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Accel World - Volume 21 - Chapter 4




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4

Haruyuki and his friends moved east along the aurora wall and climbed up to the overhead tracks of the Tokaido Main Line before heading north toward Shiba Park. The overhead line was bracketed in soundproofing steel, so if he flew just barely above the tracks, they wouldn’t be visible from the ground. They’d also considered going via the Chuo Shinkansen tunnel that ran parallel underground, but if they encountered a large Enemy down there, they would have nowhere to run. Holding Lime Bell and Trilead in his arms, Haruyuki flew at what was essentially top speed.

“Servant, it is forty-one minutes and forty seconds until the regeneration of Sky Raker and the others,” Metatron said coolly.

“Th-thanks. But that’s a weird number to—,” he started, then quickly understood. “Oh, so twenty-five hundred seconds?”

“To be precise, there are two thousand four hundred ninety-one seconds left.”

“…Gr-great.” He thanked her again and increased his flight speed slightly. When she said forty minutes, he felt like they had a decent amount of time, but 2,500 seconds felt like it would fly by in the blink of an eye. Human perception of time was a strange thing.

But for Metatron, who was an AI, one second was always one second—unchanging information generated by the real-time clock IC of the Brain Burst central server somewhere in Japan. And this was accelerated a thousand times faster than the real world. During a day Haruyuki spent in the real world, a period of a thousand days would pass for Metatron. She herself often said that this amount of time was like a “moment’s slumber,” but he wondered if that were really the case. She had been given an extremely precise sense of time, so wouldn’t a day, a month, a year be something longer and further out than anything Haruyuki had experienced?

Once this fight was over, he would stay for as long as he could in the Mean Level and talk to Metatron about all kinds of things. So resolved, he focused his mind on what was ahead.

The overhead tracks curved hard to the right just ahead of Tamachi Station on the parallel Yamanote Line. Instead of turning along with it, he flew straight ahead, crossing the soundproofing wall, and charged down Sakurada-dori.

“Ah!” Chiyuri cried out quietly from his left arm. She pointed straight ahead.

At the end of the road stretching out in a straight line, an iron tower bathed in the morning sun, red like blood, significantly taller than the surrounding buildings. The tip of the tower was invisible, a construction of complicated trusses swallowed up by the low clouds of the Demon City stage.

“That’s the old Tokyo Tower!” she cried.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen the old Tokyo Tower so close up in the Accelerated World,” Lead said from Haruyuki’s other arm.

“Right.” Chiyuri frowned slightly. “I guess it must look teensy from the Castle.”

“Yes. I’ve always wanted to go see it someday.”

As he listened to them talk, Haruyuki narrowed his eyes at the tip of the structure. Hidden there were Fuko’s player home, given the name Fufuan, and a portal. For all their cunning, he couldn’t imagine that the White Legion had managed to place an Enemy at a height of 333 meters aboveground, but unfortunately, the old Tokyo Tower was outside the wall of light.

They flew straight along Sakurada-dori, slipped under the expressway overpass, and turned right onto Gaien Higashi-dori when a vast space appeared before his eyes. Shiba Park, surrounded by rows of tall trees in the real world.

“I’m going down!” Haruyuki warned his companions before spreading his wings to decelerate, coming down to land on the tiled road.

The plaza on the north side of the road was surrounded by a steel fence, the tips pointed like lances, and a severe gate opened up in one place. The interior was blocked by a thick fog; he couldn’t really see anything.

“This is…Shiba Park,” he murmured.

“If the field attribution was Holy or Earth, it would be more beautiful,” Metatron responded. “But at the moment, how it looks is of no concern.”

She was exactly right. He met the eyes of Chiyuri and Lead and then slipped through the gate ahead of them. The white fog quickly pressed in and blocked his field of view. He sensed that a ponderously large creature was roaming about somewhere deep in the fog.

“It’s like, it feels like there could be a scary Enemy in there,” Chiyuri muttered, and Lead reached a hand out to the greatsword on his hip. But they didn’t have the time to be out hunting extra Enemies.

“Metatron, where’s the dungeon gate?” he asked.

“It is in a position fifty-seven meters ahead.” She indicated the northeast with her small, sharp wings. He nodded, and then they advanced at a trot, careful of their surroundings.

