Check out my new translation!
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Ignis looked like a living wyrm, spewing blazing fire while using his massive body as a weapon to strike. The Ethereals could not withstand the fury of the Son of Vulkan; those ghostly blue fists were like the reaper's scythe—merely brushing past them reduced them to drifting ash.
"Amazing, really." Ellen nudged the fading Ethereal fragments at her feet. "Doesn't even look like they were hit by fists—more like they got smashed apart after being body-checked by that giant. Ignis, you okay over there?" Corin was far more concerned about the Salamander's safety.
"No issues, none at all. Look at him—nothing in here can stop him." Ellen spoke with total confidence in a teammate this strong and this reliable. She had long understood from Ignis's combat style that this giant wasn't something normal Ethereals could fight. Even the Notorious ones with special monikers probably wouldn't stand a chance.
"But… the Hollow data we received shows there's a Hollow rift inside the generator room. Is it really okay not to warn him?" Corin recalled the Hollow data she had reviewed earlier.
"Ah!" Only now did Ellen remember—yes, something like that was sent before the mission.
The shark-girl bolted immediately. She had to stop Ignis before he rushed alone into the generator room. Even if the Hollow data issued by the government was outdated, they were rarely wrong. If that giant got swallowed by a rift and vanished…
That was a consequence Ellen absolutely could not shoulder—especially if Lycaon found out she failed to warn him. That would be far worse than losing some bonus pay.
Ignis caught the blade of a Dullahan with his left arm, and with a chopping strike from his right fist snapped it in half. The ether-crystal sword hadn't even touched the ground before the Salamander grabbed it, turned, and viciously pinned a sneaking Hati to the floor. A Farbauti lunged from the darkness; Ignis rotated, his power gauntlets unleashing two rapid jabs that shattered its core. The Dullahan tried to shield-bash him, trying to topple him—but such stupidity was pointless. The Salamander's immense mass was not something it could even dream of moving. Ignis pressed down on its shield with his right hand, gripped its torso with his left, tore away its final weapon, and then kicked it apart. As for the Hati on the ground, he crushed its core beneath his heel.
The generator room sign stood before them. Perhaps to allow easy Ether Fuel transport, the doors were large—large enough that even a Space Marine in Mark X Gravis Power Armor like Ignis could pass through without difficulty.
"Wait!" Ellen's voice was still lazy in tone, but her footsteps were frantic. "Don't go in yet—there's a rift inside. Wait for the Proxy."
Ignis halted, watching the two maids run up to him.
"Now that I see it, you're really something. You wiped out every Ethereal here by yourself. If you joined us, you'd really save us a lot of trouble." Ellen glanced at the rapidly fading fragments on the ground.
Save "us"? More like save you. Why is this shark girl always so eager to slack off while on the job?
"Ignis, are you hurt?" Corin truly worried for the Salamander. She had wanted to help, but his advance was simply too fast—she couldn't keep up. The corridors leading here were covered with traces of intense fighting, which made her uneasy.
"I'm fine. These things can't injure me." Ignis crouched down and patted the small maid on the head. "Thanks for the concern. But I'm more worried about Rain. When is the Proxy arriving?"
"Soon. The central control room isn't far. If it's the boss, he'll be here fast—even with Ethereals blocking the way." Ellen leaned against a wall to rest.
As they spoke, noises echoed from the ventilation ducts above. Ignis immediately prepared for combat, and the two maids drew their weapons.
"It never ends…" Ellen complained. "If I didn't already have plans to hang out with friends this month, I'd quit this part-time job."
"Part-time? Ellen, what's your main job?" Ignis was curious what this shark-girl's actual occupation was.
"Student." She opened her gardening shears. "I go to class during the day, then run errands with the boss. The pay's great, but it's exhausting."
New Eridu really was a strange place—Victoria Housekeeping Co. employed part-time students? Judging from her age, she was probably in high school or college. At least she lived in a more prosperous district—unlike Emile or Vesmir, who didn't even have access to proper education.
While Ignis was thinking, the noise in the ducts grew louder. Whatever it was, it moved fast. The ventilation shafts in buildings like this were indeed large enough for an adult to crouch-walk through—but why would Ethereals crawl through such cramped spaces? Was there some purpose? And even if it was an ambush, the noise was far too obvious. And what were those eh-ne, eh-ne sounds mixed in? A Bangboo?
As he pondered, the vent cover dropped, and Eous was lowered out, carried by Rina's Bangboos—Drusilla and Anastella.
"We're here! No need to walk you out!" Anastella gently placed Eous down.
"No need! No need!" Drusilla echoed.
The two little ones dove back into the duct, presumably returning to Rina.
"Proxy! You're here!" Corin lit up upon seeing Eous arrive.
"Waiting that long was unbelievably boring." Ellen put down her shears and reverted to lazy mode.
"I thought you'd wait for me at the rendezvous point. Didn't expect you'd run all the way here already." Belle's voice echoed.
"That was the plan," Ellen said, patting the Salamander's greave. "But this guy charged ahead, so we had to follow. Good thing he didn't barrel into the generator room—there's a rift inside. That would've been bad."
"Ignis cleared all the Ethereals here by himself. It was astounding," Corin added.
