The Lain Bs waiting in the sky suddenly lost their power and immediately fell to the ground. Lain didn't know exactly what had happened, as she had intentionally not been tapping into the senses of her copies. Yogiri must have used his power on them, though — there was no other explanation for why a group of immortal vampires would have died.
The smashed, sand-covered bodies of the Lain Bs disappeared almost instantly. Extensions of herself that she felt were no longer necessary always did.
"What...what on earth happened...?" Euphemia asked timidly, watching the bodies fall into the crumbling hellscape of the city.
"The Lain Bs were killed. Since they were all made from the same template, it seems killing one of them got the rest as well."
"We really shouldn't have picked a fight with this Yogiri Takatou!"
"You think so? Surely all I have to do is create them with slightly different templates this time. That way, if he kills one, the rest won't be harmed."
Despite the deaths of the Lain Bs, Lain herself wasn't affected. Clearly, Yogiri's powers did have limits after all. Even when it came to his reactions to killing intent, there were differences in that power depending on the circumstances. It might be the key she needed to take him down. With a bit more research, she should be able to find a way to break the deadlock between them.
But Lain was disappointed. In the end, Yogiri had been unable to kill an Origin Blood. She had lost her interest in him now. The Darkness had also been defeated. Was there any value in letting him continue to live? Those who opposed the Sages must be killed. There was a simple loophole to that ironclad rule, though. The rebel just had to be turned into a Sage. But that was something that could be mulled over later. Now that the Darkness had been dealt with, Lain had no reason to stay there.
But as Lain decided to return to her mansion, she noticed something strange — she couldn't move her body at all.
Did something happen?!
The unprecedented phenomenon left her bewildered. This was the first time she had been truly surprised since she had come to this world. It felt like time itself had stopped. From that feeling, a possibility came to mind, as hard as it was to believe.
Her main body had died.
The Lain that was standing here now was, like Lain B, a clone made by the true Lain. But unlike Lain B, who had been made to be disposable, this Lain was inextricably linked to the main body, and shared all of its memories as well. This was the driving force behind Lain's immortality — by leaving her main body in a safe place, she acted through the use of clones. No matter how many of them were destroyed, she could always make another one on the spot.
But now the crucial link between her and her main body had been severed. She could no longer communicate with her main body, and was no longer reflecting any changes that happened to it. Because of that, the Lain standing there now had begun to think independently.But that wouldn't last for long. Lain's primary clone had been built with the assumption that it would have an uninterrupted connection to the main body. Should that link be severed, the unneeded body would disappear. For a dependent clone like her, that was inevitable.
The Lain standing there now was no more than a fading echo, a temporary existence, a gap between synchronizations that shouldn't even be conscious.
Like her life flashing before her eyes, her last instants stretched out as she thought over what had happened. He must have reached the main body through the Lain Bs. She was immediately filled with admiration...and relief. Lain B and her main body weren't connected directly. So Yogiri had been able to kill the main body where it waited in a supposedly safe, sealed space.
She had no idea what made that possible. His power was absurd, to the point of breaking logic. But that made it all the more likely that he would be able to save the child.
In her last few moments before disappearing, Lain's heart was filled with hope.
◇ ◇ ◇
The next day, after that whole unpleasant chain of incidents, Yogiri and Tomochika were back in the city's central square. Numerous tents had been set up to house the survivors of the recent events, so that was where the two of them were staying as well.
The zombie attack, the bizarre behaviors of the residents, the attack from the Darkness, and finally the widespread ruin left by the Sage's own attack. Even thinking of a place to start seemed a monumental enough task, yet despite being on the edge of falling into despair, Ryouta had immediately kicked into action with the relief efforts. Take stock of the damage. Call nearby cities for aid. Provide aid to victims. Collect the necessary materials and provide a place to stay for those who had lost their homes.
"I know I'm the one who woke you up, but are you okay?"
"I'm still sleepy, but it's fine."
The two of them were heading to the Disaster Response Headquarters. Entering the building, they approached the head of the response task force, Ryouta.
"Thank you so much. You really saved us yesterday!" Though he looked exhausted from missing an entire night of rest, Ryouta greeted the two of them with a wide smile, his gratitude sincere.
