Episode 198: Floating Sky Islands (8)

Huh?

The instant Noona caught me in the gut, I felt a gaze. I shot upright and turned a full circle—sky, lake, grassland—and there was nothing out of the ordinary to see.

I jerked my eyes back up. What should have been there was gone.

What the hell. Every last aberrant had vanished?

"Seoha?"

I heard her call, but I set it aside and searched the sky again, slower this time. A single white speck, hanging up there, slid into view.

That direction... the temple at eleven o'clock.

"Noona."

"Mm?"

My face had gone grave all at once, and the tension jumped to her. She swallowed hard.

"If I signal you to run—anything like that—use Shadow Jump and get straight to the hill. Understood?"

"W-what's going on?"

"Every ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠aberrant that was up in the sky just disappeared. Something's wrong, so do exactly what I tell you."

"...Okay. I'll do it the way we talked about."

"No. Run for Star Island."

"What?!"

No doubt about it. The gaze was coming from that white thing. I was fixed on a single point, so Noona followed my line of sight into the sky, seized the unicorn horn in both hands, and edged back behind a tree. At the same time, the white speck began to grow.

If it had been enough to send every one of those aberrants fleeing, there was no way this thing was merely strong. The speed didn't look all that fast... damn it. Don't tell me it's an Elemental type? I'd rather it were Physical Reinforcement. White, too—so it might even be some rare attribute.

It's fine. I beat a High-Rank Variant on the verge of Peak-Rank without even using Spatial Manipulation, didn't I? Surely there wouldn't be a Peak-Rank Variant in the region from Noona's first run.

Oh, right. There was the gray whale. Something that size, something that beats islands apart—no way that was a mere High-Rank Variant.

Ugh. This is filthy.

I poured everything I had into Spatial Perception and glared at it, and little by little the shape swelled until the form came clear.

Wait. The wings... four? Two pairs, two to a side... a woman?

Ha. An angel? An angel?

Even while I was thinking it, the angel came on at what I took for a leisurely pace. Calling it leisurely was my mistake. In a blink she was inside my Spatial Perception range. I hastily read the Phase Power gathered in her.

Cold sweat broke across my forehead and down my back. The one mercy was that she wasn't giving off hostility.

If she meant to fight, her Phase Power wouldn't be balled up in her heart like that. She would already have shifted into her type-form.

Ah... It would be nice to know the type before the fight started, but these filthy aberrants don't show it until combat begins. Drives me insane.

Elemental? If so, she's white on the outside and the hair is gold, so lightning? Or light? Light covers a wide field—too much risk of Noona getting swept up in it. Should I move first and get us out of position? But if she doesn't follow me, and goes for Noona instead...

My head was whirring, and I didn't loosen the tension for a second. I couldn't feel any hostility off her, and I was hoping she might be something I could talk to, like the mermaid from my third run.

Soon she had closed enough that her form was clear, and I realized those golden irises were fixed on me.

Under that gaze I took the woman in fast. Four snow-white wings, shaped like a swan's. She stood a little over two meters, and a single wing ran past three. Honey-gold hair streamed behind her. A single thin cloth hung on her like a tunic. Nothing on her hands or feet—no ornaments, no shoes. In one hand, instead, she held a wooden staff as tall as she was.

That can't be a striking weapon. Can it?

Angels are usually rendered sexless, but this one was unmistakably a woman. The full breasts. The mound of golden down. The faint cleft. Every line of her said female. The cloth was thin enough that her naked body showed straight through, and I let my eyes travel over it—and shuddered.

Face and figure, she was a beauty on the level of a Physical Reinforcement ability user. Don't tell me she has both? Elemental and Physical Reinforcement?

She came within a hundred meters, stopped in the air, and looked down at me without a word. I didn't know what to say either, so I just held her eyes. She was the one who moved first. Those cherry lips parted a fraction, and her words flowed straight into my head.

...This is a disaster. Heavenly horse—the old word, the one that means a Pegasus. Don't tell me she means the one I killed. And come to think of it, she flew in from the temple at eleven o'clock, didn't she?

The Pegasus that had vanished without leaving a corpse flashed through my mind. I checked Noona through Spatial Perception. Her eyes had gone wide.

Run.

The instant her gaze swung to me, I put a hand behind my back and waved her off. Go. And I answered the angel.

