episode_0384

Two flashes of light danced fiercely. One was a burning red, the other a deep, dark blue like the abyss. Bloody afterimages and blue waves violently surged. Thick smoke, raging flames, scattered debris, and the stinging smell of gunpowder filled the air. And at the center of it all, two Swordsmen fiercely clashed. One was a wraith pulled from the grave. The other, an alien species of humanity who inherited the dreams and visions of Rustrum.

-Crash! With an ear-splitting impact, General Raix’s cutlass clashed against Violet’s Zweihänder. A powerful shock, like a lightning bolt striking down. The forms of the two Swordsmen intertwined as if one. Dozens, hundreds of flashes of light surged into the air and vanished in an instant, repeating over and over. Every attack pierced through moments of time like an awl. At the point where the power of the superhumans collided, afterimages rippled like waves. Speed met speed, sending sparks flying like lightning.

-Clang! Power is proportional to speed. At this moment, a fundamental principle of physics was proven by raw, primal force. The sword paths glowed dazzlingly, scattering sparks. Two different colored auras repeatedly recoiled and re-engaged. They violently clashed, then retreated. Dazzling footwork pounded the ground without pause. The aftermath of missed sword strikes mercilessly clawed, stripped, and shattered everything around them.

“Violet was that strong?” Enrica, who had descended to the ground at some point, widened her eyes in astonishment. She had engaged in various sparring matches before, but Violet had never once shown such speed. Irene, too, wore a dazed expression, as if she couldn’t believe it. That level of speed and power was something only her father, back when Helios was intact, could achieve. Even some comparable executives barely fell short of that realm.

“Even when she gave her all, it wasn’t like this. More importantly, I’ve never seen that ability before. It seems to have appeared recently…” Every time their swords clashed, it created a strange illusion as if space-time itself was warping. No, it wasn’t merely an illusion. Whenever Violet sprinted, the surrounding images distorted grotesquely like taffy, leaving long afterimages like a snake’s tail. Only the two superhumans of this era could truly perceive the reality. Sophieel, who had been watching the duel in a daze, quickly grasped the cause of that anomalous phenomenon.

“Space… it’s bending, isn’t it? When did Violet get such a unique ability?” The answer came from Seijis, who was standing right beside her. “…You saw correctly. That’s time acceleration!”

Time and space are inseparably linked. Violet’s processing power finally shone with a new brilliance after the network reorganization. The astronomical processing power generated by tens of thousands of units manifested localized reality manipulation, confined to her body. Accelerate, accelerate more fiercely!

“Faster! Faster!” One second split into ten, then a hundred. In the vast torrent of information, Violet confronted a body that transcended its limits, creating a miracle. Against the superhuman’s perfect technique, a single girl brought forth a miracle.

“Hiiyat! I’ll win!” Her heart pounded wildly like a drum. Her fingertips twitched subtly, and cold sweat streamed down her spine like a waterfall. An overwhelming pressure she hadn’t felt since encountering the Archmage and the Apostle. Clearly, the opponent before her was considerably wounded. Her weapon’s length and performance were also superior. On the surface, everything was in her favor. But why was she trembling so much?

“Calf muscle adjustment! Blood flow regulation, left foot at a 10-degree angle!” She adjusted her stance and lunged forward again with intensity. The General’s cutlass directly met her next strike. It deflected to the left, bending.

“Step back two paces and thrust! After retrieving the sword, grip part of the blade with the other hand, then push it straight in!” For a split second, she momentarily cut off the flow of magic. Violet’s left hand swiftly gripped her own blade short. An unexpected lunge, catching him off guard. Violet’s left foot stepped forward decisively. Her weight shifted forward. First, she bent deeply at the waist. She pulled her arm far back, then snapped it forward powerfully like a spring. An extremely precise attack, stabbing with a half-sword grip. Simultaneously, time acceleration activated. In the slowed time, stretching like taffy. The sword’s tip lunged towards his solar plexus without hesitation. It plunged in.

-Clang! The General dodged the attack by a hair’s breadth. He retreated two steps, and with that momentum, swung a white sword strike. The powerful sword path directly collided with Violet’s attack.

