episode_0407

The moment battle began, that word flashed unbidden in Violet’s mind.

“Blood?”

I want to see the enemy’s blood. I want to tear them to shreds. I want to sever their necks.

The collective consciousness was puzzled by the suddenly appearing keyword, but soon understood.

“Right, we must see the enemy’s blood! Democracy thrives on blood.”

“Yes, we definitely need to end this!”

Within the slowed time, the Violets felt a sense of buoyancy.

Command mechanically focused its computational power on extermination.

The goal was simple. The target before them, humanity’s enemy and Violet’s enemy, the Apostle.

“To think Arsite had an Apostle!”

Within Violet’s collective consciousness, snatched information swirled, undigested.

A state of jumbled words, abstract thoughts, and images.

Distortion and corruption were severe, but a few things were clear.

The sight of countless civilizations and planets burning, and in the midst of it, the foreign empire’s pawn.

“Eidos! Why them!”

A bizarre figure opening a door in a world reminiscent of classical Trist.

Jubilant people. Words and noises accompanying the blurred images indicated that this memory was from a century ago.

“Could it be the origin of the Great War?”

No, the collective consciousness clearly recognized that the connections between its pieces of information were incredibly crude. The links between Arsite, the Great War, and the Apostle were filled with vast gaps.

It doubted whether this alone could fully define the entity’s true nature.

But there was no time to inquire further.

The entity before them was that Apostle.

There was another problem.

“Violet Dunhind Ruzilin!”

The whisper of the entity before them, the exile, burrowed into their minds. It had read their name.

That fact made Violet seethe with discomfort.

They had been careless.

The opponent had instantly recognized their existence.

To think a secret hidden for over a year could be so easily exposed by a slight lapse in caution and a momentary flaw.

“Shut up! Apostle!”

Violet fiercely traversed time in decimal units.

A fierce blow, converging into a single point, aimed for the enemy’s neck.

-Clang!

A fan, swung with a precarious trajectory, deflected the gleaming sword strike that was nearing the neck.

Violet was certain. The foe was slower than them. This had been discerned from the previous surprise attack, but now it was even clearer.

Violet accelerated time even faster. With each stride, the afterimages became blurrier and the gaps widened.

The acceleration instantly expanded in all directions. Human figures flew in from every side like bullets.

The collective consciousness stared blankly at the target, which moved sluggishly as if trapped in jelly.

Because it was curious what answer the opponent would offer.

It was then, amidst the floating time, that Exoria’s eyes met Violet’s.

Had she barely adapted to the pursuit happening at a speed beyond human comprehension?

“Wow.”

The exclamation was brief.

Humanity’s young Apostle questioned with her sword.

Now, monster from another dimension. What answer will you give us?

The exile from another dimension unfurled her fan in that fleeting moment, answering the collective consciousness’s question.

-Whoosh!

The charging Violets veered off, drawing absurd trajectories just before impact. Faced with this preposterous situation of drawing parallel lines to their target, the Violets attempted to attack again.

Countless lines of afterimages intersected the target standing in the center of the warehouse.

The Violet bullets, flying as afterimages, bent into U-shapes just before impact, flying off in unexpected directions.

Exoria flung her fan wide, swinging it as if cleaving the air.

Instantly, cracks began to spread like a spiderweb before their eyes, etching themselves into the air.

The cracks caused violent ripples. The surrounding air momentarily twisted, and irregular distortions spread. The ceiling lights stretched, and parts of the walls began to undulate.

The terrain itself twisted irregularly. The incoming bullets curved or were blocked, flying off to unexpected places.

“It’s spatial distortion! Bypass! Bypass! Find an opening! Squad 1, move to the right, Squads 2 and 3, encircle from the rear and left!”

Dozens of Violets simultaneously formed a perimeter from multiple angles. They delved in, seemingly searching for a gap amidst the bumpy distortions of space.

Using the world, fragmented into fractions of a second, as a stepping stone, Violet leapt this way and that.

