This is not the date I wanted.

It sounded calmly and peacefully in his ears. Soon, along with the sound of bullets being reloaded, Westcott felt something hard pressing against the back of his head.

"Die."

With a cold word, the bullet burst out from the muzzle with a tongue of fire, ending Westcott's life.

……

“Director Westcott?! Hurry, someone come! The director has been murdered!!”

With the discovery of Westcott's body, the entire DEM fell into unprecedented turmoil.

"..."

Liangyi Mengyue, wearing the work clothes of DEM's low-level employees, left quietly without attracting anyone's attention.

01 Borrowing a knife to kill

==============================

Arriving at the site where the spacequake occurred, what appeared before Alan and Artemisia was a desperate situation that was far beyond common sense.

Thick black clouds swallowed up the sun, and endless snow buried the city. A vicious chill floated in the air, and the streets, flowers, and buildings - everything in sight was frozen in ice, turning into pale ice sculptures.

Rather than a spring day in March, Artemisia would rather believe that this is winter in Antarctica.

“That’s really too much…”

Using the random field to isolate the cold air outside, Artemisia looked at the ice and snow city with a serious expression.

With a glimmer of hope, Artemisia tried to use instruments to search for life signs in the city, but as expected, no one survived.

"No survivors..."

Artemisia gritted her teeth in self-blame.

"Of course, with this kind of severe cold, even a magician would die quickly after entering for a few seconds if the strength of the random field is not enough."

After answering calmly, Alan looked forward. With the help of the random field, his vision broke through the barrier of the blizzard and successfully captured the figure of the elf.

"17 kilometers ahead, the existence of Hermit's reversed form has been confirmed. As expected of a reversed form, it can actually increase the destructive power of a dangerous level B Pokémon to this extent... Ike?"

Allen tried to report using headphones, but all she got in response was an irregular noise.

(The communication was cut off... Was it because of the snowstorm? Or was it because of the interference of Liang Yi Meng Yue?)

Thinking of this, Alan couldn't help but frowned, looked at Artemisia and said sternly.

"Artemisia, don't get sentimental about trivial things during the mission. Start confirming the location of the hacker."

"...Yes! Start searching for spiritual power wavelengths that meet the requirements!"

Taking a deep breath, Artemisia turned on the psychic detector and began to search for the location where the hacker had landed.

However, the exploration process went unexpectedly smoothly. It took her only a few seconds to lock onto the other party's spiritual wave.

(strangeness……)

Artemisia felt something was wrong. Although there was no right or wrong in the wavelength of spiritual power, the reaction of the spiritual wave was too normal. Even in Hermit's freezing hell, the other party's spiritual power fluctuations were not disordered at all, and were as stable as if breathing.

"Artemisia, be alert. This could be a trap set by the hacker."

Apparently, Allen also sensed something was wrong and spoke up to remind him.

One kilometer… one hundred meters… fifty meters… ten meters.

In this way, the two of them passed through the violent blizzard and came to the location of the spiritual power reaction.

"This is……?"

Allen couldn't help but reveal a puzzled expression. What appeared before her was not the disgusting elf, but a transparent blue-white gem.

Blue-white electric light overflowed from the surface of the gem, forming a barrier to isolate the snowstorm and float quietly in the air.

"Is this... the spiritual crystal of Liang Yi Meng Yue?"

Allen said doubtfully. In response to her question, the two perfectly matching spiritual power fluctuations on the monitor gave a positive answer.

As far as she knew, if the spiritual power in the elf's body could not be condensed into crystals using special techniques, there was only one possible reason for the spiritual crystals to appear - the death of the host.

(Did he die in the battle with Hermit?)

Allen speculated in his mind. Although Hermit was just a monster who had lost his mind to her, he was a former partner to Meng Yue. It was not impossible for him to lose his life because of his soft-heartedness.

"Forget it... Anyway, I will take back the spirit crystal."

Although he was a little disappointed, Alan still adjusted his mood and recovered the spiritual crystal of Liang Yi Meng Yue.

"Alright. The spirit crystals have been recovered. Artemisia, we'll prepare to defeat the Hermits next."

"..."

"Artemisia?"

Looking at his subordinates who had been silent since just now, Allen couldn't help but feel a little confused.

"This light... I have an impression..."

Suddenly, Artemisia muttered with lifeless eyes.

——Listen carefully, Artemisia Bell Ashcroft. You have forgotten something very important.

(Important...thing?)

Artemisia asked, confused by the strange voice in her head.

——That's right. Don't you think it's strange? Why did you come to Japan with your friends, but in the end you were the only one who got a job at DEM?

(…It’s very strange…Ashley, Leonora, Cecil…were supposed to come together…but they suddenly returned to England.)

——Well, this is the evidence. You forgot some memories about important partners. Then——when you see this light again, you will recall the forgotten memories.

