Chapter 307: I Will Protect Everything (Patreon)

Little Geno's voice rang out in Geno's ear, and just as Geno was about to ask why this had happened, he found himself getting chewed out instead.

"You idiot! What did you even do?!"

Little Geno's voice was so loud Geno half expected his eardrums to burst.

Of course, this was happening directly inside his skull, so no eardrums were actually at risk.

If anything was going to burst, it'd be his brain membrane. (Just kidding.)

"Me? What did I do?"

Once he'd recovered, Geno had no idea why Little Geno was so furious. Hadn't he just wiped out the Ethereals to slow the Hollow's expansion?

"That's exactly the problem! Killing the Ethereals was fine and all, but the Ether energy they released was supposed to gradually patch the Hollow back up, shrinking the blast radius. But look at what you did! You absorbed every last bit of it! That made the whole thing completely pointless!"

Hearing Little Geno's explanation, it finally clicked for Geno — he realized what he'd done wrong.

The Ethereals inside a Hollow existed in a kind of symbiosis with the Hollow itself. The Hollow nurtured the Ethereals, and in turn the Ethereals gave off Ether energy that fed back into the Hollow.

And when an Ethereal died, the Ether energy it released would return to the Hollow, waiting there for the next condensation.

Of course, if that Ether was collected before it returned to the Hollow, it counted as a proper stockpile of Ether energy — and that was exactly the business the Hollow Raiders made their living from.

As for Public Security and HAND, they had no need for that. Officials had access to Ether current devices and Shiyu Pillars developed by the White Star Institute — equipment that absorbed the Ether particles suspended in a Hollow's air, then transported them to a Shiyu Pillar for conversion, turning active Ether into Inert Ether that could safely be carried out of the Hollow.

That was a bit of a tangent. The point was, Geno had wiped out every Ethereal in the Hollow, but the Hollow itself had received none of the Ether energy meant to repair it.

It was like robbing Peter to pay Paul, except he'd taken the bricks from the east wall and walked off with them entirely — leaving the west wall unpatched and the east wall now leaking too.

"Well, this is a real mess now..."

Geno couldn't help covering his face. Who would've guessed his everyday habits would cause a disaster this size?

But it didn't take him long to think of something — since he was the one who'd absorbed all that energy, couldn't he just... give it back?

"I regret to inform you that's impossible. Even if we wrung you out like a dishrag, it wouldn't be enough to fix the situation now."

"Then what do we do?"

Geno was starting to feel frantic. He'd meant well and made things worse, and now all he could do was scramble to fix it — except he had no idea how, so all he could do was keep asking Little Geno.

"I don't know either."

On this point, even Little Geno was at a loss. What was done was done, and he had no idea how to make up for it. But time wasn't on their side — the Hollow kept expanding, and at this rate it would detonate before they ever came up with a plan.

"I have an idea."

A familiar voice suddenly cut in over the comms, and Geno's heart settled at once.

"Twiggy!"

"Mm. Time's short, so just listen to me first."

Having just returned from the Ballet Twins Building, Twiggy was holding Yanagi Tsukishiro's comm device, using Little Geno as a relay to reach Geno.

Behind her, TOPS members and the Sheriffs were anxiously reinforcing the harbor's defenses.

Nearby, Zhu Yuan, bandaged and splinted, was calmly directing the crowd.

Twiggy took it all in, running calculations in her head, then spoke to Geno.

"Geno, what you're about to do next is extremely dangerous. There's a real chance it could kill you. Even so — are you willing to hear it?"

Twiggy's tone was grave, and the worry and reluctance in her voice came through clearly. Even so, Geno didn't waver for a second.

"Of course."

He'd said it before — his dream was to protect the people he loved, to make sure everyone who deserved happiness got to smile.

If he turned tail and ran at a moment like this, what right would he have to face his own future?

"All right then, listen carefully. There's only one thing you need to do now — swallow the Hollow whole."

"What?!"

It was an absurd thing to say. Swallow the Hollow — not even Geno, but Yanagi Tsukishiro and the others standing beside Twiggy and listening in couldn't help but cry out in shock.

Not even the most brain-addled sci-fi screenwriter could've dreamed up a line like that, and yet Twiggy was saying it was the only way?

"Swallow — swallow the Hollow. Is that... what I think it means?"

"You heard right. It means exactly what it sounds like. You need to absorb as much of the Ether that makes up the entire Hollow into your own body as possible, to reduce the force of the explosion. That's the only way we might survive this disaster. Only..."

Only, for Geno, this was an enormous risk.

First, he had no idea how much energy he could actually absorb — there was a real chance he'd end up doing all of it for nothing.

Second, even if he did manage to shrink the blast radius, in order to absorb the Ether he'd have to be standing right at the epicenter — the point of maximum destructive force.

There was a very real chance he'd be obliterated along with the Hollow, leaving nothing behind.

"This plan is far too risky. We should think of something else."

Yanagi Tsukishiro couldn't stop herself from speaking up in protest. In sheer recklessness, this plan rivaled — if not exceeded — the time Hoshimi Miyabi had gone alone to slay Lerna.

But before Yanagi could finish her protest, Geno had already made up his mind.

"Got it. I'll do it. As for the rest of you — just wait for me to get back so we can throw a victory party."

With that, Geno cut the comm line first, leaving his worried friends staring at the beeping device with nothing left to say.

Once the call ended, Geno moved fast, heading straight for the very center of the Hollow — the place where he'd absorb Ether the fastest, and also the most dangerous place of all.

"You idiot. Aren't you the least bit worried you might die?"

As Geno ran, Little Geno finally couldn't hold the question back any longer.

After all, in Little Geno's worldview, nothing mattered more than one's own life.

"Of course I am. I'm... scared of dying too, obviously."

Little Geno had expected the answer to sound cooler, and Geno's response caught him off guard.

"Then why would you..."

"Because there's something more important to me than my own life."

Determination filled Geno's eyes.

There was so much he had in this world, so much he wanted to protect.

The people he loved. His friends. The streets he knew so well. The company he'd poured his heart into.

And for all of that, even standing in the jaws of danger, as long as there was even the faintest chance, he had to try.

Even if the price he paid turned out to be himself.

"I want to protect everything too."