Chapter 246: Cooperating with Such Vermin, How Can We Save the World! (Patreon)

Atsuomi Ayanokōji's plain voice, clearly not carried over any comm device, rang out abruptly behind them.

Chris and Koro Sensei whipped around almost in the same instant.

"Mr. Ayanokōji..."

Koro Sensei narrowed his tiny eyes, his tone loaded:

"If I didn't sense wrong earlier, you were still in the monitoring room, weren't you?"

"I didn't expect you to move so fast."

It wasn't that Koro Sensei held any particular prejudice against Atsuomi Ayanokōji.

The real problem was that he hadn't sensed how the man had arrived at all!

When it came to awareness of the surrounding environment alone, Koro Sensei, fused with antimatter tentacles, ranked in the very top tier of everyone present, sealed powers or not.

And yet this man had crept up on them like a ghost that didn't exist, without a sound. How could that not set off alarm bells?

Chris stood to one side, wearing the same wary, on-guard look on the surface. Inside, he felt nothing in particular.

After all, the only reason Atsuomi Ayanokōji had slipped past Koro Sensei's senses was the One Ring.

It was the item Chris had deliberately dropped into the Backrooms earlier, as bait.

It granted bodily invisibility, sharply weakened the wearer's presence in the real world, and, most importantly, amplified the greed and darkness in the holder's heart.

Chris had planted it as groundwork for a whole string of side plots to come.

Like... Ayanokoji Kiyotaka killing his dad, or the little drama of Nanase Tsubasa's revenge and salvation.

Otherwise, with the Ring's side effects far outweighing its upsides, Chris wouldn't have been keen to bring it out at all.

Still, it was an item he'd drawn himself, wasn't it?

Thinking this, Chris slipped into his award-winning-actor mode and turned a vigilant gaze, together with Koro Sensei, on the newly appeared Atsuomi Ayanokōji.

Noticing the guarded looks all around him,

Atsuomi Ayanokōji hesitated for a moment, then slowly extended a hand and revealed a smooth ring on his palm, glowing with a tempting golden sheen.

"This item is what helped me hide my movements."

"In terms of function, it may be worth only half of that Black Sphere Controller in your hands, but... it's my treasure now."

He gazed at the Ring on his palm. He tried hard to hide it, but the flicker of obsession in his eyes didn't escape Chris or Koro Sensei.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Ichinose and Koro Sensei seemed to glance at his palm a couple of times too many.

Like a beast guarding its food for fear the prey will be snatched away, Atsuomi Ayanokōji almost instinctively clenched it in his fist, the veins standing out on the back of his hand.

He coughed dryly, struggling to cover the lapse, and said in a low voice:

"This is the bottom-line item I mentioned earlier... the one you can never take from me."

"As for everything else, help yourselves. I won't quibble."

Off to the side, Morishita Ai, in her ghost state, watched this scene with astonishment written all over her expressionless little face.

"Wait... all this fuss over a single invisibility item?"

"No matter how you look at it, the strategic value of that thing isn't worth putting on the same level as the [Allspark], which can grant life to machines directly!"

"This guy clearly has the air of a White House leader..."

"Could that item of his be hiding some special ability?"

Morishita Ai deadpanned.

Since her special ghost state meant that, in this area, only Chris and Yotsuya Miko could see her, Ai felt free to get a little bolder.

She drifted up to Chris's side, poked his shoulder with a finger, and got straight to the point:

"Hey, Chris."

"Why don't you lend me the Item Illustrated Guide so I can go check out that crummy ring of his?"

"In my current state, there's no way he'd ever notice me."

Chris's eyelid twitched, but he had no intention of acknowledging her. He ignored Ai's reproachful glare and looked straight at Atsuomi Ayanokōji:

"In other words, sir, you're saying even the [Allspark], the thing that can give machines life, is within the range of what we're allowed to choose from?"

Seeing Chris brush past the Ring so smoothly, Atsuomi Ayanokōji's tense shoulders loosened ever so slightly.

He let out a breath as if a weight had been lifted. "A gentleman's word is his bond."

"Heh heh..."

Arisu Sakayanagi propped her chin on one hand. "In that case, let's start by seeing how sincere you are, Mr. Ayanokōji."

"After all, standing here flapping your gums doesn't prove anything. Whether it's the ring in your hand or this so-called [Allspark], we haven't seen any sign you intend to put either on the table."

Atsuomi Ayanokōji didn't get angry at Sakayanagi's barbed skepticism.