"Yeah. If you mean a flying horse with two pairs of wings, I saw one five days ago."

Noona caught the signal, backed away slowly, then turned and ran. I'd worried she might dig her heels in. Thankfully, she was doing as she was told.

The angel glanced at her, turned those eyes back to me, and asked. Both wings beat with an elegant grace. A cool voice, no rise or fall in it, and a faint anger underneath.

"What do you mean, what did I do? Shouldn't you be asking what happened, first?"

I swallowed and answered while tracking every shift of her, and anger began to frost over in the angel's eyes.

Damn it. Did she notice? How far has Noona gotten— oh, for real, I told her to run to Star Island, so why is she stopping there?! What are you doing?! Keep running!!

In that short span Noona had hidden herself behind a tree about four hundred meters off. Whether she couldn't see me flicking my palm behind my back or not, she'd only poked her head out, and she was watching me.

Oh, come on! You're getting your ass spanked later, just so you know!

"And if I did something, then what?"

"What do you think I did?"

...She isn't listening. She came here already knowing, and this isn't even probing. What is she doing? The answer's already decided, and I'm just supposed to say it?

"It came at me with killing intent, so I killed it."

At that, the pretty face crumpled, and fury began to rise.

The instant I heard it, I threw up a Spatial Barrier and, in the same breath, hit her with the best attack I had. Long-range Spatial Manipulation.

A deep thrum. A circular ripple spread out from the angel, wide enough to swallow her whole body. One wing caught in the warp creaked, crunched, and bent a little. That was all. Her slender frame only staggered once.

I'm screwed—! Spatial Manipulation wasn't the ultimate attack after all!!

I'd caught the hostility and landed the first blow, but a distortion of space with no warning left only a modest wound on a Peak-Rank Variant, and it looked like I'd cranked her enmity and her guard to the maximum.

Worse, the angel who had been enduring it opened that slender body wide and beat her wings once, hard, shaking the ripple of Spatial Manipulation clean off!

Watching the technique I'd trusted get dismantled so easily, my mouth went dry. The Spatial Barrier had worked clean even on High-Rank Variants, and Spatial Manipulation of the same nature had only crumpled a few feathers before it ended. I'd underestimated Peak-Rank Variants.

Maybe I should have just fired a Mana Bullet.

Suspended as if fixed in the sky, face livid with rage, she raised the staff high and cried out in a bright, ringing voice.

Tzzzt! A shattering cascade—!!

"Hhk."

Light poured from the sky like lightning!

Mana Mode - Acceleration kicked on by instinct, but the first bolt, falling at the speed of light, I couldn't dodge. The Spatial Barrier rippled, and its duration dropped by a full thirty percent!

"Hhk!"

Stronger than Franc's lightning. I let out a short scream, pushed the acceleration higher, and dropped into a world of slow motion.

Spatial Perception and accelerated thought together let me feel the trajectories. I kicked off and slipped the bolts of light falling one after another—and then Light Bolts started screaming in, terrifying.

Zzzt-ziiing, chiring, cheeeng!

"Waaaaah!! Th-this is insane!"

I flinched at the endless drawn-out chimes bursting around me and ran for my life along the edge of the lake.

I have to get away from Noona!

I dodged the light-lightning scorching the earth black, and the Light Bolts pouring down into every place I passed. Teeth clenched, I ran a zigzag and kept evading. Behind me, bolts twice as thick as Noona and faster than she was burst in sprays of light. The sight was chilling.

I couldn't dodge every one of them falling like rain. I had no choice but to eat a few, and the Spatial Barrier was sheared away in chunks. I'd only taken about eight, and the duration was dropping as fast as when the light-lightning had hit. My mouth went bone-dry.

Keep this up and I'm finished!

Tzzzt! Like a broken television spitting static, another bolt of light fell—and in that instant I leapt sideways and unfolded Spatial Manipulation on the angel again.

Space warped once more between the breasts of the angel who had the oak staff raised to the sky. Those breasts, a good G-cup at least, heaved like a ship in a gale, and that sculpted, beautiful face twisted in pain. But she wasn't wounded. Through Mana Vision, all I could see was the blue film covering her body losing its light.