Fortunately, they made it without being attacked by any Enemies. From the other side of the mist, a construction appeared that could only be described as a gate, just as Metatron had said. The thick steel door rose up supported by pillars designed to look like countless standing blades. It was probably around five meters tall. He’d seen all kinds of doors in the Accelerated World, but the scale of this one was the largest—excluding, of course, the four gates of the Castle. And immediately behind the door, not more than ten meters away, a pale-peach aurora shimmered. They were just inside the wall, but Haruyuki didn’t have the luxury of wondering about that now.

This was one of the four Great Dungeons, the entrance to the Shiba Underground Labyrinth. He stood stock-still, struck by a deep fear.

“What are you standing around for?” Metatron beat at his head with her wings. “There are only thirty-five minutes left, Servant.”

“Oh…R-right.” Haruyuki nodded at Chiyuri and Lead and then walked over to the gate, reaching out to the double doors with both hands. Krr-krr-krr…The ground shook as the doors swung open to reveal a massive set of stairs leading down. He shivered unconsciously at the cold wind that blew up.

Trilead advanced to stand next to him and spoke in a hushed voice, “The pressure is on par with that of the Castle main building.”

“It really is…”

Was it truly possible for just the three of them to charge through this, the most difficult of dungeons, and in thirty minutes or less? He couldn’t help but wonder. Still, they had no choice. The Legend-class Enemy Archangel Metatron was their only hope.

“Okay, let’s go!” Chiyuri shouted, giving the other two a push from behind.

Haruyuki nodded, a little relieved that she seemed to have cheered up again, and stepped onto the massive steel staircase.

The Accelerated World’s four great dungeons: Bunkyo’s Tokyo Dome Underground Labyrinth, Chiyoda’s Tokyo Station Underground Labyrinth, the Shinjuku Government Building Underground Labyrinth, and Minato’s Shiba Park Underground Labyrinth. There had apparently been a time in the early days of Brain Burst when Shibuya’s Yoyogi Park Underground Labyrinth counted among their number, and they had been known as the five great dungeons, but Yoyogi had been sealed off, and Haruyuki had never heard of anyone visiting it now.

All four of the great dungeons had a powerful Legend-class Enemy as the last boss, and these were known as the Four Saints. They were deemed to be a lower rank than the Four Gods, the Super-class Enemies who guarded the four gates of the Castle, and in fact, all Four Saints had been subjugated by the Legion kings. But Haruyuki knew that they hadn’t done the complete play-through. The Four Saints had a first form, a massive Enemy, and a second form, a humanlike body; and so far, no one had ever conquered the second form.

Taking Metatron as an example, in the Shiba Park Underground Labyrinth—formally known as Contrary Cathedral—by stepping on certain panels, you could change the dungeon attribute from Heaven to Hell. In the Hell stage, Metatron’s first form was greatly weakened, and it was possible to defeat her with a large party of high rankers, but her second form wouldn’t appear like that. You could only be said to have completely subjugated Metatron for the first time when you defeated her first form without leaning on the power of the Hell stage and then defeating the second form that appeared after that—her true form. But there wasn’t a single Legion who had accomplished that.

Haruyuki prayed from the bottom of his heart that no one would even come to challenge Metatron’s second form. As an Enemy, she would regenerate with the next Change if she was conquered, but that would be an entirely new individual, with eight thousand years of memories and thought processes all reset. If the Metatron here now died, she wouldn’t come back again.

These thoughts occupied one corner of his mind as he raced into the most difficult dungeon in the Accelerated World because the master of this palace was neutralizing the Enemies that appeared.

“Servant, a principality type is approaching from the front.”

Hearing Metatron’s warning, Haruyuki stopped moving. Chiyuri and Lead behind him also froze.

The interior of the dungeon was fixed at a Heaven stage, regardless of the stage attribute aboveground, and the labyrinth had the appearance more of a shrine. The walls and floor were snowy-white marble, and exquisite sculptures were carved out of platinum pillars, while a crystal chandelier emitted a clean light.

The wide path curved to the right up ahead, and clanging metal footsteps drew nearer from the other side. What finally revealed itself was a massive human-type Enemy, a pair of white wings on its back, its body wrapped in bluish metal armor—an angel. It held a sword aloft, reflecting the dazzling light of the chandelier.

