novelHeat
| ← Ch.79 | Ch.81 → |
"What is the meaning of this!?"
Kurosaki Keigo shouted angrily into the receiver as the alarms blared incessantly.
"The control system software is being hacked. We cannot stop it!"
"Impossible! This network is supposed to use the coil to physically shut out any connection not made through the relay device! Has the relay device been hacked!?"
"No. We do not know how, but a bypass was most likely established from within."
"Gh...but surely we have countless countermeasures against such things!"
"I-I am very sorry."
"Hurry up and figure out what is causing it, you useless fuck!"
After yelling so loud it hurt his stomach, he slammed the receiver down.
Due to the emergency alert, the trained staff was helping the customers escape outside.
But this entertainment garden did not have regular evacuation training, plus the customers were all very old and decrepit, very drunk, or very high on drugs. And the slaves who had been told to stay put by the staff were panicking at the alarm and trying to flee, so the evacuation was not going well.
"Tch. Garbage, the lot of them."
Keigo's blood vessels bulged out at his temple while he leaned back in his chair as if giving up.
The facility was done for at this rate. 80% of those sly yet cowardly old men would never want to come here again. If the business dried up until the rumors died down - say, for 75 days - their debt would rival the national budget of a small country.
But the money was the least of his worries right now.
"Elisabeth! Elisabeth, are you there!?"
"I am."
Schwarze had been waiting right outside, so she stepped in at his call.
That woman remained calm at all times and that must have reminded him he was panicking too much. He clicked his tongue again and stopped speaking.
He reclaimed his usual dignified calm.
"We are under attack from FeTUS."
He opened the bottommost desk drawer. It functioned as a refrigerator and it contained some drinks, pills, wet towels, and four glasses.
He removed one of the chilled glasses and Schwarze took a bottle of wine from the nearby cellar and opened it with an old knife and screw without being asked.
"It seems there is already a hole leading in, so how long will this facility last?"
"If a rabbit hole has already been established, this place will transform into Wonderland the instant the rabbit drops in, father."
"Tch..."
As he clicked his tongue for the umpteenth time, his irritation entered the wine and sent red ripples through it while she gently poured it in.
He had not mentioned any details, but even Schwarze was certain that it was Miss A of FeTUS who was attacking them.
"Where did that hole come from? It wasn't you, was it?"
"Have I ever been out of your surveillance long enough to warrant suspicion?"
"...Hmph."
They both looked to the room's entrance.
She had closed the door when she came in, but it was now opened by a few centimeters.
Schwarze glanced over at Enju who was watching them with a composed expression and stopped pouring the wine. And then...
"Why must it be so noisy?"
"..."
A large ripple ran through the contents of the wine bottle Schwarze held.
The panic and tension of the voice could be seen clearly in the wine's surface.
But while Keigo did send a ripple through his wine glass as well, all tension had left this face despite all the irritation there before.
He was all smiles and made no attempt to hide the joy there.
"Ohh...Lady Lilith."
He prepared a second glass.
When Black Cat poured the red liquid in, the disturbance from the alcohol caused the vaporized extract to darkly stain the air.
After a platinum shine surrounded it, a white-skinned woman appeared there.
She was as hazy as scattering steam and her blonde hair, which was long enough to reach the floor even from midair, looked far too fleeting to be real.
That person with the faint but undeniable presence picked up the glass with slender fingers.
"I sense Lucya nearby...no, what is this twisted structure? Is it a fake? A copy of Lucya, the Holy Grail, is nearby."
"The Holy Grail? You mean the Eve ex Machina created by FeTUS?"
"She is nearby...eliminate her. Anything related to Lucya is thoroughly unpleasant."
"Understood....Perform a search! Miss E of the Witches is in here somewhere!"
He picked up the phone and shouted angrily into it.
The monitors changed their displays at a dizzying rate and they all showed a confused flood of people, but...
"In the air! Stop the cameras there!"
He stopped it on one of the few images not full of people. It simply showed the sky around the facility.
A black speck was visible in the blue sky. Zooming in revealed it to be a high-speed helicopter. Its cargo door was open and two people looked down from there.
He saw FeTUS Witches Miss E, Machina, there.
"Tch. So they really did discover our location."
"What should we do?"
"They are an eyesore, so eliminate them. Send out the Bioroids."
