Chapter 110 - 109: Fifth aventure: WARZ

Chapter 110: Chapter 109: Fifth aventure: WARZ

[Miss Lala, a delivery has just arrived]

While Yuuji and Lala were having lunch and chatting, Peke interrupted with a message.

They were not just anywhere, at that moment they were actually on Deviluke, and they were not eating alone either, they were together with Momo and Nana, Lala’s younger sisters, and the place where they were having lunch was Momo’s private garden.

After Yuuji and Lala accidentally ended up on Deviluke the last time, they ended up having dinner there with the entire family, and Sephie told them to come back soon.

The food was the best Yuuji had ever tasted, so instead of taking it as a formality, he decided to take her up on the offer, and from time to time they would return there to have lunch with them.

Today Gid and Sephie were busy, which was why it was just the four of them.

In the middle of the four of them, right above the tablecloth on the ground, pixels suddenly appeared and eventually turned into a small envelope.

"Who is it from?" Lala asked as she took the envelope with interest, there were not many people who were authorized to send packages through the D-Dial without needing verification, after all, being able to materialize anything in front of her at any moment would be quite dangerous even for Lala.

It was simple and elegant, a light blue-white envelope with slight golden edges that added a touch of elegance to its simplicity, more than an envelope, it looked like an invitation to some formal event.

[From Miss Run]

With Peke’s confirmation, Lala stopped worrying and opened the envelope, finding a handwritten letter along with a brochure.

"’Lala, come see me if you want’" Lala read aloud before expressing her confusion. "Huh? Where?"

While Lala checked the letter with a single sentence, looking for something else, Yuuji, who had taken the brochure, answered her.

""On July 24th at 22:00 at the central stadium of WARZ, the number one planet in entertainment in the entire galaxy for ten consecutive years, don’t miss the charity show in support of WARY, aimed at finding a cure for those affected by the Repetitive Global Infection Incident.

Artist lineup:

AURA

Planet X

Galz

Thia

...

...

...

Opening acts:

...

...

...

...

Run Elsie Jewelry

Schedules adjusted to the Terran system" That’s what it says"

"Ooooh, Run became an Idol?" Lala reacted excitedly as she took the brochure and looked at it herself.

Unfortunately, although the brochure had some pictures, they only showed the main artists, and Run was not among them.

"An opening act, after all, she should have only been doing it for about three weeks at most" Yuuji corrected.

"Even so, being an opening act at a concert in WARZ with so little training is already quite impressive, as expected of Run" Momo acknowledged.

Nana, on the other hand, said nothing, but she seemed excited enough that she did not even realize the expression on her face. This made it impossible for Momo to resist teasing her.

"What’s wrong, Nana? You want to go?"

"O-of course not, why would I want to go?"

"I don’t know. Because AURA is your favorite singer?"

"W-where did you get that? She’s not" Nana denied.

"From the posters in your room" Momo replied naturally.

"And why do you go into my room?" Nana complained angrily before blushing and lowering her voice a little. "Anyway, no... I don’t want to interrupt their trip as a couple just because of something like that, and I’m sure Run didn’t send that many tickets"

"It’s not really a trip as a couple, per se, let’s all go together" Yuuji said, not really caring if more people joined them.

"Yeah" Lala agreed.

"Besides..." Lala turned the envelope around, showing that besides the brochure and the letter with only one sentence, it was completely empty. "There weren’t any tickets for anyone to begin with"

"Mmm" Yuuji nodded. "She invited us to see her at her concert but didn’t send any tickets, that’s definitely Run"

"Hehe" Lala laughed amusedly, completely agreeing that it fit her childhood friend’s personality. "I’m sure they must have given her at least one ticket for friends, but she knew I could get one on my own, so she gave that ticket to someone else"

"Isn’t Run just an opening act?"

"You don’t understand, Yuuji" Lala shook her head. "She’s an opening act in WARZ, WARZ is the capital of galactic entertainment and each of its stadiums has a capacity for millions of people, and the central stadium is even more incredible, with a capacity of up to 500 million people, giving a ticket to an opening act isn’t as important as it would be on Earth"

"I see" Yuuji understood before remembering another point of interest in the letter. "By the way, what is the ’Repetitive Global Infection Incident’?"

"Ah, wait," Lala said as if she could not answer yet. "Peke, get us four tickets"

[Of course, Miss Lala.]

After saying that, Lala cleared her throat before smiling as she spoke to Yuuji.

"Yuuji, if I’m going to explain that to you, it will be much easier to understand if I explain it..."

...

"...here!" Lala exclaimed as she opened her arms, presenting a planet through the window behind her.

"You stayed quiet for hours just to do that?" Momo reacted upon realizing the foolish thing her older sister had just done.

"Although it was pretty cool" Nana acknowledged.

Lala simply smiled quite proudly at her trick before continuing her explanation.

"Yuuji, do you see all those planets?"

Guided by Lala, Yuuji approached the window and observed more than two dozen planets quite close to one another, the distance between each one was the same as the distance between Earth and the Moon, while the total volume of each was around half that of Earth.

However, they all appeared to be dead planets, they were completely dry with no color other than brown, and Yuuji could not sense any kind of life coming from them.

"What happened to them?" he asked with interest.

"We have no idea, Dad is investigating it too" Lala said. "Each of them was once the galactic capital of entertainment, however, hundreds of years ago a virus broke out on WARA, the first one in the row.

The virus is characterized by being quite lethal and extremely contagious, once someone becomes infected, they will quickly lose consciousness and reason, but their body will continue moving purely by instinct, with the sole objective of infecting others through wounds.

