"I… lost him."
Akeno murmured softly, barely audible to anyone but herself.
Her thoughts were still trapped in last night's events—at the moment when, for the first time in a long while, she felt she had truly failed to read someone. The small lightning familiar she had released had followed Jun perfectly, moving from rooftop to rooftop, slipping through the shadows of Kuoh City as it grew quiet.
Everything went normally.
Until Jun turned at the station intersection. There was only a straight passage there, so it was impossible for him to disappear so suddenly.
The familiar simply—vanished. As if Jun had walked through a curtain that could not be touched by this world.
It made no sense.
And precisely because of that, her suspicion deepened.
"Akeno!"
Rias's voice shattered her reverie.
Akeno blinked, then smiled reflexively—the gentle smile she usually used to conceal everything. "Ah, yes… what is it, Buchou!?"
Rias crossed her arms over her chest, her brows knitting together. "You've been spacing out for a while. Do you even know what I was just explaining?"
Her tone sounded annoyed, but not harsh. More like an older sister who knew her younger sibling was hiding something.
Akeno lowered her head slightly. "Please forgive me, Buchou…"
That was enough to make Rias stop scolding her.
Rias sighed, then her expression softened. She stepped closer, studying Akeno's face more carefully. "Hey… what's wrong? You haven't seemed like yourself today."
Akeno fell silent.
Hesitation flickered in her eyes. Should she report everything now? About Jun, about that strange sword technique, about how a 'normal human' had sent Xenovia—an elite of the Church—crashing to the ground. And about how he had disappeared from the surveillance of a high-level devil familiar.
"…Don't tell me," Rias narrowed her eyes, "this is about Jun?"
Akeno flinched for a moment, then let out a small laugh. A laugh that wasn't entirely sincere. "Ara~ you caught me."
She nodded slowly.
But before Rias could continue her questions, the door to the ORC Clubroom opened abruptly.
Sona Sitri entered with her queen, Tsubaki, her face serious—serious enough to immediately draw Rias's attention.
"Rias," Sona said without preamble. "There's a new report."
Rias straightened. "What happened?"
"One of my peerage—Saji—along with three members of your peerage: Hyoudou Issei, Toujou Koneko, and Yuuto Kiba… were involved in a clash."
Rias's eyebrows rose. "A clash with whom?"
"Rogue exorcists," Sona replied shortly. "The ones using fragments of Excalibur reported missing by the Church."
The air in the room shifted instantly.
Akeno lifted her head, the faint smile fading. That name—Excalibur—was clearly no coincidence. Too close to yesterday's incident. Too close to Xenovia.
"So they interfered with Church affairs…" Rias muttered.
"And now the situation is escalating," Sona continued. "I'm heading to the location, but I want you to prepare. This could develop into an inter-faction conflict."
Rias nodded slowly, her expression serious. "Understood. I'll gather the others."
Sona glanced briefly at Akeno. "Are you alright, Himejima?"
Akeno smiled gently—putting her mask back on. "Of course~ just a little lack of sleep."
But behind that smile, her thoughts were racing.
...
Floor 40.
I stopped for a moment at the threshold of the final corridor, swallowing as I pressed both palms against my thighs. My breathing was heavy, not because of severe injuries—strangely enough, my body was still relatively intact—but because of the full kilometer of terror I had just endured.
One kilometer.
A long corridor that seemed designed solely to make humans regret still being alive.
'I'm so damn annoyed, these traps are full of deception.'
And all of that… I passed through without a single skill, without body enhancement, without any energy at all.
As an ordinary human.
My training clothes now looked more like a soaked mop rag. Sweat dripped from my chin, mixing with dust and black stains left by exploded mechanisms. The soles of my feet throbbed every time they touched the ground, and my muscles felt like they were being forcibly pulled to their absolute limit.
But the corridor finally ended.
Before me stretched a giant cylindrical chamber, its diameter perhaps a hundred meters. The ceiling was high, shrouded in dim reddish light. At the center of the room stood a structure that made me curse inwardly on reflex.
Not a monster.
But a floor mechanism.
Four black metal pillars towered upward, embedded in the floor at the four corners of the chamber. Each was filled with pulsing mechanical rune patterns, as if breathing. Above them, networks of gears and energy rails interlocked—complex, precise, and clearly… deadly.
And at the center of each pillar—
A Core.
A dark-red crystal the size of a human head, pulsing slowly like an artificial heart.
The moment I stepped inside, a soft click sounded.
Then—
WHOOOM—!
Without warning, the entire room came alive.
The walls shifted with mechanical sounds that sent chills down my spine, revealing rows of launcher holes that were clearly not decorative. The floor trembled lightly, then thin lines of light ignited—safe paths that were narrow, fleeting, and felt like mockery. From the ceiling, the shadows of giant blades began to descend slowly, swaying as if judging the best moment to mince someone.
I reflexively jumped back a step.
"Oh, of course," I muttered sourly. "Floor boss."
No monster. No dramatic roar. Just a cold system ready to turn me into a failure statistic.
I lowered my body, pressing my center of gravity down like preparing for combat. Knees slightly bent, back relaxed, breathing regulated. My body still felt heavy—the fatigue from a full kilometer of traps hadn't completely faded—but I had prepared for that.
I reached into a small pouch at my waist.
One gulp. Two gulps.
A stamina potion. A light recovery potion. It tasted bitter, slightly fishy, and honestly… unpleasant. But the effect was immediate. Heat spread from my stomach throughout my body, like invisible hands squeezing exhaustion out of my muscles.
Ahh… life really is far more beautiful with illegal system items.
My power was indeed sealed. Skills completely inactive. Status bonuses gone.
But that didn't mean I was empty-handed.
"Tools are still allowed, right?" I murmured softly.
As the heaviness faded, my focus sharpened again. The world seemed to slow slightly—not because of power, but because my mind had finally synchronized with my body again.
I opened my eyes fully.
And ran.
The first pillar—the one closest on the right side—became my initial target. The moment my foot touched the arena floor, the traps reacted. Metal spikes burst from the floor gap right behind my heel. I leapt forward without looking back, landing on a safe path that hadn't even fully lit up yet.
Before I could breathe—
WHOOSH!
A thin blade swept horizontally at waist height. I dropped my body, sliding across the rough floor, feeling sharp wind skim across the back of my shirt.
"Damn it, damn it—!"
This wasn't just a repeating pattern. There were traps that truly targeted me, reading my movements. And even more infuriating—there were fake traps. Bait. Movements deliberately designed to make me overreact.
I grit my teeth and forced myself to stay calm.
'Don't panic. Watch the rhythm. Listen to the sounds.'
Mechanical clicks. The hiss of air. Subtle vibrations beneath my feet.
I made a sharp turn, rebounded off the wall, then jumped again just before the floor beneath me collapsed, revealing a pit full of spikes. An arrow shot from the side—I knocked it aside with my arm, pain flaring, but I kept running.
The distance to the first pillar was only a dozen meters now.
But the final trap was clearly no coincidence.
The floor ahead looked safe.
I gave a crooked smile.
"Caught you."
Instead of stepping on it, I leapt high, twisting my body in midair. A moment later, the floor exploded upward, spiral blades bursting out—exactly where I should have landed.
I landed on the other side, staggering, but still standing.
Before me, the first pillar towered. Its red core pulsed faintly, as if mocking me.
I tightened my jaw.
"I'm here."
And without giving the mechanism any chance to readjust, I forced my body to surge forward—challenging the trap before it could close its jaws.
//--//
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