They became angry, grieved, wept, and forced themselves to stay strong—not for their own sake, but for others.
Instinct moved them before thought ever could.
It was as though they could not bear to leave suffering people unaided.
They would throw everything they had into saving them, even if it meant sacrificing themselves.
There was a unique charm to people like that.
It was only natural that others would come to admire and love them.
Tatsumi finally understood.
The man speaking to him might use the same language as everyone else, but somewhere along the way, his heart had already drifted away from humanity.
Like Minister Honest and the others, Noah was closer to a demon than a man!
"I've decided. I'm going to defeat you right here!"
Tatsumi tightened his grip on his sword and shouted, "Incursio!"
The armor unfolded directly from another space and automatically fitted itself around his body.
In the blink of an eye, Tatsumi stood fully armored, his appearance far more imposing than before.
Seeing him flare up with so much passion, Lubbock gave an impressed whistle.
"Whoa, Tatsumi. Looking good."
As he spoke, he drew out several strands of Cross Tail.
Aside from Najenda, Lubbock rarely showed much enthusiasm for anything, but even he found himself inspired by Tatsumi's determination.
The broadcast crackled to life once again.
"Well, you refusing to kill each other wasn't part of the plan, but this works just as well for me. Now I get to watch all of you fall into despair together!"
The girl's voice grew increasingly excited.
"So let's get started!"
Beep!
Inside the observation room, she pressed a special button.
The chamber immediately began to change.
The bare walls slowly slid apart, revealing hidden rooms behind them.
Every one was packed with monsters.
The creatures poured out and filled what had once been a spacious chamber until it became overcrowded.
Noah, Tatsumi, and Lubbock were surrounded on every side, reduced to a tiny island in an ocean of twisted bodies.
"Hahahaha! Are you desperate yet? Especially you, little boy! You were shouting so confidently a moment ago. Go on, keep talking!"
Lubbock swallowed.
He had already started composing his final words in his head.
He had never expected that the confession he had failed to make for so long might have to be delivered as a dying message.
Tatsumi clenched his fists.
"Mr. Noah, Lubbock, I'll give this everything I have. The moment I create an opening, don't hesitate. Get out of here and leave the rest to me—"
"Idiot!" Lubbock interrupted with a grin. "You're still the rookie. It's way too early for you to make that kind of sacrifice."
Of the three people present, who had the best chance of helping Najenda fulfill her dream?
It certainly was not Lubbock.
Nor was it Noah, who stood on the enemy's side.
It had to be Tatsumi.
Lubbock had watched the boy grow from a completely inexperienced newcomer into the fighter standing before him now.
Tatsumi would undoubtedly accomplish great things in the future.
In that case, there was nothing to hesitate over.
Lubbock was the senior here, and just like Bulat, he needed to fulfill that responsibility.
Noah had no idea that both of them had already prepared themselves to die.
Still, the number of enemies before them was considerable.
Tatsumi and Lubbock could never handle them alone. Even with Noah present, eliminating them all would take some effort.
He had barely used enhancement formulas since coming to this world.
This seemed like a good opportunity to turn a few theoretical ideas into reality and test their effectiveness.
Flames ignited around Noah's right hand as he swept it clockwise.
Boom!
A terrifying wall of fire rose five meters high and traced a circle around the three of them, closing into a complete barrier that protected them from the surrounding monsters.
"What is this?" Lubbock asked, staring at the towering flames in astonishment.
Noah pulled both of them closer.
"I'm going to enhance you."
Ignoring their questioning looks, he summoned Ravenfeather. As the Device took shape, several formulas materialized along with it.
For an ordinary Blazer, a Device's form was fixed and could not be altered.
Noah, however, could reconstruct his Device at will. He could even manifest things other than weapons.
That included formulas themselves.
As long as he completed the design in his mind beforehand, he could instantly manifest multiple complicated formulas whenever necessary.
Provided his mental energy did not run out, he could repeat the process as many times as he liked.
That greatly raised the upper limit of the techniques he could employ.
Most of these enhancement abilities had been conceived a very long time ago.
Back then, his understanding and proficiency had been too limited to turn many of his ideas into reality.
Reaching Lv.3 had changed everything.
Tatsumi and Lubbock would make useful test subjects.
The timing could hardly have been better.
Noah removed several bottles of unfamiliar liquid from his bag and guided their contents into the waiting formulas.
As the liquid was absorbed, each formula began radiating light of the same color.
"This is the blood of various Danger Beasts. I'm activating it and drawing out the power hidden within."
