Book 9 Chapter 4
Part 1
I heard a roar like from the stands after a homerun.
“Where are the other criminals!!”
“Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty!!”
We were in the home ec room, but outside the broken window, everyone was boiling over in the schoolyard which was colored white by microplastic snow.
“S-Senpai.”
Itou Helen held my uniform to stay close to me. She was a Circe Witch – an Archenemy – but her timid side stood out now, presumably because the sinister calls for blood reminded her of the Colosseum.
I stared at the grip of the proffered knife for a while.
“What’s wrong? Hurry up.”
The boy holding it did not sound impatient or like was trying to rush me.
Nor did the other students restraining Okiai Yuuko the Dryad out in the hall.
They contained no doubt whatsoever.
Their eyes were actually shining bright.
But that’s what made it so scary. Their tone would probably remain the same even if I tried to calm them down. Getting them to cool down or provoking them further would not change that they felt the culprits deserved death. If they were going to explode either way, I couldn’t find any course of action other than doing my best not to provoke them!
Once they thought I was one of the “criminals” disturbing order, I was done for.
So I had to take the knife here. I couldn’t afford to have them doubt me because I hesitated. But what was I suppose to do after I took it? Weren’t we being taken past the point of no return here?
The knife boy spoke clearly.
“Can’t you hear everyone? They’re all waiting. So let’s drag these two out there and line all the criminals up in a row. That’ll be more effective than doing each of them separately.”
“M-more effective?”
“That’s right. More effective at preserving peace. We need to show everyone what happens if they don’t follow the rules. Having to do this over and over would just be meaningless loss of life. And wouldn’t you feel kind of bad even for the criminals if they died in vain?”
What world had I wandered into?
Preserving peace? Died in vain? None of this sounded real to me. It made me feel like I was playing through a quest in an online game.
Why did we have to preserve peace?
Did we really have to bloody our hands for that, especially when the deaths could be in vain?
Once the disaster was over, the police and media would arrive like normal. Could he really say all this in front of a camera? Could he no longer imagine that basing everything on his own made-up rules would make him a laughingstock?
Going along with this would only lead to murder.
But fighting it would place me on the side getting killed.
“(Wh-what are we supposed to do, Senpai?)”
My pale-faced underclassman whispered in my ear while still clinging to me. She must not have had it in her to ask for a full-blown strategy meeting right now. I could feel her trembling through my uniform.
But we couldn’t openly speak in front of that guy whose eyes were sparkling with justice. Instead, I let her see my phone’s screen.
The following message log was displayed there:
“Maxwell, check their registration. Are any of them Archenemies?”
“No. However, I failed to detect when you mistook the Dryad and Sea Bishop for each other, so perhaps you should not fully trust me on this.”
“I don’t need a machine getting all self-deprecating. So that’s three humans and they’re armed. But no projectiles. Still, they do have blades and I don’t want to just rely on Itou-san.”
“If you get Okiai Yuuko and Jinno Serina on your side, you will outnumber them four against two. And your side will be mostly Archenemies.”
“I’m not sure that will work so well. We just got done fighting those two.”
“This is a fluid situation and the rioting students have already switched sides once. With their lives at risk, those Archenemies will have no choice but to lend you a hand.”
I was a little afraid Itou-san wouldn’t have enough of a poker face, but I had to let her know what the plan was. After all, our lives weren’t the only ones at risk here.
Okiai Yuuko and Jinno Serina were down, but they hadn’t broken any bones and they hadn’t been cleanly knocked out with a blow to the head or gut.
So why were they so weak right now?
Why had those two come to the home ec room in the first place?
The large boy pressed me further.
“Hurry it up. Everyone’s waiting.”
“You’re right.”
I slowly let out a breath while wrapping my fingers around the knife’s grip.
And I kicked the large bag at my feet as hard as I could.
“Here! You wanted salt, right!?”
I started with the hallway.
Jinno Serina had been hit by a gas explosion, but Okiai Yuuko the Dryad had only been weakened by exposure to fresh water. Her power would return if salt was dumped into the soaked hallway.
A roar burst out almost like an explosion.
It looked like a chocolate-colored tornado erupted from the collapsed girl, but were those branches or roots?
“What!?”
The athletic boy in front of me could only shout because I had taken the knife he was offering me…meaning he no long had it.
As big a guy as he was, he was unarmed now.
All I had to do was raise my voice.
