So…you can’t. You can’t disappear now. You can’t say such weak stuff. It’s no big deal for me to die once at least in this world. I can just come back to life after sixty minutes. So…So…
The remainder in his health gauge dropped from 20 percent to 10. Almost like a ribbon unraveling, the connection with Metatron was slipping away. The warmth that had been right beside his heart ever since he’d been given the Metatron Wings receded.
Then, a faint voice came to him from the distance.
“This is enough. If it is to strike a blow against your enemy…and the enemy of this world, then I regret nothing.”
“But…But we promised, didn’t we?!” he pleaded. “Together, we’d…Together…”
“My servant…must not cry.
“I know you will reach it someday.
“The end of this Accelerated World we live in…
“This…Accel World.”
The depletion of his gauge stopped with 5 percent remaining. At the same time, the light of Trisagion flashed powerfully bright and shot through the border with the darkness.
“Unh…Aah…Aaaaaaaaaaah!!” Haruyuki cried out, overwhelmed by loss, now that his bond with Metatron was completely severed.
The laser rapidly weakened, and the light and darkness broke up into pieces and disappeared. From the other side of that boundary, he saw Mark II, its right arm snapped off. Still clutching Niko to him, Haruyuki clenched his right hand into a fist, and a silver light welled up in it. Six wings roared from his back.
Badly injured, Mark II started to drop to earth, now that its thrusters had cut out, and Haruyuki chased after it.
“Deel…roo-rooo-aah!!” With an angry howl, Mark II reached out its remaining hand. Perhaps intending to grab hold of him again, the sinister claws strained, wide open.
But Haruyuki accelerated harder and slammed his fist directly into the center of the massive hand. The three talons were ripped off from the base, and the remaining wrist area jetted black flames and exploded.
Not yet. Fasterrrrrrr!
“Unnh…Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!” Adding his own roar to the mix, Haruyuki became a dazzling-white shooting star and plunged into the giant’s head. His fist struck the shutter armor protecting the single eye. Cracks radiated outward in the six armored flaps, but they failed to shatter and managed to repel his fist.
“Roo-roo-roo-dee-aaaaaah!!” Mark II fell to the ground four hundred meters below, taking Haruyuki along for the ride as it brandished its left arm with a battle cry full of hatred. It might have been missing everything past the wrist, but if that trunk of an arm made direct contact with Haruyuki, his health gauge and its remaining 5 percent would be knocked out of existence.
He’d concentrated all his energy in his fist and his wings; he could no longer evade or defend. His sole thought to punch all the way through, he flew in earnest. The armor of the lone eye stubbornly endured, even as the fissures across it doubled, then tripled. From above, the giant cudgel of an arm thundered downward.
“I won’t…let you!” Niko shouted, still in Haruyuki’s arm.
Having apparently regained consciousness at some point, the small crimson avatar leapt out and slammed her battered and beaten body into Mark II’s left arm. Shedding chunks of armor, she fired one gunshot after another into the damaged landscape of the wrist where the talons had been. A series of small explosions went off inside the arm, and it stopped moving.
“I’ll hold back the arm!” Niko looked back, her eye lenses shining with a powerful light. “Crow! You…finish this!!”
“……!!”
Haruyuki clenched his hand tightly, as hard as he could.
Metatron had burned up her very essence when she activated Trisagion. Niko was risking her tiny, beaten body to protect him. Pard had launched a suicide attack with Bloodshed Cannon to rescue him and Niko when they were captive in Mark II’s hands. And Takumu and Chiyuri were waiting on the ground, trusting in Haruyuki’s victory. Fuko, Utai, Akira, and Kuroyukihime were also working hard at that moment, racing to this battleground.
And it wasn’t just his comrades. Ash Roller/Rin Kusakabe—enduring the suffering brought about by the ISS kit in the nurse’s office in the real world. Magenta Scissor and Avocado Avoider, who’d had Haruyuki’s back in the battle with Metatron’s first form. Chocolat Puppeteer of the Legion Petit Paquet, who’d fought Magenta’s troops with him. Trilead Tetroxide, who had helped him escape from the Castle. Chrome Falcon and Saffron Blossom—and the Beast—who shared with him the sadness produced by the Armor of Catastrophe.
