Just four hours ago, before Yon and Tyson met Clarisse at the house of the Lord, before Red and Blue ventured into the dragon's den, and before Cosmo struck a deal with the Head Captain of the 56th, Rita walked down a long flight of stairs that a little girl had just stomped down in frustration.
"I'm not too sure how to help you at the moment. So, how about you assist Oliver down there in my stead? I'm sure you can handle it if you keep a cool head."
Those were the words spoken by her new Captain, who offered no further explanation.
She stepped through the door and, without a second thought, headed down the stairs she was now descending.
As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she was welcomed by multiple sources of light illuminating her surroundings.
The floor she stepped onto was filled with an array of unusual machines, the functions of which were not immediately clear.
The walls and flooring in this area were made of a dark silver material.
With each step she took, the floor produced a solid sound, suggesting it was designed to withstand significant wear and tear.
On the left side of the room, a large rectangular glass panel was positioned in front of an extensive array of buttons and a sophisticated interface of screens. On the opposite side of the crystal-clear glass, an expansive room unfolded.
A vast space that felt almost surreal to be contained indoors. It might have appeared vacant if not for the young child seated in a solitary chair at its center. The metal ring, initially resting around her head, now obscured her eyes. From Rita's vantage point, it wasn't easy to interpret Argenta's state of mind.
On her side of the glass, behind the interface, a young man had just noticed her presence. He removed the headset that had been muffling his hearing and turned to face her.
"What the hell?" he asked, clearly puzzled.
"..."
"Who are you?" he pressed, intrigued.
He wore a tracksuit top casually tied around his waist and a patterned bandana holding his twists.
He stared at her calmly before catching sight of the watch around her wrist.
"Oh, a recruit? It's about that time, eh?"
"..."
"Haha, I'd complain about your lack of words, but I had to deal with the same thing for a long time." He laughs, "Speaking of, where's Cosmo?"
A strange silence followed as they both stared at one another.
After a long moment, she raised her finger and pointed up. His eyes followed her gesture before he looked up and let out an understanding sigh.
"If that's how it is, then you'll have to lend me a hand," he declared, gesturing towards the glass panel before them. "Recalibrating and charging Argenta's ring is no easy feat without a target for her psyche. Not to mention the consequences if her creations aren't dismantled in time."
He sauntered back to the monitor, pressing a button that slid open a heavy door into the vast room beyond.
"Since you've been sent down here, I take it you've got a destructive authority?"
She nodded in response.
"Perfect. Your task is straightforward: when I give you the signal, break anything and everything. Just step inside, and I'll let you know when to start."
Rita couldn't help but notice a pattern of consistently vague directions. But she did nothing to protest and followed his instructions.
Walking into the room till she was a few feet ahead of Argenta's lone seat.
"Huh? Ah, Cosmo, you're here!" Argenta, whose eyes were covered, could only rely on the sound of footsteps to guess someone had approached her.
"...no-"
"I'll beat you this time," she interrupted before Rita could say a word. "I watched a lot more movies, and now I know plenty of things that can make you cry."
"Argenta, get ready!" Oliver's voice echoed through the room, likely coming from hidden speakers.
Argenta fell silent, her expression changing instantly.
Rita suddenly realized she needed to prepare for something, though she wasn't sure what.
Out of nowhere, something slammed into her right side, hitting her arm and torso. The impact knocked the breath out of her, sending her rolling across the floor. Despite the disorientation, she quickly regained her footing before the momentum completely ceased.
She felt mentally bewildered. After all, in this underground room she'd thought was empty, she had just been struck by what felt like a car.
She hadn't heard any sound of acceleration, yet it had hit her with incredible force.
As she struggled to collect herself, another impact propelled her forward. Unbelievably, a train car had just dropped and exploded a few meters away from her.
"Even if I can't see, I know for sure that must have hit you, Cosmo. In superhero movies, even strong villains like Darkos get hurt when they are struck by cars or trains." As Argenta spoke, more vehicles began to materialize out of thin air, speeding toward Rita's location from all directions. "All I have to do is think about them, and they'll just blow you up."
It didn't take a genius to realize that vehicles don't explode on contact, especially engineless train cars. However, Rita knew she couldn't expect the peculiar force of nature in the form of a little girl to understand that.
She could only maneuver to avoid the incoming threats. When it became too overwhelming, she would use her authority to make the vehicles explode prematurely.
Fortunately, Argenta appeared oblivious to her exact whereabouts, unleashing a relentless barrage upon everything in the room. This chaotic display made it easier for Rita to maintain her focus without being completely overwhelmed.
"You have to obliterate everything in sight," Oliver urged, his voice tense but steady.
Rita cast a glance at him as he finally broke his silence. "Sorry, I can't pay attention to anything else while I'm tuning the ring." His eyes remained glued to the keyboard, fingers flying over the keys with palpable intensity.
Turning back to Argenta, Rita observed her getting carried away in the frenzy, seemingly lost in a world where the deafening explosions rendered her unaware of anything else.
That's when Rita's eyes narrowed as she noticed something peculiar: within a ten-meter radius of Argenta, no debris, flames, or smoke dared to approach. It was as if anything that ventured too close was not repelled but instead mysteriously redirected away, creating an uncanny bubble of calm amidst the surrounding chaos.
"Don't worry, she won't get hurt at all. You should be more concerned about yourself and go all out," Oliver continued. "Besides, her powers work differently from regular authorities. If her creations aren't destroyed in time, there can be dire, irreversible consequences."
