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Accel World - Volume 16 - Chapter 4




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4

Graaang! A roaring pressure wave hit Haruyuki from all directions. Color was returning to the world: the twilight sky spreading out without edge; the white buildings of the town below, crimson and violet; the shadow of the crater gouged out of the earth; the crimson avatar he held tightly in his arms.

And the ink-black lance charging from below to swallow the two up.

He didn’t even have the time to think about the lance, much less dodge it. Haruyuki pulled Niko tightly to him with one hand as he stretched the other out, five fingers splayed.

And then the mass of nihilistic energy reached Silver Crow’s right hand. If this had been before the shift to the Highest Level, Haruyuki and Niko would have been instantly vaporized. But just as the dark laser was on the verge of touching his palm, it stopped, sparks like lightning shooting off in every direction. It swelled up into a massive sphere and then flipped around. It shrank to a diameter of a mere thirty centimeters, but the energy it contained was not diminished. The incredibly dense ball of nothingness warped the surrounding sky and made his avatar’s armor squeal.

It’s going to explode!

Clutching the still-unconscious Niko to his chest, Haruyuki gritted his teeth. The fact that he was able to stop the laser with one hand was probably because the strength of his armor had been boosted up to the same level as Metatron’s main body. But the nihilistic attack of Mark II’s main armaments brought about a massive explosion when it made a direct hit and annihilated everything within the effective range—a diameter of 150 meters across. No matter how much stronger his armor was now, his health gauge had been cut down to a mere 5 percent. He highly doubted this would take him through to the other side of an explosion with enough energy to instantly erase the indestructible school building.

But then.

It’s all right. I will protect you.

An imposing, powerful voice echoed in his mind, just like the first time he’d had contact with Metatron.

Instantly, his health gauge was completely recovered, all the way to the right edge. And more than that: Six additional gauges appeared below it. If this was the number of gauges of Metatron’s second form, then she had an overwhelming endurance, surpassing even that of the five bars of Suzaku.

When Haruyuki shifted to hold Scarlet Rain more securely, the wings on his back—all three sets—wrapped tightly around them both. And then the negative Incarnate energy—collapsed to the extreme, a black hole—exploded at zero range.

All light and sound was lost. But the darkness that swallowed Haruyuki was the polar opposite of the silence of the Highest Level—a muddled hatred. This will itself, trying to destroy anything and everything, turned into a torrent of particles to assault his avatar. Tossed about like a small bird in a raging storm, Haruyuki desperately kept his body curled up and tried to protect both Niko and himself. The armor he’d gained from Metatron’s divine protection just barely withstood the raging dark energy, but it could not prevent the nihilistic damage permeating deep down to the naked body of the avatar inside. The seven-tiered health gauge began to drop with relentless ferocity.

At the same time, Haruyuki was assaulted by a fierce pain, like he was being pierced by hundreds of needles of ice, and he gritted his teeth as hard as he could. He earnestly suppressed the cries that rose up in his throat; after all, Metatron was probably feeling the same pain. Even if she was an Enemy of the highest order, praised as one of the Four Saints, at a glance, she was a serene lady, and if Metatron could withstand this, then Haruyuki couldn’t exactly sit here screaming.

In seconds, the seventh tier of his health gauge was drained, quickly followed by the sixth and the fifth. The force started to slow with the fourth tier, and then finally stopped at nearly carving away the third. The pain radiating through him gradually weakened and eventually faded away entirely. It seemed that Niko, in his arms, was also somehow safe.

In the steadily fading darkness, Haruyuki let out the breath he’d been holding in a long sigh. “That was close…I can’t believe it took five tiers of the gauge…”

“If I were the one fighting,” the Archangel’s voice replied immediately in his mind, “I wouldn’t have taken a direct hit to start with.”

“I—I guess not. But now that we’ve made it through the laser, we’re good. He can’t fire again for another sixty seconds, so we’ll settle this before—”

“Ascend!!” Metatron’s sharp voice shouted.

Reflexively, Haruyuki tried to shoot upward. But unfortunately, all his wings were wrapped around his body to protect Niko. He started to move a breath too late.

An enormous shadow plunged through the scattering darkness and appeared directly above him to charge at him with terrifying speed. The Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II. But they were five hundred meters off the ground.

It flew?! How?! It doesn’t have the power of flight!! Haruyuki’s shock turned to fear the instant he saw the inky flames gushing from the back of the massive body.

The basis for Mark II was the four Enhanced Armaments he’d stolen from the Red King. The center was the cockpit. Arms equipped with laser guns. Legs to support the super-massive weight. And the thruster blocks on its back.

Just as her nickname, Immobile Fortress, indicated, Niko stubbornly refused to move while Invincible was deployed. But it wasn’t that she couldn’t move. She didn’t have the same mobility as in Dreadnought mode, but if she went full throttle with her thrusters in Invincible mode, she could make the enormous steel bulk charge for a short time.

Mark II should have dropped back to the earth after Haruyuki’s Light Speed pulled it up into the heavens, but now it was clear that it had boosted the propulsive force of the thrusters with Incarnate energy and flown. Was this another technique it had developed on the fly?

