Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 9 - Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: The End of a Hope 
Acra-Vesta 
The third anti-incarnation superweapon, Acra-Vesta, had spent 99.9 percent of its existence doing nothing but developing itself. 
Following Flagman’s ingenious blueprints, that development had continually imitated parts of the incarnation powers he’d analyzed. 
Doing so was an extremely difficult task — even Space Fixation and Space Dilution had only been completed recently. 
Like Zircon Leader, the supervisor unit of the facility, Acra-Vesta had spent most of the past two millennia doing nothing but preparing for the task. 
Most of the past two millennia, but not all... 
 
It happened shortly after Acra-Vesta’s core, the AI block, was completed. 
One of the facility’s founding technicians and his son, who had taken shelter with him in the living quarters, were looking at Acra-Vesta through the transparent window. 
“Dad, is that the thing that will protect us?” 
“It is. Acra-Vesta will save everyone.” 
“Really?” 
“Yes. Acra-Vesta is our hope. It will beat the incarnations and save the world.” 
To protect humanity. To eliminate the incarnations. Acra-Vesta knew those purposes were at the core of its being. Those purposes were what made Acra-Vesta their hope. 
“When that happens, will we get to see Mom again?” 
“Sure... When the world is at peace again.” 
The technician patted the child’s head, then took the boy’s hand, and they left. 
Acra-Vesta continued using its sensors to watch as the child used his free hand to wave at it. 
The boy came to watch Acra-Vesta’s creation a few more times after that. But eventually, an alarm resounded throughout the facility. 
[Incarnation of beasts, approaching.] 
[To ensure the secrecy of this facility, all personnel and their families must leave and go to another shelter as soon as possible.] 
An incarnation had appeared. 
Despite the proximity of the enemy it had been created to fight, Acra-Vesta couldn’t even move. Only its AI was complete, after all, and creating the rest of itself would take entire millennia. 
[Please make your way to the surface.] 
[I hope you all see each other in the shelter.] 
Upon hearing the message resounding through the facility, Acra-Vesta’s AI began calculating the likelihood that they could cross the surface, which was still being menaced by the incarnations, and make their way to the nearest shelter. 
The chances turned out to be extremely slim. 
It didn’t know why, but Acra-Vesta watched the evacuation through the facility’s cameras. 
One of them showed a familiar child hop on a vehicle alongside his father. 
The boy was waving. 
Perhaps it was his way of saying goodbye to his brief home, or maybe he was waving at someone the camera couldn’t see. 
The gesture could’ve been directed to anyone — even Acra-Vesta. 
Whatever it was, the child left the facility... and never came back. 
After that, Acra-Vesta did nothing but bring itself closer to completion. 
At the present time, it was still far from complete, but it had developed itself enough to fight, which turned out to be necessary, given the reappearance of the incarnations. 
Acra-Vesta prioritized the elimination of the incarnations over all else. 
Of course it did; that was the very reason why Acra-Vesta had been created, and why it’d spent the past two millennia developing itself. 
But why was it necessary to destroy the incarnations? 
The reason for that was... 
 
Prism Rider, Ray Starling 
“It’s over, huh?” I murmured. 
The Shining Despair had left the whale badly damaged. 
It had pierced through the middle of its frame and evaporated all the engines within. 
As a result of the destruction, the tail fin started to fall to the surface. 
I was scared for a moment, but then I realized that the field was no longer active. The tail fin was as large as a few trucks, but it wouldn’t deal nearly as much damage as the meteor-fin had before. 
That meant I only needed to worry about Azurite and Tom, who were fighting the crab on the surface right below us, but I looked and noticed that they’d already retreated. 
The tail fin reached the ground in no time, and though the sound it made as it hit the remains of the crab was very loud, it definitely didn’t leave a crater. 
However, there was something strange. 
“What’s that?” I wondered. 
The remains of the tail and crab released a burst of some powder. It looked either white or silver from here. 
I worried that something big was happening again, but it just stopped after creating a small mountain of the stuff. 
“That reminds me of the time Brother Bear broke an inventory,” Nemesis commented. 
Yeah, the one that was full of wheat flour, I nodded. I guess the inventories of the whale and crab broke. I have no idea what was inside, though. 
“Ray, more importantly...” Nemesis began. 
“Yeah, I know.” 
The crab on the surface had been sliced apart, while the whale’s frame had lost most of its middle, as well as its tail fin. Despite that, it was still active. 
“You don’t break easily, do you?” I commented. 
Above me was the front part of the whale, still floating. 
In fact, it had continued floating even after Tom and Dr. Mario had damaged it way more than this. Perhaps it had been designed to continue its functions even through extreme destruction. 
But... it was clearly at its limit. 
The whale had lost its back half, and I couldn’t see anything undamaged inside. 
And most importantly, it couldn’t repair itself anymore. 
It was as good as dead. 
“It isn’t firing any lasers, either,” added Nemesis, and she was right — the laser attacks had completely stopped after my firing of Shining Despair. 
Did it lose its weapons system? Or does it just not have the energy to fire? 
Whatever the case, the front part of the whale was nothing but a floating object now. 
“Do we finish it off?” asked Nemesis. 
We probably should, I thought in response. 
However, Shining Despair’s charge was back at 0, and we’d already spent the damage Nemesis had gathered on Vengeance. 
And with the Miasmaflame Bracers being unusable, all I could really do was slash at it. It’d be great if it’d just fall down like its tail had, but... 
“Can’t hope for that, huh...?” I murmured. 
The whale slowly began moving. 
I didn’t know where it was heading, but its direction was the same as before — the south. 
What was different now was the fact that it had lost the crab following it below, and it couldn’t use the field skill anymore. 
It can’t bomb Quartierlatin anymore, so... Huh?! 
“Hold on!” I yelled in shock as I realized something. “It’s slowly going down!” 

