Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 9 - Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: The Warped Hope and the Shining Despair 
Vesta 
“Enemy count: 158,” Vesta said. 
Vesta’s excellent enemy detection ability let it know the exact number of enemies approaching it. Then it intercepted them all with its lasers, starting from the closest one. 
It also knew that there were two kinds of enemies. The majority, which were the wooden marionettes, could be shot down with just one laser, while the weak, incarnation-like entity absorbed all the lasers and continued to fall. 
Still launching lasers, Vesta’s artificial intelligence processed the situation. 
“Moving unit to evade the attackers.” 
“Denied. Moving any more would negatively affect the Mutual Repairs with Acra.” 
The Mutual Repair system installed in Acra-Vesta was the reason why Vesta constantly floated above Acra. 
Most skills had their limits, and this one was no exception; it had a maximum range of about 300,000 metels. That was almost the exact distance between Acra and Vesta with Space Dilution active. 
If either of them went beyond that, the repairs wouldn’t work anymore. 
At this point in time, Acra had lost most of its legs, rendering it almost immobile, which, in turn, made Vesta unable to move, too. 
It was also worth mentioning that Acra could no longer be fixed due to the attacks from Altar, but Vesta was the core of the matter right now. 
The machine was faced with a dilemma. 
It could either evade the enemies and lose its repair ability, or... 
“Analyzing enemies...” 
“Measuring mass...” 
Vesta’s sensors looked for data they hadn’t looked at before and quickly concluded that the incarnation and the marionettes were far lighter than the fins Vesta was dropping. 
Vesta could quickly fix the damage from the impact they would deliver, so it concluded that they would use something other than kinetic bombing. 
“No explosives or explosive magic detected.” 
That meant that this wasn’t a kamikaze attack of some sort, making it likely that it was either a hijack or simply a close-range attack. Upon reaching that conclusion... 
“Enacting countermeasure.” 
...it went for the kill. 
 
Prism Rider, Ray Starling 
Using the opening created by Dr. Mario, we advanced towards the whale. 
The lasers either hit the marionettes or were absorbed by Monochrome. 
We single-mindedly accelerated to our target. 
“It’s only an estimated 40,000 metels away now!” Nemesis shouted, making it clear that we were at the home stretch now. 
Silver started using the air around him to slowly break. 
At the speed we were going, without breaking, we would pass the whale in the blink of an eye, not even giving me a chance to aim at it. 
Monochrome’s Shining Despair was fully charged, and all I had to do now was fire it. However, doing it from the top would endanger Quartierlatin, so I would have to fire at either its side or around a bottom area where there weren’t many lasers. 
We wouldn’t have any problems reaching those spots. I’d found out just how good Silver was at descending in the Monochrome battle. 
I was starting to feel pretty confident. “We’re gonna make it...” 
Suddenly, everything changed. 
“Eh?” For a moment, I was completely lost about what just had happened. 
Of course I was. After all, the whale, which had only been about as big as a pinky until now, had suddenly become a gigantic wall right in front of me. 
“...!” 
I quickly realized what had happened: It had canceled the field. 
It had undone the field meant to protect it, instantly returning that vast distance between us back to normal. 
The whale that had been off in the distance was now right in front of my eyes. 
Though Silver had slowed us down, we were still going at the speed of sound. 
In barely a moment, we would crash into the airship and quickly disintegrate. 
The whale would sustain some damage, too, but it could easily fix itself. 
It knew that our combined mass wasn’t enough to completely destroy it, and that was why it had undone the field. That wouldn’t cause much of a problem to it — it just had to activate it again after we crashed. 
It had analyzed our and its own abilities and done the best possible move for the situation. 
It felt like a proud demonstration of its abilities. 
Time seemed to slow down as the impact was drawing closer, and we... 
 
