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Just as Phaethon had said, the downward path was blocked by countless Ethereal. They burst from the shadows and the wet mist, attacking the group.
Ignis felt as if he had returned to the days of clearing out Chaos Cultists in the Lower Hive and Underhive. Officers and soldiers of the local Planetary Defense Force stayed close beside him as cultists, mutants, and Chaos-spawn emerged from the darkness, howling as they charged. Though the local Imperial Guard trembled with fear, having one of the Emperor's Angels at their side filled them with endless courage.
Although the staff of Victoria Housekeeping lacked carapace armor and lasguns, and carried neither explosives nor trench-clearing firepower, their combat skill alone was high enough that they could have been accepted into larger Imperial Guard regiments without issue. Ignis charged at the front without pause, the giant thundering forward with Rain protected in his left hand as he barreled through everything in his way. The Ethereal tried to attack him, but all of it was futile. Even with only one hand free and without stopping his stride, the Adeptus Astartes shattered every enemy who dared approach. He moved like a heavy assault tank, crushing every Ethereal blocking his path toward Tower B.
But Rain suffered for it. The giant's speed was not slow, and the smooth surface of his gauntlet gave her almost nothing to grab onto. She clung with all her strength to the armor seam at Ignis's elbow joint. Meanwhile, countless Ethereal lunged at her from the darkness. She was a hacker—an indoor type. When had she ever experienced anything like this? Especially when those Ethereal, with their unnervingly statue-like forms, appeared out of nowhere like monsters from a horror film.
She had only ever seen these Ethereal inside HIA's VR simulations, and now she saw them all up close in frightening detail. Some were so close their faces nearly touched hers—she could even see the spinning void of their Ethereal cores.
There was nothing she could do. As an indoor hacker relying on her computer, using her own legs to keep up with people like these was simply impossible.
"I'm saying!" Rain clung to the Salamander's gauntlet like a koala, shouting with all her strength, "Do you not have a better way!?"
Ignis caught a lunging Metro Goblin midair, then activated his ranked field, reducing it to fragments. According to the Proxy's briefing, Tower B was close.
"We will arrive shortly." Ignis spoke in his usual calm, direct tone as he tore off a Dullahan's right arm and crushed it with a single punch. "Please endure a little longer."
"Your decoding commission!" Rain screamed as several Blastcrawlers filled her enlarged field of view—Ethereal packed with highly volatile ether energy, rushing the Salamander. "Ah!"
With her scream, the Salamander raised the shield of his Iron Halo. The blast and radiation from the Blastcrawlers' detonation caused no harm, though Rain was terrified out of her wits.
"I'm charging you extra!" she shrieked.
Compared to Eous, who made indescribable noises of discomfort, Belle remained far more composed. After all, her real body wasn't in the Hollow, and Eous was being held by Rina at the moment. Because Ignis's combat strength was absurdly high, nearly every Ethereal in their way had already been reduced to pieces. The employees of Victoria Housekeeping only needed to keep up. Despite the giant's thunderous pace, he wasn't that fast—only Corin, being shorter, needed to speed up to match him.
"Earlier Fairy estimated seven minutes. Looks like we won't need that long after all." Belle checked the countdown. But after remembering how this giant had once traversed an entire building by tearing through every floor from the rooftop straight to the garage, she considered today's method the safe one.
Phaethon suspected this was thanks to Rain—if everyone had physiques like Von Lycaon and the others, the anxious giant would've opted for another rapid descent without hesitation.
"Good. The target is close!"
The lights in the lobby of Tower B's ground floor were still on, inexplicably bright within the surrounding darkness. No one knew how the lighting system had survived the ether corrosion. The marble floor had been torn apart by towering ether crystal spires—some rising several meters high, nearly touching the ceiling. Fairy warned that the ether activity here was extremely high and could be harmful to their health.
The Salamander hurled the last Ethereal blocking the light forward. The poor Tyrfing crashed into a crystal spire and shattered. The Ethereal seemed terrified of the illumination—once the group stepped into the lit area, the creatures halted.
This was the complete opposite of their earlier frenzy, and Ignis found it strange. After confirming the area was secure, he set Rain down. Her face was ghostly pale.
"I swear I will never get involved with Nicole ever again!" she yelled in near despair. Never in her life had she imagined being face-to-face with so many Ethereal. Even with a monstrously strong giant protecting her, hanging from someone's arm was not a pleasant experience.
"Proxy, where is the rift leading to the rooftop?" Von Lycaon asked, visibly uncomfortable under the strong radiation of the ether crystals.
Belle compared Fairy's data, then relayed the coordinates to Eous. The tiny Bangboo raised a hand and pointed at the tallest cluster of crystals.
"Right there."
That cluster didn't look especially thick. The space above it warped unnaturally, but if Ignis climbed it, the structure would break under his several tons of weight. "I'll stay. You all go up." The Salamander understood clearly that it couldn't support him. "Come back for me when it's done. Get me out of here."
Von Lycaon gave a solemn nod. "Lord Ignis, I shall not fail."
"We'll rescue them and come right back for you." Belle spoke as Von Lycaon began climbing. She turned to Ignis. "Don't worry. I'm the best Proxy in New Eridu. I'll definitely return for you."
The moment her words fell, the surrounding lights began to flicker. Ignis immediately raised his guard, his power gauntlets blazing to life.
The hall's speakers screeched, then abruptly played music—the track from Rain's playlist.
The mournful violin, paired with the flashing lights, made it clear something was coming.
Lights at the perimeter began going out, one ring at a time, darkness closing in. The members of Victoria Housekeeping formed a protective circle, shielding Rain and Eous at the center.
Only the lights in the very center remained, illuminating the marble floor embraced by ether crystals. With everything else swallowed by darkness, that single bright zone resembled a stage spotlight.
