Even fixers and non-human races were now rampaging under the influence of the gas.
The situation had reached a truly hopeless point.
Meanwhile, in the wide lobby connected to the auction’s exit, Alice was still locked in combat with the Disciplinary Chief.
However, it wasn’t a balanced fight—it was a one-sided chase.
The Disciplinary Chief, with her glowing magic claws, lunged at Alice like a wild beast.
With no weapon in hand, Alice was left dodging, unable to fight back effectively.
“Kyahhh! Dieee!!!”
“Ugh...! You’re completely out of control! Get back!”
“Kiihhk!”
The Disciplinary Chief’s claws slashed into a pillar, tearing through it with ease.
At the same moment, Alice took advantage of the opening and delivered a powerful kick to her side.
It was a devastating counter, made possible because her opponent was moving like a mindless beast.
Alice’s physical strength was already monstrous.
Her kicks alone packed enough force to dent the body of a metal car.
Naturally, with her smaller frame, the Disciplinary Chief was sent flying backward.
“Kihihihi... Diiieee!!!”
But she simply glared at Alice with bloodshot eyes and charged in again, completely undeterred.
It was as if the concept of pain didn’t exist for her.
‘Tch... I’ve never seen someone with such an absurd level of defensive enhancement before.
At this rate, I’ll just end up hurting my own leg more. This is such a pain!’
Alice quickly realized why her attacks weren’t having much of an effect.
The Disciplinary Chief’s magic-enhanced body had astonishing durability.
Even if she lacked raw physical ability, as long as she had magic, closing the gap was easy.
That made this an extremely unfavorable situation for Alice, who had no weapon and no magic of her own.
Seriously, how unfair is it to be powerless against magic in a world like this?
She sighed internally, glaring at the feral shadow that kept coming at her.
‘The civilians haven’t gotten far enough yet.
Thankfully, the gas has stopped spreading, and the fixers are doing their best to minimize casualties.
But if this keeps up, someone else could get caught in the crossfire.’
The situation was being held back from turning into a complete catastrophe, but just barely.
The congestion at the exit had been cleared early, and nearly half of the civilians had already escaped.
The fixers were moving quickly, subduing the rampaging people before they could do more damage.
The gas had settled onto the floor rather than spreading further,
which meant the number of new infected remained low.
Surprisingly, many of the evacuated victims seemed to be in better condition than expected.
Still, infected individuals were continuing to emerge from inside.
If Alice kept getting tied down by the Disciplinary Chief, it would be a huge problem.
She could only hold this fight for so long before the rampaging girl injured someone.
Alice made up her mind.
Even if it was risky, she had to finish this quickly.
“Kihihihi! Blood! Entrails! Screams! I don’t care, just give me something!!!”
“Sorry, but I’m done playing with you!”
Sssss... Haaa...
Alice took a long, steady breath.
Then, she spread her stance shoulder-width apart and relaxed her entire body.
At that moment, she recalled something she had learned from Raven—
a combat technique designed for fighting non-human races.
Developed on Earth, a world without magic,
it was a desperate attempt by humans to compensate for their weaknesses in hand-to-hand combat.
And as the Disciplinary Chief raised her claws wide and lunged at Alice—
this time, instead of dodging, Alice charged forward at full speed!
“Kihyaaaah! Blood! BLOOD!!!”
Thud! Splat!
The Disciplinary Chief’s claws slashed into Alice, drawing blood.
But the wounds were much shallower than they looked.
Alice had deliberately absorbed the attack with her shoulders and forearms,
reducing the impact before the claws could dig in too deep.
Without even flinching from the pain, Alice seized the airborne Disciplinary Chief by the waist.
This was a technique that allowed her to take a minimal hit while creating an opportunity to deliver an even bigger counter.
A move often called—a suicide technique.
“Taking you down with meee!!!”
“Hiihhh?! Guhh—!!”
BOOOOM!!!
With all her strength, Alice slammed the Disciplinary Chief into the ground.
It was a perfect, earth-shaking back suplex, one that sent tremors through the entire lobby.
No matter how much magic reinforced her body, there was no way she could endure a blow of this magnitude.
The Disciplinary Chief was slammed into the solid marble floor, her legs twitching weakly before going completely limp.
It was the kind of impact that could have easily cracked her skull and ended her life.
But considering she had shrugged off Alice’s full-force kicks—kicks strong enough to dent metal—
she probably wasn’t in any real danger. Probably.
“Haa... Haa... Agh, that hurts... Still, I guess I got off easy...”
Alice winced as pain flared up from her bleeding shoulder and forearm.
But she had no time to dwell on it. She quickly forced herself up and surveyed her surroundings.
The Disciplinary Chief had been a relentless, all-out attacker—too dangerous to take her eyes off of.
As a result, Alice had completely lost track of what was happening elsewhere.
