Larva 

The Hyperion, an interstellar orbital ship with an expanded residential zone. It was the embodiment of the ideals its developer Ibis had dreamed of in her youth. Her motive for drawing up fresh blueprints of her plan was her realization that the planet had begun its slow decline.

From when she was just a girl looking up at the sky to becoming a fully fledged researcher, the planet had become surrounded by pitch-dark interstellar matter, and its environment changed drastically. With the sky closed off by darkness, the surface temperature started to fall, and it became uninhabitable outside of specific areas. As reliable places to live decreased in number and Ibis tried to make sure as many people could survive as possible, she met a woman from a long-lived species. Her name was Momo. A scientist who lit a light in the world enveloped in darkness.

After that, with the help of both humans and beastmen, Ibis and Momo built a city where no one had to suffer from the cold. Later called Neon Nebula, this city was equipped with a number of features to withstand the cold and darkness.

As Ibis continued to improve the city's features over the long years, she forged ahead on a singular plan. That was, before the interstellar matter increased in density and crushed their planet, they would migrate to a different one. As the plan grew more realistic, Ibis confided in Momo about her plan. She thought that Momo would surely agree and they would make her dream a reality together, but Momo flatly declined. Momo knew that even if it meant death, no one would abandon their mother planet. It was the first time Ibis had been so definitively rejected. The two of them had always butted heads over their opposing opinions since they first met, but their clash that day tore their relationship apart completely.

When she came into power as one of Neon Nebula's rulers, Ibis established a company to make her dream come true—the IDC.

Ibis passed 100 years of age with no signs of decline, and her dream was just a step away. The last challenges were solving the Hyperion's energy problem and giving the people strong, innovative bodies unaffected by the conditions of the frontier.

No matter how difficult the road ahead, Ibis believed she could solve the problem. However, fate gave her a merciless end. Ibis was bedridden with an unknown illness.

With a rifle on his back, a middle-aged Human man in protective gear rode the elevator to a certain place. At present, he was in the skyscraper called Ibis Tower, which served as a museum of all of Ibis's accomplishments to date. Ibis lived on the top floor, closest to the sky, where one could see an unbroken view of the entire city. In front of him, a three-dimensional audiovisual tour guide expounded on and on about her career.

"Her history is not over. Until the day she can make her dream come true and lead Neon Nebula's people to a utopia..."

With a small pshh, it immediately started over from the beginning.

"Good grief. How many times have I listened to this? I'm tired of hearing it."

The moment he complained, the elevator reached the top floor. The repeating explanation stopped, and the elevator was engulfed in silence. The armed man had made it this far unscathed—the absolute minimum number of guards had been left behind while the rest were called to respond to the turmoil outside. Many citizens were currently gathered in Ibis's territory. Though they belonged to different factions, Anthro and Human, they all lived in the city and loved it dearly.

At first, they were trying to hold Ibis's lackey Lavina accountable for the commotion as well as investigate the credibility of rumors about human experimentation that the man had "leaked" over several days, but it was no longer the time for that. A free-for-all had broken out when some belligerent Anthros punched the guards handling the situation. The chaos spread in the blink of an eye as similar disturbances popped up throughout the district. Thus, the one responsible for the rumors was able to feign ignorance and head for the top floor, where Ibis was.

Ping!

The elevator door slowly opened.

"Now, I've no more need to dress like this," the man said, thrusting both arms forward the moment the door opened. A glowing silver liquid whirled from his sleeves and flew forward, wrapping around the necks of the guards posted in front of Ibis's personal room.

"Wha!?" "Eee—!"

They said nothing more. They were pulled into a deep sleep, still none the wiser, and collapsed to the floor.

"Don't worry. When you wake, everything will be the way it was."

It was not a Human in protective gear saying those words as he stepped from the elevator, but a gentlemanly figure wearing a hat that curved upward and a suit over his armor—Clayg, an enforcer of the Dimension Inspection Agency Logos. He was working in shadow to eliminate Ibis, who was involved in the outbreak of erosion in this world.

"...Now, let's head over to her."

