by Kamiya Yuu
Halter whispered.
He never looked away from the girl in front of him when he asked this question, for he understood that anything action she took would lead directly to their deaths.
RyuZU too did not look away,
“…Under ‘Mute Scream’—my chances of winning should be around 20%, I suppose.”
This answer caused silence upon them.
RyuZU who could manipulate imaginary time, did single-handedly slice through a massive battalion of the latest cutting-edge heavy-armored automata in that instance, and yet she hinted ‘basically no chance’.
After hearing this fact, all their faces were drained.
The words RyuZU said before appeared in their minds
—The 4th unit of the Initial-Y series, ‘trishula’ AnchoR lies within there.
She has the strongest fighting mobility and weapons amongst all the automatas
However, RyuZU stepped forward, and said,
“There is no problem. In the worst case scenario, I can at least buy some time for Master Naoto to escape—”
“I refuse! Halter, to the right!”
Naoto yelled to cut off those words.
At the same time, the cube floating above AnchoR twisted again.
Halter, who was in combat mode, responded to Naoto’s voice and moved at increased speed as he carried Marie and jumped to the right.
At that instant, a certain thing cleaved away the space Halter was at.
The cube continued to twist and spin.
“RyuZU, to the back! Halter, to the left!”
Halter followed Naoto’s instruction as he dodged the intangible, silent attacks that came at him, muttering in his own heart.
(He can read the attacks—!? What did he ‘hear’ to do such a thing?)
He could not understand, but this was currently the only way for him to survive. He had to subject his life to something he could not understand, and that was truly terrifying to him. At this point, Halter was going through such an arduous moment.
s—After several attacks, it seemed AnchoR decided that it was meaningless to do so.
This time, the cube itself spun, and stopped.
At that instance, ‘a massive sword’ appeared in AnchoR’s hand, and Marie shrieked the moment she saw it.
“Are you kidding me!? She can manipulate space—!?”
This was an overly large broadsword unfitting of that petite body. It was not contained using gear technology, but simply appeared from nothing before it was held in AnchoR’s hand.
That was the super technology the current gear technology could not replicate.
—Is this AnchoR’s ‘unique function’?
Marie widened her eyes.
The once frozen thought process of hers thawed, and accelerated
—RyuZu can’t use ‘Mute Scream’ now.
There was no way the enemy will give RyuZU the chance to activate it. No, even if she did activate it, even if she could beat AnchoR at this point, she would just use all up the power in the spring.
And they would be cornered
To compound the situation, even Marie could hear the sounds of the enemies Naoto had just sensed, the approaching enemies.
There were 42 foot soldiers and 18 military automata. There was no way for them to win head on if RyuZU was unable to move.
Then—then, what should they do?
“RyuZU! Halter! Onto the floor!”
“Halter! Throw me out!”
AnchoR was holding the sword that appeared from nothingness, and spun it like a spinning top as she closed in on RyuZU with the speed of a cannonball.
RyuZU dodged this attack at the last moment, and the black scythes grazed the floor.
Also, Marie, who was thrown into the air by Halter, swung the Coil Spear,
And fired a grenade.
That grenade landed right on AnchoR, who was in the midst of swinging the sword.
There was an explosion of boom and flames.
—But, Marie thought. She had firm belief AnchoR was unscathed.
With the flames and smoke roaming around, she could not see AnchoR, and neither could AnchoR see her surroundings.
“!!”
Halter attacked.
The double gears in his entire body, from the ankles to the knees, waist, body, shoulders, arms, accelerated instantly.
His prosthetics were at maximum output as he swung his arm at supersonic power—however,
Poof
With an overly soft sound, AnchoR grabbed his fist with a single hand.
Halter curled his lips as he groaned,
“…Oi oi, what’s with those Shock Removers of yours, Missy?”
You’re hurting me, Halter smiled. He opened the fist at his chest, and threw the explosive in it at AnchoR’s feet.
It was targeted at AnchoR. No, at the floor.
It exploded.
RyuZU’s scythe, Marie’s shot, and the metal jet directive explosive—
The alloy floor that was over 20cm thick could not take the aforementioned damages, and a crack was formed on it, causing AnchoR to tumble over immediately.
The explosion lifted the cover up, and the alloy shrapnel collapsed diagonally—
After confirming this sight, Marie held the gun grip tightly.
Without letting out a sound, Marie asked as she hung from the anchor wire that was fired to the ceiling,
(So is this how it is, Naoto—!?)
This was the lowest level of the city—and further below it was a disguised dock.
In that case, if they were to cause a collapse here, it would be the inside of the hollow planet core further below. What awaited below would be a completely frozen core, an actual outer space.
RyuZU was able to escape with Naoto, and Halter was able to escape using the anchor wire as he went back to reclaim Marie.
AnchoR, the only one left, should be falling to the depths of hell itself along with the floor!
—However.
