Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

"Damn it! Damn it! How could you let me die! I order you to release me immediately—ah!"

His pupils glowed red, a strong signal that struck the two ashes. The acting chairman was trying to escape with this despicable trick.

Unexpectedly, the moment he met the golden-white glow of the magic pupil, the despicable hypnosis was broken. Instead, it felt as if a dagger had been driven into his brain, causing him to cry out in pain.

The situation has been reversed once again. The once arrogant ghouls are now like dough to be kneaded by Ash. However, as Ash's actions become more extreme, the unfamiliar gazes cast upon them by the members of the battlefront have gradually changed from indifference to fear. It is likely that soon, disgust will also be mixed in.

But they couldn't care less about that now. They would never let go of the clues that came to them this time, even if it meant using some means, they would dig out information about the mastermind behind it all.

"You bastards from the SSS Group! Are you even residents of this world?! How dare you stand by and watch these invaders try to kill me! Just you wait! One day they'll kill us all, and then they'll come after you!"

He continued to struggle in Little Flame's grasp, shouting with all his might to tear the ash and the rift in the battle line apart completely.

"So, this is really troubling."

Finally, someone from the front line made a move. It was the blue-haired elder, Hinata, who walked over with a troubled expression and pointed his pistol at Homura, who was tightly gripping the acting chairman's hand.

"Ladies, how about we call it quits? Just like he said, if you use violence to deal with him here, we, as residents of this world, will inevitably feel the pain of losing him. In that case, you will be forcing us to stand on the opposite side."

He spoke ruthlessly, but the look in his eyes as he looked at Asahina was unusually complex, as if he felt a sense of shared misfortune, or perhaps anger at her lack of ambition.

But his words had already revealed his attitude, and the remaining members looked at each other and then coldly gathered around.

Only Yuri remained, still resting her chin on her hand, waiting to see how things would unfold.

"We will not use any extreme measures as long as he identifies the mastermind behind it."

"There's no mastermind behind this! Aren't you yourselves the culprits... Ouch!"

Deep purple flames spread in Xiaoyan's hand, scorching the arguing acting president once again.

"Hey, miss, you're really putting us in a difficult position!"

Xiaoyan's sudden dangerous actions further intensified the tension among the parties. Zhi could already hear the sounds of guns around her being deactivated, and she herself had already revealed the blade of her katana.

"Don't do this... We were comrades before... Why?"

Only Asahina, supported by two ashes, managed to prevent the conflict from escalating through his feeble self-talk.

How could a girl who could barely stand possibly stop an imminent crisis?

"Hahaha! See? See? This is what happens to invaders! If you don't want to provoke public outrage, let me go!"

Knowing that he had no way out at this point, Naoki endured the burning sensation in his arm, stood up, and arrogantly shouted.

At this point, the principal's office had become a powder keg. The two ashes were the high-yield explosives, the members of the front line were the safety devices, and the student council was the fuse. The fuse had been lit, and it was a matter of whether the safety devices would prevent the explosion or the explosives would be forced to burn.

It was probably the latter, because visible flames were already rising from the ashes.

"But weren't the invaders summoned by you, scholar?"

If it weren't for these clear, spring-like words flowing in...

Interval 31: Both sides suffer losses

"But weren't the invaders summoned by you, scholar?"

The explosives were brewing, and the two people holding Asahina were already visibly engulfed in flames. But just as the danger was about to cross the warning line, a calm, even voice extinguished the impending explosion like a clear spring.

Everyone looked toward the office door, where a silver-haired girl stood, her face expressionless. She tilted her head, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she had just dropped yet another bombshell.

"That bastard finally caught up."

Yuri's soft muttering went unnoticed by anyone except the newlyweds who peeked out from the doorway and awkwardly greeted their companions inside.

Elder Hyuga also breathed a sigh of relief and was the first to move the pistol that was pointing at Homura away.

"Wait a minute! President, what do you mean by that?"