Clayg strode over smoothly to the room where she was. The hallway was in a terrible state, with rough scratches on the walls lit by faint red light and black stains blotting the carpet as if something had crawled over it. It looked terrible, like a ferocious beast had rampaged through. Scattered across the scene were old toys that didn't suit the place, and scribbled drawings of robots. Clayg, having heard about Ibis's early life from the audio guide, knew exactly what they were. They were all the fruits of her dream—the driving force that supported her life. Respectfully avoiding them as he walked forward, Clayg arrived at the main hall, where Ibis was.

The devastation inside was just as bad as the hallway, like a storm had passed through. Then, Clayg laid eyes on Ibis. She was gazing out at Neon Nebula on the other side of a shattered glass window. It was then that she noticed his presence and turned around. Her figure, silhouetted in the flickering lights, looked so young he could hardly believe she was the same person displayed in the elevator. Her black hair streaked with red was long and glossy, reaching down her straight spine to her waist. The skin peeking out from her form-fitting white suit didn't look like that of someone over 100 years old.

"Awfully rude of you to barge in without so much as a hello."

"Sadly, I don't have any respect to pay to someone who isn't this room's owner."

"So you know about me?"

Without answering the Ibis-shaped thing's question, Clayg formed the silver liquid floating in the air into swords, one by one.

"Allow me to put you down before you 'take root' in this world, Larva."

Clayg launched the swords at her. She dodged each one, grinning with jagged teeth.

"Larva... Is that my name? Not bad, I like it!"

Without looking back, Larva grabbed the sword approaching her back and crushed it, and then something strange happened to her body. The whites of her eyes turned crimson and her pupils a pale silver, and she sprouted thin black tentacles that tore through her suit.

"Already 'hatched,' have you?"

"Ahaha! Too bad for you!"

Cackling gleefully, Larva threw her body from the tower. If she escaped here, there was a possibility she would find a new body to lay dormant in. Just as Clayg headed for the window to chase after her, something flew at him from outside the tower. Something massive enough to block his vision drew closer, as if to scrape him and the entire top floor off the building.

"...!"

Controlling his liquid to block the attack, Clayg shot through the room, giving off sparks against the floor—and plummeted to the ground below.

Meanwhile...

At the IDC research facility within Ibis Tower, Eirene and the others reunited with William and learned that they had been led there by someone disguised as him.

"Me but not me, huh..."

"I didn't think you were held captive all this time."

"Haha, so that's why you shouted when you saw me."

"I totally thought you were a ghost, I'm so embarrassed... I'm sorry."

William turned to the dejected Eirene and smiled. "I don't mind. Besides, none of this would have happened if Lavina hadn't grabbed me. I should be apologizing."

"Anyway..." he began, changing the subject. The thing making him uneasy was the fact that someone other than himself had spent the last four days with Eirene, Linne, and Momo. "That fake better not be doing whatever they want with my face..."

He couldn't stay calm.

"Did you say something?"

With an uncomfortable sensation deep in his chest, William asked Eirene a question. "Eirene, he didn't do anything weird, did he?"

"Weird? Umm... Not really... Oh, that reminds me."

"What is it?"

"We followed your directions exactly! Right, Linne?"

"Yep! Didn't go in the bath together!"

Not expecting to hear that, William sighed in relief, nearly toppling forward.

"Haha, I guess things were okay, then... Thanks for keeping your promise too, Linne."

"Ehehe."

He was glad Linne had been there in his absence. If the fake had a motive like Ankh, they wouldn't have been able to reunite like this.

"All right, that's enough of that. This is Ibis's territory, ya know? Shouldn't you be a little nervous or something!?"

"Huh, Momo...?"

William was bewildered when Momo's voice suddenly came from Gigi, who stood quietly behind Eirene. Then, a hiss of escaping air came from Gigi's head. Next, the mask-like armor covering the left side of Gigi's head opened up, and in the cavity sat Momo in a little chair.

"What!? Is that what it's like in Gigi's head!?"

William couldn't have imagined that her head would be empty enough to hold Momo. He looked curiously between Momo and Gigi when his eyes met Gigi's cold stare.

"Warning. William, you are currently thinking something very rude, are you not?"