He just smiled calmly and explained:

"That's mostly because we in the White House don't have a convenient 'Item Illustrated Guide' like you do."

"So for the things we brought out from here, naturally we can only use items whose abilities we've confirmed through clear experiments, and which have enough intelligence backing them, as bargaining chips for the deal with Chairman Sakayanagi."

"Otherwise..."

"If we put out some uncertain, unknown items, it would only make the White House look ignorant of etiquette and breed needless misunderstandings."

"Since time is tight," he said, turning and striding off, "I won't exchange any more pleasantries with you."

"Please follow me. Let's settle the matter of our cooperation first."

The tentacles on Koro Sensei's body wriggled slightly. He gave a soft huff and followed:

"If it's a plan that endangers my precious students, then we won't be discussing it at all."

"On that point... I trust every teacher here is of one mind."

"And if something does go wrong, I'm sure you don't want to see us at our full strength."

"Even I'm afraid of that!"

Watching Koro Sensei act like a mother hen, Chris turned back to Honami Ichinose and Arisu Sakayanagi and remarked:

"With three teachers watching over them, at least we don't need to worry about the students' safety right now."

"The only thing left for us to consider is what kind of world we should pick as the point-farming training ground for everyone."

"Once that's settled, we can go deal with our own business..."

"Goldphoenix should be finding us any time now, I'd think."

Honami Ichinose thought it over seriously, then nodded and offered:

"Maybe we could use the Skull Knight's world?"

"The Astral World there has vanished, so overwhelming enemies like the God Hand no longer exist."

"What's left on that land is mostly Apostles with low scores."

"As a point-farming ground, it shouldn't produce any uncontrollable crises for the time being. Compared to a world full of mechanical races and Flügel, the survival difficulty is a lot lower."

Arisu Sakayanagi shook her head lightly and shot the suggestion down flat:

"Ichinose, you're being too conservative."

"The leftover Apostles in the Skull Knight's world are worth a few dozen points at best."

"What's more, with the Dread Emperor destroyed and the Astral World gone, the number of magical beasts has dropped sharply. Farming points at scale on such barren resources is far too inefficient. It wouldn't be nearly enough."

Arisu Sakayanagi smiled.

"If you ask me, we should simply choose the world of Chainsaw Man."

"It has Primal Fear Devils, high-scoring monsters that bring an extreme sense of crisis."

"Besides, devils are conceptual beings that exist because of human fear... In fact, as long as we state our position in advance, I don't think anything will go wrong there easily."

"The risk is entirely within our control."

Chris just listened quietly as the two girls went back and forth, completely ignoring Morishita Ai at his side, who was still trying to get noticed.

And Sister Ai, thoroughly ignored, glared at them with dead-fish eyes tinged with displeasure and resentment.

The group followed Atsuomi Ayanokōji through the crowd and past display stands lined with all manner of strange items, until they reached a huge one-way observation glass wall.

The other side of the glass was exactly where Ryuuen and the others had been silently watching.

Moving a little closer, everyone could see clearly.

Behind the one-way mirror was a laboratory with extremely high security. Armed guards stood watch, and in the center several researchers in white coats were gathered around a giant sealed machine, looking tense.

Once Chris and the others had arrived, Atsuomi Ayanokōji raised a hand and pressed a green button on the comm device at his wrist.

Soon enough, the researchers inside seemed to receive a clear instruction.

They worked the main console rapidly for a few moments.

With a low mechanical hum, the sealed machine drew back and unfolded in every direction like a blooming flower.

At its center hung a regular hexahedral metal cube.

Its surface was covered in dense, three-dimensional relief of Cybertronian script and ring-shaped totems.

The grooves ran deep and sharp, giving off an enchanting mechanical sheen under the cold-toned lights.

The moment the casing finished opening,

"Hmmmm—"

The metal cube trembled faintly, like a beating heart.

A visible wisp of eerie blue light leaked out from between the runes.

Then.

Every electronic instrument, lab bench, even the surveillance cameras on the walls within sight of the lab, all looked as if they'd been splattered with mud droplets of life flung from Nüwa's vine as she shaped humanity!

With the faint, clicking sound of gears meshing and transforming, all of the equipment came alive!

Yet the mechanical life forms forced into being didn't seem to have much intelligence.

The moment they finished transforming, they began fighting one another in a frenzy, even letting out grating roars as they launched attacks on every human researcher in sight!

Only then did the armed guards around the lab show their true worth.

Muzzle flashes spat fire, and dense curtains of bullets wove into a net that shredded the fragile newborn machines into piles of parts.

