My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister Volume 4 Chapter 8

We had one piece of luck.

As the dark night burned, we found an off-road car in the rubble that Maxwell could fully control.

Burned-out cars were everywhere, the roads had collapsed, and buildings had fallen onto them. A normal sedan never could have made it, but an off-road one designed to hop along a sandy and rocky wasteland might manage.

"Fuguu. Does this country really drive around in things like this like they own the place?"

"Look where we are. This is a Solenoid Motors car dealers.h.i.+p. This was probably a display model in their showcase. Will this work, Maxwell?"

"Sure. I have successfully slaved all of the vehicle's privileges and taken full control. Just to be safe, please sweep aside all of the gla.s.s shards so you do not step on them."

"Y'know, I never really thought I'd be riding in a car driven by a talking AI. It's like a dream come true. It hardly feels real even though I set it up."

"Next up is a flying time machine. Right, Truth?"

We regrouped with Anastasia in the underground pa.s.sageway and stuffed ourselves into the pa.s.senger s.p.a.ce which was surprisingly cramped for such a large vehicle. Maxwell drove us through rubble-strewn Las Vegas.

"Truth, what is that?"

"Some treats the car dealers.h.i.+p placed inside for customers. All the chocolate ones melted from the heat, so it's just the cookie ones left."

We split those among everyone and munched on them…but what the h.e.l.l!? It was way sweeter than a sugar-coated rice cracker!!

"Cough, cough! But it says sugarless on the package!"

"H-hey, Satori-kun. Does that mean it's all done with artificial sweeteners?"

"It would be just right for eating with some black coffee!! It makes you really thirsty…no, it clings to your throat!?"

"Well, it probably is meant to go with coffee."

My blonde sister seemed oddly nonchalant about it. What triggered my danger instincts was how Ayumi never even tried it despite being such a big eater.

Our destination was the Hoover Dam, the water reservoir outside of Las Vegas.

Absolute Noah 04.

Las Vegas had been destroyed. James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y had done his job so perfectly that he had probably earned his ticket for the ark. …Except he would soon discover the leak of data from Area 51, so he might be willing to burn the world to the ground if the alternative was taking responsibility for that. If so, he might be on his way to Absolute Noah 04. And since the number of tickets was limited, he could not bring a bunch of bodyguards with him.

What would we do if we met him?

What could we do?

I didn't know anything here, but I couldn't just let him do this. That wealthy man had done as he was told and bared his fangs against 4 million humans and Archenemies just to save his own skin. And if he had been given an ark ticket, he may have had contact with Amatsu Yurina, my stepmom and Archenemy Lilith, in her behind-the-scenes role. He could have stopped her, but that James b.a.s.t.a.r.d had succ.u.mbed to his desire for the ticket.

…Why was I acting like I was any better?

I knew I was just las.h.i.+ng out. Stopping her was my responsibility too as her family. But because I couldn't do that or anything else, I just couldn't bring myself to forgive James's cowardly pride that had led him to go along with it despite knowing all the details.

I couldn't get over my image of that b.a.s.t.a.r.d boarding the ark and laughing as he survived the destruction of the world.

Just then, I saw something moving through the winds.h.i.+eld. It was probably coming from a manhole, but an amorphous ma.s.s rapidly rose from the ground.

"Warning: gel."

"That's fine. When they grow, they're just faking it by adding to their volume like a princess dress's petticoat. Maxwell, run it over!!"

The engine gave an even more violent roar and the off-road car plowed right into the middle of the gel which had grown to the size of a small hill. With a sticky popping sound, giant but thin petal-like membranes flew through the air and red slime splattered in every direction.

The gels ate organic materials, so they did not actively eat inorganic things like metal or gla.s.s. Driving right through the center was fine as long as the windows were tightly closed.

While controlling the off-road car, Maxwell used the wipers to wipe the gel from the winds.h.i.+eld.

But…

"Wah!? Somethings coming out of here, Truth!!"

Anastasia shouted frantically from the pa.s.senger seat and the invisible barbed wire known as fear wrapped around my heart.

Something was oozing out of the air conditioning vent. It was red, translucent, and slimy…a gel!?

"Yes, yes. Excuse me a moment."

Erika acted like it was nothing at all. She pulled a barf bag from the back pocket of the driver's seat, leaned forward from the back seat, and slammed it against the air conditioning vent.

It happened at almost the exact moment that the gel leaped out.

But Erika's barf bag was faster. The red slime was trapped in the thin plastic bag. Overall, it was about the size of a rabbit. It squirmed around, but she closed the mouth of the bag before it could escape.

…The gels ate organic things and could not eat inorganic things.

But that had still required an incredible amount of skill. If the Cla.s.s Rep or I tried it, we would've had our fingers dissolved and then had our entire body covered.

She really was an Archenemy.

It wasn't just their undeadness. They also had abnormally high physical abilities.

"There."

