114. The Queen's Awakening
114. The Queen's Awakening
A completely unexpected future.
A turbulent ending.
The signs had already been showing from the very beginning.
[Keyboard Damage]
A thing that, in the original, would not have occurred.
A move he deliberately showed to push away Minerva, who kept leaning on him somehow.
It was a move to preserve the form of the event, but from that point, it had already deviated from the 'normal route'.
[Athena Guild Members' Bestiality Act]
An act that would originally not have existed.
Because in the original, the boss room subjugation event only opened after reaching the front of the boss room.
Along the way, battle with the Sirens exposed a significant number of troops to the Sirens' charm, and they lost their will to fight──but even this was practically a safety net.
It was just a minor miss.
It didn't become a 'branching point' that would change the big outcome.
"Conductor! A string has snapped!"
"Me too... my instrument is completely...."
"Kugh... Is it because of the aftereffects of the Siren's voice?"
Then what made the situation this complicated?
It started right after moving to Phase 3, when the Orchestra's instruments were completely trashed by Queen Siren's attack.
"This... now what should we do...."
The Orchestra was completely overturned.
There were no remaining instruments. The only thing left was to flee, but even that didn't seem easy with the Siren horde covering all sides.
A crisis surrounded on all sides.
At that moment, Chrono opened the bag on his back and took something out.
"Minerva, do you want to die a dog's death like this?"
"....Chrono!"
What came out of Chrono's bag was──none other than a 'guitar case'.
A prize he'd won as first place at Club BBC sometime before.
An instrument blessed by Muse that produced sound on its own without needing an amp, so it was an item that shone more than anything in the current situation.
"As expected... I believed in you, Chrono!"
"Ah, but there's one condition."
Chrono, holding the guitar case in his hand, handed it to Minerva.
".....Eh?"
"You play it instead of me."
"No... why...?"
"Why what, never mind that."
Chrono answered.
"I don't know how to play guitar."
"Ah......"
An unexpected fact.
No, to be precise, it 'could be possible', but...
"...Do you see me as some kind of superhuman who's good at everything?"
"You weren't?"
"I'm not."
And this wasn't the time to be saying such carefree things.
Couldn't you see the gaze of the Queen, who was about to sweep through with a massive deployment of Sirens right in Phase 3?
Chrono clutched Agape again and looked ahead.
"Minerva, you can do it, right?"
"........Chrono"
Minerva stared at the guitar case for a moment.
Around her were many Athena guild members.
If she were to play electric guitar here, that would certainly be going against her father's words.
...But anyway, if she didn't do it here, everyone would die.
In that case, it was a situation where she had to try regardless of what happened.
And above all──
"Yes, I can do it!"
─Because Chrono believed in her.
Minerva opened the guitar case and felt relieved.
Relieved, and also admired.
As expected... Chrono, you...!
He was different from an indecisive person like me.
He anticipated from beginning to end.
Even if the surrounding situation oppressed him, he overcame it with his own wisdom.
The wise one is the honorable one.
In Minerva's eyes, Chrono was definitely that 'wise one',
so she couldn't just stay like this, whipping herself with the thought that the 'herself' he believed in also couldn't stay like this, and she opened the guitar case.
"......Uh...?"
"What, do you like the cool, heavy feel?"
"No... it's not that....."
And what was seen inside was
"The guitar..."
"....Fuck?"
A broken string.
A completely wrecked electric guitar.
From here on was the variable and the crossroads.
If he had abandoned the Athena guild members here and run, though there would have been some sacrifice, it wouldn't have reached a total annihilation crisis.
"Ha... Right. I figured this would end up like this."
But Chrono was more capable than expected.
He was more prepared than he thought, and he had a 'gut feeling' that something even worse than he imagined would happen.
That was why Chrono handed 'Agape' to Minerva.
"Ugh──This is...?"
Agape
Just as love has no set form, Agape, which had taken the shape of a gun, transformed herself into the shape of an electric guitar.
Thus the instrument problem was solved. In addition, the tuning was in the best state, and as she had directly received Muse's blessing, an 'anti-Siren instrument' that could not be obtained anywhere else was born.
"This should be enough."
"....As expected of Chrono!"
Minerva gathered her courage again and rose from her seat.
She picked up a pick from the broken guitar case, took her stance, and stared at Queen Siren.
"Don't lose. If you lose, we all die."
"I'll do my best!"
Chrono then took out weapons from his bag.
A pistol and a submachine gun he'd bought from the weapon shop.
Even though having to reload one by one was a hassle, a gun was 'that kind of weapon' to begin with.
"If we endure... somehow, just endure, that's all."
Queen Siren Phase 3.
A war of attrition, a group battle.
In the game, it ended after sweeping about 5 or 6 times, but what about in reality?
[Kuaaaaaaak!]
[Die, dieeeee!!]
[Keheup! Kkup..... Kkeoeup....!]
".....Haaaaa"
A battle of slaughter.
Blood and flesh.
The boundary line between life and death.
It was just maddening that the reality demanded he go there right away.
Honestly, not going is also a method if you consider it...
Could they really endure until Minerva finished her song?
Chrono thought, no matter how you looked at it, it was impossible.
These were people who had betrayed and stabbed in the back from the start, and now more than half were already blown away.