"N-No way. I wouldn't."

"Ha, is that so?"

"A-Anyway. I'm glad you're both safe."

"Uh-huh," Momo replied. "Okay, let's get things sorted out. We came here to steal that guy back from Lavina."

That guy meant Ankh, who bore the same face as William and sought after Eirene. He was captured with William and subjected to all kinds of human experiments, but he had used his power to contort things to remove his restraints, and disappeared somewhere.

"If I know him, he'll be where Lavina is around now. We might be able to catch him now before he escapes. Eirene and I can—"

Just then, a violent tremor shook the entire building. The windows shuddered, as if they would shatter from any impact.

"What's all this shaking now!?"

"M-Momo! Please, look...look at that!" the Anthro guard accompanying them shouted with a trembling voice. Everyone turned to look out the window, and there they saw it. Blending in with the dim neon lights was a long and massive accordion-like tail floating in the sky.

"You're kidding... That's—"

"Momo, you know what that is!?"

"Yeah... That's the Hyperion!"

Meanwhile...

At Clayg's instigation, Fangsta's leader Sara-Jean had come to Ibis Tower with a crowd of followers when she was bewildered by a part of the tower suddenly falling from the sky and a gigantic tail appeared from the dust.

"Boss! What kinda monster's that humongous tail part of!?"

The voice of the crocodile beastman Dino brought her back to her senses when he ran over to her in a panic. No matter how robust their physiques, they didn't have what it took to face that thing that rivaled Ibis Tower.

"Boss—ngeh!"

Sara-Jean closed the unruly Dino's mouth, and, with a bitter expression, spoke the name of her old friend Ibis's dream.

"Hyperion... It's really complete."

----------

"Hyperion?" William and Eirene asked in unison, their voices echoing through the hall.

According to Momo, it was the name of the ship that Ibis—one of the "Three Chairmen" and Momo's old friend—had dreamed of since she was young. They couldn't see the whole thing out the window, but it was said to be a ship capable of interstellar travel, with a humanoid upper half and a long, snakelike tail below.

"S-So it's...a spaceship?"

Its shape was far too removed from William's concept of a spaceship.

"How does it even float?"

"If it's anything like the old design, there'd be four gigantic float units on the upper body with 'unparalleled propulsion!' on 'em."

It was the very definition of preposterous. And yet, it really was flying in the sky.

"No matter how much propulsion, it must take a ton of electricity just to keep it floating like—"

"It's got plenty."

"You don't mean..." Eirene seemed to realize something. William realized a moment later and looked down.

"Yeah, Neon Nebula," Momo said in a stiff tone of voice. "The light won't go out right away, but sooner or later we're all gonna freeze to death together."

"No way... What should we do...?"

"Simple. We gotta destroy it."

"Is there a weapon that can stop something that big?" William asked.

"...No. To be exact, there's no weapon that can get up to the altitude of those float units."

Neon Nebula had had its share of skirmishes, but nothing that developed into a major conflict. For that reason, there was no need to put effort into weapons development, and all resources allocated for such development were instead routed to the city's improvement and maintenance.

"Never thought Ibis would be so concerned about it. Do you really wish for the sky that much...?"

Momo seemed to be mumbling to herself, her words muffled and hard to hear.

"So let's go meet this Ibis person! We can convince her to stop the Hyperion!"

"...I dunno about that."

Momo seemed unsure. It seemed there might have been some kind of bad blood between the two of them, but the first priority right now was stopping the situation as soon as possible.

"She's even more bullheaded than me. Once she decides on something, she won't change her mind 'til she does it."

"Then you should change it, Momo."

William walked up to Gigi and put his clenched fist to her chest.

"I don't know what happened between you two. But while this city's in danger, you shouldn't leave any regrets!"

"...!"

The area was engulfed in silence. Momo caved to William's angry look, peeked out from Gigi's face, and said, "Let's go see her."

----------

As William and the others left the research building, someone watched them from afar—Ankh and the cat beastwoman Lavina. Lavina had been defiant toward Ankh until they bumped into each other in the research building, but now she did just as he told her.