This was more than a network intrusion. People were physically here. That greatly changed the alert level, but Keigo's anger was a lot more subdued than before.
"I must apologize, Lady Lilith. We seem to have a bit of a rat problem, but we will clean that up real quick."
He bowed his head toward the woman he called Lilith.
She said nothing and brought her glass of wine to her mouth. Once her sweet, crimson lipstick touched the clear glass, she drank the red within.
She was a beautiful woman.
She was Princess Lilith, mother of demons.
Her beauty came from more than just her looks. The beauty oozing from her every action was enough to charm even Black Cat and Enju, who was on guard duty.
Keigo in particular had the light of a boy in his eyes despite being such an old man.
That was why his anger had faded. Being with this woman was much more important to him than the threat of having the facility's secrets revealed or the wounded pride of having his security taken advantage of.
Lilith continued drinking her wine.
"This is good wine. Made from excellent grapes. The ones I grew were rougher going down."
She viewed that red liquid with fondness in her eyes.
"Times really have changed. Where is this from?"
She turned toward Schwarze.
The woman felt her heart skip a joyful beat at having those angled eyes viewing her, but she managed to view the label of the wine bottle she held.
"It is from a place called Nagano."
"I see...Nagano. I like it. Once I receive flesh, I will partake in their grapes on a daily basis.
"O-of course. I can buy up every vineyard in Nagano right this instant."
Keigo interrupted as if to beg for her attention.
Lilith ignored him and glanced over at the monitors.
The man knew what that meant, so he raised his voice while it cracked like a child's.
"Kill them!"
Six metal pillars stood atop the main hall's roof like decorations, but now they spewed fire.
Capsules large enough for a single person to lie down in were launched toward the helicopter waiting 100m overhead.
The cylinders were too large and heavy, so they rapidly lost their propulsion and stopped their ascent at 50m, only half the distance to the helicopter.
But the six people who emerged from those six capsules made up for the other 50m.
They were not carrying any special tools. They simply leaped with the strength of their legs.
They were all Enju. Six Bioroids copying Enju had been sent out.
"Miss B, I will be unable to assist you for the time being. Ensure Fujita-kun's safety."
Machina calmly watched those six from atop the helicopter.
"Beginning operation. Destroy all targets...positive."
Just as the six took aim at the helicopter and gathered together, she kicked off the edge and threw herself into the air.
At 100m above the ground, she jumped out as if skydiving.
And she charged right through the center of those six.
"Kh!"
They must have expected her to intercept them instead of zoom right past them, so they had to turn their bodies horizontal to stop their ascent using the air resistance. Their upwards energy quickly lost out to gravity and they all descended after her.
"Complete."
After landing on the ground ahead of everyone else, Machina looked up at the six again.
The two problems concerning a fight against the Kurosaki family had been their location and these Bioroids. Kurosaki had artificially modified a demon body made from the body of Jiyuuni Ange, the strongest angel. These demons could neutralize angel fire and use FeTUS technology. Just one had immeasurable combat power, but at least 12 of them had been produced.
However, their weakness was exactly what Machina had expected. Whether there were 6 or 12 of them, their thoughts were based on those of the girl named Kagari Enju.
So their actions would be nearly synched.
"Dimensional Transition."
Machina opened a golden magic circle in the sky toward the six falling toward her.
They reacted in shock, but it was too late. They were all preparing to land and they could not change their stance now.
All six hit the magic circle.
After being deflected, they were all as white as marble statues.
It had already been proven that not even Kurosaki's ultimate weapons could survive having their body temperature reduced to absolute zero. The six crashed into the ground.
They were so brittle that they did not just shatter like glass; they burst into something like dust.
"Phew."
Machina checked her surroundings again.
This appeared to be a golf course. She was about 20m from the main hall. She could detect several body temperature readings from the main hall, so she could tell it was filled with people.
But fortunately, there was no one on the golf course.
No one other than the 18 Enju Bioroids surrounding her, that is.
"A total of 24. That is more than predicted."
They had predicted there would be more than the 12 they had already seen, but the production rate seemed to be faster than expected.
"Ah ha ha ha ha ha!"
"Ah ha ha ha ha ha!"
"Ah ha ha ha ha ha!"
All 18 laughed simultaneously and charged at her with giant swords at the ready.