Violet swiftly pulled her hand back. She exploited her weapon’s advantage, thrusting from a relatively long distance. Then, a swift half-turn followed by three consecutive attacks. Horizontally, vertically. Polaris-style anti-monster swordsmanship, surging and accelerating like fierce waves. Violet’s two wrists spun rapidly counter-clockwise. The sword, sharply angled towards Violet, danced artfully in the air like a painting, scraping the ground. It surged upwards with ferocious momentum. The target was the enemy’s lower body, the third strike rising from below.

-Thump! The General retreated three steps. Then, with another light, dance-like leap forward, he swung horizontally from left to right. The cutlass blade flashed. It drew a graceful counter-clockwise circle in the air, like a windmill blade rotating. A clear metallic clang resounded. They clashed fiercely again, as if accelerating. A violent repulsive force generated by the collision of the two magical energies. A sharp cracking sound from its aftermath. Sparks of magic scattered everywhere like blossoming flowers.

“Agh! This monster!” Violet recalled a declaration made by the being before her. Emmanuel Raix. The great hero of the First Interdimensional Invasion had countless epithets. Hero of the Great War, the greatest hunter. The best tactician and fierce general of the Great Monster War. The invincible soldier. A titan who, side by side with the progenitors of the Four Great Clans, dominated an era. And now, in this moment, Violet couldn’t help but think of another epithet. Humanity’s greatest superhuman martial artist. If one were to name the strongest warrior of the modern era, he would be a monster among the top five. The fake before her was faithful to the original’s reputation.

“This is insane!” A short gasp escaped her. Violet involuntarily took a step back. She had faced countless strong opponents until now, but this kind of pressure was entirely new. A sense of unfamiliarity she had never felt in any battle before. A feeling of overwhelming hopelessness, as if facing an insurmountable wall. Truly, this person was a being on a different dimension.

“Clearly! By my calculations, he should have been hit here?” “Even though he’s so injured?” According to the absorbed memories, this was definitely a fake. A clone created by Laphlaxia’s strange technology. She had clearly heard that it could only exhibit a fraction of the original’s combat power.

“Ugh! This fake! Why is he fighting so well?” A provocative grumble escaped her lips. The General didn’t reply. He merely swung his sword in silence. But that silence exuded a more intense fighting spirit than any words, a fiercer will to battle than any roar. A grim impulse suddenly surged within her.

“Should I just shoot him?” If she concentrated her firepower right now, she could kill him. He was noticeably slower and made more mistakes than at first, and more than during their initial fight at the offshore base. His armor was tattered, and he had no auxiliary equipment left.

“Air force, ready! Shall we fire?” The flight unit, which had suppressed the drone air force and entered a brief lull, was still circling overhead. Airships were on standby in the sky. Inform her comrades of the situation, have them retreat, then give the command just once, and it would be over. A guided bomb, personally guided by Violet, would precisely strike the target. The oversized aerial bomb, with its precisely adjusted fuse, would explode upon reaching the target altitude, sweeping the vicinity with a rain of magical fragments.

Violet shook her head vehemently. “No! There’s no need to win against such a tattered fake, an outdated relic, like that! I will definitely win with my own skill!” At the very least, she didn’t want to win that way in this fight. Wouldn’t it feel somewhat unsatisfying otherwise? An unfounded stubbornness surged within her. “Humanity’s greatest Swordsman? Who cares about that? I’ll definitely take him down!”

Her network heated up like boiling lava. Violet, who had stepped back, charged forward again with fierce momentum. Eerie afterimages trailed, and time acceleration reached its peak. Faster, even faster. At the sudden acceleration, a fleeting look of bewilderment flickered across the General’s movements. Evasion failed. A flash emanating from a superhuman among superhumans, steeped in strong physical ability, instinct, and training. Strikes measured in decimal seconds, tearing through time. The cursed technique of Laphlaxia, which reproduced memories and imitations, had, even if superficially, vaguely brought forth fragments of the Great War. He blocked, parried, and, though he couldn’t see, groped for the best direction guided by intuition born of long experience. The enemy’s movements sped towards the pinnacle of precision, and a single mistake resulting in a retreat turned into a lesson. Three times, five times, it returned as a sword path nearing perfection.

