As Nineveh entered its berserk state, the surrounding Ether volatility surged to staggering levels. Under such immense pressure, it was enough to make ordinary people collapse from fear alone.
"That's Nineveh, one of the few Ethereals marked as extremely dangerous in the Association archives. Your friend must have a death wish—trying to play the hero against something like that?" muttered the proctor from her hidden vantage point.
Things had spiraled far beyond her expectations. Nineveh carried a sky-high bounty posted by the Hollow Investigative Association, and even to this day, not even the specialized Hollow divisions had found a way to deal with it effectively.
Which made Zhong Yan's intervention seem... reckless, to say the least.
"The evaluation is over. Your performance already meets the passing threshold. I'll explain everything to the Association later. For now, worry about how you're going to survive Nineveh."
The proctor's face had turned grave. Belle, who was remotely operating Eous, was equally worried about Zhong Yan's safety.
He was dangerously close to Nineveh—close enough that escaping would be difficult, never mind trying to take it on head-to-head.
As for Hoshimi Miyabi, Belle didn't know who she was. She had no idea Miyabi was a Void Hunter and assumed the woman wouldn't be much help.
After all, she had just witnessed Miyabi's full-force strike fail to leave a scratch on Nineveh. That alone made the power gap glaringly obvious.
Just as Belle was scrambling to figure out how to extract Zhong Yan from the fight, the rest of Hollow Special Operations Section 6 finally arrived—having been left behind by their swift-moving chief.
"She's still as fast as ever... couldn't keep up at all," Harumasa panted, glancing around at the rising tangle of strangling vines. It was obvious things were spiraling out of control.
They'd rarely seen Nineveh in a berserk state. At this level, it was beyond what a single team could manage.
Still, Nineveh wasn't about to have an easy time with them either. Most of the time, the Ethereal's rampage would exhaust its Ether reserves, forcing it to retreat.
That was Section 6's strategy: wear Nineveh down and weaken its Ether volatility.
Of course, if they could destroy it outright, that would be ideal.
"Ether levels are off the charts. We need to support the chief immediately. Also... who's that guy next to her?" Yanagi adjusted her glasses, issuing support orders even as she noticed Zhong Yan standing at Miyabi's side.
But there was no time to dwell on it. At her command, the three remaining members of Section 6 unsheathed their weapons and charged toward Miyabi's position.
As for the proctor and Belle, they were promptly warned to evacuate.
...
"Chidori Stream!"
Just as an uncountable number of hive Ethereals and strangling vines launched their assault, a crackling orb of lightning erupted from Zhong Yan's palm.
Lightning rained down like a storm, disintegrating every vine and drone that dared approach them.
Seeing this, Miyabi, who had been readying her sword, paused.
Only then did she realize—the rude man standing beside her actually had some ability.
If that was the case, she no longer had any reservations. With Harumasa and the others on their way, now was the perfect chance to finish off Nineveh.
She turned to Zhong Yan and said, "Handle the pests. Leave the big one to me."
Without waiting for a response, Miyabi launched herself toward Nineveh once more. The swarming vines and drones that tried to intercept her were obliterated in a single stroke of her blade.
"She's really in a rush to die, huh?" Zhong Yan raised a brow as he watched her charge ahead.
He hadn't noticed it during the game's story sequences, but now it was obvious—her previous slash hadn't even grazed Nineveh. Their power levels were simply not on the same scale.
Void Hunters were indeed powerful. But to take down something like Nineveh single-handedly? That might require someone like the third-generation head of the Hoshimi clan—renowned for raw combat might.
Miyabi, for all her talent and potential at a young age, still had a long way to go. If she didn't rein in her sharp edges, she could burn out way before she hit her peak.
And sure enough, her earlier strike had only hit because Nineveh had chosen not to dodge. Now, in full berserk mode, it wouldn't show such mercy.
To Nineveh, any living creature that wasn't an Ethereal was just fertilizer—and it had no reason to go easy on fertilizer.
In the next moment, the air distorted around them. Ether energy began funneling into the flower bud at the end of Nineveh's tail.
The bud, which usually released pollen, now pulsed with terrifying power as it absorbed Ether. Suddenly, it fired a blinding beam of concentrated light directly at Miyabi.
Faced with a threat of this magnitude, Miyabi didn't dare slack off. She halted her advance, and a massive surge of energy began to well up within her.
As her power reached critical mass, she stepped forward. The ground around her instantly froze over, and in the same motion, she swung her blade.
The frozen earth shattered like glass.
The cause? Her strike.
In that moment, Miyabi unleashed her strongest attack—embodying everything that made a Void Hunter legendary.
The clash of her sword wave and Nineveh's beam lit the air with opposing energies.
Blinding rings of light and shockwaves expanded outward, leveling the ruins below into ash.
The clash raged for minutes before finally fading—and at the epicenter stood Nineveh, its tailbud wilting from damage.
Somehow, against all odds, Miyabi had gained the upper hand.
"A hell of a slash..." Even Zhong Yan couldn't help but praise her. Miyabi had proven why she was the most dominant character in the game's opening chapters.
That slash alone could probably obliterate a Susanoo in skeletal form.
Clearly, Void Hunters weren't just glorified titles. There was a real difference between them and the rest of the crowd.
But... that was the limit.
As the withered bud lost vitality, Nineveh finally seemed to realize this "fertilizer" was putting up more resistance than expected.
It stopped drawing in ambient Ether—and instead began activating its own reserves.
Its core—located in its head—began to swell visibly.
Under the stunned gazes of everyone present, not only did the wilted flower bud regain life, but six new buds sprouted from Nineveh's back.
Now there were seven.
All seven began siphoning Ether simultaneously, preparing to unleash the same devastating laser attack as before—
Except this time... there would be seven beams.