"Extracting dimensional transformation tool. Expanding phase variable space to 147 for immediate use within Euclidian space. Setting combat range to a radius of 10 meters."
Machina drew a golden circle on the neatly-maintained grass.
The 18 charged toward the center regardless.
"Slahhhhhhhhh!"
The Enju that arrived first made a slash.
Machina caught her with the gold thread, but the charging attack was too much for her and she was knocked back.
But she had expected that. She skillfully flipped through the air and landed back on the ground. And in that instant...
"Annihilation."
Blinding light shined from the spot where she had just been standing. In other words, from the grass below the Enju who had knocked her away.
A pillar of heat appeared and enveloped the Enju. A redheaded body with both legs blown off flew a few dozen meters into the air.
Machina had lost the direct clash, but only a few of her golden threads had snapped and they were still plenty strong. She had twisted the threads together, so they were highly resistant to slashes meant to cut them.
"Tchhhhh!"
The next closest Enju cut at her.
She caught that on the threads as well and let the force of the slash send her flying. Again, the ground erupted into flames immediately afterwards.
"Gh...gh...such a cheap trick."
The first one to step on the mine and lose both her legs had gotten up. Smoke was billowing from the stumps of her legs, but they would regenerate soon enough.
Even when they outnumbered their opponent 18-to-1, the Enjus did not grow cocky. They quickly realized what Machina was doing and stopped moving.
By staying on the move, Machina could keep this battle against 18 isolated to 1-on-1 battles. They overpowered her even then, but the landmines prevented them from staying in place for long and their attacks grew much more sporadic. They could not deliver a finishing blow during those short 1-on-1 battles.
She was still slowly losing, but...
"Are you hoping to buy time?"
The 18 laughed.
FeTUS had a maximum of five Witches, so they could work as a team. If today's goal was to rescue Fujita Mutsuki, it was natural to assume Machina was here to buy time.
"Then it's too bad."
"Hee hee hee hee."
"Hee hee hee hee."
"Hee hee hee hee."
"Eh heh heh heh heh heh."
"Eh heh heh heh heh heh."
"Eh heh heh heh heh heh."
"Eh heh heh heh heh heh."
"Eh heh heh heh heh heh."
The laughter of Enjus reverberated eerily across the golf course.
It echoed across that vast space.
There were more than just 18. A quick look suggested more than 100 were surrounding Machina.
"Your time has run out! So die!"
They all charged at her at once.
Even if Machina could plant enough mines, she could not detonate them until she was outside of their range. The enemy had used their numbers to eliminate the space she needed for that.
In a way, forcing your way through with pure numbers was the ultimate strategy. Machina had nowhere to run.
"Negative."
Although she had no intention of running.
"I am not here to buy time."
The grass rose up below her feet and surrounded her. Each blade rapidly grew white and frozen.
"I intend to eliminate you all."
"Hah! Let's see you try it!"
The hundred Enjus continued their charge.
Each blade of frozen grass was made by using Dimensional Transition to burden it with a heat-eliminating nature. Thus, anything that touched it would be frozen.
But it was still no more than grass. Anything that touched it would be frozen, but if that frozen flesh crushed it, only the first five or six needed to be frozen to act as shields for the rest. This could not prevent their human wave attack.
"How are you supposed to eliminate us like this!?"
The lead Enjus prepared to attack. They were starting with 7. More than 10 followed after that, so they were prepared to attack in waves.
They all gathered around Machina.
"I never said I would personally be doing the elimination."
"What a pain."
Back on the helicopter, Ange waited for a beeping signal while peering down from the opened cargo door like Machina had earlier.
Even at 100m up, she could clearly see that more than a hundred enemies had gathered below.
It was fortunate she could not see their individual faces. Kagari Enju and Ange were like the shadow and light split from the same person. Their hairstyles and fashion sense were different, but they were otherwise identical and she did not want to see that.
The helicopter exploded.
The golden wings emerging from her back had touched it.
Angel fire was a light meant to destroy their enemies. It would provide no heat to any matter that was not their enemy.
But what she had produced here was different. It was wrapped in the same Joule heating as normal fire.
The fire did not maintain its form. It became a plasma jet with enough heat to instantly liquefy and rupture a mass of metal like a helicopter.
"Prominence."
She aimed her beloved sword toward the center of the 100.