"Hey, Lavina. Where's that saucer?"

"You mean Willard? I'm still not done with repairs... Nyaaah, you're not planning to attack them with it!?"

"Exactly."

"...Y-You can't. I have to get to Dr. Ibis right me—owww..."

Ankh scruffed her by the neck.

"I won't say it twice. Fix the saucer, now."

All Lavina could do was slowly nod, holding back her trembling body.

Meanwhile...

Clayg, who had suddenly been attacked by the Hyperion at the top of Ibis Tower, chased after Larva as she flew through the sky on pulsating red wings. When he first engaged the enemy, Larva had just barely retained Ibis's original form, but now she had transformed into something it would be fitting to call a monster.

Blood vessels stretched to every joint in her translucent blue body as if the cosmos was alive within her. The only trace of Ibis left was her head. Seeing Clayg hurl fragments of liquid forward to give chase, Larva spoke cheerfully, as if watching something interesting.

"Hahaha! You're pretty stubborn!"

Larva extended two black tentacles from her body and attacked, aiming for the shard of liquid Clayg was about to land on. However, they only sliced through his suit, and he took no damage. Not only did Clayg adjust the shard's position to avoid the attack, he readied the sword he created when turning around and sliced off the tentacles. His poise was unthinkably light for someone wearing metallic armor. Larva, not seeming to care whether they would kill each other, clapped her hands and grinned wide.

"Can that stuff do everything?"

"Not everything. But it can erase you from this world with ease."

"Oooh... Sounds exciting!" Larva said, and regrew the tentacles Clayg had cut off. Then, as if to imitate his fighting style, she transformed her right arm into countless thin, whiplike tentacles. "I wanna try too!"

The tentacles attacked all at once, drawing an arc around him so he would have nowhere to run. Even in the face of the tentacles pushing the fragments of liquid away and coiling around his body, he said calmly, without a trace of discomposure, "...Now's the time."

Shing.

Suddenly, a quiet metallic sound rang out.

"...nn?"

Larva, suspicious that her tentacles were not strangling Clayg to death even a bit, tilted her head slightly. That was when she realized—her vision was starting to lurch diagonally. Her body had been cut cleanly from right shoulder to left flank. The detached flesh pulsated like a fish out of water and shattered to pieces before it could hit the ground.

"M-My body—how!?"

"To think you're still alive in that state. Still, you may be a Larva, but a newly hatched specimen poses no threat."

The sudden voice came from above her head, and when she looked up, there was a woman in a red bodysuit standing on a liquid fragment.

"!?"

"Apologies for the late introduction," Clayg said. "Actually, I wasn't the only one chasing you."

The woman glared at Larva and reached for the sheath hanging from her jacket. Instinctively, Larva recognized it as the weapon that had put her in such a predicament, and planned to use the woman's body as her new base before the next attack. Then, the moment she tried to change her shape to possess the woman as fast as possible, her body, already cut in several slices, started to fall apart.

"It's already over," said the woman.

Larva could no longer even preserve her own body.

"No, I—I still—want—to live..."

Were her hoarse words Larva's desire, having taken control of the body in desperation, or those of Ibis herself? The answer dissolved into the dark of night, never to be known.

"...The erosion signal's disappeared," Astor confirmed, taking a device from her pocket and ensuring there were no traces of Larva left.

"Fine work, Enforcer Astor. I tried to let you attack unnoticed just in case, but it seems I worried for nothing."

"No, it's nothing so praiseworthy."

"You're a tough one. Ah, well."

Having eliminated this world's biggest threat, their remaining task was the investigation and cleanup of phenomena Larva had caused. Clayg had led Larva out of Neon Nebula, so they were near the underground facility they had put off dealing with. He descended to the ground with Astor using fragments of liquid, and together they proceeded to the facility.

"Mr. Clayg. There's one thing I'd like to ask."

"And that is?"

"That thing she seems to have activated—shouldn't we handle it?"

Just as Astor pointed out, the thing that attacked Clayg—the Hyperion—was still prowling the skies above the city. If it lost control without its master, Neon Nebula could be completely destroyed.

"There's no need."

