Empty

"That should do it."

Yuuto looked at the desk devoid of any ink and placed the ruined cloth in his library. Cyrilla looked a bit surprised when she saw the cloth in his hands disappear so suddenly.

However, she didn't question it too much as the image of Yuuto in her head was one where he was capable of doing anything. This included making a simple cloth suddenly disappear.

"What should we do with this paper?" Yuuto questioned Cyrilla after looking at the stained piece of paper she wrote on.

She stared at the paper for a while before shaking her head. "I.. you can throw it away. The paper is already ruined and I don't think I need it."

Yuuto didn't say anything more and took the paper to place it into his library. Taking care of this small task, he patiently waited for Serval to finish her work while being vigilant for any sudden movements outside the door.

He noticed that the speed at which she was typing was gradually slowing down so he predicted that she was almost done.

And as if she read his intention, Serval tapped several times on the terminal keyboard before stretching her arms up in the air. 

"That brought me back to the old times when I had to rush some statistical reports for my partner who needed help."

Serval groaned thinking about those stressful times but the shine in her eyes spoke differently as she reminisced of those moments of the past.

Getting one last stretch in, she took a small chip out of the terminal and walked towards Yuuto and Cyrilla who were patiently waiting for her.

"Here's an encryption key that acts on the Supreme Guardian's permission code." Serval handed Yuuto the chip which made his ears perk up.

The name encryption key brought a small sense of deja vu as he already had a memory of an encryption key from Herta's Space Station.

"If you place this chip within the terminal on the Engine of Creation's head, you can ultimately control its movements." Serval continued to explain the chip's uses.

"I already disabled Cocolia's permissions so she shouldn't be able to control the engine unless something strange happens."

"That should be enough." Yuuto nodded and pocketed the chip. "I knew you were the right person for the job. You're the best!"

"What's with this buttering up? It's beginning to sound like you need something else from me."

"How rude. I was genuinely praising you." 

"Sure, whatever you say." 

Serval laughed lightly seeing the expression Yuuto was making but stopped when she heard the faint sounds of boots hitting the stone floor. 

"It seems like you were right on time…" Yuuto narrowed his eyes and signaled Serval to come closer to him.

Reading his intentions, she quickly hopped on his back while Cyrilla jumped close to his chest. 

'I should also wake these guys up.'

Yuuto took a single step onto the opened window sill before releasing a portion of mist from his body. Watching the mist make its way toward the two workers, Yuuto took one last glance before jumping out the window.

His body disappeared leaving only traces of silver light behind him and the window closed as if it was not tapered in the first place.

The two portions of mist that gathered towards the worker's bodies before he left slowly condensed into thin sticks the size of toothpicks. 

The toothpick-sized sticks quickly descended onto the worker's thighs making them receive a sudden stimulation of pain and waking them up from their deep sleep.

The two jolted up in the seats they were placed in and felt their minds turn empty as they tried to understand their current situation.

"...Did we fall asleep..?"

One of the workers mumbled while clenching his head which felt strangely empty.

"..I knew I shouldn't have stayed up reading the books Officer Pela recommended…"

"Mhm? You also read those books?"

"You too?"

The two workers felt a sudden sense of comradery but this feeling was quickly shot down when the door to the room opened and in came a tall man covered in thick armor.

""C-Captain""

The two workers stood up and greeted the man and bent their bodies slightly. They felt a bit of pressure coming off the man as his presence was a bit intimidating for technicians such as themselves.

The man was a bit silent before he spoke through his helmet. "Did you guys spill something?"

"Uhm.." The worker tried to understand what their captain meant but caught on as the faint scent of ink lingered in the air.

"I don't believe we did."

"Is that so?" The man hummed to himself before informing the two workers of the reason for his visit. "The Supreme Guardian has ordered everyone to stay indoors for the next few days."

"I thought we already received this order?" One of the workers questioned.

The man nodded his head as he also received this order for the second time but considering the second part was different from the initial order.

"That is true but this time, she stated that technicians were to pour more power into the Engine of Creation. Including some power from the heating system."

"The heating system…? But wouldn't that.."

"I have come to only relay the Supreme Guardian's intentions."

The man cut the worker's words off before stepping out the door. The room he left was quiet but one of the workers gradually stood up from his seat and walked towards the terminal.

"Should we do this..?" The other worker hesitantly asked.

"It was an order from the Supreme Guardian so we should follow as intended. Who knows, maybe something big is about to happen."

The worker didn't stop typing while the other one eventually joined him.

While they were working on the terminal, they quickly forgot about the sudden bout of amnesia they had when they woke up. The person who was the cause of this jumped through piles of wires and made his way toward an isolated corner.

"So shall I bring you back to your workshop?" Yuuto let Serval down and asked her a question.

"It sounds like you have other business in this area."