"Syzygy!!"
A few of the hundred noticed a shrill sound.
But it was no use. The source dropped down at almost the same time.
It was awfully slow for light, but it was a giant glowing pillar. It threatened to squash the hundred from above at the speed of sound.
They detected the attack almost instantly and worked to defend against it, but that worked against them. Their black, skintight suits were equipped with KKs to break down fires of more than 100 thousand degrees, but...
"Bwah!"
"Gweh!"
The pillar of light was far hotter than that. It surpassed the KKs' limits and the heat made it inside. Their physical bodies were based on demons, so they were all fried.
No demon could oppose the divine light of angel fire.
Just like spraying insecticide on a swarm of ants, the pillar of light burned the remaining ones surrounding it.
Once no grass remained on what had once been a golf course, Ange descended to the scorched earth.
A few Enjus remained, but...
"Grand Cruz."
She raised her large sword overhead as if to say she did not want to see any of them.
The blue flames burning around the sword glowed golden and spread out to the side near the tip. How many people managed to see it draw out a cross? The golden flames blowing out horizontally proceeded to fly all around her to fry the remaining Enjus.
"All done."
With that job complete, Ange lowered her sword.
She turned toward the spot where the fire had been most highly concentrated and where the ashes of a hundred Enjus was piled up.
The only part of the scorched golf course remaining was the frozen blades of grass there. After Ange extinguished her flames, the grass instantly came apart and shattered like glass.
Machina appeared from within with flakes of ice all over her.
"That is some impressive heat resistance. What even is it?"
"Dimensional Transition. It has now officially been proven to withstand Metatron's heat."
It apparently had some room for improvement because it must have been quite cold inside. There was frost in her hair that soon broke away, although her expression remained unchanged.
FeTUS had created something capable of opposing the greatest fire heaven could manage. Ange could not have trained to use Metatron as a weapon without their help, but this still sounded like trouble.
"I detect multiple lifeforms in a narrow space. Miss D, you handle the rest."
"Yes, yes. I really wish you hadn't destroyed the helicopter. It really scared me."
After Ange, a tall woman in a maid uniform landed using a parachute like a normal person. She had apparently been aboard the helicopter when it exploded and she had scorch marks on her clothing.
The three of them split into groups of two and one. Miss D, Daima Makoto, made her way to the confused main hall.
Machina and Ange moved in the opposite direction. They followed Miss B's locater to reach the training building where Mutsuki was.
"Kh..."
Keigo was dumbfounded that a hundred Bioroids had been slaughtered so quickly.
The golf course's cameras had been destroyed, but those three had entered the buildings where there were other cameras. In the confused hall, a giant who had to be 10m tall threatened the fleeing people to herd them into a single space, and then shoved them in simple protection capsules. They were all crying and shouting in fear, but they were being protected by FeTUS's Miss D who had made herself into a giant.
Miss E and the angel girl entered the training building. The remaining Bioroids and Springloaded had been sent out to intercept them, but the difference in strength was too great. They were all fried by the angel's explosive golden flames, frozen by the Witch's chill, and utterly destroyed either way.
"Wh-what is going on?"
Keigo's voice was shaken and he had completely forgotten about his half-full glass.
It had only been a few minutes since the alarm first sounded. It had not even been fifteen minutes.
One of Kurosaki's prized villas - and the facility Keigo used as his home - was on the verge of falling in less than fifteen minutes.
This man had known only success for more than 90% of his life, so he had no way of coping with his life's greatest failure. He felt faint. Plus...
"I should be the one asking what is going on. It is far too noisy."
"I-I am so very sorry."
It had to be obvious at a glance that things were not looking good. The blonde woman watched the monitors with an icy look in her eyes.
That was the greatest failure of all for Keigo.
He was past 60 yet he had never loved anyone more passionately, so falling out of her favor was more humiliating than anything else.
"Bring me a white."Keigo was trembling in frustration, but Lilith seemed entirely calm. She would frown in displeasure whenever the boom of an explosion reached this room, but she shook her glass and viewed the monitor like the thorough destruction of the facility was no more than a show.
Upon receiving the order for a white wine, Schwarze pulled out a new glass and wine bottle.
"Move!"
There was nothing Keigo could do, so he shoved Schwarze out of the way, stole the two items, and opened the bottle. He filled the glass with shaking hands and offered it to Lilith.