“A splendid skill, indeed.” General Raix let out a genuine exclamation of admiration. The enemy before him was clearly still inexperienced. The clear evidence was that she hadn’t finished him off, despite his poor physical condition. The master’s gaze, standing on a distant cliff above a great mountain, clearly looked down upon the girl struggling to climb up from below. Nevertheless, as a warrior, he couldn’t help but applaud her thunderously. Because he saw the girl furiously rushing towards the mountaintop, towards the peak where he stood. He saw her burning with astonishing fighting spirit.

The sword pierced closer and closer to his vital points. The superhuman was engulfed in a whimsical thought: Was he perhaps fighting ten thousand people simultaneously? In the maelstrom of battle, a flashing intuition stimulated the fount of creativity. Perhaps it was a wondrous ability to dissect and analyze all six senses frame by frame, then derive the optimal outcome.

The superhuman’s prediction vaguely discerned the true nature of tactical immersion, which must exist somewhere beyond the fog of perception. A shiver ran down his spine. Was that truly a human being? Nevertheless, he had to pursue. Like a child chasing a rainbow, he sprinted fiercely towards the afterimages of time.

“I won’t let her go.” He continued his footwork until his feet were raw, until the floor was dented and cracked. Violet’s movements traced utterly unpredictable trajectories within the accelerated time. He sharpened all his senses, aiming for a momentary opening.

In that instant, Violet, who was dashing about scattering afterimages, witnessed an impossible, unbelievable sight. “What! What is it?!” General Raix’s gaze tracking her afterimages. Her network was colored with shock. “He’s seeing this?!”

The superhuman above superhumans finally read the flow of accelerated time. Just before the death throes of lamentation reached his throat, in the extremely slowed world, General Raix’s body executed precise and bizarre movements, like a well-oiled machine. A peculiar blocking stance. Magic burst forth rapidly as if exploding, twisting his muscles and ligaments in seemingly impossible directions.

Close-quarters combat against monsters, Raix-Haiburn Style: Form 2. A textbook parry and riposte.

-Clang! The next moment, Violet was sent flying backward by a tingling shock that pierced through her hands and entire body. She tumbled across the floor like a rubber ball, then quickly reached out to brace herself. She spun her body half a turn, easily regaining her stance.

“Huh?” Every sense in her body stood on end, like a hedgehog’s quills. A bone-chilling tremor crawled up her spine like a snake.

“Violet, that’s General Raix’s unique martial art. What he just used is a technique to redirect the opponent’s attack back at them.” At the Scholar’s explanation, Violet, who was beside her, grumbled in a sullen voice. “You’re telling me now! Then what’s that—”

Before she could finish, another vision was revealed. “Hooah…!” A short breath, and General Raix’s afterimage vanished like a heat haze. Raix-Haiburn Style Form 1. Accelerated Footwork. His muscles were strengthened even more efficiently. And it didn’t stop there; explosive magical energy burst forth from his legs and the soles of his feet. After a momentary explosion, his body accelerated like an arrow.

-Boom! A fierce tearing sound. A pure white human form cut through the midnight darkness like a bullet. Human flesh and talent began a breathtaking race against space-time distortion. The floor was dented, and the makeshift dueling ground shimmered with countless afterimages.

-Thud! The life-or-death sprint, like a game of chicken, came to a halt with a single violent collision. Violet tumbled to the ground, then quickly stood up. Her left arm was deeply gashed, and dark red blood dripped steadily. Something fell from Violet’s sword-wielding hand with a clatter. Severed fingers.

“Damn it…” With a frustrated groan, Violet examined her now empty hand. Three or four fingers had been cleanly severed. In contrast, the fake General Raix on the opposite side appeared to have sustained relatively minor injuries to his arms and legs. At least, it seemed that way until he stumbled and coughed up blood.

“Cough!” The General coughed violently, as if his lungs were being torn out. Dark red blood poured from his mouth and nose like a waterfall. Violet immediately sensed something unusual from his pale face. ‘Did he overdo it?’

**

Violet’s prediction was accurate. The General felt his entire body screaming in pain. The Raix-Haiburn system demanded a body as tough as steel, capable of withstanding intense physical activity and explosive magic manipulation. Even in peak condition, extremely delicate control was essential. Furthermore, now, being gravely wounded and utterly exhausted, this technique was like poison gnawing at his own body.