Once the virus broke out on WARA, it was impossible to save the planet, so the nearest planet became the next galactic capital of entertainment and was renamed WARB. After that, well, you can imagine"

Indeed, based solely on the name of the planet in front of them and the so-called "Repetitive Global Infection Incident" Yuuji could guess what happened afterward.

"Are you saying this happened in a chain across twenty-five consecutive planets over hundreds of years and they still haven’t found the cause or a solution?"

"Well, they’re trying to find a solution, but it doesn’t seem to be a normal virus. All kinds of antivirals from across the galaxy have been used, and they’ve even created some specifically for the infection, but for some reason they don’t work.

I asked my father about it once and he told me that it’s a virus with a special origin, and unless they manage to destroy that origin, it’s impossible to cure those affected by it" Lala explained.

"Seems like a very complicated issue. Only the last planet in this solar system remains, what will happen once they’re all infected?"

"Well, if it really starts infecting other solar systems and a solution can’t be found, Dad will act directly and destroy them completely, so it’s not too much of a problem. Most of them have already accepted that they’ll never get their loved ones back" Momo explained from the side.

"Mmm, the only reason Dad hasn’t done anything is because he’s waiting to see if the infected can still be saved" Nana nodded.

Yuuji frowned as he observed all the planets, there were probably billions of people there and many more who were clinging to the slightest hope that they could be cured.

"Alright" Lala clapped, immediately clearing his thoughts. "This isn’t the time to think about that, it’s my father’s problem and the problem of those who are still researching a cure, we came to see our friend’s debut concert.

So, Yuuji... welcome to the World WARZ"

After finishing her introduction to the place, Lala guided the ship to land near the central stadium. There was a reason it was called that and did not have any special name, because compared to the other stadiums, there was simply no comparison. It was so enormous that it could even be seen from space, its circular shape with four appendages on each side made it look like a metallic spider clinging to the planet.

"Nana, don’t be so impatient, AURA won’t even perform until the concert starts in more than an hour"

"We have VIP tickets, we might run into her in the backstage area" Nana said, urging them to hurry.

"Tickets" At the entrance, they were stopped by a purple security guard with tentacles on his head that transformed into another pair of crossed extra arms.

Nana quickly handed over the tickets as she hurried to enter. To her confusion, the guard did not let them pass so easily.

"Four VIP tickets, five attendees, one cannot enter" the guard said, stopping them.

"Five? But there are four of us?" Nana complained, annoyed at being stopped.

The guard ignored her and looked toward Nana’s hair, more precisely, at the white hair clip on it.

"Do you consider yourself a conscious entity and an individual in your own right?"

[Of course] Peke immediately replied as she quickly purchased another VIP ticket and materialized it.

Lala took it and handed it to the guard, who scanned all five tickets and returned them before letting them through.

"The situation in the WARA galaxy is delicate due to the ’Repetitive Global Infection Incident’ and there are many attendees today whose family members are infected, denying individuality to any being tonight, no matter how low their self-awareness may be, will cause you many problems, Your Highness"

"I understand" Lala nodded with an understanding smile before moving forward.

’She acts like a princess every once in a while’ Yuuji thought, with a little renewed respect for her.

"Yuuji, did you see me? I acted the way Mom would have wanted" Lala asked excitedly.

"And there it is" Yuuji sighed with a smile.

"There what?" Lala asked in confusion.

"Nothing, never mind" Yuuji shook his head. "By the way, how do we get to the VIP room? This place is enormous"

"I know, it’s almost 8 kilometers all the way to the base of the stadium. But don’t worry, once we’re inside we can simply teleport, the protective barrier only prevents movement from outside the stadium to inside and vice versa, with a similar function for the VIP room and other private areas. Our tickets allow us to bypass the barrier into the VIP room"

As they talked, Yuuji and Lala noticed that Momo and Nana had already moved on their own at some point.

They both shrugged, guessing where they were probably going, before moving as well.

"Let’s go" Yuuji said, and Lala nodded.

A black vertical rectangle appeared on the wall beside them, and they both passed through it, arriving backstage, where Run was according to the message Lala had sent her earlier asking where she was.

...

"You’re the stuck-up one!"

"Of course not, I’m telling you she’s not like you think!"

"I don’t believe you! You’re making things up because you’re jealous!"

"I don’t need you to believe me, you know why? Because it’s the truth and you can’t change it. I was just informing you, not asking for your opinion"

"Well, I never asked for yours either!"

Upon passing through the Gate, Lala and Yuuji found themselves in a small dressing room, at least by the standards of this stadium, because by Terran standards it was basically a house with a huge living room several dozen meters long, filled with various items such as costumes, clothes, makeup, wigs, etc., as well as various rooms like a normal house.

To be precise, they arrived at a specific area designated for those with VIP tickets that allowed them to go backstage. Yuuji arrived there by being guided by the barriers in the area, apparently not only outside, in the VIP room, and backstage, but also the stage and all the dressing rooms had barriers to prevent teleportation, security there was no joke.

However, Yuuji actually chose to follow the barriers on his own, as he realized that neither this one nor any other in the area could restrict his ability. To him, the stadium’s security was more of a suggestion.

Upon appearing in the dressing room, they both looked at Nana and Run in confusion, as they were arguing for some reason.

"Um, did something happen?" Lala asked, not understanding why they were fighting.

""Lala"" they both said in unison as they turned their gazes toward her.

"Why did you bring your annoying sister? You should have brought only the pervert" Run complained.

"Huh? Pervert?" Momo’s offended question was drowned out by the other two’s argument.

"Who are you calling annoying?!" Nana snapped. "Lala, listen to this. Your friend says AURA actually has a horrible personality and only acts like a Saint for the public.

Tell her she’s wrong"

"But I don’t know AURA?" Lala murmured.

