
Even as she spoke, her eyes moved quickly over the Xenos gathered there.
And when she saw that Fei, Rania, Hegel, and Aruru had not gone berserk, that they all still held themselves quietly,
and that nothing in the mansion showed a trace of anyone using the chaos to attack—
the dread that had hung in Shakti's chest finally settled a little, and she let out a long breath.
But the one target that mattered most was nowhere in sight.
"The situation outside is critical. The entire city is in chaos."
"Where has Lord Haimer gone?"
Shakti drew a slow breath and asked again.
Now Inaba Tsukuyo was truly riding a tiger with no way down.
With Kirukiru and the others she could at least hold the line with that rotten "the god is busy" excuse.
But she could hardly tell the ever-serious commander of the gendarmes that Kami-sama was in his room, busy handling two girls whose *** had taken hold — could she? That would ruin his good name outright.
Tsukuyo bit her lip, at a loss for what to do.
Fortunately.
The one inside the study had long since heard the clamor beyond the door, and heard it clearly.
…
Inside the study.
Looking at Kikakujou Mary and Miss Rei, whose eyes had already gone hazy,
Haimer let out a helpless sigh.
At any other time.
He might have had the leisure to indulge himself.
But not now.
The noise outside.
It kept reminding him, moment by moment, that the mess out there had already turned all of Orario upside down.
This was not the hour for such things.
And so.
Haimer raised his hand without hesitation.
—All-Purpose Hand Chop.
The two of them, flushed and short of breath with desire only a moment before,
felt nothing but a blackness fall across their eyes.
They slumped limp into unconsciousness on the spot.
Still.
That didn't mean the matter was closed.
Convenient as this bit of physical sleep induction was, it was only a temporary expedient.
The toxin wouldn't fade so easily.
If he didn't wait for the situation to stabilize and then use proper methods to force that poison out of their bodies,
the residue would go on affecting them.
But that was a matter for later.
With that in mind,
Haimer pulled down a thick blanket, carried Kikakujou Mary and Miss Rei to the study's sofa, tucked the blanket over them, and only then walked to the study door.
At the sound of the study opening,
Inaba Tsukuyo, standing guard at the doorway, let out a breath of relief and stepped aside.
And there—
Haimer came out in a loose black single-layer robe.
"All right, we'll leave what happened in there alone. Let's deal with what's in front of us first."
Having smoothed over the awkwardness of Tsukuyo's door-blocking, Haimer went straight to the point.
"Since Miss Shakti has come here in person, that means the mess outside has already outgrown the hands you have. Am I right?"
Shakti blinked at that, then set her expression and nodded hard.
"Yes, Lord Haimer."
"Monsters are scattered through the streets and the casualties are mounting. On my way here alone, there have already been at least twelve monster attacks across the city."
Hearing that, Haimer tilted his head slightly.
He looked at the girls gathered along the second-floor corridor, every one of them with a hand already on her hilt and battle burning in her eyes.
"Our title, written in the Guild's own black and white, is Orario's specially licensed Constables."
"With a breach of the peace on a scale that touches the whole city, it really is time for us to go out and do the job."
"Consider it a snap test of the practical experience you've picked up at the Twilight Manor these past few days."
"Go change into your gear. We'll set out shortly to help Miss Shakti's people put order back into every corner of Orario."
At those words,
the girls all lit up with excitement.
"Also — you alone clearly won't be fast enough."
"So this time, I have a favor to ask of you as well, Miss Rania."
Haimer's tone shifted as he turned to the Xenos — Rania, Fei, Aruru, and Hegel.
At those words,
not only did Rania, Fei, Aruru, and Hegel go still for a beat — even the girls, and Shakti with them, looked taken aback.
"This riot was set off by maddened monsters, after all."
"The people of the surface have carried a deep-rooted prejudice against beings who wear a monster's skin for thousands of years."
"After tonight, that prejudice will only harden."
"But by the same token, an extreme crisis is very often an enormous opportunity."
"If, tonight, while those rioting monsters are out there hurting civilians—"
"—if you, Miss Rania, and the rest of you who wear a monster's skin, not only refrain from harming anyone but come bursting out of the darkness to fight shoulder to shoulder with the surface's adventurers and gendarmes, protecting people who have no weapons at all."
"That's about as direct a piece of public relations as your difference could ever get."
"Even if only a small number of people take in the sight of you saving lives tonight, even if only a handful of them thank you out loud, that alone can — right at this pivotal moment — do a great deal to advance the surface's understanding that your minds have awakened."
Follow Haimer's line of thought through, and it came to this: send Xenos who possessed reason out alongside the gendarmes to put down the frenzied monsters.
Risky as the move was, when it came to easing the public's absolute hostility toward monsters, in the present situation it was a superb way to break the deadlock.
For a moment—
Fei's eyes shone.
Aruru was more beside herself still, springing into Haimer's arms and nuzzling at him wildly.
To shed the reputation of sewer filth and live alongside the people of the surface!
Since the day they awakened to reason, that had been the thing that kept every last Xenos from sleeping at night — their only dream, one might even say.
And yet reality stood right there in front of them.
Rania frowned. As the most mature-minded of the Xenos, she felt the waves stirring inside her, but reason set her to weighing the strength actually on hand.
"But… Lord Haimer."
Rania lifted her pallid face, her gaze sweeping the hall.
"With only the few of us here, against a mass of maddened monsters spread across the whole city in numbers we can't even begin to estimate, we're far too few to change the shape of the fight…"
Haimer raised a hand and cut her off.
"That would be true, if time were on our side."
Haimer turned his head, his gaze passing over Rania to settle on Fei, the siren.
"So Fei will go and make contact with Reed and the others underground."
"Fei has wings; she can fly. With the whole city in chaos and the streets choked, she's the fastest thing on the surface."
"That means Fei can fly straight down to the secret base on the twentieth floor of the Dungeon to find Reed, and the stone dragon Grosse and his people."
"Tell them how it came about. Have them muster at once and pick out Xenos who move quickly, or who react nimbly — and whose appearances are, relatively speaking, not so horrifying that they'd set off a mass panic — and send them charging straight up from the lower levels to help."
Hearing this,
Fei's pale pink eyes, already bright, brightened further, and she bobbed her head up and down.
"Mm! Mm!!"
"And I can use the voice-transmission orb that connects straight to Reed and the others to tell them about this in advance!"
"That orb is sitting in Rei's room right now. If they get word ahead of time, Reed and the rest will be able to race for the surface at full speed and reach the exit!"
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