“Itou-san, take care of this!!”
I heard the sound of a test tube of liquid being swallowed and then I heard the wet roar of several transparent whips tearing through the air. Those were jellyfish tentacles covered with venomous barbs. A single slap from one of those would not be a pleasant experience. The boy was now collapsed on the ground and trembling with his back bent to an unnatural extent.
I heard a viselike sound as Okiai Yuuko grabbed at the doorframe with strength she had fully lacked just a moment ago and peered into the home ec room with a monstrous look on her face.
“Serina-chan!!”
“Okay, we won’t touch her! We never planned to take you two hostage, so let’s keep this peaceful. Itou-san, you don’t touch her either!!”
Also, that girl still cared about the other one this much even after the Sea Bishop stepped on her earlier? Maybe you could call it eternal friendship, but this felt like something more twisted.
But we had bigger issues now.
The executioner with the bright eyes was down. His actions qualified as “justice” here and we had defied him, which could only mean one thing.
“We’ve finally made an enemy of the entire school.”
I had to go over what we knew.
Simply getting upset wouldn’t solve anything.
“Most of the students are gathered in the schoolyard. They plan to publicly execute that plain Treasurer and the three Archenemies who were passed out in the A/V room. We can’t let that happen, so we have to let them escape somehow.”
Okiai Yuuko knew immediately what she was going to do.
“I’m running away with Serina-chan,” she said while lifting Jinno Serina’s limp form up in both arms.
“Are you? Then make sure to bring a lot of salt.”
“…”
A searching pause followed.
Surely she wasn’t actually hoping I would stop her, right?
“Look, I’m not going into battle alongside someone who might still be an enemy, so I’d prefer if you left. But if you get caught again as you try to run off, I’m not saving you again. We’re not heroes in full-body tights, so we can’t arrive in the nick of time every time someone’s in trouble.”
“Senpai,” called Itou-san.
This sounded like more than just wanting to drag me away from Okiai and Jinno. She was over by the broken window.
“Isn’t that person a friend of yours!?”
“Hm?”
I wasn’t comfortable with taking my eyes off those other two, but that question was enough to grab my attention. When I looked out the window again, I saw well over 100 people gathered in the schoolyard. With that many, it wouldn’t be surprising for a classmate to be among them.
“No, in the center. The girl in glasses standing in the very center of them.”
“Class Rep!?”
The row of seated “criminals” were not the only ones at the center of attention.
The forehead glasses Class Rep stood there looking unsure what to do while holding a snow shovel that could probably crack open someone’s skull if swung hard enough. I could tell she had been pushed into the center of attention and she did not know how to get back out again.
There were even tears in the corners of her eyes.
At this rate…
At this rate, was she going to be forced to bloody her hands as an executioner!? And the more she refused, the more anger would be directed her way!! She had no way out, dammit!!
That was when I heard a phone ring.
But it wasn’t mine.
Itou-san shook her head too.
The Dryad used a whip-like tree root to toss something my way while holding her unconscious friend close.
I caught it in one hand to find it was the smart flip phone that had been in the collapsed boy’s pocket.
It was receiving a call and I groaned at the registered name displayed for the number.
There had been hints.
…How had the students learned about the five Archenemies when they would only have heard the Treasurer’s announcement?
…Why was the Class Rep in trouble when she should have escaped much earlier? Who was it she had supposedly escaped with?
Would I answer the call or ignore it?
I wasn’t sure, but if this was a scheduled check, then not answering it would also let them know something was wrong. And I wanted as much info as I could get.
I took a deep breath and then answered it.
“Umikaze Speechia.”
“Oh, how brave of you. It didn’t occur to you to try to mimic his voice and claim nothing was amiss?”
Yes.
She could have done it.
She had heard my progress reports when I was getting that Treasurer to talk with the firehose. She would have known those popular kids were behind the plain Treasurer’s actions.
And I couldn’t overlook that she had left with the Class Rep. That meant she could have caught the Class Rep by surprise and taken her hostage.
Why?
Don’t ask me, but she was the only one in a position to have done it. The only other possibilities I could think of were someone who could turn invisible or someone who was bugging the place, so which option would you bet on?
“You know, I’m impressed you managed to take the throne as queen like this. I mean, as pretty as you are, you’re a new transfer student, making you practically an outsider.”