"Even so..."

Seeing how Run and Nana continued arguing, Yuuji wisely decided not to interfere. Instead, he approached the dressing room door and went outside, where he had already sensed two familiar presences.

"Avoiding the fight?"

"Yeah, two girls suddenly appeared and one of them started arguing with Run almost immediately, so I decided to just... Yuuji?!" Yui reacted halfway through her sentence when she realized who was speaking.

"Yuuji, what are you doing here?" Rito reacted, equally surprised.

"I came with Lala and her younger sisters to see Run’s debut"

"So they’re Lala’s sisters, that’s why you know them" Yui realized, now feeling a little foolish as she remembered the pink-haired girls. "I should have realized it from the obvious resemblance"

"So the girls you mentioned are Lala’s sisters"

"You didn’t see them in person?" Yuuji asked.

"Of course not. I can’t enter the dressing room" Rito refused.

"You can’t or you didn’t want to?" Yuuji asked.

"I..."

"I’m kidding. I know the answer without asking.

Although honestly, having you here worries me a little" Yuuji sighed.

"Huh? Me? Why?" Rito pointed at himself with an expression of deep confusion.

"Because trouble tends to follow you everywhere, Rito, even into space"

"Huh? I really don’t think..."

Rito scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, about to deny Yuuji’s words, but Yui interrupted him before he could finish.

"Don’t worry, Yuuji, without you and Lala these past few weeks, we had to learn how to deal with the supernatural problems that follow him around, and I’m already used to it. Whatever Rito causes, I’m prepared for it" Yui patted her chest proudly.

"Really? Anything?"

"Anything"

"What about zombies?"

"Of cour... Zombies?! You mean... the undead, walking corpses, walkers, soulless bodies that move by instinct?" Yui asked fearfully. "W-why would there be zombies in... never mind"

Halfway through her question, Yui remembered the context of this solar system and realized how stupid her question was, while at the same time she could not help but look at Rito with slight irritation.

"Yuuki Rito, why do you have to attract zombies in space?"

"Huh? My full name? But I haven’t even done anything yet?" Rito complained, offended that they suspected him. However, the fact that he had added "yet" to his sentence proved that he unconsciously agreed with the theory that he passively attracted supernatural problems.

Leaving that aside, the trio caught up on what they had done over the past few weeks, anyone would think that with Yuuji and Lala traveling throughout the galaxy actively seeking adventures, he would have much more to talk about, but the amount of trouble on Earth that followed Rito was not far behind.

However, although they were evenly matched in quantity, at least in terms of quality, Yuuji won.

Yui saw Yuuji smiling proudly because of this and laughed inwardly, thinking that even he could be a little childish sometimes.

Of course, Yuuji was not actually being childish, simply, if those kinds of things had happened on Earth at the same time he was in space, traveling would have seemed a little pointless.

That’s right, he simply valued efficiency, there was nothing childish about it.

Fifteen minutes of chatting later, the door behind them opened, causing them to stop their discussion.

As soon as Run came out, Rito blushed, unable to hide his emotions. Run was wearing a long aqua-green dress with light sky-blue motifs that contrasted while continuing the design at the same time, it ended in a deep neckline, with a necklace of light blue jewels adorning her neck and matching earrings, to finish the outfit, her long aqua hair was tied up in a high bun, leaving not a single strand covering her face.

"Rito, if you don’t close your mouth, your jaw is going to cramp" Yui teased.

Rito blushed even more as he looked away nervously, but the next person to tease him was impossible to avoid.

"Hehe, Rito, do you think I look good? Beautiful? Like a princess? What word would you use?"

"I-I..."

"Yui!" While Run teased Rito, Lala had also gone to greet her friend, leaving Yuuji alone with Momo and Nana.

"Yuuji, who are they?" Momo whispered.

"Classmates and friends. Yui is Lala’s first friend on Earth, and Rito is... you must know who Rito is just from the name, right?"

"Ah, isn’t he Lala’s former fiancé? What is he doing here?" Momo recognized him.

"He’s Run’s boyfriend now, I don’t know how far they’ve gotten, so I don’t know if he’s her fiancé" Yuuji explained.

"Wow, Lala seems to live in a romantic drama on Earth, doesn’t she? Sounds fun, should I go too?"

"You can if you want, there are already quite a few non-humans there anyway.

By the way, are you okay?"

"I’m fine" Nana replied.

"I don’t know how your argument ended, but if I have to give you a piece of advice, you shouldn’t idolize a stranger.

You can be a fan of her music, but you don’t know her as a person well enough to idolize her, be a fan of her music, and even if she’s a horrible person, that won’t affect the part you like about her, her music.

If you ever want to idolize someone, let it be those you know deeply"

"I... never mind" Nana murmured before leaving on her own.

"It seems like it really affected her a lot" Yuuji sighed.

"After all, when she was little, Nana wanted to become a singer because of AURA" Momo explained.

"Huh? Really?"

"Mmm" Momo nodded. "It was a long time ago. She doesn’t want to become a singer anymore, but AURA remained her idol since childhood"

...

An hour and a half later, the group had separated from Run and were in a private room in the VIP section with a balcony offering a direct view of the stage.

It might seem that with the enormous size of the stands and the distance to the stage in the center of the field, it would be impossible to see without special equipment, but in reality, the special equipment was located on the stage itself, so that the five hundred million people in the stands could watch the concert when the center was ten kilometers in diameter, what they decided to do was use a special artifact to manipulate space.

Thousands of years ago, an image amplifier was used to project what was happening on the small stage and make it appear larger, but when WARA became the recognized entertainment capital of the galaxy, people started complaining about this.

