Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 9 - Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: The Primeval Sword 
The Lynx, Tom Cat 
“Huff... huff... It’s not quite like the original, but Flagman actually weaponized Red King’s power! Just how absurd is that guy...?” 
Standing in the mountains a short distance away from ground zero, I panted heavily and cursed Acra-Vesta’s creator. I’d lost count of how many times his weapons had given us serious trouble. 
And most of the time, I’m the one who has to take care of them. The others should run into them more often, I thought peevishly. 
“This one’s way more complete than the one we broke six hundred years agooo,” I pondered aloud. “Self-developing weapons really are too dangerous to ignooore. If it became a UBM, Jabberwock could set some vectors on its powers, but we can’t count on that happening...” 
Acra-Vesta couldn’t become a UBM. Though that had happened to Edelvalsa, another one of Flagman’s weapons, the circumstances here were different. 
Edelvalsa had been a standalone bioweapon designed to operate by itself, while Acra-Vesta was a legged tank paired with an airship. They were weapons that could be piloted, but which were operating on auto right now — as intended. 
There may have been some sort of code to override it and make it obey people again, but Flagman was probably the only one who’d ever known it. 
Prism People couldn’t work unless owned by humans, and Acra-Vesta was the same in that regard. It was still being used by someone and thus couldn’t become a UBM... or even a normal monster, for that matter. 
Others’ possessions couldn’t be made to evolve — this was a safety that Jabberwock’s Master had set on him, and there was no way to go around it. 
“What do we do nowww...?” I wondered. 
My base position on the situation was the same as it had been back in the ruins: we’d wait until compatible Superiors came around and destroyed it. 
Just two Superiors — one to counter Space Fixation and another one for Space Dilution — would be enough... Actually, Xunyu could probably solo them both. Distance didn’t matter to her, after all. 
However, Acra-Vesta was on a whole different course than before. If it went southwards, bombing everything in its path, Altar’s map would change drastically. 
“Well, I guess I should be glad it didn’t copy Red King’s offensive abilities, tooo,” I muttered. “Seriously, good thing it’s just the defense...” 
If it’d been the full package, the damage would’ve been a lot worse than just a changed map. 
“Northern Altar would be destroyed before any Superiors came,” I muttered. “And we have... only one way to prevent it...” 
I knew the original behind those space manipulation powers, so I knew the counters, as well, and it just so happened that a couple of them were right here in Quartierlatin. 
A couple of people in town would stand a chance against Acra-Vesta, despite not being Superiors. 
The chances of them actually pulling it off were astronomically low, but they would be capable of breaking through both Acra’s absolute defense and Vesta’s vast vacuum, ultimately destroying them. 
“Pulling it off is about as likely as tightrope walking on a cotton thread, but it’s something,” I pondered. “I need to let them know... but how?” 
I knew both Acra-Vesta’s powers and that their powers could counter it, but I couldn’t let them know that I knew. 
“It’s not something I should know. It’d seem unnatural if I did,” I said. “Even the warning from before was pushing it.” 
At the start of the bombing, I’d instantly realized that it was an attack that used Space Dilution. That was knowledge I could play off as just an assumption made from being inside the field or from my experience as a veteran duelist. However, it wouldn’t be normal for me to know the details about Acra-Vesta and their... or, rather, her... powers. 
While his abilities had been completely exposed by Franklin, her power was like a state secret — no, even more unknown than that. 
“It’d be best if they figure out its powers and that they can counter it all by themselves... but I don’t think that’s going to happennn.” I sighed. 
 
Prism Rider, Ray Starling 
Once the shockwave had subsided, we kept our distance from the enemy and talked about nature of that attack. 
“My guess is that the whale’s power is to make the distance... or space... around it bigger than it looks,” I said. 
If we approached the whale without knowing how much, though, it could drop another fin on us. 
Tom had been near ground zero, while Dr. Mario had been flying through the air when the first one hit. 