The many Burst Linkers who had crossed fists with Haruyuki up to that point. Reina Izeki from the Animal Care Club, who wasn’t a Burst Linker, but who nonetheless taught him a good many things about mirrors. The northern white-faced owl, Hoo, who gave him the courage to fly. And his destined rival, Wolfram Cerberus, imprisoned in the massive armor before his eyes. These connections with many—so very many—people had guided Haruyuki and given him strength.
The red light that had transformed Niko’s Enhanced Armament and wiped out Cerberus III/Dusk Taker’s self was probably the negative Incarnate energy accumulated in the ISS kit main body. The energy alone had been sent from the main body hidden away in Midtown Tower to the Acceleration Research Society headquarters and was now lodged in the armor. Which meant that the single eye before Haruyuki—the fiercely flashing reddish-black light in the darkness inside—was a mass of Incarnate extracted from all those who had been parasitized by the ISS kit. It was only natural, then, that Mark II’s Dark Shot and Dark Blow had such incredible power. They used the anger and hatred, the utter despair, of dozens of people as their energy source.
But. What power do my fists, my wings contain now?
“More than yours, tens of times…hundreds, thousands of times!” Jets of silver aura gushed from his fist to envelop his body and turn him into a pillar of flames from his six wings. “Strong…gerrrrrrrrrr!!”
The shutter armor protecting the lone eye of the Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II, shattered into pieces.
The instant Haruyuki’s fist plunged into the inky hole, a concentric shock wave spread out, rippling in all directions. A pillar of white light soared up in the center, connecting heaven and earth.
Having completely smashed Mark II’s head, Haruyuki continued to chase the giant, now motionless and still falling, and plunged toward the earth at an incredible speed. He no longer had the extra power to decelerate, much less land. If he made another crater in the center of the initial crater, his health gauge would be totally emptied at the same time, and he’d die—a calculation he made in less than a millisecond.
But when he was at fifty meters above the ground, the Metatron Wings on his back automatically generated a reverse thrust. Still, his speed didn’t really drop, but now that Haruyuki had recovered a bit of his strength and had a little room to breathe, he worked hard to shift his body while using his original metal wings to decelerate. He just barely succeeded in landing on both feet.
Unable to entirely absorb the impact, his health gauge was carved away another percent or so. But he was still alive. Almost as if to confirm his survival, the four upper wings vibrated slightly. But when he looked over his shoulder, he was back to his original pair of wings. The other four had soundlessly turned to light and scattered.
In the left of his vision, a system message modestly scrolled by, informing him that the Enhanced Armament, Metatron Wings, had been unequipped. The wings had also left Haruyuki, now that their original owner was gone. A sharp, sad pain pierced his chest, and he fought the urge to sink to his knees.
But he still had work to do.
“Niko!” Haruyuki called hoarsely, looking to the sky.
He first saw the massive body of Mark II falling to the ground, arms and legs limp. Its head was completely gone, and black noxious gas seeped from the cracks in its shattered armor like oily smoke. Its right arm had been destroyed by Trisagion and was missing from the shoulder, but the majority
of its left arm was still in good shape, and Haruyuki spotted a red light of reflection at its end.
“Niko!” he yelled. “You have to jump!!”
Fortunately, his voice seemed to reach her; the crimson light pulled away from the giant’s bulk. Haruyuki turned toward the southern side of the crater where the little avatar would land and ran frantically on weak legs. Given that Niko’s health gauge may or may not have had 10 percent left in it, even if she managed to avoid getting dragged into Mark II’s plunge into the earth, she’d die if she fell from that height.
He didn’t have the strength to fly anymore, so he was staggering forward on foot when a shadow overtook him. A deep-red, leopard-type avatar—Blood Leopard. She, too, was severely injured after her special attack, Bloodshed Cannon, but when she reached the point of Niko’s descent a few seconds before Haruyuki, she jumped up and caught the red avatar on her back.
She very nearly fell over when she landed, and Haruyuki, finally reaching her side, held her up with one hand. He caught Niko with the other and sank to his knees with a clank.
