Chapter 125: Contacts

"...Are you all okay?" Tanya asks as she enters the infirmary, where Rouge, Charlotte, and Edith are lying in a bed. Since the three of them were the ones who suffered the most violent deaths, they obviously felt those pains before being pulled out of the simulator.

So they had to take some headache medicine and spend some time resting, while Eirwen and Ashlyn are doing better and are just keeping their classmates company.

"We are. It’s just a bit of a headache. The nurse gave us some medicine and left to check on more students somewhere else...so...what did the teacher say?" Charlotte asks as Rouge’s ears perk up, alert to whatever Tanya has to say.

"She praised us! A lot! She really seems very satisfied with our performance," Tanya says with a smile as she throws herself into a chair with an expression of pure satisfaction, making the others look at her curiously.

"R-Really? She p-praised us?" Ashlyn asks excitedly, all of them having worked extremely hard over the past few months, and being rewarded for their efforts leaves them excited.

It’s not about the praise itself, but who it comes from. They have seen how difficult it is for Zenith to be satisfied or praise anything, so praise from her is worth far more than praise from most people.

"Yes! She really praised us!! She admitted defeat herself!! We beat her!! Our plan was a success!"

"...Cool...but what about the letter?" Edith says in a slightly pained tone. Eirwen looks at her and then at Tanya, who says nothing. The atmosphere in the room instantly becomes heavy and uncomfortable.

"..." None of them say anything. They all received a letter from the government informing them of their new duties once they graduate. Obviously, Zenith doesn’t know yet, but she already imagined they would receive one at some point.

"Is yours the same as mine?" Tanya asks, uncertain of what she should say. They had all been avoiding talking about the letter until now, but now that they had defeated their teacher, things had changed, and they had to face the fact that things were about to move beyond their current situation.

"Mine is as a soldier, though it seems to be a position slightly above the rest of the soldiers, so I’m going to be a combat Kaira," Tanya says, giving them the basics of what the letter said her role would be.

"Mine is the same," Eirwen says with a nod.

"M-My role is as a support Kaira and strategic assistance..." Ashlyn gets a different position because, after extensive analysis by the army, Ashlyn seemed to perform better in support than in direct combat.

"Combatant, front-line Kaira," Rouge says, giving hers. The difference between her and Tanya and Eirwen is that Rouge will be sent directly with the first group that gets deployed, while Tanya and Eirwen would be sent as the second group on a mission.

Rouge’s position ends up being the least safe, consequently showing that the army saw less value in her than in Tanya and Eirwen. Rouge’s position is the same one Zenith and Nadir started in.

And although it is risky, it has great potential for growth in the future since it is connected to many missions.

"I’m an assistant to a vice commander," Charlotte says, a position that ranks above all the others.

"W-What!! Why!?" Tanya almost shouts, confused even though she doesn’t know what the position is. However, unlike the others, who simply waited, Charlotte ended up getting a little help from the same powerful woman who had helped before, showing the power of Myller’s connections.

Charlotte herself didn’t even know she was going to help. She never asked for help or said anything, but Myller discovered who Charlotte was on her own and helped her in return for the previous assistance.

"My letter said I could choose between being an assistant on the medical team or a combatant. They seem uncertain about where to place me," Edith says, explaining hers. Unlike the others, Edith can be either a combatant or a member of the medical team.

Both positions are important, and that is why the army didn’t choose for her, because it is an important decision that comes with consequences, and they would rather leave those consequences on Edith’s shoulders. She decided to join the medical team based on Zenith’s recommendation, and although it isn’t stated explicitly, the army would also prefer for her to choose the medical team after what they saw in her recordings.

"Well, it looks like we’re all going to be separated, then," Charlotte murmurs as they look at one another, realizing that each of them will be going to a different area and that they probably won’t see each other often on missions.

"It’s not that bad..." Tanya tries to act as though it isn’t a big deal, but she is sad that their time together is coming to an end.

"H-Hmph! It’s not like I like you guys or anything, but I’ll give you my number! After all, you’ll never meet anyone as incredible as me again," Tanya says, pulling out her phone and sending her contact information to the others through Nexus, something she had never seen as necessary before.

