Check out my new translation!
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Everyone decided to rest here for a moment, and Billy sat down leaning against a chunk of ether crystal. Nekomata began rummaging through the cabinets already covered in crystallization, trying her luck.
"The flashlight can repel those Ethereal, but the battery seems to be running low." Eous twisted off the flashlight's end cap; the battery inside had already been corroded, with some ether crystals sprouting along its surface.
"How many more uses?" Ignis asked while staying alert.
"Using it like before… maybe two more times." Belle replied. "We'll have to be careful. But I connected to the building's smart management terminal—most of the lights on this floor are about to turn on."
"Proxy, I found something over here nya." Nekomata ran over holding two batteries. "Think these still work? Everything around here got eaten by the Hollow. A lot of stuff that used to be worth money isn't worth anything now."
Eous pushed the two batteries in. They worked, but it wouldn't last long. These corroded batteries were severely degraded, but compared to having nothing, they were still better than empty hands.
"They work, but don't expect much. We should turn on all the lights here as fast as possible—that's more reliable." Belle said, then signaled everyone to move on.
"In the horror games from my era, if the protagonist had a flashlight, that thing basically never needed batteries. You could use it until the end. People used to joke it was nuclear-powered." Ignis spoke in a dry, straightforward tone about a reference only he understood. "I sincerely miss those flashlights. I'd kill to have one right now."
"Plenty of old videotapes had those kinds of flashlights too—but you must never turn around. Turn around and there's always some ghost thing jumping out to scare you." Anby nodded. "Though… I guess we've already seen something like that here."
Just like before, the hall ahead led to another deep, dim passage. Fortunately, this time they had a xenon flashlight, so they all felt more confident. Whenever an Ethereal appeared, Eous lit it straight in the face, forcing it back instantly.
This stretch went more smoothly than the previous ones. The third terminal was activated quickly, and the surroundings lit up. Once the lights were on, Eous stood still, its monitor-face clearly gathering Hollow data. Belle had mentioned the data here was extremely old, and the interior paths had become bizarre. Combined with those strange Ethereal causing trouble, they had to choose their route even more carefully.
Before long, Belle's voice brought good news: "I found a staircase that goes up. It's very close."
"Oh! The manager's so reliable!" Billy stomped excitedly. Everyone disliked this environment, but they still had to complete the task of finding Rain.
"Then let's get moving nya. Staying here another second feels awful." Hearing that they found a path, Nekomata brightened up. "There's nothing valuable here anyway. Those weird art pieces can't be carried out, and who knows if the paintings on the wall are worth anything."
"Those things won't be worth money." Ignis reached out and rubbed Nekomata's head. "They're at best reproductions. Left unprotected in a place like this? No way they're valuable."
When they passed through the next passage again, they saw moonlight streaming in from a skylight, leaving mottled silver reflections on the marble floor. The moonlight was so bright that even without lamps they could clearly see their surroundings. The staircase upward rested in the shadows, spiraling higher, with black-green ether crystals growing along its steps.
"Stairs!" Billy pointed forward excitedly—there they were! Excellent.
"Let's hurry over nya!" Nekomata was about to dash out, but the Salamander grabbed her by the back of the neck and lifted her up.
"Don't move. Something's off over there." the Salamander said, picking up a chunk of fallen building material and tossing it toward a blackened pattern on the marble floor.
A disk-shaped object suddenly sprang up, emitting a sharp, increasingly frantic alarm—then exploding. As the disk blew apart, it flung out smaller fragments, which detonated as soon as they hit the ground.
"Bounding mines!" Anby squinted, observing the scene. There were quite a few laid out near the staircase—easily over a dozen at a glance.
But something was wrong with these bounding mines. Normally, bounding mines leap up and detonate immediately, spraying shrapnel and steel balls in all directions. But these jumped up, then displayed a countdown alarm before exploding. They also had sub-munition design—the blast would be no joke.
What sort of person would set up bounding mines like this—powerful, but with a warning system? Were these really intended to kill intruders?
"This place is far too strange." Ignis said in a cold, controlled tone. "Why would someone lay bounding mines—thistype—inside a building that's mostly a mall and office floors?"
