Accel World - Volume 14 - Chapter 6

6

Magenta’s army made the first move.

Lined up in a row, twelve soldiers thrust out their right hands in perfect sync, with Avocado Avoider on the end taking on the same position a second later. The eye-shaped Enhanced Armament attached to their chests emitted flashes of muddy blood-red light.

“““Dark Shot.”””

The technique name was shouted with one voice—although this time, again, Avocado was a little behind—but had an earsplitting dissonance. A dull-black aura swirled in thirteen palms, concentrated, and jetted forward in an ebony beam. Zzzshm!

In fights over the last two weeks, Haruyuki had seen and been on the receiving end of this technique any number of times, but this was the first time he’d been showered by this kind of concentrated attack. The nonmaterial bullets of nihilistic energy, containing enough power to potentially cause instant death with even one direct hit, came together in groups of four or five in midair and formed three lances charging toward them.

The first to react was Fuko, who had taken up position in the center of the Lotus army of nine.

“Swirl Sway!” Still seated in her wheelchair, she held her right hand in front of her to produce a green whirlwind. The wind that stretched out between Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime swelled in scope into something akin to a sideways tornado and essentially covered all nine as they stood firm.

The three large lances howled as they made contact with the tornado. Heeeeeng! They were sucked into the whirling wind, muddying the green spirals with black.

When they had fought Ash Roller’s motorcycle, which was under the control of an ISS kit, in the middle of the school festival, Fuko had repelled two simultaneous dark shots with this technique. But now she was facing over six times that force. The hand supporting the tornado shook, and a faint pant slipped out from between her lips.

One of the lances was ejected from the tornado, an enormous spring bouncing backward, and plunged into a building behind them off to the right, gouging a large hole out of it. Another shot straight up into the air and disappeared in the twilight sky.

But the final lance fought against the centrifugal force like a living creature and inched its way to the source of the tornado. If the wriggling energy made it straight through, Fuko’s entire arm would be sent flying. Unconsciously, Haruyuki stretched out the five fingers of his right hand so he could be ready with his Laser Sword. But if he wasn’t careful, he would cut into the rotational force of the tornado and potentially set the wind free.

The ebony lance pulled forward bit by bit.

“Maelstrom,” a quiet voice said. Akira Himi—Aqua Current—produced a blue vortex in her outstretched left hand. It was very much like Fuko’s technique, except rather than wind forming the tornado, it was water. Each of the scattering water droplets shone a pale blue, as proof of the technique’s origins in the Incarnate System.

The blue approached the green tornado from the right, touched it, and instantaneously merged with it.

Krr! An incredible storm swelled up, and Haruyuki reflexively threw back his head. A myriad of water droplets spun out of the tornado, now doubled in size, to rain down on the surface of his armor and bounce off again. No doubt, if he happened to swallow one, the raindrop could probably have taken out a pretty good chunk of his health gauge.

With the added force of the waterspout, the tornado now had the power of a swirling current, and it thrust the black lance out, turning it 180 degrees before releasing it into the sky. Whistling through the air, the fused Dark Shot didn’t make a direct hit on Magenta’s army, but it did plunge into the grass nearby to send a black pillar of flames skyward, throwing the enemy off-balance.

“Now!” Kuroyukihime cried sharply. “Pile, Leopard! Charge with me! Rain, Maiden! Cover us! Raker, Current, you’re defense. Bell, healing. Crow, protect Bell! Let’s go!!”

“Okay!”

“K.”

Takumu and Pard charged toward the enemy encampment alongside Kuroyukihime. Niko readied her handgun, Peace Maker, and Utai her longbow, Flame Caller, while Fuko and Akira prepared to defend against the next Dark Shot. And Haruyuki—well, at any rate, he looked at Chiyuri.

“H-heh-heh-heh…” The yellow-green witch-shaped avatar inclined her pointed hat. “Crow, thanks for the guard.”

“Yeah, leave it to me!” he shouted, but to be honest, he could hardly stand still. Although he understood the importance of protecting their healer, an advantage their enemy didn’t have, it was still frustrating not to be able to charge into battle with his leader.

“…Crow, maybe I should practice the Incarnate System, too,” Chiyuri offered quietly, as though reading Haruyuki’s mind. Her eyes were still on the front line.

“Huh…?” Instantly, his restlessness quieted. Readying himself for the next attack wave, he shook his head quickly. “No, you don’t need to hurry. The truth is, it’s better if you can get through without using it. Thanks to the ISS kits, we’re attacked with Incarnate a lot more these days, but once we smash the main body, things should quiet down again. And then you can really think about it, no pressure.”

“You really have grown, hmm, Corvus?” Fuko, rather than Chiyuri, responded to Haruyuki’s murmured assurance.

“Huh?! No, it’s just, I mean…”

“Once this is over and we go back to the other side, I will spoil you so hard. So right now, you make sure you do your job.” Apparently, she too had seen right through to his desire to leap onto the battlefield.

Haruyuki tucked his head in and shouted, “Right!”