When the gunfire inside finally died down, leaving the floor in ruins,

Atsuomi Ayanokōji raised a hand, entered a code on the wall's control panel, and opened the thick glass door in front of them.

That let the whole group see the carnage inside at a glance, along with the true form of the [Allspark], still floating serenely in midair.

He sighed, speaking with some feeling:

"You all have Controllers that can check monster intel."

"Since Chris, as the last one to enter, has already used his to look it over, I'm sure most of the students who came in before us already know the identity of these mechanical life forms."

"That's right. The metal cube before your eyes is the [Allspark], which can unconditionally grant consciousness to machines."

As he spoke, his gaze passed over Chris and settled on Ryuuen, who was ringed by the boys in the center, and on the expressionless Ayanokoji Kiyotaka beside him.

"The reason we reached out to Ryuuen in the first place is that we have our eye on the Black Sphere technology in you."

Atsuomi Ayanokōji made no attempt to hide his intent to recruit him:

"We intend to have you serve as the medium that receives the Allspark's energy, or rather, become something like a 'leader module.'"

"That way you can restrain and command these newly living machines and make them a help to humanity!"

Hearing this, Ryuuen raised an eyebrow.

He instinctively turned to glance at Ayanokōji beside him, feeling a subtle twinge of conflict about this old man's proposal.

As Atsuomi Ayanokōji had said, the [Allspark] had the terrifying ability to create mechanical life out of thin air, nearly without condition.

Even if everything it made was a mindless "zero-point nobody," given enough numbers it was still a considerable force.

Especially after their fight with the Decepticons, no one present would casually overlook the power of fighter jets, tanks, even aircraft carriers transformed into mechanical life forms.

To put it bluntly, if this thing ran wild in their original world, it could easily become the enemy of the entire world!

But precisely because the thing was so strong,

what puzzled Ryuuen was this:

If he became the commander, wouldn't that mean the White House was handing this absolute leadership position to an outsider like him for free?

Judging by the culture of a place that could raise someone like Ayanokoji Kiyotaka through gu-breeding methods...

would they really be that generous?

If there were no catch, even a dog wouldn't believe it!

Ryuuen ran through one conspiracy theory after another in his head.

He looked up at Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, but couldn't read anything off that same poker face that never changed.

Gritting his teeth, Ryuuen turned to Atsuomi Ayanokōji and said:

"Old man, the template I've got is alien tech, sure, but next to a Allspark that can create life directly, it's obviously several tiers short."

"I'm also not sure my system can actually be compatible with it."

"So... we'd better check the details with the Item Illustrated Guide first."

Atsuomi Ayanokōji nodded in understanding and gestured with a hand. "Please."

"Confirming safety and ruling out potential risks goes without saying. We have no reason to refuse."

"While you're at it, please appraise the other items I've prepared for you and for Chris as well."

"You may each take one of them with you as a deposit for this deal."

As he spoke, Atsuomi Ayanokōji lifted a hand and signaled the researchers to activate the backup defense system, wrapping the Allspark again in a layer of pale blue transparent energy shield.

Then he had the armed guards wheel out carts carrying the other items, sealed in specially made containers.

Ryuuen glanced over and saw that Chris had already taken the Item Illustrated Guide and walked up.

So he didn't linger either. He went straight to the Allspark and raised the Item Illustrated Guide he'd borrowed from Miyabi Nagumo to scan it.

"Ding—"

[Allspark (Fragment)]

[Ability: The origin of Cybertron, the treasure that Autobots and Decepticons have sought for generations. Even a surviving fragment holds infinite energy. Within its radiation range, every mechanical creation will be born with a Spark and become a mechanical life form capable of independent action and transformation. Contact repairs any mechanical damage, and can even revive dead Transformers.]

[Releasing all of its energy can remold a planet's surface into Cybertron, spawning vast amounts of transforming metal and turning an ordinary planet into a homeland fit for Transformers, mass-producing a new race.]

"Infinite energy... repairing mechanical damage, even resurrection?"

Ryuuen murmured, eyes locked on the metal cube inside the energy shield, lost in thought.

Among all the examinees, he was one of the few who had firmly chosen mechanical ascension as his path to power, and he'd already come a fair way down that road.

Facing this item, Ryuuen felt a powerful sense of resonance!

Without a doubt, this item bore directly on his future!

Never mind whether he could ever be revived by a Spark...

The "infinite energy" property alone would let Ryuuen do far too many things.