Nevertheless, General Raix, his face clearly showing exhaustion as he wiped away blood, never took his eyes off Violet for a moment. As if nothing had happened, he regained his posture and slowly aimed his sword.

‘In any case, defeat is as clear as day.’ The numerical superiority didn’t even need to be mentioned again. The other unknown enemies watching this duel from behind the military forces also had unfathomable abilities. And if he overexerted his body in his current state, it was clear he would reach his limit. His heart would stop before long.

Violet, noticing this fact, opened her mouth. “Hey, why are you fighting? You look like you’re not in good shape anyway. Your body’s not doing well, right?” “…” “If you keep this up, you’ll die. And you’re not even the real one. Why are you so obsessed with a ‘honorable duel’ while impersonating that historical General?”

The General replied calmly. “I know. That I am not the real one.” “Then why?”

“I vaguely realized it a while ago. I am Emmanuel Raix, yet I am also not him. I don’t know why, but I am merely a puppet, borrowing his shell, created to fight. These memories too… were clearly implanted, not my own.”

His reason for birth was a lie, his memories a lie. Then, this identity, this self, as ‘General Raix’ that he vividly felt in this moment, must also be a lie in the end. After the hypnosis broke, Helman felt that fact like a knife carving into his flesh, chilling and painful. Every breath he exhaled, every step he took. Everything was merely someone else’s imitation.

Nevertheless, there was one thing left. “To fight without shame under this name. That is the only truth I can choose.” He established a clear conviction. Even if it was a manipulated belief, he slowly raised his head, using it as a firm crutch to support a broken leg.

“So? Are you afraid? Of losing to a fake?” Violet answered without hesitation. “No!”

General Raix, or Helman in the guise of the war hero, smiled broadly as if impressed by her confident demeanor. Then, he shouted robustly again. “Then… give it your all. I know that your sword and its techniques are not your only skills. Come at me with everything you’ve got, try your best. Whether it’s guns, magic, or anything else, bring out everything you have left!”

Violet willingly accepted that almost arrogant declaration. Unit 1 waved her fingerless hand above her head. At that signal, the airships and fighter jets on standby in the sky pulled back, and the armored suits and walkers surrounding them slowly retreated. The dueling ground expanded even wider. Then, the Lament’s Death Throes fell to the ground with a clatter. As she spread her arms, numerous weapons poured down from the air.

“Alright. Here I go.” She switched weapons. In her two hands were a one-handed sword and an automatic rifle. As she pulled the charging handle, armor-piercing rounds smoothly fed into the chamber.

-Rat-a-tat-tat! She leaped, swinging the rifle freely like a pistol. Helman gracefully weaved through the hail of bullets as if dancing. Two sword paths violently intersected in the air. The rifle, broken in two, fell futilely to the ground. As if waiting, Violet stomped her left foot forcefully. A shotgun on the ground sprang up like a coiled spring. She swiftly kicked it up and snatched it with her left hand. She aimed it at the General’s head.

-Bang! With a loud explosion, shotgun pellets rained down. One of the General’s ears was torn, and red blood splattered. Helman twisted and plunged through the point-blank shot, barely a hair’s breadth away. Sword and shotgun ceaselessly intertwined, then fired again. She swung it like a club, and then feinted to thrust her sword. A furious and violent offensive, as if she couldn’t even control her own body.

-Thwack! Unit 1’s head surged uselessly into the air, as if a ripe watermelon had been plucked. “Who’s next!” A spirited shout. Unit 2 strode in, as if long prepared, wielding a shield and a mace. Its attacks were straightforward and heavy, completely unlike the previous agile swordplay. The versatile attacks again adorned the dueling ground splendidly. The mace transformed into an axe, and the axe once again into a spear. She pulled weapons from her inventory and used those pre-stashed on the ground to counter.

The warrior, wielding a heavy blunt weapon, had by then transformed into a spearman standing tall, as if confronting agile cavalry. The spear shaft was effortlessly severed. In place of the spear shaft that soared above her head, a crossbow was now in her hands.

-Whiz! In a world slowed to an extreme by acceleration. Red-glowing bolts surrounded him like a trap. Helman pursued the countless barrage with superhuman kinetic vision and astonishing senses. Again, the Raix-Haiburn style’s secret technique was reproduced. A sharp, crescent-shaped sword aura surged, knocking away all the bolts. The sword aura, like a keen blade, cut and tore through the surrounding walls and floor. He pursued again. The accelerated Helman fiercely chased after Violet, who was continuously firing bolts. Violet looked back. She threw away the crossbow, then drew twin swords.