"Yeah, it's cold, damp, and twists around like a maze. And there are ghost-like weird Ethereal everywhere. It's way worse than a normal Hollow." Billy nodded. "I just swapped out the parts in my knee joint a few days ago… you don't think I'll rust, right?"
Watching the robot shake its leg and then do several high kicks, Ignis thought that was definitely not the movement of a robot with a rusty knee.
"Billy, stop using cheap parts. You don't even know where they come from. It's like bargain street food—if it's too cheap, you're probably gonna get stomach problems." Even while being carried, Nekomata still found time to complain.
"Hmm…yeah." Anby let out a low sound. "That feeling I had—being watched the moment we stepped inside—wasn't wrong. These bounding mines are obviously for warning, not killing. Their only purpose is to tell intruders: someone is here, and they're not to be messed with."
"I knew something felt creepy! And something kept sliding past my legs!" Billy acted terrified.
"You're a robot. First, you don't have a heart. Second, do you actually understand what 'creepy' feels like?" Ignis muttered. "Is your sensory module a bit too detailed?"
"What slid past you was probably my tail." Nekomata, now back on the ground, answered Billy's concern.
"Oh, that's it." Billy patted his chest, then turned to the Proxy and said in a pinched voice, "Manager, in previous Hollows, weren't you able to scan the surroundings? Can you detect anything this time?"
"Sorry… it's difficult right now." Belle's voice was helpless. "There are many spatial fissures here, and the Hollow data is very outdated. I might only be able to improve things once we collect more data along the way."
"There's interruption—something's coming our way." Ignis raised his autocannon. "Probably drawn by the explosion from the bounding mine."
From all around, Ethereal began emerging from inside the walls, an unsettling sight. Their bodies solidified quickly after phasing through, but they didn't attack immediately. They circled above the Cunning Hares like a school of fish, and their numbers seemed to be growing.
"Manager! Hurry and shine the light at them!" Billy's voice cracked with fear. There were simply too many—easily hundreds at a glance.
If these things swarmed down, even if the Salamander tried to weave a firepower net, plenty would slip through. And they could create fissures themselves—if dozens suddenly appeared right beside them, they'd be overwhelmed.
Eous immediately flashed the light at the Ethereal, trying to drive them off. It worked—the fiscal ring in the air thinned rapidly and soon vanished entirely.
But the flashlight's battery ran dry almost instantly and could no longer operate. Fortunately, the gathered Ethereal had already dispersed, leaving only a few scattered individuals drifting around.
A Metro Goblin charged toward them, its humanoid Ethereal body about the same height as Ignis. Its form had turned silver-gray, unnaturally hardened. Energy lines across its frame glowed brightly—its ether activity extremely high. As it rushed forward, it triggered over a dozen bounding mines, the shrill alarms drilling into everyone's skulls, and the overlapping booms tortured Nekomata's ears all over again.
The Salamander stepped forward to meet it, blue arcs flickering across his power fists. No one knew how much farther the search for Rain would take; conserving ammo was the wiser choice.
The Metro Goblin's arms were wrapped layer upon layer with ether crystal, transforming them into massive hammer-like limbs. Their swings carried frightening force. It howled, raising its right arm and smashing downward toward the Salamander's head. Ordinarily, anyone else would've dodged—no one could withstand a blow like that. But Ignis was no ordinary person. He was a Space Marine, and he met the strike with his own fist.
The instant the power fist clashed with the Ethereal's crystallized hammer, an explosion burst out. The disintegration field ignited the ether's activity and blasted the Goblin's arm clean off.
The Ethereal had no idea what had just happened. As a higher-grade Ethereal, finding an opponent here was rare—being injured was something it hadn't experienced in ages. But while it hesitated, the Salamander's enormous fist was already smashing straight into its head.
Crackle—! The power fist tore through the ether-crystal shell that had grown up from its neck to protect its head-core.
The massive Ethereal collapsed with a heavy thud. The fight between it and the Salamander had lasted less than five seconds.
But behind the Metro Goblin, a Farbauti and a Dullahan burst out next. The Salamander had no choice but to continue the close-quarters fight, preventing these two upper-class Ethereal from harming the other members of the Cunning Hares.