After all, although his [Lion God Template] used very little energy, it still had an energy bar as a limit.

In a high-intensity slugfest, running dry was only a matter of time.

But what the [Allspark] offered was truly endless energy!

The gap between the two was several orders of magnitude!

By then...

You want an endless turret? This is what an endless turret looks like!

Meanwhile,

Chris had finished scanning the several items the guards had newly brought out.

As the Guide's light screen lit up, the information appeared one after another:

[Senzu Bean]

[Ability: A miracle healing bean cultivated by Korin. Each one is only the size of a broad bean, but as long as there's still a breath left in you, eating one instantly refills your body and energy to the brim, wiping out all fatigue, soreness, and strength depletion at once. Even someone gravely wounded and near death is restored to peak condition instantly.]

[Void Mystic Ice]

[Ability: In primordial times, when the Void Star God Saron and the Sun Star God Apollo waged a cosmic war, energy from Saron and the Galaxy Star leaked out and soaked into the ice of the Mystic Ice Galaxy, giving birth to mystic ice infused with dark creation energy. Placed in an energy core, it instantly triples the host's combat power! But in exchange, the user's soul is branded by Saron and becomes a puppet under his command.]

[If used without Saron's direct control, the host will turn dark and lose their reason, becoming a pure killing machine much like the Decepticons.]

[Reionics Battlenizer (Fragment)]

[Ability: The companion item that appears when each Rayonics awakens. It holds a miniature pocket-dimension storage space with 3 fixed slots to start, comes with 1 starter monster, and can hold up to 3 monsters. By touching a monster and releasing resonance energy to forge a life contract, it can forcibly subdue a wild monster on the brink of death...]

[As one of the few remnants left after the brutal Rayonics wars, the monsters inside have long since died in battle and vanished. But if a carrier of Rayonics genes who hasn't awakened a Battlenizer happens to get hold of it, they can still use it to house one monster as a fighting force.]

The rest were small life-assist items like gender-swap potions and skin-whitening gadgets, improving quality of life but irrelevant to any fight.

Compared with the [Allspark] on Ryuuen's side, these items were clearly weaker by more than one tier.

But after Chris and Ryuuen glanced at each other's Guide panels, both of them fell into brief hesitation.

After all, even if it was a freebie, once you took something and owed Atsuomi Ayanokōji a favor,

you were bound to be hampered, and morally blackmailed, by the White House to some degree in later actions.

Still, the two exchanged a look for barely a second before reaching the same decision, without a word.

Eat the sugar coating, fire the shell back!

Take it first, worry later!

"I'll take the Allspark." Ryuuen pointed at the shield.

"I'll take that busted Battlenizer," Chris said casually, pinching the half-broken device between his fingers.

Both voices fell at the same time.

Standing to one side, Atsuomi Ayanokōji wore a satisfied "just as expected" look.

But deep in his eyes, he couldn't help feeling the sting of the loss.

Even if they couldn't use these two top-tier items for now, it didn't change the value of the items themselves.

As for "hold a rare treasure until the price is right," he knew that perfectly well, being a politician...

But under the influence of the [One Ring], so long as it didn't involve handing over the Ring, then in the distortion of greed every other possession became a chip to be tossed away to keep it.

Fine. Without the Item Illustrated Guide they could never have known the true nature of these items anyway. Getting some intel for free wasn't a bad deal.

Atsuomi Ayanokōji pushed down the irritation in his chest, sighed, and said with feeling:

"In that case... my cooperation agreement with you two stands."

"Chris, you may come to me any time to collect those support items. As for you, Ryuuen, if you take the Allspark, you can try fusing with it inside our safe zone first."

"If my idea of the 'leader module' works out, it'll be a tremendous boon for everyone here."

Seeing Chris and Ryuuen nod without refusing this seemingly reasonable request, Atsuomi Ayanokōji's eyes flashed, and he went on probing:

"By the way, as allies, I have one small request."

"I wonder whether you two would grant it?"

"Name it," Chris and Ryuuen said in unison.

"I know you have an item that can house people and carry them into another space for shelter. I'd like to go inside, walk a fair distance through the floors of the Backrooms, and experience these so-called Backrooms rules firsthand," Atsuomi Ayanokōji said earnestly.

"Sure," Chris said.

After the items Atsuomi Ayanokōji had just given them, granting such a tiny request was hardly excessive.

He had no reason to refuse.

But this quick agreement made Arisu Sakayanagi, watching coldly from the side, purse her lips slightly and knit her brows in thought.