The angel Enemy had no sooner discovered Haruyuki and his friends than white flames leapt to life in its eyes deep in its helmet. It spread its wings and opened its mouth to shout.

However.

“Soldier of mine, sheathe thy sword!”

Haruyuki heard Metatron shout in his mind, and the light in the angel’s eyes faded while the wings folded back up.

“ ” it replied with a strange sound, starting to walk once more, passing right by Haruyuki and his friends and disappearing behind them.

This was the ninth time that Metatron had diverted an Enemy for them, but even so, they still breathed a sigh of relief.

Chiyuri looked up at the small icon. “B-b-b-but it sure is handy to go against the rules, huh? If we had you with us, Metacchi, we could take out any dungeon, couldn’t we?”

“Lime Bell. Because of the extenuating circumstances, I will allow this ‘Metacchi,’ but I will not tolerate being treated like a convenient option, yes?” She immediately continued in a smooth, quick speech that seemed very un-AI-like. “And the fact that all the Beings accept my control is because this is my domain. Outside, I can only barely manage to control what you call the Wild class. And in a labyrinth where there is a master, my control is further weakened. If there is somewhere you would like to challenge, you will have to attempt it under your own power.”

Chiyuri clicked her tongue.

Haruyuki grinned wryly at the exchange, listening to the lazy student and the strict teacher before interrupting. “Okay, we better hurry up. Metatron, how much farther until the boss—I mean, the throne room?”

“At this pace, it shouldn’t take more than five minutes. And there are seventeen minutes left until Sky Raker and the others regenerate.”

“Good…” Nodding, he started to run down the corridor once more.

Flying at top speed, it wouldn’t take Haruyuki more than a minute to cross the distance from Shiba Park to Sengakuji. Taking into consideration the time they’d need to exit the dungeon, they would just barely make it—no, they had to make it.

But this was only if everything went exactly as planned. You never knew what was going to happen in the Accelerated World, especially the Unlimited Neutral Field. He could count on one hand the number of times things had gone exactly as planned.

Chiyuri had been deliberately pretending to be cheerful for a while now, but that was the flip side of her anxiety. In seventeen—well, sixteen—minutes, everything would be decided. Would they rescue Fuko, Utai, Takumu, and the others? Or would Haruyuki and his friends here also be caught in the Unlimited PK trap and would Nega Nebulus be annihilated?

…No.

Even if it came to that, the Black King and the Red King were safe. Kuroyukihime and Niko would gather up the members of the former Prominence who were on defense in Suginami and Nerima and rebuild Nega Nebulus into something magnificent. And then, someday, they would crush the conspiracy of the White Legion and the Acceleration Research Society.

Pushing this fleeting thought down deep, Haruyuki ran faster. He had to focus on the mission before him now: to rescue his comrades from a death trap with the combined power of Trilead and Metatron, two people that Oscillatory couldn’t have planned for.

At the end of the curving path, there was a wide set of stairs going down. He instinctively knew that the last boss room was at the bottom.

Normally, players would have to solve puzzle gimmicks on three floors and defeat three middle bosses to get this far. But Metatron told them the solutions to the puzzles and neutralized all the middle bosses. If they’d taken a more offensive approach, this most difficult of dungeons would have taken half a day, yet they’d managed to slip through it in a mere twenty minutes. It had to have been upsetting for Metatron to have the dungeon she ruled over so easily penetrated. He had to muster up all his might in the last battle for her, too, for her having allowed them to do this.

Firming up his resolve, he raced down the stairs, and a remarkably splendid silver door came into view.

“Beyond that is the throne room,” Metatron said.

“Roger,” he replied, exchanging firm nods with Chiyuri and Lead on either side.

They’d already confirmed any number of times along the way what would happen after they opened the door, but that definitely didn’t mean he wasn’t nervous. If they made a single mistake, they might all end up in an Unlimited EK and never make it to Sengakuji. But they couldn’t turn back now.

“Okay. Here we go!” Haruyuki shouted, shoving the silver door open.

Magenta Scissor, aka Rui Odagiri, kept staring silently at the death marker spinning before her eyes. Not hers, but Chocolat Puppeter’s.

