"Oh? Brother, why are you here?"
Raya looked behind her and saw the presence of her brother. Her face turned from happy to concerned the moment she realized that her brother was panting and sweating.
"What's wrong?"
She asked as she walked up to Donny.
.
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 —Pastoral Symphony—
.
"Maestro, one is sprinting at this direction"
"From where exactly?"
"The east"
"..."
"Mastro, there's more coming"
"And where are they coming from?"
"..."
"..."
"West, south and north"
Shit.
Retahus are dangerous mutated animals, they would react aggressively to any off tuned instruments or and any of the same kind. They also used the sounds of the off tune to locate any nearby prey. Even though they are consumed by an unknown virus, they're still animals that need nutrients to stay alive. And they'll eat anything to keep staying alive.
Eroica felt a sudden vibration coming from the east and it was closer the moment she detected it than when she did before.
"Maestro"
"I know I know… Let's try not to damage anything else"
Felix pulled out his baton from his pocket.
"You ready?"
Felix asked Eroica, who was now holding a fire weapon that resembles that of a M134 minigun.
"I've never been not ready, Maestro"
"Good. Then commence the battle!"
Eroica jumped and it made a strong shock wave and it cracked the pavement below her.
Her former white and blue highlighted dress turned to a cyan and white highlighted dress. The white and blue switched places and the blue got even brighter.
"Now slow down, Eroica. You don't want to startle the residents"
"Roger that, Maestro"
She was moving at superhuman speed and slowed down as she turned to a street nearby.
"I have clear aim"
"Nice! Shoot it's heart now!"
Maestro Felix flicked his baton. Then a bright shining light was visible for a mile away. The light was Eroica's gun firing at the beasts, firing an unprecedented amount of bullets per second.
The shock waves of sound created by Eroica's bullets made holes the second they came into contact with the Retahu.
She let go of the trigger and let the decaying Retahu disappear like dust, for it had died.
"Maestro, won't it be better if help were to come and assist me? I am very aware of my natural skills of killing Retahus but I can't attack all of them by myself. There are other Retahus coming from other directions at the same time we're speaking right now!"
"Change of plan then! Prioritize the people inside the building first!"
"Roger that, Maestro!"
.
C # major
.
"Look, all I want you is to listen to me and don't panic, okay?"
Donny crouched down as he talked to his sister, Raya.
"Is something bad going to happen…?"
"A-..."
"Brother…"
"Tch!"
There was a sinking feeling in his chest.
He could just save his sister there and leave all of the people in the auditorium to possibly get killed by the possible attack of the Retahus, or he could convince the whole room to leave.
He wanted to save everyone, for some reason, but he couldn't get it out of his throat.
But when he wanted to shout "attention!" so that everyone could hear him and listen to him, it was already done by a man dressed in a black suit followed by a young girl in white dress.
"By the name of Orchastraf, this show is canceled! Everyone leave the building!"
The man shouted.
When Donny looked behind him, he realized that it wasn't Felix who had shouted.
.
C5 - C2
.
"Donny! Glad that you made it!"
Felix said as he greeted him with a wave. He saw Donny running out of the building with his little sister in his hand. He was glad that Donny and his little sister could make it out of the crowded stampede.
"That was close!"
Felix said to Donny.
"Yeah! But it would've been better if that glorier didn't make everyone panic"
Donny turned around to point at the glorier. He was standing near the exit, escorting the elderly, woman and the children.
"He does that sometimes. But I can assure you, he's a nice person!"
"Yeah, I can see it"
He turned to look at the entrance of the building to see the same glorier, who made the crowd panicked, now escorting the eldery, woman and children out of the building.
Suddenly, a young girl landed gracefully beside the man. To Donny, it looked like she had used the umbrella she was carrying all the time.
"What is even a glorier?"
"Hm? Wait, you don't know?"
"I've heard about them before, but never to the full extent"
"Glorier are essentially commanders to their soldiers that are called Auditors. They, just like a conductor, conducts their Auditors to fight"
"What do you mean to conduct them? Are they some sort of instrument?"
"Auditors are once normal humans… But they sacrifice the control over their body to the virus we founded. We Glorier, conduct the virus' control over said body"
"Huh…"
"Haaahh… It's almost a sad reminder that these individual are willing to lend their body to fight"
"So, you're telling me that… you're also a Glorier?"