“It’s the same as insider trading. If you know what’s going to happen ahead of time, you can play your cards just right. This was a controlled chaos. I just had to insist to the others that there was someone else behind that announcement. They thought I was crazy at first, but once it turned out to be true…well, just look at me now. I made a bet in the currency of trust and it paid out splendidly.”
Everyone would naturally be more cautious during a disaster, but they would also more strongly want the relief of being part of a solid group.
So if something managed to break through their heart’s defenses, it would reach that reliance hidden behind the caution.
The transfer student had become a mysterious but pure leader who had appeared out of nowhere one day.
“So what, you’re Joan of Arc now?”
“You didn’t know, did you?”
She kept talking.
Did she want to remain in control of the conversation no matter what?
She continued her talkative ways even though that meant revealing cards she could have kept hidden.
“The Archenemy Scylla is an immortal from Greek mythology that attacked the heroes’ boat and killed six of the crew. But was it great strength or an alluring song? You didn’t know how the Scylla actually killed them, did you? After all, the Scylla has nothing itself.”
“…”
“The Charybdis. There was another immortal in that part of the ocean. Three times a day, that enormous monster would swallow up tons of seawater and spit it back out to disturb the ocean and the ships on it. The Scylla simply used that opportunity to board the storm-rocked ship.”
A giant monster.
An Archenemy that took advantage of chaos.
“So you’re an immortal that sides with the very panic that fills people aboard a ship that could sink at any moment?”
“Jay Bee.”
She dragged out the pair of letters, but my heart skipped a beat when I heard them. Itou-san, on the other hand, may have been confused as she listened in by pressing her cheek up to mine.
But I recognized it.
Hadn’t Maxwell warned from the beginning that the microplastic snow was likely an intentional attack and that the transfer student had said some suspicious things?
JB.
I knew that did not just refer to an individual. The previous JB had been killed inside a holding cell at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and the footage had been uploaded to a video site.
They had Freischutz, a true military simulator.
This wasn’t just a collection of junk like the Voodoo Bokor’s group had prepared. This one was the real deal. Although they seemed to care more about the machine at the center than the people it ordered around.
Had she really spoken that name?
This wasn’t just Maxwell’s worst-case scenario – she had said it herself!!
“I am Umikaze Speechia of JB. I have business with you and I have just finished setting the stage for that. …This girl is important to you, isn’t she? If you won’t do the execution yourself, it will be up to her. And if you let enough time pass, the furious students will tear your adorable Class Rep limb from limb. I don’t even have to tell them to do it. That’s just how it will turn out all on its own. Because this little world here has been rewritten that way.”
Damn her.
Damn her!!
“If you want to raise a battle cry and come running to save her all on your own, be my guest. I do love feasting on ‘heroes’ after all. But there are no hiding spots in the open schoolyard, so I really don’t see how you can take on more than 100 blood-starved boys and girls who have lost their moral compass. Even an Archenemy would have to fear the violence of numbers presented by the humans here.”
“Don’t be so sure.”
“Oh, how adorable. Are you done bluffing now that that failed? But how much can you accomplish with that phone of yours? This open schoolyard is a mass of primitive violence. It’s such an analog place, so digital means aren’t going to get you very far, don’t you think?”
It ended there.
She hung up on me.
“JB.”
“Sure,” said Maxwell. “I warned you of this from the beginning.”
“But what about Umikaze’s social media presence? If all of that was camouflage, then how do you explain her friends from her old school?”
“Maybe she managed to hide her identity at her previous school and the one before that, or maybe all of those supposed friends are actually working for JB in some way. Online friends are not always what they appear to be.”
“…”
She had not given me a specific time limit. If I didn’t act now, the Class Rep might be deemed a traitor and placed on the chopping block ahead of the “criminals”. That was bound to happen given how confident Umikaze had sounded.
“Damn her. I’ll make her regret being so flippant about that!!”
“Wait, Senpai. Rushing in there blindly won’t solve anything!!”
That wasn’t my plan.
We couldn’t call the police right now. If I acted rashly, who would be left to save the Class Rep? I understood that, goddammit!
“Maxwell, gather some information from home construction sites.”
“No. I will not tell you how to build a handmade weapon. Such a plan is unrealistic.”
Why did that simulator think I wanted to do something so stupid? Did everyone have dreams of rushing in and singlehandedly tearing through a crowd of enemies or something!?
It was true I had to remove the students from the schoolyard…because that would also remove the giant Charybdis monster created from the panic. And I had to do it now. But I didn’t have to do it via violence.