After opening the window a little and throwing out the struggling barf bag, Erika wiped her hands off with a handkerchief. That Eastern European Queen Vampire did everything in an elegant fas.h.i.+on.

Given this, head-on collisions with the gels seemed like a bad idea. But we would never make it out of Las Vegas if we had to take a detour every time we saw a surviving gel.

"Onii-chan, open the sunroof."

"The gels respond to air movements, right? Let's throw things at them to confuse them."

The off-road car had supposedly been decorating a car dealers.h.i.+p, but the back seat had a cardboard box full of opera gla.s.ses. They may have been handed out for free in front of the store during a parade at night.

Maxwell swerved back and forth while Ayumi threw opera gla.s.ses everywhere to allow the off-road car out of the burning city.

"There are fewer and fewer buildings…"

"Sure. We have reached the outskirts of the city. We are about to reach the open desert."

A tanker truck had rolled on its side near the exit. It looked unnatural in how out of place it looked.

"Maxwell. Did you record the license number of that tanker truck?"

"Sure. Do you think it was used to carry the gels in from the airbase?"

"I don't know, but it's worth remembering."

We still didn't know how the gels entered Las Vegas or the actual timetable for that. Especially when it came to the initial breakout. But the desert city had few entrances, so if the gels took out a few highways and airports, it could easily be cut off from the outside world.

…When I thought about it, I realized it was a lot like Kukyou City.

We drove along an isolated desert road with the roaring fires of the city behind us. The Hoover Dam existed at the west end of a giant national park in a lake that measured more than 200km long. It was an artificial lake created by the dam, but it rivaled Lake Biwa in size. This country's scale really was insane.

"Maxwell, can you prove a connection between the gels and the military using just the data taken from Area 51?"

"That would be difficult. Copying and faking digital data is a simple task and the official credibility of data stolen in a cyber-attack is low. On top of that, people will be skeptical of data coming from Area 51 which has already produced several silly legends."

"That's another reason to want a witness. No matter how rotten they are, an elite is an elite. That gives all the more weight to their words. We just have to get James himself to say it."

Pursuing this could eventually lead the tremors back to my own family. I could be bringing down the stepmother I ate dinner with.

Was I really prepared for that?

Was I maybe only pretending I understood what that meant so I wouldn't have to think about it?

I asked myself that over and over again.

But I just couldn't pretend not to see this. If the truth of the Las Vegas disaster wasn't made public, innocent Archenemies around the world would be seen as dangerous and hunted down like a witch hunt. Absolute Noah believed the world was going to be destroyed soon anyway, so it was a matter of sooner or later for them. But those of us who wanted to keep living in this world couldn't look at it the same way.

"User. We will soon arrive at the Hoover Dam on the west end of Grand Canyon National Park. Are you sure about this?"

"…I am. Erika, Ayumi. I'm sorry."

"Fuguu. You have nothing to apologize for, Onii-chan."

"That's right. …Sometimes you have to stop someone because they're family."

The words caught in my throat.

No matter what they said, I was pretty sure I would be carrying around this decision for the rest of my life.

"Truth, sorry about interrupting you now, but be careful. These Absolute Noah people were bossing Area 51 around. They may have used those ark tickets as bait to borrow forces from the army and marines as well."

"Yeah. Hoover Dam might be their fortress."

The facility held the extreme bombsh.e.l.l known as Absolute Noah 04 at the bottom of the water reservoir. It might have its own guards that did not need to be borrowed from elsewhere. If Archenemy Lilith was one of their leaders, then they could also be using an Archenemy force instead of just a human one.

I couldn't help but feel all the more nervous.

My throat was dry and sweat coated my skin. My lungs and heart were working overtime.

And yet.

Nevertheless.

We traveled 20-30km east of Las Vegas.

We stopped the off-road car a bit away from the dam and had the Cla.s.s Rep and Anastasia wait in the car.

And as soon as we stepped outside, something seemed horribly wrong.

No.

"Why does everything feel so relaxed…?"

It hadn't been like this when we clashed with the observers in that city of rubble and fire. There had been something there that seemed to solidify the air and clog up our throats. But that wasn't here. It was no more than a tourist destination. Or had they blended in to the point that an amateur like me couldn't detect them?

"What does this mean?"

"Fuguu. I don't understand…"

Erika and Ayumi seemed to have the same opinion. That meant it probably wasn't just me being dense.

Regardless, we slowly approached the dark dam.

I had imagined having a sniper suddenly shoot me in the head or a mine buried in the sand blowing me to pieces, but there was none of that. The place was so deserted I started to suspect we had the wrong location.

"This is odd." Erika held her fingers to her slender chin. "A large dam like this should have guards patrolling at night to prevent suicides. They wouldn't leave it to drones or security cameras because they might need to physically convince someone to stop. But I don't see a single flashlight beam."

"Fuguu. And isn't the Hoover Dam a hydroelectric power station more than five times larger than Kurobe? Then there should be workers here 24/7. It wouldn't empty out at night."

