"Who?!"
"Who is it?!"
Both of them flinched, pupils constricting in shock.
They hadn't sensed anyone approach—not even a whisper of movement.
Everyone—Rhodes Island, Penguin Logistics—turned toward the sudden presence.
Nanashi stood among them, his expression lazy and cynical, as if he'd been there all along.
Mockery gleamed in his eyes.
He hadn't used force, yet Mephisto and Faust felt as if their entire bodies were pinned down by an invisible weight. Their limbs refused to respond. Their minds screamed at their bodies to move, but nothing happened.
"Herds! Kill him!" Mephisto shrieked. His voice cracked like the screech of a dying bird.
The monsters turned at once, stampeding toward Nanashi.
Nanashi didn't even flinch.
He glanced at them—just once.
And the herd froze mid-charge, as though someone had hit pause.
They stood motionless.
"What... what is this?!" Mephisto stammered. "Why aren't they moving? Kill him! I command you!"
"They won't obey anymore," Nanashi said calmly. "Mephisto. Faust."
The two codenamed enemies stiffened when he called their names.
Nanashi's mocking smile deepened. "You say God says you're innocent? I say you're guilty."
Dark wings—chaotic and tainted—unfurled behind him, stretching toward the heavens like the wrath of judgment.
"Ugh!!!"
The moment the Black Wings appeared, Amiya dropped to the ground, clutching her head as if wracked by excruciating pain.
"Amiya!"
Ace and the others cried out in alarm.
"Hah… hah…"
Amiya was drenched in cold sweat, her breaths shallow and rapid.
Fear filled her eyes—as if something unspeakably terrifying loomed in the unseen distance.
"Sin…! It's the sin that has engulfed the entire world!"
"What is this?"
Mephisto and Faust's bodies were swallowed by a mist of judgment.
Their minds began replaying the sins they had committed—on endless loop.
The sin of killing.
The sin of madness.
The sin of enabling.
No amount of tragedy in their pasts could erase it.
Sin ignited into karmic fire, burning away every illusion of innocence.
Their only release was to be reduced to ashes—pure, blameless ashes.
Their simultaneous death was the final mercy granted by the unknown force.
Final words?
Better save them for the next life.
Just call this one a misbirth.
Two clumps of innocent ash were carried off by the wind.
In that moment—they were truly innocent.
The herd, robbed of their connection to Originium arts, collapsed all at once.
Not monsters. Just lifeless corpses.
"Friend or foe?"
Ceobe and the others remained tense.
The way this mysterious figure killed so effortlessly filled them with dread.
Nanashi retracted his wings of sin, and his presence softened.
"Don't be so nervous. We're not enemies," he said casually, stepping down from the rubble and walking toward them.
"Don't come any closer!" Ceobe barked.
As a knight, she had never felt such crushing pressure.
It was like standing at the foot of an unscalable mountain.
"We're trying to evacuate!" Texas growled.
Her hands trembled as she gripped her lightsabers.
The fur on her ears and tail bristled.
Their animalistic instinct screamed at them:
This is an invincible enemy.
This is someone who will kill without hesitation!
"Ahem, relax. He… might actually be my friend," Lemuel said awkwardly, scratching her head and coughing.
"Huh?"
Everyone turned to Lemuel, suspicion all over their faces.
Lemuel gave a casual wave. "Nanashi!"
Nanashi returned the gesture. "Lemuel."
"..."
That… was too casual.
But it looked real.
They were actually friends.
With Lemuel-certified.
The group lowered their guard—but only slightly. Caution remained.
Especially Texas.
Even with Nanashi standing still, she struggled to suppress the fear and tremors running through her.
Exusiai's friend? When did she even have a friend like that?
[Note: Exusiai is Lemuel's code name.]
Doubt lingered.
Amiya still huddled behind the Doctor—the amnesiac figure they were sworn to protect.
It fell to the ever-reliable Doberman to speak up.
