[Grandora City]
As the war progresses on, the battle at the bay where the polar dormitory reside, enters its critical moment as both Greg and Arthur are backed into a corner by both Ocho and Sies.
With Ocho pinning down Arthur with her powerful strikes, Greg on the other hand couldn't even stop Nueve From chasing after Joana as Sies kept him in check with its swordmastery that left him speechless. Due to that, he was unable to even go on the offensive and was forced to use his strings as a defensive mechanism to protect himself from Sies sword strikes.
If this situation persist then Claire would be in danger and all of them would die in this situation. In that moment Greg thought up a difficult choice that he can make in order to ensure that the rest can survive.
While the situation outside the dorm was worsening, Nueve on the otherhand was taking its time searching thoroughly inside the dormitory, as Joana led Claire to a secret passageway in which they could use as their escape route.
Under Sanaguchi's permission, Kanzaki informed both Joana and Arthur about the secret escape route that was hidden at the basement of the dormitory, a route which would lead them directly a few kilometers away from the dormitory's location.
This escape route was made when Sanaguchi established the dormitory in its earlier days. Fearing the future where the dormitory is attacked and they were stranded in a dead end, Sanaguchi installed many ways for any non-combatant units to escape the dormitory while making sure all defensive mechanism would activate upon sensing an intruder.
However in order to not mistaken an intruder from an ally, the defensive mechanism can only be activated when the button near the escape route was triggered. Thus will indicate that the ally's had escaped and only intruders remain.
Taking the fact that Nueve had no knowledge of this, Joana hurriedly carried Claire with her own strength and entered the escape route. But before they could make a run for it and close the door behind them, Joana made sure that she triggered the button, which will make the whole dormitory into a dangerous fortress.
Once Joana did this, a sharp alarm responded throughout the base, as various mechanisms were activated and traps begun popping out and attacking Nueve.
Getting him caught by surprise, Nueve was backed into the defensive as he didn't expect to encounter traps inside a living quarter. But such hindrance could only stall some time as he realized that something was amiss and begun to spread out his mana sense.
In just a matter of few seconds he noticed that the target had disappeared alongside the woman that guards it. Thankfully with Sanaguchi's careful planning, he had somewhat made the passageway with the material which rejects mana, so no matter how much Nueve uses his mana sense to search for Joana and Claire, he would never be able to sense them inside the escape route. From there he realized that they had been duped.
In that moment various explosion rung out inside the dormitory, as Nueve went into work and completely destroyed all the defensive mechanism of the dormitory. By the time he finished his work, the dormitory defensive mechanism ceased to work, as the building was cut in half from something that literally destroyed it in one attack.
Seeing the dormitory get destroyed, both Arthur and Greg wore a grim expression as they were worried whether Joana and Claire were safe. But upon looking at Nueve's annoyed look, they realized that something unexpected had happen, causing its displeasure.
"That was fast, did you manage to kill the target?" Asked by Sies
"Unfortunately I cannot, for some unknown reason the target manage to escape from me and somewhat able to hide its presence, at this point on I can't seem to sense it" replied by Nueve
"They were able to hide from you? Looks like they are more capable than they look... but don't worry, we got people here whom we can interrogate where they went" said by Sies
"I see... I guess breaking a limb or two might make him give in" said by Nueve
Hearing their conversation, Greg could clearly felt like the situation has changed and he became the target for the enemy to take down. If his instincts were right, then he is in serious trouble.
In that moment Arthur rushes beside Greg alongside Ocho who was also curious on why both Sies and Nueve were talking to each other instead of killing the enemy.
"Why are you guys talking? Did you guys killed your target yet?" Asked by Ocho
"Unfortunately the girl escaped, I can't even sense her now" answered by Nueve
"Seriously? What do we do now?" Asked by Ocho
"Isn't it obvious? If we can't find the target, then all we have to do is to interrogate our friends here"
The moment Sies said those words, all three of them glared at both Greg and Arthur as they all have the same idea.
"You know what? I like that idea, but we only need one person to interrogate, so we can kill the other person to our hearts content" said by Ocho
While all three sentinels were discussing who to capture for interrogation and who to kill, Greg then informed Arthur that Joana together with Claire and Ryuuji's butler must have escaped succesfully upon looking at one of the enemy's annoyed expression.
Hearing that Arthur was both relieved and worried about the well being of Joana herself, after all even he who has an excellent mana sense can't detect Joana at all. But his current thoughts were broken when Greg informed him that they were in an even more precarious state than Joana's group themselves.
Since they lost their target, it was only natural that they would interrogate one of them for information, while the other one would be killed. But Greg has no intention to sacrifice Arthur to save himself, so without any hesitation Greg told something to Arthur, causing his will to waver infront of Greg's overwhelming determination. Even though Greg doesn't say it outright, it was clear as day that he was going to sacrifice himself and fight the enemy with a technique that could endanger his life.
From this point on, this battle would be his last performance.