“What I want to build is a balloon or a blimp. I’m short on time, so make it a simple one. And since the microplastic snow is flammable when it’s taken in plenty of air, the less fire used the better.”
“Do you plant to escape via the sky? You will need a very large balloon indeed if you expect it to carry people.”
“Why would I want to escape? The point is to rescue the Class Rep! It just has to float, that’s all.”
“It depends on the weight you wish it to carry and how long you wish it to remain airborne, but the simplest balloons only require a trash bag, duct tape, and a spray can filled with nonflammable gas.”
“As long as it won’t fall out of the sky too easily, anything’s fine. We need to stimulate their greed.”
Okiai Yuuko looked me in the eye when I mentioned escaping, but I ignored her. Besides, they couldn’t do much with their weird charisma stripped from them. And once that was gone, it was gone.
This was about a monster.
The Charybdis had swallowed up this disaster environment and the Scylla was holding its leash.
“We have no time. Help me build this, Itou-san.”
“O-okay!”
Part 2
We needed a trash bag and some duct tape.
That and a permanent marker to mark it up with.
Scissors would probably be better than a utility knife. We also borrowed some other things from the faculty room, but…
“Maxwell, which gases are nonflammable.”
“Photograph the ingredients listed on the back of the spray can.”
“Can we really believe what the manufacturer says? I mean, they say the fish at cheap sushi places is actually deep sea fish a lot of the time.”
“The disposal warning differs depending on the flammability. But just to be sure, I will run an online search of the product name to double check.”
Itou-san looked curious what my phone was saying but also didn’t feel right taking a peek without permission. It was really cute. And I didn’t care if she saw this, so I tilted the phone so she could see.
Maxwell was explaining the general idea we were going for.
“With balloon aircraft, most people think of hot-air balloons that heat the air to stay afloat, but blimps generally secure buoyancy using a lighter-than-air gas.”
The explanation felt more for Itou-san than for me. That was unusual for Maxwell who tended to focus on whoever had user privileges.
“All you need is a bag to contain a lighter-than-air gas. The principle alone is much simpler than an airplane or helicopter.”
“But just the principle,” I added. “If you use a flammable gas, then static electricity could trigger an explosion, so you need to be careful.”
We had found most of the tools we needed in the faculty room. Girls weren’t the only ones who brought spray deodorant to school.
“Okay, let’s head up to the roof.”
“Um, Senpai? I get that we’re making a balloon, but how is that supposed to save your Class Rep?”
“It’s true the Scylla is unbeatable right now. We don’t stand a chance as long as she’s taming that giant monster atop the ship she’s made out of this school.”
A Zombie like Ayumi had 10 times human strength and a Vampire like Erika had 20 times, but that also meant brute force was not an option for them when up against more than 100 people. And just because they were highly infectious as Archenemies did not mean they would want to bite people at random. The Charybdis grew larger as it drove people mad with fear and panic, so it had to be the last kind of enemy they would want to deal with.
But.
“Umikaze’s monster is supported by a lie.”
“?”
“It’s all based on the illusion that they’ll drown if they don’t secure a spot aboard this ship. That’s the source of their fear. So we only have to wake them from that dream and tell them it’s safe to get off that ship.”
The balloon would have to be pretty big to be effective and it would be inefficient to cram it out a window or door after inflating, so I chose to work on the roof.
It was fortunate we could open the door from within. The roof was flat, meaning the snow could accumulate there more easily. And even a few centimeters could block an outward-swinging door.
“Let’s get started. I’ll use the marker to draw out the lines on the bag, so can you cut along them, Itou-san? Then can you help me use the duct tape to attach the same symbols together? Y’know, circle to circle, triangle to triangle, and so on.”
“Make sure to leave as little a gap as possible,” added Maxwell.
All the while, the Class Rep was being worn down psychologically while standing in front of all those people. Who knows how long the mental scars would last, but I wanted to free her from that ASAP.
We cut up some 50L plastic bags with scissors to create flat pieces reminiscent of a geometry net. Then we used the duct tape to connect that together based on Maxwell’s instructions to create a single large bag out of it.
In the end, we had what looked like a rugby ball large enough to fit a van inside.
I narrowed down the opening, stuck the end of the spray can inside, and pushed down with my finger.
It noisily began to inflate little by little. And once it was full…
“Wow, we haven’t done anything and it’s leaving the roof, Senpai. It’s already floating!”