“Yaaaaaah!” Takumu’s battle cry rang out over the enemy camp. “Cyan Blade!!”

It had been a while since Haruyuki had heard that technique name. The pile driver equipped in Cyan Pile’s right arm emitted a flash of bright light and broke apart. Gripped in his left hand, only the spike remained, and it quickly transformed into a large two-handed sword. As a reminder that the sword was Incarnate, an overlay like blue flames snaked around the blade.

Adjusting his grip on the sword, Takumu yanked it up, readying it at waist height, while in front of him, Magenta Scissor crossed the small swords she held in each hand. Ka-ching! The two swords came together to form a pair of enormous scissors. And unlike when Haruyuki had fought her, the scissors themselves were enveloped in a dark aura.

“Be careful, Taku…!” Haruyuki couldn’t help muttering, even though he knew he was too far away for his friend to hear him.

Magenta’s scissors were equipped with an ability called Remote Cut. Each time the blades came together, an unseen severing force cut into a distant target. The only way to avoid the invisible attack was to leap far away from the invisible line extending outward from the tip of the scissors. But it was nearly impossible to keep that up when they were snipped open and closed in quick succession.

Unable to come up with a strategy for countering the long-distance cutting on his own, Haruyuki had enlisted the help of Chocolat Puppeteer’s Chocopet puppets, leaving him room to charge Magenta. But Chocolat wasn’t there now. And Kuroyukihime and Pard were occupied with several ISS kit users, so they wouldn’t be able to cover Takumu. Niko and Utai launched one flame bullet/arrow after another, but over half were met with Dark Blow, so the enemy wasn’t exactly dropping like flies.

“Bell, when I give the order, please heal Pile.”

“Roger.” Chiyuri nodded.

Wheen! Magenta’s scissors flashed through their dark aura, opening and closing at a ferocious speed, perhaps as much as five times a second. An unbroken chain of metallic shrieks joined orange sparks crackling around Takumu.

Haruyuki reflexively started to give the heal order, but forced himself to swallow it. When he looked very closely, he saw the Incarnate sword was doubling here as a shield to repel the majority of the cutting power. As she opened and closed the scissors, Magenta moved them up and down and side to side, but Takumu correctly traced the tip with his sword, avoiding a direct hit to his avatar.

But the situation could only get worse. Because Magenta’s scissors were not a gun, in theory, she could continue to attack without end. On the other hand, Takumu couldn’t keep dodging for the rest of time; he’d need to switch into a counterattack at some point, but he didn’t have an opening to swing his sword. If he moved the blade from the line of sight for even a second, he might end up with his head chopped off.

I can create an opening with my Laser Lance. The thought flashed through his mind, but Haruyuki brushed it away. An enemy might target Chiyuri while he was launching his Incarnate technique. And more importantly, Takumu wanted to face off against Magenta himself, knowing full well the terror of Remote Cut. So then, he had to have a plan for turning this defense into an offense.

“…!” Haruyuki caught a glimpse of a black aura concentrating in the corner of his eye and readied both hands. “Dark Shot’s coming!”

Simultaneously, the six on the enemy’s right flank shot jet-black beams through the sky toward them. Rather than fusing together, however, the attacks this time were all whizzing toward different targets.

Fuko and Akira quickly held up their hands to generate the green-and-blue tornados that would defend themselves, Niko, and Utai from the Incarnate bullets aimed at them. Haruyuki also brought a silver overlay up into his hands and stared hard at the balls of darkness flying toward him and Chiyuri.

“Laser…” The sword of his right hand knocked the first shot out into the sky.

“…Sword!!” He hit the second shot with the sword of his left hand.

Having fulfilled his duty, Haruyuki turned his eyes back to the battle between Magenta and Takumu and unconsciously stiffened. The aura enveloping Takumu’s Cyan Blade was flickering and looked to be on the verge of disappearing. Haruyuki could see countless scars running along the large blade. If this kept up, it would shatter.

When he thought about it, Takumu was essentially sacrificing his sword to defend against the nonphysical cutting power of Magenta’s scissors, so it made sense that the damage that power did would accumulate in the sword alone. The grand premise of Brain Burst—no, of all fighting games—was that you couldn’t win if you only defended, but this was exactly the situation Magenta’s scissors were forcing Takumu into, making it a weapon far more fearsome than Haruyuki had thought.

Pleek! A remarkably large chunk of the blade broke off and fell to the ground.

Magenta Scissor grinned, and, fixing the direction of the scissors, opened and closed them with even more ferocity. She’d given up on targeting the main body of the avatar and was now trying to destroy the sword first. Sparks flickered and scatted like the sword was being held to a grinder, and the center of the two-handed blade grew visibly scarred.

It’s going to break! Haruyuki gritted his teeth.

A cloud of dirt exploded upward at Takumu’s feet. The massive blue body charged forward impossibly fast for such a large avatar. Repelling the invisible blades with the battered sword, he closed the distance from Magenta to five meters in an instant.

Whakeeen! The opening and closing of the scissors stopped.

Takumu’s sword was jammed in between the two blades.