I was worried about them, of course, but if we didn’t figure out what that thing was and think of a way to counter it, Quartierlatin could end up a crater, which would leave a bad taste in my mouth. 
I mustered whatever wisdom I had and tried to guess what the fins were all about. “Distance... and space?” 
“What do you mean?” Azurite and Nemesis both asked. They didn’t seem to fully understand me. 
“Why do you think that?” Azurite added. 
“I have several reasons. One of them was the AA gun. Its shots stopped reaching the whale, and from what I could see, they dropped naturally. It didn’t look like they hit anything, were damaged in any way, or were influenced by some outside energy — they just didn’t reach it, leaving us with two options: either the AA gun’s range became smaller, or the whale went up too high for its shells to hit.” 
It reminded me of the battle against Monochrome. Some Masters had tried attacking it from the ground, but none of their attacks had reached, just like with the AA gun. 
“What else?” asked Azurite. 
“The way the fin fell. It looked really slow to us, but you saw how hard it hit. Even if the fin weighed tens, hundreds of tons, at that speed, it could never have the kinetic energy to make a shockwave that powerful.” 
“Could it not be full of explosives?” asked Nemesis. 
“It could, but I didn’t see any fire, and it didn’t sound like an explosion. Then again, it could easily be a magic bomb that worked like that...” 
I wouldn’t have been surprised if shockwave bombs existed in this world or something. This was a fantasy, after all. Earth’s laws of physics didn’t always apply. 
“No, continue with your theory,” said Azurite. 
“All right. Another thing I noticed was that it didn’t make any sound while falling.” 
“But it did. Quite a loud one, too,” commented Nemesis. 
“That happened when it hit the surface. I’m talking about the fall itself. It’s a pretty large object, yet it fell without making any sound. You couldn’t even hear it cut the air. If my guess is right, then that’s because it was either going a larger distance than it looked... or passing a vacuum.” 
“Vacuum...” Nemesis murmured. 
I nodded. And if it really was that, another thing would make sense. “A vacuum would explain why it didn’t heat up as it fell.” 
“It should have?” Nemesis asked. 
“Yeah. Objects that move through the atmosphere really fast are subjected to air friction, and there’s a point at which the air molecules are compressed and become plasma. Understand?” 
“Metallic monsters shine when they move at multiple times the speed of sound. Is it something like that?” asked Azurite. 
“Close enough. Now, if my guess is right and it had enough distance to speed up to create an impact that powerful, it should’ve started shining because of the heat from the air friction. That didn’t happen, though, so it’s very likely it’s surrounded by a vacuum.” 
“What does that change?” asked Nemesis. 
“In normal free fall, the air resistance would set a limit on the object’s acceleration. That limit wasn’t there in a vacuum.” 
It reminded me of a video I’d seen in class once, showing an experiment in which they examined free fall that had gravity, but zero air resistance. They’d removed all the air from a pipe, then made an iron ball fall through. It had been faster in the vacuum than in the air. 
“I have another reason for why I think it’s creating a vacuum,” I continued. 
“What is it?” 
“The lasers. That’s the weapon the whale used to shoot down the marionettes. The Prism Soldiers had Gatling guns, missiles, and lots of other weapons, yet the whale only used lasers. That makes sense only if it was designed around a power that expanded space and created a vacuum.” 
That’d make it pointless to use any other weapons. 
“After all... lasers don’t lose power over distance,” I said. That was one of the main properties of light. “Lasers only lose power if there are molecules in the way, so if they’re in a vacuum, they deal the same amount of damage, no matter how many hundreds of kilometers they pass.” 
Monochrome’s maximum range had been about 15,000 meters, but only because of the air molecules in the atmosphere. In a vacuum, its lasers could’ve reached anything. 
“Lasers go at the speed of light, too,” I said. “They can’t miss their mark even with the expanded distance.” 
The speed of light was roughly 300,000,000 meters per second. Given that number, a distance difference of ten thousand meters was negligible. 
