Antikythera stepped forward just as the Pleiades ran back. The test to figure out whether Shalltear is still capable of thinking during combat—an outcome that is both pusible in and out of her mind-controlled state given the Vampire's tendencies to go wild when fighting—has finished, and the data gathered from it is concluded to be that the effects of the World Item which has taken hold of Shalltear are not as airtight as originally thought.

  A positive conclusion to an otherwise negative scenario. The Vampire could still understand the concepts of Nazarick, and her memory seems to be intact. The only major change they have found so far is that her loyalty has been warped. The test with Pandora's Actor copying her creator and her becoming confused as to why she hated "Lord Peroroncino" revealed that Shalltear's memory got blocked or twisted into something that causes her to act against Nazarick's best interests.

  In conclusion, Shalltear is still there; the mind control merely makes it so that she hates the Supreme Beings. An act that Antikythera deemed to be a grave sin, and one that is simply unacceptable to even be thought of under normal circumstances.

  "I will free you of your sins." Antikythera stepped into the ruined earth. He held his bayonet in one hand, and the other carried magical circles of the spells he was currently casting. Ninya had shown him that one did not need to be paralyzed from focus to be able to cast spells, and this situation was the perfect test to see how effective such a method was.

  "You!" Shalltear scowled when he neared. Antikythera tilted his head. Had there been other effects of the mind control they were not aware of? The Automaton locked gazes with Albedo, Demiurge, and Pandora's Actor. "You're the reason why Lord Peroroncino no longer loved me!"

  Shalltear came at him with a sudden burst of speed. Antikythera blocked her Spuit Lance with the bde of his bayonet and pushed her away with a single swing of his arm. He pointed the muzzle at her and fired. Shalltear swung her nce and deflected the bullet—it struck a tree, felling it.

  Antikythera hated to say this, but he knew he had to. "Lord Peroroncino's love was conditional, and you simply did not fulfill it." He taunted the vampire. "Don't bme me for your own failures."

  Instead of answering, Shalltear screamed and rushed at him, attacking him with wild abandon. Her sshes never slowed nor ceased as her throat let out a hoarse scream that sounded like the pleas of the damned. Neuronist would have loved this, Antikythera thought.

  All this time, he used his recently deployed spare arms to attack the vampire and damage her until she had gone into a mortally wounded state. And yet, despite this, Shalltear did not try to heal herself by attacking her summons—she simply kept going.

  "She's gone suicidal," Albedo muttered, her voice tinged with fascination. A rare shift in how she usually treated Shalltear, even if it was still in a negative manner. "She doesn't care that she's hurting herself, she just wishes to kill you."

  "She's trying to bring me down with her," Antikythera ughed. "What has gotten into you, Shalltear? Are you so obsessed with your shortcomings that you're taking it out on me? Even now, you failed! Do you wish for Lord Ainz to abandon us too?!"

  Once again, Shalltear didn't bother to answer. She screamed even louder and became more ferocious in her attacks. She only really stopped when she wanted to cast a spell. Antikythera took those small moments of crity to watch through his recording of the st few minutes.

  "Shalltear's negative thoughts are out in the open, it seems," Antikythera pointed out when he noticed his scream just now—the one about Lord Ainz abandoning them—came from the very depths of his being. "If I was in this state, I believe I would seek to control all of Nazarick until Lord Ainz could no longer leave."

  "Bsphemous," Albedo spat.

  "I know." Antikythera punched Shalltear in frustration, sending the vampire flying away. He should not be having such thoughts. "I am a failure as a Floor Guardian."

  "And speaking of that, don't you think Shalltear is bming herself for being abandoned?" Demiurge let out his observations on the matter. "She did not try to argue against you even though you taunted her, but she did increase the potency of her attacks."

  "Yes, I noticed." Antikythera looked down at himself. "Her mind is being colored by the spell. Should the effect have been fully finished, do you believe that she will fall in line with the words of those who wish to turn her against us?"

  "She will willingly believe them, yes, using their words as fuel for her own negative thoughts until she becomes sure that the Supreme Beings are the enemy due to her being abandoned," Demiurge agreed. "Should she get revived after spending a lengthy amount of time under that state, how do you think she will start to think?"

  "... I am not sure." Antikythera pushed Shalltear away and fired three shots in her direction. The vampire took them all head-on and screamed. She had now lost her mind. "I can only hope that Shalltear loses her memory of this encounter once she has been revived."

  "If that's even possible," Lord Ainz interjected. He sounded guilty. "Finish the job, Antikythera. I do not want her to suffer any more than this." A [Gate] opened next to the Supreme One, and he walked into it. Before he left, he gave them one st command. "Meet me at the Throne Room."

  Antikythera didn't reply and filtered out the responses of the other Guardians as he activated [Overcharge]. Power surged into his very being, his vision slowed to a crawl, and in this state, even Shalltear looked like a snail.

  He grabbed his bayonet and ran. The ground beneath him crumbled from the sheer force his movement produced, breaking the earth and causing miniature vibrations that, in normal time, would have turned into a devastating earthquake capable of leveling the local area. Trees would fall if left alone, but Mare seemed to have chosen to intervene. Antikythera spotted the dryad casting a spell in the corner of his eye.

  Mare left his field of view, and Shalltear repced him. The Automaton pulled his hand back, added [Electro Burst]—fed with way too much mana—into his fist, and then struck the, in his perspective, stationary vampire. Shalltear slightly sped up towards the direction opposite of his punch. Her blood-red armor now had a dent—Adamantium was tough, but not invincible.

  Antikythera didn't waste any more time and punched her again, this time striking her back and causing her to fall to the ground. He cast a spell, [Upgrade Armory], Tier 10. When the spell finished and the magic circles he made for it disappeared, the sword that was now Antikythera's right arm began to glow and shifted into a silver coloration.

  Holy element items—a rare commodity in the Nine Realms, but not so much when a spell could grant them to the caster at their beck and call.

  Antikythera pced his foot on Shalltear's stomach and pushed her toward the ground. When the vampire's back met the earth, his perception slowed down.

  The air exploded into sonic bursts as Antikythera dispced them simply by moving. The ground cracked and tore from his footsteps, while leaves and tree bark peeled away from the amount of ambient electricity now present in the environment.

  Underneath Shalltear, the earth split. The vampire spat blood. She didn't have the time to scream as Antikythera sliced off her neck with his sword.

  The Bloody Valkyrie was no more.

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