Although Rita began to show less restraint, she never took Oliver's advice at face value. She only destroyed vehicles that were not in Argenta's vicinity, unwilling to gamble on the belief that she wouldn't be hurt at all.
Rita's outbursts functioned by condensing an unseen force, making it impossibly dense before releasing it, generating shockwaves that could easily obliterate most things. Whenever she felt nearly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of threats around her, she would create a series of outbursts, generating a spherical sequence of shockwaves and explosions to protect herself.
However, at one surreal moment, as the black smoke from the ruined vehicles thinned and scattered into the scorched air, a colossal maw lined with jagged, obsidian teeth emerged from the haze. It opened wide, an abyssal void rimmed in death. and swallowed Rita whole in a single, devastating lunge.
The monstrous shark, absurd in both size and presence, appeared like a nightmare stitched into reality, utterly out of place amid the rain of fire and twisted metal.
Moments later, it exploded from within, not in a spray of gore and viscera, but in a burst of black shards and fine dust, as if the creature had never been flesh and blood at all.
Rita emerged from the results, barely catching her breath as she recognized the unnatural dissolution immediately, the telltale sign of what it truly was.
"That was a…" The moment was unmistakably reminiscent of the eerie aftermath that followed a shadow beast's defeat. Yet, it defied all logic as far as she knew. While she could entertain the bizarre creations Argenta conjured, drawing parallels to many other eminents, summoning shadow beasts out of thin air was a different matter altogether. It was beyond comprehension.
Argenta's giggling broke the tension. "There's no reason I can't think about what I used last time!" She grinned mischievously. "Sharks and piranhas are still on the table!"
For the next half hour, a parade of bizarre and fantastical creations aimed at Rita's safety flowed relentlessly. From whimsical dolls and animated puppets to knights made of empty armors and fearsome fire-breathing dragons, each new threat was unnerving. But no matter how dramatic the spectacle, they all met the same fate, a swirling cloud of black dust that vanished into the ether, leaving only curiosity in their wake.
She couldn't begin to imagine how many more secrets this branch, or even this organization, held. It was fortunate that Rita had been the one sent down. Aside from her final evaluation from the academy and her history of violent outbursts, she could be considered one of the most capable eminents in the academic ranking.
However, even she would eventually tire out. Oliver seemed oblivious to this; he remained focused on the interface and refused to snap out of his concentration. Pairing a girl who refrained from speaking for her safety with a supposed monitor who wouldn't ask questions now felt like a reckless decision made by Cosmo. It was becoming increasingly dangerous for Rita herself.
It was beyond overwhelming, a suffocating pressure that felt fatal in its intensity. The vehicles she could anticipate, track, and counter. But these creatures moved with fluid, deliberate unity. They weren't acting out of instinct; they were an extension of one mind, focused entirely on her.
"St-stop…" she rasped, but the word disintegrated in her dry throat. Whatever protest she meant to raise had come too late.
Fatigue had stolen even her voice. A terrifying, seemingly exaggerated thought buried itself in her chest.
She could die here.
Her life was not her own to throw away. It was an unpaid debt. She had no right to lose it.
But how far would she let panic carry her? Would she push past the crushing pain and gamble on surviving this nightmare? Would she put her trust in the notion that the culprits behind her current dilemma would have prepared to save her life when the moment called for it? Would she shut her eyes and accept the consequences, however final?
Or—
Would she break?
Would desperation drive her to turn on the girl, unmoving and unaware in that chair, in a last, selfish bid to save herself?
"I…can't die here…" Both of her palms turned inward, drawing together as radiant violet sparks ignited between them, illuminating the surroundings with an otherworldly glow. A palpable force surged around her, pressing against the air like an unseen tide. Beneath her feet, the floor groaned ominously, cracking and splintering as powerful energy rippled through it, leaving deep craters.
"I…I can't die he-"
Rita felt a jolting force collide with her head, as if a thunderclap had erupted inside her skull. Her surroundings blurred into a hazy swirl of colors, and the familiar sounds of the world around her faded into a muffled echo. Panic flickered in her mind before a heavy darkness enveloped her, swallowing her thoughts and leaving her in an unsettling void.
"Yes! I heard it! My sneak attack totally landed!" Argenta cried, her voice bursting with glee. "Bet you didn't see that coming, huh?!"
What had hit Rita, ironically, was a dense pulse of compressed air. The force wasn't lethal, but strong enough to toss most of the surrounding objects from their place, proof that Argenta had launched several from varying angles while gauging Rita's rough location.
"I learned it from Lightning Seed! I just picture the fairies smooshing all the air together, and then whoosh! They blast it out really fast! Isn't that awesome?!"
"…"
"Cosmo? Why aren't you saying anything?"
Her aptitude with her powers was undeniably sharp. But when it came to basic reasoning, Argenta's intellect left much to be desired, even by generous standards.
"Argenta, I'm done. You can take the ring off your eyes."
"…Kay," she muttered, sliding the device to her forehead. "But that took way longer than normal, and Cosmo still isn't—"
The room had quieted, save for Oliver's casual footsteps as he approached the downed Rita. He scratched his cheek, crouching beside her with an apologetic sigh.
"Sorry. It was kind of on purpose," he admitted, his tone light. "Didn't say anything because… well, you probably wouldn't've gone through with it."
His apology went unheard as a ragged cry of confusion and panic erupted.