Feeling Yukina Himeragi's breathing gradually steady behind him, Cid glanced back. After confirming she had fallen asleep, a faint smile curled at the corner of his lips and his eyes narrowed slightly.
Golden Magical Power seeped from his body, flowing carefully around Yukina Himeragi, who was draped over his back, and coiling together in the air to form a golden vortex.
The vortex spun for several seconds before bursting apart midair. The golden Magical Power sank into the concrete, and a second later the Keystone Gate, which had been on the verge of collapse, finally stopped shaking.
"No… that's too suspicious. An Eminence in Shadow wouldn't bother coming back just to reinforce a building he destroyed."
Unlike the slightly trembling voice he used while speaking with Yukina Himeragi, his tone now was calm and cold.
As soon as those words left his mouth, the Keystone Gate, which had just stabilized, began to tremble again. This time, however, the shaking was far weaker than before. At the very least, there was no immediate danger of the gate collapsing.
Seeing that, Cid nodded with satisfaction. A thin thread of Magical Power gathered at his fingertips and spread outward.
As the feedback from the Atomic Radar came in, a complete three dimensional image of the entire Keystone Gate formed inside Cid's mind. He closed his eyes.
Astarte's presence… gone.
Another strand of Magical Power flowed out from Cid's body, compressing before spreading outward again.
When he opened his eyes, his pupils trembled slightly.
He had searched the entire Itogami Island. Even the areas protected by barriers had been checked. He had even located Rudolf. Yet there was still no trace of Astarte.
In such a short time, where could Astarte possibly have gone?
On the lowest floor, there was an aura that matched Astarte's at about sixty percent. There were more than a dozen similar auras across the island, but could the coincidence really be that perfect?
Something's wrong.
With that thought, Cid headed straight toward the massive hole that Kojou Akatsuki had blasted open earlier. Without hesitation, he leapt forward and plunged straight down through it.
The wind roared past his ears as he fell. A thread of black Magical Power shot out from Cid's body and struck the exposed electrical wiring left hanging from the shattered walls.
Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!
The black Magical Power spread through every cable and conduit. A series of glass shattering sounds rang out as every surveillance camera was destroyed.
Just as his feet were about to hit the ground, the momentum from his high speed descent vanished instantly. Motion turned to stillness, and he landed lightly without raising even a speck of dust.
Looking up, Cid finally saw the person he had been searching for.
A blue haired loli sat slumped against the wall. Portions of her skin had begun to rot, and large amounts of Magical Power were leaking out from the decayed flesh.
"Demon Possession, huh? So that old guy was telling the truth. Now I'm curious what kind of criminal would dare pull something like this."
Cid walked over slowly until he stood in front of Astarte.
"A Demon Possession of this level can't be suppressed. You're lucky I found you first. If Natsuki-chan had arrived instead, she probably would have killed you immediately to prevent you from giving the other world the conditions it needs for a descent."
As he spoke, Cid reached his hand toward Astarte. Blue specks of light appeared in his palm.
"Ah! Aaaah…!"
The moment the Magical Power entered Astarte's body, her eyes snapped open and she let out a cry of pain. The intense agony made her roll across the floor.
Seeing this, Cid quickly stopped.
As the blue light faded, the pain on Astarte's face gradually subsided.
Cid rubbed his chin. Magical Power gathered in his eyes, and his pitch black pupils slowly turned crimson.
Now he could see it.
Inside Astarte's body, a massive amount of Magical Power had gathered together, devouring her life force. That Magical Power had been produced by forcibly extracting power from the Demon Possession.
At the current rate of extraction, before Astarte could even reach the final stage of Demon Possession, the Magical Power inside her would completely destroy her life force. She would lose consciousness and ultimately become a human shaped bomb.
The reason she felt such intense pain from his earlier attempt at healing was because his Magical Power had entered her magic circulation. That interference disrupted her control, causing the Magical Power inside her to rampage and begin damaging her internal organs.
As long as Astarte continued her self destruction process, healing was impossible. If he forced treatment anyway, the overwhelming pain would likely turn her into a vegetable.
So…
The only option was to wait.
He would wait until the moment Astarte lost consciousness, then instantly flood her body with Magical Power identical to the raging energy inside her and cancel it out.
After observing for only a few seconds, Cid had already figured out how to stop Astarte's self destruction.
"Huh. Isn't this actually pretty simple?"
With that, Cid prepared to withdraw the Magical Power from his eyes. After all, when his eyes turned crimson, he tended to see certain things that were both boring and unpleasant. If he looked too long, he might not be able to stop himself from killing them.
His crimson pupils gradually returned to black.
But just then, a ripple suddenly appeared in his vision.
Instinctively, Cid followed the source of the disturbance.
"That's Natsuki-chan's spatial array!"
The sudden development caught him off guard. There was no time to think. Acting on pure instinct, Cid fired the Magical Power that still lingered in his eyes.
The incomplete spatial array in front of him twisted violently, as if thrown into a grinder, and shattered instantly.
The damage to the spatial array also snapped Cid back to his senses. In an instant, he channeled his Magical Power through the wall, reaching the other four pillars buried deep beneath the sea that, together with his current location, formed the Leylines grand formation of Itogami Island.
"Move!"
The Leylines of Itogami Island began to fall into disorder.
