Chapter 125
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 124
Chapter Title: How to Live in Fusionpunk
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At that moment, on the surface.
"...Damn it!"
Chandler hurled the headset off his head and bolted out of the command center.
His movements were laced with desperation.
He nearly tripped over his own feet in a way that was utterly unbefitting an agent.
That was how urgent it was.
It had been five hours since his comrades entered Apophis's airspace.
The downfall of the lead ship, which had been pressing forward like it was possessed by a god despite the barrage, was just the beginning.
After that, signals started vanishing from the radar one by one. How many times had he yelled himself hoarse at those blips?
Fortunately, the colonel and most of the others had stayed in contact for a while, but even they went silent after entering the royal palace, cut off by some unknown interference.
He judged he couldn't keep clinging to channels that weren't responding.
Chandler raced across the outpost and came to a halt in front of the massive iron coffin—the Iron Maiden.
"Pilgrim...!"
As he pushed up his glasses with a fingertip, sweat streaming down the bridge of his nose, the figure who had been standing with their back turned slowly pivoted around.
It wasn't the Pilgrim.
She rarely ever spoke, so her accompanying android delivered the message with an impassive expression.
"She asks what the matter is."
"We've lost contact with everyone involved in the operation. Do you know if something's happened to them?"
The android relayed the response.
"A powerful psychic entity, she says."
"...Pardon?"
"And that it's been masquerading as an inanimate object all this time."
What the hell does that mean?
Chandler swallowed the words rising in his throat.
He was a seasoned agent who'd seen it all.
Asking twice like a fool wasn't his style.
"So what do we do?"
"For now, she'll focus on suppressing it. She adds that the moment she lets up, everyone's lives will be in peril."
Chandler bit his lower lip hard.
"In peril" meant they were still alive.
Not the worst-case scenario. Please...
He clenched his fist, muttering to himself.
Then he looked up toward the southwest, where the Iron Maiden's lid yawned open.
Beyond the parted clouds.
A colossal silhouette loomed.
Apophis.
The dwarves' ark defied all sense of scale, its distant majesty enough to make him swallow dryly.
But Chandler's tension wasn't solely due to Apophis.
At this instant, the agent's gaze captured the psychics blanketing the sky.
It was a force field.
Not just one, but over 1,000 massive force fields encircling Apophis in a shape nearly spherical—a refined rhombic dodecahedron.
The Pilgrim's psychic field, known for its absolute control within its domain.
Aka Pilgrim.
According to the lucky survivors who had experienced it, time itself seemed under its sway.
That was the extent of its transcendent power.
Which was why it could hold a landmass several kilometers across.
Of course, judging from the android's words, the Pilgrim wasn't merely gripping Apophis physically.
A massive psychic entity?
Definitely suppressing it...
Since the colonel and Q had kept quiet about Apophis's [ego manifestation potential], Chandler couldn't quite grasp the situation.
So he gritted his teeth.
I should be up there too...!
He'd never resented the colonel more for deciding the command team by playing rock-paper-scissors.
Just then.
As his fist turned white from the mounting tension, powerless as he was.
"The Pilgrim asks: what happens on the surface if Apophis falls?"
"...?!"
Chandler furrowed his brow at the horrifying hypothetical, delivered in the android's calm tone.
Wasn't that question precisely what the city government was hyper-vigilant about?
An uncontrollable human catastrophe.
One of those scenarios.
Chandler adjusted his glasses.
Then he briefed the unthinkable situation.
"Given Apophis's mass, current altitude, and inherent power, over 2,000 square kilometers around the epicenter would be completely obliterated. From our position... most of Area 40 would fall under that."
A nuclear bomb's worth of power.
The kind of thing that would make Jin jump in shock.
For a moment, he thought of Jin's home planet—
Born from the Cold War's dick-measuring contests, it far surpassed the Tsar Bomba, humanity's most powerful hydrogen bomb.
Of course, modern America, Russia, or the Lost City government could make far stronger bombs if they wanted.
But that's that, and this is this.
Tsar Bomba-level devastation was already more than enough for a catastrophe—and this was beyond that.
The next moment.
The android spoke.
"The Pilgrim says to prepare for disaster."
"Pardon?"
"Apophis will crash soon, she adds."
"...Insane."
Chandler cursed involuntarily.
Dizziness washed over him.
"Hurry!"
Q barked, veins bulging.
"Got it!"
Jin replied, scooping up the limp Chloe from the floor.
Now he had a dwarf under one arm and a fairy machine under the other, looking for all the world like a refugee fleeing with bundles in both hands.
"What're you hauling around like that...?"
Q stared in disbelief but quickly snapped to attention.
"How much gas you got left?"
"Me?"
He wanted to say he could fight all day, but that leeway was long gone. Jin answered honestly.
"Enough to earn my keep. What's up?"
The colonel answered instead of Q.
"We smashed the core, so Apophis is going down soon. The anti-grav spell's holding somehow for now, but not for long."
Jin took it as: "How long can the brain last after the heart explodes?" A perfect analogy.
Indeed, Apophis was shutting down from the core outward.
The colonel continued.
"No matter how great the Pilgrim is, she can't hold a falling landmass that size. The shockwave alone will kill millions."
"Gah!"
Jin jolted in alarm.
It made sense when he heard it.
"Then what?!"
"Blow it up in the air. No other way."
The colonel's gaze shifted sideways.
"We'll use that."
"...?"
Jin followed his eyes.
And spotted it.
At the heart of this alien space—now just "space" after the palace form dissolved—an unstable storm swirled chaotically.
It was a soul.
More precisely, a collective consciousness born from the fusion of countless dwarf souls.