…Something was up.

I focused my mind. The oddity wasn't the presence of some noticeable change. It was the absence of them.

It was a solid ma.s.s of stone. An arch-shaped concrete cliff. We found a giant dam that looked perfect for bungee jumping.

And we were on top of the dam. We crossed that arch structure that reminded me of the Great Wall of China, but we still saw no sign of any guards.

As far as I could see, water was pouring from the curved wall like it was supposed to, so it all looked properly maintained.

"We can see across the entire reservoir lake from here."

"The secret is at the bottom, Erika. I don't know what access route they use, but a.s.suming they don't use a submarine to dive down to the bottom of the artificial lake, there should be a direct tunnel or something."

In that case, the concrete box at the bottom of the dam seemed most suspicious. That was the turbine room for the hydroelectric power plant.

After crossing the dam's arch, we saw a four-wheel truck parked directly on the rocks that clearly were not part of an employee parking lot or something.

There was no sign of people here, but it apparently wasn't completely abandoned.

"Maxwell, photograph and look up that license plate."

"Sure. The number is registered to a military vehicle. It belongs to the Nevada airbase. It is a bulletproof bodyguard vehicle. A normal soldier is unlikely to use one."

"So it's for a military VIP. Then is it James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y?"

"User. I have picked up on some wireless signals nearby. Given the situation, they likely belong to Absolute Noah inside the Hoover Dam or to James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y."

"Or the two of them are communicating. Maxwell, can you intercept it?"

"I understand your request, but it uses an unknown encryption method. We must start by working out the random number table or secret key."

"Hand it over here, Truth. That's my specialty. I might even have the right key on my 'key ring'."

It was great having a (self-styled) hacker of justice (as hilarious as that sounded) who hacked into everything from kitchen IoT appliances to missile silos, infected them with a harmless virus, and send them helpful warnings. She had far more experience, so she would have stolen a lot more "keys" along the way.

"That's a satellite phone. I can't believe this. Did that clueless old man really think no one could intercept it if he didn't use any surface cell towers or fiber optic cables? There's no way he'd go unnoticed sending out such a powerful signal in the middle of the desert."

"So can you decrypt it or not?"

"It's the Osmium Satellite Network. That's the very first system I left my 'calling card' at. I've been using that harmless virus to warn them for two years now, but they haven't fixed a single one of their vulnerabilities. See?"

She acted as casually as someone handing over a manga magazine they were done with.

A clear English conversation immediately came from my smartphone.

"Maxwell, translate it for me. And give it in text so I can read back over it to confirm things."

"Sure."

With that one word, the seemingly meaningless radio noise of that foreign language suddenly gained depth. Meaning rose to the surface like I was feeling across the slight b.u.mps and dips with my fingertips.

"I left the base without any bodyguards despite the risk. You need to take me inside immediately. I did what I was asked, so it is only natural that I demand the repayment laid out in our agreement."

That made it sound like the person who had carried out the attack on Las Vegas. So was it James?

"Maxwell."

"Sure. I am already recording the original voice."

We still got this information using an illegal secret key, so it might be rejected as legal evidence.

That was why I wanted direct access to the b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

I exchanged a glance and a nod with my sisters. This would not be easy, but we had to do it.

"Maxwell, continue recording and a.n.a.lyzing. Also, determine the origin point of the signal. I want to capture James before he boards Absolute Noah 04."

"Sure."

I didn't know what exactly Absolute Noah 04 was, but it was designed to survive the destruction of the human race. It had to have some kind of thick metal door, so this would be a lot more trouble if that was locked.

"I have determined the origin point based on the direction and intensity. It seems to be near the very bottom layer within the dam's arch."

That was right at the bottom of the cliff.

I snapped my fingers to gather my sisters' attention and then we started toward the entrance at the top of the dam's arch.

I had never been in a dam before, so I had no idea if this was normal or not.

We found a small boxy room full of thick pipes. It was lined with tanks of some sort. Was that water, air, or oil inside? I wasn't sure. I couldn't tell what purpose any individual component hand, so it felt like I was searching through a crash-landed alien s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p.

"Fuguu. What do we do, Onii-chan?"

"For now, we take the stairs down. Let's get to the origin point of that signal."

The security really was lax. We didn't run across anyone along the way. Or was the place guarded by a single powerful Archenemy who didn't need any other help?

The text translation of the voices continued on my smartphone.

"Ohh, you're the one from the IMF. Thanks for your help at that golf organization…"

"And thank you for all your hard work. I know this was sudden, but it was worth taking a helicopter here, wasn't it?"

"Ho ho. I caught on right away. But I did not like first learning of this secondhand via social media. I wish you had told me in advance."

Instead of a conversation, it sounded more like picking up the phone conversations of multiple people in the same place. The wealthy people who had gotten tickets to Absolute Noah 04 were apparently gathered together on their way somewhere.