"This is the finest Chablis. This racket will be dealt with shortly, so please enjoy yourself, Lady Lilith."
Despite his best efforts, a message was clearly written on his face: Please do not throw me out.
Lilith still did not respond. She only seemed interested in the white wine and accepted it with a satisfied look. She took a sip while overlooking the man's gaffes such as filling the glass too full.
Only one person in the room reacted to Keigo's actions.
"Ow..."
He had shoved Schwarze to the ground.
"Do not treat her so roughly, boy. I thought you claimed to be her father?"
"Wha-!?"
...But it was not her.
It was the person who entered the room while brushing aside what remained of the shattered Enju who had been standing watch outside.
FeTUS Witches Miss A wore her favorite red hat pulled low. Alice Arc reached out toward shoved Schwarze.
Schwarze expressionlessly ignored the hand, stood up on her own, and moved next to Keigo.
Miss A shrugged and bowed toward the maiden floating in the center of the room.
"It is a pleasure to meet you. Lady Lilith, I assume?"
"...Indeed."
With her blonde hair floating gently around her, Princess Lilith, mother of demons, showed interest in something other than wine for the first time that day.
Lilith.
Alice Arc was familiar with all forms of knowledge in the human world, but even she had only "heard of" that name.
The queen of hell. The one bearing the title of Satan. The darkness lurking in the absurdity of humanity. The Nagaraja. She had many names, but she had left behind almost no presence in human history.
However, Alice Arc did know who she was.
The Wicked Serpent that Ate the Fruit of Life. But as it was unclear on what basis wickedness was being judged here, let us eliminate that part: The Serpent that Ate the Fruit of Life.
That meant the seeds of all life budded within her and she had become a nursery that could produce any form of life. She was the point in common between all demons the human world was presently aware of and the one unique trait that gave them purpose.
She was the ancestor of all demons.
Or that was Alice Arc's understanding based on the textbooks of the human world.
There was little agreement when it came to her objective or what kind of being she was, but one thing was known for certain.
Her presence was always felt when humanity fought over the Serpent's Eye.
So they could speculate that she was targeting Adam.
"I sense the ripening of the Fruit of Knowledge. The blood of Avalon is strong in you, girl."
"By pure coincidence."
Her words seemed to confirm that speculation.
Miss A stood as tall as she could with a small body of only 130cm.
"My name is Alice Arc. I am a Witch born 600 years ago who inherited the elements of the Fruit of Knowledge even more strongly than Avalon, the previous Adam."
"600 years? Is that all?"
"It has been 300 years since I met someone older than me."
She bowed respectfully.
It could be seen as respect for her elder, but at the same time, golden threads broke through the floor from the soles of her shoes and spread throughout the room.
"Not so fast! The likes of you has no right to speak to Lady Lilith!"
Not only was Alice preparing for battle, but Keigo had to feel some jealousy too. He shouted in anger and moved between Miss A and Lilith.
"How did you get in here? Where's the hole!?"
His yelling continued.
He must not have noticed how Lilith grimaced at the noise. Meanwhile, Miss A shrugged her shoulders in exasperation.
"You never change, boy. You were quite skilled for someone from the last hundred years, but your temper made it impossible to leave FeTUS in your care."
She looked to the monitor...and at the naked girls Miss D was rescuing.
"I merely drove you out because I sensed promise in your talents...but it appears I was mistaken."
"Hmph. You didn't drive me out; I left. But as part of the family that has run this country from the shadows for a millennium, I decided to spare you out of respect for your position in the group that has ruled Europe from the shadows for a millennium."
Keigo grabbed one of the golden threads woven through the gaps in the carpet to cover the entire room.
One of the monitors responded. With a warning sound other than the ceaseless alarms, it displayed a simple map of the facility instead of camera footage.
A red circle was flashing around one of the rooms.
It was Shuntarou's room.
"The hole is in...Shuntarou's room? It can't be!"
He grabbed the phone receiver he had slammed down earlier, a call was made automatically, and a man's face eventually appeared on one of the monitors.
"Hello? Papa? Do you need something?"
It was Shuntarou. He was in a car with Riselle seated next to him.
He had apparently already left the facility. He had probably left 15 minutes ago.
He had fled the instant the alarms sounded and the alarms had been triggered by something in his room. There was only one possible conclusion to draw from that.
