Chapter 196: Evil God Sacrifice, Contract Beast

"An Evil God… sacrifices? And the end of the world?"

A cold night wind slid through the gaps between the trees, setting the leaves rustling.

Chie Hoshinomiya pulled her coat tighter. Fear was in there, sure — but confusion ran deeper.

Why her?

True, after learning the Black Sphere existed, she'd followed the trend and quietly tried her hand at Ripple Breathing — the thing everyone swore did wonders for your complexion — purely to keep herself alive.

But her age was what it was, and her talent wasn't much. Without the cheat code of the [Hyperbolic Time Chamber] propping her up, she was still stuck half-baked, not even properly through the front door of the art.

With combat ability that flimsy — the kind that hands out a free kill the second an exam starts — she'd still been picked at random and dumped into a Revival Match instance whose name alone was enough to crush a person's hope?

No matter how she turned it over, Hoshinomiya couldn't make it add up.

Was it… just because she was the homeroom teacher of Ichinose's class?

Or simply because she'd gotten too close to Sae Chabashira?

Had the Black Sphere's judgment system mistaken her for someone tight with its favored core players and dragged her in to pad the numbers? 'Oh, give me a break… our friendship is one hundred percent plastic!'

Hoshinomiya wailed to herself, too wrung out to even manage tears.

Seeing her homeroom teacher's ashen face, Yotsuya Miko patted her lightly on the back.

Miko's own small face was pinched tight with worry, but she still offered a soft word of comfort. "Hoshinomiya-sensei, don't give up yet. I tested it a moment ago — the Ripple inside me and the Combat Suit I'm wearing both work normally here."

"Strictly speaking, being able to use force in an instance like this isn't automatically good news…"

"But for us, it's some comfort at least."

"As long as we're not completely helpless, I think we can put up a fight."

Chie Hoshinomiya nodded a little at that, and her nerves settled by a fraction.

All she could do now was pin her hopes on Yotsuya Miko — and on a rescue that might arrive who knew when.

Before that, though, there was something else worth her attention.

Ryuji Kanzaki and Chihiro Shiranami had both died in earlier Black Sphere exams, and yet here they stood, handed a shot at a Revival Match by some hidden mechanic of the Sphere.

Didn't that mean…

Even if she died here, it might not be the end?

Chie Hoshinomiya gathered herself and spoke up, her voice careful with concern. "Shiranami-san, Kanzaki-kun… what happened to you two after you 'died'?"

"It must have been… so hard."

Shiranami Chihiro lowered her eyes, thought for a moment, then answered a little uncertainly:

"Honestly… after I died, I went straight home. My house, literally. But I'd become something like an earthbound spirit — I couldn't leave a certain radius."

"Then, later, the Black Sphere reached out to me. It told me that lucky ones like me who keep their consciousness will slowly warp as time passes if we go too long without reincarnating. We turn into vengeful spirits, and the chance is gone forever."

The girl's tone dipped as she remembered those lonely days. "So I took the trials the Black Sphere set for me. My first one was at the harbor, while everyone was taking the advance test — I had to stay out of sight of every single person. Passing it earned me the right to be 'seen' by one living person. Yotsuya-san knows about that part."

Yotsuya Miko nodded along beside her.

"Mm. When I first entered the ruins exam site, I ran into Shiranami-san, and that's how I found out about the Black Sphere… except back then, I was the only one who could see her."

"And I was afraid that if I blurted it out to Ichinose-san and the others, it might set off some accident we couldn't take back, so I kept it from everyone…"

Shiranami Chihiro glanced at her with understanding, without a trace of blame.

She was about to say something when Ryūji Kanzaki, standing off to one side, rubbed his chin and calmly picked up the thread.

"So the Black Sphere's revival process runs pretty much the same for both of you?"

"I started out as an earthbound spirit too. After clearing one trial, I earned the right to be seen by a single person; after a second, I finally shook off the limits of being a 'ghost,' which is why I can stand here and take part in this final Revival Match." Kanzaki pushed his glasses up.

"In other words… if you become a ghost in that first stage, you absolutely cannot be found by any living person."

"Absolutely cannot be found…"

Chie Hoshinomiya murmured the words back, and her face went grim.

Back when the Black Sphere first arrived, that process would have been manageable.

But now? Plenty of people out in the world had trained in the Ripple or in breathing arts.

Like the last exam site in Tokyo, where the Intruders alone had been pushing a hundred…

Honestly, at a density that high, Chie Hoshinomiya couldn't begin to picture how she'd dodge that many pairs of eyes long enough to scrape by if she died and turned into an earthbound spirit.

Odds were she wouldn't even make it through the first seven days before some passing Ripple user saw through her at a glance and sent her on to the next life as a puff of ash.

Kanzaki caught the panic on his teacher's face, but he didn't linger on the subject.

"Hoshinomiya-sensei, instead of worrying about what comes after death, we should be thinking about the mess we're standing in right now."

"The Black Sphere told us we're here as 'sacrifices,' which means the other side is most likely human as well."