In the ghost state, she could only see the colors of the death markers as differing shades of gray, so it was impossible to identify all the owners of the fourteen markers clumped together there. But she was sure that the one in front of her was Chocolat—Shihoko’s. Because the instant she had died, swallowed up by the super-cold tornado, Rui had stepped in front of Shihoko and tried to protect her.

But she couldn’t. The Incarnate vortex of icy air had pushed mercilessly through the gaps between Rui’s arms and frozen Chocolat a solid white. The slender avatar had shattered to pieces a heartbeat later, and Rui had screamed, hit with an anger and sadness that surprised even her. At nearly the same time, Mint Mitten and Plum Flipper also scattered on the wind.

Mere seconds later, Rui’s health gauge dropped to zero, but she felt far more regret when Chocolat and her friends died. It had probably been more than forty minutes since then, but the pain in the chest of her transparent avatar showed no signs of abating.

It had only been a month earlier that Rui had attacked Chocolat’s junior high school in the Unlimited Neutral Field. She’d used her scissors on a resisting Mint and Plum, forcibly parasitized them with ISS kits, and tried to do the same to Chocolat. Maybe after having done such a thing, she had no right to try to protect them now or to lament the fact that she couldn’t.

But after Chocolat had given her a very earnest explanation of the situation, she had joined Nega Nebulus and met with them in the real. While they talked, a feeling and a resolve that she herself hadn’t expected had grown inside of Rui. From now on, she would give everything she had to protect the three girls she had hurt so deeply once.

“Choco.” Lifting her face, Rui started talking to the ghost of Shihoko, who had to have been somewhere nearby. “I know you probs can’t hear me, but let me say this now, okay? Thanks…for forgiving me.”

When she thought about it objectively, there was a not-insignificant possibility that Rui, Shihoko, Satomi, and Yume—and Fuko and the rest of the main Nega Nebulus force—would be driven to total point loss in that place. If they kept riding the bus in the real world, someone would likely try to stop their full dive at some point, but not only was the bus automatic, it was on a circular route. It probably went to the bus yard late at night, and nearly a year of time would pass in the Unlimited Neutral Field by then. A quick calculation told her that Oscillatory could kill Shihoko and the others six or seven thousand times during that period.

The lone ray of hope was that Silver Crow and Lime Bell had escaped the ice cage. If they went back to the real world and pulled everyone’s Neurolinkers off their necks, the group could escape the imminent danger of total point loss for the time being. But given that Oscillatory Universe had prepared such a large and elaborate trap, she couldn’t imagine they hadn’t considered just such a situation. They were probably blocking escape through the portals somehow. She couldn’t just pray for Crow to save them; she had to think of what she could do.

In another fifteen minutes or so, Rui and the others would regenerate. In that moment, Brinicle would likely come down upon them again, but there had to be just one thing she could do at least.

Rui crouched down on top of ice that didn’t feel cold at the moment, touched Chocolat’s death marker with her immaterial hands, and kept on thinking.


Mihaya Kakei lifted her face, feeling like she’d suddenly smelled something familiar.

There was no new movement in the monochrome world. The twelve Oscillatory Universe members locking down the Sengakuji grounds, along with Glacier Behemoth and Snow Fairy standing by to launch their next Incarnate attack, all continued to silently fulfill their individual roles. They might have been the enemy, but she had to commend their focus.

To start with, she was in a ghost state, so her sense of smell shouldn’t have been working. Still, she felt like it was just the faintest hint, but the air that was neither hot nor cold contained a whiff of something bittersweet. Like glazed strawberries…

“Niko?” Mihaya looked around the field once more. There was no way Niko—the Red King—was there. She’d gotten off the bus with the Black King and gone back to Suginami.

However.

There was a nonzero possibility that something unexpected had happened, and Niko and Kuroyukihime had come after Mihaya and the others. And that they’d entered Minato Area No. 3 without having caught up to them and dived into the Territories stage. If that were the case, then they would have also been dragged into the Unlimited Neutral Field. What would they do when they found out that Mihaya and the others had been wiped out by Incarnate techniques?

It was obvious. She knew without a doubt that they would launch a special attack timed with her next regeneration. Despite the fact that they would have known that if their surprise attack failed, they would also be caught in the Unlimited PK trap.

No, this was all in Mihaya’s head. The fear of forgetting the Accelerated World, Blood Leopard, and even Niko, if she lost all her points, was making her sense a fragrance that couldn’t have been there. But on the other hand, Burst Linkers had to be ready for anything.

