[441] The Day of the Full Moon (5)
Shirone and Plu peered into the warehouse where the surface rebels had been held.
Reysis's men, accompanied by Akamai, stood guard in front of the iron door.
"What do we do? If we go in, we'll be done for."
"Akamai seem to bond to their users through blood adhesion. If we take out the user before they activate, we'll be fine."
Three Akamai hovered among seven men.
From that distance it was impossible to tell who was bound to which Akamai.
"We'll have to take them all at once, right?"
"It's a timing battle. If we give them time to react, we lose."
"What if we teleport in?"
"Easiest, but not certain. They're Nor mages—if they're Reysis's close men, they'll be good."
Shirone thought of Armand.
After being captured by the true Akamai and losing his demon sword, there was something Reysis didn't know. Because Armand had been integrated into the Ultima System, he was linked by a single signal across space-time and could share information regardless of distance.
"Then I'll call Armand."
If Armand transformed into Diamond Armament, he could eliminate the men before the Akamai activated. With physical ability on par with Ikasa in hand-to-hand combat, it should be possible.
"But they'll learn our location. What if they haven't noticed our escape yet? The more time we have, the better."
"How about assuming they already know? If we free the rebels, our position will be revealed anyway."
Shirone's point had merit. The later Reysis realized, the better their chance of success, but basing a plan on uncertain assumptions was dangerous.
"Fine. Let's do it. But no mistakes."
Shirone drew his hand back and attempted precision control.
He couldn't read Armand's exact condition, but a vague sense of position came through as a feeling.
'This way.'
Like a magnet, Shirone felt one with Armand.
He amplified that sensation; Armand changed course at a right angle down the corridor and flew into his palm.
Diamond Armament.
Shirone inhaled, watched the men's reactions, then without thinking launched himself forward.
"What—?"
A blurred afterimage flickered before their eyes; that was the last thought the men had.
Shirone's body spun, and even faster, the tentacles sliced every throat.
Chok. Chok-chok.
Shirone flinched at the unpleasant sensations flooding through Armand. He had no qualms about killing those who performed cruel biological experiments, but it still felt unlike using magic.
'Stay calm. This isn't just my mission.'
Plu checked the Akamai's response.
Even if the users were dead, if the blood adhesion remained there could be a delayed reaction. 'Finish them off, or leave the scab be?'
Without hesitation, Shirone struck the Akamai.
His robe fluttered and a black afterimage swung out.
The three Akamai split like soft tropical fruit and collapsed to the floor.
So fast they couldn't even react—Plu clicked her tongue.
'Ultima System. It really is something. That alone will be useful against Heaven.'
Shirone and Plu exchanged looks at the iron door.
They cut the lock and opened it; a sharp gust of wind blew from inside the warehouse.
"Krrk!"
Armand's robe—strong against impact but weak to cutting—was shredded nearly to the seam.
A sting as if his flesh were being cut made Shirone recoil and peer inside.
Dozens of pupils glowed back.
"Krrr."
They weren't the surface rebels.
Or maybe they were—Shirone recognized some faces—but their forms had been completely altered; only a few human traits remained.
Plu, having avoided the ambush using the Dawkins algorithm, clutched her aching shoulder and grimaced.
"They look like wicked women…"
Reysis had turned the useless rebels into soldiers. Not bodies built by Physix machines, but bodies whose telomeres had been boosted to level five—physical abilities not to be dismissed.
"Kraaa!"
The Nor operatives had lost reason and charged Shirone.
Over a hundred poured out of the warehouse, none retaining their former intelligence.
Rampage!
The light veil struck the monsters, tearing flesh and snapping bones, but they never halted.
'What the hell?'
From the damaged parts, flesh oozed back and organs reformed in an instant.
"Infinite cell proliferation—Kenser."
Plu named their condition. "They've got cellular regeneration. Ordinary attacks won't faze them."
The monsters split into two groups targeting Shirone and Plu, but being on the defensive didn't make the battle any lighter.
Telomeres are chromosome end caps that set biological limits; Reysis had strengthened them to boost bodily function. On top of that, by combining traits of the Kenser—beings with no usable telomere limit—he'd created soldiers that neither rot nor die.
What had been attempted to field forces comparable to the Mecha's Kuroi in the war with Heaven now served as the primary bioweapon to purge the light of District 73.
"Kraaa!"
Some had snakes for eyes, one's arm stretched like a worm, others had turned into wolf-like beasts—forms and abilities varied, but none lacked ferocity.
Armand's tentacles moved at tremendous speed, carving through flesh, but Shirone felt as if he were swinging at a wall.
'I'll be the one to tire out first at this rate.'
The monsters closed in and pressed Shirone down under a mound of bodies.
"Krrr!"
Pinned like a grave, a creature near the top that hadn't yet tasted flesh cried out in frustration.
