Chapter 445

“Aaaaaaagh—…”

Faint screams reached me from somewhere in the distance. Prisoners and guards, most likely. I pressed the artifact to make the transmission clearer and asked.

— [Sir Ernst, all the windows on every side of the building have shattered, and a mud-like liquid is pouring down the walls. It appears to be vitriol!]

Another rampage incident. I was reminded of the day we dealt with the 3rd Grade Rampager at the psychiatric hospital. The problem was that this time, the entire building had been contaminated. This was supposed to be the moment when we finally caught the culprit. So why now? Who had done this?

‘They didn’t just get exposed to the drug by chance.’

Someone had deliberately spread the rampage drug here, at this exact time. They were threatening us while holding the lives of innocent people in their hands. My thoughts sharpened as my mind went cold.

There was one strange thing about this. My target—the culprit we were looking for—wasn’t someone who could do this. Before breaking the soundproofing spell, I switched channels and shouted into the artifact, which was otherwise silent.

“Your Highness, I am heading to the prison now.”

[Attention, citizens of Munich.]

Vrrrrrr—

[A 1st Grade contamination has occurred at Stadelheim Prison in Giesing. Repeating, a 1st Grade contamination has occurred at Stadelheim Prison in Giesing. If victims escape the building and begin wandering the streets, immediately take shelter somewhere out of sight…]

The warning sounded at just the right moment. 1st Grade. I didn’t know whether the individual victims were particularly powerful, but judging by the scale of the rampage—numbering in the hundreds—the incident had probably been classified as 1st Grade based on the sheer number involved. Stadelheim Prison had been expanded along with the city’s population and could now hold nearly a thousand people.

I bit the inside of my cheek and swallowed. Through the intermittent static, a mage continued broadcasting news of the rampage throughout Munich. I closed my eyes and traced a point in the air with my finger. I pictured Stadelheim Prison’s coordinates, then shifted a few marks to the side and fixed a new set of coordinates in my mind.

BOOM—!

With the sound of my staff striking the ground, I warped onto a nearby road. The moment I arrived, I nearly covered my nose, even through the mask. My skin prickled. The barrier had been broken. Stadelheim Prison was enclosed by a defensive wall, but thick black sludge was already spilling over it and splattering down in heavy drops. It was impossible not to know what was happening inside.

— Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath…!

A trembling voice recited a spell from inside the barrier. It was probably one of the prison mage guards. It was a purification spell that used mana, one whose results varied greatly depending on the caster’s skill. The mana changed its shape to match the structure of the vitriol particles and devoured them. Since it relied on mana, it could never purify the contamination completely, but it produced an effect at least somewhat similar to divine power, so it was only natural that they would instinctively resort to it when fighting to survive. But…

— Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath!

Vitriol had the property of absorbing other people’s mana and making it its own. Even the slightest lack of ability on the caster’s part would turn the spell into little more than fanning the flames. I lowered the arm covering my face and gripped the staff with both hands.

— Wash away all my iniquity.

Light pierced my optic nerves. I felt divine power surge out from me and plunge into the ground.

— And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me!

BOOOOM—!

The vitriol that had been bursting endlessly outside the barrier was driven straight back into the wall. Someone clinging to the watchtower rolled down and escaped beyond the barrier. One of the guards. Just then, New Human police mages warped in from the distance. Purifying the guard running toward the police with divine power, I sprinted to find the entrance.

“Sir Ernst!”

A divine power mage wearing a government badge came running toward me and called out. I gestured for him to handle purification in the streets outside, then plunged through the thick iron doors the prison guards had opened. Countless people lay sprawled across the grounds, screaming as vitriol covered their bodies.

I heard Leo taking command of the 101st through the artifact.

— [101st, do not separate from the divine power mage currently beside you. Once the initial containment is complete, move into the prison. Hohenzollern–Askanien will handle the inside, while Zähringen–Kleist handles the victims who escaped outside. I’ll join Hohenzollern–Askanien within five minutes, so…]

“Sir!”

Someone lying face-down with vitriol covering his entire body screamed at me. I struck the staff down again while reciting another purification spell. The sound of it tearing through the air stabbed at my ears.