Here, Haruyuki finally understood Takumu’s strategy. He had been intently waiting for the moment Magenta started to target his sword. As long as her sights were fixed, he could close the distance between them by simply charging forward. And then, if he could get the real scissors to bite down on his sword, Remote Cut could no longer be activated. Of course, Takumu could no longer move his sword either, but being a kendo practitioner, he knew ways to continue an attack when locked sword to sword.

“Ngh…Aaah!” With a roar, Takumu took another step in. Both hands, still gripping the hilt, slid under the scissors and slammed hard into Magenta’s chest—into the crimson eyeball parasitizing her there.

He didn’t quite smash it, but taking a blow with the full weight of a heavyweight avatar behind it, the ISS kit closed its upper and lower lids tightly, shooting dull-black sparks. Perhaps some of the damage splashed back onto Magenta herself; the body covered in reddish-purple bandages shuddered and reeled back. The hands gripping the scissors relaxed slightly, and not letting the moment slip away, Takumu pushed his sword up with all his might.

The large scissors, the origin of Magenta’s name, flew out of their owner’s hands and danced high into the sky. Takumu swung his sword into the overhead position for the first time in this fight and let out a loud battle cry.

“Eeeaaaaah!!” The dizzyingly fast slash attack overtook the falling scissors from above, cutting the lethal black weapon in two right in the middle. The separated blades shattered into countless fragments and scattered in all directions.

Taku! You did it! Haruyuki yelled in his mind.

The mental strength to keep the Incarnate sword materialized when it—and he—were so battered. The fortitude to wait and watch for the chance to turn it all around in a unilaterally defensive battle. And then, the explosive power to turn the tide in an apparent deadlock. Haruyuki felt Takumu was more powerful than he was in all these ways, but his joy was much greater than his frustration. Even as he kept his guard up and his eyes on the enemy camp, he started to do a tiny fist pump on his friend’s behalf.

“Watch out!!” Chiyuri cried from behind him.

For a moment, he thought an enemy he had overlooked was about to send a Dark Shot their way, but that wasn’t it. Chiyuri was calling out to Takumu. Magenta Scissor had fallen faceup in front of him, seemingly still stunned from the direct hit to her ISS kit, but her right hand held a black aura.

Takumu also noticed the dark swirling mass and tried to yank his sword up again. But he was the slightest bit too late. An ebony beam jetted out of Magenta’s hand without any advance notice.

“Ngh…!” Takumu abandoned his attack and tried to defend against the beam with his sword. Although he somehow managed to deflect its trajectory, the nihilistic stream grazed the side of his helmet, scattering particles that resembled fresh blood.

But what was more serious was the damage to Cyan Blade. Defending against the Dark Shot from extreme close range had caused yet another large chunk to fall off, and the overlay was disappearing. Takumu gave up on a counterattack and leapt back.

Magenta stood up and took aim at Pile with her right hand as she protected the eye on her chest with her left.

“She…Without the technique name, a Dark Shot…” Haruyuki groaned. In the battle four days earlier, Magenta Scissor had needed to shout the name of the Incarnate technique to activate it. Which meant she had also evolved her abilities in this short time. While he was impressed on the one hand, Haruyuki couldn’t stop himself from muttering. “…Why, though…?”

Why, when she had such ambition—the passion to set her sights ever higher—why would she devote it to the spread of the ISS kits? Why was she so driven that she would sacrifice even herself to realize a world in which all duel avatars had the same techniques, in which individuality lost all meaning?

Facing off against Takumu as she was, Magenta naturally couldn’t answer Haruyuki’s questions. Instead, she moved her left hand quickly, gesturing instructions to her comrades. The seven that Black Lotus and Blood Leopard had engaged in combat after breaking through enemy lines, and the six waging long-range war with Haruyuki’s group all moved to the east side of the park, coming together in a tight formation. Magenta pulled back from Takumu to join them.

Neatly lined up in a double horizontal formation, with the back row centered on Avocado and the front on Magenta, the ISS kits radiated such enormous force that it was like the Burst Linkers had come together to make one super-massive duel avatar.

But when Haruyuki turned his gaze on each of the individual avatars, he saw Magenta was the only one uninjured. The other thirteen had taken damage all over from Kuroyukihime’s swords, Pard’s teeth and claws, Niko’s gun, and Utai’s flame arrows. And because Avocado had defended against Niko and Utai’s long-range attacks with his body, his soft armor was riddled with bullet holes and burns.

Rather than pursuing the collected enemy army, Kuroyukihime returned to Haruyuki and the others and gave instructions in a cool voice. “Everyone’s health gauges, except for Magenta’s, are basically less than half. We’ll pull together here and fire on the enemy army assault, and then wipe them out in one go with all our Incarnate techniques.”

“…Okay!” Haruyuki shuddered slightly.

Kuroyukihime and Pard hadn’t been struggling with their attack on the enemy’s left flank. Even as they were distracted by the Incarnate Dark Shots that kept coming from all directions, they still managed not to concentrate the damage they did on any one individual, instead uniformly bringing down the enemy army’s health. Niko and Utai had done the same. And the four had avoided all Incarnate techniques while they did this, in order to reduce even a little the risk of calling Enemies to the scene.