Having dwelled in the Dragon's Heart until now, it rampaged freely on the brink of the end.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
Rainbow radiance whipping every which way.
A colossal power that stole your breath just looking at it.
And just as dazzling.
Irresistibly tempting to reach out.
But Jin shook off the thought.
A flash of near-premonition certainty struck like lightning.
Touch that, and my self might swap with some self-proclaimed god spouting translations...
So Jin spoke up.
"Got it. We smash it, right?"
"Exactly."
The colonel nodded, and at that moment, a massive roc descended beside the gathered law-wielders.
WHOOOOSH—!
Dust billowed high.
The imposing bird's face slowly drew near the ground.
Some law-wielders tensed, then frowned as the Apophis-marked guns in their hands dissolved like mist in the wind.
By then, the roc's face was nearly touching the floor.
The roc—Miles—spoke.
"Hop on. Normally I'd charge, but it's urgent, so on the house."
Then he folded his wings, offering his back.
His cheap tone clashed with his overwhelming vitality, but no one quibbled.
Naturally, no one hesitated or played coy about who boards first.
Jin stepped up immediately.
"Hold tight mentally."
"...Yeah."
"Think ahead if there's anything you wanna do."
"Anything I wanna..."
"Don't mumble it all wistful. That's a cliché."
As Jin, first aboard, checked on Vagmar's condition.
The rest of the law-wielders finished mounting up.
Meanwhile, the collapse accelerated.
"Grip tight. Not liable if you fall."
"Worry about yourself."
Q snapped back sharply at Miles and snapped her fingers.
Suddenly, everyone—including Jin—slapped onto the roc's back like glue.
"Oho."
Miles whistled at the precise gravity spell.
But only briefly.
One flap, and they shot into the sky.
He said:
"Help out if you can."
Jin stood immediately.
The dizzying height, his body far heavier from Q's spell—none of it mattered. He thrust his right hand skyward.
Tremendous power gathered in his upturned palm.
CRACKLECRACKLEZZZT—!!
WHOOSH!
Rotation and blaze intertwined naturally, stretching into a long spear form.
Having reached late 2nd rank and glimpsed the world beyond heaven-like walls, however briefly, Jin carried indelible remnants.
"...You've changed again."
Miles murmured quietly.
CRUNCH!
Jin gripped the completed spear.
Just that made skin slough off, blood evaporating.
Power beyond his body's limits.
Comparable to the colonel's max-compressed air, if not surpassing.
Finally, Miles gaped his beak wide. Otherworldly heat roiled in his throat.
No signal needed.
Then.
Jin, the colonel, Miles.
The trio's attacks plunged straight down, colliding with the rampaging soul in a flash.
FLAAAAARE—!!!
Blinding brilliance.
The world bleached white like a lie.
Next instant, cosmic hues erupted from the epicenter, flooding and reversing through the entire space.
At the same time, the colonel and Miles rocketed upward at max speed.
BANG!!
The explosive ascent shattered barrier after barrier like waves.
Urk!
At the breathless velocity, Jin clutched feathers and ducked his head tight.
Wind slashed his skin like blades.
Eyes squeezed shut against the impossible force.
RUMBLECRASH—
Sounds of collapse echoed everywhere, fleetingly.
Suddenly, the air cleared around him, felt on his skin.
Peeling open careful eyes, he took in the transformed world.
The once-palace "space" had exploded.
The shock burrowed hundreds of meters deep into the landmass, marrow-rattling.
CRRRRACK—
Fissures spiderwebbing across kilometers-wide earth defied reality.
Next, Apophis crumbled into millions of fragments and began falling.
4,500 meters up.
Meteor shower plunging through bone-chilling air.
They'd barely stopped a nuke-drop, only for Phase 2 Meteor Strike to kick off brazenly.
But they couldn't block it.
How could humans handle those accelerating rocks, countless trajectories?
But an omega-grade psyker wasn't human.
Ah.
Jin's mouth gaped unwittingly.
Below.
Fragments, now close to the ground, shed most kinetic energy and drifted slowly.
Enveloped in massive spheres.
"The city government's ultimate weapon... gives me chills. Nothing good comes from facing that."
Miles muttered, descending.
"Guess that's it for today? Hope you all had fun."
"What the hell, man?" "What?"
Jin and Q spoke in unison.
GRRRIND!
In a blink, the roc's back shrank.
Footing vanished like a trick.
Everyone tumbled into freefall naturally.
"You bird-brained bastard!"
Jin yelled at Miles, now far overhead, as he plummeted toward the ground.
The guy, back in human form, just flapped wings and waved lightly, unconcerned.
"Ignore him."
"Hm?"
"Still full of energy. What a colt."
The colonel sidled up.
Jin felt gentle winds coiling around him.
Even now, clutching the machine duo tight in both hands.
"Hey! You see it?!"
Jin bellowed at the world unfolding below the clouds.
"I-I see it!"
Vagmar replied.
"...Ah?"
Elina, regaining consciousness late, whipped her head around midair.
"Senior?"
"...Don't talk to me. I wanna rest now."
Q exhaled deeply from her dantian.
Thud!
One moment, Jin's feet skimmed the ground, braking frantically. Then his legs buckled like a newborn giraffe's, and he tumbled ass-over-end.
"Ow... shit."
Face a rag, sprawled starfish-style, staring at the sky.
The heavens, impossibly high, where they'd been moments ago—unbelievable.
With the solid earth's dreamlike feel, Jin started giggling.
"...I-Is this... the surface?"
The dwarf beside him blinked dazedly around.
Jin stretched arms high like a full-body yawn and bellowed.
"IT'S OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVEEEEEEEEERRRRRRR!!!!!"