It was hot.
I instinctively wiped away the sweat from the searing heat that felt like it was burning my skin.
[Avoid!]
Whoosh!
Right in front of me, a Tow wreathed in fire swept past.
This... if we keep going like this, we're going to be completely screwed...
Apparently Ms. Rodion had the same thought, because she looked at Dante with a frustrated expression.
"Dante! If we keep going like this, we're going to dry out and die first. Don't you have some way to deal with this?"
The moment Rodion said that, the bricks on the disc started moving again.
[Offer up a sacrifice.]
[Mersault! Offer the sacrifice!]
"According to regulations."
The instant Mr. Meursault offered the dead Tow to the disc, the murderous heat subsided as if it had never been there.
However...
"Is that... really okay? Somehow it feels even more ominous now..."
Instead of the fire going out, the disc began emitting a sinister light that made my skin crawl just looking at it.
And, as expected, when another Tow appeared, we took our stances to deal with it again, but what came back was silence.
Why isn't it moving?
Wasn't there a saying that the weather gets calm the day before a storm?
Everyone was just watching each other in the stillness, which gave off exactly that kind of feeling.
And the one to break that silence was, as expected, the person we should have anticipated.
[Attack the disc!!!]
Dante, as if they had sensed something, let out a horn blast so loud I'd never heard anything like it before and shouted at us.
The moment that heavy silence shattered, the prisoners all rushed at the disc at once.
If we don't finish this now, we'll die.
Everyone seemed to have that thought as they battered the disc mercilessly.
Thud! Thud! Thud, thud...
-.....
At last, the eerie impact sounds stopped... and in the end, the ones still alive were us.
What just happened?
No one answered my question.
Probably because nobody had the presence of mind to do so.
We survived, was probably what everyone was thinking.
"It's... over, right?"
"I... think so."
[...Let's go.]
At last, the lull ended, and we were able to move on to the next floor.
**
"There sure are a lot of maggots on this floor."
[Bugs would be better. I never want to see anything like the Abnormality from the previous floor again.]
I strongly agreed with Dante's words.
The survival instinct being pushed to its limit was exhausting beyond belief.
Maybe it was more accurate to say my mind couldn't take it.
"Pfft... Gregor would be happy to hear that. Right, bug friend?"
...Mr. Gregor?
"...Has anyone else been hearing something since a while ago?"
"If you mean sounds, we've been hearing them the whole time. Ms. Rodion, are you hungry even in a situation like this?"
"Th-that's something you just pretend not to notice~ okay?"
"You even ate more than usual last time... I guess you were still lacking."
"Sara! You too?"
But for some reason, Mr. Gregor wasn't focusing on the conversation at all.
Tsk. It's not often I get a chance to tease Rodion. What a shame.
"No, not that... it's more like..."
As he said that, Mr. Gregor suddenly stepped forward, walked ahead, and opened a door as if possessed.
"Mr. Gregor?"
"Wait, that's an Abnormality containment room...!"
Ignoring Yuri's shock, Mr. Gregor kept doing what he was doing.
"Just like... back then..."
No, let me correct that.
The door was already open.
Mr. Gregor stared blankly at the golden light pouring out from within.
[Greg...!]
Before Dante could stop Mr. Gregor, that golden light swallowed us all whole.
When the light vanished from my vision, the first thing I saw was a pale sky.
And the screams and roars filling the surroundings assaulted my ears painfully.
To make matters worse, there was even the sound of artillery fire in the distance. I had a hunch. This scene was like...
"Did we... time travel or something?"
"Can't you tell at a glance? This place is..."
"The middle... of a battlefield."
People with insect-like bodies were rampaging all around us.
If this was a war involving the old G Corp, then this must be... the Smoke War...?
"...I-is this... a dream? A nightmare? Why, why are we here again...?"
Mr. Gregor still seemed unable to collect himself as he muttered under his breath.
"Then why are we in the middle of a battlefield! Didn't we fall into a trap or something?"
"No. It seems we found the right path."
"Not far from here is the essence of the technology we were looking for."
"The Golden Bough?"
"Yes. Can everyone tell what era this is?"