Mihaya hadn’t anticipated the possibility that the White Legion would set up such a meticulous trap. Unable to instantly deal with the move to the Unlimited Neutral Field, imprisonment in the ice cage, and the Incarnate technique to cancel other Incarnate techniques, she had, as a result, allowed the team to be wiped out. As one of the two level eighters, she had a responsibility to guide her comrades, but she hadn’t been able to do anything.

She would not stop thinking about what was going to happen next, when regeneration came for them in fifteen minutes, and she would absolutely strike a blow at the White team. She started to think single-mindedly about any and all things in the realm of possibility.

Beyond the silver door was a large, resplendent hall like the most exalted palace of the gods in an RPG—and in a sense, it was precisely that. The floor was pure-white tile inlaid with gold. Massive snowy pillars ran along the walls, stone statues of angels in between. The main feature of the arched ceiling was stained glass, and the light pouring in created a cold, imposing atmosphere.

“Holy smokes! So this is your room, huh, Metacchi?” Chiyuri said, starting to move forward, so Haruyuki hurriedly grabbed the brim of her pointed hat and yanked her back. “Nngh! What’re you doing? There’s nothing here!”

Just as she said, there was no Enemy in the large hall likely twenty meters wide and a hundred meters deep. There was a space that could have been called an altar up a step higher along the wall at the opposite end, but it appeared to be completely deserted.

However.

“No, there is, though,” Haruyuki muttered in a hoarse voice, staring at the altar in the gloom.

There was nothing resembling a throne there, but a black dais stood alone directly ahead. Most likely, this was where the Arc, The Luminary, had once sat. The light pouring down on the area through the stained glass shimmered faintly, carving out a complicated silhouette. Or so he felt.

“Indeed, something is there.” Lead sounded similarly tense. “But it’s too…”

Too big.

Even if the words didn’t make it out of his mouth, they came through loud and clear. In the back of Haruyuki’s mind, the words of the Green Legion’s Iron Pound came back to life.

That Archangel Metatron has the totally annoying status of being invisible with a sudden-death attack and impermeable to all attribute damage.

Just as Pound had said, Metatron’s first form could not be seen with the naked eye outside of a Hell stage, and none of their physical or energy-type attacks would hit it. But it would come back at them with a succession of superpowerful ranged attacks.

Likely remembering the time they had fought it at Tokyo Midtown, Chiyuri inched backward. She looked up at the 3-D icon riding on Haruyuki’s head and said quietly, “But that’s your body, right, Metacchi? Can’t you make it play nice like the angels?”

“Unfortunately, that is not my body, but instead something that would be akin to an Enhanced Armament for you, or perhaps a moving prison. Once it detects an enemy, it starts to fight automatically and does not stop until the enemy is eradicated. Unlike other Beings, it does not have a spirit. Thus, with my true self currently dormant, I cannot control it,” Metatron explained smoothly, though Haruyuki sensed the faintest trace of tension in her voice.

To heal the wounds she’d received in the fierce battle with the Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II, Metatron’s true form was asleep inside the first form. The 3-D icon was at best nothing more than a terminal projected there for show through the information link with Haruyuki. The icon could take any kind of attack, and there would be no damage to Metatron herself.

So if she was nervous, then it was because she was concerned about Haruyuki and his friends falling into Unlimited EK there. The Archangel Metatron, one of the most powerful Enemies/Beings in the Accelerated World, was also an upstanding member of Nega Nebulus now.

“We’ll be okay.” He reached a hand up to his head and gently held the 3-D icon. “We won’t lose. And then we’ll smash open the White Legion’s trap.”

She usually immediately got angry with him—“The nerve of you, a servant!”—but she didn’t react vocally. Instead, he felt in his palm a warmth like a heartbeat.

He brought his hand down and asked in his mind again, one last time, “Metatron. How healed is your true form?”

After a brief pause, her voice echoed in his mind. “There is no need for concern. I have reached a state in which there is no obstacle to my awakening.”

“…Got it.” He wanted to ask for details, but he held that thought back.

