While unprecedented turmoil was erupting in Mejougo… a similar disturbance was breaking out in an entirely different location.
A vast underground space.
In it existed countless Giants—so many that trying to count them would be an exercise in foolishness.
And yet, not a single sound of Giants stirring could be heard. That was because they were all asleep.
Until now, that had been fine. There had been no issues.
Fragments of the Black Crystal had been surgically embedded in the Giants' bodies.
Of course, "surgical" didn't mean they possessed the advanced techniques of a doctor from Japan.
What they did was simple—slash open a Giant's body with a short blade and stuff a fingertip-sized shard of the Black Crystal inside.
A wound of only a few centimeters would heal completely in under ten minutes thanks to a Giant's regenerative abilities.
A procedure so crude that calling it "surgery" would be a gross exaggeration.
But… the shoulder of one Giant, sleeping with its knees drawn up, twitched.
An action that should have been absolutely impossible as long as the Black Crystal fragments were still functioning.
An action that, had anyone from Jaya witnessed it in this cave, could have sparked a major uproar all on its own.
But the only ones here were Giants. No one was around to be surprised.
The Giant's movement didn't stop. It wasn't just one, either—several other Giants began to stir slightly as well.
And there was one thing the moving Giants all had in common.
The shards of the Black Crystal that should have been embedded in their bodies had vanished.
The Black Crystal—something that could be called the ultimate key for keeping Giants under firm control.
Because it existed, the Giants had lain quietly here, requiring no food.
But at this very moment, the Black Crystal fragments disappeared.
And the Giants stripped of their fragments gradually began to regain movement.
The number of Giants shifting in their sleep increased steadily, until those movements could no longer be called slight by any stretch.
It was as though their slumber was giving way to wakefulness.
Not just one or two Giants—this spread to every single Giant gathered here.
The awakening of roughly a thousand Giants. What that would unleash… there was no one who yet knew of the tragedy to come.
But that tragedy was already closing in.
"Man, no matter how you slice it, that's a lot of guards."
Rei muttered as he surveyed the unconscious soldiers.
Fortunately for the soldiers, their consciousness had been reaped, but there were no signs of broken bones in their arms or legs.
Since they hadn't been running their mouths about prostitutes and the like, they'd apparently gotten away with nothing worse than bruises.
The cave was a single path, but they'd encountered soldiers several times along the way.
It seemed the soldiers didn't patrol. Instead, they had fixed posts where they remained on standby.
Thanks to that, Rei's party had been spared from fighting large groups of enemies in these tight quarters.
(In manga and stuff, there's always that setup where enemies are waiting on each floor of a tower in the enemy base, and the heroes plow through them one by one… Is this kind of like that?)
The thought crossed Rei's mind briefly. But given that this was hardly an easy cave to traverse, whoever was in charge had likely reasoned that stationing soldiers within set areas was more efficient than having them patrol.
And honestly, it wasn't necessarily wrong.
Under normal circumstances, it should have been entirely possible for a soldier whose comrade was under attack to call for reinforcements or alert the others to the assault.
The one—and greatest—miscalculation was that the attackers happened to be people of overwhelming strength like Rei and his party.
Because of that, before the soldiers could even attempt to respond, each one had their consciousness reaped one after another.
Many of the unconscious soldiers had sustained considerable injuries.
This was because most of them had been stationed at their posts with nothing in particular to do, and had ended up chatting with their comrades to pass the time.
Well, if it had just been idle chatter, no one would have particularly cared.
But the content of that chatter had been about the prostitutes of Mejougo, and that had set Elena and the others off in a big way.
"They sent quite a large force as reinforcements to the Mejougo Underground Facility, and they still have this many to spare."
"More accurately, I'd say they kept only the soldiers needed to guard this place and sent everyone else."
Marina replied to Vihera's observation.
If Jaya—or more precisely, this cave—still had soldiers to spare, they would have sent more reinforcements.
Given that, the number of soldiers left behind should have been small.
That was Marina's line of reasoning. The problem was that the number she considered "small" had exceeded her expectations.
(Then again, this is an important facility for keeping Giants on standby—stored? housed?—so it's only natural there'd be a lot of soldiers.)
Advancing through the cave with these thoughts in mind, Rei couldn't help noticing something odd.
The passage was curiously devoid of any forks, and that naturally made him suspicious.
Why were there so few branching paths that it seemed downright unnatural?
Ever since the fork leading toward the Giants' area right after entering the cave, there hadn't been a single one.
It was a scene that could only be described as conspicuously artificial.
"Hey, this cave… it's definitely been modified, right?"
"I agree. Though for all that, I find it odd they left the ground so rough to walk on. If they were going to modify it, you'd think they'd at least make the footing easier."
Elena, wearing the same Sleipnir boots as Rei, gave the cave floor a light stomp.
The surface beneath them was rough terrain that would make running a challenge under normal circumstances.
If the Jaya personnel here were hauling in materials, daily necessities, food, and drink, the difficulty of walking on this ground should have been a major drawback.
The passage was wide enough for a cart to pass through, but even a cart would inevitably get its wheels stuck and grind to a halt.
Rei considered that, and a thought suddenly struck him.
"Are they using Giants to transport supplies?"
That Jaya could freely control Giants was obvious from the attack on the Resistance.