According to them, they weren’t really seeing the artists, but simply a giant projection of them. If it was going to be like that, then they could simply watch a broadcast instead of paying the expensive admission fee to come here.

Because of that, the organizers were forced to change their strategy. They made the largest investment in entertainment in the history of the galaxy and used a third of their entire worldwide wealth to acquire an artifact, basically black technology at the time, capable of manipulating space.

Thanks to it, everyone can observe the real artists without any problems, as the ten-kilometer space compresses and expands depending on which side you are on. For the artists, it compresses, causing them to move on a stage only a few dozen meters wide, while for the audience, it expands, making the artists and everything on the stage appear gigantic.

Besides, of course, also being the reason for the location’s complex spatial barriers.

"Welcome, everyone, and thank you very much for coming!!!

It is a pleasure to have you here today at WARZ and...

Please know that all proceeds raised today will be donated toward researching an effective vaccine against the infection affecting the entire WARA solar system...

Allow us to repeat the list of participants while today’s main artist, who will also be performing the opening act, gets ready. That’s right, I’m talking about none other than AURA herself!!!"

Knock knock knock

While the presenter began introducing everyone, someone knocked on the door of the room where they were all staying. This was only out of courtesy, because as soon as she knocked on the door, it immediately opened and Run entered the room with them.

"Run? Can you be here?" Lala asked.

"Of course, I’m the final opening act and my company sent me without even a manager, so I can do whatever I want" Run replied confidently.

"They sent you without a manager, is that okay?"

"Of course, my company is... honestly, a little strange. I even thought they were trying to scam me at first. But here I am, at a concert in the central stadium of WARZ. I suppose they’re just a bunch of weird and eccentric people who got together because they like doing things differently.

Besides, Rito..."

"Yes?!" Run spoke firmly, and Rito responded in the same manner, caught off guard as if she had given him an order.

"This is very important, so you absolutely have to watch my performance. Don’t even think about missing it."

"Hmm? We came here to see you and you’re the center of attention, what else would I look at if not you?" Rito asked in confusion.

"Kugh, you sometimes say incredible things without realizing it" Run groaned, clutching her chest as if his words had struck her directly there.

"Eh? Sorry?"

"It doesn’t matter, you can do it again, DO IT AGAIN" Run said, grabbing him by the arm.

"Can you two stop flirting? AURA is about to sing and I can’t concentrate because of you" Nana complained.

"Oh, we’re going to listen to that hypocrite. She sings very well" Run agreed, sitting down and bringing Rito beside her.

"She’s not a hypocrite!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say" Run waved her hand dismissively without paying attention to her, so Nana could only glare at her irritably without saying anything before turning her head away.

Meanwhile, on the stage, the main artist of the night, AURA, had already come up. Speaking of which, Yuuji was a little surprised that the most important artist was going first, but he assumed that they simply did things differently in the galaxy than on Earth.

AURA was a beautiful woman who didn’t appear to be more than twenty-five years old. Her wavy green hair fell all the way to the ground like vines, and her outfit matched it, while her blood-red eyes contrasted perfectly with the green that adorned her, giving her a rather peculiar and definitely striking appearance.

"Good evening, everyone"

It was only a small phrase accompanied by a smile, but it was enough for the entire audience to immediately cheer. Many professed their love, others displayed fanatical idolization, but there was definitely no one in the audience who disliked her.

Yuuji was also watching this when he felt someone tap his shoulder from the right. When he turned around, he found Momo covering a smile while pointing at Nana. She was looking toward the stage with her eyes opened far too wide and a special gleam in them. If they hadn’t been standing beside her, she probably would have joined the group cheering AURA’s name.

"What?" Nana asked coldly upon noticing both of their gazes.

"Nothing" they replied at the same time.

"Hmph"

Once the noise finally died down, or at least decreased enough, AURA continued her speech.

"I would like to thank everyone for coming to see me today, and all the other artists as well, of course. Today, with all of your support, we will finally make a difference regarding the infected.

The deadlock that has lasted for thousands of years will finally be broken, and we will move forward... toward the future" AURA raised her fist into the air as a sign of fighting, earning cheers for her words that made her smile, which earned even more cheers from the stands in a cycle.

"...Although not in the way you think."

With a rather puzzling sentence followed by a superficially kind smile, AURA looked toward the stands before beginning to sing.

Seeing this, Yui in the VIP room reacted almost instantly.

"Don’t listen to her"

"What?" Run asked in confusion.

"There’s no time to explain, just don’t listen to her!" Yui repeated. "Lala, do you have anything to protect us from sound?"

Lala nodded and pulled another of her various pistols from her D-Dial, shooting a bubble at everyone that surrounded their heads.

"This should be enough. So, what’s happening?" Lala finally asked. Although she had decided to trust Yui and follow her instructions, she didn’t understand what was happening. "We can talk to each other with this, don’t worry"

"I don’t know" Yui denied with a shake of her head.

"You don’t know, then why...?" Run asked.

"It’s... it’s difficult to explain, but lately I’ve been paying special attention to Rito.

Ah, I don’t mean it in that sense, just... don’t you find it strange how problems seem to follow Rito? That’s why I’ve been keeping an eye on him a little lately, and I realized that the problems following him seem to show patterns. They’re varied, but they’re still patterns.

One of them is that someone around us talks about someone we’ve never heard of before. When that happens, there are three possibilities, we’ll meet them and they’ll leave afterward, we’ll meet them and they’ll try to kill us or something similar, or, as unbelievable as it sounds, they’ll end up getting romantically involved with Rito"

"That sounds a little..."

"I know it sounds strange, but that’s how it is, I swear. Trust me this once. When that person is evil, it’s usually easy to tell, normally someone around us doesn’t trust them or speaks badly of them, and then that person starts acting suspiciously.