Are you kidding me?! This is too much! I protested inwardly as she burst the warped space apart again with a shout of will, and started gathering Phase Power in my palm to form a Mana Shot.

She'd faltered in the pain, then spent her focus shaking off the Spatial Manipulation, and the light-lightning had paused. If not now—!

...And Spatial Perception hadn't been entirely powerless. Blood gushed from her nose and mouth, and she trembled.

That's right! Peak-Rank or not, she can't just walk through Spatial Perception untouched! But the blood is red, edged with white light. Don't tell me that's Radiant Blood? A real angel?

Did I just book the express to hell?

The tunic she'd been wearing had been caught in the Spatial Manipulation and powdered away, leaving that white-jade body bare. She didn't seem ashamed of it. Chest soaked in her own blood, she glared up at me, then began to climb.

Huh! Is she running?!

I watched her pull away in an instant and clicked my tongue at my own stupidity. In the time I'd spent gawking at the Radiant Blood, I should have thrown a Mana Shot—or fired the Mana Shot version of Mana Laser!

I ground my teeth and checked what I had left. Two uses of Spatial Manipulation and one Spatial Barrier, and I'd already burned close to half of it. The barrier had only about half its duration left.

I wanted to lay Spatial Manipulation on her again, but she'd already passed beyond my range. I couldn't.

I fired four 100 TP Mana Shots at the still-climbing angel, the fastest I could put them out. She stopped rising, turned, and swung the staff hard. With a chiming ring, countless Light Bolts poured from the staff's tip toward the shots.

Oh, come on! One swing, and she dumps well over a hundred Light Bolts?! That's too much!!

There were so many that the number hitting the ground was enormous too. I dodged the ones coming for me, ran along the lakeshore, and swore under my breath.

A shattering cascade, then a boom—!! The sound of that absurd volley exploding on the ground was like hundreds of windows breaking in a row.

More importantly, the Mana Shots ought to be detonating about now. Still running, I flicked a glance at the angel. Right on time, a black speck flew on, chewing through several Light Bolts.

A moment later, a 100 TP Mana Shot burst at close range and set off a horrific explosion in a narrow patch of sky.

KUGUGUGUGU...!!

So this is what they mean when they say the mountains and the grasses weep. An explosion so vast I wondered if a 10,000 TP Mana ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Bullet had gone off tore open the air above the Floating Sky Islands, shaking grass and trees, and the lake began to overturn as if a storm had struck it.

Through it, the angel's groan rang in my head.

Through the blasts I caught a glimpse of that slender body tossed this way and that, honey-gold hair whipping like mad. The white-jade skin crushed and tore, Radiant Blood spraying from her whole body.

I can see the win!

She'd been caught in the explosion and stopped climbing. I took it for my chance and didn't let up, throwing Mana Shots without pause. Light Bolts stopped, light-lightning stopped—miss this opening and I'm an idiot!

She couldn't even think to dodge. She curled in, wrapped her wings around her body, and was swallowed by blast after blast.

Kururung, kukkung! Kung!

What is that? The wings were just for show?! She stopped flapping, so why isn't she falling?! And those wings are tanking the Mana Shot blasts!

I was about to raise the TP in the next shot and throw again when she beat her wings hard and slipped out of the blast radius in an instant. Coming through dozens of detonations in one piece had been too much to ask. She was burst and torn all over, blood pouring from every opening in her body.

In that moment she cried out, convulsively.

The instant that chilling voice entered my head, the sky washed white.

Every hair on my body stood on end. I renewed the Spatial Barrier, focused Mana Sieve into my skin, and the moment I kicked off the earth and hurled myself the other way, a colossal pillar of light—rivaling Franc's Judgment—slammed down on the spot where I'd been standing!

Deeeeeng...

Kagh!

I hadn't even taken it dead-on. I'd only been inside the indirect zone, and the Spatial Barrier's duration plunged until ten percent was all that remained. Even then it couldn't eat the whole impact. Something inside must have torn. Blood surged up, and the smell of iron filled my nose.

If I hadn't dodged, that pinpoint strike would have killed me.

The blow had cost her too. She went limp and fell toward the ground. Had she been holding herself aloft on Phase Power? I quickly rubbed Healing Touch over my gut and reset the Spatial Barrier—and in the gap while it renewed, the toll of an enormous bell shook through my body, and I shuddered.

