I killed more people.

Ah... My eyes couldn't stop shedding tears as I walked down the bloodied hallway. I rubbed my wet cheeks gingerly, blood dirtied my torn plaid dress.

Right then, seven Teria soldiers and their mangled bodies scattered throughout the narrow hallway after my Aegis had killed them. It sliced, tore their flesh apart the moment they appeared. The horrible sight suffocated me and it took everything I had to shut my eyes close and continued moving forward.

But where would I go? Did I even have any destination or place in mind? These questions plagued my mind after I got separated from Ludwig and Gawain. I hurt them, although it was never my intention nor wish for it to happen. They suffered because of me.

"...Hic. Mommy... Daddy..." I said to no one, my voice echoed.

Daddy always made me happy. He always stroked my hair gently as he whispered kind words to my ear.

Mommy would know what to do. She always knew what was best for me through and through.

"...Where are you?" My dry voice, accompanied by the grating and scratching noise of my Aegis's scythes broke the dreadful silence. Protruding out of my back, its razor-sharp edge trailed along the floor as I walked. The three crimson scythes dragged a Teria soldier each by their pierced torso, creating unpleasant squelching sound.

"Get that out of here!" yelled a woman from behind a medallion-colored wall.

The wall to my right cracked suddenly, and out of instinct, I wrapped my arms around my body and halted. No, there were more of them coming to get me!

I screamed when the wall burst from a great force that brought down the whole ceiling, and in response, the crimson scythes slashed at the falling metal pieces. The Aegis's protection prevented any harm from the few debris.

"It's night already? I took too much time dealing with these guys."

A young girl with her short, curly hair dyed blue said this as she stepped out from the clouds of smoke drifting upward through the exposed ceiling. This girl's bandaged right eye caught my attention before I looked at the tight, black outfit she had on. In her right hand, she held a severed arm seemingly cut off clean.

"A kid?" The girl tossed the arm and took a few steps towards me, when gunshots rang out.

"..." She looked over her shoulders, where three people were aiming their rifles at her. They shot at her again but the bullets merely halted in mid-air a few feet away.

"Magnetic field, deflection mode, two-hundred-percent output," she said with one hand removing the bandage covering her right eye.

I gasped when I saw a hollow eye socket. It took a few seconds before a reddish-orange sphere bulged out and gleamed. In the next moment, the bullets meant to riddle her body flew the opposite direction.

"Graahh!!"

"Ukhh!"

The girl stepped on one of three dead bodies. A conspicuous look of disappointment was evident on her face. "This makes it... ten? No, wait... one, two, three... plus seven. Ten, yup."

She turned to me with a smile. "Hello. What are you doing in this place?" Taking silent steps in my direction, the girl waved at me to show she meant no harm. However, when she saw the dead Teria soldiers behind me, and my Aegis scythes, her gait immediately turned into a brusque flounce.

"You killed the Teria soldiers...? And those red crystals, are you an A.U as well? But why are you here and not with the rest at Ancile? No, wait... There's something different about you, kid. Something... strange." The blue-haired girl halted in front of me. "The Sigurd's leader, the Sigrdrifa knows each one of the A.U, and yet, I'm pretty sure she'd never mentioned someone like you before..."

My three Aegis' scythes shook as it hovered above the girl when she raised an arm. Her pretty blue eyes were then filled with anger and hatred. I took a few steps back and kept yelling that I meant no harm.

"Are you, really?" said the blue-haired girl. "Don't worry, I'm not going to reprimand you for killing those Teria soldiers. Lenora is somewhere nearby I think, but for now, me capturing you would be the number one priority."

"Ca-Capture me!?" Tears ran down my cheeks as I sobbed, "N-No. Please, I just want to see my parents. I-I won't hurt you. I just want to see Mommy and Daddy!"

"Someone like you shouldn't be here, and I'll get the answer I want once I bring you to the Sigrdrifa. She should know why a young A.U like you is separated from the rest. Also... the fact that you're with the rebels proves you're a veritable threat to us Great Corporate United!"

When my scythes lunged at the girl, she muttered, "Magnetic field, left, fifty-percent output."

There and then, the crimson scythes veered and darted towards an empty room behind the destroyed left wall. It dug into the metal floor in an attempt to anchor itself from the sudden change in direction.

I looked at the girl, my mouth agape.

"It was just something I came up with, but it turns out to be true after all," said the blue-haired girl. "Your Aegis is connected to your nervous system and therefore, it has electrical charges moving through the crystals. If I slam it with enough magnetic field, I can control it however I want."

I shook my head and attempted to distance myself from her, but she grabbed my shoulder. My Aegis retracted to my side and swung at her in a wide arc, but it stopped inches before it could reach her neck.

"Now, come with me, okay?" The moment she finished saying this, my upper body jolted straight up.

"You're under my control now, kid. I suggest you don't resist the magnetic field I placed on you if you don't want your entire body to dissolve."

"N-No... Please... I just want to..."

The blue-haired girl raised an eyebrow when my scythes inched towards her, breaking through the herculean magnetic field binding it. Her eyes opened wide when it slashed overhead and grazed her forehead. Surprised, she leaped away from my Aegis's range and glared daggers at me.

"A hundred-percent output isn't enough? You guys are literal monsters, through and through."

The girl then pressed the earpiece at her ear and said, "Lenora, Milloula, I need your help over here. Now! There's this kid... Huh? Just track me. I don't know which hallway is this, but one thing I can tell you is that the ceiling over here is gone. Yeah, I destroyed it—"

Five elongating crimson scythes sliced in the girl's direction and she activated her 'power' again, stopping the attack. However, the scythes coalesced into one massive version of itself and had no difficulty cutting through the girl's magnetic field afterward.

She dodged and the scythe dug into the floor. With how deep the scythe bore itself, the blue-haired girl acknowledged she could come at me with the scythe not having time to react.

"Magnetic field, Yarilya Wilker, forward, one-hundred percent."

Her feet left the floor in a flitting motion and by the time I blinked, she was a few meters in front of me.

"Hm!"

With a wave of her hand, my mouth coughed blood and I dropped to the floor. My fingers twitched unconsciously as I watched Yarilya Wilker carried me on her shoulders.

"Now... Huh?"

Streams of crimson liquid gushed out from my back and took solid form—creating a giant, wolf head.

"Shi—"

The wolf opened its jaws wide and bit into Yarilya's arm holding onto me.

"Gaaaaaah!!"

With absolute dominance in strength, the wolf tore her arm apart and I fell down. She distanced herself further down the hallway with her good arm covering the wound.

"I miscalculated. I-I shouldn't even try to capture her. Hsssst, this hurts so... much! Kid, I'll kill you!!"

My scythes dissolved into thin air while the elongating wolf head hovered close to my side. It looked up when another woman wearing the same outfit as Yarilya dropped in from the night sky and thrust with a hooked weapon.

The woman—or teenager judging by her small build—twisted the long polearm once it connected to my Aegis. In the next instant, she used her circling motion to roll near her wounded friend.

"Woah. She did that to you?"

"Lenora, you're late! And where's Milloula!?"

"She got caught up in something, I suppose. I mean, we split up, right? She'll get here after she's done. But now... I see... That kid is an A.U as well, and what's worse is she's not on our side."