That was what made lasers the only weapon that could be used well in pre and post-space expansion, as well as in and out of the vacuum. 
The fact that the whale had only lasers and fins strongly supported my theory. 
“Can you give us a summary of your theory?” asked Nemesis. 
“Though you can’t tell by looking, the whale created a huge vacuum around it,” I said. “That’s why the attacks don’t reach, and that’s why the things it drops gain insane amounts of kinetic energy before they hit the ground. That explains all the phenomena around it.” 
All in all, it was a pretty terrifying power. The whale ruled the skies in an even worse way than Monochrome. 
But... 
“What can we even do against such a thing?” Azurite wondered in despair. 
“...I can beat it.” 
“Eh?” She turned away from the whale and back to me. 
I nodded and raised just one finger. “I think I can beat the whale... but only once.” 
It would be a huge gamble. 
I had no idea how powerful it would be, couldn’t guarantee that I would hit the whale with it, or that I could survive until I finished the attack. 
Nothing about my idea was certain, but going by the toughness of the whale, which I assumed I understood now from watching Tom and Dr. Mario fight it, I could destroy the thing if the attack was at least half as powerful as the original. 
“But once is not enough, is it?” asked Nemesis. 
“Yeah.” 
She was right. Tom and Dr. Mario had destroyed the whale a few times, but it had restored itself every time and continued rising. 
While the crab had insane defense, the whale seemed to have some sort of insanely powerful repair function. It would probably come back soon after I destroyed it. 

“Oh, but it is enoughhh!” a voice called. 
“Tom!” I cried. 
Looking slightly tattered, Tom popped out of a nearby street and stood next to Silver. 
“You’re okay!” 
“I lost six outta eight, thouuugh. But as you can see, I’m still here and can still talk to you, so I’m just fiiine. Another one of me is still watching the thing.” 
...Man, his Embryo had some impressive survivability. 
We walked over closer to him and I asked, “Umm, where’s Dr. Mario?” 
“Mario...? Ohh, you mean the one who used the marionettes. I’m not sure. Don’t even know if he’s alive.” 
“I... I see...” 
I could only hope he was. He was Dryfe’s SMTF, so he had the stats needed to survive... probably. 
“What did you mean by, ‘It’s enough?’” I asked. 
“That repair power is called ‘Mutual Repair.’ You find it on ruin machines sometimes.” 
“What a simple name,” I commented. 
“And it does exactly what it sounds like. It makes two machines fix each other. As long as one is around, it will fix the other even if the other is completely destroyed. That means they won’t be able to repair each other if you destroy them both at the same time.” 
“I see...” I pondered. “Hold on.” 
If that was happening between the crab and the whale... 
“Doesn’t that mean they’re indestructible?” 
I had a slim chance of destroying the whale, but there was no way for me to destroy the crab at the same time. I could maybe destroy the crab with a Vengeance is Mine, but then I’d be left with the whale, which I couldn’t beat from the surface. Since it wasn’t as close as it seemed, I’d spectacularly miss. Whether I went for the whale or the crab, I’d have to get close, meaning that I could only take out one of them. 
“By the way, I don’t think your skills would work on the legged tank,” Tom added. 
“Eh?” 
“Uhh, I know about your counterattack skills from the broadcast during Franklin’s gaaame. The thing about the tank is that you can’t touch it. The space right in front of it blocks anything that gets too close.” 
“No way...” 
I already knew that Tom and Dr. Mario couldn’t beat it, but if we couldn’t touch it at all, me and my Vengeance would be useless against it, too. 
And as long as that crab was around, the whale was indestructible. 
We had no moves we could make. 
“Hey, why not ask for Brother Bear or someone else’s help?” asked Nemesis. “Xunyu had warp attacks! Surely she could...” 
“And how do I contact them?” I demanded. “Bro didn’t answer when I called him, and I don’t know any way to get in touch with Xunyu. Also, they’d take too long to get here, and...” 
