"The monument? You mean that massive thing the prototype is holding up? Yeah, that does sound dangerous."
"It's not just that — never mind the details, everyone get away from that thing now! Something's about to come out!"
Geno's expression was dead serious. Seeing that, Eous didn't dare take any chances and immediately called out to Koleda and the others, urging the whole group to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the prototype and the monument.
With three intelligent machines positioned in front of them as a shield, the group stood tense and watchful, eyes fixed on the monument in the distance — but nothing happened.
"Is something actually going to come out of there?? I'm not seeing anything at all."
Eous voiced what everyone else was already thinking.
And yet Geno's instincts had never once led them wrong. More than that — what unsettled him most was a strange sense of familiarity emanating from whatever his Ether senses had locked onto, as if he'd encountered it somewhere before...
"Is it really that serious? Maybe I should just go take a look?"
Manato, crouched to the side, was running out of patience with the waiting. He started to move forward — only for Geno to grab him by the arm and yank him firmly back.
God, he's strong!
Manato stumbled from the force of it, blinked in surprise, and then stared at Geno with newfound respect. For someone who barely looked like he worked out, the guy had a grip like a vice.
Before he could ask any questions, the monument in the distance began to change.
At the monument's center — the point where the broken spire met the section braced by the prototype — a Fissure tore open without warning.
Then a pale white hand reached out from within. Accompanied by the crunch and crack of breaking concrete, the owner of that hand finally dragged itself into view.
"What is that thing? Is it an Ethereal?"
"Could this be — the 'seal' that Friday was talking about?"
Grace thought back to why the intelligent machines had malfunctioned before — they had responded to Director Hols's summons, coming to reinforce a seal.
Now, looking at the thing clawing its way out of the monument, she had a feeling that seal was exactly this.
"A Sacrificial Wraith," Geno said quietly.
The word meant nothing to any of the others.
A Sacrificial Wraith was a powerful Ethereal-class creature engineered by the Laudation Society. Immensely strong, and unlike ordinary Ethereals, capable of surviving and even evolving outside the bounds of a Hollow.
Geno knew the term because Twiggy had told him about it — after he'd encountered that mysterious hand-shaped creature. She had investigated the Silver Base's archived records and discovered that the architects of the Silver Project had ties to the Laudation Society.
The failed Silver Squad recruits from the base — the ones who had Etherealized — had all been part of the Laudation Society's early experiments.
"So this is the Laudation Society's handiwork again?"
Eous and the Belobog Heavy Industries crew were no strangers to the Laudation Society. The Vision Corporation incident, the attack on Silver Base — the Laudation Society had been behind all of it.
Maybe the former president's disappearance has something to do with them too.
The thought surfaced in everyone's mind at once — but there was no time to dwell on it.
Because the pale creature was still dragging itself steadily out of the monument.
"Bzzzzzz~"
"We have to do something, everyone! Smash that thing back where it came from!"
The prototype had called for help the only way it could. They couldn't just stand there and do nothing.
Grace commanded the intelligent machines forward, toward the monument. The plan was simple: repeat what the prototype had done once before — seal the Sacrificial Wraith back inside.
"Leave it to us!"
"We shall not fail in our sacred duty."
"Ugh, it's so ugly. Back in the box with you!"
All three intelligent machines charged the monument with tremendous momentum.
Geno and the others watched every move with their absolute full attention.
The three machines quickly closed in on the prototype — but before they could act, the Sacrificial Wraith suddenly retracted its outstretched pale hand back inside the monument.
The machines paused, confused.
Then — BOOM — a thunderous impact, and the monument shattered completely, for reasons none of them could explain.
The machines scrambled to shield Geno and the others, batting away the cascading chunks of debris.
The prototype, which had been locked in perfect counterbalance with the monument, came crashing to the ground with a tremendous thud, kicking up clouds of dust.
"Cough, cough — where did that thing go?!"
When the dust settled and they turned their eyes back to where the monument had stood, the Sacrificial Wraith was gone. It had gone into hiding somewhere.
Geno closed his eyes and reached out with his Ether senses, searching for any trace of the creature — and found nothing.
"How is that possible? It can't have just vanished into thin air."
Every living thing had its own distinct Ether signature. That was the most fundamental law of this world.
There was equipment that could mask an Ether signature, but a creature like this should have had no access to anything of the sort. Was it some kind of special ability?
While Geno was still turning that over in his mind, the prototype stirred.
The machine, which should have been drained of energy after years of dormancy, was moving.
Clunk. Grind. Clunk.
A teeth-aching screech of long-idle gears meshing together rang out — and then the prototype, still after all this time, began to move.
The perfect crystallization of engineering and technology. The steel aesthetic it embodied in motion was something to behold.
"Oh — oh, it's perfect! That sleek body, the gleaming protrusions, and just look at the scent of that Ether engine — I want to take it apart so badly!"
Grace gazed at the prototype in rapturous motion, every gear-obsessed fiber of her being completely defenseless against something like this.
"Is now really the time for that?! It's charging straight at us!"
Koleda grabbed the still-raving Grace by the arm and broke into a run.
The prototype — that simple machine with its black-and-white striped chassis — was bearing down on them at a speed that far exceeded anything it should have been capable of.
The three intelligent machines didn't stop to wonder whether the prototype counted as a senior colleague. They threw themselves into its path and forced it back.
"Back off! You will not harm our master!"
The pile driver, full of bravado, planted itself at the front and held the prototype at bay.
The grabber and the tunneler followed close behind — especially the tunneler, whose Ether-electric-powered 1,400-kilogram demolition saw was now spinning up to its maximum output, making its full threat known.
"Taste the power of love!!"
The massive demolition saw whirled at full speed and slammed into the prototype. Beside it, the grabber swung its bucket arm straight at the prototype's cockpit.
The roar of engines. The screech of grinding metal. The crack of a structural beam giving way.
But the outcome was nothing like anyone had imagined. The machine that ended up getting torn to pieces — wasn't the prototype.
It was the tunneler.
____
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