Finally spreading his wings, Haruyuki tried to thrust away the incoming giant, but he was slow to gain speed. Although he’d had no choice, because he’d used his wings as armor, they had been minutely scratched by particles of darkness.

Directly below, Mark II’s massive arm drew near. Was it trying to grab him again? But its talons were clenched shut. If it was just a simple punch, then it couldn’t break Haruyuki’s armor the way he was now. Take it with his feet and use the reaction to ascend—

Zwannng! The heavy vibration echoed through the air, and a jet-black aura cloaked the steely fist. The other ISS kit Incarnate technique, Dark Blow. Its power would far surpass even the earlier Dark Shot.

“No! Evade!!” Metatron shouted.

“Nngh……!!”

Haruyuki flapped his injured wings with every ounce of strength he had. But the massive ball of darkness emitted a powerful gravity and tried to pull him back toward it. If he took a direct hit, he would inevitably be knocked out of existence, under the divine protection of an Archangel or not.

Beyond the shutter protecting Mark II’s lone eye, a light shone reddish-black, mixed with every possible negative emotion. Haruyuki heard a faint moaning.

Deelooroo…Rip. Crush. Erase. Smash. Break. Break. Break-break-break-break-break-break.

A moaning that sounded like a curse.

I will not allow it. A bracing voice cut through the unearthly chant. Silver Crow is my companion of a thousand years. I will not allow such an abominable power to break him!

Haruyuki turned his palm toward the inky vortex charging him and unconsciously added his own voice to Metatron’s powerful cry.

““Trisagion!!””

The six wings on his back caught the eternal twilight and flashed brilliantly as a pure-white beam gushed from his palm.

Darkness and light collided, and the color disappeared from the world once more. Above the border where the two opposing affinity energies fought against each other: white. Below: black. In this world of extreme monochrome, Haruyuki felt one thing very keenly.

Metatron was converting her very existence into energy. As proof of this, even though Haruyuki himself was not taking any damage, the remaining two tiers of his health gauge were dropping before his eyes. She had to do this to produce a light powerful enough to counteract Mark II’s Dark Blow.

After Metatron had been moved from her dungeon, her superpowerful laser attack, Trisagion, had turned Midtown Tower into an impenetrable fortress. The source of that energy was the light of the sun absorbed through her wings. But in contrast with the wings of Metatron’s first form, a massive body that covered the sky, the Metatron Wings on Haruyuki’s back had been shrunk to match his avatar’s size. Metatron was supplying the missing energy by transforming her own self into light.

No, Metatron! You’ll disappear!! Haruyuki prayed, lost to himself. But the laser emitted from his right hand actually grew brighter. The border between light and dark was steadily pushed downward.

But abruptly, he heard a calm voice in his mind.

“This is acceptable. The time since I encountered you at that tower where I was bound has been so fruitful as to be incomparable with the rest of my eight thousand years of life.

“I have spoken with you at length; seen much; learned much. And I realized something very precious. Or perhaps something more important than the reason this world exists.”

Metatron’s voice was fading bit by bit into transparency.

“What did you realize?” Haruyuki asked, desperately trying to maintain their connection.

“Given who you are, perhaps you realized this long ago,” the voice replied lightly with a hint of laughter. “It’s…the fact that you little warriors and we Beings are exactly the same in nature. Only the vessel differs…We are souls who think the same way, suffer the same way, and seek the same way.”

Metatron’s answer brought a sudden surge of tears to his eyes. In his blurred field of view, his health gauge continued to drop relentlessly. The last tier was cut in half, into the yellow. Finally, red. When it returned to Haruyuki’s original 5 percent, Metatron would disappear.

“That’s…,” Haruyuki murmured as particles of light touched the bare cheeks of his avatar beneath his cracked goggles. Well, of course we are. I mean, you and me, we met, we talked, we made a promise…We said we’d see the end of the world together. We’d break into the Castle together, charge the Shrine of the Eight Divines, and touch The Fluctuating Light.

So…you can’t. You can’t disappear now. You can’t say such weak stuff. It’s no big deal for me to die once at least in this world. I can just come back to life after sixty minutes. So…So…

The remainder in his health gauge dropped from 20 percent to 10. Almost like a ribbon unraveling, the connection with Metatron was slipping away. The warmth that had been right beside his heart ever since he’d been given the Metatron Wings receded.

Then, a faint voice came to him from the distance.

“This is enough. If it is to strike a blow against your enemy…and the enemy of this world, then I regret nothing.”

“But…But we promised, didn’t we?!” he pleaded. “Together, we’d…Together…”

“My servant…must not cry.

“I know you will reach it someday.

“The end of this Accelerated World we live in…

“This…Accel World.”

The depletion of his gauge stopped with 5 percent remaining. At the same time, the light of Trisagion flashed powerfully bright and shot through the border with the darkness.

“Unh…Aah…Aaaaaaaaaaah!!” Haruyuki cried out, overwhelmed by loss, now that his bond with Metatron was completely severed.