What made something like this possible was the actual power of four high rankers, including two kings, but it was also because of the monotony of the enemy attack. Although the power contained in each blow was formidable, as long as you knew you were only facing the same attack over and over, handling it was simple. Even Haruyuki, who may or may not have finally been stepping out of newbie territory, had been able to repel single Dark Shots with near certainty.

Magenta. The fights in the new world you want likely would be fair. But they probably wouldn’t be duels anymore. He clenched his hands at this fleeting thought and got into position.

The enemy knew at this point that Fuko and Akira would completely repel a simultaneous launch of Dark Shot, so there were likely no more long-distance attacks coming. They would finally come to settle the victory with an artless, all-out assault.

The clouds rolling along the horizon covered the massive evening sun of the Twilight stage, and the world was slightly obscured. A few seconds later, a red sunbeam poured down onto the battlefield through a break in the clouds.

Taking this as a signal, both sides moved. Still in their double-line formation, the Magenta army charged, making the ground shake. The Lotus army pulled into a V formation with Kuroyukihime at the tip, ready to welcome them with fire. Fourteen fists were wrapped in dark aura, and eight arms shot forward with overlays of various colors, only missing the yellow-green of Lime Bell. The total, localized activation of the Incarnate System sent bolts of pale lightning racing through the air.

However.

Just as the two armies were on the verge of their final clash, they were forcibly interrupted.

Rrrrr! Without warning, the ground began to ripple. Together with a roar that threatened to tear heaven and earth asunder, the intense vertical shaking thrust Haruyuki upward, and he reflexively spread his wings and reached out to support Kuroyukihime on his right and Takumu on his left. The Magenta army being in the middle of a charge was an additional catastrophe; they all tumbled into one massive tangle of arms and legs. The perfect chance to attack—but without the mental leeway to have the thought, Haruyuki looked around, dumbfounded.

There were no earthquakes or terrain effects in the Twilight stage. Which meant the tremor was due to something other than a stage attribute. But it couldn’t have been a duel avatar ability, either. Shaking the indestructible earth of the stage on this massive a scale was simply impossible, no matter how large the avatar.

In which case, it could only have been the work of an Enemy, but in each direction, there was nothing but grass and a string of chalky temples.

“……Ah……Ah……!” A hoarse cry escaped Haruyuki’s throat the instant he noticed it:

There was something.

In front of Midtown Tower, soaring up on the south side of the battlefield. There was something on top of the gentle hill. Almost entirely transparent but as big as a mountain: something. Unaware even that the shaking had stopped, Haruyuki simply stared at the thing.

Cracks radiated outward from the hill, with the destruction reaching even the tower wall to the rear. Most likely, the sudden, massive earthquake of a few seconds ago had its epicenter in that place. But had it really been an earthquake? The source of the tremor hadn’t come from below the ground, but rather above—from the sky? In other words, perhaps the sudden shaking had been the shock wave from some massive thing—for instance, a super-large Enemy flying down from a distant height—hitting the top of Midtown Tower?

The moment his brain had made it this far, the something on the hill shifted slowly. The outline drawn by the distortion of the red sunlight spread out to either side…almost like wings.

He had seen this curious silhouette before—humanlike, birdlike. It was without a doubt the shape he had seen from the roof of Roppongi Hills Tower ten days earlier.

This was the Legend-class Enemy, Archangel Metatron.

“…Kuroyukihime.” Haruyuki squeezed a thin voice out of his blocked throat. “Metatron’s on the ground.”

“Wh—?”

Kuroyukihime’s arm shook in Haruyuki’s hand. Fuko, Akira, Niko, and everyone else all stared soundlessly at the hill to the south. After a moment, Magenta apparently noticed something going on with the Lotus army and looked back, hands still pressed against the ground. She, too, froze on the spot.

In the silence, the massive, invisible body casually took off from the top of the hill. Go back to the Tower, Haruyuki prayed in one corner of his numb mind. But the fantastic archangel slowly, ever so slowly, started toward them, as if sneering at this desperate prayer. Because it was so impossibly large, he couldn’t get a sense of how far away it was. The transparent wings covered the entire sky.

“Everyone, retreat!!” Kuroyukihime shouted hoarsely, breaking free of the spell.

Haruyuki let go of his friends, whirled around, and began to run with his comrades. Three steps, four, five, and the ground shook once more. Metatron had landed. The shock wave was milder than the first one, but it was still forceful enough to sweep all of their feet out from under them. From the ground, Haruyuki looked over his shoulder and saw the grass flattened over a broad range not more than a hundred meters away. In precisely the midpoint between here and there, Magenta and the others also stood stock-still, dumbfounded.

Metatron’s transparent wings emitted a hazy light.

The laser.

They wouldn’t make it.

If they took a direct hit here…

The completed thought sparked in Haruyuki’s brain and stirred his avatar. And not backward, but forward: “Run, everyone!!” he shouted and flew.