"But! As it is, we'll just be sitting back and watching this planet be destroyed! We are guardians of order in the multiverse. If we have the power to save everyone, isn't now the time to use it!?"

"I believe I said this already, Astor. Our duty is to eliminate erosion, not to save the world," Clayg said, his voice cold. To drive the point home, he explained once more the danger of involving Logos. If those with superhuman powers like themselves were to get involved, there was no telling what kind of irregularities would arise.

"...Ugh."

Astor swallowed back her words before they could leave her throat, fighting against her own sense of justice.

"Come to think of it," Clayg muttered, seeing her reaction. "Astor, I believe I also said, 'I think the organization is stronger for bringing together those with different mindsets.'"

Astor couldn't quite see his true intentions from his roundabout manner of speaking. She furrowed her brows and glanced in his direction. Blue light peeked from the gaps in his helmet, staring straight back at her.

"It all depends on the method. Those with power can decide how to use it, Astor. I think you have that power."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sure everyone in the city is thinking about how to stop it. However, that doesn't necessarily mean they will succeed."

"..."

"They might make a fatal error one step from victory."

When he said that, Astor's expression softened. "In other words, Mr. Clayg, you're trying to say not to join the fight with them, but to worry about the end result?"

"..."

Astor took his silence as affirmation, stood upright, and saluted to Clayg. Then, she turned on her heel toward Neon Nebula, and vanished in an instant. Clayg watched the red trail of lightning continue on to the city and murmured, "You're still young."

"...Wha... The hell's all this?" Momo uttered.

As William and the others arrived in Ibis's private room at the top of Ibis Tower, they noticed the Hyperion, moving about Neon Nebula's sky as if it owned the place. However, the top floor that awaited them was a collapsed shell of itself, as if a tornado had swept through. Naturally, Ibis, who should have been bedridden, was nowhere to be found.

"Hey, someone's there."

Linne pointed to a pair of men lying on the floor. Gigi ran over and checked for breathing. They were both breathing, but no matter how much she shook them, they wouldn't open their eyes.

"Wh-Where's Ibis? Where'd she go!?" Momo yelled.

"Tracking..."

Gigi's eyes shone, and a thin bright beam of light lit up every nook and cranny of the floor, shining under all the wreckage.

"My apologies, Momo. There are traces that Ibis was here, but I cannot find her anywhere."

"That so..."

It was the worst case scenario. Not only was its creator Ibis missing, they had no choice but to stop the Hyperion themselves.

"How are we supposed to stop an enemy our attacks won't reach...?"

"Uh, um... I think I might be able to do it," Eirene said, then explained her thinking. Using her superpower—Teleport—she would leap up to the Hyperion. Her leaping range was short, but if she kept shifting from one place to another, it was extremely likely she could reach it.

"I do think you're suited for it, Eirene, but...it's just too dangerous."

As they came to the tower, William had noticed that the many arms extending from the Hyperion's torso were equipped with all kinds of weapons. According to Momo, it was designed for many purposes, packed full of dangerous sorts of things that would excite a child—swords, drills, cutters, and so on.

"There's definitely a possibility the Hyperion can be stopped," William continued. "But suppose you make it there—how do you stop it then?"

"I did a bunch of special training!"

"S-Special training...?"

Following the instructions of the person disguised as William, Eirene had come to grips with her own power. As she investigated what she could and couldn't do, she realized she could cause things she touched to jump. The range was similar to how far she could move with her Teleport.

"Oh yeah, you can use that to get at the Hyperion's vulnerability, huh?" Momo said.

When Eirene and Linne tilted their heads, repeating the unfamiliar word, William explained, "We'll attack that ship where it hurts the most."

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying."

"But it's so big—is there a place we can hurt it?" Eirene asked.

"There is," Momo replied. "A pretty exceptional one."

"Right, the float units!"

William understood Momo's idea and checked that his thinking matched hers. "We don't need to destroy all of them. There's two on each shoulder, so if we destroy two on one side, it should collapse under its own weight."

"Exactly." Momo broke off there, then explained what they should try to do. "It's been forced to keep sailing. If we stop it on one side, it won't be able to support its own body anymore, and crash from the weight."