AURA is definitely trying something that will end badly for us"

While the group looked at Yui, unsure whether to trust her or not, Yuuji watched her in complete astonishment.

’She’s... using metaknowledge to prepare for the current situation?

Well, technically it’s not metaknowledge since she doesn’t know it, but...’

"Um, I don’t think there’s really any need to think so much about whether Yui is crazy or not" Momo said, drawing everyone’s attention.

Under everyone’s gaze, Momo pointed toward the stage and the stands below them.

The spatial effect in the location had disappeared, and the stage five kilometers away was barely visible due to the height, but that wasn’t the important part.

The bubble around them had completely blocked the noise, so they hadn’t noticed it before, but now, when they looked, they found hundreds of millions of people running everywhere without any indication of manners or consciousness in their appearance, simply guided by their instincts. Everyone’s skin had become pale and dry, they were drooling while roaring with their mouths as they tried to bite anything nearby.

"N-no way... AURA would never do something like this..."

"Calm down, Nana. This isn’t the time to think about that, we have to find a way to escape before they catch us" Momo said upon seeing her sister panic.

She quickly took out her D-Dial and pressed a button, but even faster, her expression changed to confusion and she frowned.

"I can’t leave, the spatial barrier won’t let us teleport outside the stadium"

Lala, Nana, and Run also tried, but got the exact same result.

"It doesn’t work" Run watched the hundreds of millions of rampaging zombies moving without any objective and sighed. "And leaving by the normal route doesn’t seem like an option."

"Divide"

While they continued thinking, Yuuji had already leaned out the window and stolen AURA’s power, simply trying to deal with her and end everything quickly.

It didn’t work.

Yuuji could feel his strength immediately increasing until it reached half of Zastin’s power, quite impressive since it indicated that AURA was at least on his level, but that power disappeared in the very next instant.

On the other hand, on the stage, AURA finally stopped singing and turned her gaze directly toward him.

A blink. That was all it took for AURA to disappear without anyone’s eyes being able to follow her.

Plop plop plop plop plop...

Seven small explosions echoed through the room, making everyone turn around. There was AURA, sitting on an individual sofa and looking at them with interest.

"Well, I was wondering how there could be someone who hadn’t transformed, so that was the reason. I really didn’t expect Her Highness Lala herself to come see my concert. I’ve heard that her inventions are, to say the least... troublesome" she said irritably while looking at Lala before shifting her attention to Yuuji. "As for you..."

Before Yuuji could react, AURA was behind him, whispering into his ear.

"You must be the one who just stole my power. What an interesting power. What a shame, my power comes from my connection with my infected. Without the connection to them, the power disappears"

"AURA, why are you doing this?" Run asked as she approached.

"Hmm? Run Elsie Jewelry, right? You’re the opening act sent by MissContract Entertainment. I have to say, they sent someone quite good this time" AURA licked her lips greedily as her gaze traveled over Run. "As for why? It’s simple, my infected make me stronger and I make them stronger, it’s a chain. I have a connection with my infected. The more powerful and numerous they are, the stronger I become, and the stronger I become, the more infected I can create. Isn’t it incredible? It’s a feedback loop that can only end with me winning and devouring the entire universe. I love it, and my fans love it"

"You’re crazy, AURA" Run said, looking at her with disgust.

"Crazy? I think that’s a rather ugly word. I simply don’t think the same way you do. Perhaps what I do is wrong to you, but for an OUROBOROS it’s simply natural, devour, become stronger by devouring so you can devour more and become even stronger so you can continue devouring"

"OUROBOROS should be extinct, Gid took care of..."

"Don’t say that name, I hate it!" AURA interrupted her with a cold voice filled with hatred. If any of her fans had heard her, it would have been impossible to associate her with the normally kind AURA. "It’s his fault that I’m alone forever"

Her cold voice alone was enough to shatter the glass and furniture around them, making it impossible for anyone to speak under her pressure.

"...E-express yourself" a weak voice finally sounded.

AURA turned her gaze toward the girl with pigtails who had just spoken with interest and stopped exerting her pressure, prompting her to continue.

"When you debuted, you said... you said that music was a way to express yourself for those who can’t do so with words. Was that... all a lie?"

"Oh, wow. Oh, wow" AURA smiled, amused. "I said that only once during my debut, and it’s almost impossible to find records of it. Could it be that Princess Nana is a huge fan? I feel flattered.

Well, as thanks for being such a devoted fan, I’ll answer your question.

No, it wasn’t a lie. In fact, that might be the only time I was sincere throughout my entire career as an Idol. After all, becoming stronger was quite difficult before. Influencing others emotionally enough to take over their minds is quite difficult, but ever since I became an Idol, it became quite easy, and with my current fame, all I have to do is sing a little and that’s it. I’ve already reached a point where I don’t need to influence people, all they have to do is hear my singing and they fall.

Isn’t it incredible? Thanks to singing, I can express all my honest desires and have them answered.

Well, enough chatting. Killing the princesses will earn Gid’s wrath, but it was my plan to kill him once I devoured this entire solar system from the beginning, so it doesn’t matter. Besides, he also killed my entire family, so you could say we’re even"

Boom!

Before AURA could move, Yuuji appeared behind her and kicked her, sending her flying toward the stage before she got back up completely unharmed and returned to the room.

But of course, by the time she returned, there was no one there.

AURA frowned as she began singing again. All the zombies whose movements had been erratic and senseless a second ago stopped and looked back toward her in the center of the stage.

"Find them" AURA ordered.

"""GHAAAAA!!!"""

A roar echoed in unison among the 500 million infected as they began running throughout the stadium, knocking down walls, doors, seats, and any obstacle in their path as they searched.

