Shortly before the SOS reached Yugo and his companions, the carriage transporting the Warrior Shrine Maidens and Yui was rattling down a deserted highway.
The two carriages traveled at a sluggish pace, flanked by a security detail of students handpicked by Professor Lamy. Given the gravity of their circumstances, a heavy, oppressive atmosphere filled the interior.
Yui sat clutching her brother’s katana, a sense of helplessness gnawing at her. Her fellow passenger, Raiha, eventually broke the silence.
"I’m so sorry. Because of me, you’ve been dragged into this as well..."
"N-no. Please, don't worry about it..."
Raiha’s apology likely carried the weight of more than just their current predicament; it reached back to the tragedy of five years ago. Though she had yet to tell Yui, Raiha was haunted by the belief that she was the one who had stolen the girl’s father and her sight. She blamed herself relentlessly.
Through her sense of the soul, Yui could feel the profound guilt Raiha harbored, though its true origin eluded her. It was only natural; she could never have imagined the girl sitting before her was the same Mad Dragon that had attacked them. Some truths were perhaps better left unknown.
Yui suspected there was a hidden motive behind this transfer, but she assumed Raiha simply felt responsible for separating her from her brother. Suddenly, the carriage lurched to a stop.
"Huh? Why have we stopped here?"
"Is there some kind of trouble...?"
Raiha and Yui looked at each other, bewildered that the carriage had halted in the middle of a featureless stretch of highway. They tried to peer through the windows—which were magically treated like smoked glass to prevent anyone from seeing in—but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Raiha turned toward Koumaru, who was riding with them as a monitor under the guise of an escort. He remained silent, his expression unreadable.
"Um, Sakai-san? Why are we stopping?"
"That is because... we have reached our destination."
"What...?"
Startled by the unexpected answer, Raiha scanned the landscape again, but she couldn't understand what he meant. Steep rock walls and thick groves of trees surrounded them, but she saw nothing that could serve as a hideout. Just as she was about to ask for clarification, the door swung open and Lamy poked her head in from the other carriage.
"Sakai-san? Why have the carriages stopped in a place like this? Is something wrong?"
Lamy seemed just as confused as the girls. Koumaru extended his right hand as if to signal her to stay back, then slowly turned his head to face her.
"Thank you for your hard work. Your role ends here."
"Pardon...? Agh!"
Lamy, blinking in confusion at his cryptic words, watched as a searing red flare erupted from his outstretched palm. The blast caught her squarely in the stomach. Her body folded like a ragdoll as she was sent hurtling backward, slamming into the rock wall and sliding to the ground, unconscious.
"S-Sakai-san?! What on earth are you doing?!"
"Heh... Heh-heh-heh-heh...!"
Raiha cried out in horror, but Koumaru responded only with a low, maniacal chuckle. As the realization that something was horribly wrong set in, the panicked shouts of the student guards outside reached their ears.
"Magic Armor Beasts! We've got Magic Armor Beasts!"
"Where did they all come from?! There's dozens of them!"
Startled by the commotion, Yui focused her pulse of the soul, only to find a staggering number of evil presences closing in on the carriage. Even worse, they felt exactly like the creature they had encountered at the hospital the day before—the Gigantrose.
Why had the Gigantrose, a new species of Magic Armor Beast that had pushed the Security Force and Yugo’s team to their limits, appeared here in such massive numbers?
As Yui struggled to process the unfolding chaos, Koumaru finally spoke, his voice dropping to a chilling register.
"To tell the truth, Raiha, I was a member of the research institute that experimented on your body. Everyone there kept their faces hidden, so it's only natural you wouldn't recognize me."
"...!"
The eeriness in his voice made Raiha's skin crawl. He radiated an aura of pure, concentrated malice and greed as he locked eyes with her.
"This 'top-secret mission' to escort the Warrior Shrine Maidens to safety... it never existed. It was all a lie. I orchestrated everything. It truly was a long, patient road to get here...!"
"No... then you're the one...!"
In an instant, everything began to click into place.
Why had the Gigantrose appeared here? Why had Koumaru—the man who knew exactly what Raiha was—gone out of his way to ask Yugo and Ryuga to protect the Shrine Maidens? And who had been the one to suggest changing the destination of the Elementary Division’s social studies field trip to the insect museum?
Raiha finally understood who was behind the string of incidents that had plagued them—the siblings at the insect museum, Kurotobari, and the man who had unleashed the monsters at the hospital. This man had given all of them the power to become Magic Armor Beasts.
Everything had been a trap set by the man standing before her. Koumaru had manufactured every crisis to lead them to this very moment.
"Why? Why would you do all of this?!"
"My objective? It’s quite simple, really. I want the dragon-powered armaments you carry, and..."
Koumaru flashed a twisted, predatory grin and pointed a finger directly at her. His voice was thick with dark delight as he named his ultimate prize.
"I want you, Raiha Utusemi... one of the few surviving half-dragons in existence."