The laser rapidly weakened, and the light and darkness broke up into pieces and disappeared. From the other side of that boundary, he saw Mark II, its right arm snapped off. Still clutching Niko to him, Haruyuki clenched his right hand into a fist, and a silver light welled up in it. Six wings roared from his back.

Badly injured, Mark II started to drop to earth, now that its thrusters had cut out, and Haruyuki chased after it.

“Deel…roo-rooo-aah!!” With an angry howl, Mark II reached out its remaining hand. Perhaps intending to grab hold of him again, the sinister claws strained, wide open.

But Haruyuki accelerated harder and slammed his fist directly into the center of the massive hand. The three talons were ripped off from the base, and the remaining wrist area jetted black flames and exploded.

Not yet. Fasterrrrrrr!

“Unnh…Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!” Adding his own roar to the mix, Haruyuki became a dazzling-white shooting star and plunged into the giant’s head. His fist struck the shutter armor protecting the single eye. Cracks radiated outward in the six armored flaps, but they failed to shatter and managed to repel his fist.

“Roo-roo-roo-dee-aaaaaah!!” Mark II fell to the ground four hundred meters below, taking Haruyuki along for the ride as it brandished its left arm with a battle cry full of hatred. It might have been missing everything past the wrist, but if that trunk of an arm made direct contact with Haruyuki, his health gauge and its remaining 5 percent would be knocked out of existence.

He’d concentrated all his energy in his fist and his wings; he could no longer evade or defend. His sole thought to punch all the way through, he flew in earnest. The armor of the lone eye stubbornly endured, even as the fissures across it doubled, then tripled. From above, the giant cudgel of an arm thundered downward.

“I won’t…let you!” Niko shouted, still in Haruyuki’s arm.

Having apparently regained consciousness at some point, the small crimson avatar leapt out and slammed her battered and beaten body into Mark II’s left arm. Shedding chunks of armor, she fired one gunshot after another into the damaged landscape of the wrist where the talons had been. A series of small explosions went off inside the arm, and it stopped moving.

“I’ll hold back the arm!” Niko looked back, her eye lenses shining with a powerful light. “Crow! You…finish this!!”

“……!!”

Haruyuki clenched his hand tightly, as hard as he could.

Metatron had burned up her very essence when she activated Trisagion. Niko was risking her tiny, beaten body to protect him. Pard had launched a suicide attack with Bloodshed Cannon to rescue him and Niko when they were captive in Mark II’s hands. And Takumu and Chiyuri were waiting on the ground, trusting in Haruyuki’s victory. Fuko, Utai, Akira, and Kuroyukihime were also working hard at that moment, racing to this battleground.

And it wasn’t just his comrades. Ash Roller/Rin Kusakabe—enduring the suffering brought about by the ISS kit in the nurse’s office in the real world. Magenta Scissor and Avocado Avoider, who’d had Haruyuki’s back in the battle with Metatron’s first form. Chocolat Puppeteer of the Legion Petit Paquet, who’d fought Magenta’s troops with him. Trilead Tetroxide, who had helped him escape from the Castle. Chrome Falcon and Saffron Blossom—and the Beast—who shared with him the sadness produced by the Armor of Catastrophe.

The many Burst Linkers who had crossed fists with Haruyuki up to that point. Reina Izeki from the Animal Care Club, who wasn’t a Burst Linker, but who nonetheless taught him a good many things about mirrors. The northern white-faced owl, Hoo, who gave him the courage to fly. And his destined rival, Wolfram Cerberus, imprisoned in the massive armor before his eyes. These connections with many—so very many—people had guided Haruyuki and given him strength.

The red light that had transformed Niko’s Enhanced Armament and wiped out Cerberus III/Dusk Taker’s self was probably the negative Incarnate energy accumulated in the ISS kit main body. The energy alone had been sent from the main body hidden away in Midtown Tower to the Acceleration Research Society headquarters and was now lodged in the armor. Which meant that the single eye before Haruyuki—the fiercely flashing reddish-black light in the darkness inside—was a mass of Incarnate extracted from all those who had been parasitized by the ISS kit. It was only natural, then, that Mark II’s Dark Shot and Dark Blow had such incredible power. They used the anger and hatred, the utter despair, of dozens of people as their energy source.

But. What power do my fists, my wings contain now?

“More than yours, tens of times…hundreds, thousands of times!” Jets of silver aura gushed from his fist to envelop his body and turn him into a pillar of flames from his six wings. “Strong…gerrrrrrrrrr!!”

The shutter armor protecting the lone eye of the Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II, shattered into pieces.

The instant Haruyuki’s fist plunged into the inky hole, a concentric shock wave spread out, rippling in all directions. A pillar of white light soared up in the center, connecting heaven and earth.

Having completely smashed Mark II’s head, Haruyuki continued to chase the giant, now motionless and still falling, and plunged toward the earth at an incredible speed. He no longer had the extra power to decelerate, much less land. If he made another crater in the center of the initial crater, his health gauge would be totally emptied at the same time, and he’d die—a calculation he made in less than a millisecond.