It seemed like an insurmountable enemy at first glance, but somehow, they had found the first step to a strategy. Next, they needed to secure a weapon that could destroy the float units. Luckily, the float units' framework was exposed on the exterior, like an engine on a jet plane. All they had to do was use Eirene's power to throw in a foreign object.

"It looks like we've all decided what to do," Eirene said.

"Yeah."

They divided the roles as follows: William and Eirene would board the Hyperion via Teleport and stop the float units by launching two of Gigi's leg blades. Momo and Gigi would mobilize their subordinates and evacuate the residents of Neon Nebula. Linne would follow the Hyperion in case William and Eirene were shaken off.

"Linne, if something happens, I'll call your name. It's a very important job, so we're counting on you."

"Yep. I'll protect you."

The task was extremely simple: stop the Hyperion. Nothing more.

"Frustrating that I gotta leave the future of this city to you lot...you're the key to this strategy, no doubt. I'm countin' on you, William, Eirene."

"Yeah!"

"We'll stop it for certain!"

The battle where everything was at stake was about to begin.

On the roof of a certain skyscraper in the district Ibis ruled, William and Eirene surveyed the streets of Neon Nebula below. Having used Teleport to jump ahead, they planned to leap onto the Hyperion as it crossed between buildings, and head for the two float units installed on each side. If they stopped the float units on either side, it would be their victory.

"I know it's too late for this..." William said, "but it's higher than I imagined..."

"S-Sure is..."

They had made it this far determined to succeed, but the Hyperion was moving at low altitude, and the distance was greater than expected.

"Let's do our best, William! W-We've overcome walls like this so many—achoo!"

"Eirene, you okay!?"

On the skyscraper's roof, the blowing wind was freezing cold. It didn't matter how much protective gear they wore. At this point, it was hard to tell if they were shivering from the tension or the cold.

No, we have to go!

William made up his mind and grasped Eirene's small hand. As he felt the heat and something else coming from her hand, William shouted, loud enough so that the wind wouldn't drown him out. "Eirene!"

"Yes!"

"On my mark, we'll jump from the building!"

"Okay!"

They gripped each other's hands forcefully.

"We may be cowards, but—"

So much had happened before they made it here. They met in Wasteland, knowing nothing, where they were defeated by Ankh. But in Neon Nebula, they combined their powers to drive him back. Now, they faced a ship that would devour the city's light and cut off everyone's future—the Hyperion. The enemy was powerful. Even so, hand in hand, they could stand up to any opponent.

"Let's go, Eirene!"

"Yes!"

They leapt from the rooftop into the empty air! For a moment, they were engulfed in the feeling of floating, before they began to fall down to the ground. Then, the float units drew closer as the Hyperion crossed between buildings.

"Eirene! Now!"

"Okay!"

The Hyperion seemed to notice their approach. A cylindrical arm stretched from its waist to intercept them. Just as it seemed the chainsaw at the end of its arm had landed a direct hit, shaking the air around them, Eirene and William teleported away and landed on the edge of a float unit.

"All right, we made this close—just a bit left! Eirene, tell me when it's within leap range!"

"Will do!"

William aimed for the float unit, regarding his surroundings with caution. Then, he readied the blade on his back to hand over at any moment. Before long, the opportunity came.

"We can send it here!"

They were so close that they could feel the float unit's vibrations in their bones. William followed Eirene's voice and handed over the blade. As he supported her, she fixed her gaze dead-on to the float unit, and—

"Go!"

She teleported the blade. The next moment, the float unit sucked the blade in and began making strange noises. They could visibly tell that the float unit's output was dropping. Then, there was an explosion from inside. The effect was immediately apparent from the way the Hyperion moved. The float unit lost control and separated from the Hyperion, giving off smoke.

"We did it!" they cheered in unison.

"All right, let's keep—Eirene! Get us out of here, now!"

"Huh!?"

Just as she was told, Eirene teleported into the air with William. That same moment, a gigantic drill ran through the float unit where they had just been. There was no time for relief. Thrown into midair, the Hyperion's arms came after them in quick succession.