Skimming forward just barely above the ground, he crossed his arms in front of his body. Kashk! The armor of his forearm opened, and a transparent, light-guiding rod protruded from inside. When he touched down again, he didn’t have time to think about why he chose a spot right next to Magenta Scissor and her gang.

A circle of light shone in the center of Metatron’s round head. And then an intense glow, like a manifestation of divine will, jetted out silently. Haruyuki’s field of view was dyed a uniform white. The evening of the stage, a screaming voice he could faintly hear—it all melted into the light and disappeared.

He couldn’t see anything.

He couldn’t feel anything.

His avatar had no doubt been completely evaporated. There was no way he could have succeeded. Reflecting Metatron’s laser with this stopgap ability, when even the Green King could only defend against it for five seconds…

To begin with, Haruyuki hadn’t managed to learn Theoretical Mirror, an absolute resistance to all light techniques, but Optical Conduction instead, the effects of which weren’t nearly so definite. And yet, he had been so convinced that the technique he’d learned would work on Metatron, he had dragged his Legion members into this reckless mission. He had promised to protect them all, but he couldn’t even withstand the terrible light for a single second. Not only would his avatar be burned up in it, but even his soul, and his very existence would be extinguished. Perhaps he would never be able to go anywhere again…

—No.

In a corner of the snowy-white world, he could see something. Green like an emerald, long and thin like a sword, it was—a health gauge.

In the Unlimited Neutral Field, you couldn’t see other people’s gauges. Which meant that this was Haruyuki’s—Silver Crow’s—gauge. About 30 percent of it had been shaved away, but it definitely existed in the top left of his field of view.

He was still alive.

The instant he became aware of this, all sensation came flooding back to him. Light. Heat. Roaring. Pressure. The light-guiding rod of his crossed arms was shining intensely, shredding the unprecedented stream of energy in all directions. What had whisked away part of Haruyuki’s gauge was not the laser itself, but the molten earth. The deflected laser had transformed the grassy field into a sea of flames, heating Crow’s legs red-hot up to just below his knees.

The instant he caught a glance of this, he became aware—belatedly—of a ferocious pain magnified to twice that of the normal duel field, but he gritted his teeth and endured it. If he shifted or lost even the tiniest bit of ground, he would be beaten back by the relentless pressure and be evaporated this time, for sure.

“Hng…Ngh!!” A moan slipping out of his throat, Haruyuki desperately braced his legs. He didn’t know how many seconds the laser attack would go on, but he would defend against it, right up to the end. Absolutely. He would not think negative thoughts again. He would not give up or say it was impossible. He would protect them: The comrades who had believed in him and come to this battlefield with him. Rin Kusakabe, fighting her own battle in the real world. And Ash Roller, the first friend he’d made in the Accelerated World.

But almost as if to sneer at this resolve, his feet slipped slightly. It wasn’t just the grass; even the ground was starting to melt in the intense heat. If he used his wings, he could escape the conflagration, but the instant his feet left the ground, he would most likely lose his balance and be swallowed up by the laser. His only choice was to batten down the hatches where he was. Would Metatron’s attack end first or would his feet lose their grip and take him down?

Zzsh. He slid backward again. The laser attack had already been going for more than five seconds, but it showed no signs of stopping. The longer he stood against it, the more the earth melted and sapped his health gauge and his footing. The soles of his feet had essentially lost all sensation of contact with the ground. He tried desperately to hold his position, but in the thin magma spreading out over the surface of the earth, his body leaned back bit by bit. He mustered every inch of power and balance he could to resist the pressure of the light. He couldn’t fall now.

“Unh…Aaah…!” Crying out once more, Haruyuki mustered a little bit more strength at his edges to endure another second. But no matter how determined he might have been, the surface of the earth did not get the message; its melting did not stop. Burning bright red, his feet were essentially floating in the viscous liquid. His avatar inclined even farther. The laser reflected by his arms grew in strength, as if triumphant.

Is this it?

No, one more second.

At least until. Everyone. Escapes to…a safe…distance…!! Rather than giving up, Haruyuki shored up his resolve.

And then someone’s hands were supporting his shoulders from behind.

Taku? Chiyu? Or maybe Kuroyukihime?

Dashing this fleeting thought was a voice in his ear.

“I’m here holding you up. You just focus on reflecting!”

That slightly husky voice. Magenta Scissor, who he’d only just been fiercely battling.

In what was basically an unconscious choice, Haruyuki had landed in a position that covered Magenta and her army when he took on the laser. Nearly ten seconds had passed since then. Magenta and her crew could have run a fair distance in that time, so why was she right behind him? And why was she helping him?

But he didn’t have the brainpower to spare at the moment for such questions. There was an echo of great pain in Magenta’s voice. Her feet were also being swallowed up by the magma. She probably wouldn’t be able to support him for all that long.

“…Thanks!” he called briefly in reply, and leaned into her. His body stabilized, he now focused all his mental energy on his crossed arms.