"Shuntarou!? What is the meaning of this!? Have you sided with the Witches!?"
"Oh, dear. You already found out?"
Then Shuntarou noticed the odd state of the room and the small girl of an old woman standing next to his father.
"Make my excuse for me, Miss Arc. Tell him I'm a Kurosaki man through and through, so I would never invite your people there."
"Yes, I do not recall being invited in."
Shuntarou grinned and Alice finally responded with a hint of exasperation.
One was enjoying the farce and the other could not stand it.
But the two of them must have met in advance to prepare this farce.
"You sold out your own father!?"
"I know it was wrong, papa, but when a father invites in a woman other than the mother and eats the family out of house and home, of course the kid is going to run away."
The father's temples were bulging, but the son's cruel smile remained.
"Do whatever you want there. I'm happy as long as I have Riselle-chan with me. Bye bye, papa and Miss Arc."
He gave a silly wave and then reached for the camera.
Just before the image cut out, Alice looked to Riselle on the monitor.
"Farewell, Riselle. We will never meet again...as promised."
"Bye bye, teacher. Take care of my sister."
They hung up.
"Kh...kh...!"
Keigo had been betrayed and sold out by his biological son. His anger and humiliation were so great he forgot all about Lilith's presence, his face twisted, and his shoulders shook.
Alice breathed a sigh of what may have been pity.
"To be clear, no excuses are needed here. That man really did not say a word about this place's location. He simply introduced us to one of the trainers at the center of your enterprise. While doing his best to ensure we did not bring any kind of tools with us."
The man overlooked the dark shadow that fell over her face.
"Miss B opened the hole. She truly gambled her life to get it in here."
The look on her face seemed to say "no matter what she had to sacrifice". That would be in reference to the period before Lavriel found Mutsuki and used the transmitter. She could likely imagine some of the experiences that would have changed that girl's entire view of life.
But Keigo failed to notice. The bulging veins on his temple were enough to say he found someone else's sacrifices trivial compared to his wounded pride.
"Lady Lilith, please wait a moment longer."
He breathed in so deep his large body seemed to swell out. The height difference was so great that his clenched fist hung at the girl's face height.
"I will transform this noisy little girl..."
FeTUS Leader Alice Arc and Kurosaki Family Head Kurosaki Keigo.
Two hidden leaders of the world faced each other here.
"...into a silent bloody pulp."
An enormous fist was swung.
As FeTUS's strongest Witch, Miss A was well-versed in countless combat styles, but she most specialized in predicting her opponent's actions.
She had known he was going to punch at her and she had predicted the timing, so she moved to dodge it by a hair.
"Gwah!"
But just beforehand, her small body was launched from the floor.
"A shockwave? Damn you."
She placed her hand on the floor as she landed. The golden threads she had set up welled up and tangled around the man's entire body.
This was the heat-eliminating Dimensional Transition that Machina had only been able to eject into space. Miss A had already gained limited control of the technology within a thread. As soon as the threads tangled around someone, they infinitely robbed the target of heat, so the man's skin immediately grew gangrenous. At the same time, all the moisture within froze.
However...
"Impudent brat!"
The frozen body shattered and a humanoid dark-red blob of flesh burst from within.
In the less than a second before it reached Miss A, it retook the shape of Kurosaki Keigo.
This time, Miss A leaped almost to the ceiling to dodge his fist.
But the wind pressure slammed her to the ceiling even though she had jumped nearly to it already.
"Tch. That is impressive."
The 600-year-old Witch was more horrified by what she had seen than by the damage she took.
She had definitely seen the man's arm tear itself apart only to have regenerated flesh cover it a moment later.
The punch thrown from his muscular body had surpassed the limits of his muscles and entered a zone where muscles were entirely irrelevant.
It far surpassed the speed of sound. That was why its sonic boom had easily knocked Miss A airborne even though she had supposedly dodged it and why his arm had been destroyed. And with that intense destruction, this had to be more than just Mach 2 or 3.
Needless to say, that speed and regeneration were not human abilities.
Producing Mach speeds was not that much of a threat. The problem was how he broke the sound barrier with an action as simple as punching.
What would happen if a creature like that started using its head?
"Boy, why did you abandon your humanity when, in a way, you were the most honest of us all about your human desires?"