But when he was at fifty meters above the ground, the Metatron Wings on his back automatically generated a reverse thrust. Still, his speed didn’t really drop, but now that Haruyuki had recovered a bit of his strength and had a little room to breathe, he worked hard to shift his body while using his original metal wings to decelerate. He just barely succeeded in landing on both feet.

Unable to entirely absorb the impact, his health gauge was carved away another percent or so. But he was still alive. Almost as if to confirm his survival, the four upper wings vibrated slightly. But when he looked over his shoulder, he was back to his original pair of wings. The other four had soundlessly turned to light and scattered.

In the left of his vision, a system message modestly scrolled by, informing him that the Enhanced Armament, Metatron Wings, had been unequipped. The wings had also left Haruyuki, now that their original owner was gone. A sharp, sad pain pierced his chest, and he fought the urge to sink to his knees.

But he still had work to do.

“Niko!” Haruyuki called hoarsely, looking to the sky.

He first saw the massive body of Mark II falling to the ground, arms and legs limp. Its head was completely gone, and black noxious gas seeped from the cracks in its shattered armor like oily smoke. Its right arm had been destroyed by Trisagion and was missing from the shoulder, but the majority of its left arm was still in good shape, and Haruyuki spotted a red light of reflection at its end.

“Niko!” he yelled. “You have to jump!!”

Fortunately, his voice seemed to reach her; the crimson light pulled away from the giant’s bulk. Haruyuki turned toward the southern side of the crater where the little avatar would land and ran frantically on weak legs. Given that Niko’s health gauge may or may not have had 10 percent left in it, even if she managed to avoid getting dragged into Mark II’s plunge into the earth, she’d die if she fell from that height.

He didn’t have the strength to fly anymore, so he was staggering forward on foot when a shadow overtook him. A deep-red, leopard-type avatar—Blood Leopard. She, too, was severely injured after her special attack, Bloodshed Cannon, but when she reached the point of Niko’s descent a few seconds before Haruyuki, she jumped up and caught the red avatar on her back.

She very nearly fell over when she landed, and Haruyuki, finally reaching her side, held her up with one hand. He caught Niko with the other and sank to his knees with a clank.

“…Thanks, Pard…Ya did it, Crow. ’Mazing…Sendin’ that sucker flyin’…”

He heard a murmur in his ear, and Haruyuki managed a pained smile. “It’s ’cause you saved me, Niko. Thanks.”

An enormous sense of loss still ruled his heart. Archangel Metatron had given Haruyuki wings, become an icon and guided him through enemy territory, shown him to the Highest Level and given him a glimpse of the true form of the Accelerated World, and in the end, had transformed her very essence into light to strike down an enormously powerful enemy. And now she was gone. He couldn’t actually believe it. His tears threatened to spill out once more, but he gritted his teeth beneath his cracked mirrored goggles and held them back. He wasn’t allowed to cry just yet. Still holding Niko, he staggered to his feet and looked back.

The massive bulk of Mark II was just about to hit the ground. The reddish-black iron giant crashed back-first into the center of the crater it had made, and floods of miasmic vapors jetted from its joints and the openings where its head and left arm had been.

Haruyuki assumed the dull black smoke was Incarnate energy rendered visible, but the true nature of the “darkness” that lived in Mark II remained inside the massive body. Similarly to Mark I’s Beast, something was possessing the Enhanced Armament itself, system-wise; so as long as the armor existed, the darkness would also linger. There was only one way to make it disappear.

“Haruuuuuu!!”

Incredibly, he heard a voice shouting from behind…followed by the sound of two pairs of feet. Turning once more, he saw Lime Bell and Cyan Pile running toward them from the crater’s southern edge. He waved to signal them and responded with what voice he could muster. “Chiyu! Taku! Over here!”

Chiyuri waved back, and a few seconds later, she was standing next to Haruyuki and the others. She sighed heavily. “Sorry we’re late. We had a hard time finding any buildings I could break…”

“It’s okay. The fight…just ended,” he replied reassuringly, barely able to keep the tremors from his voice. He turned back to the center of the crater.

The five stared silently for a time at the giant in its death throes. The gas seemed to be nearly exhausted; only a thin trail of smoke rose from the head area. Somehow, the armor seemed smaller now. The limbs were wriggling helplessly, but even this movement gradually grew sluggish.

“If you would, Chiyu,” Haruyuki said.

The Watch Witch, Lime Bell, nodded deeply and took a few steps forward. She brandished the Choir Chime of her left arm. When she waved it in two large counterclockwise circles, something that sounded reminiscent of the chime of a school bell filled the crater.

“Citron Caaaaallllll!!” She brought down the large bell, and a yellow-green light spilled out and enveloped the giant on the ground.

The last time, Mark II had changed into Dreadnought mode and shaken off Citron Call with its mobility. But it looked like it no longer had the power now to stand up, much less transform. Even when the light hit it, it only twisted slightly, not enough to escape.

Seven seconds, eight, nine…Ten seconds.

