Prologue: The Overture of Ruin

“Glenn, this is your trial.”

Beneath a sky burning red, crimson, and scarlet.

The girl with otherworldly wings, Nameless, solemnly declared—

“You must survive the calamity that is about to unfold—”

Her eyes, filled with the deep, abyssal darkness of a bottomless void.

“For the future—and for the past.”

“Hah… that’s a harsh joke.”

Glenn could only muster a dry laugh in response. The scene before him was far too surreal to entertain Nameless’s cryptic riddles.

“Hahahahahahahaha…”

Before him stood a demon cloaked in thick darkness, laughing maniacally—Accelo Iero, the

Above, a crimson ark heralding ruin—the [Ship of Flames].

The sky, the earth, everything was dyed in a vivid blood-red, like a world at its end.

“…What is this? What the hell is this…?”

Oh, it was like a fairy tale. The sight, melting the boundaries between dream and reality, madness and sanity, left Glenn helplessly watching as his rationality was torn to shreds.

“What the hell is this—!”

As he tried to expel his crumbling sense of self with a scream—

“Glenn, don’t let it consume you! Hold yourself together!”

At the last moment, Nameless’s sharp rebuke tethered Glenn’s sanity by a thread.

Her decadent, rage-filled eyes, appearing suddenly before his face, snapped him back to reality, like a spark igniting awareness.

“Haa—! Haa—! Hoo—! Cough, hack…”

“Honestly… human minds are so pathetically fragile. What a hassle.”

Nameless scoffed dismissively at Glenn, who was choking on his hyperventilation.

Regaining himself, Glenn endured the unpleasant sensation of cold sweat pouring from every pore, licking his skin, and surveyed his surroundings.

The situation around him was much the same.

Even Celica, Baron Zest, and Re=L were overwhelmed, their common sense unable to keep up with this absurd reality, leaving them in a daze, abandoning thought.

Halley, meanwhile, was frantically clawing at his hair, muttering, “Impossible, impossible!” oblivious to the severe damage he was inflicting on his precious hair follicles.

The students watching from the academy building were no different—some lost in a trance, others regressing to childish wailing, and some even fainting or worse, soiling themselves.

Amidst this chaos, where everyone was swept up in the pandemonium of collapsing egos—

“…Now, shall we get to the point?”

“…!”

Rumia alone stood resolute, unshaken, facing the demon with unwavering determination.

“Now, Rumia Tingel… I bear you no grudge, but you must die.”

The demon’s eyes gleamed darkly from beneath its hood, piercing Rumia as it spoke.

“For the sake of our Grandmaster. And for the god I worship!”

“…God?”

The demon nodded at Rumia’s response.

“Exactly, O ‘Vessel of the Twins.’ Indeed, in this life, you have come infinitely close to being the ‘Sky Maiden’… but you are still incomplete. For my faith, for my god, a more perfect ‘Sky Maiden’ is required…”

“‘Vessel of the Twins’…? ‘Sky Maiden’…? What are those…?”

“The next you. The you after that. And the you after that. We will repeat this until the ‘Sky Maiden’ becomes a perfect being… as we have always done.”

The demon’s words were incomprehensible, their true meaning elusive, but—

“False maiden, offer your life… for my great master!”

The demon’s intent to kill Rumia was clear, radiating from its surging bloodlust.

“…Not on my watch.”

Glenn, forcing his weary body to move, stepped in front of Rumia to shield her.

“I don’t get a damn thing about what you’re saying or this god of yours… but you’re not laying a finger on Rumia. I’ll take you down myself.”

Glenn aimed his pistol squarely at the demon.

“Very well. Try it… against me, Accelo Iero, the

The demon turned to face Glenn with a leisurely air, as if only now noticing him.

In that instant—the air trembled with the foreboding of a deadly battle yet to come.