Giants emerged one after another from behind the destroyed door.
Behind them, Elena and Vihera continued their rampage, trampling the Giants without mercy.
Unable to challenge those two, the Giants poured out through the doorway and lunged at Rei.
The opening where the door had been was far from wide — three or four Giants couldn't squeeze through at once.
But the Giants, consumed by hunger, couldn't think that far ahead. They were single-mindedly desperate to get outside and devour Rei.
The moment they emerged in ones and twos, their lives were snuffed out by Rei's Death Scythe and Twilight Spear.
However, Giants stood roughly three meters tall and were massively built. With such creatures being slaughtered in quick succession, their corpses naturally began piling up around him.
Unlike the area where the Giants had originally waited, the space where Rei now stood — and where Byune and Ielo kept watch a short distance away — was hardly spacious. Compared to the Giants' staging area, it was extremely narrow.
With Giant corpses stacking up in such a confined space, it was only a matter of time before there was no room left to stand.
The Giants stumbling over their own companions' corpses worked in Rei's favor — but he, too, soon found himself with nowhere to plant his feet.
Once that happened, evading the Giants' attacks became difficult. He ended up juggling the delicate task of fighting off attackers while simultaneously retrieving their corpses with his Misty Ring.
This grind continued for over ten minutes.
Dodging a blow from a Giant that lurched forward with drool streaming from its jaws — driven by sheer appetite — Rei crushed its skull with a thrust from the Twilight Spear. In that same moment, Byune called out from behind.
"Nn!"
A voice meant to catch the fighting Rei's attention.
Hearing it, Rei left the fallen Giant where it lay and leapt backward.
Mild surprise flickered across his face.
He had positioned Byune in the rear as a precaution — purely as a precaution.
No, perhaps he should phrase that in the past tense. The precaution was no longer needed.
He had left Marina in the other room — though calling it a single room was generous for such a vast space.
Thanks to the Giants' rampage, most of the people there had already been devoured. The majority of survivors were wounded.
Given that, none of them were in any condition to mount a counterattack against Marina — and even if they tried, she could handle it with ease.
That was why worrying about his rear had been nothing more than a precaution...
What happened? No — who's coming?
Landing from his backward leap, Rei threw the Twilight Spear the instant his feet touched the ground.
Not from his right hand, the one he always threw with, but from his left.
The power was several notches below what his dominant arm could muster, but even so, with Rei's strength and the Twilight Spear's capabilities, dropping a Giant was effortless.
Naturally, he had to avoid piercing too many bodies at once — he couldn't risk the spear punching through and striking Elena or the others fighting in the room beyond. After skewering a few Giants, he immediately recalled the weapon to his hand.
"Who's coming?" he asked, pulling the Twilight Spear back.
Byune didn't answer. She stared down the passage leading to the entrance, then — still holding Ielo — broke into a run toward it.
Rei was left alone, but he judged that Byune's instincts were likely correct and turned back to the Giants.
Not for a moment did he worry that Byune had abandoned her post and fled. They had been in a party together long enough for him to know she would never do such a thing.
Besides, the sound of someone sprinting toward his position echoed clearly through the cave.
There was no attempt to muffle their footsteps — just the raw sound of someone running with everything they had. Reckless. Desperate. Past caring about appearances.
The cave's acoustics and its single straight corridor meant there was no chance of missing that sound.
Byune's footsteps closed in on the runner's. The two would meet at any moment.
Rei kept throwing the Twilight Spear, and sure enough, within minutes, Byune returned with a man in tow.
"Haa... haa... haa... thank goodness. You were here."
The man was gasping for breath, but Rei recognized him — one of Ryutas's guards.
A trained bodyguard shouldn't have been winded from a short sprint. The fact that he was meant he had pushed himself beyond his limits, running with everything he had — more than everything — to get the outside situation to Rei as fast as possible.
Beside him, Byune showed no sign of fatigue — she'd covered a shorter distance. She looked at Rei with Ielo perched atop her head.
"So you're the one who was with Ryutas, right? What are you here—"
Mid-sentence, Rei whipped the Twilight Spear forward.
The guard flinched at the sudden motion, but his shock deepened a heartbeat later when the spear that had just buried itself in a Giant reappeared in Rei's hand.
"Eh? Ah..."
The guard stared blankly, unable to process what he'd just witnessed. Rei ignored him and continued the cycle — throw, recall, throw, recall.
"Nn?"
Several Giants toppled from the doorway that had been choked with their bodies. Atop the fallen corpses stood Elena, Mirage in hand.
"Rei? That person is..."
"Yeah, one of Ryutas's guards. He says he has business—"
"Enemies!"
The guard's shout cut Rei off. He needed to explain the cave's situation as fast as possible — and to get help for Ryutas just as quickly. That was why he'd shouldered his way into their conversation.