The spotlight was lit.
And so, the performer arrived.
It was that gray-white Ethereal. Ever since it had fallen into the Hollow rift from the atrium, it had vanished. Now the horrific ballerina once again blocked their path. It bowed toward them, just as if opening a performance.
"It seems our guest did not enjoy themselves earlier." Von Lycaon adjusted his collar.
"How irritating." Ignis charged immediately. "I'll hold it off. Get moving—intercept the airship."
The iron-clad giant thundered toward the gray-white ballerina. The creature seemed to take this as its cue—its blade-like legs carved deep gouges into the floor as it attacked.
The gray-white form moved like a weightless butterfly, spinning and lashing with razor limbs. But the Salamander was fast. He blocked one strike with a power fist and smashed forward with the other. The creature released a sharp, pained screech as half its body vanished—disintegrated by the field.
By this time, Von Lycaon had already led the group upward, drawing nearer to the rift.
The Wolf Thiren's sharp hearing caught a metallic impact—but not from where Ignis and the Ethereal fought.
It came from above them.
He lifted his head and saw the Ethereal dropping from above, its blade-like legs aimed straight at Rain in the middle of the group. Von Lycaon immediately activated the jet thrusters on his leg armor, trying to accelerate toward her. But the width of the ether crystal ridge was too narrow for two people to run side by side. He tried to turn back to assist, but his own people blocked his movement.
As the cold, gleaming blade-legs were about to fall—Rain on the verge of being split in two—Ellen moved.
The shark girl kicked off with explosive force, leaping up as the scissors in her hands opened wide and clashed against the blade-legs. With a piercing metallic screech and a burst of bright sparks, Ellen and the Ethereal tumbled downward, dragging Rain down with them.
Von Lycaon immediately jumped after them and caught Rain in his arms.
"Miss Rain, are you unharmed?" The Wolf Thiren quickly checked her condition as the shaken hacker tried to steady her breath.
"No… I'm… fine…" Rain patted herself frantically, making sure she hadn't lost any pieces.
"It seems the enemy is rather displeased with our premature departure." Von Lycaon turned, narrowing his eyes at the Ethereal entangled with Ellen.
Ellen's thick tail whipped out, battering the Ethereal backward several steps before it regained balance—only for another Ethereal to be punched straight toward it by Ignis's sudden jab.
Only then did they notice that there were two nearly identical Ethereal. One was gray-white, the other pitch-black.
"What now? The ballet wasn't enough? Are we doing Swan Lake? Did the Black Swan decide to show up too?" Ignis glared at the pair, thoroughly done with them.
The Salamander launched another charge. This time the black one intercepted him, while the gray-white one turned again toward Rain. Their movements were similar—spinning, high-speed steps and slashes with their razor blade-legs. Ignis blocked a downward chop from the black ballerina and prepared to counterattack—when the gray-white one suddenly spun backward in front of Von Lycaon and vanished into thin air.
A heartbeat later, the gray ballerina materialized behind the Salamander, its blade-legs stabbing toward his back.
This creature could perform short-range space displacement inside the Hollow—just like Thanatos—but its physical structure and regenerative capacity far surpassed that of Thanatos.
Ignis twisted aside, but doing so exposed his flank to the black ballerina. Its blade-legs straightened and whipped toward his head. He raised his elbow to block with his fists. At the same moment, the gray ballerina leapt high, bringing its blade down toward his opposite shoulder.
Ignis knew his shoulder plate could tank the blow, so he wasn't concerned, focusing instead on the black ballerina. His fist rocketed toward its head just as the blade struck his armor.
But the gray creature had never targeted Ignis. It vanished again midair—this time reappearing above Von Lycaon's group climbing the ether crystals. It was clear that they would not be allowed to leave unless these two were destroyed completely.
Ignis saw the employees of Victoria Housekeeping shift into full combat mode and felt unease. Their remaining time was limited—they couldn't afford to waste any of it. This battle needed to end fast.
He drove the black ballerina back with a barrage of heavy blows, then immediately pulled the autocannon from his waist.
The barrel was nearly at its limit, but this was the fastest and most effective way to kill the target.
With a deafening roar and a burst of flame from the thick muzzle, the Dragon's Breath Canister Shells unleashed a storm of burning steel pellets. They tore through the black ballerina's body, igniting it with the secondary-conversion ether fuel hot enough to melt steel. Even its ether-crystal structure began to liquefy under the heat.
The Ethereal let out several sharp, warped cries—half sobs, half laughter—but it didn't matter. The Salamander roared over it: "Burn to ash, xenos!"
The shots continued relentlessly. The black ballerina's limbs snapped, its head twisted at an unnatural angle, its once-proud blade-legs shattered to scraps. The soft black ballet skirt it wore was shredded by high-speed steel pellets, then set ablaze by the ether fuel—reducing it to a truly pitiful sight.
But a Son of Vulkan never shows mercy to the enemy. Ignis held down the trigger. He didn't know when the autocannon would rupture, but before it did, he had to fire as many rounds as possible.
Steel and flame annihilated its structure completely. The black ballerina collapsed and stopped moving. Its heat began to fade. Ignis ceased firing and shifted his aim to the other one.
The gray creature kicked Corin aside—she slid several meters before regaining balance. Von Lycaon and Ellen attacked from both sides, but their strikes hit nothing. The gray ballerina spun back and vanished, reappearing right in front of the Salamander.
But it did not attack. Instead, it circled the fallen black ballerina on the ground.
Whatever it intended, Ignis could not allow it.
He pulled the autocannon's trigger again—the Dragon's Breath Canister Shells erupting once more. But this time, along with the steel pellets and flames came fragments of the ruptured barrel—already pushed past its limit.