...Quartierlatin would be gone by then. 
That was the one ending I couldn’t accept, no matter what. 
“Do we have anything else?” Nemesis wondered. “Are any Altarian Masters still alive here capable of dealing with the crab?” 
“The Masters who went with me into the ruins were all wiped out,” said Tom. “And most of the others were taken out over the course of the night.” 
That left us with no options. 
I could give my all and challenge the whale, but that wouldn’t be enough. If only there were one more person... someone who held the possibility of beating the crab! 
Troubled and feeling like our chances were going further and further beyond the radix point, I heard a familiar voice. 
“Tom Cat. I have a question.” 
It belonged to Azurite. 
“What is it, masked lady?” Tom asked. 
“The weapon on the ground is protected by space, right?” 
“Yep. But none of our attacks worked. Even the whale’s bomb didn’t hurt it, so I doubt any normal attacks would work on it.” 
“I see...” Tom’s hopeless words made Azurite nod. “Then I will be the one to destroy it.” 
She said that as if it was no big deal. 
“Huh?! Azurite! Have you gone mad?!” Nemesis exclaimed. 
“I haven’t. I shall destroy the weapon on the ground.” 
She looked straight into my eyes. I saw no hesitation in them. It felt like we both saw glimpses of each other’s minds. 
“Ray, you said you can destroy the flying weapon, yes?” 
“Yeah... I’ll do it, no matter what.” 
“You never lie, so I shall believe you. In exchange...” With her left hand, she grasped the azure sword fixed to her hip. “...I want you to believe me, as well. I will cut down the weapon on the ground.” 
Her eyes had a strong will, confidence, determination, and trust for my ability to beat the whale. She clearly had a way to beat the crab. 
Perhaps it was as much of a gamble as my way of beating the whale, but since she sincerely believed I could pull it off, I had to respond the same way. 
“Yeah... I believe you.” 
I felt her resolve and accepted her choice. I wouldn’t stop her from going because she was a tian. I’d said I would support her, and stopping her wouldn’t be it. 
I would believe that she could handle the crab, and I myself would go and beat the whale. That was my current way of supporting her. 
“Let’s do it, Ray,” she said. “Let’s put an end to the foul legacy of those ruins.” 
She then removed her mask and smiled. 
I responded with a smile of my own. “Yeah!” 
Thus began the final round in the battle against the weapons reigning over both heaven and earth. 
 
About a certain craftsman... 
Flagman. 
The name that would later survive on many pre-ancient civilization relics was known all across the continent during the time when the civilization was thriving. 

His knowledge and ideas were on a whole other level. It was said that the very prosperity before the arrival of the ancient civilization — the incarnations — was caused by the technological revolution brought about by Flagman. 
His technology felt as if it had come from another world. Naturally, all the countries wanted it, but he never bound himself to just a single one. 
He never created anything specific because he was hired or commissioned to do it; he only provided his products to those countries that gave him the funds, resources, workforce, and let him make whatever he wanted. 
It wasn’t uncommon for his weapons to be used against one another in battlefields. 
Some considered monopolizing him, while others wanted to assassinate him before others could use his talents to make more new weapons, but those plans never came to fruition. 
Instead, countries which treated him favorably, like the Zweier Imperium, began receiving products Flagman considered necessary for them. The very first non-weapon he ever made, an environment-improvement tool, went to the Zweier Imperium. 
Because of that, other countries began to hide their ulterior motives, ending their efforts to make an enemy out of him. 
Eventually, the continent began revolving around Flagman, and after a quarter of a century of technological prosperity, the Extra-Continental Vessel and the thirteen incarnations appeared. 
The countries that first contacted those incarnations launched a preemptive strike against them with Flagman’s weaponry. 
However, not even their strongest weapons stood a chance. 
Faced with the sudden, drastic change on the continent, Flagman resolved to design weapons stronger than any he’d ever made before, and use all the countries’ powers to create them. 