While Ignis was fighting, the others weren't idle. Besides the upper-class Ethereal, a swarm of lower ones appeared nearby. Tyrfing—being the most common type—appeared in large numbers, pouring out of every corner drawn by the explosions.
These Ethereal were simple in structure and fragile, but there were far too many. Anby's chainsword roared as she shredded one after another, with Billy frequently providing fire support. Even so, the white-haired girl became surrounded. From the darkness, more and more of them spilled out as if that place were their nest.
The chainsword snarled, and a sweeping arc sliced four Tyrfing clean in half. It looked satisfying, but Anby knew the sawteeth were growing dull—cutting through enemies no longer felt smooth. Is it because of those floating Ethereal? That brass-like metal structure on them must've severely worn the teeth…
She had a spare chainsaw with her, but there was no time to swap mid-battle. The nonstop assault started forcing her backward.
Nekomata finished off the stragglers on her side and rushed to help. She pushed off the ground, springing into the fray, the claws on her leg armor snapping out in razor-sharp arcs that shredded two Tyrfing instantly. Once she landed, her twin blades flashed again and again, her agile movements threading through the enemy cluster, destroying several more cores.
"What are those weird things?" Billy stared at the floating Ethereal, unable to hold back a gasp.
Most Ethereal looked strange, but at least resembled humanoids—arms, legs, torso. But these had brass-colored arms growing directly from the center of their chests, curved upward. With their round, plump cores, they looked like they were about to pull the core off and bowl it down the hallway.
Of course, no Ethereal would use such a bizarre attack style. They drifted in erratic floating patterns. Billy had no idea what they were—but shooting them was always correct.
According to this robot's personal aesthetics, any shot had to hit the head—otherwise it wasn't cool enough. But these Ethereal kept their heads covered behind their arms, and the Hollow interference was messing with Billy's aim. He ended up lining up a shot for quite a while.
Just as Billy was about to fire, the Ethereal swung an arm forward, hurling several bursts of ether energy straight at him.
One would've been fine—but there were seven or eight of the little monsters, forming a miniature barrage. Billy panicked instantly. He only managed to fire twice, knocking out two of them, before being forced to leap and scramble in every direction to dodge. Even with his movements looking extremely unglamorous, he kept squeezing off shots whenever he found the chance, blasting the bizarre Ethereal out of the air with all kinds of ridiculous poses.
Ignis drove a piercing strike straight through the Farbauti's shell, crushed its core in his hand, then used its still-dissolving body as a weapon and hurled it at the Dullahan. The Farbauti, being much bigger and heavier than the more technical Dullahan, crushed it instantly on impact, pinning it to the ground.
Ignis walked over and stomped the Dullahan's core into fragments.
With Nekomata's aid, Anby cleared out huge numbers of Tyrfing. The heavy casualties combined with the chainsword's ferocious howl frightened the Ethereal at last. They fled in a panic, scrambling back into the shadows without looking back, their retreat full of fear.
Billy, for all his bizarre movements, still managed to shoot the floating ones down one by one. Their remains hit the floor and shattered. It was clear they were the same type as the close-combat variants they'd seen earlier.
All wore strange white robes, with brass-like arms and masks, able to float and even phase through walls. Their decorations resembled the sculptures in Ballet Twins Hollow—likely twisted by the Hollow environment here into this unique form.
Seeing the not-yet-dissipated fragments scattered across the ground, everyone finally exhaled in relief.
The bounding mines had been completely cleared. The attacking Ethereal had retreated. All that remained was to climb the staircase, gather more Hollow data, and once they found Rain, they could finally go home.
Nekomata stretched, brushing her hair back. During the fight, Anby had unleashed several strong electrical bursts, leaving her hair sticking up in all directions.
Billy crouched on the ground, observing the Ethereal he'd shot down until they began to disperse into the air.
"Anby!" His tone grew solemn, eyes narrowing. "What you sensed just now…"
Billy spread his hands, showing the Ethereal dissolving at his feet, his voice relaxing. "It was probably just another Ethereal."
Anby looked at the remains and frowned. Something still felt wrong. "…Is it really that simple?"