The light blanketing Mark II grew dazzlingly bright. The arms and the nihilistic lasers that had so tortured Haruyuki and his friends—or to be precise, the forearm of the remaining left arm—melted into an infinity of glittering lights and vanished.

At the same time, a light of the same color wrapped around Niko, still in Haruyuki’s arms. Citron Call’s power to go back in time had returned the main armament of Invincible to its original owner. And ten seconds after that, Mark II’s legs vanished. All that remained were the streamlined cockpit and the thruster block on its back.


With her right hand on the large bell of her left and her thin legs firmly braced, Lime Bell continued to make the fresh green light flow. Looking at the small, reliable back of his childhood friend, Haruyuki had a sudden thought in the bottom of his heart. Would they be able to rewind the extinction of Metatron with Citron Call? In a certain sense, Metatron had possessed Haruyuki, so if they rewound Haruyuki’s status, then maybe…

Mark II’s massive body flashed brightly a third time, and the torso that made him think of a type of shelled creature disappeared. The cockpit block had returned to Niko. And then there was a sharp metallic sound. Kashak!

Haruyuki gasped, his eyes still on the center of the crater. There was a slender avatar with gray metal armor lying on the ground. Wolfram Cerberus. A duel genius, toyed with by an unfortunate fate. Haruyuki’s rival and dear friend.

There was no doubt that the sharply edged design and the extremely hard armor texture were Cerberus, but four protrusions almost like wings stretched out from his back. The thruster block for high-speed movement, the last Enhanced Armament that Cerberus III/the Nomi copy had taken from Niko, had shrunk to match the size of Cerberus’s body.

The light of Citron Call continued to firmly hold Cerberus. In another few seconds, the thruster would also be returned to Niko, and the Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II, would be completely eliminated. Haruyuki—and probably the other four, too—believed this. But none could have predicted what happened next.

Still unconscious on the ground, Wolfram Cerberus abruptly vanished, almost as though he’d been an immaterial projection.

“What?!” Chiyuri cried out, whirling her head around.

Haruyuki also looked around the crater, dumbfounded, but there was no sign of Cerberus anywhere.

He’d been lying prone on the ground. It was absolutely impossible for him to have run away so quickly that the five of them hadn’t seen him. Haruyuki could only assume he’d vanished from the field without warning.

Having lost its target, the light of Citron Call quickly weakened, and as it faded completely, Niko, still in Haruyuki’s arms, clicked her tongue.

“Tch! Is that it? They got us!!”

“Huh? Got us? What?” he asked hurriedly in response.

“Them…” The Red King clenched her injured hand ruefully. “They cut off Wolfram Cerberus’s connection from the real world. The way he disappeared, that’s the only thing possible.”

“O-of course!” Takumu groaned. “I thought Black Vise and Argon Array were a little too happy to walk away…I never dreamed they’d use a trick like this.”

“Nngh.” Staring at the fissure in the center of the crater, Haruyuki clenched his teeth in simultaneous shock and understanding. He’d thought from the way Argon Array talked that she might be able to interfere with Cerberus in the real, too. But not that she would activate a forced disconnect without the least hesitation. And he was sure it hadn’t been to help Cerberus.

Here, his surprise finally changed to worry, and he hurried to ask Takumu, “S-so then, Taku, what about the last piece of Niko’s Enhanced Armament?!”

It wasn’t Takumu who answered him, but Niko herself. “If he’s vanished from the Unlimited Neutral Field, there’s nothing we can do about it. Guess I’ll just have to leave the thruster with him for the time being.”

“B-but—!”

“No way around it. Let’s just be glad we got the cockpit, main armament, and legs back. And he didn’t get the missile pods to start with.”

“B-but…” She was so clear and certain, though, that he couldn’t really say anything more than that.

Jumping down from his arms, the Red King took a few steps and put a hand on Pard’s back. The leopard avatar was also glaring regretfully at the center of the crater, but as a veteran Linker, she likely understood that they really could do nothing about it now.

Grrrr. She responded to the contact with a low growl and turned toward Haruyuki and the others.

Blood Leopard, one of the Red Legion’s Triplex, and Prominence’s leader, Scarlet Rain, both dipped their heads deeply at the same time. When they finally straightened up again, Niko looked at each of them in turn. “Silver Crow. Cyan Pile. And Lime Bell. Because of my cowardice, I put you in a seriously bad sitch.”

“What?!” Chiyuri cried, waving a hand in front of her face. “Don’t be so cold, Niko! We’re friends, aren’t we?! It’s only natural we help out when one of us is in trouble!”

“That’s right, Red King,” Takumu continued. “The two of you have helped us out any number of times before, after all.”

Of course, Haruyuki tried to say something as well, but Chiyuri stole his turn from him. “And I’m sorry, too. I couldn’t get all your Enhanced Armaments back…If I’d built up my special-attack gauge a minute—no, thirty seconds faster, I could’ve gotten back the last one before they pulled Cerberus’s cable…”

“Now, that’s cold, Bell. No, oh, um…” Suddenly tongue-tied, Niko scratched the damaged antenna parts on her head. “So, like, what should I call you? Not your avatar name, but somethin’ from your real name.”