I thrust the staff forward, forming a tendril of mana, wrapped it around his arm, and flung him behind me. He had only been contaminated moments ago. We had to get the people who were still unharmed out first—the healthy ones, while they still could be. The police could take them to the hospital.

I glared at the countless victims rushing toward me and brought the staff down again.

— Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

BOOOOM―…

The same divine power erupted in bursts all around me. I kept pouring out divine power, focusing only on what lay ahead. The dim world was now as bright as midday, and the ground itself seemed to glow like a sphere of light. The air, thick with vitriol contamination, slowly began to clear. Divine power surged up from the ground beneath my feet, flowed through my body, then returned to the earth. The flow was far smoother than when I used mana.

Beep―

— [Sir Ernst. All seven of the remaining divine power mages have been summoned.]

Leo spoke into my private channel.

I’d told the Chief of Staff that we would deploy five divine power mages. One of them was me. One had been assigned to Elias, and another to Zähringen. The remaining two were still with Leo at the Response Headquarters, ready to be deployed if anything happened. Now, all ten Special Management Grade divine power mages except the two assigned to Elias and Zähringen would be coming here. Voices overlapped in my other ear.

— [All Beta-grade Special Management personnel have arrived at the prison’s main gate.]

— [Five victims are fleeing toward Chiemgau Street! They’re turning at twelve o’clock! Whoa―!]

— [Foot traffic has been secured on the road from Stadelheim toward the Orthodox church.]

— [Minister Ernst! Are you at the scene?]

“I’m a hundred meters from the prison gate. Can you hear me? Which building did the first rampage begin in?”

— [The southern prison building.]

Of all places, it had to be the one with more inmates. I clicked my tongue and gave my orders.

“Find one of the escaped guards and get the cell keys. Lord Arco, Lord Fugger, Lord Escher. The moment the keys arrive, enter the northern building. Hand everyone over to the police just as before.”

All three were Special Management Grade mages from Bavaria. The divine power mages who had reached the main gate, along with their assistants, were sending the people I had purified outside. I was immensely grateful that I could use divine power freely. Looking at the vast grounds glowing white beneath us, I continued.

“Lord Rothenhahn. And Lord Hohenzollern of the 101st Unit, along with the other two members of 101st Unit. You will enter the southern building with me.”

“Yes.”

The voice of a middle-aged mage came from right behind me. I glanced at him, then sprinted toward the southern prison building. Then someone at the Response Headquarters issued an order I hadn’t given, but one that needed to be given.

— [The remaining Gamma-grade mages are to purify the grounds outside the prison buildings from within the barrier. We have stationed New Human officers from the Munich Police Department all around the outside of the barrier, so once the prisoners have been purified, you may simply throw them over the barrier and send them out.]

BOOM—!

“AAAAAAAGH!”

The night air was cold. It had been a while since I’d heard the screams of Rampagers.

I changed my staff back into a wand and kept running, continuing to chant the purification spell. Whenever a victim charged at us along the way, Lord Rothenhahn drove them back with a sword whose blade had been blunted. Usually, when dealing with Rampagers, it was better to have someone nearby who was skilled at casting spells, but now that we were rushing toward our objective, having someone with exceptional swordsmanship at my side was useful.

Those who had made it outside were either prisoners who had torn through the iron doors of the southern building themselves, or prisoners who had escaped the northern building after the guards opened their cells once they realized how serious the situation was. Both groups were for the people handling the purification outside, while we had to rescue those still trapped inside the buildings.

‘Even after developing Atropos, they still haven’t abandoned the rampage drug? I suppose that’s only natural, though…’

I hadn’t expected them to actually use it like this even now. But in a situation like this, wouldn’t the losses be enormous even for them?

BOOM—!

— Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.

With the flash of light, the vitriol around us lost its momentum and faltered to a stop. More and more Rampagers were beginning to converge on us. When I struck the ground once more with my staff, the black sludge flying toward my limbs and the people around me was blasted away in every direction.

Lord Rothenhahn, running beside me, infused his sword with both divine power and golden mana.

“Minister Ernst, I will clear the way. Please support me from behind with divine power.”