AnchoR steadied herself while the floor collapsed.
The stare under the mask were pursuing the sight of Halter, who was rolled up with the wire and headed towards Marie.
The cube again spun, and the giant broadsword in AnchoR’s hand vanished.
And then, what replaced it was a sharp, contorted pillar with drill-shaped tips.
The triple drill attached to it spun violently, and upon hearing that sound, Naoto panted,
“Wah, that’s a really bad sound!”
He never heard of such a sound before, but knew what the motion was. If he remembered from what was written in the textbook, this motion was—Naoto yelled upwards,
“Marie!! What’s the phenomenon caused by Triple Resonance Movement!?”
Naoto’s words caused Marie to gasp,
“—A Resonance Cannon!? That size!?”
You gotta be kidding me she panted.
Typically, it was a massive weapon of destruction that was normally equipped on heavy-armed helicopters, or on a Destroyer. It was not something that could be handled by a single unit, whether in terms of power or energy used.
However, that thing had enough power to destroy a skyscraper in one hit—
And that cannon was aimed at Halter, and also to Marie.
There was no time to dodge.
Once AnchoR squeezed the trigger, both of them would be vaporized.
Unable to avoid the premonition of death, a gut-wrenching chill ran rampant within them.
—Got to, got to think of something!
Her mind was spinning blankly. She could not sort her thoughts. She could not derive an answer. Her intellect had betrayed her. She felt impotent in the face of her limit.
There was no time.
Ahh, but I can get RyuZU and Naoto to escape at this moment, right?
Such a thought appeared in a corner of Marie’s mind.
At that moment—
“—RyuZU! ‘Stop’ that—!”
Naoto yelled.
““What!?””
Upon hearing that yell, Marie and Halter doubted their ears.
But RyuZU obeyed Naoto’s words and swung the black scythe.
The scythe slithered sharply as it hit the cannon AnchoR had raised. The cannon body itself then let out a shrill explosion, and the scythe that was stabbed in was caught in the explosion, breaking into pieces.
During this time, Halter managed to grab and hug Marie successfully.
AnchoR threw aside the wrecked cannon, and turned her eyes to RyuZU and Naoto.
The cube again spun.
But before then, RyuZU spun in the air once and swung down the remaining scythe. It extended greatly, seemingly ready to hit the still AnchoR, and hooked the latter’s leg from the blind spot, removing the footing.
But RyuZU, who attacked at that time, lost her balance in mid-air.
“Naoto!? RyuZU!?”
Marie’s yell pierced through the rubble.
Craddling Naoto, RyuZU tried to adjust herself, but,
AnchoR again aimed for this opening.
Her body still unbalanced, she hung on from the rubble, pulled out a new weapon from nothingness, and aimed the cannon at the duo.
…Watch out!
Marie was about to scream such a warning, before before she could do so, Naoto yelled.
“RyuZU— ‘below’!”
In response to those words, RyuZU gave up on balancing herself.
She swung the scythe, and hit the rubble.
The recoil caused the duo to fall faster than before, and AnchoR’s attacking grazed past them. They were able to avoid the direct hit.
But they were unable to negate the shock completely, and RyuZU was in a tailspin as she fell together with the rubble.
Right in front of them was—
“Halter! Fire the anchor wire at them!”
“I can’t, Milady! I can’t reach them!”
Marie immediately yelled, only to be followed by Halter’s denial.
RyuZU hugged Naoto as she continued to fall into the basement that was far below.
And both their bodies quickly vanished amidst the rubble.
Over there—was the bottom of the planet nobody could return from after falling in.
It was a point where not even RyuZU could do anything.
Even this legendary automata, which could manipulate time and far overshadowed current technology even after 1000 years, was without a flight function.
AnchoR barely held onto the side of the collapsed hole as she remained there.
And she watched the duo fall into the abyss far below.
The face was covered by the mask, and no expression could be seen.
However, the cube spinning above the head,
…The spinning wavered, even if a little.
Chapter 3: 23:20 Avenger
—He fell.
For an instance, Marie was still unable to accept this fact. Halter was spinning the gears in his prosthetics at full speed, lifting his owner up as he escaped from the scene.
As she watched the rapidly departing bottom of hell, Marie yelled,
“!! Wait!”
There was no waiting.
“Wait—please stop!”
She did not stop.
The latest generation of cyborg was at full throttle, and the violently acceleration caused breathing difficulty as Marie slammed her fists on Halter’s back in rhythm, one after the other, “Let me go back, you idiot! We got to help those two…!!”
“It’s useless.”
In response to the cold, monotonous reply, Marie was at a loss of words.
“That’s a very deep basement. Leaving aside me with the cyborg parts and that Missy down there, it’s not an environment where humans can survive. You know that, don’t you?”
—Of course I do.
Falling into the deep basement was equivalent to falling into space.
That was the hollow floating in the middle of space; the empty void left only with the core after the mantle was released. Of course, it was not an environment where humans could survive.