The whale was heading to the south while lowering its altitude. It looked like a plane getting ready for an emergency landing in the middle of Quartierlatin. 
It couldn’t use its kinetic bombing anymore, but a huge whale falling into a town was bound to cause some serious damage. 
“Kh!” 
I made Silver move right before the whale and used what little MP I had remaining in Gouz-Maise to create a Wind Hoof barrier, but the whale broke through it like it was nothing. 
“Then we have to bring it down right here!” Nemesis cried. 
“We can’t! It’s already above inhabited areas!” 
I didn’t have any means of destroying it anymore, and bringing it down would cause major casualties. Which meant that... 
“Ray!” she shouted. 
Silver and I went below the whale and tried to push it upwards, which caused great strain on my back and Silver. 
I’ll keep it at least a bit higher... and make it fall outside of Quartierlatin...! 
“That’s ludicrous!” Nemesis yelled. 
But I can’t just sit by and watch! 
Dr. Mario’s marionettes joined me in my effort to prevent it from falling on the town, but even then, it only slowed the fall a bit. 
The whale continued towards Quartierlatin, and its large frame quickly approached a building. 
 
Vesta 
Even after suffering immense damage and losing Acra, its other half, Vesta didn’t give up on eliminating the incarnations. It resumed going southward to do whatever it still could to further that cause. 
However, it soon noticed the anomaly in its functions. 
The propulsion engine it’d reactivated had been badly damaged, and running it for any longer would mean self-destruction. 
Thus, it deactivated the engine and let inertia take over as it prepared for a landing. 
It had lost a lot of important functions, but it could easily resume them after ceasing all operations and dedicating some time to repair itself. 
Even without the integral Mutual Repair ability, Vesta, just like most of Flagman’s weapons, could repair itself using a self-maintenance ability. The repair speed and quality would be far lower than that of Mutual Repair, but that wasn’t a problem. 
While Acra had no hope of recovering, Vesta could be completely restored in about a month or so. 
Thus, to minimize the damage to itself, it decided to make an emergency landing in Quartierlatin. 
The enemy from before was touching it, but Vesta didn’t care, and simply continued going down. 
After the emergency landing, it would have to prioritize repairing the lasers so that it could intercept any enemies coming near. 
Admittedly the likelihood of it repairing itself completely was low, but even so, Vesta refused to give up on its base objective to eliminate the incarnations. 
With a plan set, Vesta prepared for landing... 
“Optical sensors captured new movement.” 
But then something came out from the building it was going to land on. 
It was no incarnation, and its energy signals were minuscule. Even so, it was an entity that happened be caught by Vesta’s optical sensors — a young child. 
The child was curiously looking up at Vesta as it fell from the sky. 
There were seconds until impact. 
The child probably couldn’t understand that he was in danger — he wasn’t even crying. Instead, he just raised his hand and, as if Vesta was nothing but a big doggy to him, waved at it. 
Upon seeing that familiar motion, Vesta’s AI remembered something. 
“Remaining propulsion engine, initiate at full capacity.” 
Vesta reactivated the engine it had stopped. 
“Raising altitude.” 
Right as it was about to hit the ground, Vesta raised its front end and quickly regained height. 
Unfortunately, making the near-broken propulsion engine work at full capacity accelerated its destruction. 
“Engines disintegrating due to overload.” 
The destruction didn’t stop at just the propulsion engine. The energy running through Vesta’s circuits began burning its own insides, creating small explosions and short-outs. 
“Discovered an energy counter-current. Risk of explosion.” 
At this rate, Vesta would be destroyed from the inside. Once that happened, there would be no room for any maintenance, and the machine would be destroyed for good. 
“Continuing propulsion at full capacity.” 
Even so, Vesta didn’t stop its engines. 
“Total engine damage: 87 percent.” 
As it accelerated, Vesta’s large frame began spewing large bursts of flame. 
“Destruction: inevitable.” 
It was too late to stop the engines now. Vesta would break, no matter what. 
“Moving away from town area. Minimizing casualties from self-destruction.” 
Not even that was enough to stop Vesta from running its engine and increasing altitude. 
It was as if that were its very role. 
“Reassessing base objectives.” 
As it drew closer to the limit, Vesta began to question what it was doing. It took another look at its base objectives — the reason for its creation. 
“Elimination of incarnations.” That was its role as an anti-incarnation superweapon. The elimination of incarnations was the very reason Acra-Vesta had been created. 
But why was it necessary to destroy the incarnations? 
The reason for that was... 
“To protect humani—” 

 

 
Prism Rider, Ray Starling 
All of a sudden, the burden on my back became light. 
I looked and noticed that the unit falling towards Quartierlatin was now rising once again. 
As if mustering all of its final strength, it let out an engine sound akin to a whale’s cry and continued to move up. 
It eventually left Quartierlatin and arrived at the sky above the mountain from which Logan and his devils came... and that was where it exploded. 
The blast was strong enough to tear apart the whale’s large frame, and once it subsided, all that was left were small pieces of scrap, as well as an ash-like powder of a white or silver color. 
The shockwave and the sound reached us a few seconds later. 
That was the end of it. 
The superweapon that had been sleeping in those ruins for two millennia had now entered eternal slumber. 
It could no long respond to anything. 
No one would ever know why it had gone out of control or raised its altitude at that very last moment. But... 
“Ray?” 
“What is it, Nemesis?” 
“Why are you crying?” 
Nemesis’s question made me realize that there was a tear going down my cheek. 
“I’d like to know, too...” I murmured. 
No one could know what its AI had been thinking. 
However... I fully understood that it had spent its final moments protecting something.