“Yes.”

I heard the sound of his sword cutting through the air. Rather than using my staff, I pushed divine power through my feet and released it into the ground, while occasionally switching back to my staff and sending any victims rushing at us from behind flying far away.

There was something strange about this. Since the negotiations, Pleroma had made no new attempts to spread their drugs, aside from the rampage drugs they had already buried and left in place. The number of rampage incidents had also gone down, and of course, they had made no move dramatic enough to land them on the front page of the Imperial Dailies. This situation ran completely counter to Pleroma’s recent strategy of avoiding trouble in the German states for the time being.

They were not killing people in Germany with Atropos. They had tried to kill Lukas Askanien, yes, but that seemed to be a special case. Pleroma clearly had the means to infect Germans—even if they had already infected some—and yet, after waiting all day, not a single German noble had died. If they wanted to achieve their goal, they could not afford to cause a disaster big enough to make the front page of the Imperial Dailies. That meant they should not be killing large numbers of Old Humans either.

‘Then why had they caused a rampage incident on this scale?’

Lord Rothenhahn suddenly drew in a sharp breath. I felt my own breath catch. A dense mass of vitriol was rushing toward us from somewhere. Someone covered head to toe in black sludge came charging at us.

Why would Pleroma choose to blow themselves up in a massive facility holding around a thousand people, prisoners and staff alike? Black liquid surged from the victim’s body, curling through the air in a wide arc. If they had refrained from doing something like this, they might have been able to watch the international community isolate the German government without exposing themselves so blatantly. I raised my wand at the victim ahead of us and shouted.

— Ascribe to the LORD, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

BOOOOM―! Whoosh―! BANG―!

When the vitriol failed to erupt, Lord Rothenhahn forcefully shoved the victim’s neck aside with the back of his sword. A scream rang out. Even though he had struck with the flat of the blade rather than its edge, the smell of blood filled the air. I could feel another divine power mage pinning him down.

“Response Headquarters, do you copy?”

— [Yes, Your Excellency. Go ahead.]

“Contact the Ministry of the Interior immediately. Find out whether the prisoner-exchange portal is still open or has been closed.”

— [Understood.]

I wasn’t asking whether the physical route was open. I was asking whether the written diplomatic channel for the prisoner exchange was still open. I crossed the vast prison grounds in silence, waiting for an answer. Unwillingly, I had to listen to the screams around me.

“AAAGH―…”

“Don’t fire Mana! Stop!”

Splat―

My pace began to slow. The closer we got to the southern prison building, the stickier the ground became. The stale, heavy air had cleared somewhat thanks to the divine power mages, but the vitriol constantly erupting from the building quickly canceled out our purification. Black vitriol was bursting and dripping from the shattered windows. I could feel sweat running beneath my mask. When I narrowed my eyes and looked up, the barrier flickered ominously across the night sky, lit by jagged cracks running through it.

— [Sir Ernst. We have arrived. I will open the door.]

It was Elias’s voice. I could see Elias and Leo running over from the opposite side. They had entered from the southern wall a little earlier than we had. Watching them head in through the main entrance, I yanked open the half-torn rear door of the southern prison building.

“…!”

There was a body right at the entrance. Judging by the uniform, it was a guard. We had no time to move the body outside the grounds, so I carefully laid the bleeding guard beneath the awning outside the building before heading in. The three-story building had two doors just along the entrance passage, followed by another barred gate every five cells. In other words, starting from the central section, there were barred gates on either side, with more doors continuing beyond them. Farther down the corridor, completely rampaging prisoners were packed against each gate.

‘…No. They weren’t just pressed against them.’

The moment they saw us, they were tearing the bars apart. The second gate, weakened by corrosion, collapsed. The lamp hanging above it shook violently.

KRAAAASH—!! CLANG—!

FWOOSH—! BOOM—!

Vitriol came flying at our heads. People covered in black mud were rushing through the first gate. The only fortunate thing was that I could use divine power, and this area was surrounded by plants. I thrust out my wand to block the vitriol flying at us from every direction and shouted toward the person who had entered through the opposite entrance.