Collision again, the attack didn’t land.

“Wait, is this all she has?”

The collective consciousness realized that the exile’s abilities were quite limited compared to the Apostles they had seen before.

If it had been the Apostles from the previous invasion zones, they would have incinerated or torn them apart just by looking.

The faintly implanted network in her head was obstructing large-scale spellcraft or special abilities, but had it truly suppressed all of her power with just that?

The collective consciousness knew that wasn’t the case.

That entity still had untapped potential.

Fortunately, the opponent hadn’t been able to pursue them yet.

“No, perhaps she can’t?”

The entity before them, the exile, moved sluggishly in a world moving like an arrow.

After several attempts at spatial relocation were blocked or ended in short leaps, she advanced on foot. Her direction was the exit. But each time, Violet obstructed her movement.

The collective consciousness changed its approach within seconds. Instantly, space vibrated and warped again.

The rocket-propelled bullets, flying in like meteors, paused then exploded repeatedly. The stretched, thrusting sword blade strangely warped before their eyes.

The distortions and twisted realities before them. Information gained through several shots and attacks demanded a re-evaluation of the opponent.

“Her mana manipulation method is different! It’s not like theirs!”

Unit 2501 screamed briefly in their mind.

The gathered information showed she was distributing and using far less mana with incredible efficiency compared to their own blurred memories and experiences.

“Unit 2501! Is it that much?”

“She wasn’t like that during my Apostle days?”

A restriction was definitely felt. Something was holding the enemy back.

Even in such a situation, the enemy’s reality manipulation ability was not to be underestimated.

“Even so, our network is implanted in her head! 30 seconds to connection!”

The Violet Network struggled to penetrate through the gap created by its unique ability.

Three Violets simultaneously drew their rifles and fired. The bullets drew bizarre trajectories as they passed through the spatial distortion. One bullet hit the ceiling, one the floor, and the last one embedded itself in the wall.

Exoria lowered one hand to the floor and narrowed her eyes. At that moment, metallic blades suddenly sprouted from the warehouse floor.

With a single gesture, she transformed the entire floor into a field of thorns. Invisible chains surged from the ground, wrapping around the ankles of the approaching Violets.

Once again, localized reality manipulation poured forth.

The Violets calmly analyzed the situation. Several time-accelerated entities simultaneously produced cylindrical objects and hurled them towards the exile.

Blinding flashes and smoke shook Exoria’s distortion barrier and its surroundings.

She showed a momentary flicker of hesitation and took a step back.

Three Violets charged through the incandescent light and smoke. The first stumbled, caught by the spatial distortion, and the second had its foot impaled in the blade forest.

However, the third danced through the metallic fangs on an impossible trajectory.

Exoria folded space itself with both hands and swung it towards the Violet. The folded space unfurled, unleashing a sharp shockwave that pushed back the leading Violets.

Their astonishment was brief as the collective consciousness witnessed a strange sight.

“…!”

Red blood trickled from the tip of the exile’s nose. The woman’s expressionless face faltered slightly, then she touched the metal device on the back of her head.

Her fumbling touch was unsteady. The etheric waves around the exile strangely fluctuated.

Violet was confused.

“Wait, is it a restraint?”

Violet merely wondered if it wasn’t some kind of restraint placed by Arsite.

In any case, it seemed the enemy’s reality manipulation abilities had limits, perhaps due to their own suppression and that device.

Accelerated time pressured the collective consciousness’s calculations. Etheric dynamics and magical mechanics computation results poured forth through the collective consciousness’s network flow.

It was clear. The enemy’s surrounding mana flow was unstable.

The way the ether swirled in the atmosphere was similar to attaching a small lock to a high-pressure fire hydrant and using it as a watering can.

“Isn’t she going to overload?”

The collective consciousness’s calculation hit true. Several chain attacks poured down.