The destruction of the central foundation had affected the other four pillars, creating a temporary disturbance in the island's Leylines. That disturbance indirectly caused Natsuki-chan's spatial array to collapse. On the surface, it sounded like a perfectly reasonable explanation, but...
Cid's pupils turned crimson again as he looked toward the center of the room. There, a faint spatial ripple was forming, slowly expanding. At this rate, it would only take a few minutes for Natsuki-chan to force her way through the Leylines disturbance and descend here.
Since the problem originated in this location, Natsuki-chan would undoubtedly use her full power to reach this spot and replace the keystone of the central device.
He could increase the Leylines disturbance further, but pushing it too far would look suspicious. A slight disturbance after the keystone had been missing for over ten minutes was reasonable. But if the chaos became severe enough that even Natsuki-chan could not use spatial movement, anyone would realize something was wrong. Besides, he had no intention of actually destroying the island.
What should he do?
If he wanted to save Astarte, he had to wait until she lost consciousness. If his Magical Power interfered midway, she would become a vegetable. Waiting was the only option.
Should he knock Natsuki-chan unconscious the moment she arrived, then wake her up after Astarte was healed?
No, no. That would practically be a confession.
Kill her?
No. That would not fit the identity of an Eminence in Shadow.
Erase Astarte's memories and let Natsuki-chan deal with the aftermath?
That would not work either. Whether it was self destruction or Demon Possession, Natsuki-chan would only have one option. Kill Astarte.
What should he do? What should he do? What should he do?
As the spatial ripple continued to grow larger, Cid felt like his head was about to split open.
Then suddenly, Cid froze.
A spark of inspiration flashed in his eyes.
He had an idea.
Cid quickly walked over to Astarte.
"Astarte, what command are you executing?"
Hearing his voice, Astarte opened her eyes. She froze for a moment when she saw Cid, then immediately spoke in her slightly mechanical voice.
"I am currently executing the self destruction command issued by Rudolf, Master."
As expected, Cid showed no surprise and immediately gave another order.
"Then I now command you to immediately stop the self destruction command and return to your normal state."
"Command conflict. Self destruction command holds the highest priority. Requesting new command."
Hearing this, the blue Magical Power gathered in Cid's hand suddenly faltered.
"Set 'stop self destruction' as a command with higher priority than the self destruction command, then stop the self destruction. You want to live too, don't you?"
He had no idea whether such a command could actually work. Even so, he chose to rely on the faint will to survive he had glimpsed in Astarte's eyes. With the mindset of trying anything that might work, he gave the order.
If possible, he truly did not want to increase the chaos of the Leylines any further.
If someone connected the dots and suspected that Shadow had returned to reinforce the Keystone Gate while secretly using Leylines techniques to avoid detection, the entire image of the Eminence in Shadow would collapse.
An Eminence in Shadow being secretly tsundere was absolutely unacceptable.
Just thinking about that possibility made urgency creep into Cid's voice.
"Command..."
Astarte stared at Cid's face. She had been about to repeat what she said earlier and inform him again that the self destruction command had the highest priority.
But when she noticed the worry and urgency on Cid's face, she paused involuntarily.
Astarte felt as though something inside her had changed. The strange discomfort she had felt ever since receiving the self destruction command suddenly felt like it had begun to sprout.
Do I want to live?
Astarte began to think about Cid's question.
She did not know.
But command priority was absolute.
Her mind produced its conclusion, and Astarte's paused movement resumed.
"…Acknowledged!"
Astarte's slightly mechanical voice carried a faint trace of emotion as the words left her mouth.
The moment she heard her own response, Astarte froze. Inside her body, the Magical Power that had been rampaging wildly suddenly came to a halt.
Cid paid no attention to the expression on her face. Once he noticed that the destructive Magical Power inside her had stopped damaging her body, blue light appeared in his hand again as he pressed it against Astarte.
He had begun a race against Natsuki-chan.
The ripples in space continued to grow larger. Meanwhile, the blue Magical Power flowing into Astarte's body began to smooth out the rampaging Magical Power inside her.
A Magic Circle flickered into existence in the air. Magical Power circulated through Astarte's body along a strange and complex path.
Finally, the Magic Circle suspended in the air gradually shifted from illusion to reality.
Cid lowered his hand.
"Astarte, I am issuing three highest level commands.
First. Under no circumstances are you allowed to tell anyone that you once experienced Demon Possession.
Second. From this moment on, your own life will be the highest priority thing you must protect.
Third. From now on, you have only one master, and that is yourself. Remove the authority of anyone else who currently has command permissions, including me and Rudolf."
As he finished speaking, a small Magic Circle appeared at Cid's fingertip. He pressed it directly onto Astarte's forehead.
"Bye."
Cid vanished from where he stood.
Half a second later, a black haired loli about the same size as Astarte appeared in the room, holding a black square metal device in her hand.
...
Carrying Yukina Himeragi on his back, Cid reached the surface and immediately headed off in another direction at a speed invisible to ordinary people.
"The World!"
Rudolf froze in place just as he was about to hand the Holy Relic to someone else.
Cid walked up to him, formed a small Magic Circle at his fingertip, and pressed it against Rudolf's head. After that, he turned and left without another word.
...
"Phew."
After placing Yukina Himeragi on the bed, Cid let out a long breath.
Then he began evaluating this latest Eminence in Shadow operation of his.
"Nine points."
After giving it some thought, Cid ultimately scored his performance a nine.