“…Thanks, Pard…Ya did it, Crow. ’Mazing…Sendin’ that sucker flyin’…”
He heard a murmur in his ear, and Haruyuki managed a pained smile. “It’s ’cause you saved me, Niko. Thanks.”
An enormous sense of loss still ruled his heart. Archangel Metatron had given Haruyuki wings, become an icon and guided him through enemy territory, shown him to the Highest Level and given him a glimpse of the true form of the Accelerated World, and in the end, had transformed her very essence into light to strike down an enormously powerful enemy. And now she was gone. He couldn’t actually believe it. His tears threatened to spill out once more, but he gritted his teeth beneath his cracked mirrored goggles and held them back. He wasn’t allowed to cry just yet. Still holding Niko, he staggered to his feet and looked back.
The massive bulk of Mark II was just about to hit the ground. The reddish-black iron giant crashed back-first into the center of the crater it had made, and floods of miasmic vapors jetted from its joints and the openings where its head and left arm had been.
Haruyuki assumed the dull black smoke was Incarnate energy rendered visible, but the true nature of the “darkness” that lived in Mark II remained inside the massive body. Similarly to Mark I’s Beast, something was possessing the Enhanced Armament itself, system-wise; so as long as the armor existed, the darkness would also linger. There was only one way to make it disappear.
“Haruuuuuu!!”
Incredibly, he heard a voice shouting from behind…followed by the sound of two pairs of feet. Turning once more, he saw Lime Bell and Cyan Pile running toward them from the crater’s southern edge. He waved to signal them and responded with what voice he could muster. “Chiyu! Taku! Over here!”
Chiyuri waved back, and a few seconds later, she was standing next to Haruyuki and the others. She sighed heavily. “Sorry we’re late. We had a hard time finding any buildings I could break…”
“It’s okay. The fight…just ended,” he replied reassuringly, barely able to keep the tremors from his voice. He turned back to the center of the crater.
The five stared silently for a time at the giant in its death throes. The gas seemed to be nearly exhausted; only a thin trail of smoke rose from the head area. Somehow, the armor seemed smaller now. The limbs were wriggling helplessly, but even this movement gradually grew sluggish.
“If you would, Chiyu,” Haruyuki said.
The Watch Witch, Lime Bell, nodded deeply and took a few steps forward. She brandished the Choir Chime of her left arm. When she waved it in two large counterclockwise circles, something that sounded reminiscent of the chime of a school bell filled the crater.
“Citron Caaaaallllll!!” She brought down the large bell, and a yellow-green light spilled out and enveloped the giant on the ground.
The last time, Mark II had changed into Dreadnought mode and shaken off Citron Call with its mobility. But it looked like it no longer had the power now to stand up, much less transform. Even when the light hit it, it only twisted slightly, not enough to escape.
Seven seconds, eight, nine…Ten seconds.
The light blanketing Mark II grew dazzlingly bright. The arms and the nihilistic lasers that had so tortured Haruyuki and his friends—or to be precise, the forearm of the remaining left arm—melted into an infinity of glittering lights and vanished.
At the same time, a light of the same color wrapped around Niko, still in Haruyuki’s arms. Citron Call’s power to go back in time had returned the main armament of Invincible to its original owner. And ten seconds after that, Mark II’s legs vanished. All that remained were the streamlined cockpit and the thruster block on its back.
With her right hand on the large bell of her left and her thin legs firmly braced, Lime Bell continued to make the fresh green light flow. Looking at the small, reliable back of his childhood friend, Haruyuki had a sudden thought in the bottom of his heart. Would they be able to rewind the extinction of Metatron with Citron Call? In a certain sense, Metatron had possessed Haruyuki, so if they rewound Haruyuki’s status, then maybe…
Mark II’s massive body flashed brightly a third time, and the torso that made him think of a type of shelled creature disappeared. The cockpit block had returned to Niko. And then there was a sharp metallic sound. Kashak!
Haruyuki gasped, his eyes still on the center of the crater. There was a slender avatar with gray metal armor lying on the ground. Wolfram Cerberus. A duel genius, toyed with by an unfortunate fate. Haruyuki’s rival and dear friend.
