…Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The heartbeat slowly resud.
As blood began to flow, life gradually returned to the body. The body that had been turning into sand and dust now gathered back together like iron sand drawn to a magnet, constantly reversing and reconstructing itself from particles into flesh.
(What… is happening…?)
Pulled back from the edge of death, Woodman's hazy consciousness gradually cleared.
"Elliot? Elliot!"
"…Karen?"
Woodman hesitantly opened his eyes. His most trusted secretary had completely lost her usual calm and composure. Beneath her reddened, teary eyes were confusion and joy.
"I'm… still alive?"
With Karen's support, Woodman sat up and clenched the hand that should have already scattered into sand, speaking sowhat blankly.
"Mm, you're alive. But if I had been one step later, even I would have been powerless."
A voice that belonged neither to Karen nor Ellen entered his ears. Woodman raised his head and looked over. At so point, the Spirit known as the most evil Spirit—Tokisaki Kurumi—had appeared before them.
Seeing the gun barrel in her hand still giving off black smoke, Woodman gradually understood the situation.
An Angel that could play with ti—Zafkiel. Before a Spirit's miracle, which surpassed common sense, even Woodman, whose life had been exhausted by magic, could be easily dragged back from the gates of death.
"…Thank you very much for your help, Kurumi-san."
For an instant, Woodman had wondered why this so called most evil Spirit would help him. But he was, after all, the founder of Ratatoskr. He quickly adjusted his mindset, accepted Kurumi's goodwill frankly, and expressed his thanks.
"It was nothing. I only happened to be passing by."
Perhaps rarely thanked so solemnly by soone, Kurumi seed a little unused to it. She shook her head, glanced at Ellen lying unconscious on the ground, and asked,
"It seems Tengu City beca quite lively while I was away. As a small repaynt for saving your life, could you explain the situation to ? Director Elliot Woodman?"
"Naturally."
Elliot nodded and concisely explained the situation in Tengu City. Listening to this thrilling battle, Kurumi's expression shifted between light and dark. Only after hearing that the overall situation had nearly been settled did she slowly let out a breath of relief.
"Ara ara~ I see. After I inford you that DEM would attack tomorrow, you instead took the initiative and struck one day early, fooling both and DEM at the sa ti… That really does sound like Yutsuki-san's style."
Kurumi smiled as she spoke emotionally. Woodman noticed that while her words sounded like praise, her tone carried a hint of unwillingness and complaint. Yet her shoulders, which had been tense, relaxed instead.
(Just as Itsuka-kun thought… this child is not evil by nature.)
"Elliot."
At that mont, Karen, who was supporting Woodman's arm, suddenly raised her head and looked at him seriously.
"Just now, at the very end, were you about to say sothing to ?"
Hearing that, Woodman could not help stiffening. His composed old face showed a trace of awkwardness.
"Er… Did I say sothing? My mories at the ti are blurry. I don't rember clearly."
Woodman pretended to be stupid and shifted his gaze away.
"Don't worry. I rember it very clearly. You said, 'If I survive this battle, I'll tell you all seven layers of the access codes to my room. As for children, it would be best if we had enough to form a soccer team.'" (TL: Master Karen)
"Haha… Thank you for your hard work, Karen. It seems you accumulated quite a bit of fatigue during the battle too."
(So these are the magicians who created the Origin Spirit… hm?)
Looking at the two of them bickering, Kurumi felt speechless. Suddenly, she seed to sense sothing and turned her head toward the depths of Tengu City, narrowing her eyes.
"—————————!!"
At that mont, a crazed and hoarse scream suddenly echoed through all of Tengu City. Chaotic and malicious negative emotions stabbed into their minds along with the sound, and the strange pain made Woodman and Karen frown tightly.
Imdiately after, another roar sounded from within the city. Giant tentacles condensed from muddy black light writhed wildly and chaotically among the ruins.
"This is…"
Looking at the abnormal thing that had suddenly erged in the distance, Woodman widened his eyes in shock.
"An Inverse Spirit…"
Softly saying the essence of the thing before them, Kurumi's mismatched eyes showed disgust and gravity.
"It seems things were not going to end that simply after all."
…
The crimson tail flas gradually scattered, revealing the afterglow of dusk. Pieces of airship debris streaked across the sky like a teor shower, smashing toward the earth.
At the sa ti, the snow and ice covering the city also quietly withdrew like spring wind brushing past. Not only that, the towering instrunts of light surrounding Tengu Tower, as well as the great void door that had swallowed the sky full of firepower and transferred it away, were also slowly turning into layers of light and fading.