(Forgotten...memories?)

——Then, knowing the "truth", you will be consumed by anger and hatred——

"Ah...ah...ah..."

The severe pain in her head made Artemisia hold her head and whine.

"What's wrong? Artemisia? Have you been attacked?"

"Ai...Alan..."

Artemisia raised her head with difficulty and looked at her colleague who looked confused.

Then, in an instant, a series of unfamiliar images emerged in her mind.

Ashley Sinclair, Leonora Hills, Cecil O'Brien. Three of his companions were chased by someone and brutally killed with a lightsaber.

The wielder of the lightsaber was none other than the most powerful magician in front of her - Alan Mathers.

"Is it you? The one who killed everyone...cannot be forgiven."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Allen said in confusion. However, before she could understand the situation, Artemisia drew her sword Aroundight and mercilessly chopped off her neck.

Relying on his rich combat experience and reaction speed, Allen retreated violently the moment the opponent swung the sword. Although he did not die, due to the suddenness of the incident, Artemisia's high-speed slash still broke Allen's armor, leaving a shallow blood mark.

"Are you crazy?! Artemisia?!"

Looking at the other person in disbelief, Alan shouted in shock and anger.

"Shut up! I will never forgive you! You! Westcott! Everyone in DEM, die!!!"

With tears of blood and a roar, Artemisia caught up with Eren and launched a fierce attack.

Allen's eyes widened in surprise when he heard Artemisia's words.

(What happened… was the brainwashing resolved? — No, was it tampered with?)

Alan guessed in his mind.

"Artemisia, be clear! You have fallen into the trap of Liang Yi Meng Yue—"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up! Go to hell!"

"cut--"

Allen couldn't help but smack his lips as he looked at Artemisia who had obviously lost her mind. Helplessly, he could only fight with her while thinking of a solution.

Then, at this moment, the radio that had been disconnected suddenly resumed communication.

[Something bad has happened! CEO Mathers! ]

"What's wrong? I'm busy right now, call Ike over!"

Alan urged back anxiously.

【Director Westcott was killed! 】

"Varied--"

For a moment, Alan was shocked by the sudden news and his movements froze.

Artemisia would naturally not miss this flaw. She rushed into Allen's arms with her sword tightly grasped, and the sharp blade directly pierced her chest.

"Puff——"

Alan immediately vomited a large amount of blood.

“Hahaha! I succeeded! I succeeded! I avenged everyone! Hahaha—”

There was no trace of the usual elegant and dignified image of a young lady. At this moment, Artemisia was like a madman, laughing happily.

[Okay. For the sake of the world's peace, please go to the underworld with Westcott.]

"——!?"

Hearing the sudden change in the voice on the radio, Alan's eyes suddenly widened, and after realizing the other party's true identity, he roared ferociously.

"Liang! Yi! Meng——"

“Ah——————————————————————————————————!”

However, at the same time, a giant black ice rabbit carrying a petite reverse elf suddenly poked its head out of the blizzard and opened its bloody mouth towards Alan and Artemisia.

——Crack.

The next moment, the sound of the world was buried by the blizzard again.

02 Filter, absorb, peek — start moving forward into the future

==============================

After that, three days had passed.

Although Hermit disappeared back to the neighboring world a few hours after she appeared in the world that day, the disaster she left behind did not disappear. A huge snowstorm surrounded the city, isolating it from the world like a wall, turning it into a dead place.

Whether it is a helicopter or a cold-resistant vehicle of the rescue team, they will be frozen and buried the moment they step into the blizzard, unable to move forward at all.

Until today, the blizzard finally died down, but what appeared before people's eyes was not a city, but snow-capped mountains.

No one comes here anymore, because they all know that there are no survivors here.

Except for one person.

"Hey, here we are."

Using professional rock climbing gear bought from the store, she climbed up a nearly 200-meter-high ice and snow cliff. The girl, Liangyi Mengyue, who was wearing polar cold-proof clothing, stepped into the deserted snowy land.

"It's so cold... It really is. It's really troublesome to have so little spiritual energy that I can't even keep warm."

Meng Yue wiped the frost off her goggles and sighed softly. To be honest, she felt that if she opened her mouth to speak, her tongue would freeze immediately.

"Okay... let's start searching."

After quickly adjusting her mood, Meng Yue stepped forward on the thick snow and began to search for the spiritual crystal she had left here.

The search process was not smooth. As the terrain had changed drastically, Meng Yue was unable to determine her location based on maps and road signs. In addition, it had been more than twenty days since she had deposited the crystals as gems with the city jeweler, so her memory was somewhat ambiguous.

About six hours later, when Meng Yue felt that her feet were about to lose feeling, she finally felt a trace of spiritual wave reaction from an ice peak in front of her.

"Yes... it's here."