Ch.260Sacrifice (5)
by fnovelpia
In the air, there’s nowhere to hide. Naiere’s attack created an opening, and Callipers followed through, piercing Phosphorus’s head.
Phosphorus plummeted. The sound of his core shattering echoed. The flames of the avatar body extinguished once more.
[— The effect of <Maiden’s Loom> has been canceled.]
Ping!
A sound like a guitar string snapping.
I wiped my chest and breathed heavily.
“…I-I survived.”
My heart was racing wildly. My vision was blurry. What kind of show was I putting on in a place like this? Observing myself, watching my surroundings. And then.
I looked up at the sky. The sun had risen long ago.
Through the dreary clouds, orbital descent ships were visible. Our allies who had gone to save the Briga planetary system were returning after a month.
“Reinforcements are coming! Just hold on a little longer!”
I shouted toward Naiere. But I had forgotten one important fact.
Thud.
After delivering her final sword strike, Naiere had completely collapsed from exhaustion and lost consciousness. Due to Aether depletion, she was no longer in any condition to fight.
Whoosh.
Purple flames rose from the avatar body’s head.
“…How annoying.”
A heat unlike anything before. My throat felt parched. It was like standing in the middle of a desert.
“Was that a mental attack just now? I felt like I became an idiot for a moment.”
Phosphorus made a chuckling sound.
“Let me tell you something interesting. Having multiple cores is synonymous with having multiple entities. Even if you launched a mental attack against me earlier, it doesn’t apply to me now.”
“…”
Damn it, this is bad.
“Oh my, you didn’t know this fact?”
How could I have known? When Ireh defeated this bastard, the whereabouts of Virgo’s fragments were completely unknown. The help from Cartesia naturally didn’t exist.
“Well… it doesn’t matter to me.”
“…!”
It happened right after.
I only blinked once, and Phosphorus was right in front of me.
Teleportation.
By the time I tried to react, it was too late.
[— ‘Phosphorus’ weaves <Maiden’s Loom> through ‘Fragment of Sacrifice’.]
“It’s over.”
Pik!
The sound of thread being inserted.
I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them.
But contrary to my expectations, nothing was connected to my body.
Instead, what I felt was some force pushing me away.
When I came to my senses, Sonia had collapsed in front of me.
A long thread extended from her back.
“Young master…”
“…Sonia?”
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Different entities means the cooling time for reusing techniques is also reset. This Loom thing or whatever it is, wasn’t it originally usable only once a month?”
“You bastard…!”
“Now that’s a good expression to see. It seems this metal woman was your weakness, which was unexpected. That she was also an avatar body, and that despite receiving power from the Mother, she was no match for me at all. Well, it’s meaningless now.”
[— ‘Phosphorus’ casts <White Phosphorus Incendiary>.]
10 seconds.
I needed to destroy the core within that time.
Without hesitation, I leaped toward Phosphorus.
But my opponent was a powerful avatar body in its final phase, and I was neither Rustila nor Ireh.
With a single gesture from Phosphorus, a fireball flew toward me. The flames hit the tip of Callipers, bending my wrist. The sensation of ligaments stretching made my hand lose strength.
“What do you think you can do when you’re just a weak human?”
A shadow loomed over me.
It was a giant scythe wrapped in ghostly flames.
At this rate, I would be cut down and killed.
I was frustrated. The fact that against truly strong opponents, I was nothing.
That’s when Sonia pushed me away.
“Sonia!”
A curtain of flames swept through where I had been standing. Sonia’s clothes caught fire. She grew more distant beyond the flames. I called out to her several times, but her reply was:
“It has been an honor to serve you all this time.”
“Sonia——!!”
“Young master… you must survive.”
The image of the woman smiling sadly imprinted on my retina.
The flames that traveled along the thread line engulfed Sonia.
***
Grim news reached Rustila and her companions as they were about to return after concluding their campaign in the Briga planetary system.
The message stated that the Pastel planetary system was currently under attack by a powerful avatar body, the situation was extremely urgent, and they requested immediate support. Their ominous premonition had become reality.
Rustila, Zernya, and Ireh all felt as if their hearts would stop.
The three women conversed while aboard an orbital descent ship heading toward the Pastel planetary system.
“I hope Eidel is safe…”
“Surely nothing bad has happened? He’ll be fine. You know what kind of person he is.”
“…”
What the three women saw immediately upon arrival was the sight of the entire city engulfed in flames.
Monsters and avatar bodies were rampaging, major facilities including research labs and hospitals had collapsed, and the military was dysfunctional. Surviving citizens fled in chaos.
“Colonel Rheinland!”
A deep male voice. Rustila turned her head. It was Major General Wolfgang, her temporary superior. He was a veteran soldier who had served long on the southern front.
“I’ll form a special detachment for you to move out first. Go down there, do your best to rescue citizens, and if you spot an avatar body, subdue it with top priority. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
She spoke impassively on the outside. Inside, she was rotting with worry.
“He’s alive. He’s alive. Of course… he’s my husband.”
Zernya was equally anxious. She tried to think positively by giving herself affirmations. The two wives gradually took deep breaths.
Ironically, Ireh was the most restless of all.
Click, click.
Ireh bit her nails. She also chewed her lips. Her shoulders wouldn’t stop trembling at the sight of the scorched research facilities.
If Eidel was dead, then what would happen to everything? Would this world once again perish at the hands of outer gods?
She was afraid.
Not of death, but of the fact that she might never see him again—a fear that shook her to the bones.
“Zernya, Sister Ireh! You’re both coming, right?”
“Why ask something so obvious?”
“Huh? Oh! Let’s move, right now!”
