Following the trail of blood, the group stopped in front of a closed office door.
“Anby, are you in there?
Anby?”
Nicole knocked on the door and pressed an ear against it, listening for movement inside.
A moment later, Anby’s weak voice came through.
“Nicole, I’m here.”
Hearing her voice, Nicole finally felt the weight on her chest lift.
She reached for the door, only to find that the lock was broken.
Without hesitation, she raised her leg and kicked the wooden door hard.
The force of the blow was too much for it to withstand, and the door broke apart.
Cael and Nicole entered the room and found Anby leaning against the wall in one corner.
Her face was somewhat pale, her clothes were damaged, and a severe cut ran across her right thigh.
A strip of cloth had been wrapped around the wound, already stained through with blood.
“Anby!”
Nicole hurried to her side, her face filled with worry.
“Nicole, don’t worry.
I’m fine.”
Anby then raised her head and looked at Cael.
“You…
It’s you, Cael.
I remember you.”
“Mm.”
Cael nodded, concern visible on his face.
“Boss Nicole!”
Billy’s urgent voice came from downstairs.
“Looks like more Ethereals are gathering around us!
There are four or five of them!”
That was exactly what Cael had been worried about.
Billy’s fight with the Tyrfing had attracted the surrounding Ethereals.
“Belle, Wise, can you calculate the nearest route out of the Hollow?” Nicole asked Eous.
“The shortest route is downstairs, but there are already several Ethereals blocking the way.
We’ll have to take another path.”
Wise’s voice came through Eous.
“We’re recalculating now…
Head to the roof first!
There’s a spatial rift up there that leads somewhere else!”
“Got it!”
Nicole nodded, then turned to Cael.
“Take Anby upstairs first.
I’m going down to help Billy.”
With that, Nicole grabbed her briefcase and headed downstairs.
It looked like an ordinary case on the surface, but it had actually been modified into a specialized Ether-energy cannon.
“No problem.”
Cael went over to Anby and carefully helped her up.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.
I just won’t be able to walk for a while.”
Anby’s expression remained calm.
“That’s okay.
I’ll carry you.
But your leg’s injured, so I’ll probably have to support you under your thighs.
Hope you don’t mind.”
As he spoke, Cael crouched in front of her with his back turned.
Anby leaned forward onto his back and loosely wrapped both arms around his neck.
“Just don’t squeeze my butt.
I’m very ticklish.”
Cael couldn’t help laughing.
If she still had the energy to joke, then at least her condition wasn’t too bad.
Eous led the way while scanning the route ahead, warning them whenever damaged sections of the staircase made the path difficult.
Anby was somewhat heavier than Cael had expected.
Not because she herself weighed much, but because the battery-powered combat pack and weapons she carried were heavy.
Her weapons were a pair of electromagnetic straight blades powered by the battery pack on her back.
When used against Ethereals, they released large amounts of electricity.
They were extremely dangerous weapons.
One mistake could easily electrocute the wielder instead.
As Anby herself would put it:
“If it can’t shock me unconscious, how is it supposed to knock out an Ethereal?”
The two reached the rooftop.
Nicole and Billy followed shortly afterward.
So did five enormous, terrifying Tyrfings.
Cael quickly examined each one.
Five Tyrfings.
Four of them had the [Splitting] Trait.
If those four were killed, they would end up facing nine Tyrfings instead.
That was terrifying.
If this were the normal version of the world he remembered, Nicole could’ve easily dealt with nine Tyrfings, or even an entire group of them.
“The Ether rift is about to form.
Get ready!”
Wise warned them.
A few seconds later, ripples spread through the air above the rooftop.
A spatial rift appeared out of nowhere.
“Cael, take Anby through first,” Wise instructed calmly.
“Got it!”
Cael stepped into the rift with Anby on his back and disappeared.
The Tyrfings below had already caught up and were now reaching the rooftop, forcing the others to retreat repeatedly.
“Damn it!