Belle had partnered with the Salamander enough times to know his strength. The first time was when she saw someone rampaging through Hollow Zero like it was nothing, she had been even more shocked than Corin. She'd tried asking Nicole, indirectly, about Ignis's identity, but that cunning rabbit dodged every question. Same with Anby—though they were friends now, she had never revealed her past. Maybe the Cunning Hares were even deeper waters than Victoria Housekeeping Co. Everyone there—except maybe Nekomata—had suspiciously complicated backgrounds.
"In any case, Proxy, we need to move quickly," Ignis said. "I'm low on ammo. I can't waste time on these Ethereals."
"Understood. Leave the navigation to me." Belle spoke, and Eous began walking into the generator room.
The generator room was fairly large. To avoid splitting up, they proceeded counter-clockwise along the wall. Perhaps Ignis's earlier rampage had drawn out all the Ethereals and wiped them out, because they were not attacked at all as they advanced through the darkness.
Soon they found a generator unit. Its exterior looked intact, yet something seemed missing at its center.
"Looks like a big chunk is empty," Wise said as he examined the transmitted image, sinking into thought.
With only one machine to reference, they couldn't be sure, so they decided to locate the other generators for comparison.
At the second generator, they found identical readings on the control panel. No error messages. Eous attempted to activate the switch, but nothing responded.
"Fairy says the machine's core energy module is missing." Eous hopped down from the control panel and walked to the center of the machine. There was indeed an empty socket—judging by its size, that was where the fuel canister was supposed to be inserted.
Ignis, through his thermal vision, detected faint heat residue around both machines. Combined with the number of Ethereals that had blocked the corridor earlier… was something doing this on purpose? He recalled the mysterious shadow that had appeared on the security camera footage. Could it be that thing?
But earlier, that shadow had helped them open doors. Why would it cause trouble now? And these heat traces weren't from one individual—they were from many. Unlike the smaller heat signature from before, the ones left here were from bodies roughly human-sized, perhaps slightly taller or stronger.
So, this damned Ballet Twins wasn't just "haunted"—it had two different sets of ghosts?
The fuel canister slot had strange scratch marks. Normally, machinery like this shouldn't suffer mismatched-fit damage during installation. And the shape of these scratches was far too violent—clearly caused by brute force.
With more questions than answers, they located the third generator. Same as the others—control panel fine, fuel canister missing.
"Really strange… all three have the same damage…" Ellen noticed it too.
The heat traces led to the generator room's elevator. Surprisingly, it still worked—probably an emergency elevator powered by batteries, meant for personnel to reach the generators during outages.
"There's a rift in the elevator shaft," Belle reported. "Fairy detected high Ether activity on the other side. The fuel may be in there. We'll scout ahead. If there are enemies, I'm counting on you."
"No problem." Ignis followed behind Eous and stepped into the elevator.
The elevator was unexpectedly massive—at least five or six meters in radius. Ignis had no idea why anyone would build one this large. The heat traces were here too, confirming the earlier deduction: the fuel had been moved. But by who? The traces weren't old; they were fresh enough to track, meaning whoever moved the fuel wasn't far.
As Ignis considered this, Ethereals began crawling out of the elevator shaft walls. Those brass-statue-looking things were relentless. The government claiming they were "clearing the Hollow" was clearly nonsense. With the density of Ethereals here, Ignis felt he had already slain several hundred today—yet more kept coming.
Fighting inside an elevator was an unusual experience. Ignis had to restrain his movements so as not to unbalance the lift while simultaneously protecting Eous. The Ethereals seemed to recognize the Bangboo's importance and repeatedly attempted suicidal charges to destroy it.
Fortunately, Ellen and Corin were both competent fighters. Their lighter weight allowed them to maneuver freely, and together they wiped out every Ethereal that boarded.
When the elevator finally reached its destination and Ignis stepped back onto solid ground, he relaxed slightly. Before them, a spatial rift shimmered. Eous walked straight in; the heat traces led into it as well. Ignis followed.
"Man, that elevator shaft was almost as chaotic as Ruby's karaoke booth." Ellen said the moment she exited the rift.
"Ruby? She's your classmate, right?" Corin commented, entering last.
This entire region was nearly pitch-black. Ignis ignited his flamer for light. Thankfully, the Proxy and her assistant were extremely capable—they used the security cameras to locate a viable path despite the darkness. In Ignis's eyes, the heat traces were fading—perhaps too much time had passed, or maybe the damp mist here was dissipating them.
There were many escalators in this zone, all still usable. After taking one, they finally found the Ether fuel canisters hidden in the area.
"I'll carry them!" Corin volunteered and lifted a canister larger than she was.
Whoever hid the canisters had been lazy—they were all stashed near the escalators, making retrieval surprisingly easy. Ignis carried one in each arm, Corin carried one, and soon they had gathered all three.
"Good thing we came. Easy work, easy pay." Ellen grinned so wide Ignis regretted helping her—he should've made her carry one herself.
"There's a rift ahead," the Proxy pointed into the darkness, sounding excited. "It leads straight back to the generator room!"
The coincidences piled atop one another to an unreasonable degree. Ignis knew far too little about Hollows to make sense of any of it. Even as they installed the fuel canisters and activated the generators, he kept thinking: What moved those fuel tanks? Ethereals wouldn't do something like that.
When the three generators roared to life, the surrounding lights flickered, then blazed back on.