Natsumi knew very well that right now, whether it was Kotori or Yoshino and the others, they had all exhausted their spirit power just like herself and had entered the weakened state after releasing their Astral Dresses.
If the battle had dragged on just a little longer, the situation now would probably have been completely different.
"We're finally saved…"
Looking at the Wizards who remained unconscious even after thawing, Natsumi sat weakly on the ground and spoke with lingering fear.
"I really thought I was done for this ti."
Not long ago, Natsumi had successfully deceived Westcott and worked together with Mana to kill DEM's final boss, Westcott. But before Natsumi could even be happy, those previously controlled Wizards suddenly went berserk as if they had been injected with adrenaline, wildly slashing at Natsumi.
Because she had exhausted her spirit power in the fight against Westcott, Natsumi had completely beco a salted fish who could do nothing except jump around. Watching laser blades and magical cannons repeatedly graze past her face, if she had not been trained by Yutsuki, Natsumi felt that her pants would probably already be wet.
"What's the situation now… Does this count as our win?"
Natsumi asked uncertainly.
"I only hope so. I feel it is still too early to relax."
Beside Natsumi, Takamiya Mana adjusted her breathing while keeping watch over the surroundings.
Although Mana was not injured, she looked sowhat battered. First, those Wizards's combat power had indeed sowhat exceeded her expectations. Second, she had always been used to fighting alone and rarely encountered situations where she had to protect soone while fighting, so the battle had felt quite exhausting.
[What Mana said is correct. Natsumi, the battle has not completely ended yet. Please do not lower your guard.]
"Wah—!"
"Who goes there?!"
The sudden voice made Mana and Natsumi overreact sowhat. Several Bandersnatch that should have been shut down suddenly activated, stood up, and bowed slightly toward them.
[Sorry for frightening you. It's , Maria.]
"Maria?"
Hearing a young girl's voice co from a crude tal machine, Natsumi's expression beca sowhat strange.
"Why are you inside DEM's drones?"
[After DEM's airships were destroyed, the command logic of these drones fell into a bug state as well. I took the chance to infiltrate their systems while they were rebooting. It will also make it easier to recover and rescue the Wizards and citizens in the city afterward.]
As she spoke, Maria moved the Bandersnatch's joints as if getting used to the body.
[Honestly, these drones's exterior design is not very aesthetically pleasing, but the sensation of controlling a body and moving in the real world is not bad.]
"I see… As long as you're happy."
Natsumi answered with a face full of dark lines. After that, Maria activated several more intact drones and carried the unconscious Wizards away from the scene.
"Maria-san really is amazing."
After Mana sighed in admiration, she said to Natsumi,
"Natsumi-san, I feel we should not stay here for long. Let's regroup with the others as soon as possible."
Honestly, although ninety percent of DEM's fighting strength had already been defeated by them, Mana still had no joy or sense of victory. Westcott's eerie smile before his death was like a fishbone stuck in her throat, making her unable to feel at ease at all.
"Mm! I was thinking the sa!"
Natsumi agreed with vigorous nods. To be honest, she did not want to remain here for even one more second. A weak little Spirit like her, who was supposed to just muddle through, had sohow fought a frontal duel with the final villain boss. She felt as though she had already used up all the ntal energy she had for this lifeti. (TL:You did your best my goat Natsumi)
"…Hm?"
Just as they were about to leave, Natsumi suddenly frowned. She discovered that a strange orange teor in the sky was drawing a straight trajectory and growing larger and larger in her vision.
One second later, after realizing what it was, Natsumi hurriedly shouted,
"Mana! Sothing is falling this way!"
Mana did not hesitate in the slightest. Almost at the sa ti, she grabbed Natsumi and quickly retreated.
Boom!
The shock traveled through the ground. Sand, dust, and fragnts surged violently in all directions along with the roar. Very soon, the smoke thinned, and Natsumi and Mana saw a scorched crater that had appeared in the asphalt road at so point.
"That was close… We were almost hit by a teor."
Natsumi said with lingering fear.
"The way that fragnt fell doesn't look like natural free fall. It looks more like it was fired as a cannonball."
Recalling that teor's trajectory and the impact it had caused, Mana gave her judgnt.
"tal… cannonball… Yutsuki?"
Hearing Mana's words, Natsumi froze slightly and unconsciously looked toward the center of the crater. Suddenly, she seed to see a black object wriggling.
"A person?!"
User Comments
0 comments from readers