However,
“Are you saying we’re going to abandon them!?”
Marie clenched her fists as she yelled.
“That guy—Naoto got involved in all these because of me! I was the one who brough him here!”
“Didn’t I say that it’s useless already, Milady?”
Halter’s response was utterly cold.
And with a dry voice, he concluded,
“Naoto Miura’s dead.”
“!!”
Marie gritted her teeth hard.
Driven by her intense emotions, her teeth were gnashed loudly. Drive by an impulse to wreck something at that instance, the emotions struck her along with with the intertwined guts within her.
“Ahh—ahh…”
The insides of her eyes were heating up.
She wondered, Maybe it’ll feel so enjoyable if I can yell and cry out like this.
…But that would be useless. She could not do that.
Marie herself was the one who brought him to this this place; Marie herself was the one who got him involved in these incidents. She could not bring herself to act out such shameless behavior of being depressed over such an outcome, or to lament. She definitely would not allow herself to do this.
Marie Bell Breguet did not have such a right.
She should have been mentally prepared for this. She brought that boy, who only had a unique skill, and nary any formal training, to such a terrible place.
Thus, this was the result to be expected. It was just the end that would some day arrive.
“However…!’
But even so.
That was surely something that was to happen sometime.
And yet, so suddenly—
“—”
Halter again grabbed the silently sobbing girl, steadying her, and leaped.
The body, jumping off with enough strength to crush the footings, easily got up to dozens of meters.
Continuing with the triangle jump, he rose up the space.
On that way up,
“—Oh, what luck.”
Halter found a little tunnel on the wall, and grabbed the edge firmly.
He made sure Marie on his shoulders did not collide with the edges, and continued in a scaling manner.
Once he reached the end, he effortlessly kicked aside the sealed shutter, poked his face out, and found that it was a vertical drain.
It was approximately 30m in diameter, and he was unable to determine the depth above and below them. The walls had a spiral-shaped path on them.
Halter stopped here for the time being, and put Marie down.
They could not head back down their original path.
Since their intrusion was already made aware, surely there would be a tight security perimeter set in this facility.
But even so, they could not waste time in such a place.
For they should be under pursuit in this situation.
RyuZU, who could fight off against them, was no longer around.
If they were to be attacked by AnchoR again, there was no way they could put up any resistance.
“…Have you calmed down somewhat, Milady?”
Halter spoke up as he faced the girl who remained seated silently on the pathway.
“The current situation…you’ll understand it without me saying anything, right? Now that those two are gone, our fighting strength now’s greatly reduced. It’s really bad.”
“…”
Marie did not answer.
Halter sighed, and continued.
“Even if there’s a little hope, we need to do something about it. We can’t do anything if we’re going to stop here. Anyway, we have to escape to the surface no matter what.”
“—…”
“You probably revealed everything about the factory’s layout Naoto has revealed, but we can’t possibly go back there no, you know? Doesn’t this mean we’ll have to look for another
exit? Now then, there’s a need to sneak through the enemy’s security net in when we don’t have any tricks to pull off. Isn’t this fun, hey?”
“You hear me?”
Halter rubbed his bald head, and he narrowed his eyes sharply.
“Right now, we need to pass through the ‘army’ security without any prior intel. If we’re not careful, we’re going to get pursued by the heavy-armed MA and a Initial-Y series. We’re going to be in danger if you’re going to continue being like baggage.”
“—Don’t look down on me!”
Marie raised her face as she glared at Halter. Her moist eyes were already swollen, and Halter did not say anything.
Marie was heaving her shoulders greatly, and she took a deep breath.
Before exhaling it all out.
“…This is most likely the transit duct for materials.”
She stared at the altitude meter wrapped around her wrist, and continued on,
“If they are to create that thing secretly, they can’t use the transport routes on the surface. They probably sent all the spare parts created in the surface factories as they were to the underground, and assemble them in this level that’s not supposed to exist.”
“In other words, this vertical drain is linked to a factory on the surface?”
“No, it’ll be very inefficient if every factory is to create a transport towards the underground. There has to be a place to gather all the materials…I’m guessing that place itself is linked to many factories instead.”
“Hm…in that case, there’s a way to get out of here.”
Halter said as he looked up the drain, rubbing his chin,
“Those pursuers looking for us…will probably look for another hour or so before giving up, right? I guess it’ll take about an hour for them to use the lifts and elevators to the surface just to report. We’ll continue to climb quickly up this drain, and we can hide in the byway if we want to …well, we’ll definitely be able to escape anyway.”
…The problem is Halter looked down at the girl at his feet.
Marie’s physical strength.
This drain appeared at minimum to be at least 70km tall. But even so, it was possible to scale this within 2 hours. It would not be impossible for Halter’s cyborg body alone, but the problem would be whether Marie’s body could endure this overly intense continual motion.