My name is Relier, and I am a rebel.
As one of New Eridu's many rebels, my reasons for joining were simple enough at the start — I just wanted more Dennies. The Defense Force's salary was a joke compared to what I was pulling in now.
Sure, the risks were in a different league too. But what could I say? The boss paid way too well.
So when I first heard that the boss had gotten his hands on some new technology — something that could boost our Ether Aptitude — my initial answer was a hard no.
Was he serious? Unstable new tech like that had 'dangerous' written all over it.
I was a man with no parents to support, no kids to feed, no car payments, no mortgage, and no girlfriend. A man with nothing to lose has absolutely no business messing around with something that risky.
But what could I say? The boss paid way too well.
And so, in a decision that was about half voluntary, I submitted myself to the baptism of this new technology and became an enhanced soldier.
That's how I'd describe it, anyway. But no matter how I looked at it, I felt less like an enhanced soldier and more like an Ethereal that had gone halfway through Etherealization and gotten stuck there.
The good news, at least, was that the boss hadn't lied about one thing: our Ether Aptitude really had improved. We'd been searching inside the Hollow for a full day and night without so much as a hint of discomfort.
And now, at last, we had found what we'd come into the Hollow to find.
A bunch of wet-behind-the-ears little girls... wait, why is there a guy mixed in?
Not that it mattered. The one we were actually after was the rabbit-eared Thirren girl among them — supposedly the heir to some great family or something?
Didn't care. Money talks.
What a shame, though. It was starting to look like I wasn't going to live long enough to collect my commission.
Shlick.
The wet, tearing sound of flesh splitting open rang out. One of the Filth-infused artillery rebels, heavy cannon still in hand, was skewered straight through by a set of razor-sharp claws — and then ripped clean in half.
Blood laced with Filth splattered across the ground. In moments, the rebel named Relier had been reduced to countless scattered fragments.
The sudden turn of events left everyone present utterly speechless.
Rebels with their formation shredded, Cunning Hares members struggling through the interference of Filth — every single one of them was frozen in place, stricken by the colossal silhouette now standing before them.
"Ge... Geno?"
Yuzuha, who had never once seen Geno's Ethereal form, stood with her mouth hanging open in shock. The tanuki Kamanosuke perched on her shoulder wore an equally dumbstruck expression.
The others weren't faring much better. Alice and Lucia — both of whom knew exactly who Geno was — had gone pale, though the Filth soaking into them had sapped so much of their strength that there was little they could do.
Just moments ago, as the rebels had closed in and surrounded the group, Geno had suddenly collapsed to the ground with a ragged, hoarse roar — and then his body had begun to Etherealize with terrifying speed.
Geno's Ethereal form bore little resemblance to what it had looked like before. Where once it had carried the noble, knightly bearing of an Ethereal Knight, his entire body was now wrapped in a writhing mass of Filth-laden tentacles. The great knight's sword — once a symbol of protection and courage — had been consumed by Filth and twisted into a long, dark demonic blade.
The one thing unchanged was the sharp-edged contour of his facial armor. But where his eyes should have been, an ominous and chaotic crimson light flickered and pulsed.
After that, Geno had seized the blade in his grip, hurled himself into the rebel ranks that were supposed to be capturing the girls, and unleashed absolute carnage.
"Is that... really Geno?"
Neither Yuzuha nor Alice, having never seen Geno like this, could hide how shaken they were by the sudden transformation.
Lucia watched Geno tear through enemy after enemy, her face etched with worry, utterly unable to work out how things had come to this.
Geno — why did he suddenly... could it be this Filth?
It clicked for Lucia in an instant. Right before Geno had lost control, he'd taken a barrage of Filth-laced artillery fire.
Connecting that to what she'd once heard from Twiggy about the Silver Base incident, she quickly pieced it together: the Filth had driven Geno into a rampage.
But knowing the cause was one thing. Knowing what to do about it was another entirely.
While she was still thinking, the entire rebel force descended into chaos.
The rebels who had been giving the group so much trouble moments before were now being cut down by Geno like he was slicing through paper. He tore through them the way you'd tear corrugated cardboard — and left the scraps scattered across the floor.
In less than a minute, every last rebel had been slaughtered.
With no enemies left standing, Geno clutched his head and let out an agonized wail.
"AAAARGH!"
Bathed in relentless waves of Filth corruption, the whispering voices that Carrot had briefly driven away came flooding back into Geno's mind — clearer now than they had ever been.
Release your power. Accept your truest self.
"Get OUT of my head!"
You were never the kind of man who quietly accepts his lot in life. You should start putting yourself first.
"GET OUT!"
Free me. Free me, and I will give you the power to change the world.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD! Spouting all this nonsense — just stop messing with my brain for ONE SECOND!"
Geno's mind was being ravaged by the mysterious voice, dragging him back into the same torment he'd suffered the night before.
Endless murmuring. Endless whispering. Endless commands to release it. Endless waves of searing agony ripping through his skull.
Geno's reason burned away beneath the assault until there was nothing left — and he became an Ethereal running on nothing but instinct, attacking anything that moved.
All the while, the mysterious crystal that Carrot had given him sat in the breast pocket of his chest, glimmering faintly.
"Awoo..."
As Geno raged, Carrot sat quietly in the middle of the group of girls, watching him in motion, apparently lost in thought.
And soon enough, having finished off every last rebel, Geno turned his gaze toward the Cunning Hares.
"No way. Geno — you're joking, right?"
Alice stood with her arms crossed, clinging to a last shred of hope as she looked at Geno — eyes blazing red, all reason gone — and reached out a hand, trying to call his rational mind back.
BOOM.
What answered her was a screaming swipe of razor claws cutting through the air. In the instant before it could be her end, Yidhari threw herself in the way.
"Ngh!"
"Yidhari!"
The strike missed Alice — but it carved several deep gashes across Yidhari's back.
Fresh crimson blood dripped from Geno's claws.
"RAAAH!"
With a roar, Geno lunged at Alice again. This time, the ones stepping in front of her were Lucia and Yuzuha.
"Idiot! How long are you going to stand there gaping? This thing isn't Geno anymore!"
Yuzuha was already treating Geno as fully Etherealized. But Lucia knew this wasn't quite right.
"Stay calm, Alice — if you want to bring Geno back, you can't go down first!"
The two of them worked together to deflect Geno's strike to the side, then grabbed Yidhari and Alice off the ground and put distance between them and Geno.
Whether it was from the loss of rational thought or something else, Geno's movements had grown sluggish. Every now and then he would freeze mid-motion, looking almost dazed — like something inside him had gone adrift.
"Unh... ugh... AAAH."
Watching Geno's broken, stuttering roars and the flickers of anguish that kept twisting across his face, every one of the girls felt their expressions fall into something deeply grim.
____
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