"Fine, let’s see how long you can hide. You can’t escape anyway"

...

Only three rooms to the right of the previous one, the group was now inside a dome that made them completely invisible to the outside in every sense.

"We have to find a way to escape. Sister, don’t you have something that can get us out of here?" Momo asked, a little nervous. However, her face didn’t really show fear, as she didn’t believe she could die while being the daughter of who she was. It was the kind of confidence that came from growing up watching the strength and feats of her father.

"I can get them out of here" Yuuji said before Lala could answer, opening a Gate in the floor. "It will take you to Earth"

"Thank God" Momo sighed. "Wait, ’them’? What about you?"

"I’m staying"

"What? Why would you do that?" Yui asked.

"The reason they can’t cure the infected throughout the WARA system is supposedly because the source has a way to keep infecting them after they’re cured, right? That’s the source" Yuuji explained.

"Yuuji, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Even if you want to save them, wouldn’t it be better to just call...?"

"Lala" Yuuji interrupted her. "Do you remember the reason for our journey?"

"...Fine" Lala sighed as she made a decision. "Then I’ll stay with you"

Yuuji smiled. "I was counting on that"

"Wait, wait, why are you leaving us out of this?" Run complained.

"Does anyone want to stay?" Yuuji asked, looking at them.

The group looked at each other before finally nodding and answering. "We’re staying"

"Then, Yuuji, what’s the plan? Will you do what you did before and steal her power and hit her before that power disappears?" Lala asked.

"No" Yuuji denied. "Unless she’s an idiot, she won’t fall for that again.

Let me ask you something first, Lala. The reason you don’t have any artifact capable of bypassing these barriers and getting us out of here... is because these barriers are your artifact in the first place, right?"

"Hehe, you figured it out" Lala smiled. "Yes, WARA bought Deviluke technology thousands of years ago, and since then it has received updates as Deviluke technology has advanced. And I’m responsible for a large part of Deviluke’s current technology"

"I figured. So, can you take control of the barriers again? Is there a way for you to make it so she doesn’t receive power from the other planets?"

"Hmm" Lala thought for a second. "It shouldn’t be too difficult. A few adjustments to turn the barrier into a spatial and mental one, along with a little extra energy to power them, should be enough. I just have to go to the central room"

"Then I’ll leave it to you. I’ll distract AURA so you can get there. You can handle the zombies, right?"

"Of course" Lala said confidently.

"See you later" Yuuji said goodbye to Lala with a kiss on the lips before jumping through the window and heading toward the stage where AURA was.

"So, we’re really not needed, right?" Yui asked embarrassedly. It had taken her longer than it seemed to decide to stay there, and in the end, it looked like she wasn’t even necessary.

"Of course you are" Lala smiled, firing the previous bubble again to wrap around their heads and block the noise. "We’re the team responsible for getting through hundreds of millions of zombies to reach the control room"

"We’re the cannon fodder in case you’re about to get caught" Run realized. Lala simply looked away without answering.

"Hehe, let’s just go already" Lala replied, ignoring her previous question.

When they stepped into the hallway, they found several zombies there searching for them. They all stayed around Lala as they moved. Not only because she was the one who had to reach the destination, but also because there was only one invisibility artifact and the center of its effect was precisely Lala.

Although slowly, steadily, the group headed toward the control room.

...

Splash!

On the stage, AURA struck Yuuji with enough force to pierce through his body, but her smile didn’t last when she saw how his chest was a gelatinous mass that quickly returned to its original shape, leaving Yuuji without a single injury.

"You’re starting to annoy me!" AURA shouted furiously upon seeing another of Yuuji’s abilities.

"Only now?" Yuuji mocked. "I thought that happened ten minutes ago."

"Dammit, you think I don’t realize your plan? You think that by drawing my attention, your friends can escape? You should know that my infected are in higher concentrations around the exits, guarding them."

’The exits were quite far from the control room, weren’t they? I suppose that’s a good misunderstanding.’

Yuuji laughed and opened the ground beneath AURA, splitting it into two large plates that crushed her from both sides.

"Stupid earth, do you really think that will hurt me?" AURA mocked, simply destroying both walls without giving them any importance.

But while they disappeared into debris that flew away until it crashed into the stands and destroyed several sections, Yuuji had also disappeared on his own.

No matter how much AURA searched around her, she couldn’t find Yuuji.

"What good are you..."

Without finishing her sentence, AURA moved to the side and caught Yuuji’s fist aimed at her blind spot, but once again, the moment she did, he turned into slime that took no damage.

Plaff

"Damned dust!" AURA growled furiously upon seeing the sand that had been kicked up across the entire stage.

With a kick, she destroyed the pillars of ice rising from the ground toward her before forcefully moving her arms and creating a wave of wind that drove the entire sandstorm away.

But once again, she didn’t see Yuuji there.

"You’re a damn annoying cockroach!" AURA shouted. "I promise I’ll kill you no matter how useful your body would be to me"

With AURA becoming increasingly angry at being unable to kill Yuuji, while he couldn’t hurt her but continued

Just as AURA was about to attack again, she felt her strength suddenly weaken. She smiled disdainfully, thinking that Yuuji had once again used his trick of absorbing the strength from her network of infected.

He had already done it before, not to use it himself but only to weaken her before an attack. This did not harm her in the slightest, but it was tremendously annoying.

After all, even if Yuuji stole her strength, it disappeared from him instantly because he was not connected to her network of infected, and she only had to reconnect with her network for her strength to immediately return.

But this time her strength did not return. Not only that, she could not sense her network at all beyond those who were in this stadium. Her strength had been reduced to only 10% of its usual level.