"Eirene, let's jump there!"

"Okay!"

Evading the glowing blue tentacle-like things, they landed in the middle of a tube extending from the Hyperion's head.

"If we hide here, we might be able to get away!" Eirene cried.

William hurriedly stopped her from trying to avoid the attacks between the tubes. The restlessly swaying tubes appeared soft at first glance, but their surface was hard and metallic. If they went between the tubes, they would probably be crushed flat. They left at once and clung to a protrusion on the Hyperion's neck. After calming down a bit, the two of them looked at the Hyperion again. With one float unit destroyed, the shaking was strong enough to feel. It tried to regain its balance, but each time it attempted to control its posture, there was a creaking sound. Just as William was estimating the right time to Teleport onto the second float unit, the Hyperion suddenly shook violently and tilted over.

"Oh, no—!?"

They were instantly thrown into the air.

"Waaaaaahhh!?"

The view changed at dizzying speed, their sense of up and down getting all jumbled up. The shock of being thrown made them let go of each other's hands. Amid the chaos, William quickly got his bearings and spotted Eirene. She was still screaming, unaware of what happened.

"Eirene! Listen to my voice!"

"Ah... O—Okay!"

She realized William was close by, and regained a bit of her composure. However, she still didn't have enough focus to teleport.

"W-William! Where do I go!?"

"It's okay! I'll come to you!"

William brought his arms and legs in and headed for Eirene—and hugged her.

"You're okay now!"

As she listened to his voice, Eirene's troubled heart calmed down. Then, she regained her concentration, and leapt to a nearby spot. They landed on top of the Hyperion's arm. The cylindrical arm moved forward, unstable, and a chainsaw appeared behind them with a furious noise.

"Wha-what just happened?" Eirene asked.

Just before they were thrown into midair, William had caught sight of something—the stream of power emitted when a target was distorted.

"Here I thought there's no way you'd show up at the worst possible time...isn't that right, Ankh!"

In response to William's shout, the culprit responsible for attacking the Hyperion and throwing them into the air showed himself in the sky. The man riding Lavina's saucer Willard—Ankh—was the biggest obstacle standing in their way.

"I think you mean the best time! 'Cause now I get to see your face twisted up in despair with my own eyes, William!"

After destroying one of the Hyperion's float units, William and Eirene set their sights on the second. But when they were just a step away, their path was blocked. In front of them was Ankh, riding Lavina's stolen saucer.

"And I thought we'd gotten a little closer!"

"Ha! I told you, I hate people like you!" Ankh shouted, and used his power, Verzerrung. With the dry sound of snapping fingers, the arm connected to the Hyperion's body contorted. Before their foothold completely crumbled, Eirene and William joined hands and tried to teleport. However, Ankh had grasped the nature of Eirene's power in their last battle, and before she could activate it, he controlled Willard to block their path.

"Ugh...!"

Eirene gasped, unable to activate her Teleport. Meanwhile, Ankh deployed Willard's mechanical arms to throw their footing off balance. Eirene focused again and teleported to a higher point. If it failed again, she wasn't sure what would have happened. She was able to avoid the attack this time, but she wasn't sure she could evade it again so easily.

"Hah, you've got nowhere to run, no way to fight! Struggle all you like, but it's pointless!"

He had cut off their path to the ship. On top of that, there was nowhere else to teleport. The path behind them was filled with the roaring sound of a chainsaw. If the fight went on any longer, the Hyperion's remaining arms would rush them. It would be difficult to teleport out of the way.

"We won't lose to someone so underhanded as you!" Eirene shouted.

"Is that such a bad thing? You think if you hold hands and spout platitudes it'll all work out?"

"...So what if I do! In my world, that's how everyone was happy!"

She closed her eyes as she raised her voice.

"Eirene..."

"Brat... At this point, I don't know who's crazier," Ankh grumbled, then raised the corners of his mouth into a sneer. "Then I'll take you there—a world where none of that works!"

Willard tilted slightly and Ankh approached, leaning forward. Eirene had to make a choice. Face Ankh with William to stop the Hyperion, or give up and teleport back to the ground—

"—Eirene."

