The earth trembled. The sky trembled. The world trembled.
Saya Kuromizu couldn't believe her eyes.
They had been on standby together in the Clan Master's room. Luke and Rize started making a commotion.
"Oh? An earthquake?"
"Hmm, I don't think it's just an earthquake. See, Cly went to deal with the aftermath, didn't he?"
Rize said with a composed expression. Indeed, this was no ordinary earthquake. Saya could see it clearly.
—The world was warping, overlapping, and recombining.
It was truly a phenomenon worthy of the expression "cataclysm."
She couldn't even imagine what it would take to cause something on this scale.
The collapse of codes was nothing compared to this phenomenon. Even the magical disaster that had occurred at Terrace hadn't been on this scale.
She didn't know the cause, but she could imagine what was about to happen.
"The Treasure Hall and the Imperial Capital Zebuldia... are trying to merge."
"Huh? Really?"
"Kirukilu..."
Originally, the Treasure Hall and the Imperial Capital Zebuldia had completely overlapped. The reason they hadn't merged was that they existed in different dimensions.
But the two worlds, which had only been able to travel between each other through a few entry points, were now about to change.
"Brother, they're contacting us."
"Right on!"
At Citry's words, Anthem scrambled out of the room at a clumsy run.
The observers who had gathered were in an uproar as well.
Most likely, all the residents of the Imperial Capital had felt the earthquake and the shift.
At that moment, the surface of the mirror in front of them warped, and a translucent phantom appeared. It was the phantom that played instruments—the one that had been chasing Lucia.
Sure enough, the boundary between worlds had become ambiguous.
Until now, the phantoms from the Treasure Hall shouldn't have been able to come and go freely to the outside. But that had changed.
The entire Imperial Capital would descend into chaos. Perhaps the nation would be destroyed.
If Saya could use Sara-Sara, she might be able to stop it, but right now she had no means to fight.
Saya's face went pale. Before her eyes, Luke Saikol, with an offhand motion, swung his blade at the phantom.
"!?"
The orchestra phantom tore apart, then immediately regenerated. But it seemed to have been shaken—its mouth had separated from its instrument. Luke cheered at the sight.
"Ooooooooooh, I found something that won't be cut! This is my chance to obtain a Spirit Sword!"
"!?"
No wait, I'm pretty sure that phantom can't be cut, but— Before the retort could be made, the phantom fell to pieces.
It regenerated, then shattered to pieces. Regenerated, then shattered to pieces again. The phantoms burst into tears and fled back into the mirror.
"Woooooooooooh! You think you can escuuuape?! Cuuuuut!"
"Ahahahaha, Luke-chan looks like a phantom!"
Luke dove into the mirror with great joy.
Right—if the Treasure Hall and the Imperial Capital overlapped, then not only could phantoms move freely into this world, but the people here could go to the Treasure Hall.
The Treasure Hall and the Imperial Capital were now contiguous. The gates couldn't be closed, and probably even the powerful teleportation-like ability Lady had been wielding in the Treasure Hall was lost.
But Luke truly was like a phantom. She was thoroughly glad he hadn't been in the mock battles.
In front of Saya, who could only stare blankly, Citry said with a beaming smile: "Since this is such a rare opportunity, why don't we go too? The knights can't move anyway, and right now we'd be first movers!"
"All right! I'll go wake up Tea. We have to kill the bastards who threatened our Lucia!"
"Hehehe... I think Lucia's probably killing them herself..."
Was it really okay to be this casual about it? She was sure the entire Imperial Capital was falling into panic— "You're going too, right, Saya-chan? You have to kill the traitors, don't you?"
"That's right. We have to kill the ones who won't listen and make sure the others who haven't betrayed us never will."
Rize beamed with a blossoming smile and reached out her hand to Saya.
Citry joined in by starting to clap softly.
Looking at the two of their smiling faces, Saya decided to put all her questions on hold.
Power surged within her. Both eyes were burning hot.
Lucia was a really wonderful girl, but Rize and Citry were perfectly fine too.
If she could fight alongside them, nothing else mattered. And besides, the visitors had to be defeated—no, killed.
She had never done it before, but Saya, with this—Night Banquet Festival Hall—could do it.
She was truly glad she had come to the Imperial Capital.
She would kill them all... and teach them never to betray Saya again.
§ § § "Fwahahahahahaha! You've finally done it, Thousand Transformations! To think you would summon phantoms into the Imperial Capital! What on earth did you do?!"
Franz's laughter echoed through the Missing Persons Response Headquarters, which had been stirred up like a wasp's nest.
Staff members ran about with bloodshot eyes. Those who could fight had already rushed out to quell the disturbances outside.
"But it's useless! I prepared for exactly this—our formation is already airtight! I woke up the entire knights' order and secured every location where the missing persons occurred! I want to praise myself for acting so quickly!"
"Th- Thousand Transformations Master."
"Who are you calling the Thousand Transformations Masterrrrr?!"
"Ahhhh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!"
The knights' order messenger bowed his head repeatedly. The situation had reached the height of confusion.
They didn't even know what was happening. All they knew was that through the sites where people had gone missing, various kinds of phantoms had appeared throughout the city.
Fortunately, it was still early morning, so the chaos hadn't spread that far yet, but they couldn't even imagine how much damage might occur.
"This time, this time I'll throw you in prison, Thousand Transformations! Just you wait! Even His Majesty the Emperor won't be able to protect you from this one!"
"Y- you haven't even confirmed that it was Thousand Transformations who—"
"It's obvious! Who else would do something like this?! You don't understand anything about that man! I've been called the 'Thousand Transformations handler' lately, you know?!"
Franz screamed out the fact he hadn't wanted to acknowledge.
He hadn't been sleeping much lately, and his tension had broken through the ceiling.
"I knew it—he really is the Thousand Transformations Master..."
A subordinate muttered under his breath. But Franz couldn't have cared less.
He was in the best mood ever. If he got through this, he could finally shed the title of "Thousand Transformations handler."
Of course, causing this much of a commotion would mean he couldn't avoid punishment under imperial law. Even if he was Level 8— "Commander Franz! We've found the missing persons victims! It looks like the Treasure Hall's prison, which had been sealed off, connected to the underground waterways—Hugh is leading the escape. There seem to be a lot of phantoms, so we're sending support."
"!! The underground waterways. Make sure everyone gets back alive, without exception!"
Hugh... he was safe. Finding the missing persons victims was good news.
The worst report, the very bad report, the bad report, and the good news—he would have to report everything properly to His Majesty the Emperor...
Franz took a breath, looked up at the ceiling, and muttered to himself: "That's not enough to balance the scales, Thousand Transformations."