"What did you do?!" she shouted furiously.

"Me? Nothing" Yuuji laughed. "Divide."

The moment AURA’s strength was reduced by half again, Yuuji was already behind her, striking her.

"Dammit, I’ll kill you!"

"No, you won’t" Yuuji replied, appearing behind her and freezing her body before striking her.

This time AURA did not get up from the ground. Instead, she remained lying there for a second, staring at the sky before laughing.

"Ha... haha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Fine, this must be some invention of that stupid princess, right? I should have killed her when I had the chance. I value efficiency, so I’m not even going to try defending myself like this.

So if you think you’ve won..." AURA stood up with a smile full of cruelty and hatred. "You’re very wrong"

Boom!

A sound similar to an explosion echoed throughout the stadium, but it was not an explosion. It was the sound of five hundred million people falling to the ground at once.

Everyone had collapsed onto the ground and was completely motionless. Their bodies became increasingly thin and emaciated until they were basically walking corpses in the literal sense of the word, while AURA’s body grew stronger until she returned to her previous strength.

"Because of you, I had to extract almost all the potential from five hundred million people at once. Do you know what this means? It means wasting this entire planet.

But I’ll kill you to make up for it.

This is just what you were waiting for before, isn’t it? Now that there’s nothing left to wait for, how long will you keep fighting and dodging like a cockroach?"

The fight returned to its starting point, but this time there was nothing that could help Yuuji as long as he held out for a while.

’Damn it, at least let me enjoy my victory a little before unleashing your final form. Why can’t you just follow the script?’

Stuck in a meaningless stalemate and with his plan having failed, Yuuji began to panic.

...

"Lala? What’s happening?" Run asked.

"I don’t know. It worked a moment ago and AURA became weaker, but after only two hits she returned to normal" Like Yuuji himself, Lala began to worry about him when she saw that the plan had failed.

"No" she realized, her expression becoming determined. "The plan didn’t fail, it just needs a few adjustments"

"Lala?! What are you doing?!"

Ignoring everyone’s confusion, Lala went into the hallway, picked up one of the infected who had collapsed on the floor, and brought him inside the control room.

"What are you going to do?" Run asked.

"If she’s not receiving strength from outside, then she can only be receiving it from inside"

"Is there any way to cut the connection with those inside too?" Yui asked.

"No. But I can get rid of the infected so she won’t have anyone to receive strength from in the first place"

"Sister, Deviluke researchers have been trying to cure them for millennia without success" Momo murmured, realizing that her sister did not mean killing them by "getting rid of them"

"I’m smarter than every single one of them"

"But you’re not a biologist. Your fields are engineering, robotics, and... many other things, but not biology"

"Even so, I’ll try" Lala declared confidently as she took a metallic helmet connected to a computer out of her D-Dial.

Once the helmet was connected, several pieces of data began appearing on it, but Lala focused only on the electrical signals.

"His body moves on instinct without following commands from the brain. These signals aren’t natural, they’re being sent to it" Lala murmured in concentration. "I’d read about this. Once the cure fails, the first thing to return is these electrical signals, and sometimes they even return before the cure fails. That’s where the theory that there’s an origin capable of infecting them again came from, and that it is the one sending these signals. But once they’re cured, how is it possible to infect them again from a distance? Could there be some kind of remnant or something? If so, why has it never been found?"

"♪Don’t ignore me♪"

"Nana?" Momo raised an eyebrow as she gave her sister a curious look. Did she really think this was the best time to sing?

"Ah, sorry" Nana apologized embarrassedly. "It’s just, the rhythm of the signals sounded like one of AURA’s songs.

Look, there.

♪Don’t ignore me♪

♪I’m your queen♪

♪I’ll show you why I’m your queen♪ ♪Yours and everyone else’s, I’ll show you why..." Nana explained embarrassedly.

"Lala, tell me that’s not what I think it is" Run said with a bad feeling.

"That’s it!" Lala exclaimed as if she had made a great discovery. "It’s a song, well, not really. They’re electrical signals that connect the infected to AURA through a signal she placed inside them."

"So it is a song" Run raised an eyebrow.

"Yes" Lala nodded. "To be more precise, do you know what an Earworm is? It’s when you hear a catchy song and then, as soon as you hear something familiar, you immediately remember it without being able to get it out of your head. It’s basically a mental error where, because of an overly specific melody, your brain tries to complete the pattern whenever it hears something similar, bringing the song back.

It’s as if every time you heard something even remotely similar, your brain assumed it was part of the song and completely reconstructed the missing part.

Several parts of the brain are involved in this error and it’s extremely complex. But, in short, the virus AURA spreads works in a similar way. It lodges itself in your head in the form of an electrical signal and completes itself every time someone cuts it off.

Right now, it’s easy to notice the electrical signal connecting them to AURA, but once they’re cured, it becomes impossible to notice such a tiny signal detached from the brain. At least from the outside, but for the human brain this is extremely easy, and once it detects that remaining fragment of the signal, it reconstructs the rest on its own, reconnecting to AURA by itself"

"Then we just have to get that out of their heads, right?"

"If you want to kill them, of course. Several parts of the brain are involved, so we’d have to remove half their brain. Few species would survive that"

"Then..."

"Then we just have to trick their brains. We can’t completely remove the electrical signal AURA left in their brains, but we can trick their brains long enough for Yuuji to deal with AURA, or even for us to do it if she becomes weak enough" Lala explained.

"Lala, I don’t know why, but I feel like you’re about to propose a solution straight out of a children’s movie" Run said.

"Hehe, I thought you liked those movies?"

"Yes, when I was a child" Run clarified.

