Chapter 522: 520
At the operational headquarters in Tokyo’s First District, a silver-haired girl sat at the head of the table, staring anxiously at the largest screen.
It showed Monolith Thirty-Two.
Aldebaran’s corrosive fluid had eaten away at the structure until it was on the verge of collapse.
The Monolith stood nearly half as tall as Mount Fuji, yet not a trace of its original black surface remained.
Now white from top to bottom, it resembled skin so dry that it had begun to peel. Fragments flaked off at irregular intervals.
Any one of those fragments might be the critical piece.
The moment it fell, the entire structure could disintegrate.
Even now, the man in whom the silver-haired girl had placed her hopes showed no sign of acting.
Apparently, he intended to let Monolith Thirty-Two collapse. He had no intention of saving the Tokyo Area a second time.
She glanced at another screen.
Outside the Monoliths, the Gastrea that had briefly settled down were stirring again.
The collapse was imminent.
Her gaze shifted to the other monitors, which showed scenes from within the protected area.
Some displayed the frightened people huddled in shelters, trembling with anxiety.
Others showed the far greater number who had been denied shelter. Their emotions were reaching a breaking point.
Space was limited. At most, the shelters could accommodate thirty percent of the population.
Those thirty percent had been selected by lottery, conducted under her personal supervision to make the process as fair as possible.
Some of those who hadn’t been selected had immediately decided that if they were going to die, they would take others with them. Others, convinced they had only days left to live, had abandoned all restraint.
The turmoil of the past few days had brought Tokyo to the brink of chaos. Crime had surged to an appalling level.
Boom!
“What happened?”
“Where did that explosion come from?”
“Thirty-Two… no, somewhere else!”
They quickly located the source.
Footage of a Monolith in another sector filled the screen.
Everyone in the conference room went deathly pale.
A massive explosion had struck the structure. Cracks spread visibly across its surface before it split into several huge sections and came crashing down.
The impact of that immense mass shook the entire Tokyo Area.
For everyone watching, it felt as though the tremors might shatter their hearts as well.
To prepare for the invasion expected after Thirty-Two’s collapse, more than eighty percent of their available forces had been concentrated along that defensive line.
The other sectors had been left dangerously undermanned.
Now another Monolith had fallen.
The entire Tokyo Area was in immediate peril.
“Quickly! Redeploy half our forces to…”
The chairman of the National Security Council broke off.
Monolith Thirty-Two had begun to change.
The tremors from the other Monolith’s collapse seemed to have dealt the final blow.
Thirty-Two shuddered violently, shedding great sheets of material.
It was as though the structure had been built from sand, and whatever held the grains together had suddenly vanished.
It crumbled before their eyes.
By the time it had lost a third of its size, the rest gave way.
Monolith Thirty-Two collapsed completely.
Almost simultaneously, the waiting Gastrea surged forward.
The Self-Defense Forces opened fire.
Boom!
“Send some of the troops in the interior to Monolith Eleven immediately!”
“Damn it! They’ve noticed the other breach! Part of the swarm is circling around to get in there!”
The Gastrea army on the screen should have poured through the opening at Thirty-Two.
Instead, it split into three columns.
The central force advanced through Thirty-Two.
The columns on either flank moved around the perimeter, heading for the opening where Monolith Eleven had stood.
If those forces broke through and caught the defenders between them, it would be over.
In truth, most of the people in the room already believed it was.
“Who destroyed Monolith Eleven?”
“Was it that man?”
“It has to be!”
More and more accusations were directed at Kain.
“He did not do this. It was most likely the Five Wings Association.”
The calm, authoritative voice silenced the increasingly frantic room.
Kikunojo had spoken.
That man was undoubtedly plotting something, but Kikunojo was certain he hadn’t destroyed Monolith Eleven.
If he wanted to drive Tokyo into a hopeless situation, someone with his abilities would have no need for such a roundabout approach.
“Send one-fifth of the military forces, along with the entire Civil Security force, to defend the breach at Eleven.”
Kikunojo issued the order without hesitation.
