Even if she'd never played a game, Pest knew the basics.
For a child her age, even if she was scouted by some big shot, the next step should be a training arc.
It was just like the legendary King Arthur, who didn't immediately ascend the throne after pulling the sword from the stone, but instead traveled far and wide with the court magus, Merlin.
She should be training constantly at the orphanage until she could stand on her own two feet. Only then would she gradually get involved in various incidents, honing her skills to become a candidate for savior of the world.
Otherwise, they couldn't possibly expect a child not even ten years old to face some Demon Lord or a Final Trial of Humanity, right?
Even the Son of God only began performing miracles after he became an adult!
It had to be said, her logic was sound.
The only problem was that reality didn't need to be logical.
On the second day after Su Mo's return, just as Pest had settled in and resolved to start mastering her control over life factors, the unexpected happened.
An enemy had invaded the Holy Cross Group—this very group protected by multiple Plenipotentiary and Omnipotent Domains.
"Wh-What is that! Where's Lord Su Mo? Master, come save me!"
Standing before the ecological park, Pest's legs went weak as she stared at the enormous cumulonimbus cloud overhead, and the massive, bull-shaped monster coalescing from the mist beneath it.
She had just woken up, washed her face, and hadn't even had breakfast yet. The moment she stepped outside, she was greeted by this bull-headed monstrosity.
At first, she thought it was just a thick fog, until that massive fog rose into the sky, forming an opaque layer of cumulonimbus clouds.
Only then did she realize that what had enveloped the entire Holy Cross Group wasn't fog, but clouds descending from the heavens.
Looking up, the entirety of Tokyo was shrouded in a thick cloud layer. To others, it might have just looked like a typical thunderstorm, but from the perspective of a satellite or the nearby Tokyo Tower, a strange phenomenon would be visible.
The heavy cumulonimbus cloud drooped down to the ground only at the center of the Holy Cross Orphanage, naturally forming a giant bull hundreds of meters tall.
The bull had two sharp horns on its head, wreathed in azure lightning, looking as ancient and powerful as the blade of an axe.
From below, it looked like a creature straight out of mythology.
At the bull's feet, a mist shrouded everything, only occasionally torn apart by the azure lightning, which let out deafening roars.
All of Tokyo's lightning storms were converging on this single garden, and not a single weather station had managed to issue a warning in advance.
As the lightning flashed, Pest saw one of the bull's hooves, impossibly close to her, shimmering with a thunderous light.
A cumulonimbus cloud might not be able to harm a human body, but this was no ordinary cloud, to say nothing of the terrifying lightning wrapped around it.
Seeing the giant hoof stomp down, Pest immediately converted the rabbit-type factors carried by the Gastrea virus within her.
With her current abilities, she could have dodged the slow movement in time, but it was her first time facing such a monster. Her legs were jelly, and for a moment, she couldn't muster any strength.
Just then—
"Pest-chan, look out!"
The young girl with rabbit ears leaped over from behind, grabbing Pest and carrying the small girl away from the path of the descending hoof.
*BOOM!*
A massive bolt of lightning struck with an explosive sound, blasting a deep crater where Pest had just been standing.
Even though it was just a bull shaped from rain and mist, it unleashed destruction on a mythological scale.
In the myths of old, there were records of similar creatures.
Pest might not have known, but as a noble of the Little Garden, there was no way Little Black Rabbit wouldn't recognize it.
"The Bull of Heaven!"
The rabbit-eared girl watched the giant monster above with extreme vigilance. After confirming that its speed would prevent it from moving again for a short while, she looked at Pest in her arms, set her down, and asked with concern.
"Pest-chan, are you okay?"
"I-I'm fine!"
Pest wasn't particularly brave, but she was stubborn.
Although she knew Little Black Rabbit was strong, she didn't want to lose face in front of this timid-looking rabbit. She forced herself to stand, barely overcoming the weakness in her legs.
Pest quickly asked, "But what's going on with that thing up there?What kind of monster is this 'Bull of Heaven' you mentioned?"
"The Bull of Heaven is the mount of the goddess Ishtar in Sumerian mythology. It's a terrifying divine beast capable of causing droughts that last for seven years. In the myth, it was defeated by the combined efforts of Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu…"
Little Black Rabbit immediately began to explain the mythology, only to realize halfway through that she had missed the point.
"Wait, now's not the time for this! Although the thing above us might be the prototype for the mythological Bull of Heaven, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with gods right now. This isn't a divine beast, but a monster created by the humans of this era!"
