"We agree with the Section Chief's decision."
Tsukishiro Yanagi stood beside Hoshimi Miyabi, speaking gently but with seriousness.
"Then what are we waiting for? I can't hold back anymore!"
Caesar agreed enthusiastically, already lifting her weapon, ready to go.
Lucy felt embarrassed. This battle-loving brute was truly hopeless.
If she wanted to agree with someone, could she at least do it in a slightly more civilized way?
"That's true. With a Void Hunter and Sol here, there's really nothing to worry about."
Jane glanced at Sol and Hoshimi Miyabi, finally letting go of her tension.
She had simply spent too long undercover—her caution had become excessive.
With these two present, there was probably nothing in New Eridu they couldn't overcome.
With that, everyone agreed to the plan.
They immediately advanced into the portion of Ernis Port covered by the Hollow.
…
Inside the Hollow, everything was dark and murky, tinged faintly with an ominous crimson.
Everywhere stood black-green ether crystals several meters tall, and around them were layers of Ethereals of various sizes, guarding the area.
Ethereals should have been mindless, yet here they stood in perfect order—like the most loyal sentinels of this place.
At the center of the Hollow, five-meter and ten-meter containers were neatly stacked, packed across a hundred-meter radius.
Inside each container were cans of highly concentrated ether.
It was the equivalent of draining several mid-size Hollows completely—over a hundred tons of ether resources in total.
Standing atop the stacked containers was a tall, muscular figure.
The air was thick with ether at a suffocating concentration, but to this man it felt like a gentle breeze, even oddly relaxing.
Justin Bringer stood upon the crate tower, gazing at the setup throughout the Hollow with intoxicated satisfaction.
"Bringer, they'll arrive soon."
Sarah wore a dark red suit jacket, her demeanor lazy and casual, like a socialite discussing fine wine.
"Then why haven't you gone farther away?"
Bringer shot Sarah a glance and mocked coldly, "Perhaps this is what you all wanted to see. He's too terrifying. So terrifying that even before the Creator descends, you're already afraid."
"Yes. Who wouldn't be?"
Sarah admitted openly, without a hint of concealment.
A single punch destroying half a Hollow—that was an absurd level of power.
They had envisioned numerous hypothetical enemies: Joyous, Sunbringer, the Falkenhayn Mercenary Troupe, Lieutenant Colonel Dan…
The first-generation Void Hunters were troublesome, yes, but as long as their plan advanced, none of those could truly stop them.
Sarah stared toward the Hollow's boundary, her gaze distant as if penetrating it. "Sol Mercer is different. His power is beyond anything imagined. One punch for a small Hollow—if he bothered applying himself, New Eridu's land area could easily increase tenfold."
Bringer sighed. "Of course, if it ended there, they still wouldn't care. Ether doesn't vanish into thin air. Once Hollows dissipate, the outside ether concentration rises. Wiping out many Hollows at once is actually good for us."
"Indeed. Hollows can be influenced by humans, but not in a way that truly matters." Sarah rose and began walking outward. "But his existence poses a massive threat to the Creator. Many of our organization's plans can't unfold properly."
His existence simply defied common logic.
After discussion within the organization, they found reason to suspect that Sol was a king from some distant region of the outside world, who had already absorbed enough ether to evolve into a supreme ether lifeform.
It was an outrageous notion—but also one of their intended goals.
Sol Mercer had thus become someone the organization both feared and desired—a subject that needed testing.
Sarah tossed a vial of injection fluid far toward Bringer, then departed with ease. "Bringer, give everything you have here. They will be your most troublesome opponents. If you can't hold on, inject this too."
Originally, she was supposed to be the one holding this safeguard.
But now that Sol had come, it was better to let Bringer handle it himself. She could not risk exposing herself.
All that talking was merely to coax him into willingly becoming an experiment.
"..."
Bringer extended his right hand and caught the vial. Inside, a luminous golden liquid swirled.
With his left hand, he pulled another vial from his pocket—another injection capable of evolving him toward Sacrifice and empowering him.
But the first vial was unstable, violently potent, and carried enormous risk.
"For the Creator."
Watching Sarah's silhouette recede, Bringer whispered to himself.
He knew exactly what sort of enemies awaited him: the Void Hunter Hoshimi Miyabi and Sol Mercer—two beings he could almost never defeat.
He understood Sarah's message perfectly. She simply wanted him to give more than everything.
And that was fine. He was already prepared to die.
In that case, the more spectacular, the better. He would see for himself whether those two were truly as strong as claimed.
Without a shred of hesitation, Bringer plunged both injections into his muscles. The liquids surged into his bloodstream and circulated through his body.
His skin began to crack—yet beneath the ruptures was no longer flesh, but swirling, multicolored ether.
The prepared Hollow began to tremble. Massive torrents of ether gathered around him, violently flooding into his body, beginning a brutal transformation.
"Creator—" Bringer forced back the agony and roared with all his strength, "reforge me!"
His voice was hoarse, like a demon's howl.
Inside the Hollow, ether energy pulsed rhythmically.
A mysterious sigil formed beneath Bringer's feet, synchronizing with the ether to reshape him.
A cyclone formed around him and escalated rapidly.
Containers large and small were torn apart. The concentrated ether within their cans was sucked into the storm and forced into his body, fueling an even more intense transformation.
Across the Hollow, Ethereals stirred to life,
turning toward the center in pilgrimage-like reverence, as though beholding their master.
This defied all known understanding—Ethereals were mindless.
"How drastic. Destroying himself before the fight even starts." Sarah, already walking away, spoke with a sigh. Then she chuckled to herself. "The organization will remember your contribution."
With elegant steps, she moved outward. Her high-heeled boots clicked crisply on the ground.
Now she needed to pick a good spot at the Hollow's edge, thoroughly record Bringer's transformation, and prepare to gather whatever intel would soon be exposed.
The stage was set. Now, the lead actors simply needed to take their places.