In the entire Roundtable chamber, the person whose emotions swung the hardest… was Mrs. Yuigahama.
Oh my god—what is even happening?! She looked pale with shock.
This Apocalypse Game thing was completely outside her understanding. It only made her feel lost and scared, but what she could understand—was what was happening right in front of her.
Tatsuki and that girl, Yukino…
That deep, intimate kiss—It made Mrs. Yuigahama's mind erupt like a storm.
My daughter's boyfriend… is kissing another woman like that. How was that even allowed?!
In a panic, her imagination spiraled into the worst possible scenarios—Was Yui being deceived? Was she being played?—a thousand ugly possibilities flashing through her head.
"Alright, enough, you two—quit showing off and think of an actual battle plan!" Eriri snapped, forcing the moment to end.
Tatsuki and Yukino finally broke the long kiss.
Tatsuki used his thumb to wipe a glistening trace from the corner of Yukino's lips, then chuckled. "Do you seriously think we need a plan? Didn't you hear what the Apocalypse Game called me?"
An over-limit player.
Tatsuki glanced at the floating prompt again. This time, there was an extra option:
[Combat]
"Everyone can see the Combat option, right?" he asked.
Some nodded. Some shook their heads. Only Yukino and Miyuki shook their heads. They were the selected defenders.
Given the current situation, confirming [Combat] probably triggered the teleport. Before that, though, Tatsuki still had one thing to handle.
"Kanae."
"Yes, Tatsuki. I'm here—what do you need?" Kanae answered immediately.
As expected—once he summoned Kanae, she could appear. Tatsuki's lips curled into a satisfied smile. If that was possible then the room for play here got a lot bigger.
"Kanae, you watch the Survival Base. Make sure nothing unexpected happens."
"Understood. I'll protect this place," Kanae promised with calm certainty.
With Kanae here, Tatsuki had nothing to worry about. She could bring out the power of the Dominator too.
"Yumiko. Mrs. Yuigahama. Go back to your rooms and put on the Exterminator Armor. Take weapons."
"Okay." Yumiko didn't ask why. She knew the smartest move was to follow Tatsuki's directions.
"I understand." Mrs. Yuigahama had a thousand questions, but she wasn't the kind of adult who'd act childish at a time like this. She knew this wasn't the moment.
The reason Tatsuki told them to suit up was simple: they were still normal humans.
Unlike Haruno, Megumi, Marin, and the others—who had bodies empowered by Salvation Angel or Sin Apostle—ordinary humans couldn't reliably survive on most planetary surfaces.
That armor, however, could handle basic space survival requirements—oxygen supply, radiation protection, and other high-tech systems.
A few minutes later…
Both women stepped out wearing sleek, mechanical suits that looked surprisingly light despite the intimidating design.
"How does it feel?" Tatsuki asked casually.
Yumiko's voice came out muffled and amplified through the suit. "It's fine. Looks heavy, but moving doesn't feel heavy at all."
She even posed a little to demonstrate—smooth and responsive.
"So it really is high-tech." Tatsuki joked, then his expression sharpened. "Alright. Choose Combat. Let's go see what these Star Swarm bugs actually look like."
His eyes turned cold and intent. He wanted to see what this Apocalypse Game thought it was doing.
"Yeah!"
Under Tatsuki's lead, everyone selected Combat.
That familiar sensation of crossing worlds hit again.
When Tatsuki opened his eyes, the first thing he did was scan the surroundings.
Everyone was here. No one was missing, that alone eased his mind.
At least they weren't split up, scattered, or tossed onto different planets.
If he ever got chosen as a defender later, it wouldn't become a scenario where the others couldn't handle it.
"Ooh—so this is the destination." Marin looked around, fascinated. "This is weird… are we trapped inside some kind of dome?"
They were enclosed by a half-spherical blue barrier.
The moment she said it, the dome began lowering—opening downward. Blinding sunlight poured in, and the sky revealed itself.
The sun was brutal, like there wasn't even an atmosphere up there.
"So hot!" Chika tugged at her collar—sweat already sliding down her forehead, cheeks, and pale neck.
Tatsuki glanced at her. "You should be thanking your Salvation Angel and Sin Apostle powers."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Chika was sweating hard as she loosened her collar—undoing several buttons in one go, exposing a lot of bright, soft skin.
Haruno and the others weren't much better, fanning and tugging at their clothes too.
Tatsuki—ever the gentleman—let his eyes flick across the sweat-soaked softness only once, then explained calmly:
"If you didn't have those powers, you'd already be dead from the sun. Surface temperature here is over 100°C."
"One hundred?!" Eriri stared, stunned.
She didn't feel anything like that—just a stuffy heat.
Tatsuki let out a low laugh. "Yeah—if you could actually feel it, you'd already be cooked."
The real concern wasn't Chika and the others. It was Yumiko and Mrs. Yuigahama.
Tatsuki activated Vector Manipulation, expanding a vector field around the group and reflecting away unnecessary heat and radiation.
Only then did he ask, "Yumiko, Mrs. Yuigahama—I adjusted the temperature around us. How do you feel now?"
Yumiko answered immediately. "The suit has a cooling system, but at first I thought I was gonna die. Now it's totally fine."
"Same here," Mrs. Yuigahama agreed, short and direct.
"Good." Tatsuki's gaze shifted. "Stay alert. They're here."
That single warning put everyone on edge.
The blue barrier continued lowering, and then they saw it. Something so disgusting and terrifying it made your skin crawl.
"S-so many bugs…!" Chika—now in her angelic form—shot up into the air… then instantly dropped back down and clung to Tatsuki's arm, trembling.
Now everyone understood what she meant. The dome vanished completely.
Outside it—a wall of creatures had gathered: massive insects bristling with strange spikes and writhing tendrils, packed so densely it looked like the ground itself was alive.
The instant the barrier disappeared, it was like they received an attack order.
Their grotesque mouthparts shrieked—green slime spraying as they roared, and it wasn't one roar.
It was countless roars, an endless swarm screaming together.
Thankfully, Tatsuki's vector field reflected most of the excess sound too—otherwise Haruno and the others would've been overwhelmed just by the noise.
To Tatsuki, these things looked like mutated versions of the Zerg roach type.
"You all go test their toughness," Tatsuki said, arms crossed, completely unfazed as the swarm surged toward them like a tidal wave.
Haruno and the others understood immediately. One after another, they transformed into Salvation Angel or Sin Apostle forms.
"U-uh…" Chika still wouldn't let go of Tatsuki's arm, and Eriri hesitated too.
Chika was simply terrified of bugs. Eriri, meanwhile, didn't have much real combat experience at all.