Pest was stunned by her words.
When she first saw the giant monster, she had subconsciously assumed it was a divine beast that Su Mo had accidentally let loose, or some mysterious being that had escaped from that Shura-Asura paradise called the Little Garden.
But she never expected this.
"A monster this big, that can wield the power of lightning… and you're saying it was made by the humans of this era?" Pest said in disbelief. "Are you sure you're not mistaken?"
With the help of her two friends, Little Black Rabbit and Kasukabe Yō, she had gained a general understanding of this world's history and knowledge yesterday. She knew what level of development this world's human civilization had reached.
If judged by destructive power, the strongest publicly known weapon of this civilization was still the nuclear bomb invented in the last century.
Other conventional warheads were powerful, but they were all weapons within the realm of conventional imagination.
As for creating a mythological creature hundreds of meters tall, that kind of technology was clearly beyond the capabilities of this era's human science, wasn't it? That was even more exaggerated than the gods!
"I know what you're thinking, Pest-chan, but this one is sure she's not mistaken!"
The rabbit-eared girl looked up at the massive monster, her small face completely serious.
"Humanity's publicly known weapons might not be able to achieve this effect, and even nuclear bombs aren't this flexible. But if we're talking about secret technological projects still in the experimental phase, it is possible to create a monster of this level."
"What kind of technology is that ridiculous?" Pest asked, confused.
"Pest-chan, you saw it yesterday!"
"What?" Pest's eyes widened.
*I don't remember that at all.*
"When we went to visit little bro Homura yesterday, didn't a lab accident almost happen?" Little Black Rabbit prompted.
"The research project little bro Homura was working on at the time, Project A, was an auxiliary system for the Third Stellar Particle in the environment, called an Environmental Particle Accelerator. In theory, the Bull of Heaven is also a type of A. Their underlying principles are the same."
Simply put, Third Astral Particles that acted on the interior of the human body were classified as BDA; those that acted on the exterior—the outside environment—were in the A category.
"It wasn't 'almost' an accident. An accident *did* happen, it was just stopped in time by petrification," Pest corrected, before realizing something.
"Wait! Are you trying to say this monster is that Saigō Homura guy's mess?!"
*That guy just caused an explosion yesterday, and he's already got something crazier today?*
"No! Of course not!"
Little Black Rabbit immediately shook her head.
"Although this one had the same suspicion at first—after all, it's not the first time little bro Homura's experiments have gone out of control—an out-of-control event of this scale is clearly not normal. Besides, judging by the Bull of Heaven's behavior, this is clearly a malicious attack."
"Lord Su Mo and Lady Canary have both determined that this is a malicious attack from a hostile force. This Bull of Heaven is a monster created by the enemy!"
Within the Holy Cross Group, no matter what kind of lab accident occurred, people's first thought was always that Saigō Homura did it.
And that assumption was usually correct over ninety-nine percent of the time.
But this time was different.
It wasn't just because of the massive scale or the unannounced nature of its appearance, but also because of the Bull of Heaven's overwhelming combat power.
Anyone familiar with Saigō Homura knew that he had always been against using the Third Stellar Particle for military purposes, so he would never proactively create a monster that could so obviously be used as a weapon.
Therefore, there was no doubt that this was a malicious attack.
The descent of a divine beast, the schemes of a hostile force, a terrifying malicious attack… all these elements combined were enough to make anyone uneasy.
Pest wasn't a particularly brave type, but after hearing Su Mo's name, the insecurity in her heart vanished, leaving only confusion.
"Wait, Black Rabbit, you saw Lord Su Mo just now?"
"Yup!" Little Black Rabbit nodded without a hint of guile.
"This one was just waking up Lord Su Mo, Lady Leticia, and Lady Lamia when this happened. Lord Su Mo immediately arranged for me to come protect you, Pest-chan!"
As she spoke, she added thankfully, "I'm so glad I made it in time… no, wait. Since it was Lord Su Mo's order, he must have known I would make it just in time!"
Little Black Rabbit never doubted Su Mo's power.
Pest didn't doubt the power of this one and only god either, but for a moment, she overlooked the matter of why Su Mo was waking up with the vampire sisters and instead focused on another point.
"I'm truly grateful that Master remembered me! But since Master knows about this, why is he letting this monster live?"
"And more importantly, with Master around, how can there even *be* a hostile force?"
Pest was utterly bewildered.