As that cold female voice appeared, the girl with the mechanical serpent tail instantly froze in place.
She stopped moving, and the violence in her golden eyes immediately turned to panic.
"...I, I just thought..."
The girl stammered for a while, then gritted her teeth and stubbornly lifted her chin.
"It's not like I was the only one who did it! Why the hell are you singling me out!? Clearly, that bitch..."
The female voice interrupted her.
"Then according to your logic, who should replace you? Chesed? Or perhaps that soft-hearted Geburah? Or are you planning to trick Chokmah instead?"
Under the questioning, the girl fell silent for a moment before muttering in a low voice again.
"It's all that person's fault... If... if he hadn't... we would've already..."
"Complaining ends here."
The cold voice said indifferently,
"Focus on your mission. Do not disappoint me. And even more importantly, do not make me lose face in front of that woman."
"...Yes."
The girl lowered her head and pouted, her voice dejected.
"Big Sister, I understand..."
"And learn to truly [understand] as soon as possible."
A trace of helplessness entered the cold voice as she addressed her.
"Binah."
"Mm... I... I'll try..."
The Third Prophet of the Decagrammaton, known by the alias [The Observant Understander Who Acutely Perceives Difference], Binah, who had been forced to leave the Abydos Desert she had occupied for many years and temporarily appear in the form of a student, answered with some difficulty.
After Big Sister's gaze finally withdrew, Binah spent a moment calming herself, then glanced disdainfully at the puddle on the ground that seemed to have once been some boring thing called [Hieronymus].
With a cold snort, she closed her eyes.
Then, a massive serpent head burst out from the earth and opened its jaws.
A stream of ultra-high-temperature laser light erupted forth, burning it completely into ashes.
After swallowing her humanoid prosthetic body into its stomach, Binah returned her consciousness to the form more familiar to others. Silently and without a trace, she slipped back into the depths underground.
...
Inside a building within the Trinity ruins.
The Gematria member using this place as a temporary base, Maestro, was staring at the perfectly intact and majestic Hieronymus displayed on the monitor. His entire body trembled excitedly with endless creaking sounds.
"Ohhh! This [Sublime] of mine... Though it is still incomplete in form, this artificial angel imbued with divinity through the replication of ancient doctrine shall surely earn even that person's notice!"
Maestro said expectantly,
"Even a single merciless criticism from that person would absolutely benefit me immensely and elevate my art..."
The frequency of the puppet body's trembling, along with the noises produced by it, was enough to make anyone worry he might fall apart on the spot.
"Come, Sensei! If I truly have the fortune to receive such an honor, then please, let this crude creation of mine once again become the stepping stone for your ascent to even greater heights!"
The man who styled himself an artist sincerely wished for exactly that.
...
Beneath the ancient cathedral, along the passage leading toward the sprawling underground catacombs.
Saori gradually slowed her pace until she came to a complete stop. Hearing the familiar footsteps approaching from behind, she turned around and, as expected, saw the white-haired girl had already caught up to her from not far away.
"...Azusa."
Azusa stopped several meters away and quietly met Saori's gaze.
Narrowing her eyes, Saori let out a cold laugh.
"Instead of protecting Sensei, you actually chased me all the way here? Looks like Sensei isn't nearly as important to you as you claimed."
Ignoring the mockery, Azusa merely looked at her former companion and calmly said:
"Saori... give up."
The reversal of positions, along with that irritating tone of persuasion, enraged Saori once more.
"Don't screw with me!"
The dark blue-haired girl swung her arm sharply and roared:
"Why, why do you still dare say something like that!? Now the advantage has returned to our side. You're the one who should be giving up!"
"...But if things are really as you say, then why can't you control the Tea Party anymore? And why did you come alone into the underground cathedral?"
Azusa paused briefly before speaking in a quiet voice.
"Things have already completely gone beyond your plan now, haven't they, Saori? I'll say it one more time. Give up."
But what answered her was Saori's furious questioning, her body nearly trembling with rage.
"Shirasu Azusa! What gives you the right to keep talking to me in that superior tone over and over again!? What right do you even have!? What right do you have to judge whether we're right or wrong!? And what right do you have to look down on our suffering and our choices!?"
"What has Trinity turned you into!? Do you really think you were some pampered rich girl just like those people from the very beginning!? Don't forget, you've always been one of us!"
Saori stepped forward and stared fixedly at Azusa, who had turned her eyes away and could not meet her gaze in that moment. Her anger only intensified further.
"Why... why is it only you...!?"
Saori harshly interrogated the hateful traitor.
"We suffered together. We despaired together! In this gray, hopeless world, in this world where everything is void, are you the only one whose existence has meaning!? Are you the only one allowed to remain beneath the blue sky!?"
By this point, her voice had completely broken.
"I'll deny every part of you! Everything you learned in Trinity, everything you experienced there, everything you gained! All of it! Every last bit of it!"
The echoes lingered in the passageway for a long time.
At last, Azusa looked once more at Saori, who was still breathing heavily, then slowly shook her head.
"No. No matter how much you deny it, things that already happened will never change. Just like your experiences at Schale."
Saori's expression suddenly stiffened.
Then Azusa asked:
"Saori, are you going to deny even yourself as well?"
"Yeah! That's right!"
Saori admitted it without hesitation.
"Why do you think I chose to return to everyone? I wanted to completely deny even the self that once hoped to find happiness like you did, but would have had to abandon everyone else to obtain it! Because everything is void!!!"
The information contained within her words, and the sincerity revealed through them, made Azusa understand.
There was only one way to calm her down now.
"...I understand."
Azusa took a deep breath and raised her gun.
"Saori, let's settle this."
"Just what I wanted! Let's wager everything we have and decide this right here! Or are you planning to fight me head-on, one against one!?"
"No. I'm not alone."
Azusa's answer made Saori frown, but soon after, she showed unmistakable shock that not even her mask could hide.
"Yeah."
Having finally caught up, I walked to Azusa's side.
"And me too."