After a moment of surprise, Chiyuri pulled at the brim of her triangle hat as if embarrassed. “Oh, that doesn’t really matter. Kuroyukihime calls me Chiyuri, and Sister Fuko calls me Chiiko…”

“Th-that so? ’Kay, I’ll think about it. Anyway, thanks. Seriously.” Niko offered her thanks once more.

Takumu cleared his throat. “Red King, I also don’t mind whatever you’d prefer to call me.”

“I already got a great one for you, Professor.”

“…C-certainly. That’s that, then.”

Chiyuri started to laugh out loud at this, and the air in the place eased up the slightest bit.

Haruyuki also let his shoulders relax and looked down at the bottom of the crater once more. Wolfram Cerberus had left the Unlimited Neutral Field through a forced disconnection, still equipped with the last of the parts that made up Invincible. Which meant that although the majority of the Incarnate energy accumulated in the Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II, had dissipated into the air, it would still continue to exist as an item in Cerberus’s storage.

Had the darkness already disappeared from the thruster block, just as Mark I, aka the Disaster, had been purified and returned to the Destiny? Or was the evil transferred from the ISS kit main body still lurking, weakened, in the Enhanced Armament? He had no way of knowing that right now.

Cerberus. And Niko. I promise. I’ll completely eliminate Mark II and return the final part to where it belongs. Absolutely.

At almost the same time as Haruyuki made this vow in his heart, a cry slipped from Takumu’s mouth. “Ah!” Under the collected gazes of his comrades, the large blue avatar took a step toward Niko. “Th-that reminds me. It’s not just Cerberus. The Red King should also be disconnecting soon.”

“Me? Why?” Niko sounded baffled, but Chiyuri and Pard exchanged looks that said, Now that you mention it…

“Because Master, Raker, and the others were returning to the real world through the portal at Midtown Tower to pull out the Red King’s cable. On Haru’s instruction.”

“Th-that’s okay now,” Haruyuki hurried to interject. “I think. Kuroyukihime and them are on their way from Midtown. They must have seen Mark II’s attack and decided to come here.”

“How do you know that, Haru?” It was only natural for Chiyuri to ask the question, but he couldn’t answer it so simply. Because he’d seen Kuroyukihime’s team moving when he was looking out over the entire Accelerated World after Metatron brought him to the Highest Level. The only one who could explain properly was Metatron, but she would never tell the story again. Pushing back the painful sensation that welled up in his throat once more, Haruyuki said, “I’ll explain later. At any rate, they should be here soon. They’re coming from that direction.” He indicated the northern edge of the crater, and everyone turned their eyes in that direction.

At basically the same time, a black silhouette rose over the edge carved smoothly out of the ground. One, two, three, four…five, six, seven…Staring dumbfounded at the shadows that continued to grow in number and surround the crater, Haruyuki remembered that he’d seen something similar once before.

It had been five months earlier when they were headed to the Ikebukuro Area in the Unlimited Neutral Field with Niko, who had asked them to help catch the fifth Chrome Disaster, aka Cherry Rook. Crypt Cosmic Circus, led by the Yellow King, Yellow Radio, had ambushed them and put Haruyuki and his friends into serious danger.

It can’t be…He swallowed hard and then suddenly noticed that not only were nearly all the silhouettes shaped differently from duel avatars, but some among them were rather large for avatars. In other words, they were…

“No way. Are those all Enemies?” Chiyuri murmured, and belatedly, Haruyuki remembered.

It hadn’t been just Kuroyukihime and the others heading for this crater. Enemies of varying sizes were converging from all directions, drawn in by the “sound” of the Incarnate techniques. They were mainly Lesser class with only two or three larger Wild class, but there were far too many to be able to fight all at once.

“Aah, well. Only natural given how everyone was using Incarnate left and right,” Niko commented.

“NP.” Pard, now back to human form, spoke for the first time in a while. “Crow will fly us all out of here.”

“L-leave it to me!”

Wait, what? I mean, Metatron Wings…They don’t exist anymore. Each time he remembered his parting with the Archangel, loneliness made his heart heavy, but this was not the time for sniffling.

Even though he hadn’t even been equipped with the Metatron Wings for a full hour, his back felt so much lighter without them. He put his strength into it and spread his two silver wings. He should at least be able to get four people out of the crater with his own flight ability.

“Everyone! Grab on!” Haruyuki cried, spreading his arms, and just like when they had dodged Mark II’s laser, Pard and Niko leapt onto his left arm while Takumu and Chiyuri grabbed his right. He revved his wings with enough force to use up the last of his special-attack gauge, and— “Nngh!”

Too heavy.

No, it wasn’t because of his burden. He wasn’t getting any lift with his wings. In addition to the damage the silver fins had taken in the many fierce battles, his mental exhaustion also dulled his flying ability. It wasn’t quite the Incarnate System, but Silver Crow’s flight ability mainly used imagination circuits for its control, so for better or for worse, his mental level affected it at the extremes. Even so, he managed somehow to ascend about ten meters, but there were more than a few Enemies with long-distance attack abilities. They would need to fly three times that high to safely escape the crater.

