The old laboratory of Dongrang's that had been set up inside the Lobotomy Corporation branch.
That place, which had become the Technology Liberation Alliance's stronghold and the final destination of our mission, was easier to reach than I'd expected.
If I thought about the trouble we'd gone through on previous missions, forcing our way directly into a Lobotomy Corporation branch... a few killer robots and one self-destruct were practically civilized.
We even had pretty decent backup in the form of a whole workshop office.
...But why did she throw away the ampoules, anyway?
I still couldn't make sense of the bizarre thing Shurenne had done.
If she absolutely had to inject those ampoules into us and no one else, then maybe I'd understand... but by any normal standard, that only made sense if she was a traitor, which was such a ridiculous hypothesis it barely qualified as one.
What, the ampoules were actually fakes and some kind of poison? Something like that. From what I saw at the ampoule factory earlier, they looked almost identical, so that was probably not it...
"..."
Clack, clack, thud...
Damn, I didn't have time for any more idle thoughts.
Inside Dongrang's laboratory, there were a great many killing machines deployed.
A powerful self-destruct followed by a swarm of killing machines... that crazy bitch had really set her mind on killing us by any means necessary.
"Haa..."
Well, what could I do? It's not like I could go complain to a dead person. Better just pick up my weapon and get on with it.
"Everyone, prepare for battle! Form up!"
At Otis's signal, we began the final battle inside the Lobotomy Corporation branch.
Clang! Crash!! Zzzzt... Whiiiiir—
The fiercest melee since we'd gone underground erupted.
If you looked away for even a second, you'd be turned into paste, and the air was full of machine fragments mixed with the various components that made up a human body.
A perfect recipe for an accident.
Near Dante and Dongrang, I had either my limited future sight or Ishmael with her shield on constant standby, so it wasn't much of an issue. But Shurenne's side was in a bad spot.
Clang, krrrk...
"Tch..."
She was fighting defensively, but the machines and the others were evenly matched, so nothing was getting anywhere. In a situation like that, missing even one tiny detail could lead to disaster.
For example... like now.
Pshk.
"Ghk...!"
A fragment that had been flung loose in the chaos lodged itself in Shurenne's body.
It wasn't a major wound, but... it was the kind of thing that would only get worse if left alone.
It could have been solved by using one of the ampoules Shurenne herself had brought, but... strangely enough, she didn't treat the wound until the battle was over.
And seeing that, Dongrang quietly spoke up near the end of the fight.
"Shurenne, a fragment got into your body. Wouldn't it be better to inject it quickly?"
"I'm fine..."
Shurenne answered weakly. She clearly was not fine...
"Shurenne... you've looked dazed since earlier. Are you all right? Dazed... no, that's not it. There's no way you'd be dazed."
Gregor also voiced his concern, but perhaps deciding it wasn't worth much, he awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
And Otis... was watching the entire situation with a sharp gaze.
"This makes it clear. The terrorists evacuated long ago. All that was left here were murderers obsessed with killing us on the spot.
I've reached my conclusion. Hey, what do you think?"
Otis nodded toward Meursault.
...Damn it. Why did this feel so ominous? The battle was over.
"I agree with that assessment."
"W-what are you two talking about?"
"There is no doubt that there is a traitor here.
That means information had already leaked from the moment we departed.
For the sake of preventing further damage, it would be best to dispose of them immediately, here and now."
"Ah... why is it that these ominous hunches are never wrong..."
"The odds of it being one of us are slim. It would be rational to suspect the laboratory and its subordinates."
My head was killing me. Why was everything I'd casually thrown out earlier turning out to be true? Half of it had been intuition, half suspicion...
Tch. No point denying it, I guess. I'd been half expecting this from the start.
"We should cancel the operation, Manager. Getting dragged into this ridiculous farce..."
"That is offensive. Just why are you suspecting us? I can at least say with confidence that our relationship is more trustworthy than yours, considering you haven't even been employed for a full year yet..."
Samjo countered with his glasses flashing like mad, but unless our entire company was doing something insane to help the Technology Liberation Alliance, there couldn't be a traitor on our side.
Besides, among our group, only Faust had any means of contacting the outside, and Faust was presumed to be a core asset of our company, ranked even above Vergilius. For someone like that to betray us, there were too many things that didn't add up.