“Your Highness!”

BOOM—!

I never knew plant vines could make a sound like that. Leo was crouched low, gripping his staff with both hands as he unleashed his ability. Dark-green vines of grass and tree roots filled the dim corridor, where half the lights had gone out. I changed my wand back into a staff and slammed it against the floor while chanting a purification spell.

KRAAAAAASH—!!

— […The portal is still open, sir.]

As I grimaced at the deafening noise, the answer to the question I had asked earlier came through the artifact.

“The portal is still open? Even now?”

Surprisingly, Pleroma had no intention of breaking off negotiations. Even if they did intend to break them and simply had not cut the communication channel yet, something still did not add up if this whole incident had been their doing, as I had assumed. I needed to think it through. Was this really my target’s doing? I shouted to Lord Rothenhahn as I thought.

“I have cleared this area for now. I’m going up to the second floor. Please take care of the vitriol coming down from above.”

“Yes, sir!”

Or was it a third party? There were only a handful of people who knew I had sent that note. Following the route by which I had made the enemy aware of its existence, only those involved along that route could have set this in motion.

Create an enemy for the enemy and draw them out. Create an enemy for the culprit and draw the culprit out. That was my strategy. Therefore, just as Zähringen had pointed out, my enemy could not reveal themselves here. It was their enemy who had sent me the place and time of the meeting. That was the premise we were operating on.

If the enemy revealed themselves anyway, it meant they had seen through the strategy as my strategy. That was still within the range of what I had anticipated, and it did not mean the operation had failed.

Once they saw through it, they had three choices.

First, ignore it.

Second, accept my provocation and reveal themselves in order to negotiate with me.

Third, attack me.

The third option would be difficult given the enemy’s current political position—that was the very reason I had considered the enemy-of-my-enemy strategy likely to work in the first place. Their political position was already precarious.

So the enemy could choose the second option and reveal themselves in order to negotiate with me. Taking part in the negotiations was possible precisely because their intentions had been conveyed through the intermediary of their enemy.

The process might still turn hostile, but ultimately, killing me was not the enemy’s goal.

The moment I reached the second floor, someone grabbed me.

“Excuse me, sir! Over here—!”

I had no need to listen. This was a high-risk Rampager. I immediately placed a hand against their forehead.

— Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.

The instant drowsiness filled their eyes, I forced divine power into their core with my left hand. Vitriol burst from their entire body, and their face twisted in agony.

“AAAAAAAAARGH!”

BOOM!

I knocked them down and slammed my staff into the floor again. Judging by their condition, I couldn’t make it up to the third floor. I’d managed to suppress at least some of the vitriol coming down from the second floor, so it would be better to clear the first floor and then come back up.

Now, looking at the opposite case—when the enemy hasn’t figured out that the note strategy is mine—they still have three choices.

1. Pretend they never heard anything and ignore it.

2. Keep watch from a distance.

3. Storm the scene.

The third option, of course, can’t happen here because there is no enemy of the enemy.

Since they haven’t realized that this was my strategy, the first option—pretending they never heard anything and ignoring it—doesn’t make much sense. If that really happens, then we were wrong about who the enemy’s enemy was, and we’ll have to throw out another bait.

For them, the best option would be this: watch from a distance, then intervene once circumstances become favorable to them. That intervention might not happen tonight. It could become a strategic battle days or even weeks from now.

But we know there is no enemy of the enemy. Which means we also know that, of the three plans the enemy could have prepared, number three cannot actually be carried out. So we have to find the enemy in state two and strike first. In other words—

The option of the enemy attacking us first exists in theory, but only at an extremely low probability. And when could even that low-probability option happen?

— [Sir Ernst!]

Elias’s voice came through the artifact. I immediately headed downstairs, continuing my train of thought.

It could only happen if the enemy were willing to accept an ultimate loss. Ultimate loss. Not a loss incurred along the way. Unless adrenaline suddenly flooded them, they lost control of their reason, and rage took over their entire body, there was no rational way they would choose that option. So—

‘This wasn’t done by our target.’

Not Pleroma. Not our target. It was someone else. A third party had entered the game in Giesing tonight.