Just then, William spoke so only she could hear.

"Can you send me onto the saucer?"

"Huh?"

"He probably thinks we can't fight if we're not together. This is our chance to take advantage of that assumption."

William pointed to his back with one hand. There was one blade from Gigi left.

"I get it. Then I won't fail!"

Eirene let go of William's hand, and placed her hand on his back. Then, the next moment—William disappeared.

"...!?"

When William, who had only been able to stand in front of Eirene and defend her, disappeared, Ankh looked shaken. Ankh tried to stay calm, wondering if he had finally ditched the girl and run away, but those thoughts vanished when William appeared in the sky. He held a familiar-looking blade in his hand.

"Aaaaaankh!"

"—Tch!"

He swung the blade down, striking the device on Ankh's arm. As he heard the device break, all Ankh could think about was killing William, who had just leapt to his peril. He pulled backwards slightly from the slash, targeted the spot right in front of him, and activated Verzerrung. It was narrow on top of Willard, so it would be easy to fall from even the slightest loss of balance. The attack shot forward—and missed its mark. William had already vanished from atop Willard.

"How—"

Ankh tried to pilot Willard to look for him when he noticed something strange. His gaze fell on Willard's center, where the blade William held had pierced deep inside.

"That piece of shit..."

William's true goal hadn't been to kill him, but to make Willard go out of control and force him to retreat.

"Everywhere I go, you—"

Willard started spinning vigorously and charged into the body of the Hyperion along with Ankh—with a violent explosion at the moment of impact.

----------

Eirene caught William in her arms as he escaped from Willard. Everything had gone fine until they jumped for the Hyperion's arm, but Willard had carried him far away in that short time.

"You save me, Eirene."

"Please, don't do anything that reckless again."

"Sorry. I relied on your power too much."

"Oh...that's okay. More importantly—"

They were rapidly getting farther away from the Hyperion. With nothing around them to use as a foothold, it would likely take time to get closer to it again. On top of that, they had the misfortune of falling into an area where a shroud of fog was emerging. Visibility was poor, and the neon lights shining all over the place made it hard to gauge distances. At this rate, they would eventually crash into the ground or a building.

"W-What do we do, William!?"

Moment by moment, the crisis drew closer. But William remembered they had left someone on standby for this very moment.

"It's gonna be okay!" he said to Eirene, then called out, "Linneee! Over heeere!"

The instant Linne heard their name, they leapt up high and emerged from the neon-dotted fog. They grabbed the pair with one feeler and used the other to grab the wall of a building and come to a stop.

"Job's done."

"Linne...!"

"Thanks, Linne!"

Linne smiled, delighted. They nimbly climbed up the wall while holding them both, then took them to a rooftop with a clear view.

"We got pretty far away, huh..."

Even now, the Hyperion traced an unstable path in the sky above. Furthermore, it seemed to recognize the nearby buildings as enemies, and started destroying them one after another.

"Ugh, if only we got one more..."

"...Haah...haah," Eirene panted, reaching the limit of her physical strength. To take on the Hyperion again, their only options were for it to fall down, or to go after it on a saucer like Willard.

"Is there...nothing we can do anymore?" Eirene asked.

"...There must be. As long as we keep thinking and don't give up, there's a way to save this city."

Right now, they needed to contact Momo's group at once and establish a plan before Neon Nebula was consumed by darkness. Just as they started to head for Ibis Tower, where Momo was...

"William, it's shining," Linne said.

"...Huh?"

William looked up at the sky where Linne pointed. There, weaving from building to building, was a trail of light. A red flash of lightning headed toward the Hyperion. As if to cut through the dark clouds hanging above, that flash pierced through the Hyperion.

"Larva" as used here comes from Roman religion and refers to restless spirits of the dead, often used interchangeably with Lemures, though they may refer to different entities that were often conflated in later texts. Likewise, Larvae in this story appear to be a different type of being from Lemures, which Clayg initially identifies her as before she assumes it to be a name.

Sara-Jean isn't gendered at all in the original text so the pronouns are an assumption on my part. If we learn more in the future, that could change!