At the research institute in the Outer District, the collapse of Monolith Thirty-Two drained the last trace of color from Miori’s face.
Panicked reports poured through the communications equipment beside her. Some came from company personnel, others from members of her family.
Time passed in a blur.
It might have been an hour. It might have been half a day.
Miori had nearly lost all sense of time.
As a member of the Shiba family, she was doing everything she could to mobilize Shiba Heavy Industries and commit its resources to the battle.
If Tokyo fell, Shiba Heavy Industries would fall with it.
“Miss Miori, our latest unmanned fighter has been shot down, too!”
Her face tightened at the report.
The Gastrea had begun gathering several days earlier. In one sense, their concentration should have presented the perfect opportunity to wipe them out.
Packed together that tightly, a single barrage should have killed them in droves.
Yet something inexplicable had happened.
Precision-guided tactical missiles launched from the Aegis-equipped ships offshore had vanished without a trace. Fighters sent into the area had suffered the same fate.
None of those attacks had produced any visible result.
At first, Miori had suspected Kain.
Then she had thought about his methods.
He had openly shot the president of Osaka. If he wanted to intercept their attacks, he wouldn’t skulk around and hide it.
Now the same phenomenon was occurring again, drastically reducing the effectiveness of their missiles and aircraft.
There had, however, been rumors of Gastrea capable of intercepting aerial threats.
The swarm once commanded by Taurus had supposedly included an unusual specimen that fired spears of light at airborne targets.
“This is footage we managed to capture!”
An image was transmitted to her.
It was blurry, but she could make out something resembling a beam of light shooting up from the ground.
As the image enlarged, its source became clearer.
It appeared to be an archerfish-type Gastrea roughly ten meters long.
An archerfish?
Archerfish could shoot concentrated jets of water from their funnel-shaped mouths to knock down insects near the surface.
A Gastrea with those traits could apparently do something similar against targets in the air.
This was bad.
Unless they eliminated that creature, their airpower would remain severely restricted.
Without effective air support, the Gastrea on the ground would advance far too quickly.
Gaps had already opened in parts of the defensive line. Some creatures had broken into the Outer District, and others might already have slipped into the urban areas.
Then even worse news arrived.
The frontline troops were taking casualties at an alarming rate. Nearly half their personnel, an estimated two thousand people, had already been lost.
That meant the enemy’s numbers had grown by more than two thousand Gastrea.
They hadn’t even managed to kill that many.
The swarm would only keep growing.
But that wasn’t the worst of it.
A group of flying Gastrea had broken through the air defenses and was heading toward the city.
Worse still, those flying creatures were carrying other Gastrea.
Miori could only stare at the screen.
Some had already reached the urban districts.
One after another, Gastrea dropped from the sky like living bombs.
“Oh, it’s time.”
Kisara, who had remained maddeningly relaxed since the Monoliths fell, finally seemed ready to act.
Miori immediately turned toward her.
Apparently stiff from sitting so long, Kisara rose and performed a few stretches.
“Time to get moving.”
Murmuring to herself, she headed outside.
Miori hurried after her, hoping to find out what she intended to do.
What she saw outside made her lips tremble.
Cursed Children were emerging in huge numbers.
Over the past few days, almost all the Cursed Children living in Tokyo’s Outer District had been gathered here.
That morning, they had all been sent into a shelter Kain had provided and modified.
Now they were coming back out.
But there was something strange about them.
Something Miori couldn’t quite put into words.
They felt cold.
It wasn’t their expressions. Their faces still held the innocence one would expect from children their age.
Yet that only made them more unsettling.
It was as though those expressions had been programmed, as though machines lurked beneath those faces.
And every one of them was silent.
So silent that it was frightening.
“Begin the operation as planned.”
Kisara gave the order.
“Understood!”
The children answered in perfect unison.
A chill ran down Miori’s spine.
Even trained soldiers couldn’t have spoken with such absolute synchronization.
Then, at Kisara’s command, all the Cursed Children sprang into motion, racing toward the city.
What were they about to do?
(End of Chapter)
“Zaelum”]