"What?!"
Miyabi was stunned. Her blade was already swinging in for the kill — and this was what she got shown instead?
Her strike too far committed to pull back, Miyabi suddenly found herself without a target. She made the best call she could in that instant, wrenching her body around in midair by sheer force and lashing the biting edge of her blade-qi out across the mass of Rebel Soldiers. Smoke and dust billowed up at once, along with a spray of blood and severed limbs.
But this also cut off Nicole and the others' escape route.
"Ahem! That battle-obsessed fox! She's ruined my plan!" Nicole had just watched Miyabi's dazzling display of power in midair, and all she felt about it was a bellyful of complaints.
"Idiot fox! How am I supposed to slip away in the chaos now?!"
Nicole had planned to use the confusion to make her escape, but Miyabi's strike had not only delayed her — it had dragged everyone's attention straight onto Miyabi.
After all, Miyabi happened to be standing right in front of the stairwell exit.
"Boss, maybe we should just throw in with them," Billy said quietly, offering his own take. With things this chaotic, they'd have to pass through Miyabi's people's territory to leave anyway — better to lean on Nicole's connection with her and buy themselves some safety.
Hearing this, Nicole started to actually consider it.
But before she could reach a decision, the Rebel Soldiers made a commotion of their own.
"Roooar!!!"
Miyabi's strike had cut down a swath of Rebel Soldiers. The dead ones truly weren't getting back up — but something far more horrifying was clawing its way out of their bodies.
Great white hands emerged one after another from within the corpses, golden eyes flickering with an eerie light.
Those eyes turned on Miyabi with a cold, bone-chilling stare.
But the first thing they attacked wasn't Miyabi or Public Security — it was their own comrades, who moments ago had been fighting shoulder to shoulder with them.
The Sacrifices coiled around one another, tearing the Filth-infused energy straight out of the ones who hadn't died yet.
The soldiers drained of power dropped instantly, well and truly dead, while the Sacrifice gorging on all that stolen power swelled up, wrapped in coils of Filth, bloating into a great sphere.
"This disgusting thing again."
This wasn't the first time Miyabi had seen one of these repulsive Sacrifice creations, and she moved at once to deal with it before it could hatch.
She sheathed her blade, readying a single draw-cut to finish it. If the strike landed true, the Sacrifice would be wiped from existence.
But that was exactly when disaster struck.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out, and the whole scene froze in shock.
Everyone stared, stunned, at the bloody hole that had opened in Miyabi's chest.
Miyabi looked down at herself, disbelieving. Blood had already soaked a wide patch of her chest, and more welled up past her lips before she could stop it.
"You... why—"
Miyabi turned to look. Standing behind her was a Sheriff in an anti-Corruption uniform, a pistol in hand — the shot had come from there.
"Simple. You're carrying something I want."
The masked Sheriff's voice was soft. She walked calmly toward Miyabi, who could no longer even stand upright, and casually wrenched away the blade Miyabi had been leaning on for support.
"The demonic blade, Tailless — yes, I'll be taking this."
The Sheriff studied the cursed blade in her hand, a satisfied smile spreading beneath her mask. But the others weren't about to just let her walk away.
"Drop your weapon! You're not getting away!"
Zhu Yuan was the first to react, the Suppressor K22 already leveled at the woman's head — clearly meaning to kill.
The only reason she hadn't fired yet was fear of hitting Miyabi by mistake.
"Run? Why would I run? I'll just walk — right out in plain sight."
The Sheriff gave Zhu Yuan's stance a contemptuous glance, and then a deep violet gem appeared, pinched between the fingers of her free left hand.
The gem flashed, and a thick swirl of dark red mist coiled up around her.
Then her form began to change entirely. The Sheriff who had looked like a special-ops officer vanished, replaced by a beautiful black-haired woman with long, flowing hair.
"You?! Sarah Floren, of The Exaltists?!"
Seeing the woman's true face, Zhu Yuan's pupils shrank. This was Sarah Floren — the mastermind behind the Vision Corporation case, and a high-ranking bishop of The Exaltists.
"It's me. Seems you've dug up quite a bit about me."
Sarah kept her same amused smile. Having already gotten what she came for, she was more than happy to indulge them with a few more words.
"What exactly are you trying to do?!"
Zhu Yuan couldn't fathom how Sarah had slipped into their ranks, or why she'd attacked Miyabi.
"That's easy enough to explain. But I'm short on time, so I'll let someone else do the explaining for me."
Snap! Sarah reached out and snapped her fingers. The Sacrifice that had cocooned itself moments earlier suddenly surged with activity, Filth pouring out of it in waves as a massive hand tore free from within.
"Bzzzzzz—" A golden eyeball sat in its palm as before, its shape uncanny, heavy with menace.
The pressure hit Zhu Yuan like a mountain, while Sarah, for her part, no longer spared her or anyone else a second thought.
"Ah, the Hoshimi family's treasure, passed down through generations — a demonic blade said to grant its wielder immense power. The Ethereal-Slaying Blade, Tailless. What a captivating power."
Sarah gripped the hilt, feeling the cold, dangerous aura radiating off it, her fingertips trembling without her permission.
Snap! A gripping sound rang out — but it wasn't Sarah's hand closing on Tailless's hilt. It was Miyabi, sprawled in a pool of her own blood, clamping a death grip on Sarah's ankle.
"Oh? The Void Hunter still has something to teach me? Well, I'm not really in the mood to listen right now."
With that, Sarah moved to finish Miyabi off. All she'd ever wanted was the blade — its owner was of no further use to her.
She aimed at Miyabi's head, ready to end her with a single shot.
Bang! A gunshot rang out — but this time it wasn't Sarah who'd fired. A bullet came flying in from a corner not far away, and with a sharp crack it knocked the gun clean out of her hand, the recoil numbing her arm.
"Oh? Another sharpshooter?"
Her eyes narrowed slightly, a trace of anger showing through, though she kept it well in check.
Without hesitation, her gaze snapped toward the direction the bullet had come from.
In the corner, Nicole rose slowly to her feet. Beside her, Billy stood with both pistols trained on Sarah, making clear who had just fired.
"Let go of that idiot fox! Or we won't hold back!"
The tide had turned once again.
____
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