Chapter 138
Chapter 138
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Final Struggle
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Shaking ceiling,
Falling grains of sand.
"Elder."
Unlike my blurry vision, a clear voice rings out.
"Are you conscious, Elder? Nephyr has returned."
Amy, who had been kissing me just moments ago, was gone.
Now Nephyr tickled my cheek with her long hair as she spoke.
"My goodness, to see your fine face so marred..."
Uncharacteristically for a desert woman who conserved water, she even shed precious tears. It was a stark contrast to our first meeting.
Gazing at Nephyr's upside-down face, I felt the lingering moist sensation on my lips.
A long thread stretched between our lips, suggesting she had pried open my dying mouth and forced something inside.
"Still, you're safe now. I've administered the desert's spirit medicine to you, Elder. It's a precious remedy."
I couldn't help but chuckle.
Since arriving on this planet, who knew how many foreign substances I'd ingested—things from alien civilizations whose compositions I couldn't even analyze...
But it didn't matter. No need to slice open my belly to extract alien matter or force myself to vomit.
Now, I no longer cared about such things.
To survive, one had to be bold.
One had to know how to accept.
"Thank you..."
Expressing my gratitude, I lay my head on Nephyr's thick tail, savoring a fleeting moment of rest.
"Elder, I'd love to tend to you like this, but I must join Amy and Jenny as soon as possible. That man Rophuk has completely fallen for Amy's diversion and is rampaging, shaking the desert. I might be needed—"
Laughter bubbled up. Yes, Nephyr was funniest when she put on her serious face.
"No way..."
With my raspy, worn-out voice, I told Nephyr.
The truth she hadn't realized yet,
I laid it out directly.
"There's no way those two would lose... Amy and Jenny are so headstrong... and they hate losing more than death itself..."
Kaaang-!
A bursting sound I'd never heard before.
One strike from that swung tail, and my vision flooded with warning alarms. Nothing terrified me more than feeling my bodily functions break down in real time.
I tried countering somehow, charging and firing red plasma,
but it never reached the tailed monster. Thanks to the mechanical girl's swift response, it all vanished uselessly into the sand.
Impossible.
The battle had shifted. At this rate, I really might lose.
The monster moved at speeds my sensors couldn't track, stabbing its tail into my body at random,
while the mechanical girl calmly calculated my movements and next actions, steadily accumulating [Damage].
"You trash...!"
Giving it my all wasn't enough. I'd lose like this.
I overloaded the combat engine in a burst, pressing them even harder. Without this, I couldn't overcome the numerical disadvantage.
"I can't lose! Not here, to the likes of you—!"
Kwaduk!
But at an unexpected moment,
from an uncalculated angle, the monster's tail plunged into my chest.
This time, it fully pierced through to the other side. To fall to some biological creature's physical impact, of all things.
"Kyaaak!"
It swung its tail wildly, as if venting its rage on me. My impaled body slammed into the ground dozens—no, hundreds of times at speeds I couldn't endure.
Kung! Kuung!
Sand erupted. A thick, dry storm engulfed the battlefield.
"Da- mn- it-"
Gripping the tail protruding from my chest, I overloaded the engine once more. The doubly overcharged engine roared with deafening noise, pounding madly.
As a living thing, it would instinctively fear pain. There was no way it could handle the massive energy surging from my body.
But
the mechanical girl was different.
"Jenny, to me."
Before the entire area melted from plasma,
she called the monster and launched a new strategy.
Impaled on the tail, I soared helplessly into the air,
then plummeted toward the mechanical girl's sharp fist, tearing through the air in that state.
Kwaduk!
Now pierced front and back, I tried to rampage my shuddering engine but...
"Charge mode activated."
Instead, the mechanical girl's body acted like a lightning rod, converting my energy into her own and absorbing it.
Charging through heat, it seemed.
Thus, the massive heat and high-density energy from my body and the ember crystal became a perfect [gift] for her.
Bad matchup.
Especially
against these two monstrous beings, my odds of victory were far too slim.
"...Damn."
The mechanical girl piercing me from the front,
and the monster from behind,
both began pulling my body toward themselves.
