Forget about these new characters and return to the External Party; Nine Council has proposed an "optimal" measure suggested by VII to protect Mao, which is..."What the hell is this???" Mao's angry voice echoed."Shut up, this is the safest place!""You're abusing your power! Let me talk to IV!""You'll end up in here anyway, so just treat it like an internship!"Yes, the safest place Mao could be is Room F6 in Frost Wisp's detention facility, which is the deepest room in a separate dimension, known only to Nine Council. It was built in secret, meant for "life sentences" for prisoners. Once someone is locked up here, they can never leave. Though the room seems quite comfortable, anyone who stays inside long enough will eventually go insane due to its instability. This is a room built on the definition of "Liminal space." Mao will be locked up here until Frost Wisp, and the External Party in general, dealt with the underground world. Although being imprisoned like this seemed unreasonable, there was no other option."Hmph...""Alright... bye, I'm off to hang out with Shird!!!"The boy, Yu, was at a loss for words in this situation. He quickly ran off after giving a rather unnecessary excuse."Hmph, damn pests!"Mao, irritated by her current situation, sat still in front of a comfortable chair in the room, staring into a mirror. She saw her reflection, distorted and filled with violence, with a wide grin stretching from ear to ear and eyes as dark as the void.Back to the Nine Council, Mobius and Lapis were with Dev, teaching the 11-year-old boy. The basics were teaching him internal knowledge of the world and the other Parties."Master, can you go over the disaster scoring system again? I... I forgot it...~""Good grief! It's been three hours already!"Following Dev's embarrassed laugh was Mobius' yell, as her teaching time had been ruined because her student, who had just grown horns, had forgotten everything. It seemed like she was about to lose her mind."IV, your current issue is that you lose your temper too easily. Three hours is nothing compared to...""The issue here is that I've been teaching this for a whole week already!"Lapis' advice was dismissed by a loud shout from Mobius. We can understand the teacher's frustration, as her student wasn't learning, but the issue is her short patience and tendency to get angry. Still, it was rare for her to show any violent behavior towards children. After her shout, however, she smiled and turned to say she would teach once more, gently and kindly. What was the hidden meaning behind this?"Forget it, I'm leaving.""Hmph, damn pests!"Right after the door slammed, Mobius' angry yet humorous voice echoed, her face showing a mixture of resignation, half wanting to cry, half wanting to laugh, which made Dev laugh out loud."Master, let's get back to the lesson ~""Yeah, she's exhausting me. Here, one last time…Alright, through Mobius, let's talk about disasters:
The levels of disasters: the destruction caused by an individual or organization will be assessed by their danger level, and they will be scored accordingly to evaluate the disaster's severity.
- A score of 1->5 is a level that can threaten a planet and potentially wipe out many special members, requiring intervention from Level B.
- A score of 5->10 can threaten multiple planets, even a multiverse, and can eliminate members from Levels B to A.
-A score of 10->15 can threaten a multiverse, from low to high level, or even a super multiverse, and can eliminate members from Level A to S.
-A score of 15->20 can threaten super multiverses and wipe out the Weavers.
-20+ is the most dangerous level, requiring the entire "Nine Council" and the Outer Party's attention, as individuals or organizations of this level can threaten countless super multiverses or even destroy entire stories. These entities are extremely rare, and there are almost no organizations or beings with a score of 20+.
"Creatures with no danger can be kept as pets, like little Lish here."Mobius was holding a large cat with a single large eye in the middle of its golden-colored head. Its teeth were quite sharp, but strangely, when you pressed on them with your hand, the cat's teeth became soft."Isn't it cute?""Yes!""Ah, before that, I should show you this, here."Mobius rummaged through her belongings and pulled out a photo. The photo showed a 16-year-old boy with white hair, and what stood out most about his face were the scars on both cheeks, making it look like he was always crying."What is this?""Balthazar, a criminal with an astonishing score of 19+. He has a close connection to the Underground World. Don't underestimate him based on his appearance, and... this is a prime example of a dangerous criminal. You don't want to hear about his crimes.""Mm... those scars... they look beautiful... like tears..."After Dev's words, there was a loud explosion from outside, and what was worse, it exploded right in a residential area."Quack! Terrorist attack??? Why now???" The mischievous boy shouted.Unlike the typical panic response of ordinary officers, Mobius broke into an enigmatic smile.The 16-year-old boy in the photo was none other than the criminal Balthazar. History tells that this was a criminal who had wreaked havoc for hundreds, even thousands of years. Furthermore, Balthazar was classified as a "Non-Human" criminal, a category for all species other than humans."Yu! Setsuna! Neo! Carry out your missions!""Understood!"At Mobius's shout through the O.C. communicator, the three of them immediately rushed out of the residential area. They moved at the speed of light (maybe more than that), so transitioning from BH7 and BH6 to BH9 was not difficult.
When they arrived, all they saw were corpses scattered everywhere, blood everywhere, and in the middle of the sea of bodies stood Balthazar, handling the severed hand of a little girl.
"Oh, Weavers, you're a bit late." Balthazar was now licking the slender fingers of the hand he held, and despite his 16-year-old appearance, he looked like a true demon.
"You…!"
"Hold on! Before you fight me, shouldn't you evacuate the civilians?"
"That's Yu's job, don't worry. Just the two of us will be enough to take care of you!"
In response to Balthazar's seemingly courteous reminder, a strike came so fast it tore through reality, landing a punch directly on his face. Immediately after, an indistinct sound rang out, and the punch caused an infinite stack of perspectives to collapse within the "World Layer" at an incalculable speed, eventually propelling Balthazar back to where he was struck, leaving his body sprawled out. Then, a silence fell—no sound, no breath, causing Setsuna to feel a slight relief. Soon after, Yu also arrived to assess the situation. He looked shocked by the devastation of the residential area and the massive tear in reality that quickly closed.
