Chapter 105
Chapter 105
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: Enigma Auction Scramble (5)
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The Metahuman Liberation Army is organized around its high-ranking executives, the Seven Extremes.
For instance, under Akashumir of the Red Thunder is the Annihilation Corps, composed primarily of dark elves specializing solely in offensive magic.
Or how, under Huracan of the Tempest, there's the Beast Corps, made up of werewolves and other beastkin who instinctively follow the strong.
And among the six corps formed around the Seven Extremes, the question of which was the strongest was a point of debate even in the original story.
Some corps' combat power was overwhelmingly concentrated in their commander, one of the Seven Extremes, while others had a weaker leader but were filled with individually formidable members.
As such, the corps had a rock-paper-scissors relationship, making it difficult to declare any single one as definitively superior.
However, if you asked which of the six corps was the most troublesome, everyone could immediately name one.
That would be the Undead Legion, led by the elder lich, Morte of the Plague!
*A moving… army of corpses, composed mostly of undead and necromancers.*
They were a bit different from the vampires I’d encountered before.
To be precise, it felt as if the vampires' blood magic was a derivative of the necromancers' corpse magic.
If vampires were those who feared death so much they clung to beautiful, eternal life...
...then necromancers were those who delved into the space between life and death to reject mortality itself.
Compared to Drakel, who was obsessed with youth to the point of messing with a dangerous object like the Tesseract, the difference was clear from the fact that Morte of the Plague was a walking skeleton.
"Well, can't be helped! We'll just kill everyone here. Let's spread the rage gas throughout the hotel, Verita!"
"A clumsy response, but not a bad idea, sister Vita."
Standing before the wounded Tamamo and Alice were the red-haired Vita and the blue-haired Verita.
The two girls looked no older than middle schoolers at most, but their faces were filled with murderous intent as they spoke.
Their conversation wasn't an empty boast or an exaggeration.
The twin sisters were Morte of the Plague's personal royal guard and, at the same time, high-tier undead he had created.
They might look like beautiful young girls on the outside.
But inside, they were powerful slaughter dolls filled with rotting flesh.
*This is dangerous. Vita and Verita aren't on the level of the Seven Extremes, but each one is as strong as Tamamo at her peak. In their current state, they're no match for them!*
Tamamo was being supported, seemingly without the strength to stand on her own, and Alice, without her usual twin swords, had deep cuts on her shoulder and forearm.
Yet the Vita sisters seemed completely unfatigued, their demeanor relaxed.
Victory wasn't even guaranteed in a fight where everyone was at full strength.
With such a vast difference in condition, the outcome was naturally skewed to one side.
*And if these two are here… it must mean Morte of the Plague is somewhere in this hotel too.*
Are Raven and Victor, who we haven't heard from, fighting Morte right now?
I can't be sure, but it's highly likely.
If so, I couldn't expect help from them anytime soon.
Morte's power far surpassed that of fellow Seven Extremes members like Akashumir or Huracan.
I have to do something to help Alice here!
Just as I thought that and was about to step forward, reason suddenly held me back.
*Do I stand a chance with my power? I've gotten much stronger than before thanks to the rift, but...*
The reason the Vita sisters were so strong was simple.
One was a Death Knight, possessing immense physical abilities, exceptional swordsmanship, and tireless stamina.
The other was a High Lich, wielding powerful corpse magic and supplied with a limitless well of mana.
I couldn't guarantee victory against even one of them, so if I had to fight both at full strength...
They would surely fight in a way that covered each other's weaknesses. There was no chance of winning.
In fact, it was incredible that Tamamo had managed to hold them off inside the auction house without succumbing to the gas.
What if I transform into my adult form, like when I fought Akashumir?
My adult combat power is on a level where I can overwhelm one of the Seven Extremes specializing in offense in a direct clash of strength.
I could surely make quick work of a mere Death Knight and High Lich created by one of them.
*...No. I brought the Tesseract with me when I changed clothes, but the total amount of energy is too low. With less than a week's worth... even transforming into an adult is impossible.*
Drawing out potential from the Tesseract to change my body, and maintaining that changed body.
If you asked which consumed more energy, it was obviously the former.
Therefore, even if I used up all the Tesseract's energy, transforming into an adult like before was out of the question.
Even if it were possible, the transformation would likely fail immediately, or the Tesseract would overload.
This won't work, that won't work.
Then what in the world am I supposed to do in this situation?
There's no chance of winning the fight, and no reinforcements are coming.
It was a truly desperate crisis with no way out.
*Wait, those two are undead... If I can exploit their weakness...!*
Just then, an idea struck me like a bolt of lightning.