"That's true." Yuuto glanced at Cyrilla for a quick second before returning his eyes to Serval.

The area that had Cyrille's echo trapped within an array of boxes was located between two areas: Backwater Pass and the Silvermane Guard's Restricted Zone according to his memory.

Yuuto was unsure if her location followed the same prompt where he had to go through the first area where Cyrille first appeared to find her or if traces of her were present within both areas.

So after taking Serval back to her workshop, he planned to finally have the two sisters reunite. 

Serval was curious as to what type of business he had but refrained from asking as she was expecting it to be a waste of time to do so. 

She agreed to go back as she finished her part in helping but along the way, she received another request for help from Yuuto.

"You want me to help your friends when they come up?"

"Yup, that's about right."

"Do you really need to request this from me? I would have done that even if you didn't ask me to do so." Serval felt like this was something obvious considering the situation.

"I just wanted to ensure my dear friends are taken care of."

"How sweet of you!" Serval grinned while patting Yuuto on the back. "Who knew that you could utter such a cheesy line."

"Screw off."

"How cute. Is this how someone your age cares for his friends?"

"You know, your auntie side is coming ou—" Yuuto tried to finish his sentence but felt a sense of deja vu when he felt someone clenching his right shoulder.

"I thought we agreed not to talk about that certain word~"

"...Auntie?"

***

"I guess mentioning someone's age is considered a universal taboo in every world."

Yuuto silently jumped on the empty tiled roofs of the houses located near the Administration District where he dropped Serval off at her workshop. After escaping the clutches of a certain lady, he followed the path through the district to reach Backwater Pass.

It was a slight journey considering the distance he had traveled so far with the majority of it being a ride for at least two people. Thankfully his engine provided him with enough energy to pull through with this decision.

Or else he might have been on the ground panting like his entire depended on it.

"I should be near…"

Finding some areas familiar and seeing some gates blocking certain paths, Yuuto felt like he was in the right area. Fragmentum monsters were also roaming around so this feeling grew in certainty.

Navigating through the area he finally reached a gate that blocked an open area. Yuuto felt the metal bars through his fingertips and didn't hesitate to use [Break].

The bars shattered and the area where Cyrille was first located finally opened up. Taking a step forward, he led Cyrilla who was behind him but felt some resistance as someone tugged the back of his clothes.

"Cyrilla? Something wrong?" Yuuto looked at Cyrilla who held her arms close to her chest and her eyes began to wander around the place.

"N-No, I just feel a bit nervous." 

Yuuto already informed Cyrilla of her sister's approximate location and why they came here so he felt like it was understandable that she felt a bit nervous. 

He just lightly smiled and led the way while Cyrilla clenched his clothes tightly.

Scanning the wide area, he tried to find any traces of any boxes that may indicate Cyrille's location but after looking, there seemed to be an absence of any boxes he was familiar with.

"Maybe she's hidden…" Yuuto mumbled under his breath and activated [Clarity] to try and find any slightly successful traces.

Near the middle of the area, faint yellow-colored light floated around and seemed to converge into a small ball of light.

Yuuto got closer and approached the ball. He raised his hand in an attempt to graze the orb but after seeing his hand phase through the orb, he stopped.

Feeling [Clarity] may be the solution, he covered his hand in this energy and tried to touch the orb but to his surprise, nothing happened.

"This is the first…" This genuinely stumped Yuuto as [Clarity] never failed him but it seemed like this orb was something else.

"Haah—!?"

As he was about to fall into deeper thought, he heard the sharp inhale of the person behind him and saw Cyrilla holding onto her chest. It sounded like she had the air taken from her lungs causing her to feel breathless.

"Take slow and deep breaths."

Yuuto quickly kneeled and helped Cyrilla adjust her breathing. This made him frown deeply as the hint of unease he felt before began to rise again.

He looked at her face and saw her eyes flicker before she looked at him with her usual eyes. Her breathing calmed down and she just held onto his sleeve.

"Should we head back and rest?" Yuuto felt like more things were happening to Cyrilla ever since she came to the surface and began to worry for her.

Hearing his offer, Cyrilla paused before shaking her head and faintly smiled at him. 

"I'm fine. I think I was too nervous so I shocked my body. Have you found my sister yet?"

"No, it seems like there's one more location that I need to check before I rethink my plans." 

"Is that so..?" Cyrilla whispered. "Let's go to that other location."

Yuuto didn't answer right away but instead stared at Cyrilla deeply. This troubled her as she felt timid but pleaded to him that she wanted to go to the other location he talked about.

Taking in some extra silence, Yuuto got up from his knees and let out a sigh. "Let's go."

Yuuto scooped Cyrilla up and jumped towards the tall houses where he made his way towards the Silvermane Guard Restricted Zone once more.

This trip back took a bit longer as the second area where Cyrille was located fell back to a far corner of the zone.