"What's the situation?"
"Yu, report to the organization that the mission is complete."
"Uh, so…?"
"…No, the battle isn't over yet."
After Neo's statement, the sprawled body immediately sat up, a small crack on Balthazar's cheek immediately sealing, and all the damage Neo had inflicted was a single drop of blood flowing from his head. The three were immediately shocked. Physically, Neo was stronger than V, only falling short of IV, but… in response to their faces was a chilling smile from the criminal.
"It's a pity, if you had called IV or the higher Weavers, you might have won…"
He slowly advanced, taunting the tension and anxiety of the three.
"Hmph! Don't dream of letting you run wild—"
"I understand that. Even a dying dragon must flail a bit."
Yu could not bear to see the bodies scattered around, mixing all—children, adults, and the elderly, countless memories of a miserable, dark past storming through his mind, causing his face to darken as he charged forward, using his elemental power to attack the demon. It was futile; Balthazar immediately used his martial arts skills to approach him and break Yu's left arm, rendering it useless.
"Aghhh!"
"Y—"
"Sleep for a bit."
Before his two teammates could call out his name, Balthazar landed a powerful punch to Yu's stomach. Perhaps he had held back, as Yu's stomach wasn't pierced, but his eyes, nose, ears—basically, any openings on his body—immediately bled profusely.
"Ugh…"
Yu fell down, a legendary Weaver, a senior official of the Outer Party, a member of the Nine Council... countless titles bestowed by heroic deeds, now lying down like any ordinary person. Without a word, the remaining two immediately rushed forward, hoping to weaken him. Balthazar threw Yu hard towards the two, causing them to stop and catch him.
"Flatten it."
After saying this, Balthazar dropped a white orb with purple flames around it to the ground. When it exploded, everything destroyed around it was "erased" in the literal sense, leaving only a flat ground—everything around except the three was removed, as if it had never existed.
"Aside from Mobius, I haven't seen anyone who can use techniques... but so decisively... he is too strong!"
Instantly, Setsuna and Neo had the same thought; the "superhumans" bearing the hopes of humanity now contemplated "defeat" before a force too great for them. But they had no intention of giving up, because right after that, the demon Balthazar was frozen with "absolute zero" cold that could cause a primitive entity to die from frostbite immediately.
"Neo! I can only hold him back for a little bit, come quickly!"
"Yes… okay!"
After Neo's words, the ice layer was broken in an instant by Balthazar, this criminal with murderous eyes really intended to kill the three legendary heroes of the world and the Outer Party. This was the reality that the three of them had to avoid, because losing their human resources could easily bring chaos to the world.
As soon as Balthazar broke the ice layer, a series of energy shaped like "musical bars" headed towards Bal, although it was very powerful, the coldness of "absolute zero" probably still affected him a little, causing a dreamy look to appear clearly in his eyes.
"Huh…?"
As soon as he said that, the series of energy poured down on Bal, causing a hole to form in the area where they fought, as if it was spiraling deep into the core of the earth. People often call those who cannot defeat, who are completely beyond their power, "monsters", so if there are people in the world called "monsters", then Bal must be one of them. Rising from the rubble was a body that was almost completely intact, with only a small crack on his face but it healed almost immediately. Neo immediately used telepathy to communicate with Setsuna to discuss the battle plan:
"Setsuna, according to my analysis, the cracks on his face are the result of us affecting the invisible armor that covers his entire body, we don't know how many layers he has, but according to my short-sighted guess, his original body must be very fragile to have to put all his strength into creating such a thick armor. We don't have any better assumptions in this predicament, just choose the right moment to act, Set!"
"Roger (Understood)!"
"I don't have time to let you guys talk about bad things~!"
Balthazar, with a wide smile, immediately rushed in and delivered a devastating punch to Neo. Although he had defended, his right arm was immediately disabled. Before he could react, another punch from Balthazar landed on Neo's snout. Fortunately, with his magic, Neo successfully blocked it and reduced most of its kinetic energy. While he was still paying attention to Neo, Setsuna moved behind Bal, causing the surrounding space/time to immediately distort. Bal not only realized that his body, except for his back, was locked in ice, but he also realized the terrifying killing intent on the "Illusionary Water" sword that Setsuna had painstakingly crafted over the course of several decades. Unable to avoid or block, Balthazar had no choice but to focus on the ice and destroy it first, but Setsuna luckily managed to land a fatal blow on his back, causing the outer armor to break significantly, revealing Bal's back.
"As expected of the Weavers, just observing once and discovering how this armor works, but that's not enough~"
After breaking the ice, Balthazar immediately used his legs and arms to flexibly strike Setsu's body, causing her arms, chest, and head to be severely injured, and the kinetic energy sent her body flying to a layer of the world and causing a large hole in the surrounding space-time.
"Kinetic energy has volume when mass is multiplied by velocity by 2, which means the speed of the punch will be converted into its power, even kids know this~"
While he was laughing smugly at his victory, he suddenly remembered that when he sent Setsuna flying, the sword was not in her hand. When he turned back, Yu, a Weaver who we thought had been defeated long ago, had woken up after hiding under the pile of corpses, wearing a black cloak and eyes as black as nothingness, he immediately stabbed the "Illusionary Water" that Setsuna had given him earlier into Balthazar's broken armor behind his back.
"Amazing…"
Balthazar exclaimed at this plan, because he was stabbed into his inner body so it was very thin, his armor immediately shattered after being impacted by his main body and he immediately suffered from severe bleeding.
"I… won't kill you… because I am… human…"
Yu with tears and a bitter voice after finishing speaking, turned the sword to one side causing Balthazar to scream in pain and then hit him hard on the back of the neck causing him to faint.