Noah appeared unusually pleased and even took the time to explain what he was doing.
Normally, he probably would not have bothered.
"Experience the strength and agility of a first-class Danger Beast!"
The formulas entered Tatsumi and Lubbock.
Both of them immediately felt their bodies fill with seemingly endless power.
At the same time, they became so light that it felt as though the slightest push from their toes might send them flying.
"What is this?"
"I feel like I've become several times stronger!"
They could barely comprehend the change.
In their experience, strength was never gained easily.
An improvement this enormous should have required ten or twenty years of relentless training.
"Don't overthink it. This power is temporary. It will last until the energy stored in the blood is exhausted. Assume you have five minutes," Noah explained.
Tatsumi still found it miraculous.
Lubbock, however, fell silent as unease darkened his thoughts.
This ability was terrifying.
Used properly, it could alter the course of a war, perhaps even determine its outcome.
What would happen if Noah applied these enhancements to every Teigu user serving the Empire?
Before Lubbock could dwell on the thought, Noah continued.
Strength and speed had only been the beginning.
"The ability to grow stronger and recover stamina whenever you damage an enemy."
"The ability to resist being knocked back as long as your feet remain on solid ground."
"The ability to sharpen claws and cutting weapons."
"An invisible barrier that automatically defends against ranged attacks."
"The ability to perceive every movement within your vision in slow motion."
"The ability to double the speed of your thoughts."
Noah used the blood of more than a dozen Danger Beasts.
By the time he finished, all three of them were surrounded by a visible layer of bloody mist, with tiny red lights drifting around their bodies.
"There. All your buffs are stacked." Noah snapped his fingers. "Now enjoy what you can do with them."
The wall of fire vanished.
Almost immediately, three failed experimental monsters lunged at them.
To Noah, their movements were now as slow as those of sloths.
He slapped all three across the face.
They shot backward like cannonballs, smashing through several of their own kind along the way.
Tatsumi stared.
'What?'
Everyone's movements already appeared slower through his enhanced perception, yet Noah's slap had still been little more than a blur.
And the power behind it...
Could someone really send monsters that large flying with nothing but the strength of one arm?
While Tatsumi remained stunned, an image suddenly appeared in his mind.
A monster was attacking him from behind.
Acting on instinct, he summoned Incursio's exclusive weapon, Neuntote.
The spear had a crimson blade and a silver-white shaft matching his armor. Only someone whose strength had been fully recognized by Incursio was permitted to wield it.
Tatsumi caught the spear and swept it behind him as he turned.
He felt almost no resistance.
The monster was torn apart at the waist in a single strike.
"Did... I just do that?"
Tatsumi stared at what remained of the creature, unable to believe it.
His awareness of the attack, the speed of his counter, and the force behind it all surpassed even the strongest version of himself he had ever imagined.
This could not possibly be his own power.
It had to be the result of whatever Noah had done to them.
He had said it would last five minutes.
Five entire minutes in this state...
Tatsumi felt as though there was nothing he could not accomplish.
Lubbock weaved through the attacking monsters.
Even while surrounded by three or four at once, he found openings effortlessly.
His current speed was absurd.
Compared with him, the creatures might as well have been standing still.
Cross Tail's threads also felt far sharper than usual.
They passed through muscle and bone without any resistance.
Looking closer, Lubbock noticed that the threads were coated in a faint white glow.
That light was probably what had raised their cutting power to such an unbelievable level.
He continued dodging while laying threads across every monster that passed him, binding more and more of them together.
"Now!"
Lubbock pulled the threads tight.
More than a dozen monsters were sliced into pieces at once.
The sight was so gruesome that even Lubbock's expression changed.
...
Inside the observation room, a blonde, orange-eyed girl with the appearance of a young teenager stared with her mouth hanging open.
"Are these guys monsters too?"
They were tearing creatures apart with their bare hands and moving so quickly that they practically flew across the ground.
There had to be a limit to how ridiculous humans could be.
Seeing their strength made her uneasy, and she began considering whether she should escape.
However, the number of new Danger Beasts below did not appear to have decreased by much.
Perhaps the situation was not hopeless yet.
Great rewards required great risks.
If she could turn these three powerful fighters into modified super-monsters, the result would be worth everything.
She would gamble on it.
No matter how strong they were, they were still human.
Humans became tired.
Once their stamina ran out, she could do whatever she wanted with them.
At that moment, Tatsumi and Lubbock shared the same thought.
'We've finally adapted.'
