“This place looks like it’s been abandoned for a long time…”

“I don’t get it. They could’ve connected the second and third floors with a single staircase. Why go to all the trouble of building a station?”

Merka followed Turing onto the train.

Looking at the seats and window frames in the carriages on either side, all covered in rust like brown moss, Merka turned to Turing with a puzzled look.

“Maybe there’s something dangerous on the third floor, so they sealed it off from the second?”

As she spoke, Turing headed for the front of the carriage to look for a way to start the train.

“…That makes sense.”

Standing by the train door, Merka ran a hand over a dust-covered table and replied thoughtfully.

The train’s interior was incredibly high-tech. Even the trains he and Turing had seen in their hallucinations couldn’t compare to this one.

If time hadn’t worn it down so badly—and if he’d had enough time—Merka would’ve loved to study its interior.

“Huh… What’s this?”

Merka looked up and spotted a route display along the side of the ceiling.

A small button on the route display suddenly gave off a faint red flash.

An electric hum shuddered through the air, and the entire train began to move unsteadily.

The train seemed to sense that someone had boarded. It was about to depart.

“Turing! I think this train’s starting!”

“What…?”

Before Turing could even enter the carriage ahead, the train had already started moving.

The train accelerated incredibly quickly. It slowly lifted off the tracks, and the grinding roar of enormous steel parts rang through the empty tunnel.

Merka and Turing, standing in the middle of the train, staggered as the floor beneath them lurched into motion. They nearly lost their footing and hit the ground.

But the train showed no sign of slowing down.

It seemed to be accelerating with all its might, not caring whether the passengers in the carriages had grabbed the handrails or settled into their seats. It just kept charging ahead.

Before long, the train was streaking through the tunnel, leaving a long afterimage behind it.

The train compressed and shoved the air inside the tunnel, turning it in an instant into a gale that raced wildly along the tracks.

Thick layers of ice clinging to the rails and the tunnel walls shattered under the terrifying pressure of the wind.

The deafening roar of destruction tore at Merka and Turing’s eardrums. By a rough estimate, the train was already nearing three hundred kilometers per hour.

“This is bad… Could this be a trap?”

“Did aside tamper with the train ahead of time, planning to kill us by crashing it?”

Clutching the chair legs with both hands, Merka huddled beneath the table, desperately resisting the pull of the acceleration. His expression was grim as he spoke.

He was facing the train’s door, where the gale poured in with terrifying force, as if it were about to suck the life right out of him.

“Merka, grab hold of me!”

Just then, Turing wedged one hand into the gap in the door and reached out to Merka with the other.

Her dress whipped wildly in the gale, but the tentacle extending from her wrist stayed as steady as a steel rod.

It reached toward Merka slowly, in a perfectly straight line.

Seeing this, Merka said nothing. He slowly moved closer, reached out in silent understanding, and grabbed the lifeline.