Rustila began the search accompanied by dozens of elite swordsmen. The swordsmen split into squads with communication equipment to rescue citizens.
While they searched the outskirts, the three women headed directly to Naiere’s unit. If Eidel was alive, that’s where he would most likely have taken refuge. Because Naiere was there.
The group finally arrived and witnessed the devastation.
Burning military facilities. The smell of burning human flesh they had encountered numerous times in the Briga planetary system. Mutilated and burned corpses of monsters and people scattered everywhere. Smoke gently rising.
And there.
One avatar body that appeared to be the culprit behind this incident, and a man and woman being attacked by that avatar body.
“Th-that…”
Ireh immediately recognized the avatar body’s form and gritted her teeth.
Phosphorus.
It was him.
However, it seemed he had brought other strong avatar bodies as well. Otherwise, this scale of damage wouldn’t make sense. The sacrifices of soldiers who had been forced into continuous attrition warfare flashed before their eyes.
But it wasn’t too late. Although he seemed to be on the defensive, Eidel was still alive. His dedicated android, Sonia, was with him too.
‘Ah, thank you. Stars, thank you so much…’
Ireh prayed inwardly as she summoned her Holy Spirit Gun. Rustila also charged her sword by planting it into the ground.
And in the next moment, the three of them clearly saw it.
“Young master… you must survive.”
With those words, Sonia’s body was consumed by flames.
All three lost their composure.
They all had friendships with Sonia. Even if she was an android, spending time together naturally creates emotional bonds.
It was hard to believe what they were seeing.
They all felt a heaviness in their hearts. It felt like losing a longtime comrade. Especially seeing Eidel’s expression made it worse.
“Damn it…!”
There was no time to think deeply. At this rate, Eidel would clearly be the next target.
“Eidel!”
The three women immediately charged in.
***
“This has turned completely black. Becoming charcoal reminds me of those outer gods from Descartes’ side, doesn’t it? A fitting end.”
It felt like my head had been struck with an axe.
“Still, something feels lacking. It’s not like I burned something truly alive. The burning smell lacks elegance, you could say.”
There was no time to grieve.
The next attack would follow.
If I died here, I wouldn’t be able to face Sonia or anyone else who sacrificed themselves to protect me.
I gritted my teeth.
“…Cartesia.”
[— ‘God of Wisdom and Curiosity’ bestows <Mental Stability>, <Composure>, and <Fatigue Resilience> upon you.]
[“Focus on survival, youngster.”]
I dodged Phosphorus’s attack. My joints seemed to scream from accumulated fatigue. My body didn’t feel like my own.
Think.
How to defeat this damned avatar body.
The conclusion came quickly.
I can’t win.
Even Ireh couldn’t defeat Phosphorus with his purple flames alone. Some enemies were so strong that they had to be confined in spaceships and thrown toward stars to finish them off.
At the very least, I would need Rustila to face him.
As I glanced at my status window, a message appeared.
[— The effect of ‘Great Triangle (Lv.9)’ is being applied.]
Ah, they’ve finally arrived.
Reinforcements.
Zwish!
A powerful sword strike pierced Phosphorus’s flank. Phosphorus evaded with a short-range leap. But that wasn’t the end. The curved trajectory followed him like a guided missile.
[— ‘Rustila von Rheinland’ uses <Meteor of the Sword Maiden>.]
A swarm of stars pierced through the avatar body’s torso.
“Kugh!”
He groaned, almost for the first time.
That wasn’t the end.
[— ‘Ireh Hazlen’ uses <Bullet of Certainty>.]
Following that, two pairs of white spirals pierced Phosphorus’s head in the blink of an eye. However, they couldn’t destroy the core. Being his last life, its defense was the strongest.
“Eidel!”
“Honey!”
“…del!”
Rustila, Zernya, Ireh.
Faces I hadn’t seen in a month.
“Honey! Honey!”
While Rustila and Ireh bombarded Phosphorus with attacks, Zernya ran to me and examined my body.
“I’m sorry we’re late. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine, check the others first…”
“The interruptions never end!”
Phosphorus raised his voice.
“These three females, are they all your mates? Perfect timing. You need to experience more despair. I’ll cleanly burn these bitches into smoke first.”
“…What did you just say?”
“I said I’ll cleanly burn these three to death just like that metal piece earlier. Yes, that’s the look!”
Phosphorus twisted his body. In less than a second, he disappeared from my sight.
He was behind us. The bastard was positioned behind Zernya, about to swing down his scythe wrapped in flames.
“First, one bitch.”
“Ah…”
She was completely defenseless.
Judging by the scythe’s length, there was no way to dodge. I reflexively embraced Zernya to protect her. Next, I needed to find a position to roll to… damn it. Everywhere I looked with <Future Sight> showed the scythe’s path.
In this critical moment.
Clang!
A sharp metallic sound erupted right in front of us.
Phosphorus’s scythe strike was blocked. He staggered.
“What is this…!”
It wasn’t Rustila’s sword, nor Ireh’s holy bullet. Certainly not my Callipers. What blocked Phosphorus’s attack was another Callipers.
The Callipers that Sonia had been carrying.
Phosphorus quickly stepped back, showing his displeasure. Someone was standing in the direction he was facing.
“…What? How can you still move after being burned by my white phosphorus?”
A body blackened by fire. A torso that was crumbling away. It was barely recognizable. Despite this, for some reason, her navy blue hair had regrown.
She opened her mouth, but seeing that only smoke came out instead of words, she replied via telepathy.
[“Because I am of a different caliber than the likes of you, flame-head.”]
Her eyes emitted a blue light.
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