The Red Demon Who Holds the Stars (5)
Clack— shhhkk—
The thin steel plates that had barely covered the girl's most private areas expanded outward and began to sheathe her entire body. From the armor, fine needles sprouted and burrowed deep into her flesh.
Clack— vmmm—
> Current body damage: 32.68% — First-stage recovery complete. Second-stage recovery in 16:43:14.
> Remaining power: 13.2%
>> Self-recovery system suspended. Switching to COMBAT MODE.
Thss—
The girl realized she could move her limbs freely again.
"The barrier's coming down!"
"Hold on just a little longer!!"
"Gather what strength you have left!"
Vmmm—
At last, the dark-red full-body armor sealed over her head as well. From the jewel embedded in her sternum and from both her eyes, crimson light blazed forth.
Strength Enhancement — MAX
Agility Enhancement — MAX
Dynamic Vision Enhancement — MAX
Sensory Enhancement — MAX
Durability Enhancement — MAX
…
Lines of text like these scrolled endlessly across the girl's retinas. She stopped reading them. She didn't need to—she could already feel the tremendous power surging through every inch of her body.
Crash—
Soon the cracks spread across the entire barrier, and it shattered to pieces. The knights and mages wore expressions of pride and satisfaction.
The girl, on the other hand, could feel it—a black star burning to life in the deepest recesses of her chest. The star called vengeance, darker and more viscous than anything else in existence.
"That's it!!"
"You saw that, right? There's something about that woman!! Take her alive!"
"The barrier's durability was extraordinary."
"She'll make far more interesting research material than that 'monster' ever could! Haha."
But the dark-red girl they had been watching vanished in an instant.
"!!"
"!!"
"What—?"
Not even the imperial knights, who prided themselves on inhumanly sharp dynamic vision, sensed anything at all.
The girl had gone straight to the mage who had spat out that reckless remark about "monsters." Despite the impossible, staggering speed, she adapted in a heartbeat, aided by the enhanced suit's support and her own extraordinary talent.
The result: not a single person standing there had seen her move. Even now, long after she'd reached her target, no one had.
The girl stood beside the reckless mage, opening and closing her hand.
This is… incredible power.
She swung her arm lightly.
KWA-KWA-KWAAAM!!
A tremendous shockwave swept away everything in the direction of her swing. Buildings along the arc collapsed as if slammed by a savage typhoon, and a deep gouge was carved into the earth, as though a great dragon had raked its claws across it.
"GRAAAAHH!"
"There she is!"
"Wh-when did she get over there?"
"Madness! What was that just now?"
"Dear gods."
The girl looked at her own arm with a stricken expression. She had done nothing more than spread her fingers sharp and sweep them across the mage's neck.
"A d-demon!"
"It's a demon, no doubt about it!!"
"What— what is that?!"
"Impossible…."
"Insane! Everyone, hold your positions! That woman is not normal!"
"The Red Demon…."
Their eyes brimmed over with nothing but shock and terror. At the words they had shouted—Red Demon—an inscrutable expression crossed Virdel's face.
Sorrow? Pain? Despair?
The gruesome memories she had endured clawed at her heart. And then, from somewhere deep within, she felt a surge of elation boiling up.
They still looked at her the way they always had—as if she were a demon, a monster. But their reaction was the exact opposite of before. Not contempt and rage, but fear and despair.
"Hahaha."
She gave a small shake of her head. When she lifted it again, resolute determination burned in her eyes.
"Then I'll become exactly what you wish for—the greatest, the worst, the most terrifying demon of them all."
The girl Virdel's next target was an imperial knight named Clay. In a flash she closed the distance, seized his throat, and lifted him clean off the ground.
"Ghk!"
His rank as vice-commander, his lofty mastery, his profound aura—nothing, not one thing, could stop her.
With her hand locked around Clay's throat, the girl looked down. The commander of the imperial knights, the one who had made his bargain with her, was barely breathing with a sword still buried in his torso. But even that was about to end.
"Do you have any last words?"
"Khk…!"
The commander's pupils had already faded, as though he could no longer see. Summoning his final strength, he forced his mouth open.
"Forgive… me."
"…."
"Please… the Empire…."
He couldn't finish. The girl never learned what the commander had wanted to say with his last breath.
No—perhaps she would have pretended not to know even if she had.
She gently closed the commander's eyes. He may have been the very man who had shoved her into the pit of hell, but he had also, without question, been someone who had tried to protect her people.
The girl stood and tightened her grip on Clay's throat. At that moment, Clay opened his mouth, snarling, thrashing in a last ditch struggle.
"GRAAAH! You mad… witch. You think you'll get away with… this?"
Bravado? Or desperation? Could he really say such a thing even while looking at all this?
"Khhhh. There are still tribesfolk alive, you see."
At Clay's loaded words, the girl felt her heart drop through the floor.
"…The tribesfolk?"
"Heh. That's right. There are still survivors of your tribe—and if you keep this up… they will meet a very unpleasant end. Kkkhk."
