Living (2)
Number Seven, who had been driving the giant excavator, spotted Jet's barrier blocking the road ahead and slammed the throttle to the limit.
Marsha, clutching the rod, shouted, "Are you insane?"
"What, fight it? We've got to plow through."
The excavator's drill tore into Jet's barrier at once.
Every time the androids on the crawler crumpled like tin cans, the cockpit lurched.
'The chassis is lifting like this… its durability isn't a joke.'
Their view finally opened up, but a matching swarm of Jets had gathered on the opposite block.
"Remove the torment."
Bullets flew and Number Seven yelled, "Emergency eject!"
The mining crew was flung into the sky as the excavator exploded, and the group sailed ten meters.
"You okay?"
At Number Seven's voice, Marsha ground her teeth. "You did the right thing."
"We had no choice. Still… we're almost there."
The operator looked toward the tallest building in the city twenty meters ahead and asked, "You sure? No guarantee that's the main system."
Thinking the largest building was the core was only human.
"There's no other option. We can't go anywhere else now."
Androids' silver light glittered in every direction.
"By the way, where's the entrance?" —no door was visible.
"I'll check."
Lollipop Mark scanned the wall while Freeman pointed toward the rear. "Hey, over there."
Jets were already converging.
"We'll hold them off."
As officers of the Parrot Mercenary Corps charged, Lollipop Mark checked the system. "What kind of code is this? It's on another level from the Mucus era."
The future had shifted from one ruled by Fairy to one where the god of Law intervened directly.
"We don't need a perfect decode," the operator said. "If we jam the signal and just open the entrance—"
"No, that—"
Before she could finish, the blast's heat hit.
Jet bombardment pushed back the Parrot officers. They were top-tier fighters in the present world, but powerless against future tech.
Lollipop grit her teeth. "Sorry. I can't sync the timing."
"There's one way." Number Seven produced the Undercoder card. The operator asked, "You brought other gear?"
If the engineer who'd implemented the excavator "Extra" in Apocalypse was involved, maybe it'd work.
'Please, make it big and strong…' Number Seven had been hoping for a High Gear boss creature, but his face betrayed doubt. "Data capacity isn't infinite. We had to pick and choose."
"Fine—then just do it fast. What is it?"
Number Seven turned to the operator. "Don't be mad."
The moment she pressed the button, a whoosh cut across the sky.
"Huh?"
As the operator looked up, her eyes widened—and with a thud the machinery swallowed her.
Lollipop Mark stared, stunned. "Mid Gear?"
It was a device for charging and preserving High Gear units.
"I was actually saving it for a good moment."
The Mid Gear's locks released and the operator's unit stepped out, wreathed in black aura and moving with a predatory grace. It was as if the girl had become a woman.
"It sets the mood," Number Seven muttered—probably not the romantic mood he'd imagined. He scratched his head. "Tch. Whatever. Control the output. We can pull the data, but there's no way to recharge here."
There was one chance.
"That'll do."
She watched the Parrot officers pushed to the brink, planted her feet, and sprang forward.
She slipped into the swarm of Jets like wind and drew her blade, the Black Sheath.
"Collapse."
A magnetic field expanded as a black sphere, and every android in range began to converge toward it.
The mining team instinctively covered their ears, but the metallic impacts burst through the bones of their palms and struck their eardrums.
Number Seven slowly opened his squeezed-shut eyes and saw a massive hunk of twisted scrap metal crushed into a spherical heap.
"Operator!"
Dispelling his worry, the operator pirouetted in midair and landed beside him. "What are you fussing about? Forgot who I am?"
Until Yahweh's reclamation, she'd been the undefeated legend of High Gear.
She glanced at the building. "Step aside. I'll break it."
Lollipop Mark backed away. "Yeah… I guess our only option is destruction. Honestly…"
Hacking the main system might have been possible, but nobody said it out loud.
"I'm going in at max output."
As the operator leveled the Black Sheath and readied to charge, Number Seven went pale. If she failed to break it, the unit itself would be destroyed.
"Maybe rethink this?" he urged.
"No. Half measures only waste power. We finish this in one go."
While the others watched with grim expressions, the operator boosted output from her lower body.
At that moment, a rectangular seam traced across the building's wall and doors swung open to either side.
The hum of the operator's engines dropped as she drew her feet together.
Marsha asked, "What—? Why did it open on its own?"
"Could be a trap?"
The operator shook her head. "No. If it were a system even Lollipop couldn't open, there'd be no point setting a trap."