Ever since Metatron had barely managed to escape complete annihilation, he’d been thinking he had to prevent someone from coming along and attacking the Shiba Park Underground Labyrinth and defeating her first form without the assistance of the Hell stage. But he never dreamed that he himself would be taking on that challenge before he could come up with a specific plan. He knew that this was the only way they would be able to rescue Fuko and the others. But he hesitated to awaken Metatron’s true form before she was completely recovered.

Metatron protected me before. That’s why I’ll protect her this time, no matter what. Even up against the Seven Dwarves…or the White King herself.

Resolving himself, Haruyuki turned his gaze to Chiyuri and Lead. They both nodded sharply in return. They didn’t need words anymore.

Facing forward, Haruyuki leapt across the marble tile of the hall and into the aggro range of Metatron’s first form. Nothing happened right away. But once he had run about ten meters, there was a change not at the altar in the back, but along the walls to both sides.

The stone angel statues in between the pale pillars flashed and began to move with a ponderous sound. The so-called minions of the last boss, Virtue-type Enemies. Their number: thirty.

“Stop right there!!” Metatron’s icon gave the fierce order as white light jetted from it. Any angel touched by the light creaked to a stop. But it wasn’t perfect. Perhaps still under the control of the first form to a certain extent, they fought the restraint, strange sounds coming out of their mouths.

Normally, this would be where he stopped momentarily to dispatch the minions. But Haruyuki continued to run straight ahead without thinking about what would happen if Metatron’s order was overturned.

Once he had advanced thirty meters, he noticed a black tile in just one place on the floor up ahead to the right. If he stepped on it, the attribute within the dungeon would change from Heaven to Hell and the transparent first form would become visible. But he couldn’t use the assist from the system this time. Ignoring it, he ran on and then stopped when he had crossed the fifty-meter line.

“Here it comes!” Haruyuki shouted as the transparent shadow in front of the altar moved. He felt invisible eyes glaring at him, and a shiver of fear raced up the spine of the avatar body beneath his armor.

Lead took up a position to his immediate right and drew the straightsword The Infinity on his hip. Haruyuki crossed his arms and readied for the attack. Behind them, Chiyuri brandished the bell of her left arm up high.

“It’s coming!” Metatron shouted.

A pure-white glimmer sparkled in the center of the massive shadow drawn out hazily in the refraction of the light. Silver Crow’s forearm armor opened up to either side, and a transparent optical guidance crystal pushed up from within. Trilead readied his blade horizontally with both hands.

The world was dyed white. The Archangel Metatron’s most powerful long-distance attack, the angel fire Trisagion.

The superlarge-diameter laser had evaporated so many duel avatars, and now it was met by Haruyuki with his crossed arms and Trilead with his straightsword. They shouted at the same time.

“Optical Conduction!!”

“Genuine Specular!!”

Haruyuki’s Optical Conduction was an ability, so there was no need to shout the technique name, but he did need to get an assist from the Incarnate System to resist Metatron’s main armament. Meanwhile, Lead’s Genuine Specular was a purely Incarnate technique. Their overlays merged to become a massive shield and stop Metatron’s laser. Heat and light exploded and churned at the point of contact, making the air itself shake.

When he’d tried to avoid Trisagion with his newly acquired Optical Conduction at Tokyo Midtown, Haruyuki hadn’t been able to withstand the pressure and had gradually been pushed back. If Magenta Scissor hadn’t held him up, he would’ve fallen and been evaporated in an instant. But he managed to hold his ground now.

This was thanks to the presence of Trilead next to him. It wasn’t simply that the burden had been halved; the other avatar was normally so silent and polite, and his unexpectedly hot and intense Incarnate was giving Haruyuki strength.

Many mysteries lingered around the Burst Linker Trilead Tetroxide. Why had he left the Castle, joined Nega Nebulus, and even taken part in that day’s Territories? Haruyuki kept thinking about the reason for this in one corner of his mind. Naturally, it wasn’t that he doubted Trilead. But he also wasn’t seeking the reason solely out of friendship; he suspected Lead felt powerfully motivated to do all this for some reason.

Right now, through their fused Incarnates, Haruyuki felt like he could understand that motivation, albeit only slightly. A thirst for the larger world. Something similar to the hope that Haruyuki had held in his heart all this time also existed inside of Lead. Farther ahead…He wanted to accelerate to somewhere that was not here.

“Lead, you wanted to fly, too, huh?” Haruyuki murmured in his thoughts, and he heard the answer right away.