"…."
Hope bloomed on Clay's face. This was the woman who hadn't hesitated to walk the road to hell for the sake of her people. She could never ignore hostages.
"Beg for mercy now, and I'll be lenient. Kkhk. Cooperate with us, and I give you my word the remaining tribesfolk will be spared."
"…."
"You'll be treated handsomely, too. We'll make sure not even the Magic Tower can lay a finger on you."
Clay was certain they had him now—as long as he held hostages, she couldn't touch him. As proof, he could see the girl's body trembling faintly.
"Kkkhk. So think carefully, hm…? GRAAAAHK!"
In an instant, Virdel seized Clay's right arm and tore it off with a sickening crunch. Blood fountained out, and Clay's eyes rolled back white with pain.
"GRAAAAH! AAAAH! You dare! You DARE!!"
Clay writhed at the agony of losing the entire arm in one clean pull.
"Who are you calling a fool?"
Her glittering eyes fixed on him. There was no hesitation in them at all.
It was possible—just barely possible—that someone had survived. And it was possible that her actions now might bring harm down upon them.
But she refused to be swayed by such vague possibilities any longer. She had sacrificed herself for them for more than a decade already. She would not let herself be chained by sacrifice anymore.
No—if anything, she would make it eternally clear that anyone who laid a hand on her tribesfolk would face her wrath directly.
Virdel pressed her finger into Clay's left eye.
"I'll leave you one eye. It'll be entertaining to watch the Empire change through it."
"GRAAAAH!"
She grabbed Clay's left ear as he thrashed beneath her.
"And I'll graciously leave you one ear—so you can hear the screams of the Empire's people."
Skreeee—
"GRAAAAAAAAAH!"
At Clay's ear-splitting scream, the mages and knights watching felt their eyes shake violently with fear.
Her brutal cruelty left them trembling like aspen leaves. But they were trained combatants all the same, and they soon steeled themselves and advanced with weapons raised.
"We can't just stand by and watch any longer!! ATTACK!"
"Mages, give it everything! Don't hold back just because we're inside the capital!"
They hadn't merely been standing around watching all this time. The mages had already been chanting their spells.
KWAAAAAM—
FOOOOM—
Crack-crack—
As if they'd been waiting for it, the barrage of spells poured down on a single point, and a colossal explosion erupted where the girl had been standing. The surrounding buildings crumbled and scattered, and the assault continued with such ferocity that it gouged out an enormous crater.
Against an offensive of this magnitude, even a god would be helpless!
At last the knights leaped through the dust to press the attack. Someone had to finish this.
But—
"There's no body!"
"Don't tell me she dodged that?!"
"Did she flee?"
"Search the area top to bottom! She can't have gotten far!"
"Stay sharp! That movement was anything but ordinary! Knights, focus your aura into your minds' eyes!"
Not far from where they stood—
the girl, having flung the unconscious Clay aside, had bent both knees and settled into a straight-punch stance.
"Hoo…."
Something tells me this will work.
The breathing and stance that some kind, nameless martial artist on the community had taught her. Of course, that martial artist would never have imagined she could reproduce it from a mere explanation.
Virdel closed her eyes. Gathering power from her feet, rooted firmly into the ground, she twisted her fist as she drew it back.
Even before she released it, the air was already spiraling violently around her fist, which cleaved the atmosphere at a perfect rotational angle.
Feeling the tremendous force travel up through her entire body, she drove the punch forward.
Rooted to the earth, power coiled from heel to crown—
the fist that turns, the fist that breaks the sky—
The air split apart and shrieked. In the wake of her form, a vacuum flashed into being for an instant, and the compressed, overlapping layers of air surged forward, whipping up a raging torrent of force ahead of her.
KWAAAAAAAAAM—
The knight who had thrust that mysterious syringe at her mother, the knight order that had attacked her, the mages of the Magic Tower—all of them were swept away in a single stroke.
The torrent of overwhelming force carved a trench through the ground like a passing serpent, leaving behind a chasm that rivaled a great river.
Her fist, demolishing the northwestern corner of the plaza, was annihilating everything in its path.
Truly, a single blow that brought the heavens down.
"…."
The girl was left speechless at the result of her own hand.
She had only thought, vaguely, that she might be able to do it.
A shiver ran through her. It felt like omnipotence—the sense of having turned imagination itself into reality.
Beneath her feet, the ground split apart in a spiderweb of cracks. Tremendous power was pulsing through the suit as its medium. Nothing more than the aftereffect of its lingering force, and yet the earth split and fierce gales raged.
A miracle that defied belief, performed by a girl whose body was still barely holding together.
She could not hide her astonishment at the suit that had made the impossible possible. Who in the world was this "Administrator" who had sent her such a device? Was he even human? Could he be a god?
Thinking of the Administrator whose face she had never even seen, she couldn't suppress the shudder that ran through her body.
Administrator… the one who'd spoken of Patdak. Maybe… maybe she really could do this.