Although Zane fought alongside other Ethereals, his role wasn’t particurly impactful—most of the time he was either chipping away at enemies or just cheering from the sidelines.

  ...

  “I want to file a compint—!”

  A scream echoed through the skies above the Cretan Hollow. Billy, a robot, was plummeting at high speed—and was literally on fire.

  Not far away, a girl in a green combat suit wasn’t shouting like her teammate. Instead, she calmly ran mental calcutions.

  In about seven seconds, I’ll fall into that bck barrier.

  So thought Anby.

  Her timing was fwless. Just a few seconds ter, a prismatic glow wrapped around her body, and the next instant, a blinding white light fshed before her eyes.

  Inside the Hollow, spatial ripples surged. A vortex cloaked in vibrant colors expanded until, with a fsh, it ejected a figure.

  Anby nded with grace, slipping through a gap after dodging several crossbars. Her electrified bde scraped a long trench into the ground as she came to a stop.

  The Hollow never knew night. Light filtered through the space, revealing flickering bck Ether crystals glowing faintly all around—clear signs of recent Hollow activity.

  “Ethereals.”

  Anby spotted enemies ahead. Without hesitation, she gripped her bde and rushed forward.

  She fought well, quickly clearing out the Ethereals. After finishing them off, she casually activated the recorder on her headset and began logging the situation—just like in a movie scene.

  Not long after, she ran into Billy, the red-jacketed robot boy, who was searching for his teammate.

  As Anby was verifying Billy’s identity, a tall, shadowy figure stood silently atop a distant rooftop, watching them from above.

  “Mm-hmm! Mm-hmm! (Boss, let’s jump in and fight!)”

  “You trying to teach your boss what to do now?”

  Zane rubbed the little Panta in his arms. The tiny Bangboo looked adorable—but had quite the fiery spirit.

  Then again, with that color scheme, it kind of made sense.

  After all, Pantas are bears, not cats.

  “If we get the chance, I should really install a nguage module for you. This back-and-forth can’t go on forever.”

  Zane wasn’t exactly fluent in Bangboo-speak. He hadn’t understood a word at first—he’d just picked things up over time through context and guessing.

  He remembered the security units didn’t speak Bangboo, so New Eridu probably had a nguage module or some kind of transtor for Bangboos.

  Not that it mattered yet—he still couldn’t leave the Hollow.

  Down below, Anby and Billy had already gone through a few more fights and moved deeper in. Now, they were facing off against the Ethereal-corrupted “White Guy.”

  The next second, the battle erupted.

  Moments ter, faced with a newly-born Formed Ethereal, the two quickly assessed the situation—and chose to retreat.

  Billy triggered the fire suppression system, unleashing a cloud of smoke and dust. Under cover of the chaos, they made their escape.

  From high above, Zane watched them go—his Ethereal-enhanced vision clearly tracking the red and green figures below. But his focus wasn’t on them.

  It was on the Formed Ethereal.

  “Panta, let’s go.”

  He turned toward a shimmering spatial rift atop the rooftop. Feeling the Ether energy flowing within, he stepped through.

  ...

  A moment ter, somewhere in the old subway terminal—

  Tap. Tap. Tap. Unhurried footsteps echoed through the stillness, drawing attention in the silence.

  There was no one left here—only Ethereals remained.

  “Y’know, back before I came to this world, I actually thought you looked pretty cool.”

  Zane spoke casually, gazing at the Formed Ethereal before him—and the secure case it was guarding.

  This Ethereal had been about to give chase earlier. Now, it was blocked here by him.

  Clearly, it didn’t understand a word he was saying. With a fsh of light, the ornate, multicolored bde connected to its arm ignited as it charged straight at him.

  The bde swung down, sharp and swift—aiming to cleave him clean in two with overwhelming force.

  But Zane simply raised one hand.

  Cng!

  The bde stopped cold.

  Time seemed to freeze.

  The Formed Ethereal’s bde was locked in pce, caught firmly in Zane’s grasp. No matter how much force it exerted, it couldn’t move an inch—couldn’t even pull the weapon free.

  “You’ve completely lost your mind, haven’t you?”

  Zane’s tone was calm. Some higher-level Ethereals retained a shred of rationality, but the one before him clearly didn’t.

  In the next instant, a fsh of bck light erupted. Zane shed out with a whip-like kick, striking the Ethereal square in the chest. The creature was sent flying, smming hard into a nearby wall with a thunderous crash, sending up a thick cloud of dust.

  As the dust settled, the Formed Ethereal y colpsed among the rubble. Its core pulsed with erratic, blinding light—it had clearly lost the ability to move.

  Zane walked over and reached out, grabbing hold of the core and lifting the entire Ethereal into the air with one hand.

  With a subtle squeeze of his bck-armored fingers, he crushed the core outright. A chaotic burst of thick Ether surged outward—but all of it was drawn into Zane’s body.

  Moments ter, the st of the Ether was absorbed, and the pale blue glow in Zane’s eyes shimmered just a bit brighter.

  “As expected. The higher the level, the better the yield.”

  “Mm-hmm! (Boss, I brought the stuff!)”

  Zane turned at the voice. Panta was running over, bancing the safe on his head, tiny arms braced at the sides to keep it steady.

  “Now we just wait for someone to come pick it up.”

  Zane spoke with a hint of ease in his tone. He picked up the safe and looked it over—nothing about it stood out at first gnce.

  Hard to believe the so-called “legendary” AI—Fairy, the power-hungry, pun-loving disaster of an AI—was sealed inside something so ordinary.

  “If only Fairy could talk right now. I’m honestly curious—once it realizes its fate is in someone else’s hands, what kind of reaction it’ll have... what it’ll say.”

  Zane’s gaze drifted away from the safe. He had no intention of keeping Fairy. As an Ethereal, he couldn’t even use an AI—not that he cared to.

  It’d be far more useful in the hands of the Phaethon siblings.

  Suddenly, Zane tilted his head slightly. The distant sounds of battle reached his enhanced senses—likely Anby and Billy fighting off some wandering Ethereals.

  The Phaethons would probably arrive to rendezvous soon.

  He pced the safe back on Panta’s head, and together, the Ethereal and the Bangboo silently vanished into the depths of the abandoned subway terminal.

  ...

  “Wait… are you—Phaethon?!”

  Billy’s eyes lit up as he looked at the short Bangboo in front of him, who wore an orange scarf and had “01” printed in white on its neck.

  Eous smiled, arms crossed as he looked at the two standing before him.

  Hyperbeam