However, we couldn’t actually load anything onto that balloon. It was too poorly balanced to carry a person and we had no way of accurately dropping bricks or stones on a desired location. Making something float and piloting it where you wanted to go were two very different things.
But this was enough.
We only needed to release this empty balloon into the sky and let the wind carry it away.
Once the plastic bag had enough lift, I pulled the spray can out and tied up the opening. Just the one didn’t feel like enough, so we made a second and third one as well. We duct taped the completed one to the roof in the meantime. It was a lot like a dog’s leash or a ship’s rope. But tying it to the railing on the edge would have made it visible during the preparatory phase, so we had to avoid that.
“Okay, is that good enough, Senpai?”
“It’s perfect.”
Itou-san looked pretty happy about that. I couldn’t have asked for a better assistant.
Once we had done it once, the others went faster. Who knows if this would come in handy in the rest of my life, but I always loved a task I could lose myself in.
“Maxwell, the internet is still up around here, right? Then create a few anonymous accounts and attack the school’s social media. Attack in waves to get a certain text trending.”
“What message would you like?”
That I already knew.
Archenemy Scylla. Umikaze Speechia of JB. If you’re using information as a weapon to create the giant Charybdis monster, then you can’t complain if I strike back using information too.
“Have the accounts say they’ve discovered a safe way out. Say the trains and roads might be down, but you can still escape the city via air.”
Once the message was sent, I used the scissors to cut the duct tape holding one of the balloons in place and let the plastic blimp fly high.
It couldn’t actually accomplish anything since it was at the mercy of the wind. In fact, it couldn’t even carry someone.
But no one had gotten a close look at it.
“Attention is growing rapidly,” said Maxwell. “More and more photos of the balloon are being uploaded.”
“Add a celebratory post that sounds like it’s from someone onboard. And make sure to mention that there are only so many and it’s first come first serve.”
I stuck just my phone up from the roof and snapped a photo of everyone aiming their phones up. It was a simple trick, but seeing themselves photographed from that overhead angle would make them feel left behind on the ground.
They would feel like the pathetic losers still stuck down there.
It all resulted in a low rumbling.
Countless feet were running from the white schoolyard to the school building.
“Senpai, um, how does this help!?”
“They see the school like a ship they need to survive, but what if a rescue helicopter descends from the sky? The captain of the ship can yell and yell, but the crew and passengers won’t listen. They’re bound to rush toward the heliport.”
Maybe Umikaze was trying to stop them all. Both with her voice and with online messages. But it was too late. Once she lost control, her precious Charybdis fell apart.
We released the rest of our balloons and then gathered up our tools.
“We’ll be caught in the crowd if we stay up here, Itou-san, so let’s head down. A path that doesn’t run into them would be best.”
“O-of course!”
Fortunately, the school had more than one stairway. Even with the blood rushing to their heads, the students would all take the shortest route, like they were rushing to get the last of a product on a good sale. We chose the stairway on the other side of the school, so we didn’t run into any of them.
We could hear their thundering feet from across the school.
Itou-san trembled.
If we had used the other stairs, it would’ve been worse than getting caught in a landslide.
But on the other hand…
“They just left the Class Rep and the ‘criminals’ out in the schoolyard. There’s no moat or castle walls formed from angry people, so I won’t let that Scylla have her way.”
We descended to the first floor and grabbed our shoes at the entranceway. But maybe it would have been easier to walk around outside in our slippers.
Umikaze was in that wide-open schoolyard, so walking out the front entrance would be too dangerous. She would be panicking with her fortress collapsed and guilty people tended to do the same thing when they felt trapped.
In other words…
“S-Senpai, isn’t that bad?”
“…”
“Umikaze-san is using the others as shields! She’s using them as hostages!!”
I knew that.
The Class Rep had been given a snow shovel and pressured to kill the “criminals”. The garbage that had given the command would never have been unarmed herself. That would introduce the risk of the Class Rep using the shovel against her.
This was really the Scylla’s only option after losing the crowd. But that didn’t mean I had to go along with it. I mean, she wasn’t going to hand over the Class Rep if I did what she said and the students rushing to the roof would realize they’d been had sooner or later. I had to end this before they came back down.
We couldn’t stay in the entranceway forever.
This would get a lot worse once we were found.
We moved back into the hallway, snuck into the nearby infirmary, and then checked out the window while crouched down low.