The danger the continent was in was one reason he did it, but he had something even more important driving him: a sense of rivalry. 
He had technology surpassing all others and had spent his whole life on research, so seeing his many weapons get turned to scrap so easily made him want to challenge the forces responsible and ultimately emerge victorious. 
That led to the creation of pre-ancient civilization weapons such as the Prism Dragons and the throne. They were, without a doubt, unmatched, and had they been created before the incarnations came, they would have changed the course of history. 
Alas, even that was nothing before the incarnations. 
The Prism Dragons fell to them, while the throne couldn’t be activated because its energy lines were cut off. 
Thus, the pre-ancient civilization was destroyed by the incarnations. 
However, there were weapons that were being created even after the very last normal weapon was destroyed and all the countries had fallen. 
They were the anti-incarnation superweapons. 
The concept behind them was to analyze, recreate, and utilize the incarnations’ own powers for use against them. 
Flagman was involved in the creation of the foundation, but he left the rest of the creation process to the machines themselves. 
He was ready to die at the hands of the incarnations, so he left behind weapons that would continue to develop without him, all for the purpose of beating the incarnations. 
One of them was Superweapon No. 3, Acra-Vesta, which would end up lying dormant in a mountain that had once been Zweier Imperium territory. 
Flagman provided it with the foundation, concept, half of the analysis, and the name. The still-living researchers built the facility, and the rest of it was all left to Acra-Vesta itself. 
None of that was different from any other superweapon, but Acra-Vesta was unique in one way: it was created as a counter to a specific enemy — the Incarnation of Beasts. 
Flagman had been a true anomaly his whole life — not just among people, but perhaps even in the world itself. Despite this, there had been one person who had treated him kindly, valued his talents more than anyone else, and treasured him like family. His name was Imperator Wolfgang, and he’d lost his life to that very incarnation. 
Thus, Acra-Vesta, built in the imperium’s lands, was the only superweapon that embodied not only Flagman’s rivalrous spirit and hope for the future, but his personal grudge, as well. 
 
Having completed going down the mountain, Acra was now moving southwards at its regular speed. 
Vesta, its other half, was following it from the heavens. 
The airship was significantly faster than the legged tank, but their current speed was completely in sync. 
The units were separate, but they operated as one, and Vesta was simply slowing down to avoid leaving Acra behind. 
Some would expect Vesta to have to move three hundred times faster to make up for the three hundred times larger distance, but that wasn’t the way it worked. 
Space Dilution was centered around Vesta, so its speed remained the same as before. 
Normally, Acra would hold on to Vesta — the opposite of what they had before the split — letting Vesta move at its own speed. 
However, though weak, there were signs of incarnations nearby, so Vesta couldn’t undo the Space Dilution, and they had to move in their battle formation. 
Suddenly, Vesta noticed an incarnation drawing close to it. “Incarnations detected.” 
Vesta’s search capabilities easily extended all the way to Gideon, so it could sense enemies beyond even the 300,000 metels of its realm. 
Without this ability, it wouldn’t be able to use its lasers to shoot down any incoming enemies, so it was crucial for its operations. 
On the other hand, most of its processing power and payload was split between the laser cannons, search devices, Mutual Repair, and Space Dilution, so it couldn’t have any weapons besides the lasers, nor did it have all that much defense. 
The weapons meant to cover those problems were still mid-development, so it didn’t have them equipped. 
As a standalone airship, it would be considered a frail failure, but that wasn’t a problem, for as long as Acra was around, Vesta would be indestructible. 
“Target approaching at high speeds.” Vesta’s search systems looked for the enemy’s exact position. 
It was coming from... 
 
Ten minutes ago, Prism Rider, Ray Starling 
We promised to destroy the machines — with Azurite going for the crab on the ground and me taking out the whale in the sky — and split up. 
Tom would support Azurite, so now I was alone with Nemesis and Silver. 