But that was something only we knew, so at this rate we'd be the ones taking the blame...
"No, Samjo. That's a perfectly plausible hypothesis. I would have said the same."
"..."
...Yeah, a brain like that of a top employee of a Wing had probably already predicted as much. Glad we were on the same page.
"You two... have something to say, don't you?"
"Dongrang..."
"Those Fixers haven't used a single regeneration ampoule since they entered this place.
A battle-hardened combatant would have forced themselves to use one, even if they had to take it by force."
"There's one more thing. When we faced that one called Ran...
Only they kept trying to maintain a certain distance. There's no other way to read that than as prior knowledge of the explosion."
Otis and Meursault's logically airtight assault left Nico looking troubled.
"Oh dear... why does no one think I'm especially gifted in intuition?
What if the kids and I just happen to be unusually healthy, so we didn't need to inject the regeneration ampoules?"
"...Even so, you can't explain why you threw so many regeneration ampoules on the ground, can you?"
"Th-that is..."
Haa... yeah. It was real. There wasn't even a sliver of room left to deny it.
As suspicion reached its limit, Dongrang pulled a red pill from his pocket and drove the nail in deeper.
"Hm... I happened to bring a truth drug. If you answer after taking this, I'll believe you."
"A truth drug? That red thing? How are we supposed to trust and swallow something that suspicious...?"
"Don't you have no choice? Strange. If it were me, I'd either take it... or at least try to flail around and make excuses.
The way you're all kicking away your chance to clear yourselves like this, it's almost like you're saying, 'Please kill me~'
...Or maybe you've decided you need to kill us all?"
Oof... for something said by a plain researcher, that was a pretty vicious line.
He was really insulting us with perfect manners. What a lunatic.
"I thought you were just a researcher who wrote papers... turns out you're writing fiction, you bastard."
"When cornered, the frightened side is always the first to bare its teeth, no?"
"And after I even gave you a special trick for hitting the jackpot at the slot machine, this is how you repay me?"
At Heathcliff's confident words, Nico quietly raised his weapon.
So he was sure he'd been exposed. ...Figures. There wasn't a single person here worth trusting.
The situation was one of hair-trigger tension, a silent standoff.
And the one who finally broke that silence was... Nico.
"Hup...!"
No, why was he aiming for me?
Clang—!
"Tch..."
...The first attack was a textbook overhead strike.
It was a head-on clash, but considering the body enhancement, going strength against strength would be disadvantageous. In that case...
Krrrk... Ting!
"Damn..."
Instead, I let the force slip and got shoved back by the rebound.
It was a gamble, but with my eye's assistance, it wasn't impossible.
Nico's workshop weapon wasn't short-ranged, but compared to a spear, it was still supposed to lose out.
The farther the distance opened up, the better for me. But Nico knew that too, and immediately rushed me.
...At this timing, maybe it was worth trying that once.
Before Nico could reach me, I signaled Dante with a slight motion.
"...! Got it."
Good. Let's do it.
During that brief moment when I sent the signal, Nico didn't waste the time.
His weapon, now right in front of me, collided with my spear.
Clang—!! Krrrkkk...
As expected, Nico went straight into a strength contest just like before.
Once I confirmed that, I created a tiny opening in my stance.
A small gap that a seasoned fighter like him wouldn't miss, one where, if Nico applied the right amount of force, he could knock the spear aside.
Nico, not missing the opening, sent my weapon flying wide and closed in to point-blank range.
...Got you.
"You let your guard down!"
The moment Nico shouted triumphantly, the sound of glass shattering rang out.
And what landed in my hand was not a spear, but a black glove.
"What the—"
With a dull crunch, I heard the sharp edge of a sawblade touch skin.
But no blood flew there.
The DH body enhancement procedure wasn't so weak that one hit from a saw would leave it in tatters.
And then... I burned the knowledge of another possibility that had passed through my head.
"Shit...!"
Whoosh!
I casually caught the weapon he'd swung to create distance with my left hand.
Now it was over. I hooked his leg lightly and broke his balance.
Then, with his head in my right hand,
"Wait! In our language—!"
THUD———!!!
I slammed him hard into the floor.