Silver Crow’s Optical Conduction ability used a light-guiding rod in his arm to change the vector of light-type attacks. It didn’t compare with Mirror Masker’s defensive power of turning his entire body into a mirror and reflecting light from all directions, but it did have one advantage over Theoretical Mirror—and it was that he could control, to a certain extent, the direction the laser was reflected.

Currently, the extremely thick laser was being scattered in a lenticular, which was why more than 30 percent of the energy was hitting the ground and producing the magma. But he should have been able to narrow the reflection vector and let the light flow off into the sky. If he did that, then the ground wouldn’t melt any more than it already had.

The idea wasn’t to become a wall that simply rejected the light. It was to be a path that accepted the light, guided it, and then released it. That was the answer Haruyuki had arrived at. Niko had taught him this, and Utai, and Kuroyukihime, and Wolfram Cerberus, and his classmate Reina Izeki; this was his ability and his alone: Optical Conduction.

You have to believe. In everyone. In me. In Silver Crow.

Haruyuki loosened his tightly clenched fists. Instantly, the pressure of the light beam increased, and his body slid back several centimeters together with Magenta. But he had faith in the strength of the hands supporting him and continued to lean into them. Now that he thought about it, the reason for the pain in Magenta’s voice wasn’t just the flames roasting her feet. She was also actively resisting the orders of the ISS kit parasitizing her chest.

He stretched out the fingers of his unclenched hands. The illumination filling the light-guiding rod reached down from the palm of his hand up to the tips of his middle fingers. Next, bit by bit, he moved his arms, already crossed into an X, into a vertical equal sign.

The beam of light became hundreds of small streams blowing off in all directions and then started to come back together piecemeal. Ten thick lines bundled together into four, joined into two, returned to one—toward the sky.

Now Haruyuki’s arms shifted Metatron’s giant light lance ninety degrees, sending the beam upward to be absorbed into the distant sky. Enormous holes were ripped into the clouds along its trajectory, making the evening darkness sparkle.

Right. Like that.

Abruptly, he heard someone’s voice inside his mind. It seemed like a woman, but it wasn’t Magenta. It had a childish aspect to it, but it wasn’t Niko or Utai, either. Cool, inorganic, a voice slightly removed from humanity.

Just like that, reverse the light.

—Don’t be absurd!! Haruyuki replied reflexively in his mind. It’s seriously way too hard just to bend Metatron’s super-laser ninety degrees!! Now I’m just going to keep doing it and wait for his energy to run out!!

It won’t run out for a while. It collects sunlight with its wings. And the name isn’t super-laser. Call it Trisagion.

—How do you know that? And to begin with…how are you talking…?

You don’t have time to concern yourself with trivialities. Hurry, you must reverse the light. There is no other way for you all to survive.

—As if it’s that easy! I mean, I’m slamming up against my limit here! Haruyuki threw these thoughts at the mysterious voice, but if its owner was right, then as long as Metatron was bathed in the light of the sun, its energy would continue to be charged. He had diverted the laser that was heating the ground up into the sky, but the magma at their feet still hadn’t cooled, and his and Magenta’s health gauges continued to decrease steadily.

—So that’s my only choice, then…!

He had no basis for believing the unidentified voice, but he followed his instincts, and once again concentrated all his mental energy in his arms.

His arms were facing palm out and were bent deeply, in a shape like boxing gloves; he tried stretching them out just a little. The angle of the pillar of light reaching up into the sky changed the tiniest bit, but at the same time, an incredible pressure made his entire body creak. It’s totally impossible to make the angle of reflection any bigger than this, he thought, before he remembered that only moments earlier, he’d sworn he absolutely would not give up, at least not in this fight. Hadn’t he?

“Hn…nngh…!” A thin groan escaping him, Haruyuki extended his arms a little more. The laser’s angle of reflection passed a hundred degrees, and his avatar began to shake irregularly. Supporting Crow from behind, Magenta had to be enduring even more serious pressure, but the hands gripping his shoulders didn’t so much as twitch.

Once more, and again, Haruyuki bent the enormous pillar of light, what the mysterious voice had called Trisagion. The pressure also increased proportionally, unlimited, and sparks began to shoot like blood from Crow’s joints. Magenta panted as if she were struggling, too, and both were pushed backward.

But at that moment, he heard yet another voice:

“Unh…unh…Aaaaah!” A thick war cry that didn’t quite form words.

Zzsh! He felt the ground shake heavily, and then their backward slide stopped. Haruyuki couldn’t see him, but Avocado Avoider had come up to brace Magenta with his massive body. But Avocado, clad in fatty armor, was weak to fire. The ground around them was still burning red-hot, and if he stood there, he would go up in flames in seconds.

“Unnh…Unh!” He was in anguish.

“Get back, Avo!” Magenta instructed hoarsely. “We’re okay here. You run with everyone…”

“N-no, can’t…! I’m…I’m a. B…Bur…”

His voice cut off there, but Haruyuki knew what Avocado Avoider was trying to say. I’m a Burst Linker, too. That’s what he wanted to declare.

“Avo…,” Magenta murmured.

