Once Nekomiya is out of sight, Anby sighed in relief and turned to Nicole. "Why did you make her cry? The plan is to get her to go away,"
"I don't know!" Nicole shot the Ethereal with her suitcase, bombarding it with Ether bombs. "I tried to intimidate her and she just start crying!" she jumped back from a swipe from the Dead-End Butcher. "Didn't even look scared or anything, it's so weird!"
"Hm, you must be close to her in the alternate reality, you could've told her that you're here to save everyone,"
"How am I supposed to know that?!" Nicole deflected another strike from the Dead-End Butcher. "Screw it, we'll talk later, there's a literal final boss here!!!"
The Dead-End Butcher lets out a thunderous roar, shaking the very fabric of reality around them. Its massive cleaver arcs through the air with blinding speed as Anby narrowly sidesteps the strike. The impact craters the ground, sending fissures snaking outward.
"Starlight Barrage!" Billy unleashes a hailstorm of gun shots, peppering the Butcher's hide. But the ethereal barely flinched, its blackened form rippling grotesquely.
Nicole flips away, suitcase transforming into a high-caliber Ether cannon. "Let me give you a little treat! LIKE THIS!" She unloads a volley of ether explosive rounds square into the Butcher's torso. A sphere formed, sucking in chunks of flesh melded with crystals.
The Butcher however, didn't even flinch. It turns its empty gaze towards Nicole and charged.
With a crash of thunder, Anby clashed off against the monster. Sparks and lightning flew as blade meets cleaver. She lunged at the beast and spun, each swing of her blade carrying enough voltage to power a city block. Sparks fly as metal meets ethereal mass.
As the Butcher's cleaver comes down like a guillotine. Anby charged in at the monster and pulled off a backflip, creating a spiraling arc up to the sky. "Fracture!" she drove her blade down, plunging down with all her might, sending a lightning storm straight at the Ethereal.
Finally, the Dead-End Butcher groaned and knelt on the ground.
"Did that do it?" Nicole said.
A pair of multicolored arms burst out behind the Dead-End Butcher's back. It stood right back up, growing twice in size and howling at the heavens. The ground beneath them shook as dozens of ethereals came crawling out of the ground.
"No," Anby replied.
Nicole reload her suitcase gun and turned to the Bangboo running frantically near her. "Belle! This would be the perfect time to test your secret weapon!"
"On it!" Eous began to glow brightly. "Alright, let's see if this works, Anby, you're up!"
Anby took a deep breath, bracing herself. Her body seemingly move on its own, bracing herself in a familiar stance. It felt strange, it doesn't feel like there's a force controlling her body, but rather, it's that her body stopped listening to her. Belle is her guide now, just like how she controls Eous.
The monster came barreling straight at her and she dodged right at the last moment. Then, she retaliated with downward arc. Her body moves in such a perfect manner, she didn't feel the slightest bit tired. Every step, every move, every swing of her blade, was performed in a perfect choreography.
Then, the monster raised its cleaver and Anby jumped back. Nicole stepped in front of her, facing the monster head on. She watched in almost slow motion as Nicole swung her suitcase, parrying the cleaver, before retaliating with a blast of ether bombardment from her suitcase.
Another swing of cleaver appeared and Billy took Nicole's place. He danced around the beheading blow, followed by shooting a barrage of bullets right at the monster. He dodged every strike, every shot lands on its weak point, and not a single bullet goes to waste.
Once more, Anby found her body moving on its own and it's her turn to dance. It was an orchestra of Blade, Lightning, and Bullet. Her blade was lightning incarnate and she was the oncoming storm. Her body is a vessel under the control of the all-seeing eye of the Phaethon.
"Fracture!" Anby drove her blade up to the sky, creating a spiraling arc of lightning, before slamming it back on to the ground, the ground shook beneath her and thunder fell from the sky. She didn't have to make a signal, or call out on them, her friends were ready.
Nicole charged in, bombarding the stunned monster with Ether canon. Billy flew in blasting the monster in a barrage of bullets. Anby lunged at the last moment, delivering another arc of lightning at the monster. All three of them danced, one after another, in a symphony of Steel, Lightning, and Bullet.
The Song of the Hares...
[LINE BREAK]
After what feel like hours, the Dead-End Butcher finally fell. It knelt on to the ground, seemingly lost all of its power, before vanishing into motes of multicolored light. The Cunning Hares meanwhile, not a single scratch on their body. Simply because the monster can't land even a single hit on any of them.
"Justice, has prevailed!!!" Billy exclaimed whilst making a victory pose.
"Wow..." Nicole said, looking at her hand. "Okay Belle, I'll take that back, it wasn't as stupid as it sounds," she said with a grin. "Gosh that was amazing..." she looked down at her body. "I never felt this good after a battle too..."