Crack!
Then the mound vibrated.
Crack! Crack-crack!
The shaking intensified; screams rose from the heap like something from an abyss.
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
The sounds of bones breaking, muscles being crushed, intestines and blood mixing—everything was being sucked toward the center.
"Kraaaaah…!"
The last monster crumpled like paper and was drawn into a black sphere.
Shirone braced himself on the floor and struggled to his feet.
His body convulsed; he had cast a black orb three times larger than usual.
"Huuuuu!"
He'd pushed the Immortal Function's mental transcendence to its limit to unleash that power, and the backlash was severe.
"Shirone, you okay?"
Plu hurried over.
Around where she'd been fighting lay countless charred corpses, black as coal.
If Shirone was a hard puncher who relied on sheer force, Plu was an unorthodox fighter who used precise algorithms. No matter how good the Kenser's regeneration, if you set them alight with Phoenix Formation and stall with the Dawkins algorithm, they couldn't hold out.
"I'm fine. Just overloaded a bit."
Plu stared at the corridor where the equivalent of five tons had vanished without a trace and felt a chill.
They'd funneled the monsters together and Shirone had used blunt force—no trickery.
"In the end, the rebels who were supposed to help us turned into this. Now it's just the two of us. We have to stop Ilhwa's scheme."
Shirone had no intention of backing down. He'd promised he would return to Ikasa, and he intended to keep that promise—after dealing with Reysis.
"There! Grab them!"
Reysis's lieutenants appeared from around the corner—elite fighters who'd started searching once Armand left his position.
Worst of all, each of them had an Akamai.
They reflexively took combat stances, and the same thought ran through both Shirone and Plu.
'Damn! We're too late!'
Akamai eyes flared and the antithesis activated; Shirone and Plu's ability to move plummeted.
A numbness settled into their muscles as if they'd been born unable to move.
'Still—this is weaker than the guard on the iron cage. We can still land a strike.'
Timing was the problem. They needed to sever three throats with one slash, or destroy all three Akamai.
'Wait until they're all in the horizontal slash arc.'
As Shirone and Plu froze, Reysis's men relaxed and stepped forward.
"Phew, finally caught you, you rats. We almost bit it too."
When the plan went wrong, Reysis had snapped; seven men nearby had been swept away. If they'd lost Shirone and Plu now, they'd have suffered the same fate.
A bald man approached wearing a cruel smile. Humiliated by Plu in the affinity test, he reveled in the reversal.
"Well, well, we meet like this in the end."
"You trash. After doing this, aren't you afraid of the heavens?"
"Heavens? You don't know—this is the heavens. This place isn't for the backward people of the ground to run wild."
The bald man stroked Plu's chin.
"Hmm, the real thing's different, huh."
"Keep your hands off me."
"Heh heh, don't be so sour. Your clones are dead anyway. You've only got one life—better cherish it."
Plu watched the bald man while calculating every position in the corridor.
'Just a little more. Just a little more.'
They couldn't strike until the three Akamai were in range.
But the man leaning in the corner, smirking, showed no sign of coming closer.
"Heh heh, we only need Shirone. So why not—!"
"Kyaaak!"
A black shape suddenly lunged from the corner and seized the man, sending him crashing to the floor.
Black, insect-like things swarmed down the corridor and turned toward them.
"Waaaaah!"
The creature that felled the man pressed its belly flat and shook; the two legs that had poked out from behind the corner twitched violently.
"No, no! Don't! Waaaah!"
It was a Garas.
Its form was nothing like the Garas Shirone had seen in the isolation chamber, but among the Garas gathered here, no two looked the same. Garas attacked any creature without discrimination.
"Kik! Kik!"
An Akamai caught by the Garas gasped; its pupils widened, it trembled, and then fell.
The Garas—having briefly missed breeding prey while bound by the antithesis—howled in fury and surged down the corridor.
"This… this can't be…!"
Faced with the Garas' onrush—a blend of traits from all kinds of life—the bald man went pale.
Magic alone wasn't even a threat. Even if his body were violated entirely, they would clearly seed offspring inside him.
Shirone used his reserve to pull Plu back for a counter.
He planted a tentacle in the wall to put distance between them, and the horrific scene came fully into view.
Black creatures swarmed through the corridor like an infestation.
From that darkness the bald man crawled out, struggling, and reached a trembling hand toward Shirone.
"P-please…"
It was the look you see at the end of despair.
"Finish him."
"Kiiiiii! Kiiiiii!"
"Waaaaah!"
The bald man's upper body arched; surprise, shock, and terror hit his face at once.
Shirone and Plu felt their hair stand on end.
They were lucky the darkness hid what the Garas were doing.
"Let's go, Shirone."
Plu grabbed his collar. Shirone glanced once at the man—hair on end, drooling—and then turned away.
The maw of desire was devouring the command post.