Backed by her father Sakayanagi Seimori's position as chairman of Advanced Nurturing High School, she knew some deeper secrets.

She knew the cards Atsuomi Ayanokōji held were certainly not limited to the items he'd just laid out in the open!

Because to this day, across the entire world, only one single Backrooms entrance had been found, the one controlled by the White House.

After pouring in huge sums of money and spending incalculable manpower and resources on exploration,

it would be truly unbelievable if he didn't have a few good items tucked away.

So when she saw him produce only worthless, damaged items at first, Arisu Sakayanagi had felt irritated.

Of course, she also knew the so-called trade alliance between Atsuomi Ayanokōji and her father Sakayanagi Seimori had no real binding force to begin with.

Honestly, in Arisu Sakayanagi's eyes,

a strategic-level Backrooms entrance like this, even if it was originally a private asset the White House found first,

should be confiscated by force in the present crisis, with humanity's survival at stake, and be fully taken over by Advanced Nurturing High School, an institution dedicated to training people against the Black Sphere's power.

'Still thinking about the so-called balance of power... With the fire already at our eyebrows, he still has the leisure to scheme like this in front of the younger generation.'

'As expected, politicians are vermin who care only for profit, down to the root. How are we supposed to save the world cooperating with such shortsighted people!?'

Arisu Sakayanagi sneered inwardly.

Just then,

a clear, ringing cry suddenly sounded without warning!

Akane Tachibana, who'd been keeping half an eye on the Controller's radar panel, tensed all over. After checking the screen, she relaxed and called out:

"Everyone, don't panic!"

"There are no red dots on the radar. It's not an enemy attack!"

"If it's not a monster, then it can only be the contract beast Chris subdued..."

Fūka Kiryūin murmured, her wine-red eyes sweeping the area as she tried to find Goldphoenix in the vast underground hall.

But with so many people on site, students and teachers plus a large contingent of armed White House security, the crowd packed in tightly and blocked the view.

In fact, while she was searching, someone with a better vantage point had already spotted Goldphoenix.

"Over there!"

Kushida Kikyo let out a soft cry of surprise she couldn't suppress.

Everyone's gaze followed her pointing and landed in unison on the one-way observation glass wall behind Kei Karuizawa.

The gorgeous Goldphoenix ignored the physical barrier entirely and flew out of the solid bulletproof glass like a phantom, wings beating!

Sacred golden flames and feathers swirled around it, and every flap of its wings sent out rings of visible golden ripples, as glamorous as an exclusive CG effect for its own entrance.

Chris glanced up.

He sighed lightly and didn't explain much, only apologizing with his head raised:

"I got tied up with a bunch of tedious matters and couldn't get away."

"I've finally found the right moment to come. The trip ahead should be no problem now."

"Anyway, sorry..."

Hearing Chris's sincere apology, the Goldphoenix circling in midair seemed to take some comfort and stopped its anxious cries.

It tilted its proud beak up and gave Chris an almost human nod, then turned and flew toward a deep corridor outside the lab.

This time, though, it seemed to have learned its lesson. Afraid of being trapped again, it didn't dive straight back into the [Mirror World].

'As I thought... judging by how relentless this Goldphoenix is. The reason it was so agitated before wasn't fear. It found some important clue in the Backrooms and wants to take Chris there to see for himself...'

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka stood quietly at the edge of the crowd, stroking his chin as he worked it out.

From the moment he entered this hall, he hadn't once taken the initiative to acknowledge Atsuomi Ayanokōji, his own father.

Even when Chris and Ryuuen had just verified the items' information with the Guide, and it was clear his old man still held more cards than these, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka kept the same cold detachment, a bystander to it all.

Chris paid no attention to his strangeness either. He raised a hand and swept it, unrolling the scroll-like [Map of Mountains and Rivers] in midair.

"Since Goldphoenix has found the way, I won't waste any time."

"Just in case, I'll take all of you into the inner space of this Map right now."

Chris's gaze swept the group. "I'll open the permission for you to view the outside from within."

"If you have any questions or arguments, you can sort them out inside the Map later. For now, let's handle what's urgent first."

Naturally, nobody objected.

Even Koro Sensei and the other two teachers who'd come along nodded their tacit consent.

After all, they'd followed the main force into the eerie Backrooms as teachers.

A big part of that was indeed to fulfill their duty as educators and make sure the students were safe.

But to say they'd all come purely out of selfless sacrifice wasn't quite right either.

Wanting to protect their students didn't mean they had no other things to look after.