"Geh heh. Geh heh heh heh heh. You wound me, Miss Arc. I have never had any intention in the slightest of abandoning my humanity."
They both looked to Lilith. The Witch with loathing and Keigo with adoration.
"I have offered her everything! I have offered my entire fortune and my entire being to Lady Lilith! Including my own body! And she has given me something in return. Lady Lilith, who stands at the peak of the demons, has made me the ultimate lifeform!"
"I can see why your kid ran away."
"My kid? Geh heh heh. You mean Shuntarou? Yes, that was a surprise, but some garbage flesh who only has half my blood is irrelevant. As the knight who guards the goddess, I have no need of him."
"..."
That ugly transformation would make it hard to call himself a servant of the grim reaper, much less a goddess.
But Miss A understood his logic. His body had been entirely remade around the Fruit of Life that formed a demon. He had turned his entire body into a Succubus.
"The loss of familial love must be another distortion caused by the ripening of the Fruit of Knowledge. Humanity may indeed need to face the time of rivalry."
Miss A held her head.
She was clearly no longer prepared to fight, so Keigo gave her a curious look.
She sighed and turned toward Lilith again.
"Lady Lilith, this man has done so much for you, but you still do not love him?"
"..."
The woman waved her golden hair and showed them no interest as she watched the exploding facility on the monitors.
"Too bitter."
The wine was her only interest.
She gave a displeased look toward Schwarze who had brought the bottle to her.
"What is with this flavor? The grape flavor has been contaminated. What did you put in it?"
"..."
The woman blinked at that.
She had been watching over Keigo and Miss A's battle, but now she sighed in quiet resignation.
"Chain Reaction Ion Channel Interference Program Ver. 7."
"...!?"
Lilith only looked displeased that something undesirable had been put in her drink, but Keigo was much more horrified. He glanced at the glass of red he had been drinking from earlier.
"E-Elisabeth...don't tell me."
"Sigh."
Schwarze looked a little sad, but there was no sign of hesitation.
"I did love you, father. I respected and loved you as a parent. I cannot lie about this feeling...this emotion that was carved into my instincts from the moment of my creation."
She had not hesitated to spend the past five days poisoning all of the glasses Keigo used.
"Thank you for raising me as the kind of warrior who can kill her own father."
"E-Elisabeth."
"Perhaps I will have Fujita soothe the sorrow of losing you."
"Gbwah!"
A moment later, all of the flesh that had formed Kurosaki Keigo was stained pitch black.
Blood erupted from the entirety of his blackened and split body. The wounds quickly healed as before, but the movement to seal them only tore open more wounds from which more blood spewed.
The Chain Reaction Ion Channel Interference Program was a nerve contaminant based on cobra venom.
The program pattern changed its signal every second to continually kill the cells it had infected. Lucia had previously proven that not even a demon could keep up with the changing patterns of the toxin.
However, Keigo had a demon's regenerative power, so if it were injected it into the surface of his body, he would only need to cut away that part of him.
By including it in things he ingested for five days, what he had digested had permeated all the cells in his body. There was no eliminating it now.
His body would regenerate in a single second, but the cell death would return a second later. The chain reaction began where he was slow to regenerate and the number of wounds only continued to grow. He still had a mouth at first and shouted "Stop this! It hurts!", but either his vocal cords were filled with regenerated flesh or the nerves between his brain and body were obstructed because he stopped saying anything. He drew out too much flesh for regeneration, so his organs emerged on the outside, those attached to his regenerated outer skin, and he soon lost any resemblance to a human form.
"Like I said, I can see why your kid ran away."
If he was still conscious, this had to be a living hell. If not, he had become nothing but a lump of flesh. Either way, Miss A looked down at him with pity while standing next to Schwarze.
"Well done."
"I didn't do this for FeTUS."
"I know that. Well done protecting Fujita Mutsuki."
Five days ago, when the military helicopter attacked the cultural festival, FeTUS had not had many options for resisting the Kurosaki's attempt to destroy Fujita Mutsuki's personal life.
Assuming the information Riselle had brought during summer break was accurate, the only way to protect Mutsuki while avoiding friction with the angels and demons was the member of the Kurosaki Family that Schwarze had chosen. Choosing Shuntarou had been a decent idea as far as eliminating the threat of enemy attack went.