Meanwhile, the number of Sirens remained high, and Queen Siren's charm had begun resonating in his mind──if he just stood by like this, even the answer he'd managed to find would likely become the wrong one.
"First, let's try."
At that moment,
Chrono should have stopped.
At least now, while Queen Siren didn't have him in her sight, he should have stopped announcing his presence.
─Tududududududu!
"Kiiik?!"
"Kyaaaaaak!!!"
"It hurts... Ah, aak....!!"
Chrono stepped onto the battlefield.
He immediately scattered fire with the submachine gun, drawing aggro.
"Tch... Still no good, huh?"
Unfortunately, the weak bullets of the submachine gun didn't kill the Sirens in one hit.
Well, if one shot didn't do it, two shots; if two didn't, he'd pull out a pistol.
"Eeeit...! Bad human! You hurt me!"
"Bad human, dieee!!"
"You guys chew up humans and then play the victim?"
The Sirens, shot and bleeding.
Chrono maintained his composure toward the Sirens who approached, gritting their teeth.
Just one shot is enough.
The submachine gun, by its nature, couldn't be helped, but
───Taaang!!!
"Kkakheuk──?!"
"This one, do you know how much this baby costs?"
The pistol was a different story.
Especially since this guy was the most expensive one he'd bought in this area.
"At least for your fish heads, each bullet is a critical hit."
"H-He's dead!"
"Bad human! Baaaad humaaan!!"
What nonsense.
Fish heads.
─Tang! Tang! Tududududu, tang!
"Kyaaaaaaak!!!"
"Queen....!"
"Geueeeek....!!"
"Not bad."
He lightly seasoned them with the submachine gun, then finished them with one shot, one kill with the pistol.
"Eeek... Bad human, die!"
"Huh?"
There were also Sirens who approached more than necessary along the way, but
─Puseok!
"Youth☆Punch"
"──!!!"
In front of the Youth straight punch directly taught by Eve, the head burst and died.
Yeah.
It really burst and died.
...Coach, what kind of technique did you teach me? Anyway, so the troll endured that kind of hit and still held on?
Sure enough, it's not a thing made to be broken.
I lightly shook off my bloodied hands and glanced around the battlefield.
"Hoo-boy..."
Somehow, I had gone in too deep.
Had I gotten excited without realizing it while joyfully beating them to death?
I hurriedly stepped back and then slaughtered Sirens enough that the front line wouldn't collapse.
"Big Brother.... Are you going to kill me?"
Along the way, there were Sirens who completely changed their pattern to try to seduce me,
"Human, help! A bad human is killing us!"
"Uwaaaaa! My daughter's enemy!"
There were some that even brought charmed humans to pick a fight, but
─Tang!
"Kkeheup....!"
"Ah... Aaaaak! My arm... My aaarm!!"
"It's a shame I can't kill you, really."
I killed the Siren on the spot, and for the human, I put a bullet in the joint.
[Ko!Ro!SEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!]
"Mm... Good."
Overall, not a bad situation.
Minerva, once she started playing, began ripping on the electric guitar as if she'd lost a screw, and the front line was maintained because I was there.
If it kept going like this, it seemed like we could clear it easily somehow...
"You......"
".....Huh?"
...My eyes met Queen Siren's.
"So it's you.... It's you. It was you...!"
".....Me?"
Why suddenly?
No, well, I did move quite hard, but it's not like I killed that many...
"You are indeed the leader of these ones."
"....???"
Chrono was flabbergasted.
But to the Queen's eyes, it was a natural conclusion.
[Minerva, you can do it, right?]
When the battlefield had collapsed,
the one who took charge when everyone fell into confusion.
[First, let's try.]
The force that instantly maintained the tilting battlefield.
Along with an influence that an ordinary person could never have.
[It's a shame I can't kill you, really.]
The ruthlessness to suppress and knock down an ally who had fallen into a combat-incapacitated state and tried to harm him in return.
[Mm... Good.]
A calmness maintained even as the battlefield became pandemonium and the Queen was spreading charm in real time.
Already, just up to this point, he had deviated from the level of an 'ordinary person'.
"Hera's power... Muse, Ur's power..."
He was not a mere 'believer (supporting role)',
but an 'apostle (leading role)' named by the gods,
and even that not from just one god,
"And... something even greater──!!"
An apostle serving multiple gods.
Even one serving a single god was dangerous.
Yet from that human, not one but two, even more divinities could be felt.
Monster....!
A monster.
A monster who appeared here to trample over her and her children.
If that bastard had the mind to, the battlefield would turn upside down in an instant.
But the current battlefield was maintained merely as the monster's amusement.
"I... I won't lose...!"
So, Queen Siren was 'judging' that,
"I am the mother of these children!"
Queen Siren decided.
"I won't let you harm my children as you wish!!"
She gave up the eggs.
She gave up her progeny.
Instead, she gathered all this power to defeat the monster before her eyes.
The Queen absorbed the remaining 'life' inside her body as power and strained her eyes.
"I──will definitely kill you."
A Phase 4 that shouldn't exist, that couldn't possibly exist.
The Queen's Awakening.
".....Ha."
At the absurd reality unfolding right before his eyes,
"Fuck."
Chrono felt his mind going hazy.