The brief skirmish ended with a dull thud. A striking kick. A dull sound of flesh and bone colliding with a thud. Unit 2 was sent flying into the air, having been kicked. Its highly airborne body coughed up blood with a choking cry. Helman steadied himself, preparing for another slash. But Violet, as if she had predicted everything, smirked. Meanwhile, a long, black object suddenly popped out of her inventory. It was an anti-materiel rifle.

“Here comes a big one!” -Crash! A fatal strike descended like a meteor above Helman’s head. An unexpected ambush. In that instant, beside the bullet’s trajectory, a massive slash cleaved the sky. It intersected the air like a painting. And Helman, with exquisite timing, parried the bullet by a hair’s breadth.

-Clang! The deflected armor-piercing high-explosive round struck the nearby floor, causing a thunderous explosion. The moment the severed Unit 2 and the sniper rifle’s remnants fell uselessly to the ground, Unit 3 proudly entered. In its hand was a blood-red rapier, gleaming fiercely. The flame-infused, blazing blade violently clashed with the cutlass. An elegant yet utterly brutal duel unfolded within the blink of an eye. Violet recalled the optimal image in her mind. What was Adela’s swordsmanship like, truly?

“…Is that the swordsmanship of House Cascadia? Jemont would be quite disappointed if he saw you.” As admiring Helman finished his words, the wrist holding the rapier was effortlessly severed. The blade was futilely dropped. Unit 4, Unit 5, Unit 6. Continuously, Violets with different armaments and countermeasures streamed into the battlefield, like ceaselessly turning cogs.

“Hwaaat!” She threw flashbangs, wielded machine guns in both hands, threw bombs, and bursts of magical flames erupted. A dazzling array of weapons and techniques continuously intersected without pause. In this bizarre duel, the initial tense atmosphere vanished without a trace, replaced by boiling fighting spirit and unquenchable passion.

As Unit 8, holding a staff, swung her arm forcefully, a brilliant flash illuminated the surroundings. A whip of lightning struck the floor, and the precarious structure shook with a thunderous roar. As he cut through the magic, Helman recalled: the Witch Adriana’s vision was being well-inherited. He parried the sudden onslaught of vision blades that swirled around him like a school of fish. At that moment, a red beam rapidly cut a long line across the floor.

-Boom! The explosion echoed like thunder. The floor of the structure, which had barely endured the violent tyranny named “duel,” collapsed helplessly under the impact of the melting ray. Unit 9 boldly leaped down into the chasm below as if throwing itself off a cliff, pulling out an anti-tank rocket. Caught by a glancing explosion, Helman lost his grip on his sword. As the enemy charged, instead of grabbing his sword, he clenched his fist tightly. Immediately, Unit 9’s chest was crushed like a squashed tomato, sending it flying far away. A shockwave then swept through his entire body. When a body trained to its limits combined with precise technique, fearsome power and speed, transcending human limits, raged like a furious storm.

“Yes! Keep coming at me! Come on, grit your teeth and try to take me down!” “Iyaat!” Beneath the collapsed base platform, the desperate battle continued without pause. Swords, guns, magic, and even fists. A bloody struggle where all means were mobilized.

Three immense flames surged, and thick smoke billowed like poisonous mushrooms. A lull, like the calm before a storm, settled. Sophieel and Seijis watched the battlefield situation with bated breath. As the smoke slowly cleared, the floor beneath the structure was revealed.

“…” “Oh dear, it’s all collapsed…” Unit 17, wielding a Zweihänder, clicked her tongue as she confronted Helman. The duel had returned to its initial scene. Violet instinctively realized. This would probably be the last time.

Their gazes intertwined. They walked. At a brisk pace, then charged again with force. “Alright, let’s focus.” Let’s go seriously. Extend the arm, retract it. Swing it, diagonally, horizontally. Raise it again, then rotate it horizontally. Let’s review the enemy’s experience and abilities once more. Chew on them. The countless Violets watching the duel continuously analyzed his movements. Recalling, analyzing, understanding. She tried to optimally imitate the enemy’s movements. A mistake. She forgot she was short. Again.