"That isn't good. It sounds like they're going to start boarding soon. Where's the next stairway?"

There was no stairway or elevator in the dam that led directly from the top to the bottom. The paths down were short and we would have to search through a complex array of pathways to find the next stairway. Was that meant as an anti-terror mechanism?

"Satori-kun. This is the next stairway. We should be at the bottom level soon."

"Kh. Let's run the rest of the way."

We were approaching the center of the mystery. We were closing in on the villain. So why did everything feel so mismatched? It felt wrong, like b.u.t.toning your s.h.i.+rt up in the wrong holes. I didn't want to run across an a.s.sa.s.sin, but it felt abnormal for things to go so smoothly.

And then we reached the bottom level of the dam.

We had arrived without a single injury.

"James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y!!"

I shouted out without thinking because what looked like a bank vault's round door was just about to close. Large panels of thick, heavy-looking metal covered the wall. If that door closed, we would probably be out of options. And the one who turned back when I called that name was probably the real one. As the large door slowly closed, an elderly man looked back through the crescent moon of a crack.

My smartphone translated for me:

"Ohh, if it isn't Madam Yurina's children! But weren't you scheduled to board Absolute Noah 00?"

That was not at all the reaction I had expected.

I had expected insults or mockery, but he actually seemed welcoming!?

Erika hatefully opened her mouth.

"The Cla.s.s Rep and Anastasia aren't with us. If members of the Amatsu family show up at an Absolute Noah facility, they're probably going to a.s.sume it's a surprise inspection or something. We do apparently have tickets, after all."

Was that why no a.s.sa.s.sins attacked? Had they long since noticed us and could have killed us at any time, but they let us through as VIPs!?

I felt like I had unwittingly partic.i.p.ated in some kind of crime. A bitter flavor filled my mouth.

" 'Go to h.e.l.l, you villain! I'm gonna get you to admit to every last thing you did at Las Vegas!!' "

"Ohh, ohh. If that's what you want, feel free. So you want to know what someone like me did to earn my ticket to Absolute Noah 04? Why, you could call that my life's greatest accomplishment. I will give you a full report over some victory drinks once we overcome the Calamity."

This was not good.

I wasn't getting through to him at all. He got the surface meaning of the words, but the emotions and feelings contained in them weren't reaching him in the slightest!!

"That's how it works with madmen, Onii-chan. He sacrificed 4 million lives for that ticket. And I don't see a wife or kids with him. He just cares about saving himself. Everyone else is disposable. That's the kind of insane cult this is."

"Kids?" he said. "You can always make more of those."

That left me at a complete loss for words.

And since he responded to Ayumi, he must not have needed the translation.

"Which reminds me. The population will greatly decrease after the Calamity, so I might just have to help repopulate with you two young ladies there. Let's all look forward to that."

"!! f.u.c.k off, you dirty old man!!"

"Hah hah. It would seem Madam Yurina's daughters would prefer not to mix human and Archenemy blood. Then I will make my selection from the other options."

The way he made it sound like choosing curtains for his room truly did fill me with terror.

…It hadn't started with the Calamity or the ark tickets. They hadn't been broken after they succ.u.mbed to fear. No, it was because they had a screw loose in the first place that they leaped at the chance for a ticket even if it meant abandoning their families and friends.

Meanwhile, the large round door slowly closed. The gap was filled in.

"Now then, everyone, send my regards to Madam Yurina. And let us meet again in the new world after the Calamity has been overcome."

"You can't, Satori-kun! You'll just get your arm or leg taken off by the closing door!! The movable parts alone have to weigh more than 5 tons!!"

I started to run forward, but my vampire older sister rushed after me. She looked slender, but I was powerless in the Archenemy's grasp.

The door fully closed in front of us. With the sound of air escaping, more than ten thick metal rods located along the door's perimeter produced creaking sound and locked it in place.

The door was now a part of the thick metal panels making up the wall.

"Dammit! Maxwell, Anastasia!!"

"Calm down. Start by sending me the format of the door, Truth!"

"No. There is no connection port and it is not responding to EM or IR signals. It is a fully independent system."

"Is there anything you can pry open on the surface of the door to mess with the wiring!?"

"No. It is cleanly constructed with no visible seams. The unique metallic sheen suggests it is made from ultra-pressure-resistant tungsten steel. I see no components that can be dismantled using handheld tools."

"Then how does anyone get the door open!?" I protested. "There's no dial, keypad, or finger scanner!!"

"There is likely a control panel on the inside," said Maxwell. "They simply need an administrator on the inside at all times. Then there is no need for an interface on the outside. Although I cannot say if they have some means of communicating with those outside or if they simply open and close the door on a set timetable."

"Kh."

Then we were out of options. We had no way in and our skills were no help.

"Erika, Ayumi! Can't you force open a hole!?"

"That's a little much to ask…"

"Twenty times the strength of a human might sound like a lot, but that means we can't do something that twenty humans working together can't do."

d.a.m.n, is this a complete dead end!?