Lala simply smiled as she took another device similar to a gun out of her bag and removed its rear section. She then took out several speakers and a microphone and replaced their batteries with the part she had just removed from the gun.

Finally, she handed the microphone to Run.

"I reused the power source from a mind-erasing gun, so now the speakers will transmit sound waves mixed with mental waves. Sing, replace the melody in their heads"

"Is that really necessary?" Run asked, looking at the equipment and feeling that it was ridiculous.

"Well, someone else could do it, but it’ll be more difficult if it isn’t a really good melody"

"...Fine" Run said before looking toward the group, specifically Nana and Rito.

"Watch, Nana. I’ll show you how to truly express yourself through a song instead of AURA’s falsehood and hypocrisy. And Rito, I wrote this song for you, so listen to me"

"Okay" Yuuji nodded immediately. In reality, aside from Lala, the rest of the group had barely been useful during the mission, and he felt even more useless, so he agreed before even processing what Run had said. This made him neither blush nor stammer when answering, earning a smile from Run.

On the other hand, Nana simply watched her in silence.

"Ending the conflict with a song, just like in a story" Yui murmured nearby with interest.

Run simply walked toward the window of the control room and brought the microphone to her mouth.

"Ahem. Hello, dear unconscious audience. My name is Run Elsie Jewelry, my stage name is Jewel. I’m the last opening act, but since none of the others can sing, I suppose it’s my turn.

I suppose there’s not much else to say besides that this is my first song, and it’s dedicated to someone very special to me.

For all of you: ’Love across the stars’"

...

"What is she doing?" AURA, who was still relentlessly chasing Yuuji with a cruel smile, stopped when she heard Run suddenly begin singing.

Yuuji, several meters away from her, breathed heavily before forming a relieved smile.

He had several bruises and wounds because he had been dodging for a while and did not always manage to evade his opponent’s attacks, but this only made his smile more puzzling to AURA.

"I don’t know, but it definitely means you lost"

"What do you mean?" AURA frowned.

"You don’t know? My girlfriend is the smartest person in the galaxy. She wouldn’t do something without a reason."

"You think... kughhh!!!"

Before AURA could finish speaking, Yuuji appeared in front of her and struck her with several times her own strength, making her spit blood as her body bent unnaturally and was sent crashing into the stands.

Boom!

"W-what did you do?" AURA got back up, pain throughout her body and blood covering her chest.

"I’ve been reducing the power of the others for a while, so I noticed yours was decreasing.

I stole yours before it decreased and attacked you with that same power once you were weaker. Smart, right?"

"Why is my strength... kughhh!"

"I already told you I don’t know" Yuuji said as he struck her again.

This time he launched her into the air before hitting her into the ground, where a huge ice stalactite pierced her.

Even with an ice spike piercing her chest, AURA tried to get back up while breaking off the piece protruding from her chest and throwing it at Yuuji with force.

"Besides, the fact that you have to check to realize your own strength is a pretty annoying racial weakness" Yuuji said, not mockingly. It was simply something he had taken advantage of several times while fighting her, but AURA did not seem to notice, so he made it known to her.

Finally, he drew his weapon and fired, destroying the piece of ice that had been thrown at him with an explosion.

Then he approached and began shooting her in the head several times.

Bang! Boom! Bang! Boom! Bang! Boom!

"Please just die already, I’m tired" Yuuji said in an extremely exhausted voice.

After several shots and explosions, AURA’s body was completely destroyed. Even so, Yuuji continued shooting as the explosions mixed with Run’s song.

Which, Yuuji had to admit, was quite good, although perhaps the association of events had influenced his assessment somewhat.

After all, he particularly liked the chorus about loving another regardless of their race that played while AURA fell from the height and was impaled on ice.

"Yuuji, the barriers aren’t blocking anything. No kind of mental energy is trying to enter the stadium"

Only when Yuuji heard this did he dare to stop shooting, having spent more than fifty bullets on what had perhaps long since become a corpse.

Yuuji finally sat down on the ground to rest and only stood up when the group rejoined them.

"Is it over?"

"It’s over" Lala nodded. "I already called my father."

"Thank God. How is it possible that no one discovered her before?"

[I investigated MissContract Entertainment, and it was a studio created directly by the ruler of the WARA galaxy. Besides her, many other small studios also had his direct or indirect influence.

He is known as a greedy man, so the most likely explanation is that he was involved in all of this in exchange for benefits.

The profits generated by his entire entertainment business were substantial, but the profits from insurance policies covering an entire destroyed planet, in addition to all the external businesses he could seize once their owners died, would be much greate] Mona explained.

"I see. I really don’t care, it’s Gid’s problem from now on" Yuuji sighed tiredly.

"He’s tired, Yuuji, even though it looks like you killed her in only a few seconds" Lala laughed.

"Yeah, I killed her in ten seconds after running around for an hour. An anticlimactic ending" Yuuji played along. "By the way, what’s that?" he asked, noticing the paper Nana was holding.

"Nothing impor..."

"The first autograph of the greatest emerging star in the entire galaxy, Jewel" Run interrupted with a proud smile.

"Rito, your girlfriend was signing autographs while I was fighting for my life. Please control her" Yuuji joked.

Rito blushed. "Actually... she’s my fiancée now"

"..." Yuuji stared at them in silence for a second before finally speaking. "Why does it feel like you two lived through an entire drama while I was fighting?

You know what? I don’t care. Lala, let’s go on vacation to a space beach or something where there aren’t any problems for a few days"

"Sure, let’s go!" Lala immediately nodded excitedly, going over to hold Yuuji.

______________________________________

+10 Chapters in advance on Patreon.

p-atreon.com/IAMME26

(just delete the hyphen)

80 power stones = 1 extra Chapter (cumulative)