Amidst a barrage of precisely tuned bullets, explosives, and self-detonations, one Violet unleashed a blow and slammed it home.

“…!”

To Violet 11511, everything was clear.

Exoria’s pupils rapidly widened. A hand thrashed sluggishly amidst the floating dust, flames, and smoke.

“…Ugh!”

A small groan escaped the exile’s lips. Violet did not miss that opening.

One Violet, flanking along the wall, plunged down from the ceiling corner towards the exile’s crown. The spatial distortion reacted too late.

Exoria barely managed to twist her body. The sword clashed with the fan, generating sparks.

The Violets smiled in unison. Their opponent was too unskilled in close-quarters combat. Her hand trembled unsteadily. The angle of her wrist holding the mana-infused fan awkwardly quivered.

“Slow!”

Sub-actions of the Raix-Haiburn system were drawn with the black zweihander as a brush.

Violet swung the sword two or three times at unusual angles.

Muscle reinforcement and mana amplification, accelerating by using mana as a propellant from the opposite direction of the blade’s movement.

Spatial distortion activated. Too late. The subtle curve drawn by the blade connected.

-Slice!

Exoria’s neckline was lightly cut. The next attack was to the chest. A red line appeared, and blood spurted from the exile’s chest. Following that, a shockwave spread out like an explosion.

Exoria bounced off the wall. At the sight of her flying like a rubber ball, Violet, or rather the entire collective consciousness network, let out a cry of awe.

Following her, Violets soared and leapt, like falcons pursuing their prey.

“Got her!”

The moment they exclaimed, the exile recovered her posture with astonishing reflexes just before impact.

Her feet grazed the floor, sliding to a perfect halt. The wounds she had just sustained were regenerating visibly and instantly.

The collective consciousness remained unfazed by this sight. This level of regenerative ability was naturally within their calculated parameters.

When she lifted her head, what unfolded in her vision was the formidable presence of the enemy forces, perfectly encircling her from all sides.

The Violets, like a single consciousness, adopted identical stances and dashed forward in unison.

Space warped as if some Violets’ forms had suddenly been forced into a compressor, and the massive zweihander once again drew a bell shape, cleaving through the air and plunging down.

A trajectory of black light was drawn.

It connects; if hit this time, she’ll be cut in half.

-Whoosh!

Time instantly accelerated. This time, the exile took the initiative. She too began to move at superhuman speed, leaving multiple afterimages.

A hallucinatory sight unfolded, appearing as dozens of figures moving simultaneously. The black blade missed by a hair’s breadth, rendering its attempt futile.

The collective consciousness’s gaze shone coldly with interest at this unprecedented sight of perfect response to Violet’s speed.

The collision of the two accelerations filled the warehouse interior with fragments of time. The air itself seemed to vibrate and twist.

Dismay was clear on Violet’s face. They had been continuously disrupting the exile with the network implanted in her head. Had an unexpected gap appeared in their ability disruption?

Even amidst all the confusion, Violet performed the next procedure with mechanical precision.

The squad moved like one colossal killing machine.

Some of the scattered Violets were torn apart by suddenly appearing floor spikes and spatial distortion traps. Their damaged bodies continued to fly through the air due to inertia.

The explosive vests attached to the Violets’ upper bodies flickered with red light.

-Boom!

With the explosion, countless anti-magic fragments suddenly halted in mid-air. This time, hundreds of crossbow bolts surrounded the exile from all 360 degrees.

Blue melting rays strangely curved in the air, piercing through the ceiling and pouring down, while simultaneously the hard ground beneath their feet instantly turned into sticky mud, hindering movement.

The network continuously operated to disrupt the enemy’s abilities, even amidst this unexpected surge of power.

“Good, increase network connection output! An opening has been found!”

Even amidst the chaos of battle, the network drew upon stronger energy and exploited the discovered opening.

In an instant, the landscape before their eyes perfectly split in half, as if a glass window had shattered.

“Huh?”

The Violets found themselves in a familiar world.