We couldn't use illegally stolen digital data as official evidence. Without placing James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y directly on the witness stand, the truth of the gels and the bombing would never be revealed and the world's Archenemies would be treated like villains!!

I punched the thick metal door out of frustration.

And something odd happened.

At first, it seemed like some small sounds. I thought they were some kind of gears or something fitting together within the thick door.

But they weren't.

They were…voices? I never did well on my English tests, but I could kind of tell that these were human voices.

But how?

This should have been impossible.

"Satori…-kun?"

"Shh."

Erika voiced her confusion when I suddenly pressed my ear against the door. But I remained focused and spoke to my smartphone.

"Maxwell, have you noticed this?"

"Sure. Compared to the voice samples taken in the previous conversation, one of the many physical voices is an 89.8% match with James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y. It seems to be coming from further left than the door itself."

I made my way to the wall itself. Giant panels made of what seemed to be stainless steel or tungsten steel were lined up at even intervals. And there were of course no obvious screws or bolts. Each panel was taller than I was.

If they were as thick as that round door, they would be at least more than a meter thick. At that thickness, they wouldn't even need soundproofing material to prevent voices from pa.s.sing through.

And yet.

That should have been the case, but…

…I could hear them. I could hear voices from the other side. Did they have speakers embedded in the wall to confuse us? But I couldn't think of any reason for laying this trap.

"You may be looking at this wrong," said Maxwell.

"…What do you mean?"

"Sure. There is a trick here and it was meant to fool someone. But we may not have been the targets. If there is no logical reason to set a trap for us, then it may have been directed elsewhere."

I had to change how I looked at this.

It was a trick meant for someone else.

Why could I hear voices through the wall?

"…Don't tell me," I muttered.

And then I pressed my palm against the center of the one of the panels lining the heavy-looking metal wall.

"But it couldn't be!"

I slowly pressed my body weight against it.

And then…

Creak…

It was such a shock that I jerked my hand back. It was like I had carelessly touched a hot teakettle. The sensation remaining in my palm was a completely normal one. I probably felt it on a daily basis. But why here? It was so out of place that it felt horrifically ominous.

I felt unsteady on my feet and placed my hand on the next panel over. This time, I knew what I was likely to feel.

I placed my palm against it and slowly pressed my body weight on it.

It was the same feeling as before.

In other words…

"…A door?" I spoke without thinking when I looked through that s.p.a.ce that opened far too easily. "Are all of the wall's metal panels just thin doors!?"

I couldn't believe it. They were only as thick as the gla.s.s doors you pushed to open at convenience stores or school entranceways. What had happened to the thickness of the wall? No, it was only the round door that was thick. The rest was flimsily thin.

But what did that mean?

I didn't know what the mysterious Calamity was. Was it some kind of phenomenon? But this was supposed to be their way of protecting themselves from that great danger. And this wouldn't protect them at all!

The villains stood on the other side of the thin door. Including that old man named James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y. But even though we were close enough to reach out and grab each other, we had all frozen in place. We could not even produce a single trembling voice.

They were as confused as I was. Despite being VIPs who had acted like they could answer any of the world's mysteries.

How long did that last?

A minute? An hour?

Finally, I heard some footsteps that clearly did not belong to any of us. They came from behind and thus from the dam, but it did not sound like Erika or Ayumi's shoes. I was frozen in place with the door standing open, but I managed to slowly turn around just in time to see a small girl in a baggy work jumpsuit step out from the complex pa.s.sageways of the dam. She had white skin and semi-long black hair. But she did not appear to be Asian. Her facial features were more like Erika's or Anastasia's than the Cla.s.s Rep's or Ayumi's.

She was probably one of the original owners of the Hoover Dam. In other words, one of those who had built Absolute Noah 04.

She worked for my stepmom, Amatsu Yurina.

That made her an enemy Archenemy.

"Oh? So you noticed the trick, did you? Then I'll have to go with Plan B."

"Wh-what? What are you…what?"

"And worry not, everyone. I have no intention of taking Absolute Noah 04 from you. This ark already belongs to you."

"What does this mean!? Isn't Absolute Noah 04 supposed to be a solid barrier that can withstand whatever the Calamity is supposed to be!? So why is it less secure than a bathroom stall!? It's just a bunch of thin doors that don't even lock! Anyone could get in from any direction!"

Thin walls would be one thing, but thin doors made no sense at all. I mean, doors are made to pa.s.s through. Just imagine your own house was built like this. Why did they take it this far? Unless you were some kind of exhibitionist, you'd just find it creepy to be surrounded by lockless doors to the outside at all times. You wouldn't even be able to take a nap. What mindset would lead you to design something like this?

I had no reason whatsoever to support them, but for some reason, I found myself criticizing the unfair treatment of James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y and the other VIPs. My instincts were telling me who was better between those shady VIPs and this girl in a baggy work jumpsuit.

