Savior
She ran through the skies of Eden.
She was literally running. Or perhaps leaping would be a more accurate description.
She hadn't learned flight magic yet, but she had mastered a spell that allowed her to leap through the air. It was the very first magic she had learned, and it was practically Swoo's bread and butter.
It was still a half-baked spell, but it had nonetheless become indispensable to her.
By now, she had begun to suspect that the original form of this magic was something far greater than mere Bantan (Deflection), but that wasn't something to worry about right now.
A foothold only Swoo could feel materialized beneath her feet. Stomping down on it with all her might, she propelled herself forward. Her trajectory was straight ahead. Straight line only. There was no time to waste.
Even if Draco's body was ruined, they could always transfer his consciousness into another Reina model. But if his mind broke, all would be lost.
Since she had accepted the job, she would see it through.
Since she had decided to help, she would do so without regrets.
BOOM—!
Noise tore across the night sky of Eden.
The sound of the wind tearing apart, shattering, deafened the ears. The rapidly passing scenery blurred beyond recognition, and the colliding raindrops felt sharp enough to sting even Swoo.
Was it stinging because she was moving that fast?
Swoo didn't care. Instead, she accelerated, trying to shake off the drones tailing her.
It wasn't easy.
If they were only chasing her from behind, it might have been different, but with drones pouring in from all directions, it was much easier to destroy them than to shake them off.
So, she decided to destroy them.
She swung her arm. A gale whipped up along its trajectory. Flames coated the wind. As if the belly of the sun had burst open, crimson fire and charred drones rained down from the sky.
She leaped again. The Bantan (Deflection) magic she used as a foothold exploded, engulfing the drones clinging to her tail.
It looked a lot like the time she had swung an electric flyswatter in the mountains during midsummer.
As she smiled faintly at the memory, hundreds of gun barrels flashed from the ground.
None of the bullets would ever reach Swoo. Mana, moving as if it were alive, shielded her body.
She had reached a stage where she could cast magic instinctively, without even thinking about it.
However, her stamina was draining just as rapidly.
If there was any consolation, it was that she didn't feel like she was going to collapse from mana exhaustion like she had in the past.
Back then, she had used it blindly, causing the symptoms of mana exhaustion to overwhelm her body like a wave of vertigo. Not anymore. She knew how to use mana now, and she knew how to manifest magic. Thus, she could keep up this trolling—no, this fight—all day long.
And after a day?
To be honest, even Swoo couldn't guarantee anything past that point.
If fighting for a mere eight hours took this much out of her, a second day would probably end in a draw.
Defeat was not an option.
If she felt like she was going to lose, she would just flip the board.
"Ah."
Swoo gasped and twisted her body.
The tips of her ash-colored hair, fluttering with her movements, were cleanly snipped off.
It was an invisible shockwave. An attack only Swoo's instincts had detected. She rolled her eyes upward to look higher.
Five Talos transport ships were chasing Swoo, scattering brilliant red light. The door of the leading transport was slightly open. They had fired a Repulser through the gap.
Fortunately, their accuracy wasn't the best.
On the ground, they would have hit their mark every time, but this was the sky. The moment active three-dimensional maneuvering became possible, Talos's experience and training became useless.
Of course, relying solely on three-dimensional movement wasn't easy for Swoo either. Shouldn't a dragon have a pair of magnificent wings? Swoo glanced at her bare back and sighed.
Meanwhile, thousands of bullets surged from the ground, drones poured in from all sides, and the Talos transports attacked from above.
She blocked, destroyed, and dodged.
She kept an eye on the ground to ensure there were no civilian casualties. Flying over rivers and empty roads as much as possible, she burned through the budgets of numerous corporations and the ECPD.
If she wanted to, she could have shaken off all forces except for Talos. But Swoo didn't do that. The forces chasing her were all useful in their own way.
That was why it was so tiring, annoying, and difficult.
Even if she went home and took a warm bath after this was over, her fatigue wouldn't just vanish.
Even if she buried her face in a fluffy pillow and slept while hugging her tail, she would surely be exhausted for the next two days.