For example...

using this chance to revive deceased students.

Or to see for themselves the dangers and rules of the Backrooms, so that once back they could do ideological work on the upper echelons of the Ninja World...

And none of this required them to personally wade through the minefield.

Why not gather firsthand intel from a perfectly safe space?

"Then, let's go."

As Chris's flower-seal came down, the Map's light flared brilliantly.

Everyone, including Morishita Ai, who still had something to say, was sucked inside in an instant.

...

Inside the Map of Mountains and Rivers.

When everyone recovered from the brief weightlessness of the teleport and stood on soft grass,

even the worldly Jiraiya couldn't help exclaiming as he looked at the endless green hills and waters around him and felt the fresh breeze on his face.

"Tsk tsk tsk... what an incredible feat!"

Jiraiya looked around, his eyes full of awe. "A whole world of its own, with a natural environment simulated to perfection! If a ninja tool of this caliber existed in our Ninja World..."

"Even the Six Paths ninja tools would be no better than this, I'd say..."

But Jiraiya's amazement didn't last long.

Since Chris had fully opened the permission to view the outside when he took them in,

everyone's attention was soon drawn to the sky above, where a giant dome-theater-like screen was playing the outside scene in real time.

On the screen,

Chris, guided by Goldphoenix's glow, soon found an old wooden door at the end of the winding Backrooms floors, one that looked completely out of place among the modern architecture.

Without hesitation, he followed Goldphoenix and pushed through.

And so, under everyone's rapt gaze,

Chris, utterly at ease, crossed several typical Backrooms floors in a row, filled with yellow wallpaper and the harsh buzz of electricity.

Finally, Goldphoenix stopped before a heavy bronze gate carved with intricate golden patterns and circled in the air, as if trying to say something.

Inside the Map, the crowd fell silent.

Every heart clenched, palms slick with sweat.

They were all expecting something, and afraid at the same time... What on earth lay behind this obviously different bronze door?

Of course, there are always exceptions.

Among this group wound tight with tension, not everyone was equally absorbed.

Take Yotsuya Miko, for instance, whose eyes were glazed over, her mind clearly elsewhere.

It wasn't that she was carefree, assuming that with Chris, the ceiling of combat power, up front and everyone hiding inside an artifact, all was well and an outsider like her had nothing to worry about.

It was simply that when she turned her head without thinking, she'd happened to see Morishita Ai wandering around aimlessly, bored.

Ai looked left, looked right, and every so often frowned, wearing the expression of someone dying to say something but not knowing whom to tell.

Yotsuya Miko swallowed and didn't know what to say.

Morishita Ai looked fine at the moment, quite relaxed, with no sign of turning into a vengeful spirit.

But if Miko remembered right, according to the Black Sphere's earlier rules,

these unfortunate ghosts who died in battle, if they stayed in the real world for too long during the Revival Round without finding the chance to rebuild a body and become human again,

would have their souls gradually eroded by negative emotions over time, and eventually turn into mindless vengeful spirits, wouldn't they?!

'If I count the days... it's been a whole two weeks without a Black Sphere exam! And the big finals are about to hit us!'

Yotsuya Miko sweated on her behalf. Drifting outside this long, was Morishita really okay? She wouldn't suddenly go berserk, would she?

However, this worry didn't stay in Yotsuya Miko's head for long either.

Because right then, the outside scene on the sky screen changed!

On the screen, Chris had already reached out and pushed open the heavy bronze gate with force.

Past the door, what met the eye was no longer the flat, oppressive enclosed floors of the Backrooms, with their endless yellow corridors and damp carpet.

It was a vast, boundless, deep and dazzling starry sky!

No.

As the viewpoint pushed in and everyone's gaze drew closer,

they saw that it was less a starry sky than...

countless blinding golden swords, spears, halberds, and other legendary Noble Phantasms, radiating the might of ancient gods!

Like a meteor shower summoned by some supreme call, they hung densely in the void, ready to strike!

And beneath that golden "meteor shower,"

countless golden spearheads with chains trailing from their ends wove together like furious dragons surging from the sea, clashing and linking heaven and earth.

At the center of the chains, a nimble figure in a green robe was charging upward against the golden light filling the sky—

Some students who'd never seen anything on this scale were stunned speechless.

Just then,

two voices rang out, transcending all boundaries.

"Enuma Elish, the Star of Creation That Splits Heaven and Earth (Enuma Elish)!!!"

"Mortals, bind the gods with chains (Enuma Elish)!!!"

—