"Yes, that is the point."

This girl's darkness was probably much deeper.

She contained something beyond mere death.

"We invited these unsightly guests who we knew would throw everyone else under the bus in their rush to this house of straw. And once they found peace of mind here, the Calamity would finish them all off. We had simply built a system to give them their just deserts."

I had no idea what she meant.

…So…so what was this?

The Nevada airbase and the rest of these VIPs had dirtied their hands to win the favor of my stepmom, Amatsu Yurina. But the secret at the bottom of the Hoover Dam wasn't meant to protect them? It was no more than a house of straw meant to give them peace of mind before pus.h.i.+ng them down the steep slope to a fear of death!?

"You saw what happened in Las Vegas, didn't you?" The girl in the baggy work jumpsuit spoke calmly to me. "The ark is a limited resource. Since it is not possible to save everyone, we must select our people carefully. But sadly, if we use a computer to select them based on the official records such as academic history, income, social status, achievements, and so on, you end up with this. We are not interested in the people with the highest ranks. We only want to rescue the normal sort of good person who will instinctually reach out their hand when they see someone in need and naturally help each other out when the need arises."

Noah's Ark was a story about G.o.d wiping the entire world clean because immorality had spread throughout the world after fallen angels and humans intermingled.

At G.o.d's command, Noah gathered two of every animal on a single boat.

In other words, he selected them.

If those deemed unqualified had spotted and approached the giant boat at that stage, what would have happened? Or what if someone had greedily tried to steal the boat?

"I can't believe this…"

It was true.

James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y deserved criticism for what he had done. He was responsible for those gels and that bombing. Just picturing Las Vegas filled with red and black made me want to tear him limb from limb.

But could my stepmom's group be the ones to criticize him?

I mean, this was practically on the same level as Kaguya-hime's impossible tasks! They had invited these people, but because the machine-run selection result was not what they wanted, they had given these people more and more ridiculous demands just waiting for them to fail. And those who kept at it were given a false goal line where they would finally find relief just in time to be blown away by the mysterious Calamity. What the h.e.l.l was that!?

Could I really let that happen?

In fact, the VIPs could hear all this because the girl seemed to find it natural to just view them with scorn, so would they just stand there and let it happen? James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y was hardly a good person, but if he had a high level of international education, he could easily be bilingual. And even I could tell this was not a group you wanted to anger.

"Ha…ha ha."

I heard dry laughter.

It was James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y. That old man who had lived a long life of success had likely never laughed like this before.

"Ha ha ha. Hwah ha ha ha. Heh, heh hah."

"Don't you make a d.a.m.n fool of meeeeee!!"

He suddenly shouted in anger. Since I was only seeing an emotionless translation from Maxwell, it felt oddly empty. But it was actually surprising that it took him this long to explode. These people had seen the malice of humanity from behind the scenes, but even their minds had gone blank.

James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y reached into his expensive-looking suit and pulled out a bottle small enough to fit in his palm. It contained a translucent red liquid. What was that? A drink? No, perfume??? After trying to find a normal sort of answer, I realized I was being an idiot.

What had I seen at Las Vegas?

They were a red liquid.

And they could not eat anything inorganic.

What had been created based on the Archenemy Shoggoths at Area 51?

"A gel!? You brought one here!?"

I immediately jumped back…no, I wish I could say I did something cool like that. Instead, my legs practically gave out below me. I forced shut the camouflaged door as if slamming my back against it. They only ate organic things, so it wouldn't be able to eat that thin door. It wouldn't be able to attack Erika or Ayumi. Meanwhile, that elderly VIP continued moving with the bottle in hand. James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y twisted and removed the bottle's metal cap.

His words were translated on my smartphone's screen.

"Don't you underestimate me… I will decide my own fate. Not even you lot get to decide what happens to me!!"

He raised the small bottle.

The only opened door had been shut, so I was the only outsider here. That meant I was being targeted. This would be really bad if he threw it at me. That was far more of a threat than a Molotov c.o.c.ktail. I knew that, but my legs were too weak to move. But then a question came to mind.

…If he's planning throw and break the bottle, why did he bother removing the cap?

Goose b.u.mps rose across my body. That was only a small question, but it caused all of my a.s.sumptions to crumble and fall into the abyss.

And James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y tilted back the raised bottle.

He dumped it over his own head.

Just like the victory celebration after a sports match.

"Uuh…"

It was awful.

The many sticky sounds were truly horrific.

This gel was much smaller than James's body, so the red slime entered his skull like it was a rotting apple. From there, it was like watching an inflated doll deflate. I had never known how wildly someone would thrash about when being eaten from the inside.

"Urp!?"

I was glad I had shut the thin door with my back. I didn't want to let even Erika or Ayumi see this. The ominous sensation in my chest was different from simply seeing someone attacked and killed. I suddenly remembered my smartphone was connected to Anastasia, so I quickly used my finger to cover the small lens on the back.

"User."