"What I mean is, I happened to see you secretly calling out that red guy and making some classmates disappear."

The acting president was speechless. He knew that this seemingly innocent and naive girl would definitely discover some clues as the student council president, after all, they had almost completely sidelined the student council, turning it into the initial testing ground.

The key question is, how did she end up here? He deliberately locked them in a secret room under some pretext, just as the master had instructed. Oh right, there was this guy shamelessly eating Mapo Tofu with them back then. Could it be him?

He glared fiercely at the newcomer who had ruined his plans, knowing exactly where he had gone wrong.

"Angel……"

"My name is Tachibana Kanade."

"Okay, Li Hua, are you sure the Dark Spirit was summoned by this guy?"

The captain finally spoke. She walked around the desk and stood in front of the silver-haired girl, looking at her intently.

“That’s right, I never lie… Otonashi can testify.”

The newcomer, suddenly pulled into the conversation, scratched his head, somewhat at a loss, and finally nodded with a forced smile.

“Very well, then, Acting Guild Master, some of your accusations against Ash seem to be unfounded.”

"Those aren't my accusations! They're accusations from your own people!"

"How about you break the hypnosis on Dashan first?"

"...Tch, I admit defeat. I didn't expect the guild leader to show up. However, although we have connections with Dark Spirits, it can't hide the fact that all this trouble was caused by your mascot."

He sensed that his master was nearby. She was extremely disappointed with her failure and very unhappy with the newcomer who had suddenly jumped in. She was about to be abandoned, but she had not lost all her value. She should at least continue to contribute and not let the ashes win more completely.

“We will not deny the facts. We ashes are indeed the source of the disaster, but we are not the disaster itself. The ones creating the disaster now are clearly you and the people standing behind you.”

However, even the Ashes could not escape unscathed from this conflict, simply because the conflict took place in the Afterlife Front's home turf, where they held the power in the Principal's office.

"Shut up, all of you! Only we can make the judgment on this matter! On one side are the guys who summoned the Dark Spirits, and on the other side are the guys who collude with the Dark Spirits. To us, you are both threats that cannot be ignored!"

With his arms crossed over his chest, the troupe leader, who had silently observed the entire spectacle, finally took control of the situation.

"However, as residents of this world, you still collude with external threats and even use your own people for experiments! This is what we cannot tolerate the most! So, you should stay obediently on our front lines and wait for us to dig out all your information before you commit suicide to atone for your sins!"

The guild leader waved his hand, and Noda, the number one lackey, immediately rushed up with a rope. Before he could speak again, Noda blindfolded him and tied him up tightly.

"As for you Ashes, please forgive us for not being able to trust you as we used to. We will try to figure out how to handle the current difficult situation ourselves."

"...We will not leave your world."

"As long as you stop threatening our people."

"of course."

The mastermind's plot was thwarted, but the rift they created is irreparable. Both Ash and the Front need time to adapt to the changing relationship. At this point, saying anything more is useless. At least, Yuri is still rational. She knows that no matter what, the Front cannot be allowed to side with the Fog, as that would be a disaster for this world.

Ashes are also rational. Even if the battlefront has to exclude them from the detention and interrogation of Naoi Fumito, their fighting strength is undeniable, and they will have the opportunity to intervene in this conflict sooner or later.

After their final conversation, the Ashes silently left the principal's office.

The moment the heavy wooden door closed, Asahina turned around abruptly, choking back tears as she looked at the familiar figures of the past, gradually being separated from her.

Throughout the entire ordeal, she couldn't utter a single coherent sentence.

————————————————————————————————————————

Kirishiki Sako sat on the roof of the administration building, watching the three Ashes leave.

They were complete strangers, yet their different social statuses destined them to be in direct opposition.

Ashes are the remnants of flames, and mist is the fragments of turbid streams; within ash burns a fire of the heart, and within mist flows darkness.

She is mist, she is a ghoul; they are ashes, and there is even a sun knight.