Of course. Anyone who had even once come into contact with the records would know immediately.
It was the largest war the City had seen in recent memory, after all, and it left an impression strong enough to be unforgettable.
What mattered was why we were here, though.
"If you have eyes, you'd know at a glance."
[Uh, I... don't know.]
Ah, right. Dante had amnesia.
"Ah, it's only natural that the Manager wouldn't know. The Manager has no eyes, after all."
"Do you call that an excuse...?"
Unable to clean up the whole mess, Otis cleared her throat a couple of times and hurriedly changed the subject.
"Judging by the gaudy, multicolored flags fluttering around as if to flaunt their affiliation..."
"At least 70 days after the outbreak of the Smoke War..."
"...yes, Manager."
The moment Otis awkwardly finished speaking, someone behind us urgently grabbed Mr. Heathcliff by the collar.
"Have you all lost your minds? Get to cover, now! If you're exposed to those bombs, you'll age rapidly!"
"The staff at the neighboring outpost can't even walk without canes right now, war or no war!"
"Who the hell is this bastard, acting like he knows us..."
Mr. Heathcliff's words were cut off before he could finish by someone who suddenly barged in.
"Ah! Section Chief Gregor, you've had a hard time!"
The blond man with green eyes and a bandage wrapped around his left eye snapped to attention and saluted Mr. Gregor.
"...You are."
"You probably don't remember me. I'm from the Biological Management Team, Toma!"
"I thought you were in the advance formation. I didn't expect you to be in the rear."
"If you need to regroup, should I help you? I'm specialized in legs, so I'm pretty confident in jumping..."
"Ugh, just hearing that is gross."
The man introduced as Toma looked at Rodion with a puzzled expression.
"You, what did you just say...?"
Wait, at this rate, could it be...?
"To, Toma! Deputy, no... employee?"
"Yes! Second-class employee!"
"Th-this side's employee was only recently implanted, so... the side effects of delirium haven't been resolved yet. I'll talk him down."
"I see... even so, a worker unprepared for wartime..."
Gregor's quick response resolved the situation before it could turn dire.
"Sorry, sorry. I had to bring him along in a hurry..."
Gregor said that and practically shoved Toma away before hurrying over to Faust.
"What's going on, Faust? This is..."
"...It's my memory."
"More precisely, it's your self-consciousness."
"A single path within your mind. In other words..."
"It means we've entered Mr. Gregor's mind."
Hah. Was that even something a person could say?
To think we'd end up inside someone's mind.
Even in the City, that was absurd enough, but I couldn't bring myself to deny it.
We were experiencing it in real time, after all.
"Ugh... I feel like I'm going to throw up. Everything in front of me is swaying..."
Maybe enough time had passed for the battlefield to start affecting us, because Yuri suddenly complained of motion sickness.
"It seems your psychological pressure is rising."
"But we're safe... aren't we..."
**
Gregor side
I think I once had an unsettling nightmare.
Or maybe I'm still dreaming that nightmare.
There are only two colors in this dream, this space.
Blue covering the walls completely. And a trembling red.
And I know how to leave this place.
All I had to do was reach out and slice apart the helplessly trembling apple.
The ones in blue gowns seemed to think I didn't understand the condition, so they came by several times a day to explain it over and over...
Unfortunately, what I didn't understand wasn't that.
When they finally gave up on making me understand, and the split apple fell to the floor.
The closed door opened.
I don't remember what triggered it.
Maybe I was too mentally exhausted.
Maybe I had simply decided to resign myself to it.
Either way, I clearly remember that I thought I wanted to escape the nightmare.
"You finally did it. I knew you could. It was a successful surgery."
"From now on, just keep doing that. Slice apart the apple in front of you. Simple, right?"
"Ah, right. Happy 15th birthday!"
"...Yes."
A nightmare escaped through surrender and resignation.
One morning, when I woke from a dream.
I found that I had turned into a hideous insect.
Slice apart the apple.
Some were hard, some were dry, some were soft, and some were full of juice.
Every time the sweet smell spread, I sometimes felt like vomiting.
When was it that I realized?
I thought I had woken from the dream.
But I was still in the very middle of the nightmare.