Ding!
Alistair snapped his head up, then immediately relaxed. It was just the train arriving at his stop. He hadn't gone to the Goddess Cult headquarters after all; he had rushed straight back. Even though he'd technically made contact with the Sakuramiya sisters, he almost wished he hadn't.
In that "hunt," the real prey turned out to be Yamada and his group of pathetic thugs. Alistair covered his face with his hand and sighed.
Sarah and Hinata Sakuramiya—the older and younger sisters. Who would have guessed there was a third party involved? Or rather, a third "entity." The sisters' recent hospitalization wasn't due to illness; it was because they had touched that thing, leading to a possession. Fortunately, the entity seemed to take a liking to them and hadn't wiped their consciousness.
He didn't know what that thing was, but a mere sliver of its spiritual pressure had made Alistair feel like he was going to die the next second. In a grey, hazy vision, he had seen a young girl holding a bow. She looked at him with utter disdain as she drew the string to a full recurve.
Was her name Vayas?
Well, the outcome wasn't all bad. The nature of his [Pheromone] ability was surprisingly potent. Alistair had assumed it wouldn't work on high-level entities, but while its effect was minor, it was still there—and more importantly, the entity didn't seem to notice it.
Thanks to that ability, he had managed to jack up the sisters' affection levels significantly. Even the seemingly extremist Vayas had opted for a "cold shoulder" approach rather than hostility, which was the best-case scenario. Still, it was unnerving. All sorts of ghosts and monsters were crawling out of the woodwork. Wasn't this supposed to be a "slice-of-life" world?
Maybe I should actually try that Saitama Training Method? Alistair looked at his hands, seriously considering the absurd idea.
"It's only five o'clock. I might as well go ask Sister Anna a few more questions."
Back at school, Alistair checked his phone. There was still plenty of time before his tryst. He headed toward the chapel, but when he arrived, it was empty.
"Sister Anna? Professor Anna?" Alistair called out. Only echoes answered him.
He stepped inside. The moment he crossed the threshold, a wave of cool, refreshing energy washed over him. "This feels amazing... the concentration of 'Mystery' here is much higher."
Wait. Normal Mystery didn't feel this good to him. This Mystery was derived from Malice.
Alistair activated his [Special Sight]. As expected, the darkness was so thick it nearly blinded him. But in the middle of that black sea, he spotted a single, vibrant red thread.
Where does this lead?
He looked back toward the entrance; outside, there were countless red threads branching everywhere. But inside, they converged into this one fine strand leading deeper into the hall. He followed it to the far wall where the crucifix hung. In his vision, the cross wasn't white—it was a chaotic swirl of black and crimson.
The red thread didn't bypass the cross; it vanished directly into the center where the beams intersected. A hidden entrance?
He summoned [The World] to lift him up for a closer look. Even then, it looked like the thread simply phased through the wall. He couldn't find a trigger or a mechanism. Giving up on the source for now, he sat on a pew, activated his ring's ability, and began devouring the Mystery saturating the chapel.
Screeeech—
The sound of metal dragging against stone shattered the silence.
"Professor Anna?" Alistair turned.
Sister Anna was approaching, dragging an absurdly large greatsword. The blade was a dark, bruised crimson with silver filigree. Despite the weight, the sword left no physical scratch on the floorboards.
"Sister Anna?" he called again. She didn't respond. She just kept walking.
Alistair quietly circulated his mana. If things went south, he was ready to bolt. [The World] could hold its own, but it only lasted ten minutes at full power—and if he relied solely on spiritual projection, it might drop to three. Getting pinned down would be fatal.
Whoosh! BOOM!
Anna stopped several paces away. With a backhanded flick, she swung the massive blade and slammed it into the floor. The air pressure from the swing was so intense it flipped the surrounding pews. She looked up, meeting Alistair's eyes.
Her eyes were completely blood-red. Her hands were covered in a dense web of black veins. From a distance, they looked like silk gloves, but up close, they were pulsating patterns of dark blood crawling up her arms.
"Such a frail vessel," a raspy, feminine voice drifted from her lips. It wasn't Anna's voice, but the tone was chillingly familiar.
"For fuck's sake... are there really this many sealed entities?" Alistair backed away. The voice had that same gravelly, ancient quality he'd heard from the entity within the Sakuramiya sisters.
"So you're the 'Chosen' that this closeted little bitch is so fond of? Weak. Pathetic. You're as fragile as a worm!" The 'Sister Anna' sneered with crimson eyes.
"Are you that strong? What good is power if you're stuck in a sword?" Alistair shot back. It was obvious: the sword was the source. Just as Vayas was bound to a bow, this lady was bound to the greatsword.
"Sharp-tongued brat." The entity twisted Anna's face into a wild, feral grin.
Clack. She pulled the sword from the floor without shifting her stance.
Whoosh—BOOM!
She raised the blade high and brought it down in a vertical cleave. The sheer force buried half the blade into the stone floor.
Cr-crack! Crack-crack-crack!
The floorboards between them shattered in a straight line, a shockwave of energy racing toward Alistair.
I can't dodge this!
[THE WORLD]!
The dark-gold armored figure materialized instantly, unleashing a flurry of punches to intercept the underground shockwave.
The collision held, but Alistair's face went pale. He felt the feedback of the impact through his Stand. The "shockwave" was actually pure compressed mana—sword pressure so dense it defied logic. [The World] could crush steel easily, but it took a dozen punches just to neutralize one casual swing from this entity.
This was the gap between a Transcendent and an amateur.
"Crawler," the entity said, returning to her initial pose with hands resting on the pommel. "Your performance exceeded my expectations. Perhaps the little bitch has decent taste after all. Take this. It will help you find my kin. If one of them takes a liking to you, you might actually graduate from a worm to a beast."
She flicked something at him. Alistair caught it. It was a golden disc engraved with strange, archaic patterns.
"Hey, what... Professor Anna?"
Alistair looked up. Her eyes were no longer red; they had returned to their natural soft violet.
"It's me," Anna whispered, looking at the wreckage of the chapel with a sigh. "I hope she didn't cause too much trouble."
"It's fine. I'll fix it." Alistair activated the Horse Talisman to begin restoring the room. "Professor, who was that?"
"Her name is Snaya. She was a demigod—a top-tier one from the era when Mystery was at its peak. She has thirteen sisters, all sealed within various artifacts. Beyond that, even I don't know much."
"I see." Alistair continued the restoration. Anna, feeling guilty for the outburst, quietly excused herself.
Son of a bitch, Alistair thought. I'm definitely going to take out my frustrations on Sakura Miyajima tonight.