There was no doubt that the sharply edged design and the extremely hard armor texture were Cerberus, but four protrusions almost like wings stretched out from his back. The thruster block for high-speed movement, the last Enhanced Armament that Cerberus III/the Nomi copy had taken from Niko, had shrunk to match the size of Cerberus’s body.
The light of Citron Call continued to firmly hold Cerberus. In another few seconds, the thruster would also be returned to Niko, and the Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II, would be completely eliminated. Haruyuki—and probably the other four, too—believed this. But none could have predicted what happened next.
Still unconscious on the ground, Wolfram Cerberus abruptly vanished, almost as though he’d been an immaterial projection.
“What?!” Chiyuri cried out, whirling her head around.
Haruyuki also looked around the crater, dumbfounded, but there was no sign of Cerberus anywhere.
He’d been lying prone on the ground. It was absolutely impossible for him to have run away so quickly that the five of them hadn’t seen him. Haruyuki could only assume he’d vanished from the field without warning.
Having lost its target, the light of Citron Call quickly weakened, and as it faded completely, Niko, still in Haruyuki’s arms, clicked her tongue.
“Tch! Is that it? They got us!!”
“Huh? Got us? What?” he asked hurriedly in response.
“Them…” The Red King clenched her injured hand ruefully. “They cut off Wolfram Cerberus’s connection from the real world. The way he disappeared, that’s the only thing possible.”
“O-of course!” Takumu groaned. “I thought Black Vise and Argon Array were a little too happy to walk away…I never dreamed they’d use a trick like this.”
“Nngh.” Staring at the fissure in the center of the crater, Haruyuki clenched his teeth in simultaneous shock and understanding. He’d thought from the way Argon Array talked that she might be able to interfere with Cerberus in the real, too. But not that she would activate a forced disconnect without the least hesitation. And he was sure it hadn’t been to help Cerberus.
Here, his surprise finally changed to worry, and he hurried to ask Takumu, “S-so then, Taku, what about the last piece of Niko’s Enhanced Armament?!”
It wasn’t Takumu who answered him, but Niko herself. “If he’s vanished from the Unlimited Neutral Field, there’s nothing we can do about it. Guess I’ll just have to le
ave the thruster with him for the time being.”
“B-but—!”
“No way around it. Let’s just be glad we got the cockpit, main armament, and legs back. And he didn’t get the missile pods to start with.”
“B-but…” She was so clear and certain, though, that he couldn’t really say anything more than that.
Jumping down from his arms, the Red King took a few steps and put a hand on Pard’s back. The leopard avatar was also glaring regretfully at the center of the crater, but as a veteran Linker, she likely understood that they really could do nothing about it now.
Grrrr. She responded to the contact with a low growl and turned toward Haruyuki and the others.
Blood Leopard, one of the Red Legion’s Triplex, and Prominence’s leader, Scarlet Rain, both dipped their heads deeply at the same time. When they finally straightened up again, Niko looked at each of them in turn. “Silver Crow. Cyan Pile. And Lime Bell. Because of my cowardice, I put you in a seriously bad sitch.”
“What?!” Chiyuri cried, waving a hand in front of her face. “Don’t be so cold, Niko! We’re friends, aren’t we?! It’s only natural we help out when one of us is in trouble!”
“That’s right, Red King,” Takumu continued. “The two of you have helped us out any number of times before, after all.”
Of course, Haruyuki tried to say something as well, but Chiyuri stole his turn from him. “And I’m sorry, too. I couldn’t get all your Enhanced Armaments back…If I’d built up my special-attack gauge a minute—no, thirty seconds faster, I could’ve gotten back the last one before they pulled Cerberus’s cable…”
“Now, that’s cold, Bell. No, oh, um…” Suddenly tongue-tied, Niko scratched the damaged antenna parts on her head. “So, like, what should I call you? Not your avatar name, but somethin’ from your real name.”
After a moment of surprise, Chiyuri pulled at the brim of her triangle hat as if embarrassed. “Oh, that doesn’t really matter. Kuroyukihime calls me Chiyuri, and Sister Fuko calls me Chiiko…”
Snow White’s Slumber Page 10