Then again, Shuntarou had found Mutsuki's feminized form amusing and imprisoned him, so searching him out had taken a lot of effort and sacrifice.
"But it worked out well in the end."
The biggest obstacle had been destroying the Kurosaki Family, but they had succeeded in that. There was no real room for complaint if you ignored Miss B's sacrifice, so Miss A placed a hand on Schwarze's back.
Black Cat's expression was unchanged as she looked just a little sadly down at the hunk of flesh that had been her father.
"Miss A...how were things over the past five days?"
"What do you mean?"
"Weren't you worried? Didn't you think I may have betrayed you? Just like my original, Witch Elisabeth, betrayed you."
"..."
She spoke without looking over at Miss A.
Just like a small child.
"No."
The mother slapped her taller child's back.
"You and Elisa are nothing alike outside of your appearance."
"...Really?"
"Well, the way you sulk might be similar. But."
She turned her back.
"Not many Witches have ever adored me quite so obviously."
"...I see."
Schwarze turned around as well to stand by her side.
It was time to bring down the true threat. They had defeated Kurosaki, but the real problem was here.
"This is a fine wine. The grapes are wonderful."
Lilith showed no interest in the living hell that befell that man who adored her and she instead continued sipping at the white wine filled with poison.
"Lady Lilith, this is nothing personal, but..."
"We must slay you. If the legends are true, letting Adam fall into your hands will bring an end to humanity before we even reach the time of rivalry."
Miss A spread out some golden threads of absolute zero and Black Cat change into her combat suit with flames around her claws. That artificial holy fire was only a replica of angel fire, but it was bound to be effective against a demon.
Just like Shuntarou, the rest of the Kurosaki Family had used their nearly magical abilities for nothing more than satisfying their lust and making money.
They should have had no need to capture Adam, but they had gone to the effort of developing Bioroids that could withstand FeTUS attack to secure him. Why would they do that?
The idea must have been implanted within the head of the family.
Because this maiden named Lilith desired Adam.
"..."
Lilith paid no attention to the two directing hostility her way.
She seemed not at all interested in fighting.
"Hiss!"
Black Cat was not kind enough to hold back just because her opponent was carelessly full of openings. She mercilessly aimed for the throat with her flame-enveloped claws.
The woman made no attempt to dodge, so the claws did more than slit her throat; they severed her entire head. The head and her long hair fell to the floor and the head and body burst into flames starting from the cut neck.
Lilith was reduced to ashes in no time.
The glass fell from where she had been holding it.
And it was caught by the blonde woman - Lilith - who appeared nearby.
She sipped at the white wine that remained inside.
This was no illusion. The body was still there burning, yet there she was next to it.
Had she split into two? Schwarze was confused.
When the second Lilith took her sip, the contents of the glass froze. A golden thread had pierced her stomach and a temperature of absolute zero spread from there to freeze her.
The frozen body fell to the floor and readily shattered, but...
"What a waste."
The next voice came from behind the two attackers. They turned around in shock to see Lilith looking regretfully at the frozen and shattered wine glass. She was just now picking up the bottle of Chablis from earlier.
She calmly searched for a new glass to drink some more.
"Wh-what is going on, Miss A?"
"This is a first even for me."
Schwarze activated all the poison in all the glasses in this room.
Lilith's body split open from the hand and lips touching the glass. She was reduced to a pool of blood without even regenerating.
But once she died, a fourth one was holding the wine bottle.
She did not die when she was killed. The Witches sweated as they looked to the ashes of the first, the dust of the second, and the pool of blood of the third.
Lilith made no attacks of her own. She showed no interest in the Witches.
She was only interested in enjoying that delicious-looking wine that she must have taken quite a liking to.
"!"
When her eyes opened wide, it was a sign that she had found something important to her.
"Avalon...yes, you are here. I can feel your presence nearby."
She dropped the bottle of wine she had so enjoyed.The fourth Lilith disappeared as if she had vaporized all on her own.
Black Cat stared in disbelief. Even Miss A nearly stopped thinking for a moment, but...
"Miss D, Miss E, can you hear me? Make your way to the Fujita boy immediately."
She opened a channel and spoke in a more panicked voice than she had for the last few centuries.
"Lilith has found the Adam boy!"
| ← Ch. 79 | Ch. 81 → |