Yet, the smile never left Swoo's lips.
How many stars would this be?
Stars were awarded based on one's criminal record, and the pursuit force was scaled accordingly. The maximum was ten stars, and she figured she had to have at least seven by now.
She couldn't help but be excited.
To think she was being hunted like this just to rescue a man trapped inside a Sexroid. It was a crazy stunt she had never even attempted in the game.
The only remaining variable was the group holding Draco. The situation going forward would depend entirely on who they were.
There was a worst-case scenario, but if it came to that, she couldn't help it if Draco's mind ended up half-broken.
As long as he's alive.
People can live by leaning on others.
Even if you're completely broken, you can always stand back up as long as you have someone who understands you.
Is it betrayal?
Betrayal by a trusted ally and friend.
Or was the friend dead too?
From a reader's perspective, the former would be much more dramatic, but since Swoo was the one involved in this commission, she hoped it was neither.
She hoped he had just been kidnapped during an ordinary day.
No, knowing Draco, that might actually be more shocking to him.
To be trampled by a worm he wouldn't normally spare a glance for. For someone as proud as Draco, that kind of situation might be even more devastating.
Whatever the case, it wasn't a good situation.
It wouldn't be solved easily, and even after it was resolved, many problems would still lie in wait.
How complicated.
Even as she grumbled, the smile on her face remained. It was a smile that others might find a bit chilling.
Swoo wasn't smiling just because she was having fun.
As the saying goes, a genius cannot defeat one who works hard, and one who works hard cannot defeat one who enjoys what they do.
Draco's situation was indeed serious, but frowning wouldn't change anything.
She had to overcome the current situation as quickly as possible and find Draco.
So, she decided to enjoy it.
If a genius can't beat hard work, and hard work can't beat enjoyment, then what happens when a hard-working genius actually enjoys themselves?
Swoo knew her own capabilities well.
I'm overpowered.
And now, she would put in the effort too.
And as for enjoying it, I've always been doing that.
Swoo looked around.
There were no obstacles. Predicting Noise's path, the corporations and the ECPD had evacuated the citizens. Therefore, no matter what she did, there would be no civilian casualties.
Compensation for damages would be handled elsewhere. After all, Noise wouldn't break anything.
To be precise, she wouldn't break anything directly.
"Hup."
Taking a deep breath, Swoo slowed down. The drones, which had seemed to struggle to keep up, closed in behind her. Her direction was still straight ahead. She headed toward the distant Lui Chen building.
Sensing something, the drones tried to overtake Swoo. She didn't let them. Swoo maintained her speed by a hair's breadth, keeping the drones hot on her heels.
The Talos transports, which had been cruising loftily at a higher altitude, descended. The hovercars flying just above the road ascended.
It was already too late.
If they wanted to stop her, they should have done it sooner.
Smiling brightly, Swoo gradually increased her speed.
So the drones could adjust. So the Talos transports could lower their altitude just enough. So the hovercars could rise high enough. So the gun barrels on the ground could keep up with Noise. So they could load their special ammunition.
And so, the skyscraper drew near.
Swoo's eyes swept over the tracking devices locked onto her.
Thermal imaging cameras as a baseline, standard cameras, night vision cameras, electromagnetic spectrum scanners, terahertz scanners, chroma thermal imaging to detect heat signatures, and more.
They had prepared all kinds of cameras, night-vision goggles, and scanners, anticipating every scenario. And among them was a mix of AI-operated drones and manually piloted ones.
It was a countermeasure to ensure she couldn't blind all the drones at once.
Even better.
She accelerated. The drones began to fall behind. Resisting this, they also increased their output. Seeing the faint smoke rising from them, they seemed to have entered an overclocked state.
The distance to the building shrank at a breakneck pace.
Four hundred meters.
She stretched her arms out to the sides. She spread her fingers wide. There was no need to construct magic. No need to modify it. She simply willed the magic to manifest in its raw, existing form.
Three hundred meters.
A wind blew from behind her. The wind blowing in Swoo's direction of travel was incredibly fierce, effectively boosting the speed of the drones.