Kkaduk—
A chilling sound echoed from inside my body.
Uuduk—
Metal snapped.
"Let go! I'll keep the promise somehow—!"
Amid those repulsive sounds,
my body finally split in two.
Tuduk...
Emptiness hit me as hard as the detached parts. My body felt far too light.
Now, only part of my upper body remained. My lower half had become a snack, swallowed by the monster girl's gaping maw as she flailed her tail.
"Jenny, that's not for eating."
"Ptooey. I know. Just sucking the fuel."
Did I lose?
To the girl born a perfect machine, who envied living beings,
to that repulsive, ominous nameless monster that turned my stomach just to look at?
Lost to things like that?
Everything I'd built up until now, over just like this?
"...I haven't lost."
No, I hadn't lost.
It wasn't over yet. Until I completely shut down, it wasn't defeat.
"What? She's still not dead?"
Now that it had come to this,
it was time to test something new.
I couldn't end here.
I still had unfinished tasks.
"We must neutralize it. Step aside."
The mechanical girl and monster approached me.
To finish me off. They thought they'd already won.
Didn't matter. I waited until they drew closer.
Then,
I clenched the small ember shard that had reinforced my engine...
"...Step aside! Jenny, dodge!"
I rendered it unstable.
No choice.
I was in danger too,
and that moon would learn just how dangerous this ember was...
"This is the perfect power I found! You monsters!"
I needed to buy time.
Pang-!
An unbearable massive explosion erupted. The unstably vibrating ember shard amplified and unleashed all the [Origin of Life] it contained, along with its own energy.
Placed near my engine, it made the blast even fiercer. Likely everything on this planet—even the distant moon—felt the explosion and shockwaves.
"I won't lose. I won't lose—"
I'd bought a brief moment. Even if it didn't deal significant damage to the mechanical girl and monster, the enormous shockwave from the ember must have hurled them far away.
Now was the time to make full use of the window I'd earned.
With my shoulders and head,
and my remaining two arms, I crawled up to the temple entrance,
tumbled down the descending stairs, and entered the interior.
The basement held all the ember I'd gathered. I had to complete the [Task] before the mechanical girl and monster returned to the temple.
"I can keep the promise. It's fine. Bro won't lose. This trial won't stop me."
The cannons were all complete. I just needed to fire. The cannon blast aimed at the moon would surely deliver unavoidable death to that colossal monster.
Kwaduk—
Thrusting my shuddering fingers into the floor, I pressed forward. I would win. I would seize victory in the end.
"It's right for me to win. My power... is ultimately justice..."
Almost there. Just a little farther. Nothing left to hinder me.
...A catastrophe to end the tragedy.
I would become the catastrophe.
The inevitable apocalypse, delivering death's judgment to all monsters.
The struggle to survive often looked ugly,
but survive I must.
If I died, it was all over.
I had to live and see my task through to the end.
This was the fate given to me.
The burden I alone had to bear.
A task no one else could accomplish.
I had to win. I had to finish it. I had to surpass god.
"Now you can fly again."
The younger brother said.
The feathered girl they'd been tending flapped her wings happily. Scars remained where wings had grown in place of arms, but being able to soar on the wind again was a near miracle.
"Now let's go."
"Yeah. Okay."
But the brothers had to leave. Kindness or not, the predator-prey dynamic was an unchanging [law of nature].
Still, the girl biting the younger brother's sleeve with her beak and staring intently,
and his brief hesitation in that ambiguous lingering warmth,
might have been a miracle born of kindness.
"Forget this ever happened. No need to repay the favor. But when you return to your family, keep it secret. Got it? We never met."
Though their languages didn't align, the girl and younger brother managed some form of communication.
The girl nodded,
and the younger brother stroked her head.
"Fly safe from now on."
If that had been their final parting, it would have been ideal.
"Hurry. Let's tough it out till we find a new hideout."
"Got it."
The brothers packed their minimal belongings and left the hideout.
"Bro, thanks."
"For what?"
"For going along with my stubbornness. Thanks."
"Good if you know."
But
exactly one week later,
the younger brother was hunted by the winged women and dragged off to their nest.