"…Excuse me, but who are you?" she asked cautiously.
"Nanashi," he replied nonchalantly. "Lemuel's friend."
"Eh? So this guy's also a Sankta?" Croissant asked with a mix of surprise and curiosity, bounding over without fear.
Everyone else was puzzled too.
Nanashi didn't seem to have any clear racial markers… but those wings he'd summoned—they resembled the wings of Sankta or Liberi.
But they were too different.
The pure black hue.
The lack of a halo.
"Sadly, not a Sankta," Nanashi said, spreading his hands and pointing skyward.
"But there are more important things to worry about than my race."
Above them, the clouds had begun to shift ominously.
The natural disaster was taking shape.
The once-pale clouds had turned blood-red, like a firestorm igniting the sky.
Spiral clouds twisted upward—not heralding rain or wind—but a barrage of flame and burning meteorites.
Some had wanted to ask about Mephisto and Faust—what exactly had just happened.
But Nanashi's reminder brought them back to reality.
This wasn't the time for questions.
The disaster was here.
Amiya remained behind the Doctor, clearly overwhelmed.
Doberman took charge.
"Find shelter! Prepare for impact!" she ordered with calm authority.
That decisiveness made Nanashi glance at her again.
She wore a simple black uniform, wielded a whip, and had sleek black hair falling down her back.
Most striking were her sharply defined features, the dot-like eyebrows, and of course—the ears and tail.
A real Doberman-eared girl.
And not just her.
Amiya had rabbit ears—though people often teased her, saying the dark color made her look more like a donkey.
Texas, wolf ears.
Ceobe, dog bloodline.
Croissant… well, Croissant was just a bison girl.
Still, Nanashi didn't let admiration for animal-eared girls distract him from his purpose.
"This natural disaster… leave it to me."
He spread his wings once more—black and gold Chaos Wings erupting behind him.
The full form of the Chaos Wings was magnificent.
Two pairs of feathered wings.
Half were black.
Half were gold.
"...What the..."
Everyone stared in awe.
The wings stretched nearly ten meters wide.
The black feathers emitted a swirling mist.
The gold ones radiated a divine warmth.
It was as if light and darkness had merged into a single being.
Amiya's eyes lit up.
From the golden glow, she could feel it—love, hope.
A warmth that stood in total contrast to the suffocating presence of the Black Wings.
In a heartbeat, Nanashi soared into the sky.
Why so dramatic?
Because this city was a nest of sin and belief.
If he was going to leave… he might as well leave an impression.
"What is that?!"
Infected, civilians, even Reunion fighters—all looked up at the sky in stunned silence.
Nanashi hovered directly beneath the eye of the disaster's vortex.
The Chaos Wings made him shine like a beacon.
"Lemuel, your friend can fly?" Croissant blinked.
"Haha. Told you he's awesome," Lemuel laughed—and casually started a livestream.
[Ding! Lemuel has started a livestream!]
[Ding! Hai Xiaomei has joined the stream!]
...
Hai Xiaomei: "Wow, what is this place? It looks so real!"
Hai Xiaomei was startled by the sudden shift in her surroundings.
The crimson sky roared above, and the scent of death lingered in the smoke that curled over countless fallen bodies. The desolation pierced her senses.
She had never seen anything so utterly ruined.
Suoh: "Did a war break out?"
Even Suoh, a composed king, felt uneasy. While the conflict between the Red Clan(Homura) and Green Clan(Scepter4) could get tense, it had never escalated to such mass devastation.
At most, it was just the occasional neighborhood scuffle.
Chito: "This feels like the ruins of a place I once passed through…"
March 7th: "Come here, Chito-chan. Let me give you a hug."
Lemuel: "There is a war. This city—City Of Chernobog—has been overrun by an infected group called the Reunion Movement. They're burning, killing, looting… total chaos."
Lemuel: "But worse than them is the natural disaster overhead. Texas and the others say it's a swarm of meteorites."
