Chapter 35: Invasion (Patreon)

Kenshou remained kneeling as he carefully explained the full severity of the situation.

Every nearby station had fallen.

Refugees had flooded into Aragane.

Food reserves would last only days.

And the pattern of the attacks strongly suggested deliberate coordination.

When he finished, he pressed his forehead against the floor and waited.

Dio remained silent for a moment.

Then he answered calmly.

“I understand.”

“I’ll deal with it.”

Those few words lifted an enormous weight from Kenshou’s chest.

He bowed deeply once more.

Then he led the other station lords from the hall so they could continue dealing with the mountain of problems surrounding the refugees.

Ayame remained beside Dio.

Having heard her father’s report, worry tightened her expression.

Yet when she looked at Dio’s calm profile, much of that anxiety faded.

She had personally witnessed just how overwhelming his strength could be.

There was something frightening about that power.

But also something profoundly reassuring when it stood on their side.

After an entire day of frantic work, the refugees were finally given temporary shelter.

Conditions were crude, but at least people had roofs over their heads and basic food and water.

Aragane’s streets remained overcrowded.

Still, order was barely holding.

Then night fell.

Moonlight washed faintly over the walls.

A small figure quietly slipped onto the ramparts.

Mumei avoided the patrolling samurai and reached an isolated section of the wall.

There, she saw a familiar silhouette.

The man stood with his back to the moonlight.

Tall.

Straight-backed.

A sword at his waist.

The person she had longed to see.

Biba Amatori.

“Brother!”

Mumei’s eyes lit up.

She hurried toward him.

Biba turned.

A gentle smile appeared across his handsome face.

He placed one hand lightly atop Mumei’s head.

“Have you been doing well?”

Mumei nodded vigorously.

Then she remembered the crisis surrounding the fallen stations.

Her expression turned serious.

She quickly told Biba everything she knew.

His smile remained unchanged.

But his voice became lower.

“That’s exactly why I’m here.”

“Mumei, I need you to do something for me.”

“What?”

She answered without hesitation.

“Lower the drawbridge.”

“I need to bring a steam train inside.”

Mumei blinked.

“Now? But trains entering at night need authorization…”

“Trust me.”

Biba interrupted her.

His deep eyes remained fixed on hers.

“You trust me, don’t you?”

Mumei looked into the eyes of the person she had relied upon for so long.

Then she nodded firmly.

“Of course I trust you, Brother! I’ll do it right away!”

She turned and hurried down from the wall toward the drawbridge control room.

She never saw Biba’s smile disappear the instant her back was turned.

His expression became cold.

Beyond the walls, a dark armored train was silently approaching along the tracks.

None of its lights were on.

From gaps in its carriages, gray-white arms stretched outward and swayed beneath the moonlight.

The train was packed with Kabane.

A short while later, heavy chains began turning.

Aragane’s drawbridge slowly lowered across the defensive moat.

The dark train never slowed down.

It roared across the bridge and entered the station.

BOOM!

The locomotive crashed violently into the platform.

Metal buckled.

Iron plates twisted.

Doors tore free beneath the impact.

Then countless Kabane poured from the damaged carriages like floodwater bursting through a broken dam.

They roared and charged in every direction.

The samurai on the platform froze.

Then alarms erupted across the entire station.

“Kabane!”

“Kabane have entered the city!”

Mumei stood outside the control room.

She stared blankly at the wrecked train.

At the monsters pouring from its carriages.

At the samurai desperately raising their steam guns.

Her pupils trembled.

Her mind went completely blank.

Only now did she understand.

Brother had asked her to lower the bridge—

so these creatures could enter.

Why?

Mumei did not know.

But there was no time for regret.

She clenched her teeth and grabbed a steam gun from a fallen samurai.

Her small figure shot toward the Kabane horde.

Bang!

A Kabane’s head burst apart.

Mumei darted through the swarm with incredible agility.

Her weapon fired repeatedly.

One Kabane after another collapsed.

More samurai rushed to the platform and attempted to establish a defensive line.

But the number of Kabane was overwhelming.

They continued pouring from the train like an endless flood.

The defense quickly began to collapse.

Then—

two enormous figures dropped from above like divine reinforcements.

BOOM!

The ground shook.

Stone and dust exploded upward.

More than a dozen Kabane beneath their landing points were crushed instantly.

Two enormous naginatas flashed through the smoke.

Several Kabane were cut down at once.

As the dust cleared, two towering women stood in the center of the platform with their backs toward the defenders.

They held their naginatas like walls no enemy could cross.

“The Divine Lord’s messengers!”

Someone shouted.

“The Divine Lord sent his guardians to save us!”

The defenders’ collapsing morale immediately surged.

Hope returned to frightened eyes.

Even those whose legs still trembled tightened their grips on their weapons.

Sandersonia did not turn around.

“Evacuate the civilians.”

“You’ll only get in the way if you stay here.”

Several samurai tried to protest.

They wanted to help.

They wanted to prove they were not cowards.

Sandersonia and Marigold gave them no opportunity.

Their bodies immediately began expanding.

Muscles grew.

Scales covered their skin.

Their lower bodies fused and lengthened into enormous serpent tails.

Within moments, both women towered close to ten meters high.

Their shadows swallowed the platform.

The samurai who had wanted to remain immediately forgot whatever they had intended to say.

They stepped backward.

Sweat appeared on their foreheads.

Even knowing these beings were allies sent by their god, witnessing human women transform into such enormous creatures triggered instinctive fear.

No one argued further.

They turned and hurried away to evacuate civilians.

Sandersonia and Marigold now blocked the Kabane’s primary route into the station.

Marigold opened her mouth.

A stream of thick, dark green venom erupted outward.

It splashed across the ground with a violent hiss.

The poison rapidly spread into a bubbling pool.

Kabane that stepped into it immediately lost their footing as the corrosive substance destroyed their legs.

They collapsed and were trampled by the creatures rushing behind them.

With the two sisters holding the platform, the defensive line finally stabilized.

Mumei broke free of the Kabane swarm.

Black blood covered her clothing.

She breathed hard.

Then she looked back at the two enormous serpent warriors tearing through the monsters.

Her jaw tightened.

She turned away.

And sprinted toward the city wall.

She needed to find Biba.

She needed to hear the truth directly from him.

Why had he done this?