Chapter 99

Episode 98: Clashing Sparks

Rokuhara stood ready with Eina in position, his gaze locked onto Nameless.

The corners of his mouth were twisted into a ferocious sneer, but his thoughts remained eerily calm.

(Thought I’d come looking for the Doctor’s unified entity, and instead ran into one hell of an asshole.)

An unknown girl cloaked in black.

Regarding this enigmatic presence before him, more foreign even than Solciera, Rokuhara knew three things.

(Solciera’s converging artillery attack… other Demons Gear abilities… and)

“Instinctively, I fucking hate your guts!”

The reason Rokuhara had intervened in this battle was due to an overwhelming sense of discomfort he himself couldn’t fully grasp.

(Abnormal. To dislike someone this much upon first meeting…)

His body screamed that her very existence shouldn’t be allowed, driving him with murderous intent. Rokuhara struggled to suppress these wild impulses with sheer rationality.

“What’s wrong? Bring it on then!”

“H-Hey, I don’t intend to fight you!”

For the first time, there was a hint of anxiety in Nameless’ tone. Multiple artillery arrays deployed toward Rokuhara.

“As if those monkey tricks could take me down!”

Rokuhara cut through the dark artillery blasts head-on with a single strike.

“That’s strange… technically, it’s the same artillery as hers.”

“Maybe the user is just bad?”

“Don’t get hurt now.”

Nameless stepped lightly forward. In an instant, she appeared right beside Rokuhara.

“I’ve got you.”

A forced instantaneous movement cutting through the world. Despite being at a distance normally unreachable by stepping alone, Nameless thrust her sword toward Rokuhara.

A sharp stab from the side.

However…

“Huh? What’s with that sleepy sword? Solciera’s better than you.”

Before she knew it, Rokuhara had positioned himself to block the attack head-on. Using one of his twin swords to deflect the strike, he delivered a blow to Nameless’ back as she passed.

“Aaagh!?”

“You’re all bark and no bite, kid.”

Rokuhara sent the startled Nameless flying with a spinning kick. Watching her slam against the wall, Rokuhara sighed.

“Man, why’s he struggling against such a pushover? Or… is he just playing around with her? Damn nuisance.”

Scratching his head carelessly, he thought about a certain always-cool girl. Behind her, the magic circle for a converging artillery attack activated.

“Leader, behind you.”

“Got it.”

As the artillery fired, Rokuhara turned around and shattered its black flash with both swords.

“Not bad with artillery. You used to be good at long-range attacks like Solciera, right? Come to think of it, your placement’s more timid than hers. Are you a sniper or gunner by trade?”

While fighting, Rokuhara was analyzing everything.

To begin with, victory wasn’t Rokuhara’s ultimate goal in this battle.

(I can’t beat her, somehow I just know.)

His instincts, honed from dodging countless death traps, told him as much. Therefore, his course of action was clear.

(Gather as much information on Nameless as possible. This one’s definitely abnormal. Even the Director or possibly the Professor wouldn’t know about this distortion.)

Given how well Rokuhara knew the Director, there was no way she wouldn’t share information about such an S-Rank threat. Which meant this was clearly beyond even the Director’s understanding.

(Not the time to be talking about killing the Professor.)

Rokuhara remained completely calm throughout.

Calmly, he assessed the situation from a bird’s-eye view.

“So, you want to play? Let’s keep going.”

“Heheh, am I becoming popular too?”

Approaching Rokuhara, Nameless countered with a storm of slashes. Rokuhara weaved through them, avoiding only fatal blows.

“Nope! You can’t win like that!”

“Are you some kind of monster?!”

The sound of the world being severed.

At the same moment Rokuhara swung his sword down on Nameless, she reappeared further away.

“I see…”

Staring at the sword that had cut through empty air, Rokuhara muttered.

“You… can only use one ability at a time, right?”

“Wh-what?!”

“Haha, hit the nail on the head, huh? You should learn poker face from her!”

With a powerful step that cracked the asphalt, Rokuhara charged forward, scattering sand and dust as he unleashed flowing twin-sword combos.

“Hahahaha! No good! You need to work on your bluffing! If I close the distance and disrupt your thinking, you’re helpless!”

“Grrr… that’s why S-Ranks are so troublesome!”

Though managing to barely block the attacks with her blade and scythe, Nameless was undeniably being pushed back.

“Ugh!”

For the first time, Nameless let out an emotional shout, forcefully creating distance with her severing ability. As a result, she started bleeding from her abdomen where she landed.