"Uh, I appreciate the thanks, but that was a Sage we killed, right?" Tomochika answered, her voice tinged with unease. As an attendant of the Sages, it was odd for him to be so happy about it.
"It's fine, it's fine! That human bomb doesn't deserve respect from us." Ryouta had immediately become defiant towards his former superior.
"But the city was safe because of the Sage's barrier, right? What will happen now?"
"I'm sure a new Sage will be dispatched soon enough. Until then, we'll just have to build some walls and fend for ourselves. Anyway, did you guys need something? I said I'd do anything for you, but you see how the situation is. I might have to make you wait a bit.""Yeah, we're thinking of leaving the city as soon as we can."
That was why Yogiri had been forced to wake up, despite wanting to sleep through the whole morning. Tomochika was strongly of the opinion that they needed to leave as soon as possible. She was concerned about all the civilians Yogiri had killed. Although he had only killed them in self-defense, the remaining civilians must have had very mixed feelings about it. It was possible some of them would try to take revenge.
"That's fine, but the trains still aren't running."
"Yeah, about that. Could we take one of those trucks in the central square?"
"The Immortal Corps' trucks? One of those will certainly get you to the capital, but are you sure that's good enough?"
"That should be fine. What do they use as fuel? Does this world have something like gasoline?"
"This world's vehicles all run on magic. They use magical stones automatically, so you don't need to be able to operate it yourself or anything. All right, please wait a little while. I'll outfit one of them for you before you go."
◇ ◇ ◇
The next morning, the two of them made their way to their new truck just as a large number of supplies were being carried inside. The rough-looking vehicle was a long, rectangular shape, with six tires. It seemed to have been developed in this world, but with the armored military trucks of their homeworld in mind.
"Are you sure you can spare all this? Even though the city is still in such rough shape..." Tomochika said, already apologizing to Ryouta as he directed the loading of the truck.
"It's fine. If you two hadn't been here, not even this much of the city would be left."
"Of course, if the two of us hadn't been here, none of this would have happened in the first place."
"Well, there's no point thinking about it like that. There is rarely a clear meaning to the actions the Sages take, so we can't know whether Lady Lain really did all of this because of you two. And Masayuki would have done what he did whether or not you were in the city. And the Aggressor likely would have attacked regardless of anything the Sages did."
Yogiri decided to leave it at that.
Ryouta gave a rough explanation of the truck and its new contents. "All right, loading is complete. I got some stuff that I thought you guys might need. I loaded it up with plenty of magic stones too, so it should easily make it to the capital." Yogiri had already boarded the truck by then, so Tomochika was the only one who heard him.
"Thank you for all of this!"
"See you around. Try not to drive off a cliff or anything." Ryouta held out a hand. After a handshake, the two parted ways.
Boarding the truck, Tomochika found Yogiri already in the passenger seat, playing on his handheld.
"Wait, aren't you going to drive? Didn't you say you were good with go-karts or something?" She had taken it for granted that the guy would want the wheel."I'm not good at it at all. I just said that I'd done it before. I hit the wall on just about every curve. Do you want someone like that driving for you?"
"Just hit the brakes when you go around curves!" Obviously, leaving the wheel to Yogiri wasn't an option. Climbing over him, she got into the driver's seat. "But I've never driven a truck like this before. Is it really something you can pick up without any experience?"
With my instruction in the Dannoura School of Driving Techniques, you can rest assured that all will be well!
"Can you stop making everything part of the Dannoura School, please? You make it sound so cheap!"
As an aside, the Dannoura School Flying Body Press was a specialty of her older sister.
Be it a chariot or a helicopter, I am more than capable of piloting it! Don't look down on the Dannoura name!
"What on earth has our family been doing...?" Feeling like she might strike upon a terrifying truth, Tomochika stopped that line of thought partway.
Following Mokomoko's instructions, she started the engine. Once the magic was activated, the internal system and various gauges of the truck looked mostly like any other car. As she timidly pressed down on the gas, the truck gently rolled into motion.
"Uhh, here we go!" Tomochika raised a hand into the air in an energetic declaration. "Come on, give me a response at least! You're making it look like I'm just screwing around by myself!"
"Do your best," Yogiri said, not taking his eyes off the screen of his handheld.
"I most certainly will!!"
First, she would need to head to the canyon — their ultimate goal being the capital city that lay beyond it.