19XX years ago 
Deep within an underground shelter, a man silently glared at a set of blueprints. 
Though now bordering on elderly, he was none other than Flagman. 
The once-renowned apex of craftsmen from the era that would eventually be known as the pre-ancient civilization was now hiding within an underground shelter and designing weapons all by himself. 
He’d been doing nothing but working on weapons ever since the invasion of the incarnations. 
Even after all was lost, he had shut himself in a shelter specialized to be impossible to detect, eating only preserved foods of his own design and drinking only water while doing nothing but research, all day and night long, for the sole purpose of destroying the incarnations. 
He’d already tried all the technology available while the pre-ancient civilization still existed. There were even some secret plants that had already begun automatically constructing the superweapons he’d designed. 
However, he didn’t think it was enough, and there was no better judge of that than him. 
He knew better than anyone that he needed to use newer technologies that had eluded even him so far. Otherwise, he wouldn’t stand a chance against those Infinite-class monsters. 
Thus, he continued doing nothing but thinking of new weapons. 
However, the look in his eyes made it clear just how drained he was. 
The reason for this was his most recent failure. 
Edelvalsa, the autonomous semi-bioweapon he’d created to defeat the Incarnation of Beasts, had unexpectedly fallen under the incarnations’ influence and changed completely. 
Because of that, he’d had no choice but to seal Edelvalsa away and rework most of his planned weapons from the basics. 
It felt like rebuilding a collapsed tower, and it was draining both mentally and physically. 
It had even made him wonder if all his effort was meaningless. Remembering that made his hands shake, either due to fear or madness — it wasn’t clear. 
He’d spent the last few decades doing nothing but thinking of weapons all by his lonesome. A normal person would’ve gone insane at this point, and perhaps he was already there. 
“I need a change of pace...” he murmured. 
Even that was something he hadn’t had in dozens of years. 
He decided to design a unit as he desired. It didn’t even have to be a weapon. He simply wanted to invent something by letting his whims take charge — like he had back when he’d still had friends and companions. 
That was when he discovered something in the warehouse. 
“This is...” 
It was a half-finished Prism Steed frame. 
Having an excellent memory, Flagman instantly remembered why it wasn’t complete. 
“Oh, it’s Thunder’s first frame.” 
This was the original frame he’d started when he’d wanted to create a Prism Steed focused on the use of lightning. 
However, during development, he’d realized that the material used for the frame was sub-optimal for the end result’s planned abilities, so he’d restarted and built a new frame from a different material, eventually constructing the Prism Steed now known as Gold Thunder. 
“Guess I’ll try working with this,” he murmured. 
Leaving the base frame as it was and changing only its functions, he would let his creative freedom take charge and lead it to completion. 
Thus, he began working on it. 
“This material is good for wind... No, then it’d be the same as Jade Storm.” 
“Then I’ll change my approach completely and try... this theory, maybe?” 
“All I have so far is the torso... For the rest, instead of emulating some already-existing parts, I should use some new gimmicks...” 
“Now this is interesting. Too bad I don’t have Horse Riding or Riding. I’d need those to try it out.” 
While working on the frame, he made the exact same face he’d once made often — the face of a creative child proud of his work. 

“All right. Done. But... what do I name it?” 
Days and months passed, and Flagman eventually completed the Prism Steed. However, he couldn’t find a name that would reflect its nature. 
The Prism Steed that had wind as its power had been given the strong name of “Storm.” 
He didn’t want to give that same name to a unit with different strengths and abilities, but he couldn’t think of anything good. 
“I’ll breathe some outside air,” he said one day, at last. “You come with me.” 
That morning, Flagman left the shelter for the first time in long while, taking the Prism Steed with him. 
The atmosphere, the environment... everything was capable of sustaining human life, but the scenery had none of what he had created. 
It was all nature, and no culture. 
The civilization born with his intelligence as one of its pillars had crumbled and disappeared without a trace. 
The genius silently looked at the scenery. 
“Hm...?” 
Suddenly, he felt the wind caress his side. The western wind, Zephyrus, was heading to the east. 
He followed the invisible wind’s destination and saw a sunrise. 
“Wind...” 
Certain words came to his mind like a revelation. 
“This unit is ‘Wind.’” 
There was no need for exaggerated or strong names here. 
“This is the wind that will, by its nature, blow towards the new dawn.” 
This unit was designed in a way unlike any other, and the post-apocalyptic world reflected in his eyes was completely new to him. Thus, he decided to use a new, different naming system than he had used for any other Prism Steed. 
This unit’s name was... 
“Zephyrus Silver.” 
Satisfied with the name, Flagman rubbed the mechanical steed’s face. 
“Zephyrus Silver, I’m not giving you a mission.” 
Flagman spoke to the final Prism Steed he’d ever created. 
“Among all the things I have created, you’re probably the only one that’s free.” 
Silver wasn’t just another weapon built to kill the incarnations — he was a manifestation of Flagman’s creative freedom, built simply because Flagman had wanted to do it. 
“One day, when you get an owner... gallop through the world as you like,” he said. Surrounded by wind and nature, he pointed towards the sunrise. “Join your owner and walk through the wind as you see fit.” 
 