I hurled Mana Shots like a madman at the falling angel. They hit, at a rough guess, five times harder than a Mana Bullet—and still she endured them, curling up again, wrapping herself in her wings, bracing against the blasts erupting all around her.

Fuck, those insane wings, seriously! Damn it, a little lower and she's inside my Spatial Manipulation range...!

...Huh? Are those wounds closing? What the hell is that! Is that some kind of recovery posture?!

Part of a wing that had come through the blasts intact looked like it was regenerating. Desperate, I set the detonation point above her and threw Mana Shots like I meant to die doing it.

Please...! Please, please! Drop just a little more!!

Kugugung, kugung—I was starting to worry the shock might bring Basin Island down when the angel's body, shoved lower bit by bit by the blasts, finally entered my Spatial Perception range.

She had her wings rolled around her like a ball. The impacts hadn't been nothing. The inside of the wings was a wreck of the blood she'd vomited.

And the instant she poured blood from her mouth again, the thought hit me—this is it—and I sent one more Spatial Manipulation into the lower belly of the curled angel.

This is the last one. Not the time to save it!

"Go—!!"

With the feeling of driving force into the space between my brows, I triggered Spatial Perception while staring at that blood-soaked, smooth lower belly. It must have been the right call. Seeing space warp at her own abdomen, the angel's face went resigned, and she unfurled the wings she'd kept rolled into a ball.

Unable to shake off Spatial Perception, she was caught in the Spatial Manipulation, vomited thick blood, and fell to the earth like a puppet with its strings cut.

Even so, Spatial Perception told me she was still breathing.

The Mana Shot version of Mana Laser—a new technique, drawing the Phase Power in the air into my hand before firing. I leveled it at her heart.

An opaque blue beam, no thicker than an index finger, punched through her heart in an instant.

...A bitter taste.

A fight with one hell of a filthy aftertaste. Not about whether I fought well or poorly. The aberrant I'd been up against... ugh!

Filthy is filthy, but I've already done it, so what am I supposed to do? Do what needs doing!

I shut off the Spatial Barrier and dove to recover her corpse from the lake. In the clear water I could see red blood, and threads of light running through it, spreading like mist as she sank slowly. And already the fish aberrants had caught the smell of her blood. I could see them closing on the corpse.

You shit-eating bastards?!

Fury spiked. I cut apart everything that came close with Mana Ray, and poured Mana Bullets into the ones farther out until they were smashed.

I'm already in a rotten mood, and they try to snatch the corpse!

I swam toward the white wings wavering in the current, reached out, and caught one. Even underwater, the touch was like gripping the finest fur. I pulled on the wing and gathered in the body with the hole through its heart, and the feel of her under my hands was... I don't know how else to put it. Deeply unreal.

Haa.

The huge wings had drunk a lot of water and weighed more for it, but not so much I couldn't swim. I switched on Mana Mode - Acceleration, tucked the corpse against my side, and swam for the shore.

Splash.

I walked up out of the lake and swept my soaked bangs back.

"Haaa..."

I learned it in my bones. The first strike matters.

At first I'd thought Spatial Manipulation hadn't done much damage. That wasn't it. It just hadn't shown on the surface. It must have dealt serious damage. Proof: through Spatial Perception, the woman-angel's insides were shredded to rags, thick blood pouring out through her vulva and her anus.

So that was why she'd tried to flee after eating two Mana Shots.

Sorry for badmouthing you, Spatial Manipulation. I was the idiot.

If I hadn't landed that first, I'd have spent the whole fight running from her elemental attacks, and it would have been endlessly harder. Just look at the speed she'd used to break out of the Mana Shot blasts. Three hundred meters from the detonation point, in an instant. No question. And on top of that, a Light Bolt fire rate on a completely different level from mine, plus light-lightning as strong as Franc's Judgment—or stronger.

Noona must have confirmed the fight was over. I could see her running toward me.

I watched her come, sighed again, deep, dropped the corpse I'd had under my arm onto the sand, and sat down hard.

Her clothes had been torn to rags in the fight, her naked body fully bared. The belly had gone abnormally hollow, and thick blood—Radiant Blood—was flowing from her vulva and her anus. Looking at it, my chest lurched so hard it hurt, and I frowned.

What is this. It's over, so why is my chest suddenly...