A way to overcome this crisis—perhaps the only way.
***
Facing the Vita sisters, Alice thought to herself.
*I should have brought my weapons from my room.*
"Tamamo, those two... they're strong, right?"
She knew the capabilities of her childhood friend, Tamamo, very well.
Compared to Alice, her physical abilities were average, but her magical skills were top-notch.
So for someone like Tamamo to be covered in wounds...
...it meant those two were undeniably skilled.
"Nyahaha, I think I could barely beat one of them. But there are two..."
"I see, so that's how it is. I shouldn't have asked."
Sadly, it was a truth she would have been better off not knowing.
Two enemies, each slightly weaker than Tamamo.
That meant with Tamamo injured, their side was at an overwhelming disadvantage.
*I can't run. They'll catch up in an instant if I turn my back. Sabrina and Yuria might be in danger too. In that case, what I can do here is...*
Organizing her thoughts, Alice steeled her resolve.
True, there was no chance of victory.
This was an enemy that even Tamamo, for whom she harbored a secret inferiority complex, couldn't defeat.
So there was nothing an unarmed Alice, with injuries to her shoulder and arm, could do.
But she couldn't run.
This place was filled with people she cherished more than family.
Jin, Yuria, David, Reine, Sabrina... She didn't want any of them to die.
Alice gently lowered Tamamo, whom she had been supporting, to the floor.
Facing the Vita sisters, she shouted without looking back.
"Sabrina! Yuria! Get everyone and run! I'll hold them off here!"
A pink passion burned fiercely.
It wasn't desperation.
It was the will to protect what was precious, even at the cost of her own life.
That unwavering, righteous will, unshaken by the fiercest winds, ignited a flame.
"Nyahaha. Buying time, are we... My dear Alice is standing tall, so I can't just lie here as the student council president!"
Had Alice's flame spread to Tamamo?
She too, despite her bleeding and staggering body, stood beside Alice and gathered her mana.
It seemed she had no intention of backing down from the impossibly strong Vita sisters.
"Kuhaha! With young Miss Alice fighting so hard, I can't be the first adult to fall! Leave this to us! Kuhahaha!"
"I want to run. I want to run. I want to run..."
"If they don't fall no matter how many times we hit them... then we just have to hit them until they do!"
Perhaps inspired by Alice's fiery resolve, the Fixers who had been pushed back helplessly by the undead soldiers regained their senses.
As contractors, they could have just run away.
But they fought desperately to the end, guarding the exit to prevent the undead soldiers from getting through.
Because there were still civilians who hadn't escaped. They would stand and fight, not run from the enemy.
Perhaps that was the responsibility of a Fixer.
"Hmph. A dying magician and some weakling with no mana dare to stop us?"
"Pathetic. Even beasts naturally understand a difference in power. You're dumber than beasts."
"Keeheehee! If we turn you into corpses and bring you to Lord Morte, he'll praise us!"
But the Vita sisters only spoke with the confident air of those certain of victory.
They had already calculated the gap in power between themselves and Tamamo and Alice.
No matter how the two dying girls struggled, there was no possibility of a comeback.
A few minutes, at most. Their efforts would amount to nothing more than stalling for time with their lives on the line.
Of course, it was a stall that would change nothing about the situation... nothing more than a pointless death.
"Sister. I'm going. Weapon."
"Okay! Spatha Osseum!"
Vita, the cheerful, red-haired girl, chanted the spell.
A sharp sword made of bone materialized from thin air.
The stoic, blue-haired Verita grasped the sword and dashed toward Alice.
Her speed was so immense that it looked as if Alice would be split in two in an instant.
"Ugh! Dodge...!"
"Defen—!"
Just as Verita reached them and was about to swing her sword, before Tamamo could finish her spell.
Dozens of pure white arrows of light suddenly appeared from nowhere and rained down on Verita.
*A futile struggle. Pathetic power.*
Thinking this, Verita was about to take the hit head-on, but she felt an eerie energy from the arrows and hastily kicked off the ground to retreat.
*Thwack-thwack-thwack!*
The arrows missed their target and embedded themselves in the floor, but the magicians, Tamamo and Vita, who recognized their nature, could only stare in wide-eyed astonishment.
"This is... the long-lost holy magic...?"
"No way! Lord Morte said all divinity had vanished from this world!"
Countless eyes naturally turned toward the direction the arrows had come from.
Standing there was a girl who looked to be in middle school, with long, snow-white hair.
"..."
*Twitch.*
It was Yuria, her pure white cat ears twitching and her thin, cute tail swaying gently.