“So, Ray,” Nemesis spoke up. “The method you have in mind is the Black Warcoat’s skill, right?” 
“Yeah.” I nodded as my coat waved in the wind. 
Its Light Absorption skill gathered light and stored it as energy which it would probably use for the other skill, which was most likely a giant laser beam like the one used by Monochrome the UBM. 
It had to be capable of destroying the whale. 
“Hmm, well, the compatibility is certainly there. You can finish charging the coat by letting it absorb the whale’s lasers, and since, like you said, lasers don’t lose power over distance, it doesn’t matter how much the whale’s expanded its surroundings.” 
“No. We’ll have to get close,” I said, correcting her misconception. 
“What?” 
“It expanded the distance by a lot. Even a slight error while targeting would make the beam fly completely off the mark, so we need to get close enough to at least see it clearly.” 
From what Tom told us, the area around the whale was like a different realm where both the sky and the ground seemed extremely distant. 
His assumption was that the distance couldn’t be any less than several hundred thousand meters. 
So to make sure my laser hit it, we had to get as close to it as possible first. 
“We’ll counter the vacuum by preemptively compressing the air around us using Silver’s Wind Hoof,” I said. “There’s not much MP left in Gouz-Maise, but it’s enough for some decent compression.” 
That would be my substitute for a space suit. 
“Honestly, I’m more worried about the lasers than the vacuum,” I added. “I have no idea if Monochrome and The Black Shield will be enough for them.” 
“That’s true, but I see a flaw in your idea,” said Nemesis. 
“Which would be?” 
“You said you would compress the air around us, but it would be limited, no? We’d run out of it long before we reached the whale. Silver can’t run in a vacuum, you know that from when we fought Monochrome, don’t you?” 
“I do. That’s why we’re I’m not making him run.” 
“Nh?” My words caused Nemesis to make a confused face. 
“Listen, Nemesis, this isn’t like the Monochrome battle,” I said. “We aren’t chasing something that can rise to the sky at supersonic speeds.” 
The main problem back then had been that the enemy was high up in the sky and moved higher if threatened. What about the whale, though? 
“There might be a several hundred thousand meters between us, but it’s actually only about a thousand meters in the air.” 
“Several hundred thousand meters are just a thousand?” she asked. 
“The distance is only messed up in the space around it. It’s not affecting anything outside.” 
It was hard to comprehend with our standard laws, but in this case, the several hundred thousand and the thousand were actually the same distance. 
That allowed us to do something that we couldn’t do against Monochrome. 
“What are you planning?” Nemesis asked, despite already knowing the answer. You could tell by the stiff smile on her face, to which I smiled back. 
The answer was painfully simple. It would let us get to the whale faster, and without making Silver waste any air for movement. 
Our method of getting to the whale... 
“We just have to go above it and fall for hundreds of thousands of meters.” 
...was exactly the same as its means of attack. 
 
Quartierlatin, town outskirts, sky 
“The enemy is descending from straight above.” Vesta’s systems and optical sensors spotted a black mass falling towards it. It was Ray and Silver. 
“Intercepting.” 
As Ray endlessly accelerated through the vacuum around Vesta, it activated its laser cannons and began shooting him. 
The sophisticated search system made it impossible for them to miss. 
However, all the lasers were consumed by the darkness — the black color covering Silver. 
“No effect.” 
Dozens of lasers were consumed by the coat, doing no damage. 
Vesta’s upper part was its blind spot. It was originally supposed to be equipped with secondary weapons meant to cover it, but unfortunately, it hadn’t had the time to develop them. 
Still, even without them, the lasers should’ve been able to shoot just about anything down with a good enough barrage. 
The problem here was that the lasers didn’t seem to have any effect at all. 
As Vesta’s artificial intelligence began operating to find a solution to this problem... 
Enemy spotted. 
...Acra from down below informed it of another threat. 
 
“Enemy spotted.” 
As Acra went to the south, it was hindered by eight people. 
