The Phantom Library, a virtual world interwoven from stories, late at night.
At this mont, if anyone in the town stepped out of their house and looked up at the night sky, they would find the clear full moon obscured by a crimson blood cloud.
Moreover, if soone took a telescope and observed carefully, they would discover that the true identity of that blood cloud was actually a demon army composed of vampires and zombies.
And then, no one noticed that at this ti, a group of people was flying through this night sky, driving an unbelievable magical wooden cart, breaking through the cold wind, fleeing desperately from the pursuit of the monster army.
"Yutsuki-nee! Two vampires are approaching from below!"
"Comrade! Three more from behind!"
"Report. Ten vampires approaching from each flank!"
"Yutsuki-chan, four zombies are being airdropped from above!"
"Tch, how annoying."
Realizing they were about to be outflanked and surrounded, Yutsuki gritted her teeth in displeasure.
"Everyone, I'm going to break through, hold on tight so you don't get thrown out!"
Hearing this, everyone gripped the edges of the wooden cart tightly without hesitation.
At the sa ti, Yutsuki forcefully whipped the reins. With a crisp crack, the wooden cart accelerated. Like an AE86 drifting on Mount Akina, it traced nimble trajectories in the air, finding gaps to squeeze through and searching for a breakthrough point in the monster army's encirclent net.
"Get out of the way!"
Relying on the combined weight of the wooden cart and everyone on it to ram away a vampire bat blocking the path, Yutsuki temporarily broke out of the enemy's encirclent.
"Yutsuki, it's no good! The enemies behind are catching up again!"
"Damn it! This is endless."
Hearing Shido's report, Yutsuki couldn't help but grit her teeth in frustration. Although they had already thrown away excess weight like the gold bars, the wooden cart carrying over a dozen people was clearly still overloaded. Its speed simply couldn't be increased enough to shake them off.
(As I thought, the only way is to eliminate them!)
"Hey! Nia, isn't the character you're playing the nesis of those guys? Hurry up and figure out a way to deal with them!"
"Don't ask for the impossible, Biri-chan! Although Fatima's silver bullets are indeed the nesis of monsters, how do you expect to shoot in this situation!"
Nia answered with a pale face. Saying that, seemingly to prove she wasn't lying, Nia popped her head out of the wooden cart, took her silver handguns, aid at the monsters, and fired a few shots. Unsurprisingly, the other party didn't even need to dodge; the bullets just hit thin air.
This was to be expected. Nia was a manga artist, not the Demon Hunter from the manga. She wouldn't necessarily be accurate even shooting at a stationary target while standing still, let alone shooting at moving targets that dodge while flying at high speeds.
"Damn it, if I had known, I would have added an auto-aim setting to the handguns when I drew the manga!!"
Honjou Nia shouted with infinite regret.
"Nia, lend the guns."
"Eh?"
After a simple request, Origami took Nia's dual handguns. Completely naked—no, it should be said wearing the Emperor's New Clothes, she stood up in the freezing, biting gale.
Gazing expressionlessly at the approaching aberrant monsters, Tobiichi Origami raised the handguns and pulled the triggers swiftly and decisively.
Bang—!
Accompanied by a gunshot, the silver bullet flawlessly pierced the vampire's head. The massive body turned into paper scraps and dissipated in the air. The zombie sitting on its back also plumted from the sky due to losing its mount, smashing to pieces.
Bang bang bang—!
Without giving everyone ti to marvel, Origami fired her dual handguns again. Sparks burst from the muzzles one after another. In less than a breath's ti, Origami emptied all the bullets in the chambers. And with unerring accuracy, with every gunshot, a vampire could be seen falling from the sky.
"Bullets!"
"Y-Yes!"
Hearing Origami's words, Nia snapped back to reality and hurriedly handed Origami the spare magazines from her clothes.
Reload—aim—shoot!
Unlike Honjou Nia's wild shooting, Origami, as a forr Wizard, was clearly very proficient with firearms. There was no sluggishness in the entire process; it was as smooth as flowing water.
Like flowers blooming in a bloody battlefield, watching Origami's movents gave one a sense of clean, crisp, violent beauty.
Compared to Nia, she looked more like Fatima, the Demon Hunter from the manga story.
Of course, the prerequisite is that this Miss Origami wasn't completely na—wasn't wearing the Emperor's New Clothes.
This was the shared thought of everyone present.
Under Origami's covering fire, the vampire bats flying around the wooden cart were decreasing at a very impressive rate. However, before everyone could breathe a sigh of relief, a zombie chasing from afar suddenly roared. Stepping on the vampire beneath it, it made a fierce leap, crossing a distance of no less than a hundred ters, and pounced towards Yutsuki and the others.
"They can do that too?"
Natsumi widened her eyes in disbelief.
"Nia, when you drew the manga, couldn't you have made the villains a bit less troubleso?"
"To increase the excitent of the story, this level is necessary. Nattsun, you'll understand when you beco a manga artist later."
"Origami!"
Without Yutsuki calling out, Origami also knew what she had to do. She imdiately raised her handguns and pulled the triggers. The silver bullets hit the zombie's heart.
However, a fatal wound that would kill an ordinary person didn't work on an already dead zombie. Although silver bullets could also damage zombies, they obviously couldn't kill them in one hit like they did vampires.
"Step aside! Tobiichi Origami!"