No. This isn't me getting worked up over the angel's naked body. This is... close to what I felt when I saw that vision, back when I was breaking into C-Class.

"Haa..."

Ah, whatever.

I sighed and flopped onto my back on the sand of the still-heaving shore, and Noona arrived a moment later, collapsing over me and throwing her arms around me.

"Seoha! Are you okay?! You're not hurt anywhere?!"

"You know the saying. First blow wins. I hit first, so I didn't take many."

Well. I ate one lightning bolt, got pounded by Light Bolts, and got swept up in a huge pillar of light. Thankfully the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Spatial Barrier blocked all of it.

"Thank god..."

The relief on her face was real. She looked me over, here and there, then let out a long breath. Worrying about me was one thing. Doing wrong was another. I ought to scold her the way I'd already decided, shouldn't I?

I hardened my face, pushed the Noona clinging to me off, pinched both her cheeks, and glared.

"Before that. You remember I told you to run, before the fight started?"

"Eh?"

"I told you what to do when I said run. You're not a goldfish. Don't tell me you've already forgotten."

I pulled on her cheeks and growled, and she answered, a little cowed.

"Y-you said to run far away."

Watching her try to inch backward, the blood rushed to my head.

"Far? Faaar?"

"Eek!"

The instant she turned to bolt, I shot a hand out, snagged her by the waist, and yanked her down across my knee.

"Kya?! S-Seoha?!"

"Did I or did I not tell you to run to Star Island?! And you ran a measly four hundred meters and hid behind a tree?! Did I tell you to hide behind a tree?!"

I pinned her squirming back with one hand, opened my palm, and brought it down on her backside.

Smack!

"Aak! That hurts!"

"If I tell you to run, if you promise, you keep it! That angel was a Peak-Rank Variant! And light-attribute, famous for how wide the attacks reach! What were you going to do if you got caught in it?! Huh?!!"

Smack! Smack, smack!

I spanked her hard enough it felt like it might split, and she screamed, face crumpling, both hands flying back to cover herself.

"Kyaa! Augh! I-I'm sorryyy! I was worried about you, that's why!"

"Say something that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠makes sense!! You're smart, and you couldn't even judge that much?!"

Smack-smack! Smack!

"Aak! I-I was wrooong!"

I caught her wrists, moved them aside, and laid into her backside again. She screamed and thrashed and apologized. Hearing that, I caught my breath and took my hands off her back and her arms. She scrambled away at once, eyes brimming.

"Huuu. I was just worried about you..."

"Is it your place to worry about me? If I tell you to run, you run. What was an E-Class like you going to help with by staying?"

She rubbed the backside I'd just hit and looked at me like she resented it. I glared right back.

"When I'm fighting a high-grade aberrant, if you're nearby I can't fight properly. Earlier I ran the opposite way from you, and the whole time I was watching out for you, I just... haa."

I said it weakly, covering my face like I was exhausted, and she wore the look of a thoroughly scolded puppy, sneaking glances at me.

"..."

"Don't pout. What did you do right? You have any idea how tense I was, wondering if a Light Bolt or a lightning strike was going to fall on your side?"

"Hmph."

I shot a sharp look at her grumbling, and she flinched and turned her head away.

Anyway, we'd come out safe, so I'd leave it here. I sighed—and an incredibly dense Phase Power began to spread from the angel's corpse. It was the same dense Phase Power I'd felt near the corpse of giant Franc, from the first run.

"Eh? Ah! This is something you have to absorb, Seoha...!"

Phase Power this dense, she must have felt it on her skin, because she hurriedly tried to get away from the angel's side. I caught her belt and pulled.

"It's fine. Take as much as you can. This is your chance to break into D-Class."

"Nooo! You have to reach B-Class first! L-let go!"

"Ah, whatever."

1.86 million at twenty percent comes to about 372,000. Either way, to hit B-Class I'd need to kill two or more of these, so what's 370,000. If Noona absorbs that, she'll climb to C-Class, and then there won't be any need to wander around hunting aberrants. A C-Class survivor would be a major story. It'd help Grand Blue's publicity, too.

I was strangely tired, drained, in a weird mood, with no energy to move—and she kept struggling, so I smacked her backside again.

"Kya!"

She yelped, and went quiet.