Over 1,900 years had passed since then. 
The artificial intelligence installed in Silver remembered his creator’s words. And he realized... that now was the time to walk through the wind. 
“?????.” 
 
Prism Rider, Ray Starling 
We couldn’t comprehend what was suddenly happening. 
“Wh...?!” I gasped in shock. 
“What happened?” asked Nemesis. 
I clearly remembered that we were about to crash into the whale and disintegrate. 
However, that hadn’t happened. 
In fact, we were actually below it now. 
All the acceleration from before, the hull that was right in front of my eyes, the imminent impact — all of it was gone. 
I had no idea why this was happening. 
But I did know one thing: that there was no better time than now. 
“NEMESIIIIIIIISSSSS!” I shouted. 
“I know!” She instantly changed into her greatsword form. 
I swung the black blade into the whale’s armor right above me, shouting, “VENGEANCE IS MINE!” 
It doubled and sent back all the damage from the lasers — even that absorbed by Monochrome and Nemesis in shield form. 
“Lower hull, lost,” Vesta reported. 
The hit wasn’t enough to destroy it, but the armor’s disappearance left its mechanical insides — including the engines — exposed. 
At this point, I didn’t know which part was responsible for the Mutual Repair function. 
“...I see it!” 
Right as the opening I’d created was beginning to repair itself, one of the engines inside lit up. 
The timing of that engine’s activation gave it all away — it could only serve one purpose. 
Thus, I now knew where to aim. 
“MONOCHROOOOOOME!” 
Following my shout, the Black Warcoat unwrapped itself from Silver and went to my left arm instead. 
The material took on a pipe-like form and grew wings like the ones that had once decorated the Void of the Black Sky. 
My left arm had become a jet-black, winged cannon. 
This feature might perhaps have something to do with the fact that I’d gotten it when I didn’t have my left arm. And though it was my first time using it, the shape made me know exactly what I had to do. 
“OAAAGHH!” I roared as I pointed the cannon at the whale right above me, then felt immense energy gather at the end of my left arm. 
All the light gathered by Monochrome was becoming condensed, compressed, and turned into an extremely powerful, all-consuming light. It felt like there was a small star forming in my hand. 
The overflowing light made the entire Black Warcoat gleam with blinding intensity. 
“Ray! She took care of the one on the ground!” 
Hearing Nemesis’s voice, I glanced down and saw some blue trails tear up the mechanical crab. 
I’d told Azurite that there would be an intense light right as I was about to defeat the whale, so that was surely her doing. She’d timed the defeat of the crab with the impending doom of the whale. 
That meant we could destroy them both. 
“Turning right. Aiming lasers.” With its lower hull still broken, the whale began tilting to the side. I was in one of its blind spots, so it was probably trying to put me in range of one of its laser cannons and take me out. 
However, it was too late. 
Right before I fired, I silently pondered about what Dr. Mario had told me last night. 
The pre-ancient civilization had fought the ancient civilization and been thoroughly defeated. 
This whale had been left behind by the pre-ancient civilization. 
This and the crab below... everything within the ruins had most likely been built to become someone’s hope. 
Someone from the dying pre-ancient civilization had created these to be the hope of future generations. 
Or perhaps this was a remnant of the creator’s vision that had never come true, no matter how hard he tried. 
The weapon must’ve been intended for use in battle against enemies, fighting for the goal of protecting the people. 
But now, this hope had become warped. 
It was trying to destroy the descendants it was supposed to protect. 
And since I couldn’t tolerate that... I would launch this skill. 
“SHINING...” 
Oh. Now that I think about it, this name is painfully apt. 
“...DESPAAAAAAAAAIIIRRRR!” 
A shining despair to burn away the warped hope. 
The cannon unleashed a light akin to the brilliance of a sun. 
The pillar of light that’d once almost burned the entire village of Torne was now aimed for the heavens. 
Releasing light and heat unmatched even by the UBM’s skill of a similar name, the pillar of light pierced through the whale’s insides, evaporating a number of engines, including the one responsible for the repairs.