Hai Xiaomei: "Meteorites?! Isn't that incredibly dangerous?!"
Lemuel: "Extremely. The city used to be mobile and could evade such disasters, but something's disabled it."
Saeko: "So this is the moving city you talked about? I thought that was just a poetic name. It can actually move?!"
Nami: "A moving city? That's so cool!"
Bronya: "It's a brilliant concept—perfect for dodging environmental catastrophes."
Silver Wolf: "I've seen spacefaring warships the size of planets. A mobile city isn't that wild."
Hai Xiaomei: "Umm… am I the only one still worried about the meteorites?!"
Clearly still new to the group, Hai Xiaomei's anxiety showed.
Emilia: "Don't worry. Mr. Nanashi is very strong."
Suoh: "The person in the sky with wings—he's the administrator?"
Seitenshi: "Yes. Lord Nanashi can definitely handle the disaster."
Up above, Nanashi inhaled deeply.
Nanashi: "Originium…"
Ever since arriving in this world, he had sensed the air thick with Originium dust. This close to the disaster's epicenter, it had crystallized into tangible particles.
But to Nanashi, Originium wasn't just a mineral—it was a form of energy.
Energy he could command!
Nanashi: "Originium, obey me."
With just a slight motion of his hand, the crystals began to swirl toward him like obedient children.
From below, it looked as though the very storm clouds of the natural disaster were converging in his grasp.
The oppressive veil of the sky, once heavy with despair, began to disperse before their eyes.
As sunlight pierced the gloom once more, people realized the storm—and the dense Originium with it—was gone.
Only a single meteorite remained, falling alone.
Without the Originium to amplify it, its destructive power would be drastically reduced.
But natural disasters didn't just destroy—they infected. Meteorites, laced with Originium, would normally spread contamination across wide regions.
Now, those effects were neutralized.
Nanashi casually summoned the power of Gluttony, absorbing the massive Originium core into his hand.
"Bang!"
He snapped his fingers.
The meteorite shattered midair, erupting into a brilliant cascade of flame—like fireworks in the daylight.
Even in broad daylight, it dazzled the watchers.
Hai Xiaomei: "That's amazing! He just… blew it up?! Can humans even do that?!"
Suoh: "…"
Suoh didn't think any human could.
Even as a king, such a feat was far beyond him.
Aqua: "Pfft! That's nothing! I could do that too! Xiaomei, Suoh—believe in me!"
Hai Xiaomei: "Huh?"
Suoh: "I don't believe in cults."
Momonga: "Ah, here we go—Aqua's entering Version 3.0 again."
March 7th: "Did she… profit from this somehow?"
Aqua: "I'm the goddess of water! Of course I can make money!"
Silver Wolf: "Okay, she just raised a flag. Someone mark it—she's about to crash."
Hearing her brag, most of the group exchanged skeptical glances.
Lemuel: "Crisis averted. Live broadcast over!"
Tu Shan Hong Hong: "Aww, really? I wasn't done watching yet."
The catastrophe had passed.
Everyone in the City had witnessed it with their own eyes.
Meanwhile, in a ruined neighborhood…
A silver-haired girl in a black and red Lolita dress, dragon horns on her head and a blade in hand, stared silently at the sky.
She took a single step forward—molten heat rising off the pavement where her foot landed.
???: "Big Sis Shu, the natural disaster is over!"
The man beside her, heavily bundled, spoke with awe to the white-robed woman.
She didn't respond—she had seen it already.
Shu: "We move."
The icy sound of cracking frost followed her words.
Elsewhere, a dark, muscular man with a deer's head looked to the sky.
With a massive halberd in hand, he bellowed:
"Forward! March!"
On a distant rooftop, a red-haired woman twirled a live bomb in her hand. Her long black hair fluttered like cockroach whiskers.
She watched the sky and grinned.
???: "Oh? Something interesting happened. Guess you get to live another day, Scout."
If she hadn't been holding a bomb, this might've been a touching moment.