Two hundred meters.
The drones could not escape the wind currents. They tried to break away, but the storms blowing from both sides ultimately forced them back onto the same path.
One hundred meters.
The quick-witted pilots pulled their drones downward, but the others continued to follow Swoo. This was especially true for the AI-operated drones.
Ninety meters.
Sensing something amiss, the Talos transports began to ascend again. However, they couldn't just crank up their output and escape quickly.
If they increased their output, not only would the hovercars and drones directly beneath them be obliterated, but the building just a hundred meters ahead would surely collapse.
Eighty meters.
People in the hovercars were jumping out.
They, too, were quick-witted enough to do so.
The AI-operated hovercars continued to climb. They were blinded by the prospect of raising their performance metrics by capturing Noise.
Seventy meters.
Above, the Talos transports.
Below, the hovercars. Behind, the drones.
And ahead, the Lui Chen skyscraper.
They surrounded Swoo from all sides.
"Ahaha."
Swoo burst into laughter.
Thirty meters.
Clap—
She pulled her outstretched arms together and clapped her hands.
Twenty meters.
Flames flared. Finely splintered lightning spread. Wind erupted. Compressed Bantan (Deflection) magic exploded.
Ten meters.
Light, heat, wind, explosion, and electricity.
Drones equipped with different cameras and scanners were blinded by different spells. Though some drones weren't blinded, they fared no better.
They were caught between the wind blowing from behind and the staggering drones. Above them were the Talos transports, and below, numerous hovercars were rising.
In such a tight spot, there was nothing they could do.
Five meters.
Too close. Because everything was moving so fast, she couldn't cast Space Shift.
BANG!
Swoo detonated Bantan (Deflection) magic directly in front of herself.
Thus, she forcibly redirected her momentum. From forward to upward.
Two meters.
Right in front of the building, Swoo's trajectory bent at a right angle.
She didn't lay a single finger on the building.
Nothing shattered, nothing cracked. True to her resolution, Swoo hadn't touched a thing.
One meter.
Those tailing her could not say the same.
Wiping away a trickle of nosebleed, Swoo looked down.
CRASH—!!!
Hundreds of drones and hovercars tangled together and slammed into the building. The thousands of special bullets aimed at Swoo struck the drones and hovercars instead.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A second explosion erupted.
Swoo giggled, letting herself be carried by the blast wave. The recoil of the explosion propelled her body forward at extreme speed.
The transport ship's door slid open. An expressionless Talos agent aimed a gun at Swoo. At the very back, a Talos agent who appeared to be the team leader pointed a finger at Swoo and took a breath.
Swoo pointed a finger back at him.
The Talos agent tilted his head.
Yet, the attack did not stop.
It was an action born of the conviction that no attack could surpass the Repulser.
*Vroooom—*
The characteristic bell-like chime of the Repulser rang out.
An invisible wave was fired.
Half of the building shattered.
The building, which had barely been holding on, finally began to collapse.
And—
"Hello."
A voice came from behind.
From behind.
Behind?
Behind them?
The Talos agent spun around.
"You guys are paying for that building, right?"
Noise was spreading inside the transport ship.
Attack came before panic.
The Talos agents aboard the transport moved in unison, lunging at Noise.
"Yippee."
It was futile.
Before they knew it, Noise had appeared outside the transport, bypassing the collapsing building.
Space Shift... The reports weren't lying.
Out of 1,312 drones, only around 200 remained. Out of 811 hovercars, only 42 were left.
The only relatively intact forces were the ground troops, but even they had been cut down by more than half, their path blocked by the collapsing building.
But they couldn't stop the pursuit.
At this rate, Westtown would deploy additional forces. They would have to resume the chase then.
Having made his assessment, the Talos agent nevertheless waited for orders. Shortly after, an order aligned with his judgment came through.
While one shouldn't obsess over sunk costs, the megacorporations and the ECPD possessed the wealth and time to do exactly that.
The five Talos transports resumed their pursuit.
Whether she was running out of steam or just teasing them,
Noise was visible not too far away.