At that single word, Rei suspended his exchange with Elena and fixed his gaze on the guard.
"Enemies? More Giant reinforcements? Or Jaya's?"
"N-no. The enemy is this country's — Reblurina's national soldiers! And likely more than a hundred... no, possibly hundreds."
"...What?"
Rei froze for an instant at the unexpected words. What saved him was that Elena had already cleared out nearly every Giant nearby.
Flicking blood from Mirage's blade, Elena spoke.
"I see. They've judged the commotion we caused has made it impossible to hide this Giant incident any longer. So they're burying everything in darkness..."
"But wait — could Reblurina's soldiers even handle the Giants?"
"The upper echelons probably don't know the Giants are on a rampage. ...Not that I blame them."
The Black Crystal's destruction was something only a handful of people should have known about. Those heading from here to Mejougo's Underground Facility via the underground passage had been wiped out by Rei's party.
A few injured survivors might remain, but they'd hardly have the composure to report upward — and more importantly, they'd have no means to do so. Set was blocking anyone attempting to enter from Mejougo.
If anyone could have reported, it would be personnel originally stationed in Mejougo's Underground Facility. When Rei's party stormed it, most of Jaya's people — researchers included — were already gone. A handful remained, but the numbers Rei's group encountered were minimal.
By Rei's estimate, there could still have been several, dozens — possibly over a hundred people in that facility. With that many present, it wasn't inconceivable that someone discovered the Black Crystal's destruction.
The problem is how they'd relay that to Jaya's upper echelons. No — it wouldn't be strange if there were other hidden passages. Did the information pass from Jaya to Reblurina? But even so, that's hard to believe.
The raid on the Underground Facility was one thing, but the Black Crystal's destruction was something Jaya would desperately want concealed. Would they really inform Reblurina so readily? And even if they had, the time it took to dispatch soldiers to this cave was simply too short.
Mobilizing an army was an enormously complex undertaking. One couldn't just say "deploy" and receive an immediate affirmative. Soldiers had to be recalled from training, work, or even off-duty hours, armed, equipped, and then transported from Rossi to the forest containing this cave.
Factoring in all that time, it made far more sense to conclude the attack was unrelated to the Black Crystal's destruction.
"And? Ryutas told you to report this to me?"
"Yes. He said they'd buy time and requested reinforcements if possible."
"...Huh."
Rei let out a quiet sound of grudging respect. He'd assumed the man had come to report the soldiers' arrival, then simply fled.
Of course, Rei understood why Ryutas had deliberately stayed behind and risked his life to buy time. He wanted to curry favor with Rei — simple as that.
Even so, that Ryutas had actually put his own body on the line was unexpected. Betrayed in the best sense.
He must have had a plan for victory, but to stake his own life... that makes him at least somewhat trustworthy.
Risking one's life didn't automatically make someone trustworthy in the fullest sense. But between a man who only issued orders from the rear and one who threw himself into a life-or-death fight on the front lines, Rei's judgment favored the latter.
Had Ryutas held a position like a lord, Rei might have felt differently.
No need to deliberate.
His mind made up in a flash, Rei turned to Elena.
"Can you hold this place?"
"I have no objection, but... you're going yourself?"
Elena's beautiful brows knitted with displeasure. Ryutas was the son of the man who led Jaya. Knowing that, she could hardly be well-disposed toward him.
"Yeah. Ryutas should prove useful in various ways with this situation. He seemed dissatisfied with Jaya's current methods himself. Don't you think he's worth saving? Besides, honestly, I'm not needed here."
Elena considered this for a moment, then sighed. Her gaze drifted back to the Giants streaming from the room where Vihera wreaked havoc.
"Very well. I'll hold this position. In the first place, the driving force behind this operation is the Neutral Faction — and you, Rei. As a collaborator, I should defer to your judgment."
"Appreciate it."
"Think nothing of it. One more thing — take Byune with you. Her abilities aren't well-suited for fighting Giants, but she's more than capable against soldiers."
"Nn?"
Byune tilted her head — me too? — but Elena, gripping Mirage in its longsword form, nodded without so much as glancing her way.
"That's right. Take Byune and Ielo."
The guard who'd come to summon reinforcements stared at Ielo — the Child of the Black Dragon perched on Byune's head — and wondered why anyone would deliberately bring a monster along. A Black Dragon's child might only needlessly provoke the soldiers' greed. Without knowing that Elena could view Ielo's memories, it was a reasonable concern.
Rei, understanding Elena's reasoning, nodded.
"Understood. Byune, Ielo, and I will go reinforce Ryutas. I'm leaving this to you — though I doubt you need me worrying."
"Hehe. Even so, it's nice to be worried about."
A smile bloomed across Elena's face — radiant as a rose in full bloom. Then she charged toward the Giants with Mirage in hand, and Rei turned his back to her, leading Byune toward Ryutas's position.