“Unh…Aaah!” Howling, he sincerely tried to get some thrust in his wings. But he merely used up his special-attack gauge; he couldn’t get more altitude.

And perhaps the unstable high frequencies his wings were emitting stimulated the Enemies; over twenty of various sizes surrounding the crater began to run, letting out curious cries.

“Y-you okay, Haru?” Takumu asked uneasily.

“You can do it, Haru!” Chiyuri cheered.

Normally, the encouragement of his two childhood friends gave him more energy than anything else, but right now, the gaping hole in his heart sucked all the vitality out of it. Belatedly, he realized the reason he couldn’t fly wasn’t only the damage to his wings and his mental exhaustion. It was no good. He couldn’t fly anymore. At least, not until he could be by himself and cry out loud.

“…Guys, I’m sorry…” Apologizing weakly, he helplessly dropped back down.

And then, a crimson light poured down from the sky. Countless fiery beams shot down to surround Haruyuki and his friends, and they had no sooner landed inside the crater than pillars of pure-red flames were jetting upward.

Outflanked by the flames, the Enemies lost sight of their prey and moved about in confusion, howling.

His surprise made him forget his defeat for the moment, at least, and as he continued to just barely hover, he turned his head back up toward the sky and saw a pale-blue light flickering and flying across the evening sky dyed its madder-red.

“Strato-Shooter,” Pard murmured, hanging on to Haruyuki’s left side. There was no mistaking it. That light was the jet of Sky Raker’s Enhanced Armament, Gale Thruster.

As the five stared upward, the shooting star abruptly split into two. The newly born light was a deeper red than the twilight. Falling in a straight line toward Haruyuki and the others, the light soon revealed the form of a duel avatar. Armor patterned after hakama trousers and a white robe. Adornments resembling long hair. A large bow in the right hand.

Testarossa Ardor Maiden drew her longbow Flame Caller as she fell and shouted the name of the technique loud enough for Haruyuki and the others to hear. “Flame Vortex!”

This time, a single flaming arrow was released. But this instantly grew enormous—into a lance of whirling flames—and plunged down right in front of the Wild-class Enemies about to recommence their charge from the southern side.

Of course, it was no match for Mark II’s nihilistic laser, which had created the crater itself, but even so, it brought about a massive explosion like an air-to-ground missile, and at the same time as it pushed Haruyuki and the others to the north side, it knocked the massive Wild-class bodies back.

Ardor Maiden used the blast she had produced to kill the force of her descent and land gently in the bottom of the crater. She looked up at Haruyuki and the others seven meters in the air and shouted, “C! Please escape that way!” The small hand gestured toward the northern edge of the crater. But there, too, five or six Enemies, including a scorpion-shaped Wild-class, had leapt over the initial flames to approach them. The scorpion’s tail was brandished high, and even if they got moving, it didn’t look like they’d be able to escape its sinister stinger.

But the instant Haruyuki heard Maiden’s instruction, his wilting vitality was stirred, and he flew to the north. Even if he couldn’t ascend, he might be able to manage a horizontal half glide—now that Utai and Fuko had come to help them.

Holding Takumu tightly on his right and Pard on his left, he charged forward with all the speed he could muster. Ardor Maiden raced along on the ground beneath them with nimble steps befitting her form.

The scorpion Enemy ahead of them sensed the approach of its prey and boldly readied its large tail and claws. Utai drew her bow and launched a series of flame arrows. True to their aim, they plunged into the scorpion’s body and enveloped the Enemy in flames, but it didn’t stop moving.

“Crap. That thing’s shell is fire resistant,” Niko groaned, reaching out for the handgun on her hip. But before she could draw it, a flood of water poured down from behind the scorpion, hit the red-hot carapace, and instantly evaporated.

The white steam that puffed up blinded the scorpion and the small Enemies around it. Maiden didn’t hesitate to plunge into the steam, and Haruyuki flew in earnest to take advantage of this chance to slip above the scorpion. Body swinging from side to side, he tried nevertheless to somehow get through the circle of Enemies.

The scorpion’s tail rose furiously, piercing the white steam directly below. Perhaps the tail itself had a homing function; the darkly glistening stinger closed in unerringly on Haruyuki’s chest. He couldn’t avoid it or defend against it. He’d be beaten down. No, his health gauge would be emptied.

And then, beneath the steam, a crimson-red light flashed brightly. At the same time, a clear and powerful call to pierce the depths of his heart:

“Death By Embracing!!”

The scorpion Enemy’s tail was cut off at the base, and the stinger shattered fleetingly as though made of glass before it could plunge into Haruyuki’s chest. The Wild-class Enemy let out a high-pitched shriek before pulling in the Lesser-class Enemies around it and causing collateral damage.