Unit 18 re-entered. She tried to follow the General’s swordsmanship, his footwork. The angle should not deviate significantly from the front. Bend, then rebound with the heel. Shift weight, and the movement of magic? Unit 18 died. Unit 19 entered. Tested again, then died. Unit 20 entered. Beyond the network, which was gradually becoming dazed from the effects of time acceleration, there was something. Something distant, elusive, yet almost graspable.

-Swish! Helman on the other side was preparing something. Violet raised her sword to meet him. For some reason, her heart no longer pounded.

Helman prepared Form 1 again. The final sprint, close to time acceleration, began. A white dot soon became a white line. He entered the black and red domain without hesitation. Violet simply waited calmly for that moment. He’s coming, he’s coming. In contrast to his furious momentum, she calmly drew her sword.

Once, twice, three times. A furious assault, like a candle flaring brightly one last time before extinguishing. She calmly maintained her defense. A realization struck her like lightning. Within the blade, Violet finally understood. The girl saw the path.

-Slice! His severed right arm spun two and a half times in the air like a bolt of lightning. Violet, emotionless, continued her next movement like a machine. A black blade plunged deep into Helman’s abdomen.

-Clatter! The cutlass, having lost its master’s control, fell uselessly to the ground and clattered. Immediately after, a soft thud broke the quiet stillness as something slumped down. General Raix slumped weakly, red blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

“…Yes, you finally read it.” Helman’s face was utterly clear. Even in pain, he felt a brief moment of elation. “Yeah.” Violet was slightly disappointed. The moment of realization was neither joyful nor thrilling. It was simply the indifferent act of filling in a blank with the answer to a simple problem, as if someone had already solved it.

“…It’s over. To move with a clear mind, with my true will, this was the first and last time…” “…” In his blurring vision, Helman—or General Raix—suddenly had a question. Gasping for breath, he struggled to speak. “Gah… So, child. Whose side are you on? Are you a minion of those aliens, Aedos? Or… are you on humanity’s side?”

Violet answered immediately. “I’m on my friends’ side!” At that simple answer, Helman stared blankly for a moment, then burst into laughter. “I see… Then, please… finish it…” Violet nodded. She reached out her hand. The shadow approached like ink. Helman thought. It was enough now. Beyond his dimming vision, it shimmered like light.

**

Amidst the devastation of the ruined offshore base, the area where the colossal alien spaceship had crashed was particularly desolate. Like a bullet piercing flesh, the spaceship had crushed structures and was half-buried within them.

-Crunch! Suddenly, a pile of small debris twitched. From within it, a girl cautiously poked her head out. Her blue hair glowed faintly, catching the light from the surrounding fires. The girl gasped for breath as she crawled out from the wreckage.

“Ugh… this is awful… Why did it turn out like this!” The girl, who had barely managed to get out of the wreckage, sank down, exhausted. Then, she looked down at her arms and skin, wrinkling her dainty white face deeply.

“Ugh! No! Why do my appendages look like this? Why is my skin so smooth and white? It’s disgusting…!” The girl sighed. She had her original form, given by the Creator, but that bad monster had strangely altered her. Her core body was relatively intact, but she had somehow been tainted. The result was this oddly shaped biomorphic terminal. She guessed it was an imitation of the local aliens’ forms. It was an unpleasant sight.

“This is all because of that otherworldly fiend…” The lamenting girl slowly came to her senses. Looking around, she found herself in the very place she had just destroyed. It seemed to be another dwelling place for these alien species.

“By the way, why is this place so crude and primitive?” The girl surveyed her surroundings with a bewildered expression. These structures, which she was seeing for the first time, all seemed to be made with crude and inferior technology. With her innate curiosity and inquisitiveness as a spaceship, the girl meticulously observed her surroundings. Perhaps she was too absorbed in her observation, for she realized only belatedly that she was surrounded.

“There she is!” Small blonde girls instantly surrounded the blue-haired girl. “It’s a Fusion subordinate!” “Ugh, uwaah! No! You fiends! Go away!” “From now on, you’re part of Violet Squad!” “Nooooo!” The little Violets excitedly dragged away the blue-haired girl, who was crying piteously.

“Hehehe!”