"But this carries the difficulty rating of a Revival Match, and the instance may even tie into the destruction of a world. Whoever they are, they won't be simple."

Chie Hoshinomiya hesitated, brow furrowed, then ventured, "The prompt said we clear the stage if the sacrifices die? I still don't know how it's actually judged this time. Does that mean a few of us have to die no matter what?"

"No."

Shiranami Chihiro drew a deep breath, and Ichinose's figure surfaced in her mind.

She straightened her back and laid it out in her best friend's tone. "Even if the people behind this intend to complete the ritual by the rules, an accident is an accident precisely because it can't be predicted."

"What if the sacrifices die in the wrong order? What if their ceremony has a hole in it to begin with?"

Kanzaki looked at her, mildly surprised.

He clearly hadn't expected her to have grown this much.

Then again, after walking the line between life and death and enduring a loneliness most people could never stomach, a change like that made sense.

He drew his gaze back and nodded in agreement.

"Either way, we shouldn't stake our survival on the enemy's mercy."

"Striking first and hunting for the flaw is our only road out."

He was already moving to assign them a formation.

But Yotsuya Miko, who had kept the Ripple circulating and her eyes on their surroundings the whole time, suddenly dropped her voice as though an army had appeared. "Everyone, careful… I think we've got company."

"That's… Yotsuya-san, Shiranami-san — and Hoshinomiya-sensei?!"

Amikura Mako had been keeping close on Chris's heels, inching through the Infinite Corridor of the Mirror World, when familiar figures surfaced on a huge mirrored wall at the edge of her vision.

She froze, then clapped a hand over her mouth and cried out.

The others, Chris included, turned to follow her stare.

The glass worked like a perfectly tuned monitor, showing Yotsuya Miko and her group standing in a grim stretch of forest, crisp and clear.

"So it's really happening…" Hayasaka Ai frowned, thinking it through. "Did the Black Sphere start another exam early the moment we left?"

"Or is this image showing us the future rather than the present… meaning the corridor itself isn't bound by time?"

"Then… what do we do now?" Kei Karuizawa edged closer to Chris and asked quietly.

Chris glanced down at the three-dimensional radar on the Controller at his wrist.

"We don't know their exact situation yet, and barging in could backfire. Let's finish getting each of you a Contract Beast first — once you can protect yourselves, we'll come back and look into this."

"By then, I'll see whether I can cut the mirror open with the [Enma Blade] and do something from our end."

Amikura Mako pressed her lips together, eyes locked on the familiar faces from her own class.

After a long, silent moment, she made up her mind.

"Chris-kun."

"There are way too many mirrors in this corridor. I'm worried that once we're done, we won't be able to find this particular screen again…"

Amikura Mako tightened her grip on the [Blank Card Box]. "How about the rest of you go find Contract Beasts, and I stay here and watch what's happening? When you're finished, you can use the Controller's positioning to come get me."

"The Ripple runs freely in the Mirror World anyway, so the Blank Card Box should work fine too, and with the Combat Rifle… holding my own shouldn't be a problem."

Hearing that, Hiyori Shiina's face clouded over with worry.

For one thing, they knew almost nothing about this eerie place; nobody could say what dangers came with splitting off alone.

For another, going by the Contract Beast power ratings the Controller had displayed earlier...

It was anyone's guess whether a Combat Rifle would do lethal damage to those Mirror Beasts or just make them angrier.

But Amikura Mako's concern was real, too…

While Hiyori Shiina was still tying her small head in knots over it, Chris spoke.

"If this is your own decision, Amikura, we've got no right to stop you."

He paused, looking her straight in the eye. "But listen, Amikura — you already know this, and I'm going to say it anyway."

"Don't move around unless you have to, and whatever happens, don't act on impulse because of something you see in that mirror. We'll come back for you as fast as we can."

Amikura Mako nodded hard. "Don't worry. I'll take care of myself."

Hiyori Shiina started to speak, then swallowed the protest already on her tongue.

'Look on the bright side,' Hiyori told herself. 'The ticket that opened this world was something Chris-kun earned by clearing a bonus instance.'

'However rotten the Black Sphere is, surely it wouldn't deliberately plant traps to toy with us in a place it labeled a reward, right?'

On the surface, at least, the presiding god was still operating under the banner of "nurturing," wasn't it?

With that, Hiyori Shiina pulled herself together and stayed tight on Chris's heels as they pushed deeper.

They hadn't gone far when, at a slightly wider bend of mirrored wall...

They found a Magnugiga with its head hanging low, seemingly zoned out.

Chris reached over and tapped Hiyori Shiina's shoulder. "Go give it a try, Hiyori. Don't be scared — I'm right here to protect you."

Hiyori Shiina nodded firmly.

Staring at the mechanical behemoth that looked like it had crashed mid-boot, she took a deep breath, raised the [Blank Card Box], worked up her nerve, and crept closer step by careful step.

And then, at the very instant she was about to reach it —

"Screeee—!"