As he cut through the countless fragments dancing through the air to keep moving forward, Haruyuki strained his eyes to look directly down. He saw Ardor Maiden nimbly dodging the scorpion’s legs as she advanced—and running alongside her, a jet-black avatar. The Black King, World End, Black Lotus.

In which case, the water that had come pouring down to produce the steamy smoke screen had been launched by The One, Aqua Current. The four Legion members they’d left behind at Midtown Tower had probably fought the ISS kit main body, crushed it, and without taking even the briefest of breaks, had advanced on the ruins of this school. All to save Haruyuki and the others.

As Kuroyukihime ran seven meters below him, he saw that the sword tips of all her limbs had been smashed, and her armor was covered in damage. Utai, Fuko flying far up in the sky above, and Akira, waiting on the edge of the crater, were no doubt also ferociously exhausted.

“Kuroyukihime…Master…Mei…Curren…!” By calling their names, he stirred up a power in him on the verge of being exhausted. Following a gentle diagonal, Haruyuki earnestly ascended, and his friends called out to him from either side.

“Just a little farther, Haru!”

“Haru, you can do it!”

“Crow, I know you can fly!”

“WTG, Crow!”

Their cheers were drowned out by the shaking of the earth. The group of Enemies were regrouping from the damage and chaos and chasing after them. Another thirty meters until they were out of the crater…Twenty…

“Unh. Ah! Aaaah!” With a cry, he dug up the last of his strength and flew the remaining distance.

The instant he passed the sharp edge of the earth, like a knife had gouged its insides out, and found himself above the wide road, his special-attack gauge and his mental energy depleted at the same time. Even his field of view grew dim, and without the leeway to take on a landing posture, Haruyuki leaned forward and fell. But as he was on the verge of plunging into the ground face-first, powerful arms pulled him back from either side. Takumu and Pard had hit the ground with their own feet and propped Haruyuki up.

“GJ.” Pard was supposedly glued to him, but her voice sounded far away for some reason.

His body was heavy, like he had no strength in his limbs. But this wasn’t the time to collapse. More than twenty Enemies were also quickly climbing the slope of the crater. They had to get as much distance as they could now, while they were temporarily out of the Enemies’ sight.

Haruyuki desperately tried to stand up, when a hard, sharp, and somehow gentle hand patted his shoulder.

“You did well, Silver Crow.”

“…Kuro…yuki…,” he said hoarsely, managing to turn his face to see a hazy, jet-black avatar with broken arms stretched out before him.

Takumu and Pard held Haruyuki up while Kuroyukihime stepped forward and hugged him to her tenderly. “Leave the rest to us. Rest. You fought your battle magnificently.”

“But. From behind. Enemies…”

“Don’t worry. I couldn’t help you in your most trying time. Let me open a path of retreat at the very least,” she insisted.

“Thanks to how hard you fought, C, we still have plenty of energy!” Utai agreed, having climbed the slope with their king.

“We’ll take care of everything else.” Akira had also appeared from somewhere.

Finally, Fuko danced down from the sky with a light propulsive sound to finish up. “Corvus, you sit back and rest now.”

The shaking of the earth caused by the charging Enemies would be upon them soon enough. Kuroyukihime left Haruyuki to Takumu and whirled around with a sharp tak to stand on the edge of the crater. Utai, Akira, and Fuko stepped forward to either side of her. The four were just as injured as Haruyuki and his team, or even more so. To the point where Fuko switched from Gale Thruster to her wheelchair; both her legs were gone from the knee down. But there was not a hint of fear or cowardice in the Black King and the Four Elements.

“Honestly, just can’t be beat,” Niko murmured very close to him.

Right, they really can’t be beat, Haruyuki agreed in his heart.

All they could do was fight. Kuroyukihime and the others would never give up on this Burst Linker basic, this deepest secret and condition. As long as there were enemies standing in their way, as long as they had hands they could clench into fists, as long as they existed, they would fight.

They would keep fighting.

But that’s me, too. There’s still an enemy I need to fight. The Acceleration Research Society. They ran off with the last of Niko’s Enhanced Armament; they still have Wolfram Cerberus. And the Society leader who not only uses so many Enemies, but also toys with the memories of Burst Linkers who’ve lost all their points.

It’s all I can do right now to stay on my feet, but I’m going to keep fighting them. And then someday, I’ll break through the Castle gate, attack the Shrine of the Eight Divines, and reach the last Arc. To learn about the end of the world that Kuroyukihime—and Metatron—have sought.

With the injured scorpion in the lead, the rampaging Enemies crested the crater edge and danced forward.

A fierce light jetted from Kuroyukihime, Fuko, Utai, and Akira. Their massive, joint technique knocked the Enemy group flying. Howling, the various forms tumbled back into the crater and kicked and struggled for a few seconds, but even after they got back to their feet, they seemed to have lost their fight; they didn’t move.

Kuroyukihime whirled around and announced crisply, “Today’s battle appears to have ended here. The closest portal is in the Metropolitan Central Library a kilometer ahead. Now…”

She turned the sword of her right hand due north.

“Let’s go home. To the real world.”

 



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