——The immediate reaction of wanting to help, he tugged the clothes of the nearest person and begged.
"C-call… for help…"
The one who he had tugged was Eroica—Felix's Auditor—whose face was frozen in time. Her Glorier—Felix—was no different from her.
"Hey… c-call… help"
He was resisting the hard, cold, truth reality that was in front of him, searching for the light of hope that was non-existing.
"...I'm sorry, mister. Even if we call help, your little sister can't be saved"
"N-no… s-sh… he-..."
Eroica felt the grip on her clothes getting loosened. Donny started weeping at the ground, clawing on it and making his nail hurt.
Eroica couldn't let someone hurt themselves. Still holding the rubble with one hand, the other grabbed Donny's hand.
"Please, mister. Don't do that!"
"———"
Eroica turned her gaze to her Glorier, who was crying at that moment. His tears were flowing down his face and she could hear him sobbing quietly behind his hand.
"Maestro Felix… What should I do?"
"Tch…" He grumbled, wiping his tears off his miserable face. Then he continued. "hehe… Can you sense more coming here?"
"Yes. And with three Auditors in the area, we can defeat all of them"
"Then commence the battle stance!!"
Wiping out his baton, he angrily shouted at Eroica to immediately annihilate any Retahu that came to her field of vision. Meaning that if there were two or more Retahus, she would have to kill all of them.
"Switch your weapon"
"To what, Maestro?"
"..."
Huh. Where was this undenying rage coming from? Inside his chest, a burning blaze was growing stronger and stronger, growing more every minute.
"Morning star"
"Huh?"
"Can you do it?"
"Well… yes, I can do it"
"Then go!"
"Alright, Maestro!"
.
.
His mind wavered between reality and the dream world. His weeping made him tired, his breath shortened.
"..."
But not for long, the dark world, along with its shadows, disappeared as he fell unconscious on the ground, beside his little sister, still holding her dismembered hand—the only part that was still intact.
.
Finally evacuating the last person from the building, Stephen walked towards the rubble in front of the entrance of the building. Alongside his Auditor, a taller woman than him, wearing a black and white dress, Stephen made a disturbing discovery.
He counted all of the evacuated, and everyone made it out safely out of the building, only minor injuries here and there.
"Hey! Are you alright, sir?"
He jumped over a cracked window frame and landed before Donny.
Checking to see if the unconscious body in front of him was still alive, he placed his finger near the nose and another on his hand.
—still alive.
"Elise! Help— me…"
From being a word away from completing his command to his auditor, Stephen noticed something off. His gaze looked back at the unconscious Donny and followed from end to end, feet to his hand.
His gaze arrived at the severed hand the unconscious Donny was holding. The hand starts from the fingers and ends with the elbow. Stephen could smell something iron, something metallic.
—It was 08:20 pm.
It was hard to see where the smell was coming from. And so he searched it with his hand——
"—?!"
The moment he placed two fingers further than the amputated arm, his fingers were covered in dark red.
—This was the smell.
Disgusted by the smell and the sight of his hand, Stephen fell on his back.
Hearing the sound, his Auditor—Elise—jumped over many debri, coming to aid her Glorier.
"Are you hurt?"
"N-no… Just shocked"
He cleaned his suit, flicking dirt off. Then he grabbed Elise's hand, standing up on his two legs again.
"By the way, Maestro, what's this smell?"
"Hmm…"
Stephen looked back at the hand, now with a clear view of it because the moon had moved a little. —It was truly just a hand. The rest of the body was not there.
"Elise, you can light this place up, right?"
"With light or fire?"
"Light, of course… We don't want to set a wildfire!"
"Roger that, Maestro"
The once dark surroundings disappeared as a fire blazed on Elise's hand, making Donny's unconscious body more obvious to see. —And beside him, was a large pool of blood.
"—woaaaaAAAA!!"
Stephen fell on his back again.
"Maestro, it seems there's a large pool of human blood. Did something happen here?"