The crackling roar of the flames drowned her out. Avocado’s armor had probably started to burn. Haruyuki had maybe ten seconds left. Could he bend the laser 180 degrees before that…?

Fwwsh! White smoke rose up from the earth. Stunned, Haruyuki looked down at his feet and found that most of the red-hot magma had hardened to black in an instant. Someone had thrown a large amount of water on it. But the Twilight stage was essentially dry; the only water was in places that corresponded to large ponds or rivers in the real world. Where on earth had this much liquid come from?

He turned his head slightly, and entering Haruyuki’s field of view was Aqua Current, missing the majority of the flowing water armor that was her lifeline. Laid bare, the avatar’s body was a transparent material like crystal. She had used the water that covered her to cool the ground.

“We’re late.” Akira reached out her extremely thin arms to support Haruyuki’s back from the left of Magenta Scissor.

“Sorry, Crow.” New arms wrapped around his back from the right. “Magenta’s comrades couldn’t move. It took us a while to carry them to a safe place.”

Kuroyukihime. And then on either side of these two—Takumu, Chiyuri, Fuko, Utai, Niko, Pard all stretched out their arms to form a tight scrum with Magenta and Avocado.

“We’re counting on you, Crow!” Takumu cried.

“Up to you now! Crush it!!” Niko shouted.

With two Enemies and eight allies—no, ten Burst Linkers—supporting him, Haruyuki nodded to the extent possible and then turned his resolve back to Metatron’s laser.

The members of the Magenta army, other than Avocado, had likely fallen because of the clash between the orders the ISS kits were giving and their own wills. In other words, in their hearts, they too wanted to come fight together, like Magenta and Avocado. To protect their comrades from the sudden threat assaulting them. No matter how the ISS kits polluted their minds, it could not extinguish the flames at the very depths of their souls. As long as they were Burst Linkers, those would never disappear.

“Unh…Ah…” Squeezing a groan from his throat, Haruyuki pushed his arms forward bit by tiny bit. The force pressing in on him threatened to instantly crush his avatar if his focus so much as wavered, but there was no longer any doubt in his heart.

When the angle of reflection had reached 120 degrees, the bent laser touched the tip of Midtown Tower. The marble wall was instantly red-hot, melting and shattering. Almost like a divine sword being brought down from on high, the laser cut the massive chalky tower in two. A terrain object of that size was, as a general rule, indestructible in the Unlimited Neutral Field, and yet, this laser had slid through it so easily; it was indeed a fearsome power.

The laser destroyed only one part of the building, fifty meters wide, but there was also the chance that the ISS kit main body somewhere on the upper floors had been hit directly. If he moved the laser from side to side, that probability would increase, but that, at least, was firmly outside the realm of possibility. He was mustering every ounce of his physical and mental energy, and yet it was all he could do to bring his arms straight down.

Yes. Don’t think of anything else.

He heard the voice again. That inorganic…and somehow inhuman voice didn’t even quaver despite coming in the midst of destruction so great that it was enough to split a landmark of the Accelerated World.

Keep going down. Aim for the laser’s emission point. Anything else will pass through.

—Pass through…? At this, Haruyuki finally remembered: Archangel Metatron was invisible outside of a Hell stage…and all attacks passed through it. But the mysterious voice was telling him there was a place where Metatron could take damage, even in this Twilight stage. This information didn’t come out at the meeting of the Seven Kings; which meant that the owner of the voice knew things that even the Seven Kings—no, the first Burst Linkers known as the Originators—didn’t.

Who in the world was it? The thought bubbled up in a corner of his mind, bounced, and disappeared. He only had the will left now to simply and precisely follow its instructions.

A hundred fifty degrees. A hundred sixty…A hundred seventy.

Already some percentage of the laser was overlapping with itself on the return trip, and he couldn’t keep his eyelids up in the dazzling light that the colliding energy released. The world was dyed in light and shadow, and Silver Crow’s arms bringing about this phenomenon shone with a pure-white light. It seemed like they would explode with the light-guiding rod at any second, but there was no fear inside Haruyuki. His hips, his back, both were being supported by eight—no, just for right now, ten friends. He felt their wills filling his avatar and giving him strength.

One hundred seventy-five degrees.

The bottom edge of the reflected laser touched the transparent head of Metatron. The outline only shone a little more brightly; nothing else happened. Not moving in the slightest, the large Enemy continued to fire its laser. But Haruyuki believed in himself and his friends and the mysterious voice, and continued to push his arms down. His elbows were already essentially straight. Carefully turning his arms, his palms up…With fingers snapped straight, he shot through the laser’s origin point.

One hundred eighty degrees.

Something happened.

At first, that was all he could feel. There was no explosion or roar, but he felt the laser—which should have continued to pass right through the Enemy—hit a small something. The pillar of light gradually decayed. The pressure weighing heavily on his entire body slowly slackened. It weakened, and then got still weaker…and disappeared.