Their fighting ability seemed to rise once again, and the speed at which they slaughtered the monsters multiplied several times over.
At first, the sudden increase in strength had made controlling their bodies difficult.
However, both were exceptionally talented fighters. They quickly adjusted to their new abilities during battle.
Only now were they beginning to fight at full power.
Bang!
The girl gripped the edge of the surveillance screen and stared.
They had not been serious before?
"Damn it. Night Raid's people are way too abnormal."
Then she paused.
Night Raid?
There were only two of them.
Where had the Jaeger gone?
She frantically switched between the different surveillance feeds, but Noah was nowhere to be seen.
Seeing how anxiously she searched, Noah spoke from directly behind her.
"Are you looking for me?"
The girl's hand froze halfway toward the control panel.
The rest of her body became equally rigid.
Cold sweat poured down her forehead as she forced an awkward smile onto her face.
Slowly, like a rusted mechanical doll, she turned her head until her eyes met Noah's.
"Um... hello. Have you eaten yet?"
She gave a nervous laugh.
"Haha... Ahahaha..."
"Die!"
Pretending to surrender, she suddenly kicked the chair beneath her toward Noah.
'Idiot.'
He could waste his time dealing with the chair while she escaped.
The girl stepped back and reached for the emergency escape button on the console, never once taking her eyes off Noah.
Before the chair could touch him, countless slashes reduced it to fragments.
It failed to delay him for even a moment.
Terror spread across the girl's face.
'What the hell was that?'
Only then did she notice a faint sting in her hand.
She looked down.
One of her fingers lay on the control panel.
The finger she had been about to use had been severed at the same moment as the chair.
Although the injury hurt, the girl did not scream.
That unusual reaction made Noah curious enough to use Appraisal on her.
His expression shifted.
'Fifty-eight?'
This woman was fifty-eight years old?
Despite looking like a young teenager, she was already old enough to be someone's great-grandmother in a world where people often married at thirteen or fourteen.
Most ordinary citizens did not even live to fifty-eight.
Yet her appearance had barely aged at all.
A Teigu?
No. If a Teigu with this power existed, the Empire would have spared no effort to retrieve it.
Alchemy, then?
Noah remembered reading similar accounts in a book on alchemy.
Many alchemists experimented with different methods of delaying physical aging, but he had never heard of anyone achieving results this extreme.
This was no longer merely slowing the aging process.
She had practically returned to childhood.
Noah had only established his current relationship with Minister Honest by deceiving him into believing he was researching immortality.
He had never expected to find someone in this world who was conducting that exact research and had already achieved partial success.
"This should be one of Dr. Stylish's hidden laboratories," Noah said. "Who are you?"
The false little girl remained silent.
She regretted threatening him earlier. Had she kept quiet, she might still have pretended to be an innocent child and deceived him.
Instead, she had shown too much of herself.
That option was gone.
Fighting was not promising either. She did not know whether she could defeat Noah, and he had two companions nearby.
There might also be other enemies waiting outside.
The emergency escape mechanism was still her best hope.
"Wait. I'm not the person behind this, and that isn't a lie. I was merely ordered to remain here and eliminate anyone who entered."
Noah narrowed his eyes.
She was clearly hiding something.
Perhaps he should simply use Soul Corridor—
Rapid footsteps interrupted his thoughts.
Tatsumi and Lubbock had already finished dealing with the monsters below and reached the observation room.
The moment the fifty-eight-year-old woman saw Tatsumi, a perfect idea entered her mind.
Her expression changed completely.
Large tears rolled down her cheeks as she made herself look terrified.
"P-please don't! I was kidnapped and brought here! Please don't kill me!"
To make the act more convincing, she altered her voice into the fragile, pitiful tone of a frightened little girl.
'She plans to exploit Tatsumi's naivety.'
If Noah hesitated, she might gain a chance to escape.
If he attacked her anyway, Tatsumi would immediately turn against him.
Not bad.
This old woman knew what she was doing.
"A child?"
Tatsumi saw the crying blonde girl.
"Stop, Mr. Noah!"
The moment he shouted, his eyes met Noah's.
The look Noah gave him was difficult to describe.
Cold was not quite right.
Indifferent, perhaps.
For some reason, Tatsumi suddenly found himself unable to move. A sinking feeling told him that he had just made a serious mistake.
Then the frightened "little girl" smiled triumphantly.
She lunged at Noah, opened her mouth wide, and sank a pair of sharp fangs deep into his shoulder.
"Mr. Noah!"