“Does it hurt? …Hey, are you a warrior? Or just a coward pretending to be one?”

“Are you inviting me? …Fine, I’ll show you a little.”

Exhaling, Nameless discarded her scythe and blade, reaching towards a newly formed magic circle.

(Finally moving on to her next trick. Don’t know how many she has, but I need to make her expend as much as possible here.)

Rokuhara intentionally ignored this opening. To him, this battle was purely about gathering information.

But what manifested exceeded his expectations.

“…Huh? What’s that thing?”

What Nameless summoned was a single sword.

A mechanical straight blade with exposed circuitry and framework, clearly still under construction.

Still gripping this incomplete weapon, Nameless whispered.

“Ultra Motion – Ex Gear”

“!”

Suddenly, an overwhelming pressure radiated from the girl, making it hard to believe it was the same opponent he’d been facing.

“Act1 – ”

This was a magical activation language.

As if speaking to the world itself.

Or perhaps lamenting it.

Black flames overflowed from the girl’s abdomen, quickly covering and burning her wound after enveloping it.

“…Hey, didn’t the Director just mention someone new could do that?”

It was familiar.

Recorded in the Board of Directors’ information.

Undoubtedly, it was the same flame belonging to a certain S-Rank girl.

“Can you really imitate stuff like Demon’s Gear too? Ah, I see… Eina”

“Yes?”

Upon being called, Eina transformed her twin swords into a bow.

“Star Piercing form transition complete.”

This indicated that Rokuhara had raised his alert level regarding the current opponent.

(Too weak, so I probed, but something serious came up.)

(Leader, let’s retreat. It’s already bad with just Sister and Lutra… adding an S-Rank makes it tough.)

(Hey, stop talking in my head!)

(No, it’s a standard feature of Demon’s Gear. Only Leader usually keeps it off.)

Rokuhara had sealed away the telepathic communication function because it felt creepy. Normally, Eina complied, but not this time.

(Leader, let’s retreat. That Ex Gear is bad news. Fundamentally, it’s the same as Sister’s.)

This wasn’t cowardice.

It was the opinion of Demon’s Gear as an individual entity.

Understanding this, Rokuhara nodded while keeping his bow aimed.

“Alright, got it Eina.”

(Is that really true?)

A red crystal-like substance began clinging to Rokuhara’s feet as he smiled ferociously.

“Just hang on for twelve more seconds!”

(Uwaan! You have no idea what’s going on!)

Rokuhara’s ability activated.

Its effect was ascension to absolute power within this world.

The time limit was twelve seconds.

Within this limited timeframe, Rokuhara became literally invincible.

“Since I’m going this far, you’d better give me your full attention!”

Recognizing he had moved, Rokuhara dashed forward – and in the next moment, Nameless was surrounded entirely by crimson arrows.

“Just a preliminary test.”

Arrows approached from all directions. In response, Nameless casually swung her sword like a staff.

Instantly, black flames engulfed the area.

Creating a wall of flames that incinerated the arrows one by one, Rokuhara broke through the flames and closed in on Nameless.

“Haha, your motion vision is just like an ordinary explorer’s.”

“Guh, Act4!”

Rokuhara’s kick was blocked by a slash appearing in space.

This was the same slashing ability Lutra had been using until just moments ago.

“I see. So having that sword allows simultaneous ability usage, huh?”

Satisfied, Rokuhara disappeared the next moment.

No, he was already behind Nameless.

There, in a high-kick stance.

“Take this!”

Despite it being a surprise attack, Rokuhara deliberately announced it.

A move to extract new information from Nameless.

Following this cue, Nameless murmured without turning around.

“Act6”

“Eh?”

He definitely felt the impact.

However, the next moment, Nameless was enveloped in flames.

Landing, Rokuhara looked up.

She was already gone.

“Eina”

“…No, she’s not here. Looks like she transferred away.”

“Escaped using simultaneous abilities. Solciera’s transfer and the new recruit’s flames. And finally…”

He could feel the definite impact.

Yet, Nameless had effortlessly transferred away as if nothing happened.

(All that effort, and it was just buying time in the end. What was the purpose? And that final Act6…)

Just as he was about to dive deeper into his thoughts, his twin swords rattled meaningfully.

“…Pointless to think about it anymore.”

“Leader, let’s go home. Seriously. We’re done. Time’s almost up!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll dash back, so shut up.”

His cowardly partner clearly wanted to return during his invincibility period.

Rokuhara sighed exasperatedly, then vanished from the spot with overwhelming speed the next moment.

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