Die already!”
Nicole shouted angrily.
She raised her briefcase.
The case unfolded, revealing a dark cannon barrel.
Ether energy gathered at the muzzle, glowing with dazzling purple light.
Boom!
An Ether grenade fired from the cannon and struck the nearest Tyrfing.
The grenade exploded, creating an Ether pull field roughly three meters in diameter.
“Boss Nicole, let’s go!”
“I know, I know!”
Nicole retracted the cannon and moved toward the spatial rift.
But the moment one foot entered, before she could cross through completely, the rift twisted violently several times before abruptly dissolving into Ether particles.
“What happened?!”
Nicole froze in place, confused.
“Manager?”
Billy also moved closer to Eous.
“Something went wrong.
The Hollow data changed just now.
The Ether turbulence caused the newly formed spatial rift to collapse.”
Wise’s voice turned serious.
“According to the current readings, the next spatial rift won’t form for another hour…”
“Damn this Hollow!”
Nicole cursed aloud.
The spatial rift was gone.
The Ethereals were about to break free from the pull field.
And they were stranded on a rooftop dozens of meters above the ground.
What were they supposed to do?
Jump?
“Cael and Anby should already be away from the danger zone.
We need to deal with our own situation first.”
Even Wise didn’t have a better solution right now.
Billy holstered both guns, then walked over to Nicole and Eous with a determined look.
“We don’t have enough time.
Let’s jump.”
Nicole stared at him.
“I’m an intelligent construct.
My body is tough enough to handle a fall from a few dozen meters.”
Billy struck a confident pose.
“Boss Nicole, I’ll protect you!”
“Billy, are you sure?”
“Trust me!
Doesn’t this happen all the time in Starlight Knight?
The hero gets cornered by the villain, refuses to surrender, jumps off a cliff, and then stumbles into some miraculous opportunity!”
“Idiot Billy!
That’s a movie!
Aaaahhh—!”
Before Nicole could finish, Billy grabbed her and jumped.
Her scream echoed throughout the Hollow.
Elsewhere inside the Hollow, the spatial rift behind Cael and Anby suddenly disappeared just after they emerged from it.
“What happened?
The rift vanished?”
Cael looked around in confusion.
After confirming that Nicole, Billy, and Eous hadn’t followed them through, he realized something must have gone wrong.
“…Either way, we need to find somewhere to hide first.”
Carrying Anby on his back, Cael moved through several ruined areas until he found a relatively intact room.
The windows and door were somewhat damaged, but it was still the best-preserved building nearby.
There was plenty of clutter inside, along with a sofa covered in a thin layer of dust.
Cael carefully set Anby down for a moment, pushed the sofa into the corner, found an old piece of clothing, and wiped away the dust.
Then he picked Anby up again and placed her on the sofa.
“How are you feeling, Anby?” Cael asked.
Anby frowned slightly.
“Still fine.
My mind is clear.
I don’t think I’m going to turn into a growling Ethereal anytime soon.”
So her condition was still relatively stable.
Cael searched the room and found several bottles of mineral water in specialized packaging.
There was quite a bit of dust on the outside, but the water inside remained perfectly clear and showed no obvious signs of Ether corruption.
“Shenglin Group?”
Cael looked at the label.
The name sounded familiar.
He’d seen advertisements for the company several times while watching old recordings.
It seemed to be a major corporation under the TOPS Alliance that specialized in food and everyday consumer goods, with especially advanced research into anti-corruption packaging for food products.
This could be useful later.
Cael set the bottles aside and continued searching the room.
“Oh?”
Before long, he found a first-aid kit inside a cabinet.
He opened it.
Gauze.
Bandages.
An unopened bottle of alcohol.
And iodine antiseptic.
The case itself seemed to be made from some kind of material resistant to Ether corruption.
Even after spending an entire month inside the Hollow, everything inside remained untouched.
Perfect.
Now he could finally treat Anby’s wound.
It really helps the fic grow!