- 05. Great Retreat -
By the time Athena followed the noise and reached a distance where the battlefield was roughly visible.
What met her eyes were countless corpses sprawled on the ground and about a dozen soldiers who looked like they were on the verge of collapsing at any moment.
[Those already down alone look to number around a hundred. Athena.]
'Was I too late...'
The battlefield was visible in Athena's field of view now, but the distance between Athena and them was several hundred meters.
Generally, the effective range of a handgun is about 50 meters.
Even with an Automata's enhanced physical abilities and senses, plus Nike's Crosshair correction, the limit was about 100 meters at best.
Even if Athena ran her nonexistent balls off right now, most of the survivors would fall while she closed that distance.
With luck, maybe one or two would still be alive.
On top of that, charging in recklessly would put Athena in danger too.
And that was because the enemies attacking the humans were no ordinary Heuksu.
Enemies that looked exactly like humans—and were all the more revolting for it—ten of them.
[Undead...]
Nike's voice came through as if chewing and swallowing something.
<Undead>
That was the term in <Abyss Flood> for 'Corrupted Automata.'
Naturally, these were far more dangerous than ordinary Beast-Type Heuksu.
Techniques and tactics for killing humans, a coldness unswayed by emotion, physical abilities vastly surpassing ordinary humans...
And finally, the tenacity to regenerate endlessly unless the 'core' in their heads was destroyed.
In other words—
The number of enemies that would only go down if she landed a headshot was ten.
[Let's retreat, Athena. No matter how overwhelming a weapon that 'revolver' of yours is, this is... the risk isn't worth the reward.]
"..."
[It's regrettable, but... the potential Athena possesses cannot be compared to the lives of one or two ordinary soldiers.]
Even if Athena alone had to shoulder all military supply, that held true.
Because Athena's new weapons would bring guaranteed victory, at least on any battlefield where Athena existed.
For humanity, which now had nothing left but an endless fall, what was the value of a force that could guarantee certain victory on even one front?
But—
"No."
Athena rejected Nike's rational, reasonable proposal.
"I'm saving them."
She had no intention of going so far as to say, like some captain in a movie, 'A life isn't something you can trade.'
But even without that, now was the time to fight.
Athena didn't think of herself as such a great person.
If she backed down once, then later... whenever she ran into even a slightly difficult situation, she'd use that as an excuse to back down again.
[Athena, but—]
"And!"
To Nike, who was still speaking in a worried voice, Athena added a remark.
That she had a clear purpose for needing to take those things down.
"Undead cores and byproducts are very important."
In the original game <Abyss Flood>, there were items that could break through an Automata's MP limit or rapidly restore a squad's depleted MP.
The essential material required to synthesize those items was precisely the core fragments obtainable from Undead.
"For someone like me, whose MP level is at the very bottom even among Automata, it's an absolute necessity."
[...]
"It's the first step to making a Normal 3-Star, a 5-Star with a screw loose, stand at the supreme heights above the heavens."
[You don't need to say it like that, Athena. Hah... Please be as careful as you can. Athena's life is the most important thing.]
"OK."
At the pure, deep worry carried in Nike's voice, Athena smiled a little.
Even if it was only a voice in her head, having someone sincerely worry about her felt a bit nice.
Back on Earth...
No, never mind.
Athena wiped the clouded look off her face and answered Nike with a confident expression.
"It's not like there's no way."
No.
Maybe, compared to when she had first opened her eyes—when a Heuksu had been right in front of her, shoving its teeth in her face—the current situation was far safer and easier.
Athena returned the double-action revolver in her hand to Materia particles.
The Materia that had reverted to particles responded to Athena's will and produced a completely new form of firearm.
A size and length incomparable to the revolver.
Unlike a double-action revolver, where pulling the trigger automatically rotated the cylinder and fired the next round, this was a bolt-action type that required manually working the bolt back and forth.
Ammunition used: 7.62mm x 54mmR.
Barrel length approximately 730mm.
Effective range approximately 550m.
Maximum range approximately 1.8km.
Mosin-Nagant.
With Athena's magical modification, a bipod and suppressor were added.
[Athena. That is...?]
"A firearm is fundamentally a 'ranged' weapon on a level a bow can't compare to."
That might have been true back in the days of smoothbore matchlocks. But Athena was using firearms from at least the World War era.
That meant an overwhelming gap not only in difficulty of mastery and firepower, but in effective range as well.
Even with magic, this was an era where ranged weapons at best had an effective range of 100m and a maximum range of around 200m.
The appearance of a long-range weapon with more than eight times that effective range alone was pure shock and horror.