Before he knew it, the pure-white radiance that had encompassed his field of view, the vibrating noise that drowned out all other sound, had vanished like they never existed. All he could hear was the sound of rubble falling in the distance from the cross section of Midtown Tower, that reached from the roof almost down to the base.

No, that wasn’t all: There was a strange noise, too, like the creaking of a large chunk of ice suddenly melting. Krak-krak, skree-skree. The foreboding sound steadily grew louder. And it seemed like Haruyuki wasn’t the only one who heard it; the clump of ten at his back also strained their ears, motionless.

Inside Haruyuki’s mind as he stood stock-still, he could hear that voice yet again.

It all starts now.

You must all fight with your entire might.

Skreeee!

The sound of collision threatened to rip the field itself apart—like the sound of acceleration when you called the Burst Link command, but amplified a thousand times.

And then Haruyuki saw it. Fifty meters away, the shell of space split and a figure appeared from inside.

What appeared first were widespread wings. Not those of a bird of prey. And they were different from Crow’s metallic fins, too. Looking like numerous complex tapestries all lined up, these wings had a span as great as the breadth of Midtown Tower. And there were two each on the right and left, for a total of four. The torso beneath the wings was composed of countless connected white rings. Beneath the torso, more than ten tube-shaped legs stretched out.

And the head was a massive sphere, perhaps seven, eight meters in diameter. This alone was basically the size of a Beast-class Enemy. Along the surface of the sphere, curving lines radiated outward and came together in one spot in the front, but this area alone was black, caved in. Probably where the organ to launch the laser—no, Trisagion—had been.

On the top of the round head sat a crown-like ring that shone platinum silver. And from the center of that, a curiously shaped horn stretched up. At a distance, he couldn’t see the details of the chaotic silhouette.

Haruyuki had confirmed this much when Kuroyukihime moved smoothly away from supporting his back. “There’s no mistake,” she announced, her voice quiet but still maximally tense. “That is the Legend-class Enemy, Archangel Metatron.”

Hearing this, the other nine slowly pulled away from Haruyuki. Finally, Haruyuki lowered the arms still crossed in front of him.

“Magenta Scissor,” Kuroyukihime murmured. “Can we hold off on our contest for a while? We must defeat this Enemy.”

“Why don’t you run?” Magenta replied in a similarly quiet voice. “I think you could escape now, yes?”

“If we run now, Crow’s hard work is for nothing. We’ve sealed away the laser, which is this monster’s greatest weapon. And its transparency has also been released. There is no time but now. After we defeat Metatron, we can recommence our fight if you wish.”

“…” After a slight silence, Magenta said to him, “The arrogance, hmm, just like the rumors. But…just this once, I’m not annoyed. We’ll fight another day…Let’s go, Avo.”

Magenta turned on her heel, and Avocado slowly roused himself to go after her, both of them still with the ISS kits on their chests, although the lids were half-closed. Which meant that the kit main body had not taken a direct hit and was still going strong somewhere inside that building.

In that moment, he honestly didn’t understand how they had fought the control of the kit, but he could say this at the very least: Magenta Scissor and Avocado Avoider had not abandoned their pride as Burst Linkers. Just that.

“Um, thank you, Magenta!” Haruyuki managed to call out toward her back as she started to walk to the north. “If you hadn’t held me up, I would have been evaporated.”

“…We both would have. And I’ll say a thank you for helping my friends.”

As she and Avocado walked away, Haruyuki saw their lower halves were scorched by the heat of the magma.

Magenta had to have understood. That the reason Haruyuki and his friends were fighting Metatron was to destroy the ISS kit main body inside Midtown Tower. And that once the main body was destroyed, the kit terminals that gave her and her comrades their strength would all lose that power.

Haruyuki saw the two of them off, an indescribable feeling in his heart. But he wasn’t given the time to sit with it.

Vsshn. An earth-shattering noise shook the field, and he whirled around.

Perhaps recovered from being shot in the head with its own laser, Metatron started to lumber forward. Haruyuki couldn’t see anything that looked like eyes anywhere, but even so, he felt a powerful gaze. An inorganic will to eliminate anyone who invaded its own territory.

“This is the critical moment of today’s mission.” Kuroyukihime stated, her voice clear with no hint of the exhaustion she must have felt. “Although we’ve sealed away the laser that is its main weapon, that does not change the fact that Metatron is a fearsome Enemy. But we must defeat it. Absolutely. Now, after Crow took on such an important role with such resolve and determination, we must match his efforts—”

“So basically, don’t go giving Burst Linkers a bad name!!” Waiting for the perfect moment to shout this out was, of course, Niko. Clenching her right hand into a fist, she thrust it at Metatron, who was steadily shambling forward. “I am so seriously on fire right now. Those ISS kit kids, they showed some serious guts. You guys, if we don’t put the fight up now, we might as well close up shop as Legions! Got it? No holding back! Knock that giant lump outta the park!”

To Niko’s king-upstaging speech, Utai immediately added:

“We’re gonna smack ’im good!”

The two red types had apparently gotten fairly close that day. In response, the other seven—with Kuroyukihime sounding just a little bit grumpy—all agreed, “Yeah!”