And given the size of the Giants, the amount of cargo they could carry would be considerable.
What's more, since the Giants were all the same size, they could load goods onto a cart and carry it by hand without any trouble.
"It's possible. Though using Giants for something like that seems a bit much for an organization like Jaya, don't you think?"
Since the Giants were primarily prepared as combat forces, they probably wouldn't be used for such tasks—or so Marina suggested, and Rei couldn't argue the point.
(Anyway, if we keep going… hmm?)
Advancing down the passage, Rei quietly raised a hand, signaling those behind him to stop.
Elena and the others halted at the signal.
They looked at him as if to ask what was wrong. Rei gestured toward the path ahead.
What lay there was a massive door.
A door so enormous that even a Giant could walk through it with ease.
…Though having seen the same kind of door countless times at the Mejougo Underground Facility, his honest reaction was essentially so what?
Still, a door like this meant that beyond it, without question, were Jaya personnel—and if Ryutas's words held true, people deeply involved in the Giant operations.
And, naturally enough, soldiers stood guard before it.
But unlike every soldier Rei's party had encountered so far, these ones weren't killing time with idle banter among colleagues.
Being entrusted with this door likely meant they were elites, but it also meant that beyond it sat individuals of considerable rank within Jaya.
Showing anything less than professionalism in front of such people would be tantamount to suicide for a soldier.
After all, this wasn't a regular army. This was the underworld organization Jaya.
Things that would be unthinkable in a proper military were effortlessly carried out in a criminal syndicate.
A guard who wasn't taking their duty seriously could be deemed disagreeable. Disposable.
You're not needed anymore. So go fight a Giant to the death—let's test its combat ability.
With that kind of reality looming, of course the soldiers took their jobs seriously.
"Troublesome."
At Rei's quiet murmur, Elena and the others nodded.
Serious guard duty meant they couldn't exploit gaps in the enemy's attention to close the distance and take them out the way they had before.
Rei was confident he could handle it however he pleased if it came down to it, but making a flashy move here risked alerting whoever was on the other side of the door.
"Even if I use magic, mine is about as flashy as it gets."
The only magic Rei could use was Flame Magic.
And it tended to be loud and conspicuous.
"Elena? Marina?"
"I don't think it'd be impossible, but if those soldiers suddenly collapsed, the people on the other side of the door would notice, wouldn't they?"
"Right. If we're taking them down, it has to be in a single strike—and without a sound. Alternatively, we annihilate them all at once so they can't make any noise at all."
Marina, who said annihilate with the calmest face imaginable, clearly harbored strong feelings about the organization called Jaya.
"That's a bit much. …No choice. I'll accept some noise—let's just take them all down as fast as we can."
In the end, he judged that simply fighting them head-on would be better than relying on magic.
"Are you sure? They'll spot you immediately."
"Yeah. If we approach from the front, they'll definitely see us coming. But… what about from above?"
This cave was tall enough for a Giant to move through comfortably.
The ceiling loomed about five to six meters overhead.
However, there were places where stone icicle-like formations—stalactites—hung down from above.
Because of those, the plan Rei was contemplating came with its share of risks.
"Elena and I have the Sleipnir boots that let us walk in the sky. If we use them to strike from above… I won't claim they won't spot us at all, but don't you think it'd be a lot harder for them to notice?"
Fortunately, Rei's party was currently positioned around a bend in the passage, just before the road leading to the massive gate.
It was a gentle curve, but more than enough to conceal them.
The one drawback was the distance from the bend to the gate itself.
If there were no ceiling, they could have moved at a higher altitude and approached without being seen. But with the ceiling this low, the possibility of detection was very real.
Still, deciding this was the best option available, Rei turned his gaze to Elena.
She seemed to understand the unspoken question and gave an immediate nod.
"Once Elena and I launch our attack, Vihera and the rest of you start moving. I doubt it'll come to that, but we can't rule out the possibility of them trying something unexpected."
"Understood. But we'll need to move as quietly as possible."
At Marina's words seeking confirmation, Rei nodded back.
"Right. …Elena, are you ready?"
"Yes."
Nodding at Rei's words, Elena fell back alongside him.
Even to use the Sleipnir boots, having more distance to build up speed was better.
They moved with that understanding.
Retreating about ten paces, the two of them broke into a sprint together.
Reaching top speed in a few strides, they leapt while keeping the noise to a minimum.
Then, still in the air, they activated the Sleipnir boots and took their first step into the sky.
That single step launched them up near the ceiling in one fluid motion. With the next step, they kicked off the empty air as if performing a midair wall jump, coming into view in the passage leading to the gate.
The soldiers had been earnestly scanning their surroundings for any signs of trouble when one of them suddenly felt something was off.
"What was—?"
He could sense something amiss, but couldn't identify what.
He glanced at the colleague nearest him. The man seemed to have felt the same unease and was also scanning the area.
And then, almost absently… truly absently… the moment he cast his gaze upward, what filled his vision were two figures moving near the ceiling.
Because those figures were so high up, he could only stare in blank astonishment—and in the next instant, the figures dropped down onto the soldiers, and the world went black.
Even as the thought crossed his mind that he needed to shout…
Rei looked down at the soldier who had lost consciousness, then turned his gaze toward Elena, standing before another soldier who had been felled the same way.