"It must be! I thought there was no one near the fallen rubbles"
"But there is someone, two people; one still breathing, and the other is…"
"Yeah…"
Stephen was facing the other way. With knowing the sight and the smell, his throat has been feeling weird since. Trying to keep that thing from ever coming out to reality, he screamed a little.
"Maestro, should I take the person who's still breathing to the hospital?"
She carefully lifted her arms from beneath Donny's torso as her fire traveled to her left ear, floating beside it.
Elise attempted to grab Raya's mutilated arm from Donny's clutches after witnessing it. —Donny's grasp on his little sister's arm was firm even though he was asleep.
Elise came to a halt and turned to her Glorier, not wanting to make matters worse.
"Oh, Maestro, this person doesn't want to let go of the hand"
"Huh…? Well that—"
"—Felix told me that he's holding his little sister"
The abrupt presence of a young man leaping down from above broke short Stephen's speech before he could continue it.
Graham Alexander appeared to be a typical high school student with a positive outlook. His youth and boyhood in Germany, where he was reared by a middle-class family, were filled with love and happiness. He had a passion for music, but after seeing a Retahu in the Dutch coast, he stopped playing any musical instruments and even stopped listening to music.
"Felix? Where is he now—"
He felt a strong gust of wind passing in front of him. What made it was a ball with large spikes all over it, and it was attached to a chain. The chain also flew past Stephen and Alexander.
"Phew, that was Eroica's morning star"
The chains were tugged by it's holder, and the ball flew back at her.
"Please, excuse me passing by"
Holding the ball in her hands, she leapt up high and killed a Retahu that was flying towards her.
"Maestro, that's the second to last one"
From the shadows of the night, out came a furious Conductor with blood all over his face and almost all of the left side of his body.
"Kill them!"
"——"
Eroica landed the second time, her toes hitting the earth, and she leaped again, this time higher than the first.
She swung her morning star in the air, her dress dancing in the breeze. Her spin increased as she clutched the chains that were closest to the ball.
"One shot, kill them!!"
From below, Felix yelled. Eroica swung her morning star far in response to Maestro Felix's comments. Without considering the surroundings, she tossed the morning star in the direction of the last Retahu.
"Hey! Felix! What are you doing?!"
Felix opened his eyes as he heard the distant sound of a metallic item striking with a concrete wall at high speeds. —He was closing them the entire time, rejecting everything of reality and its loss.
"Mister Felix!!"
Behind him, a boy gracefully landed from the heavens.
Felix felt a sharp and hot pain on his cheek as he turned his back to face the boy. His body rocked backwards as the force dissipated and turned to a red hot mark on his face.
"You idiot! You're risking people's lives!"
As the boy was done speaking, the sound of chains echoed in the background. Suddenly, that sound exploded in front of him, causing a strong shockwave that made him jump back.
"Feiere, don't hurt Maestro like that"
"What the hell are you thinking, Eroica?!? He's doing wrong and you're listening to him?!?"
"You're breaking the 5th law of Orchastraf"
"Look at your Glorier!!!"
"..."
"He's been breaking the law left to right!! And not even the Orchastraf but also the government!!"
"...h"
"Mister Felix, the thing you just told Eroica to do was unnecessary. You were driven by your emotions and let your heart do whatever it wants. You didn't care about the citizens standing near the area!! Those people almost got trampled by Eroica's morning star!!"
Before they met up in front of the music hall, before Stephen finished evacuating the people inside the music hall, Felix had ordered Eroica to not hold back with her weapons.
The one man that cared about his Auditor's body and life energy, flipped and became someone who was restless and persevering. In the heat of the battle, what was going through his mind were undyingly terrifying words.
"Eroica"
In a depressing tone, Felix called his Auditor as he walked in front of her.
"Ah… yes?"
He was right in front of her, his back facing Eroica and his eyes were locked at Feiere.
"Anything you want to say, mister Felix?"
Feiere shot Felix with a question, his face was mad.
"I sincerely apologize"
"As you should"
"..."
The once happy, smiling face was now flat and expressionless.
"Come one, Eroica"
"Where, Maestro?"
"Stephen already brought Donny to the hospital, so let's pay a visit"
"Ah… yeah, I'll follow you"