"Yeah… In America, we conductors who are willing to join the Orchastraf are assigned to either one or two Auditors. Some are assigned to an already transformed auditors, so they don't need to go through the depressing process of watching someone, who can also be their loved ones, gets turn into an Auditor"
"So, is your Auditor…"
As Donny said that, Eroica walked closer to Felix, standing beside him as she looked at the crowd struggling to get out of the building.
"Yeah, she was my former eldest cousin."
Donny looked at Eroica. She was not looking at the crowd again, but instead, her marble eyes glanced at Donny.
"Is there something wrong?"
She asked Donny.
"N-no… there's nothing wrong"
"Then, is the person behind you alright?"
"My sister? Yeah she's fine"
"Then, why is her body shaking?"
"She doesn't know about the Retahus but I think she's just traumatized because of the panic"
"Have you tried comforting her?"
"Yeah, I've tried"
"Then why is she still scared?"
This girl… this conversation could last an eternity… Donny thought to himself. Though he was thankful that someone other than him cares about his little sister's health and safety, getting question after question can be annoying for him.
Felix jumped into the conversation after seeing Donny's face getting slightly uneased.
The same time Felix was doing that, Eroica's eyes moved suddenly to the right where there was a massive street visible without a building to obscure it.
"Maestro Felix, two Retahus coming this way"
"Finish it quick!"
Eroica's body suddenly transformed. She was illuminated by a strong energy.
"Eroica, can you shoot it from here?"
"Maestro Felix, remember that I can have more than just a minigun"
The minigun that she was holding transformed to a M110 SASS
.
※SASS = Semi Auto Sniper Rifle
.
"How much ammunition is in that thing?" Felix asked as he grabbed his baton from his pocket.
"Until my energy is depleted"
That means…
What Eroica meant was: "Until this body's energy is empty". With this in mind, Felix knew that he had to make every shot count. He wouldn't want his Auditor to use every energy in the body.
When an Auditor used up too much energy, the body could topple over. Imagine a virus sucking all of the body's life force for their battle.
"Finish this with 4 shots! Aim for their e——"
Felix stopped his words the moment he saw someone jumping over them, back flipped and landed in front of him like he was spider man.
"—Sorry to interrupt, Felix!"
The man spoke.
Suddenly, a large beam of light flew across Felix's left side of his peripheral vision. Something like that had to come from an Auditor, the light was just too magical to be real.
"Come on Maestro! What's next?!"
The Auditor ran past Donny and Felix and stopped beside his Glorier.
The Auditor was a short young boy with a look that resembles an energetic boy that doesn't know the end of fun.
Donny Prasetyo stood behind Felix, protecting his little sister from the dangerous enemies ahead of him. Felix was standing beside his Auditor—Eroica—as he watched a younger Glorier fight against the two Retahus.
Eroica flinched. She sensed another Retahu coming but it's presence was distorted, almost like someone had covered it with camouflage.
"Maestro, should I protect the two behind us?"
"What's going on?"
"There's one Retahu I can sense but it's not clear where it is——"
When a sudden scream echoed through both partners' minds, followed by a crashing sound of concrete and wood, Felix's mind went straight to the thought of the person behind him.
"—ah… aghh"
The dust from the fallen parts of the building made it hard to see what was going on behind him. But the sound can still be heard. And the sound that he heard after the dust had cleared, was bone chilling. Making its mark in Felix's mind.
As the dust cleared and the sound became clearer to hear. The already terrified face of Felix, with his heart dropped, fell to his knees.
"—Rayaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
"———"
Equally stunned at the sight of a boy losing his sister like that, Felix and Eroica slowly approached Donny, their eyes set to the rubble beside him.
Noticing that someone was in danger, Eroica decided to lend a hand. And with her superhuman strength, she was able to life the rubble off the body——
"A—... ah… Ra—..."
Eroica was an Auditor that never showed any emotions on her face in front of the public eyes. She was rather uptight and always serious looking whenever it was time for her duty.
All of that statement above was different to what accrued after.
He felt a sensation in the grip of his left hand. Even though his mind was blank after the sudden explosion of dust, the part telling him not to let go was still there.
His gaze arrived at the hand he felt loosening, the wrist, the elbow—and there, it came to an end.
"———"
The girl who should have been there—
"——ooAAAA!!"
Though he was holding her hand, the girl who should have been did not go past the shoulders. Everything else was flattened.