Sand had actually heard of Homura Akemi's name; some guy who spread despair everywhere said she was the witch most likely to fall into the shadow of inner fire. Unfortunately, she eventually ignited the flames, completely parting ways with the path of mist, which annoyed that guy for a long time.

Now that she has seen the girl who once faced a choice, she feels that it was inevitable that she would ignite the fire in her heart. Because only such a short time has passed, and now everything in her flames is burning together, even the so-called shadows have become part of the flames.

She probably didn't even realize what a choice was, and just followed her heart and kept going.

As someone with a low degree of distortion, and who considered herself one of the few people in the mist who hadn't gone mad, Sand didn't even feel any hostility towards them. If possible, it would be nice to sit down and chat with them. It's just a pity that she couldn't even get close to that Sun Knight; if she tried to approach them, she would only be burned to ashes by the flames.

The girl who hadn't awakened was rather strange. She had almost reached the standard of their kind. I really don't know why Junko didn't kick her into the abyss when she saw her, making her completely become one of them—or perhaps Junko really did spread despair, which brought her to this critical state.

But now is not the time to worry about potential kindred spirits. Her plan has been ruined by a newcomer she hadn't even noticed before. This means she can't drive the Ashes away by means other than combat, and in the end, she'll have to fight them in a real battle.

Her weakest skill is direct combat. In her hundreds of years as a ghoul and her brief life in the Mist, she has always been accustomed to solving problems with intelligence rather than force. Therefore, as the mastermind behind the scenes, her own combat ability is actually quite weak.

Sand wanted to train werewolf bodyguards as before, but unfortunately, she couldn't find anyone to infect in the worlds of Fireborn and Bloodborne, not to mention that the mutation rate of werewolves was so low.

Thinking about it this way, it's really a pity that the strategist who was sent to the Ash Blade was just a pawn, but luckily he turned into a werewolf.

Therefore, her top priority now is to take advantage of the period of discord between Ash and the SSS group to acquire combat power capable of contending with Ash.

"Did we have to drag Xiaozou into this?"

It's rare to have made such a good friend in this world. Although she had considered this possibility when she approached the angel, after spending so much time with her, that simple, innocent, and inarticulate little girl has already taken up an important place in her heart.

It's ironic that she's the mastermind behind everything, yet she's the only one in the world who knows what Tachibana Kanade wants to do. Those angels who wanted to help them resolve their regrets are all going against her.

Well, now there's probably one more person who knows Xiaozun's wish: the boy who ruined her plans.

She had deliberately invited Kanade to eat Mapo Tofu during break today, and then deliberately had Naoki lock them up, just to prevent Kanade from having a chance to cause trouble. But that brat shamelessly came over and ended up helping Kanade escape from where they were being held.

This might also be the work of the SSS group leader. It seems that we need to take that girl named Yuri seriously. It would be best to find an opportunity to completely turn her into one of our own.

The ashes had long since gone far away, and she remained on the rooftop, swinging her legs and waiting for her friends to come out.

The only good news right now is that, compared to the Ashes, the members of the frontline are even less likely to accept the Angel. This is thanks to Yuri's brainwashing, which has completely transformed Kanade into a lackey of a god, the only tangible target on the path of fighting against the god, and she has fought against them countless times.

So Xiao Zou will definitely be invited out by them all alone, giving her another chance to win their favor.

“Master, you are easily spotted from this position.”

Lost in thought, a voice, equally flat and monotone, reached my ears, but it wasn't my friend's.

He leaned back, tilted his head back, and saw a few of his close subordinates standing behind him.

"It's alright, Ash has already left, no one else will suspect me."

"So, what's our next move?"

"Has the computer room deep inside 'Guild' been brought under control?"

"I have led the undetected members to successfully take control of the area."

"Very well, now we have no choice but to force Kanade to join us."

The black pupils, filling most of his eye sockets, reflected the figure of the silver-haired girl.

She walked out of the administration building alone, still so lonely.