Strapping the Black Sheath to her back, she stepped into the darkness beyond the doorway and added, "Trust it and go. We're not the only ones in this city."
"Ah—"
Marsha peered past the far side of the city. 'It should have arrived already.' Come to think of it, Shirone still hadn't come.
An emergency council had been convened at the Temple. Havitz's influence had grown strong enough to fracture the Temple's unity.
"This cannot continue."
The assembled kings—or more precisely, those who could attend—continued to voice their claims.
"How long will we keep taking blows? Our power may have weakened, but the demons still threaten humanity. We must elect a world leading nation and unite our strength as soon as possible."
Even those who formerly didn't flinch at mass death were beginning to realize the seriousness of the situation.
'The situation's changed,' Albino thought, touching his chin. 'Twenty minutes ago Havitz tried to assassinate the king of Corona. Now he's hunting state leaders—talk of world peace is meaningless.'
Expecting a king to shoulder duties and responsibility appropriate to his title was almost collective delusion. 'Just like believing a non-existent god will be benevolent.'
"Any objections? When should we vote?" the chairman asked.
When the schedule was discussed in detail, the national leaders fell silent.
They wanted to vote immediately, but if they became the leading nation by rash action, no one would recognize it.
'We can't be too late either. Anyone could be Havitz's next target within an hour.'
So they chose the earliest time all could accept: 7:00 a.m. the next morning.
"Then, by unanimous consent of the nations present at the Temple, we'll move the vote forward to tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. Department staff, publish the adjusted schedule to the nations within two hours," the chairman concluded.
There was nothing else of particular note on the schedule—at most, a joint performance by artists from various countries that night.
"So that's settled. Now no one will know who holds the advantage," Albino said. Lupist nodded. "Whoever dives in first and grabs the prize wins. Thormia still has a chance."
"These people here are professional gamblers. They don't bet unless they're certain. You don't become a national leader by luck alone."
"Bluffing won't work now. They'll favor a sure hand over long odds."
"In the early days of the Temple there were some sure hands—Kashan of Uorin, the Moon Kingdom's diviners, Kitra's astrology—but Uorin couldn't attend, the Moon Kingdom was destroyed, and Kitra is off the front lines."
"Kesia," Albino said. "In this situation, the most reliable information probably belongs to Kesia."
His gaze landed on Kesia's king, Fermi.
'I'd like to open his head and see,' Albino's eyes narrowed. 'Son of Yolga—what do you know?'
Fermi checked his watch. 'Seven tomorrow morning. Then… Imir is faster.'
So far, Fermi's future hadn't changed.
Imir—Depth Level 1.
Gaold and his group had arrived at the maternal psyche where the unconsciousness of the birth moment lay asleep.
Beneath that numbness was a land made from the bodies of ten billion Gaia people—an endless stretch of earth.
"Even ten billion humans couldn't create this much land. So the symbolism here…" Arius said.
"It would mean it is his entire being," someone finished.
It was Imir's body, born from the integration of ten billion Gaia.
They studied the land. It looked scorched and rippled like molten fingerprints. Arms jutted up here and there; bas-relief faces looked skyward.
"As expected, it's different. None of the features that appear in ordinary minds—cities, demons, climate—are present. That means nothing was imprinted on Imir's cognition. He's been the strongest since birth," Arius said.
Miro asked, "The air's thick, isn't it?"
"Yes. It's an atmosphere of desire. That the Gaia people became land means Imir fully controls the body. Gases of desire rose from there and filled this world."
"The volcano that erupted at Depth Level 2 blew up that atmosphere," someone added.
"Yes. Gas from Level 1 spewing into Level 2. Given Gaold's power, even that would have been an exceptionally rare event."
Arius turned. "In any case, the world's composition is simple. If the land is the body and the atmosphere is emotion, then the mind is…"
The Ultima of ten billion Gaia—
"It should be over there."
Following Arius, everyone looked up.
"My god."
Kangnan stood dumbfounded, mouth agape.
At the center of the sky—otherwise filled with light—an enormous hole yawned.
"A black hole," Miro said. Arius nodded. "If the light across the sky is the Gaia people's minds, that black hole is holding all that light. So that thing is—"
A voice came from straight ahead. "Right. The Ultima system you're looking for."
Startled, they looked down. Imir was sitting there, chin propped on his hand.
"It's the power to change the Law."
In other words: gravity—the measure of how fiercely something exists against the backdrop of the universe.