Chapter 321

Chapter 321: Chapter 321

The replacement team never reached him.

A second alarm erupted through the crystal before they were halfway across the grounds.

"Section Four breach! Multiple cages open!"

Rayleigh turned toward the far end of the western containment hall.

That section had not been touched by the Silverback.

Ardi’s voice followed a few seconds later, louder and more urgent than before.

"Three monsters loose in the service corridors! One already reached the supply route, and the cage doors weren’t broken—they were opened!"

That changed everything.

Rayleigh reinforced Gochūtekkan with another binding before leaving the Silverback.

"Bakudō #79: Kuyō Shibari!"

Nine black spiritual points formed around the monster and locked its body in place beneath the iron pillars.

Once he was satisfied the Silverback would need considerable time to escape both restraints, Rayleigh turned toward the damaged Hellhound enclosure and replaced Enkōsen with something more suitable for leaving unattended.

"Bakudō #73: Tozanshō!"

Four spiritual walls rose around the entire cage and connected overhead, sealing every escape route.

Rayleigh touched the crystal again.

"I’m leaving the main Silverback under Gochūtekkan and Kuyō Shibari. The damaged Hellhound cage is inside Tozanshō. Ardi, where are you?"

"Western market route. I’m evacuating workers and civilians."

"I’m coming."

He disappeared with Shunpo.

The western service corridor opened onto one of the temporary market streets, where overturned tables and abandoned food showed how quickly the evacuation had happened.

Most civilians had already been moved behind Ganesha’s barricades, but several workers remained trapped near a collapsed stall while a Liger Fang charged directly toward them.

Rayleigh appeared in its path before anyone else could reach it.

The monster leaped.

He caught it by the throat.

Its momentum shoved him half a step backward while its claws scraped across the front of his coat, but Rayleigh tightened his grip, turned with the movement, and threw the creature across the street.

The Liger Fang crashed through an empty fruit stand.

Before it could recover, Rayleigh formed a triangular frame of golden light.

"Bakudō #30: Shitotsu Sansen!"

Three beams slammed through the monster’s limbs and pinned it securely against the stone.

Ardi reached him moments later while directing two Ganesha members to carry an injured festival worker toward the nearest treatment area.

"The locks were opened manually," she told him. "Section Four has no structural damage around the doors, and the keys are supposed to be held by three different officers."

"So somebody wanted the cages open."

"That’s what it looks like. Shakti already knows, but we’re not investigating until everything is contained."

Rayleigh agreed completely.

Finding whoever had caused this could wait until civilians stopped being chased through Orario.

A roar from the next street interrupted them.

Ardi drew Nejibana as an armored Orc emerged from the alley with a Bad Bat diving above it.

"Rankle the Seas and the Skies, Nejibana!"

The blade transformed into its trident form as water spiraled around the weapon.

The Orc charged first.

Ardi thrust the trident forward, releasing a concentrated torrent that struck the monster squarely in the chest and drove it backward through the alley without killing it.

The Bad Bat immediately changed direction and dived toward the side of her head.

Rayleigh raised one hand.

"Bakudō #4: Hainawa!"

A glowing rope caught the creature in midair and dragged it away before it reached her.

Ardi glanced toward him while following the Orc. "I saw it!"

"You were looking the other way."

"I was busy!"

Rayleigh let the subject die there and used Shunpo to close the distance with the recovering Orc.

The monster swung at him.

He caught its wrist, redirected the blow past his shoulder, and drove one knee into its stomach before placing two fingers against its chest.

"Bakudō #9: Geki!"

Red light spread across the Orc’s body and paralyzed it where it stood.

Ardi immediately called the nearest recapture team rather than continuing the fight.

"Two more secured! Bring cages to the western market!"

The communication crystal crackled again as reports arrived from multiple sectors.

Shakti had already reorganized the Ganesha Familia into smaller response teams, and the number of uncontained monsters was falling quickly despite the deliberate sabotage.

Then one report changed Rayleigh’s direction.

"Southern supply route compromised! Large monster moving toward the civilian district!"

Rayleigh touched the crystal. "What kind?"

Shakti answered after a short delay while receiving information from someone else.

"Another Iron-Armed Silverback. Smaller than the one in western containment, but still much stronger than anything we intended to put near the outer routes."

Rayleigh remembered seeing a secondary transport entry on the holding manifest.

The capture expedition had brought back two.

"Current position?"

"Southwest market. Ardi stays here and finishes western containment. Rayleigh, you’re the fastest person available, so intercept it before it reaches the main street."

He had already started moving before she finished.

...

Rayleigh crossed the district over the rooftops, avoiding the evacuation routes below while following the screams and the Silverback’s unmistakable spiritual presence.

The monster had left an easy trail through the festival grounds, with several smashed stalls and damaged paving stones marking the direction it had taken toward the southern market.

As he drew closer, Rayleigh sensed a familiar presence near the monster and immediately recognized Bell.

That was irritatingly predictable.

He increased his speed and reached the next roof in time to see the Silverback advancing on a group of civilians trapped behind an overturned festival cart.

Hestia was helping two frightened children climb through a gap between the wreckage, while Bell stood several meters ahead of them with Tachikaze drawn.

The boy was clearly afraid, but at least the previous day’s training had survived contact with reality.

His feet remained underneath him, his body was positioned to move instead of meeting the Silverback head-on, and he was keeping the monster’s attention without rushing forward simply because he had a new weapon.

Rayleigh had no intention of standing on the roof to see how long that lasted.

The Silverback lowered its shoulders and charged.

Bell moved sideways just as Rayleigh had taught him, avoiding the center of the rush and cutting across the monster’s arm as it passed.

Tachikaze left a shallow wound through the fur, but the difference in raw power remained far too large for the strike to matter.