Add a suppressor to that, and it was literally a ghost of the battlefield. The arrival of an invisible reaper.
"It means only I can hit them. And they can't even figure out where I am."
[That... is truly petty and vicious.]
"Huh?"
[On the battlefield, that's a splendid virtue.]
"Right?"
[Heh heh heh.]
"Heh heh."
Athena immediately took up a prone firing position in a suitable spot.
She lowered the bipod to increase stability and seated the stock against her shoulder.
She also added a self-made ghillie suit via Materia Magic.
[UI activated. More Materia was used on this firearm than on the revolver. The ammunition too. Well... still, there's plenty to spare.]
"Got it. More than that, focus on trajectory tracking, humidity, and identifying ballistic changes from wind direction."
[Understood.]
The Automata's enhanced vision brought the heads of the distant Undead and the humans screaming in front of them into sharp view.
"Sssss— hah—"
She inhaled, exhaled, then held still.
And then—
BANG!
***
[A hit, Athena. A clean and beautiful shot. And besides...]
"?"
[I like this one a bit more than the revolver. It's big and long and... magnificent. Ahem!]
"You... never mind. Thanks."
Swallowing the follow-up—So that's your taste?—
Athena obediently returned thanks for Nike's praise. And then—
"Hah—"
Athena calmed her heart, which had been pounding with tension (Automata did indeed have hearts).
Calling it sniping was a bit of a stretch given the distance, but for Athena, it was still the first long-range shot of her life, easily exceeding 250m.
She'd worried she might completely whiff it, but it was a headshot on the first try.
It was an excellent result produced by the Automata's enhanced physical abilities and senses combined with Athena's own talent.
Athena relaxed her slightly stiff shoulders and worked the bolt action distinctive to a bolt-action rifle.
Clack—snap!
With a ting! the casing ejected and scattered into white particles.
She pushed the bolt forward again and re-aimed.
Despite the sudden attack that defied all common sense in the world, the enemies instantly gathered in one spot and formed a defensive square.
They wrapped themselves in steel shields created with Materia Magic like turtle shells and searched between the gaps for the enemy that had attacked them.
It was formation-building of truly incredible speed.
They were clearly different from ordinary rabble.
Was this what you'd expect from the 'Undead' who had tormented humanity from the time of the 'First Betrayer' until the moment of humanity's annihilation?
They could have panicked and floundered, losing two or three more. But their response was bitterly cold and composed.
'But the response itself is a mistake.'
In other words, their response was suited for facing a bow, not a gun.
If what Athena was using were steel arrowheads or the like... no matter how good a strong bow's draw weight was, it wouldn't pierce their steel shields.
But even with the power of magic, shields made with humans in mind were woefully insufficient to stop a 7.62mm rifle round.
And on top of that, they kept exposing their heads through the gaps in their shields, frequently and defenselessly—at this point, not taking the shot would be a crime.
[Distance: 413m. Wind: 3 o'clock at 3m/s. Humidity: 42%. Perhaps because the distance is short, the effects seem smaller than you were worried about.]
"Good."
After hearing Nike's briefing, Athena steadied her pounding heart and controlled her breathing.
There was still tension from the fact that this was a 410m shot.
But—
'Good.'
The first time is hard; the second is easy.
Moreover, the enemy was crouching still... effectively in the same state as a fixed target. The difficulty itself might actually be lower than the first shot.
"Sssss—"
Through a small gap in the shields, an Undead's inorganic eyes gleamed.
It clearly didn't even consider that an arrow or the like might hit through that small gap. The intent was transparent: even if an arrow came, it could respond with its reaction speed at any time.
Rather, it didn't blink once, as if determined to find the shooter hiding somewhere.
They were surely thinking that the shooter who had blown off their comrade's head was hiding somewhere nearby—behind a thick wooden pillar, for example.
They could never imagine that a shooter was targeting them from beyond the typical engagement distance of medieval fantasy.
And so, the opportunity was still on this side.
"Haaah—"
She exhaled moderately and stopped. She pulled the trigger.
BANG—
Along with the gunshot, reduced a level as it passed through the suppressor, the bullet shot out at more than twice the speed of sound.
The distance to the enemy was about 400m. It took less than 0.5 seconds for the supersonic bullet leaving the muzzle to pierce the enemy's head.
Boom!
The enemy that had been gleaming its inorganic eyes through the gap in the shields collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
Clack! Ting—!
She worked the bolt, extracted the casing, and reloaded.
Smelling the acrid gunpowder, Athena was certain of victory.
"Next."