A short, shrill bat cry ripped down from above.

The dormant Magnugiga shuddered and snapped awake.

It lifted its head and bellowed at empty air.

Then it took a step forward, hunting for the perfect angle of attack.

But that sudden step carried it right into Hiyori Shiina, who had flinched and thrown the Blank Card Box up on reflex to shield herself.

"Vwoom—!"

The instant girl and beast touched...

Blinding white light erupted.

It swallowed the Magnugiga's entire body.

When the glow faded, the plain surface of the card box had taken on a coat of dark green, and a simple little bull icon had appeared on it in the same moment.

"It — it worked?" Hiyori blinked down at the box in her hands, dazed.

Behind her, Kei Karuizawa and Hayasaka Ai had watched the whole thing without letting their guard slip.

Instead they looked up at once, tracing that bat cry back to its source.

Chris checked the Controller and called out, "It's close — right above your heads!"

Their heads were already up before he finished.

A massive, pitch-black bat was dropping without a sound from the mirrored dome overhead, wings beating as it dove straight at them.

It had clearly marked the two girls below as prey.

Chris's eyes went cold, and his hand swept back for his blade.

Then something caught at the edge of his vision.

Hayasaka Ai had already shown what she was made of, seizing the completely unprepared Kei Karuizawa by the collar and hauling her backward.

Chris raised an eyebrow and pulled his hand back in time.

"Hey!" Kei Karuizawa yelped as the pull threw her off balance.

Hayasaka Ai rode the recoil of her own yank, slipping aside and slamming the [Blank Card Box] into the bat.

"Got you."

The same blinding white light flared all over again.

The black bat was sucked into the box with a piercing shriek.

Chris frowned slightly at the sight.

"Figures. Contract Beasts or not, these Mirror Beasts hold on to their aggression and predatory instincts until they're tamed."

"Which doesn't look good for Amikura. I just checked the Controller — there's a Mirror Beast closing on her position fast."

Kei Karuizawa, who had only just picked herself off the floor and was rubbing her elbow, didn't even get a chance to thank Hayasaka Ai for the save before she burst out:

"Then let's hurry back to Amikura!"

"If these Mirror Beasts are this interested in us, why scatter all over the place looking for them? Let's just sit tight and wait — they'll come to us on their own!"

Chris nodded. "Works for me."

"Let Hiyori and Hayasaka get used to their new partners for a minute, then we backtrack."

Meanwhile.

After Chris and the others left...

Amikura Mako had stayed behind on her own.

She took out her own [Blank Card Box] and gripped it tight in her left hand, the Combat Rifle leveled in her right.

One eye stayed on the radar screen set into the stock; the rest of her attention went to the mirror in front of her, the one showing the world of The Cabin in the Woods.

In the image...

After Yotsuya Miko sensed something was off...

The group had ducked into the cabin in the woods to escape the risks of the open forest, hoping to scrounge up something they could defend themselves with.

But as a sacrificial ground built by human hands, that cabin was anything but a safe house.

As they filed in, she saw Yotsuya Miko's expression change.

She seemed to have picked up on some chemical agent hanging in the air, something that tampered with human emotions, and was urgently trying to warn the others that they couldn't stay long.

Then everything went sideways.

A Facehugger hiding in a dark corner of the ceiling had already latched onto the face of a boy frantically digging around for a gun.

On her side of the mirror, Amikura Mako clapped both hands over her mouth.

Thankfully, the Yotsuya Miko in the image reacted fast.

Forcing down her fear, she lit both hands with golden light.

"Ripple Overdrive!"

She channeled the Ripple into her boomerang and tore the revolting arthropod clean off the boy's face, destroying it on the spot.

But.

Amikura Mako, watching from a god's-eye view, saw it all too clearly.

In the instant the Facehugger was torn free...

Something had already slid down that boy's throat.

"Oh no — please, somebody notice!"

Her chest wrenched tight, and there wasn't a single way to pass the warning through.

What drove Amikura Mako closer to despair came next.

While she was watching The Cabin in the Woods, her eyes drifted to the neighboring mirror screen.

And there she saw the world Akane Tachibana, Miyabi Nagumo and the rest were standing in.

Wherever they were, it was clearly a town straight out of a medieval fantasy.

What did that mean?

It meant Akane Tachibana's group and Yotsuya Miko's group weren't even in the same world.

'How can this be… what kind of sadistic difficulty is this?!'

'Tch… what am I supposed to do to help them? If Chris-kun were here…'

Amikura Mako bit her lower lip, muttering the words under her breath again and again.

And right then, with the screen holding all her focus and her guard on the real space around her gone slack —

"Kraaa—!"

A cry like a swan's shrieked past her ear.

Amikura Mako snapped back to herself and whipped her head around on reflex.

At the far end of the corridor, an enormous swan Mirror Beast, its feathers white as fresh snow, was beating its wings and diving straight at her.

With the threat that close...

Survival instinct snapped the Blank Card Box up in Amikura Mako's hands.

____

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