Lux was assigned to level six.
When Celis heard it, she was visibly disappointed not to be placed on the same team as him. She admitted quietly that even though they needed to cover more ground, she always seemed to end up alone somehow.
Seeing how much it bothered her, Lux told her gently that she could join his team later on if she wanted to.
The words delighted her instantly.
Noct remarked that she had never seen Celis look this excited about a mission before, and Triad said at once that Lux was obviously the reason for it.
Later, Lux travelled with Airi and Noct.
Airi warned him jokingly not to flirt with her roommate simply because the two of them happened to be alone together. Lux became flustered and asked whether she seriously believed he spent all his time chasing girls.
Noct then observed casually that Lux did not even see her as a girl anyway.
Lux denied that quickly and told her, awkwardly, that he actually thought she was very cute.
Before the conversation could go any further, Noct picked something up on her radar and told everyone to stop moving.
Lux drew his sword and prepared himself.
Noct explained that there was something roughly a hundred metres underground nearby. It was not an Abyss. It had the shape of a human being.
Lux approached the spot cautiously and lifted away the stone covering the ground. Beneath it lay a sleeping girl.
The sight of her shocked Airi. Soon afterward Triad arrived, having heard that they had found something strange, and Noct admitted that even she could not identify exactly what the girl was.
Triad warned everyone to move back, because they might get hurt otherwise. Airi and Noct withdrew while Triad approached the sleeping girl carefully.
After examining her closely, Triad announced that the girl was not human at all. She was an Abyss.
The moment Triad touched her face, the girl's eyes opened.
She said calmly that the supervisors had finally arrived.
Lux and Triad went straight onto their guard, ready to fight if it came to that. But the girl only apologized politely, said she had not realized they did not want her to wake up, and lay back down on the ground again.
Triad admitted that she had no idea what the girl truly was, and that she intended to find out.
Slowly the girl stood up and introduced herself. She gave her name as Krulcifer, the manager of the ruins, and explained that she was normally referred to as an automaton. Because of an incident she could not identify, she had lost all her memories after remaining asleep for far too long. She asked them nervously not to stare at her so intensely, since she had lost almost all of her stored data.
Since Triad was technically the supervisor of the ruins, the automaton promised to obey all of her commands.
Triad explained that the manager might recover her memories by reconnecting herself to the systems of the ruins. Most of the facilities inside, however, were currently shut down.
The automaton replied that she could reactivate them from the supervisor area, which was located on the lowest floor.
Lux suggested gathering everyone together before they moved any deeper.
Soon the others arrived and began discussing the manager among themselves. Triad explained that she resembled a technological doll built with ancient technology.
While they talked, Lux noticed Philuffy looking dizzy and weak. Concerned, he went to her and said she did not seem healthy. Philuffy insisted that she was fine and that she wanted to stay. Lux agreed, and decided to remain close to her.
At the same time, inside the royal capital, government officials were discussing a dangerous criminal who had recently escaped from prison and was now planning an attack alongside the rebel army.
Somebody mentioned Ragreed's name.
Another official pointed out that they did not have enough skilled Drag Ride users to fight properly.
An old noble then suggested using academy students instead, especially since Celis, daughter of the powerful Ralgris family, studied there.
Celis's father objected furiously, and argued that they could not send students out to die like disposable soldiers.
The old noble went on talking regardless. He mentioned the rumors about a powerful Drag Ride user currently attending the academy, the same boy who had defeated Ragnarok and who was close to Princess Lisha. If he remembered correctly, the noble said, the boy's name was Lux Arcadia.
That made the queen suspicious. She asked how he came to know so many rumors involving Lux.
The old man replied calmly that he simply wanted to use Lux's abilities to finish their problems quickly.
After hearing all of it, the queen said she would think the proposal over carefully.
Back inside the ruins, Lux carried Philuffy while the group continued deeper underground. The headmaster watched the two of them with visible concern.
Then something attacked Lux out of nowhere and sent him flying backward.
Triad warned him at once to be careful, because the attacker was an Abyss creature. The monster lunged for Triad next, and Lux got in front of her in time. During the exchange one of his Drag Ride's arms was destroyed.
Lux warned everyone that there was an Abyss in here with them, and Triad realized it had to be the same Abyss that had attacked her earlier on the sixth floor.
The manager explained that the ruins were currently operating in guard mode. Because of that, three Abyss creatures would eventually appear: two of them would remain inside the ruins, and the third would go outside and attack people there.
Seven years earlier, in the Arcadia Empire, Philuffy had been travelling somewhere with her family when Lux stopped her and promised that no matter what happened, he would protect her.
Hearing it, Philuffy ran to him and kissed him. She explained that it was a lucky charm her older sister had taught her, and that doing it would make certain the two of them met again in the future.
The memory ended, and in the present Philuffy was strangling Lux.
When Lux called out her name, Philuffy stopped, and the two of them collapsed onto the ground together.
At that moment Hayes arrived.
Elsewhere, Lisha attacked the enemy with Seven Heads. Once all the ruin Abysses had been put down, everyone talked about how pointless the training camp had turned out to be, and Krulcifer and Lisha wondered aloud why the ruin Abysses had appeared here at all.
Krulcifer teased Lisha by telling her she was smarter than she looked, since she had always assumed Lisha thought about nothing except Drag Rides and Lux.
Embarrassed, Lisha told her to stop making fun of her.
Soon afterward Airi contacted everyone and told them that a special key was needed to go any deeper underground. Nobody understood what the key actually was, and with no time left, retreating was no longer an option.
And Lux was standing with his sword pointed at Hayes.
Hayes explained calmly that if she died, Philuffy would die as well, because she had planted a Ragnarok seed inside the girl's body.
The revelation left Lux stunned.
The seed, Hayes went on, had already transformed Philuffy into an Abyss, and was slowly taking control of her from within. Eventually Philuffy would become Ragnarok's servant, and would be forced to obey every command she was given.