"Hahahaha," Charlotte laughs at Tanya’s attitude as she takes out her phone and sends her contact information to her as well. They all begin exchanging contacts with one another.

Having truly absorbed Zenith’s lesson about always having allies and the many times Zenith mentioned that they should have friends and people they could trust.

...

...

...

However, while Zenith’s students were growing through the experiences they had gone through, another person was also getting what she wanted.

"...It’s unfortunate that my disguise fell apart because of Maya, but with that, I no longer see any need to keep pretending. I don’t need to infiltrate among humans anymore," Delilah murmurs as she finishes mixing two vials, one containing a white gummy substance and the other a thick black goo.

Nêmesis got what she wanted. In the months after she escaped with Zenith and Nadir’s blood, she extracted all the data she needed from the two of them to improve her creation, a black goo capable of turning any human into a monster.

And it is no longer limited to Kairas. Now even ordinary humans will become some kind of random fear monster.

"Zenith and Nadir’s blood was perfect...but it also has everything I need to put an end to my plans," Nêmesis murmurs to herself, arriving at the exact same conclusion Zenith did.

Zenith and Nadir are now a risk. Their blood contains the answer to a cure for what Nêmesis created, and not only that, but as a successful experiment, Zenith and Nadir are the solution to ensuring that fear monsters will never be born again, even though no one besides Nêmesis knows that.

"...I need to kill those two...looks like I’ll have to return to Aurora Island...but I can’t fail at this..." Nêmesis looks through the window of the human base she found 40 years ago and has been using for her studies on humans. Behind the glass are countless monsters, former humans successfully transformed.

"...Humanity is fascinating, and I’ve always been interested in it...but now...I think it’s time for it to disappear...yes, humanity is no longer necessary," Nêmesis injects the black liquid into herself.

"..." Her body begins to shed the appearance of "Delilah," returning to its original form. She takes a deep breath, letting out a sound of pure satisfaction.

"It worked...yes..." Thanks to her creation, fear is no longer necessary. If humanity becomes extinct, the monsters will naturally become extinct alongside it, because their existence depends on humanity’s fear.

But not anymore. Thanks to what Nêmesis created, even if humanity disappears, every monster that was created by this liquid or received this black fluid will continue to exist even if there are no humans at all.

"I only have you to thank, Zenith and Nadir. You two wouldn’t disappear even if humanity died, even though you’re monsters. Thanks to you, I achieved something even better," Nêmesis says. This was not Nêmesis’s original plan.

She didn’t want to create a solution to the problem of disappearing. She only wanted to create something that would turn humans into monsters, but now she had achieved something even better: she had cut off any dependence she had on humanity.

"I still need time for my body to adjust to the changes...after that...the first thing I’ll do is kill those two." She leaves the room carrying a syringe.

"Nightmare, where are you? I have something for you to take. Didn’t you want to kill Nadir? I have something here that will increase your powers." Nêmesis, who brought Nightmare with her, begins looking for her.

Since Nightmare’s power is related to flesh, she is useful whenever Nêmesis wants to test any liquid, chemical, drug, or medicine she creates. Even this "Monstrification Medicine" was created using Nightmare’s flesh as a test subject alongside the countless humans she captured.

"...Hmph!! Finally!! You took so damn long!! It’s been months!!" Nightmare comes out of one of the rooms, speaking in a frustrated tone.

"Here, inject this into your arm or neck, and be patient. You’ll still be useful. I’m going to attack Aurora Island, but not now. We’ll need time. First, I want to get more monsters for the attack." Nêmesis knows very well how strong she is.

But she can’t guarantee that she would be able to kill Zenith and Nadir if both of them escaped while she was fighting an army, so to guarantee their deaths, she wants to launch an attack that makes escape impossible.

"...You’re not tricking me, are you!?" Nightmare became much more cautious after discovering that the "Hooded Woman" she had been helping was Nêmesis herself.

"No. After we kill Nadir and Zenith, you’ll be free to do whatever you want. I really don’t care, as long as you cause as much chaos as possible among the humans on the day we attack them."

"..." Nightmare takes the syringe and runs to her makeshift room, wanting to keep her distance from Nightmare.

’It’s a shame. I wanted to test more of humanity and understand them better, but that doesn’t matter anymore.’