'Hopefully, this area is the right one, or else I'll need to figure out some other plans.'

Yuuto stabbed his swords forward and created multiple lines that decapitated some of the monsters that blocked the area he wanted to go into. After defeating them he placed the parts into his library to leave no traces of any fight occurring.

Going straight down the corridor, he reached an identical area where a wide space was once again located.

'There seems to be some boxes but are these the ones trapping Cyrille?'

Yuuto used [Clarity] once more and saw that the traces of energy were more abundant here compared to the ones in Backwater Pass.

Before he searched the area, Yuuto looked at Cyrilla behind him to see if anything strange happened again but he just saw her looking at the center of the room with intense focus.

Yuuto didn't miss this and used [Clarity] to focus on the rough area Cyrilla was looking at. By placing more energy, he saw the outline of the orb resting in the middle but the shape shifted and the outline of a young girl began to take place.

"Bingo…"

Seeing the outline, he felt like this was the correct area and turned to bring Cyrilla closer but saw how she was already five steps ahead of him.

She walked towards the orb, stared at the outline of the girl, and reached her hand toward her face.

"Cyrille…"

Seeing her sister's features gradually form, faint tears began to form in her eyes. She reached her hand closer to her face but what happened next was something she didn't expect.

"Haah—-!!?#"

Cyrilla sucked in a deep breath when she felt a hand grab her throat and raise her feet off the ground. 

"Cyrilla!!"

Yuuto sprinted towards the center seeing this but a thick dome suddenly blocked his path.

"Guh….Wa.. sis..te.. yuu..to…"

Cyrilla felt the grip around her neck tighten and a surge of images began to flash through her head.

In a dark room, there was only a single candle that lit the room and the image of a man stood a few centimeters away from her.

[So..you saw that didn't you…]

[What do you mean…?]

[Oh? So you didn't huh… Good but there's still something that troubles me…]

The man placed his hand within his coat and pulled out a white envelope that seemed to have a letter within it.

[Why were you giving this to her?]

[,,,Why do you have that…? That should be for my siste—-]

–SLAP

[I didn't say anything about disregarding my question.]

[...]

[Oh? That was too soon for that. Now the girl is too quiet to answer my questions… What a predicament.. ]

The man hummed to himself before tapping something hard within the dark room.

[Why don't we test this idea I saw within one of the books I read.]

The sounds of wood dragging onto the stone floor echoed through the room and appearing through the darkness was a large box that had two hinges attached to it.

[Being deprived of light sure is a scary thing isn't it~?]

The images began to fade away as the man got closer and Cyrilla's eyes turned dull while the hand around her throat gradually loosened up.

"[Break]! [Break]! {Break]!"

Being a few meters away from her, Yuuto's eyes flashed a deep white as he poured tons of energy into [Break] causing the dome preventing him from getting to Cyrilla to shatter.

"Cyrilla!"

Yuuto picked up Cyrilla who limply fell and tried to feel for a pulse hoping in his mind that the worst didn't happen.

Thankfully his prayers were heard and a faint but steady pulse was felt but this didn't bring him much relief as her previously bright gray eyes turned an eerie dull color.

She looked up but Yuuto was able to tell that nothing was happening within those eyes.

He glared at the outline of Cyrille and was about to ask why she did that but saw how the outline vanished without a trace.

"Cyrilla, can you hear me?" Yuuto ignored the outline and focused his attention on Cyrilla who was unresponsive despite him using all the healing abilities he had.

"Shit."

Yuuto clenched his fist and tried his best to calm down but it seemed like his surroundings didn't want to give him the time of day to do so.

–TREMBLE

The area around him began to shake causing him to look around and see how some stones on the walls began to break down.

Not only that, the sounds of metal hitting the ground grew louder as the sight of multiple Silvermane Guards began to reach the isolated area he was in.

"Outsider. You are under arrest under multiple offenses ranging from inciting rebellion within Belobog, running from the authorities to kidnapping the next heir to the Supreme Guardian."

Near the forefront of all these guards stood a blonde man with white armor and a large shield by his side.

"We kindly request that you turn yourself in without any resistance."

"...."

Yuuto looked at Gepard who was watching his every move and a small laugh escaped his lips.

"They found me pretty fast… and seemed to place an excessive amount of guards on me…"

Yuuto mumbled to himself seeing the crowd grow and stood up while carrying the unresponsive Cyrilla. He looked down and saw her dull eyes which caused his chest to feel stuffy.

'I was expecting a lighthearted reunion but got something completely different…' Yuuto thought and trails of silver began to surround his body.

"I should find somewhere quiet. This place is too noisy for me to think.".

***

Sorry for the lack of chaps recently. Had to lock in for one of my finals. Buutt the gacha lords have blessed me with a Firefly drip market so there is finally some good in the world.