While tearing off a strip of her skirt to use as a bandage, she glanced around—
and her eyes widened at the unexpected sight.
“Hahaha! Too slow! You’re moving like sluggish zombies!”
“Losing one’s sanity turns people into little more than mindless beasts! No matter how many there are, they’re no threat!”
“Eeeek! Just pass out already! Go unconscious! Unconscious, dammit!”
What she saw was a group of no more than ten fixers—calmly holding their ground against three times as many foes.
They weren’t well-known elites, but they had still made it through the competition to become fixers.
Without the gas affecting them, they could easily subdue berserk civilians.
Noticing that Alice had taken down the Disciplinary Chief,
a particularly agile, bearded man knocked out an opponent with his staff and called out to her.
“Oh? Looks like you’ve finished over there. Uh... What was your name again?”
“Ah, I’m Alice.”
“Alice! That roar of yours was a huge help earlier. Honestly, I was caught off guard by the sudden chaos,
and I nearly lost my head like everyone else... But thanks to you, I snapped out of it.
This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.
Leave this to us—focus on getting your wounds treated!”
“O-oh... Thank you. I’ll trust you with this.”
The fact that someone as skilled as the Disciplinary Chief had succumbed to the gas showed how dangerous it was,
even for fixers.
The lesser-known fixers had also been overwhelmed by the sudden crisis.
No matter how strong someone was, they couldn’t use their full strength if they were drowning in a flood.
In that moment, simply escaping had been their best option.
But Alice’s commanding voice had snapped them out of their daze,
and the fact that the gas had settled on the floor rather than spreading further had allowed them to fight properly.
In a way, Alice had given them an enormous advantage.
Perhaps sensing the sincerity behind the fixer’s words, Alice nodded and placed her trust in them.
Then, securing the cloth tightly around her bleeding arm, she staunched the flow of blood.
‘Alright, that side should be fine for now.
Ah, wait... What about Sabrina and Yuria? Were they able to contact Raven?
Could they have been affected by the gas?’
Now that she had a brief moment of respite, Alice tightened the cloth around her wound and scanned the area.
Only now did she remember that she had asked Sabrina to contact Raven.
Quite a bit of time had passed.
Yet Raven was still nowhere to be seen.
Did something happen to him, too?
As Alice pondered that thought,
her gaze landed on Sabrina and Yuria standing in the distance, looking somewhat uneasy.
She was about to head toward them—
—but a sudden scream erupted from the direction of the auction’s exit.
“Guh...! What the hell are these guys?!”
“Urgh! These aren’t just mindless berserkers... No, they’re—”
“Gyaagh! Guh...!”
What now?!
Alice snapped her head toward the commotion,
only to freeze in shock at what she saw.
The fixers, who had just been subduing the rampaging civilians with ease,
were now on the ground, bloodied and groaning in pain.
Standing over them was a group that looked completely unaffected by the gas—
a group that remained entirely sane.
And from their movements alone, Alice instinctively recognized them for what they were.
‘Soldiers?’
Just as the realization struck her, a deafening explosion rocked the hotel.
Then, from within the thick auction walls, a figure was violently thrown out—
a figure Alice immediately recognized.
A petite, blood-covered girl with dusty, light-purple hair—
Alice’s childhood friend,
and the one who had acquired the Orb at the auction—
Yanagi Tamamo.
“Guhh... Nghhh... A two-on-one fight? That’s cheating...”
“Tamamo?!”
“Oh... Alice-chan? Didn’t think I’d run into you... here...”
Tamamo grimaced, too weak to even push herself off the ground.
Alice slid to her side, quickly supporting her.
None of this made sense.
The Tamamo Alice knew was a magic prodigy—
capable of dismantling enemy spells on the spot.
There were barely any people in the world who could ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) do this to her.
No, more importantly—
had she been inside the gas-filled auction hall this entire time?
What the hell happened in there?
Still overwhelmed by confusion, Alice urgently asked,
“What happened?! What are these injuries?!”
“Hhhnn... Alice... This place is dangerous... You have to run...”
“What do you mean—?!”
Alice flinched at the agonized look on Tamamo’s face.
Soldiers suddenly appearing at the exit.
Tamamo emerging bloodied and beaten.
She had no idea how to process this—
but before she could think further, she heard the voices of unfamiliar girls.
“Kyaahaha! You think you can run? ...Huh? Wait a sec.
Why isn’t there any gas out here? Ew! No way!
By now, the hotel should be filled with Rage Gas!”
“Vita, this is bad.
Morte-sama will consider this a punishable offense.
I am going to sell you out.”
“Verita, you traitor! You wouldn’t actually—?!”
Emerging from the broken wall Tamamo had crashed through were two girls.
Their names were Vita and Verita—
twin sisters belonging to the Septenary Guard,
an elite unit treated as monsters within the Liberation Army of Non-Human Races.