The Silverback turned immediately and swung backward.

Bell tried to retreat, but the arm was already closing the distance.

"Bakudō #81: Dankū!"

A transparent wall appeared between them.

The Silverback’s fist struck the barrier with a deafening crash that sent dust rolling across the street, but Bell remained untouched behind it.

His eyes widened as Rayleigh landed beside him.

"You did the first part correctly. The second part is remembering when something is too strong for you to handle alone."

Bell looked simultaneously relieved and embarrassed. "I couldn’t leave everyone behind me."

"I didn’t say you should."

Rayleigh pointed toward the civilians.

"Your job is getting them out. Mine is the monkey."

That was all Bell needed.

He sheathed Tachikaze and immediately returned to Hestia, helping move the trapped civilians away while Rayleigh released Dankū.

The Silverback roared and charged again.

Rayleigh met it halfway.

Instead of allowing the monster to build speed through the crowded street, he vanished with Shunpo and appeared directly beside its head, driving a Hakuda strike beneath the jaw.

The Silverback’s upper body snapped backward, and Rayleigh followed with a second blow to the side of its knee that forced one leg to buckle.

He raised his hand while the monster was off balance.

"Bakudō #61: Rikujōkōrō!"

Six golden pillars locked around its torso.

The Silverback immediately began forcing them apart.

Rayleigh added another restraint before it could regain leverage.

"Bakudō #63: Sajō Sabaku!"

Golden chains wrapped around both arms and dragged them against the monster’s sides.

It still refused to fall.

Rayleigh watched the muscles across its shoulders swell as the Silverback fought both bindings and sighed.

"Your bigger friend was exactly this annoying."

The monster roared in his face.

"Yeah, I know."

Rayleigh stepped inside its reach and drove his palm into its sternum.

The Hakuda strike landed with enough force to lift the Silverback’s feet off the ground.

It crashed onto its back with the restraints still wrapped around it, cracking several paving stones beneath the impact.

Before it could recover, Rayleigh raised one hand over the fallen monster.

"Bakudō #75: Gochūtekkan!"

Five iron pillars dropped and pinned it securely to the street.

Rayleigh waited several seconds.

The Silverback struggled, but this one was weaker than the monster still trapped in western containment, and the pillars barely moved.

Good enough.

He touched the communication crystal.

"Second Silverback secured in the southwest market. Send a heavy containment team and medical staff. Several civilians were trapped here, but I don’t see any serious injuries."

Shakti acknowledged the report before immediately redirecting him toward another sector.

Rayleigh looked over his shoulder before leaving.

Bell and Hestia had already gotten the last civilians clear.

Bell stood beside his goddess with one hand resting on Tachikaze, staring at the bound Silverback and then at Rayleigh as though replaying the entire exchange in his head.

Rayleigh pointed toward him.

"Remember what happened to your feet when it turned after the first attack. We’ll fix that next time."

Bell blinked, then nodded quickly.

"Right!"

Rayleigh disappeared before the conversation could become another training session.

Bell had survived.

That was enough.

...

By early afternoon, every escaped monster had either been recaptured or killed.

Two Ganesha Familia members had suffered serious injuries, several civilians required treatment, and a large section of the festival grounds looked as though someone had decided overturned stalls were part of the decorations.

Considering how many cages had opened at once, however, the casualties could have been far worse.

Rayleigh returned to western containment after the last emergency call ended.

The original Silverback was still beneath the restraints he had left behind, although three Ganesha adventurers had added enough chains around it to restrain a small dragon.

Ardi stood nearby with Nejibana sealed again at her waist.

"You weren’t exaggerating about bringing stronger chains."

"They listened eventually."

"After the monster bent two of the replacements."

Rayleigh looked at the enormous ape.

"That’s educational."

Ardi shook her head and handed him a bottle of water.

Shakti arrived several minutes later carrying a damaged lock in one hand.

She placed it on an empty transport platform in front of them.

"No break marks, no impact damage, and no sign that the monster forced this open from inside. Seven cages were released this way before the emergency locks came down."

Rayleigh crouched beside the mechanism.

Someone had opened it correctly.

That meant access to the keys, a duplicate, or someone capable of bypassing the mechanism without damaging it.

"Any witnesses?"

"Nothing useful yet. Several guards were found unconscious near the western storage rooms, but the healers haven’t determined exactly what happened to them. They’ll live."

Rayleigh examined the lock one more time before standing.

"Then don’t announce sabotage publicly yet. If whoever did this thinks we’re still treating it as an accident, they may make another move before they realize we’re looking for them."

Shakti’s expression hardened. "I was thinking the same thing. Ganesha has already ordered the Familia to seal the holding records and quietly identify everyone who had access."

Ardi glanced toward the wrecked containment corridor. "So Monsterphilia is over?"

Shakti looked toward the distant arena, where Ganesha could still be heard trying to calm thousands of confused spectators.

"For today? Absolutely."

Rayleigh finished the water Ardi had given him and picked up the damaged lock from the platform.

"Good. Then I’m borrowing this."

Shakti raised an eyebrow. "Planning to investigate personally?"

"Someone released monsters into a district full of civilians while I happened to be standing beside the cages. I’m taking that personally enough to be curious."

She considered the answer before nodding.

"Keep me informed if you find anything. Until we know who did this, assume they may have had access to more than one part of the festival."

Rayleigh slipped the lock into his coat and looked once toward the southern district, where Bell and Hestia had already disappeared among the evacuated civilians.

Bell could return to worrying about Goblins, Tachikaze, and whatever ridiculous growth Liaris Freese had planned for him.

Rayleigh had a different problem now.

Someone had deliberately opened seven monster cages in the middle of Orario, and unlike the original future he remembered, he had no reliable idea who had done it.