Anby nodded in agreement. "That was a perfect fight," she took a look on her blade. "It was far more efficient than fighting normally," she turned to Eous. "Good work Belle, your plan worked perfectly,"
Eous flopped down on its head. "Holy Fuck!" Belle's voice came from Eous as the Bangboo rolled around. "Gods that was so nerve-wracking... Do you have any idea how many near miss there were!?" a voice that sounds like a mixture of whining and crying came from the Bangboo. "Ahhh, there's no way I can keep doing that!!!"
"Aww, I think it was perfect sweetie,"
"Well yeah, I had 800 hours on the VR training," Eous stood up once more. "Anyway, let's check out on the settlement, we have a few hours until Vision returns," the Bangboo looked around for a bit. "Unfortunately, Belobog will have to take the credit for killing the Dead-End Butcher, but don't worry, they agreed to hand us the bounty if there's any."
Anby followed Eous through the entrance and into the old metro settlement. A large open area filled with hundreds of people greeted them. Each people working hard, carrying supplies, and helping the elderly. Tents were scattered all over the place, with some old people huddling in the cold inside it.
Beside Anby, Nicole gulped, closing her eyes for a moment before glancing around. She set her eyes to a woman waving her arms at them. Black hair, red eyes, a pair of goggles on her head. She's definitely Grace from Belobog Construction.
There's also Nekomiya helping the people carry boxes to a large pile nearby. The cat girl saw the three of them and waved her hand, smiling cheerfully. "You're back nyaa~ Grace said that the Hollow is shrinking, that means you actually defeated it!"
Anby nodded. "Indeed," she walked closer to Grace and Nekomiya. "You are Grace from Belobog Industry, yes? I'm Anby, the leader of the Cunning Hares. And you must know of these two," she lied smoothly and gestured at Nicole and Billy. "They are the Phaethon."
Grace's gaze remained fixated on Billy. "Of course, how can I forget?" she grinned and sauntered closer to Billy. "You glorious hunk of metal, how are you?" she took Billy's hand. "Ooh, I was so worried when Nekomiya said that you're handling the Dead-End Butcher, but it was really nothing against you, isn't it? You big, powerful, marvel of engineering~"
"Save your praises, fair maiden!" Billy exclaimed. "It's all in the days work for the Starlight Knights!!!"
Nicole stepped between the two. "Yes, save the praises until after our commission is complete," she folded her arms and turned to the settlement. "Our original contract was to find where exactly Vision cut corners and as you can see," she gestured at all the people. "Mission accomplished,"
Grace nodded. "Is this about the payment? Don't worry, the Belobog Industries will pay you handsomely for the troubles," she folded her arms. "And a little bit of compensation for the Ethereal you fought, the bounty is all yours,"
"Glad you speak the same language Grace," Nicole said with a grin. "Anyway, do you have any additional request, or does Belobog have it all under control?"
Grace checked her phone. "Good question, give me a moment to contact my sweetpea..." she called the phone and waited. A voice came from the phone, but only Grace could hear it. "Hmm," she nodded, eyes narrowing. "Tch, really?" she tapped her foot. "How many?" her face paled.
After a while she hanged up and Grace has that sheepish look on her face. "Say, what do you think about a new commission?" she looked at the direction of the train. "Apparently, Vision has the Hollow Entrance completely sealed, they're stopping anyone and anything from leaving the Hollow. Koleda and crew tried to get in, but Perlman sweet talked Janus HQ to block off all streets."
Nicole rolled her eyes. "It's never straight forward, is it?" she turned to Anby. "What do you think, Cunning Hares?"
Anby blinked slowly. "Hm, who has the authority to call off the barricade?" she blinked. "We can kindly ask Perlman to give way for Belobog,"
"Kindly?" Nicole asked, amused.
"Kindly," Anby nodded. "In a sense that we keep him alive,"
Nicole cracked her knuckles. "There you have it Grace, first Corporate Espionage, now we're overthrowing a TOPS Corporation," there's a dangerous glint in her eyes. "You better have to think about cutting corners yourself, because your budget would really take a hit from this,"
Grace put a hand on her forehead. "Well, Koleda did warn me about outsourcing from the Inter-Knot," she looked back at all the innocent people behind them. "But if you can save this people, I promise you will be compensated greatly,"
"Deal," Nicole said with finality. "Come on Cunning Hares, we got a corporation to overthrow,"
Just when they were about to leave. "Wait!" Nekomiya shouted. "Perlman isn't... he's not as useful as you think," she bit her lip. "There's someone else, a woman, the director of Vision Corporation," she shifted nervously.
"Sarah's not here," Belle spoke suddenly.
Nekomiya narrowed her eyes. "You know her?"
"Mm, I do, you don't have to worry about her," Eous waved its hand. "Come on, let's see if we can get Perlman to open up a way for us. Don't worry, I have a new technology I want to test out,"