Muriel (3)
So this is it, huh.
Muriel's body was immaculate—not a single wound on it.
But the suit wrapped around her body was another story. Holes had been punched through it here and there, exposing the pale flesh beneath.
The Nano Spartan Module was arguably first-rate among defensive modules, but it wasn't omnipotent. In a state of damage this severe, the nanomachines could only be restored by replenishing them.
And she's already used up her reserves, of course.
One look at those trembling eyes was enough to tell me. That she had very few cards left to play.
I've already checked all the equipment and techniques the Mother of the Sky told me about.
Besides, before fighting Muriel, I had replayed my memories of battling the other rankers, one by one. What race they belonged to, what techniques they wielded, what grade of equipment they wore, what strategies they favored.
Because of that, I'd been able to anticipate quite a lot—which modules Muriel had equipped, which psychic power techniques she would deploy in which situations.
She fought well enough, I'll give her that.
Honestly, Muriel's skill was considerable. On top of that, she'd come packing the absurd combo of Cult psychic and cyborg hybrid. Calling her a formidable enemy was no understatement.
In fact, the injuries I'd taken during our fight were anything but light. Rarely since arriving in this world had a battle been this ferocious.
If she'd known even a little more about my condition and my abilities, she wouldn't have fallen this easily.
At the very least, she would have bought herself enough time to pull out a trump card like the Thunder God.
Or abandoned the fight entirely and run.
The large encampment where we stood had transport ships—a means of long-distance travel. She couldn't have left the planet, but if she'd fled to another continent, I would never have caught her.
And yet….
Even with multiple chances to survive, she never took them.
And now.
The time to pay the price was drawing near.
"…Ugh!"
A short groan escaped Muriel's lips. The confident smile she'd worn when the fight began was nowhere to be found.
With only one use of the Harmonizer remaining, her will to fight had collapsed completely.
There was only one path left to her besides fighting.
"Damn it! You just wait!"
Muriel let out a shrill shriek and jabbed at the buttons beside her neck with her mechanical arm.
Then her body blurred rapidly like smoke, and she vanished into the fog, as if she had never been there at all. A flawless concealment.
Even I can't see her.
She was so thoroughly hidden that even my auxiliary organs couldn't get a proper read on her.
If not for the vibrations left behind by her breath and her footsteps against the ground, I wouldn't have had the faintest idea which direction she'd fled.
The Mother of the Sky, whose vision far surpassed my own, kept turning her head this way and that in search of Muriel.
｢That woman still had something up her sleeve.｣
"A·con·ceal·ment·mod·ule·this·good? Ne·ver·seen·one·in·game."
｢I can't see her at all.｣
Given that she'd held back a concealment module of this caliber until now, it was almost certainly limited—either too unstable for combat or restricted in how often it could be retrieved.
｢What do we do?｣
The Mother of the Sky, unable to locate Muriel, turned to me.
What do we do, she asks?
She was asking the obvious.
"We·catch·her. And·kill·her."
｢…Good.｣
No matter how exceptional her stealth equipment was, Muriel was ultimately in the palm of my hand.
Because this place is my nest.
My auxiliary organs alone couldn't pinpoint her at the moment.
But the traces she left behind—those I could capture easily, the moment they linked with the nest.
How many times do I have to say it.
Running away before fighting me had been the only road to survival Muriel ever had.
Fuckfuckfuckfuck….
Deep in a forest shrouded in thick fog.
Muriel was hiding herself on the branch of a redwood several hundred meters tall.
This module was an experimental device developed by a Megacorp ranker who shared her interests.
Built using a Giant Chameleon as its core material, it granted the wearer an extraordinary degree of stealth. Invisible to the naked eye, naturally—and undetectable by sensors or detection techniques as well.
But because it was still unfinished, it was riddled with instabilities.
It held up fine with careful movement, but the moment its wearer moved violently for combat—or took a hit from an enemy—the concealment effect would cancel immediately.
Even the ranker who developed the module had said it was still a work in progress, and that it was best used only for emergency escapes.
She'd managed to escape her enemies, sure. But the problem remained.
The odds that that relentless Amorph or the Mother of the Sky—with her white-hot grudge—would give up the chase converged on zero.
…I don't have time to wait out the Harmonizer's reset.
Time worked equally for both sides. She had no option but to hide for twenty-four hours—but they did.
If that morph-fucker bastard decides to, he might just burn this entire forest down.
A creature that hung corpses from trees was more than capable of it.
The moment she recalled the mangled state of her subordinates, she flinched involuntarily. The thought had struck her with terrible force that a flayed corpse might well be her own future.
No. This won't do.
Using the lingering enhancement effects of the Psionium still in her system, she scanned her surroundings. Through her sharpened senses, she confirmed there were no other enemies nearby.
I didn't want to use this….
But her life was on the line. She had no choice.
Judging that no enemies were close, she pressed hard on the button at her neck. A long cord extended from the nano suit covering her down to her throat and slotted into her ear.
The device she had just activated enabled interstellar communication.
Before fighting the Amorph, she had fused a military communicator from her vault into the Nano Spartan Module.
The original plan had been to use it after the battle to order her subordinates on other planets to bring her a starship.
The reason she hadn't used it mid-battle was simple: interstellar communication devoured enormous energy. Once this transmission ended, the Nano Spartan Module would likely burn through every remaining scrap of power and auto-deactivate.
Come on, pick up!
In other words, this one call was her lifeline.
While a short connecting tone rang out, an inexplicably loud rush of wind sounded in her ear.
The brief cry of a colossal bird beating its wings—there, then gone.
What was that?
She lifted her head and scanned the canopy above, but saw nothing.
She was just wondering whether she should move to a new spot when the communicator chirped.
And then, a beautiful male voice.