“Are you sure you wanna do this by yourself?” asked one of the eight men who had the same face. “And was it really okay for you to remove the mask?” 
“Yes,” said the ninth person. “And you already knew my face, didn’t you?” 
“Well, yeaaah... It’s Ray who’s weird for not realizing.” 
“Heh heh, he really is.” 
The eight were Tom, who’d already fought Acra once. They split up, leaving the only non-Tom alone. 
The person had no entry in Acra’s logs. 
“No sign of incarnations,” Acra said. 
Indeed, the last one wasn’t an incarnation, but Acra-Vesta had been set to ignore all human casualties. Thus, it would head forward even if it had to crush someone in its way. 
“Advancing while retaining speed.” 
It would just keep going forward. That was Acra’s sole weapon. The absolute defense from Space Fixation made it into an object that couldn’t be destroyed, no matter what it crashed into. Nothing could surpass its toughness. 
Though faced with Acra’s deadly charge, Azurite didn’t move an inch. 
She just held a Job Crystal in hand... 
“Job Change — ?????? ????????.” 
...and shattered it. 
Acra paid no heed to that and just continued speeding through the ground with its legs akin to twisted thorns. 
Azurite’s slender body was about to be torn apart by the legs, but before that happened, she voiced the name of a skill. 
“Release.” 
“...?” 
Now, even after Acra had passed her, Azurite was still standing. 
Though she was supposed to be caught in its legs and badly wounded, if not dead, not even her silky hair was damaged. 
There was only one difference about her — the azure blade in her hand was glowing. 

“Repeating attack... error.” Upon realizing that its attack failed, Acra tried to turn around and face Azurite again, but it couldn’t. 
As it attempted a turn, a few of its legs detached from its body and fell. 
“Analyzing damage. Initiating repairs.” As a machine, Acra felt nothing about its impenetrable defense being broken. It would just mechanically fix itself with mutual repair. 
However, that... 
“Repair... impossible.” 
...was something that could never happen again. 
“That wound is the origin,” Azurite said with her back to the machine. Acra had just lost its legs, which were under Space Fixation’s absolute protection, and couldn’t fix them despite its impressive repair powers. “You have not ‘lost’ the legs. The ‘you without those legs’ has become the original you.” 
Thus, the damage could never be repaired. 
Acra’s repair function was in Vesta, rather than itself, yet Azurite had just stated that not even that mattered to the wounds she’d given — the origins she’d etched. 
“This blade of azure severs all,” she told it. “The wounds it bestows never heal. It is the blade that etches inescapable origins.” 
Azurite gently swung her blade, and the empty space it passed was actually torn. This unfathomable sharpness was the true nature of her sword. 
It was the kingdom’s most prized treasure, an anomaly of a relic, and the legendary blade said to have been wielded by the founder and first king of Altar. 
“The Primeval Sword, Altar shall cut all that you are!” 
It was a sword... and an Irregularity. 
“The Primeval Sword, Altar — matching data found. Wielder — no matching data.” 
Even the database that had been built in the time of the pre-ancient civilization had records of Altar. As one would expect, however, it had no info on the wielder. 
Thus, Acra released a question-like tone, and Azurite was courteous enough to answer. 
“I am the one who shall wield Altar as I stand alongside them as the vanguard resisting all that menace the kingdom.” 
The words contained her will and determination, and the words that followed were proof that she alone was capable of wielding Altar. 
“I am the first princess of the Kingdom of Altar — Sacred Princess, Altimia Azurite Altar.” 
It was none other than the name of the one who inherited the blade, Altar, and the country named after it. 
Azurite, also known as Sacred Princess, Altimia, looked at Acra with her unmasked eyes. 
Facing the machine as it stood up using its remaining legs, she declared, “By these names, the duties that come with them, and by my own will, I shall not tolerate anyone menacing the people of the kingdom.” 
Then she pointed the tip of her blade at Acra, cracked a fearless smile, and asked: 
“Are you prepared?”