Hearing this, Origami imdiately stepped sideways. In her place, Tohka stepped forward to face the giant leaping zombie.
"Phew..."
Tohka exhaled softly, her breath turning into white mist in the cold wind and dissipating. Her right hand gripped the katana tied to her waist.
The sensation from her hand was different from her usual greatsword Sandalphon, but this didn't affect Tohka's performance. Her original swordsmanship was a self-taught style without a master or school, and thus wouldn't be restricted by the frawork of specific techniques.
The mont she grasped the hilt, her keen instincts already told her how to wield the weapon in her hand effectively.
The instant the zombie was about to land on the wooden cart, Tohka drew the katana. Sword ki sliced through the air, carving out a crescent moon, slicing the massive zombie in half at the waist.
Bang—! Origami unhesitatingly fired a follow-up shot. With a scream, a small vampire hiding behind the zombie turned into paper scraps.
"...I'm not going to thank you. Tobiichi Origami."
"No need, I only did it to protect Shido. Yatogami Tohka."
"Ugh..."
Tohka glared at Origami, then looked away sowhat unhappily.
Is their relationship actually good or bad? Kotori thought speechlessly.
However, despite saying that, the division of labor between the two was quite clear. Origami was responsible for shooting down the bat mounts, while Tohka slashed the zombies that broke through the barrage and got close. Thanks to their efforts, Yutsuki and the others finally had the chance to put so distance between themselves and the monster army.
"Yutsuki-nee, earlier you said there was a character who could help us escape this world. Where is that person now?"
Taking advantage of the brief respite, Kotori asked Yutsuki.
"Well... although this is just my guess. But he should be rushing towards us right now."
Regarding Yutsuki's words, Kotori looked sowhat confused.
"What do you an?"
"Well... strictly speaking, he is not an existing character from a story that has already appeared. But rather, a character who might be summoned."
Yutsuki explained, "When this Phantom Library materializes stories, it prioritizes stories with high popularity in people's minds. Therefore, widely known fairy tales beca the first choice. But under special circumstances, like Nia, who has a certain 'connection' to the story itself, exceptions can materialize. And that character is the latter. Summoning 'him' should have conditions. I was originally trying to test it under safer conditions. However, the current situation, in a sense, also matches the conditions I hypothesized."
"Biri-chan... you don't an that, do you?"
Regarding Yutsuki's explanation, everyone was basically half-understanding. Only Nia seed to understand Yutsuki's idea, her eyes showing a look of surprise.
"Um, Nia... what is 'that' you're talking about?"
Natsumi asked with a confused face.
"Eh? Natssun, did you forget? It's 'that' which we completed together before."
"Ah... that..."
Natsumi showed an enlightened expression.
"Kuku—So that's how it is. 'That', huh? Indeed, if 'that' appears, these obstacles are not worth ntioning at all."
"Surprise. 'That' is also in this world?"
"My—I didn't expect 'that' to be able to appear. Indeed, if it really can be summoned, it would be quite an amazing thing, Yutsuki-chan."
"Mhm... that's great..."
"Really, Honey?! Will 'that' appear too?"
"Indeed, if 'that' really can appear, we will have a chance to break through this current situation."
"Umu? What is everyone talking about?"
"Yatogami Tohka's mory is disappointingly low. Did you actually forget 'that'?"
"I-I didn't forget! O-Oh—I see, you an 'that'."
(—Eh? —Eh?! What is "that"? Am I the only one who doesn't get it?)
Looking at the Spirits who all expressed understanding, Shido couldn't help but look completely bewildered.
"Kotori, this 'that' you guys are talking about—"
"Ryougi Yutsuki! Be careful! The enemies' movents are strange!"
Origami's serious voice forced everyone to interrupt their discussion. Only then did they notice that the monster army pursuing them had, for so reason, stopped in their tracks, floating motionless in mid-air.
"Those are... Vanbel and Bigudito."
Nia narrowed her eyes and said.
In the distance, at the front of the monster army, floated two humanoid monsters with auras clearly different from the other grunts. Right now, these two behind the scenes villains from Nia's manga wer maintaining a left-and-right formation, striking a very classic "Kahabeep" starting pose. Massive amounts of energy were continuously gathering around them.
Nia hurriedly shouted.
"Biri-chan! Two of those super huge energy blasts from earlier are coming! Watch out and dodge!"
Energy blasts? Recalling the strike that razed a castle along with a city to the ground just now, the corner of Yutsuki's eye twitched continuously.
"I'll settle the score with you later, Nia! Kotori-chan, tell which direction to dodge when they fire!"
"Understood."
Under everyone's vigilance, the two bosses finally made their move. Accompanied by a roar that shook the heavens, a blood-red pillar of light and a ghostly green pillar of light shot out. In less than two seconds, they crossed the thousand-ter gap between them, catching up to the back of the cart.
"Eh?"
Kotori froze for a mont. Because she noticed that these two energy blasts weren't going to hit their wooden cart, but were overtaking them from both sides.
"Did they miss?"
"No!"
Yutsuki widened her eyes in disbelief. She saw the two energy blasts drawing arcs in opposite directions in the air, colliding together right in front of her.
"BOOM————————————————!"
Accompanied by an earth-shattering explosion, intense shockwaves spread from the collision point of the two energies, sweeping out in all directions.
And the wooden cart flown by Yutsuki and the others was forcibly drawn into this terrifying blast wind, uncontrollably plumting towards the ground.
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