I spied out like I was a periscope.
“Looks like the ‘criminals’ have their hands tied behind their backs, but the Class Rep only has her arms grabbed. Umikaze’s weapon is a fruit knife. I don’t know how much strength she has as an Archenemy, but it isn’t like she has a machinegun.”
That might sound like a ridiculous possibility to even consider, but keep in mind that she was with JB. Those were the people who had flooded Tokyo and created a UFO so large it seemed to cover up the sky.
“B-but…” Itou-san hesitantly spoke up next to me. “I should be able to defeat her, if that’s all we want to do. The Scylla Archenemy was supposedly created from one of Circe’s potions after all. …But that’s not the same thing as saving your Class Rep. And now that she has her guard up, won’t it be a lot harder to sneak up on her?”
“Not necessarily.”
My cute underclassman looked puzzled by my immediate answer.
“Maxwell, Umikaze has a fruit knife. Do you think St. Elmo’s fire will work?”
“Sure. The wind speed is 2m/s and visibility is 5km. This density should be fine. It will be lacking in reliability and lethality, but that plan is more realistic than heading to the shop room and modifying a nail gun into a sniper unit.”
“That isn’t the only metal thing out there. For example, there’s the Class Rep’s glasses frames and her skirt’s zipper. Could it affect those too?”
“It is possible, but highly unlikely. In fact, St. Elmo’s fire does not require the object be metal. It was originally seen on sail masts made of wood and cloth.”
“The Class Rep is holding a shovel.”
“If you refuse to trust me, I can always provide you a detailed list of all my calculations.”
I knew it was dangerous and it could even start a fire like the one we tried to prevent yesterday.
Itou-san asked a question while looking more and more troubled.
“Um, Senpai? Who is St. Elmo? Is that some other Archenemy friend of yours?”
“Not in this case, no.”
I listed up the necessary conditions in my mind as I spoke.
Having working infrastructure here was nice, but standard household power wasn’t enough. If I was going to amplify the power, an electric heater would probably be best. I didn’t want it to be too flashy, so it needed to be a gradual glow more than a full-on corona discharge. Picturing something like an electrical ground might be the best way of looking at it.
“The microplastic snow is like a plastic mat. Rub against it too much and it gathers static. That’s what started a fire yesterday.”
“Oh?”
My underclassman tilted her head with a curious look while I messed with the cable to an electric heater that had grown discolored in the sun and that someone had apparently pulled out in this off season.
“But that also means it’ll gather up any electricity we give it. Like a capacitor or a thundercloud.”
Doing that on the ground would be difficult because the ground would absorb all the electricity.
But microplastics too fine to see were dancing around in the air as the wind blew.
I didn’t even need to open the window. I stuck the end of the cable against the aluminum frame of an outward-facing window to send the electricity out through that.
I couldn’t calculate out the time.
But I had guessed it wouldn’t take long.
“St. Elmo’s fire is similar to a will-o’-the-wisp. People used to believe it was an occult phenomenon, but it’s really a simple scientific one.”
“Scientific?”
“And the Scylla, Umikaze Speechia, is holding a pointed fruit knife. You can see she still is.”
Having that cute underclassman around had a way of getting me to talk a lot.
Maybe this was why eccentric professors whose social lives and relationships were in tatters still liked to keep a puppy-like assistant around.
“The discharge affects pointed objects like that.”
The ship’s mast would act like a lightning rod to gather the electricity from the electrified fog or air and that would produce a glow.
In other words…
“It’s the same logic used in electrical induction.”
After a loud “zap!!”, lightning light appeared in the surrounding air and very obviously shot toward the tip of the fruit knife.
It was like dripping one last drop of water into a cup filled to the absolute limit.
Except we did it to the air and the microplastic snow there.
They had gathered up energy like a natural(?) capacitor, but once they crossed a certain threshold, all that electricity bared it fangs and naturally gathered around the best nearby conductor.
“Ghhh!!”
It used the fruit knife in the Scylla’s hand as a lightning rod.
The blonde girl did not let go of the metal blade. No, her shocked fingers may not have been able to move.
But all I needed was for her to flinch a little bit.
I just had to make sure she could not stab the Class Rep right away.
“Maxwell!!”
“Warning: amplifying the electricity with the heater’s circuits only provides around 800 volts. That is not enough to be lethal, so be prepared for resistance.”
That might not sound like much when you could bu