"Temporarily cut off the footage to Anastasia! Just give her the sound!"

"Understood, so please uncover the lens."

Someone was dissolving before my eyes. James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y had seemed like such a great evil, but he vanished without leaving a trace. It was such a brutal fate, but he did not even scream. His luxury suit and everything below it may have been silk because not even his clothing remained. Only the gel wriggled on the floor, released from its bottle.

…What was going on?

He had sounded so courageous, but then he committed suicide? No, was this what he had meant by saying he would decide his own fate and that he would not let anyone else decide what happened to him? If he was going to be killed for the convenience of others, he would prefer to die at his own hand? Was that the cruel decision he had made?

"Now, then."

I heard a calm voice.

The girl in a baggy work jumpsuit reappeared while sounding so casual she might as well have been opening the door to a school bathroom stall or shower booth. I wasn't sure when she had gotten it, but she was dragging something while her semi-long hair swayed. What was it? A flamethrower or something like that? There was a large metal nozzle with a flame at the end, a hose, and a cylindrical tank that was dragged around on wheels like a vacuum cleaner. It was true the gels seemed to not like fire and heat, but…

"I will clean this up. But are you sure none of you have any regrets? Especially you remaining VIPs."

What was she talking about now? The small gel that James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y had used to kill himself was right there next to those villains. It could attack one of them at any time. If someone could dispose of it now, what could be better?

"Do I need to spell it out?"

The work jumpsuit girl grinned.

And she said it.

"You have been abandoned by the true Absolute Noah and that means you have no way of escaping the Calamity. This is your final chance. If you do not choose a gentle and safe death here, you will only experience the slow suffering of an inescapable extinction."

There was malice there.

I wasn't sure even that blue bunny girl could have smiled like that.

And the results were swift.

The VIPs were not being threatened with a gun to their heads. They had not been tied up and their precious families were not being used as s.h.i.+elds.

And yet.

"M-me too…"

"Wait, I'm going first!"

"No fair! You always push your way to the front like that…!!"

Are you…kidding!?

I did not know enough English for daily life. I was reliant on Maxwell for translations. So I initially thought the text on the screen was some kind of bug or error.

But when I looked up, the madness continued.

Why were they gathering around it? I could understand if they were trying to escape but getting eaten anyway, but they were rus.h.i.+ng toward it! Like they were fighting over f.u.kubukuro at a department store on New Year's!

There was no salvation here.

Those wealthy men and women rushed to be the first to grab that small gel and then were dissolved. They were not swallowed; they were eaten from within like a rotting tree trunk infested with caterpillars. I could make no sense of what I was watching. They were like babies who yet to develop a fear of fire.

"Because."

I couldn't speak English, but she must have seen the confusion in my eyes. Someone who appeared to be a former stage actress whispered to me while half dissolved.

I wanted to believe the translation was wrong.

"There are only two options here."

"This isn't like a knife or a gun. This is the last flight out if we are to comfortably escape without feeling that fear."

…What was the Calamity?

Was it really such a great tragedy that being dissolved alive seemed like your last hope? These people had to have all sorts of a.s.sets and connections to cause such a major incident, but was the Calamity really enough for them to immediately choose euthanasia over resistance? What did they see approaching and what did they seek salvation from?

There was no one to ask.

Not one of them was left!!

"That completes the cleanup of 04 using Plan B. Madam Yurina's son, I will end this, so please stand back."

"Wah!?"

The baggy work jumpsuit girl aimed the flamethrower's thick metal nozzle forward and unleashed a straight line of fire with a calm expression. It wasn't normal to wield something like that without a mask or fire-resistant clothing and just standing next to her was enough to feel the tingling pain of standing in front of the stove!

The palm-sized gel that had devoured the VIPs twisted around and fled from the pursuing flame, but that did not work well.

Just like the row of doors, the floor and inner walls were also shoddily made. I couldn't tell you if they were urethane, plastic, or styrofoam, but they quickly melted like chocolate or some other candy placed on a car's hood in midsummer. They mixed with the gel and then fell to the floor below.

"Based on the reports, the Shoggoth variant developed in Area 51 is unable to eat inorganic materials…" The unknown Archenemy whispered in a singsong voice. "So if it is mixed with a liquefied inorganic material and allowed to rapidly cool and harden, it will be unable to dissolve the foreign material and escape. Thus permanently solidifying it. Just as theorized."

I couldn't speak a word.

She was ahead of us on everything. I had no idea how far down the remains had fallen, but I doubted we could recover it before she could. She knew the internal structure while we did not and she was more skilled. In fact, it was a bit of a mystery why we hadn't been captured and tied up when we were in the middle of the enemy fortress.

I had been unable to save James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y or the other VIPs.

And further possibilities would gradually be lost over the next 72 hours.

"You said…04, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"What about the other numbers?"

