We'd been walking for as long as I could remember without spotting a single Nephilim. It was odd, but no one seemed particularly bothered by it; honestly, I was relieved since it meant less work.
Our guards were still on high alert, though, remembering that all our sensors were jammed—communications, too. Just like before, Nephilims could appear out of nowhere.
"Think we should take a break?" the girl suggested.
"Yeah, and it's probably time we head back to the landing site. We haven't seen a single Nephilim, so I think we're done here," Issei said.
We agreed to rest and found shade under the awning of a nearby shop. Issei walked over to the door, tried the knob, and it opened. A moment later, he came back out with three cans of drinks and handed them to us.
"Take it!" he commanded. I accepted it without a fuss, opened the can, and took a gulp, pretending to enjoy it.
"Haa, it's good," I said, noticing Issei's bewildered stare. Glancing down, I saw it was a chili soda, supposed to be fiery and scorching. I felt a faint burning sensation in my chest, but my tongue was numb—I couldn't taste a thing.
Joke's on you, Issei.
We continued resting outside the shop until the girl suddenly pointed ahead at a distant figure. "Who's that?"
It was a man with short red hair, dressed in a dark, flowing robe, walking casually toward us.
"Hey, what are you doing here? Are you lost?" she asked, running up to him. The man looked at me and smiled.
"We meet again, hybrid."
My body reacted instinctively, and I raised my rifle.
"I asked if you were hurt?" she said, touching his arm.
"Get out of there!" Kotomine yelled, yanking her out of the way just as the man swung down, slicing the building behind us in two.
I aimed my rifle at him, firing multiple rounds that sent him to the ground.
"Bastard! What did you do?!" Issei shouted. "You killed someone—"
"He isn't human. Look at what he did."
Issei glanced at the shop, its core structure severed in half. Then he looked at the girl he'd just saved—she was paralyzed, staring at the man sprawled on the ground, surrounded by a pool of his own blood.
"Just as the hybrid said, I'm not human," the man rasped as he staggered to his feet, blood soaking his clothes. His flesh reddened, muscles bulging, eyes sinking into pure white sockets. He had transformed into the Nephilim we'd seen before, but now he was even larger.
"It transformed—what's going on here?" Issei murmured, visibly at a loss.
"Snap out of it!" I barked, firing at the Nephilim, but the bullets had no effect.
Issei shook off his shock and shot his own rounds at it, one to the chest aiming for the core, another to the head. The Nephilim fell, lifeless.
"What the hell is going on?" Issei muttered, stepping toward the massive body. But before he noticed, the Nephilim's legs moved.
"Oi! Get out of there!" I shouted, but it was too late. The creature's leg shot out, kicking Issei into the shop's wall. I fired again, but the bullets bounced harmlessly off its skin.
As we watched, its chest and head regenerated, and more pieces of flesh began morphing, forming clones. There were now four Nephilims.
"What's happening?" Issei stumbled from the debris, clutching his chest. Though bruised, he looked unharmed—expected from someone with an over-eighty physical rating.
"We need to run." I lifted the girl, who had fainted, into my arms.
"We can still take them out!"
"It's pointless. They'll keep cloning themselves, and soon we'll be completely outnumbered."
So, this is the power of cell manipulation and modification that B told me about.
"For now, we need to run and regroup—then we'll figure something out."
"Don't think I'll let you go anywhere," the Nephilim growled, ripping a traffic light from the ground and swinging it at us. Issei jumped up, dodging it, while I ducked with the girl, narrowly escaping the impact.
"We need to move!"
Together, we ran, the Nephilims in pursuit, hurling debris and metal rods at us. If it weren't for those intense fitness drills with Saiya, I'd probably be dead already. Still, the girl's weight was dragging me down, but she couldn't run—she was already unconscious.
"Oi, Kotomine! Shoot the leg!" I shouted. Despite the distance, he heard me, turned, and shot the lead Nephilim in the leg, tripping it and causing the others to stumble, buying us a bit of time.
"Here, take the girl and run. I've got a plan." I handed her to him.
"What are you planning?"
"A distraction. Just head back to the docking station with her—I'll catch up."
"But how?"
"I'll figure it out! Now go!"
"Alright!" He took off.
With the Nephilims closing in, my only real option was to transform. If we just kept running, they'd eventually catch us anyway. My best chance was to hold them off long enough for Kotomine to escape.
Issei was now out of sight, and the Nephilims were closing in. There were five of them now. I readied myself, waiting for the right moment to transform and launch my attack, when a woman suddenly appeared before me—the same one from the docking station, with long blonde hair and red eyes.
"Hold tight," she said. Only then did I notice her arm around my waist.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, we were in a dimly lit room with just a single light bulb. A nauseating sensation twisted my stomach, and I immediately vomited everything I'd eaten that day.
"I told you to hold tight," she said, sitting in an office chair, watching me.
I held my head, trying to process everything that had just happened—from being outside a moment ago to ending up here in the blink of an eye.
"I saw you back at the docking station. Who are you?"
She looked at me with weary eyes. "Yes, I saw you too. Our meeting was inevitable. I'm Anix, a KIS like you, a robot model. And I'm here to tell you everything."