“Yes, Crow. I’ve always…wanted to fly. I wanted to go over the walls of the Castle and experience the great wide world.”

In which case, the fact that Oscillatory Universe was trying to shut down the Accelerated World also made them Lead’s enemy. That alone gave him plenty of reason to fight.

“Unh…Aaaaaah!!” Haruyuki shouted.

“Haaaaaah!!” Lead howled.

The Incarnate shield grew brighter, and the laser was incrementally pushed back. But at the same time, the vast amount of energy released in the circle of light was heating the marble floor to magma levels, and they were starting to take damage. He could have endured the pain of his feet burning, no matter how bad it got, but the decline in his health gauge showed no signs of stopping.

“Bell, we need you!!” Haruyuki shouted to Chiyuri on standby to the rear when his gauge was down 30 percent. Immediately, the sound of chimes echoed in the air.

“Citron…Caaaaallllll!!”

A green light gushed out to envelop Haruyuki and Lead. His health gauge gradually recovered, flickering irregularly. They had to finish this fight before Chiyuri’s special-attack gauge ran out.

He settled his breathing and shouted an instruction at Lead. “We narrow it down on the angle of reflection! The image of bouncing the energy back on a single point with a mirror!!”

“Yes!!” the young samurai replied boldly, producing an even more intense blue overlay.

Haruyuki pushed his imagination to the limit.

The shield of light, which had scattered the laser across a wide range with a loose convex shape, now gradually grew more and more level. The pressure on his body increased, and sparks flew from the joints of his avatar.

“Unh…Aah!”

“Hngaaah!”

The instant their Incarnates synced and the shield turned into a mirror, a large portion of the laser was reflected diagonally upward into the border between the wall and the ceiling. It appeared that even this great hall had not been given the strength to withstand Trisagion. Although it was not pierced in an instant like at Midtown, the stained glass and silver pillars were instantly red-hot.

“It’s still not enough, Crow! Unless you precisely fire at the source of the laser, the attack will not stop!” A sharp voice came to him from the top of his own head.

“I…know!” he replied in his thoughts.

Any and all attacks simply passed through Metatron’s first form, except for the launch portal on its head while the laser was firing. But the only thing that could fight Trisagion, a force that burned up everything in its path, was a laser of similar power. In other words, the only thing they could do was reflect Trisagion back at its launch portal.

When he had succeeded in doing that at Tokyo Midtown, Kuroyukihime, Niko, Fuko, Takumu—ten of his comrades had supported him from behind. There was no one directly holding him up at that moment. But Chiyuri was behind him, desperately rewinding any damage, Trilead was beside him with the same desire in his heart, and Metatron was on his head, rooting for him and guiding him despite being an Enemy herself.

No. It wasn’t just the three of them. Haruyuki could feel the hands of many, many more people touching him and giving him power. The very existence of all the Burst Linkers he’d met and formed bonds with in the Accelerated World was turning into pure Incarnate energy and filling his body.

“G…oooooooo!!” Fighting back against the intense pressure, Haruyuki moved the mirror of light.

The reflected laser moved backward, drawing a red line along the wall, and perfectly overlapped with the source. He felt something being hit. The beam gradually diminished, became intermittent, and disappeared.

The space above the altar shattered like glass, and the fearsomely massive silhouette took on material form. Wings like layers of silver tapestry. A body composed of dozens of metal rings. And a head that looked like a planet. The first form of the Legend-class Enemy, one of the Four Saints, the Archangel Metatron, had at last revealed itself.

The massive laser portal in the center of its head was burned black with cracks radiating outward. But this didn’t mean that the first form had been completely destroyed. Metatron’s icon floated up above Haruyuki’s head and encouraged them.

“Now, just a little farther. If I calculate all the attack patterns and timing, you can most certainly defeat this opponent now.”

“Yeah. We’re counting on you, Metatron!” Haruyuki shouted, and he, Chiyuri, and Lead nodded at one another.

He drew Lucid Blade from his right hip and jumped off the ground, accelerating instantly. Lead also pushed forward, readying The Infinity. Ahead, the massive bulk of the Enemy started moving again, spreading its knife-sharp wings high and wide.

A battle cry roaring up from the depths of his stomach, Haruyuki ran.



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