"Not counting 00, numbers 01 through 14 hidden across the world are all purification filters. Will they remain oblivious until the Calamity catches them unawares, or will they meet some other fate within? Either way, their fate is sealed from the moment they step inside. They are all unsightly, but if they were not so dependent on such things, they never would have persistently tracked down the various Absolute Noahs."

No, just telling them the truth would not save them. As I had seen here, they could not bear the shock of having their life's goal stolen before their eyes. That was like saying we were showing them the truth of the world and then swiping their s.p.a.ce suit's helmet out in open s.p.a.ce.

Was it all being controlled by my stepmom, Amatsu Yurina? Even the understanding and control of people's desires and sending them into despair by taking that away from them? Humans were no match for a demon when it came to controlling negative emotions.

"There is no need to feel worried. The problem has been smoothly resolved. So please rest easy and wait in Kukyou City, Master Satori. You have already been chosen. Truly chosen."

"What do you mean smoothly? Without James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y's testimony, we can't reveal the truth of the gels and the bombing. All the harmless Archenemies around the world are going to be oppressed like they're man-eaters!"

"That will in fact lead you to give up on earth's human race and decide to board Absolute Noah. Or so Madam Yurina believes."

"Kh."

Really!?

She did all this just for that!?

"But Madam Yurina also said she would respect your free will in deciding whether or not to board. That is why she is working to resolve this problem on her own."

"How!? James is dead!"

"The bombing of Las Vegas was far too largescale a plan for James w.i.l.l.y-w.i.l.l.y to put together on his own. Another team has already secured a different witness who had infiltrated Congress."

Was that the person who gave the go sign from their position of civilian control!? That would indeed provide an even better testimony than James.

"So my stepmom was controlling it all. Every last bit of it…"

"Yes."

She spoke just one word.

The ones who had actually carried out the attack were in Area 51. And those in Congress who had given the go sign were also guilty. But who had given a glimpse of nonexistent salvation and made the request? Would she be the one to punish them? She had made the request, but now she was abandoning the people working so hard to give her what she wanted and yet she had the nerve to act like she was the hero!? Mom! Even if you're a demon lord, that's taking it too far. Or are you going to say this was a standard job for a demon that takes the souls of the rogues who actively seek out a demon to make a contract with!?

"We cannot allow the wicked to enter the ark. That is rule #1. You could say that Madam Yurina has made a truly logical decision."

I wobbled on my feet and nearly collapsed, but for some reason, the baggy work jumpsuit girl gently supported me.

The two of us left the pointlessly melted Absolute Noah 04 and reentered the dam.

"But there is one point on which you may be able to outdo Madam Yurina."

"Her plan showed no interest in the Las Vegas side that provided no benefit for the Absolute Noah side. She likely has no intent to pay the unnecessary costs needed to drag the victims out of the gels. But 72 hours have yet to pa.s.s since the incident began. If you use a powerful-enough centrifuge on the gels that drove Las Vegas to destruction, you could create a result that Madam Yurina truly did not expect."

"That's not possible…" Ayumi shook her head. "Didn't you see what happened, Onii-chan? Who knows how many gels there are. It's just too much. How are we supposed to gather up every gel in Las Vegas and use a centrifuge on them? Where do we get such a large device!? And more than 9.5 Gs is the same level as the limits of a fighter jet!! No normal machinery can provide that much centrifugal force!!"

No.

What if…?

Didn't I have Maxwell, a disaster environment simulator, at my disposal?

"Category 5?"

"Yes."

"Why did you tell me this?"

"I am a scout for the Absolute Noah side. I have no authority to raise an objection to an order made by Madam Yurina." The baggy work jumpsuit girl winked. "But my own thoughts are more in line with yours. Honestly, if I had been introduced to you a little sooner, I wouldn't have hesitated to join you. It really is a shame."

"You can't do that now?"

"No, I can't."

…d.a.m.n.

I scratched my head and then turned away from the girl who could not join me.

"Erika, Ayumi. There's still one more step. It isn't over yet. Let's take this outside of mom's predictions in at least one way."

"That's fine with me. But…"

"Fuguu. How are you going to rescue everyone scattered across that desert city?"

That was obvious.

And I already knew where to find the necessary materials.

"By using an even bigger weapon, of course."

Our airbase of course uses many aircraft. Even if they are on a different level from civilian pa.s.senger planes, there are still certain environments and meteorological conditions best suited for flight.

We fear nothing more than being unable to take off or land in an emergency.

In Nevada, there are spontaneous downbursts and even sandstorms when a few conditions line up just right.

We can imagine a scenario in which an enemy force has already infiltrated the country and intentionally produces weather conditions preventing takeoff to coincide with the attack of an aerial force.

Simulators are used for more than just predicting future results. They are also used to turn back the hands of the clock and check over the exact conditions that caused a certain phenomenon to occur.

It could be war, natural disasters, or Archenemies. An extremely powerful simulator can quantify the conditions necessary for them to occur, and that means those things can be made to occur in the real world. We must never forget that fact.