Chapter 15 - [00:04:47]

Somewhere in the ruins.

Beneath rapidly flashing red emergency lights, a massive slaughter unfolded.

[00:00:01]

As a chronometer appeared beneath his optical sensors, Ash swung his sword. The straight line traced by his blade split the leading edge of the wave of flesh. The foremost Grotesque's head flew into the air, and the next one charging in was cleaved diagonally in two. Surging forward as though to crush everything in their path, the Grotesques were chopped into mincemeat where they met Ash.

Dark crimson fluid burst from their bodies. Severed limbs tumbled across the floor.

[POWER LEVEL: 16%]

[WARNING!]

[WARNING!]

[CRITICAL ENERGY RESERVES!]

His abrupt movements sharply increased his power consumption, prompting his internal system to issue warnings.

Sixteen percent.

After exploring the ruins and fighting so many battles, that was all the power he had left.

Electric power was a truly curious thing to Ash. It was both the resource that powered his steel body and the internal energy he transformed through the Neuro Internal Art.

Was this what it would feel like to combine cultivated internal energy with one's innate vital essence?

It was no exaggeration to say that everything about the steel body he had been granted depended on power. And now that power was running low.

From this point on, he had to weigh every move carefully. If he ran out and ceased functioning, Ifrit and Akina behind him would be swept away by that wave of flesh and reduced to a handful of bloody pulp.

As his thoughts reached that point, Ash suddenly remembered his former self.

'Have I ever wielded this sword with someone at my back?'

In his memories, he had always swung his sword for vengeance and destruction. Consumed by bitter hatred, he had thirsted for blood.

But now there were people behind him he had to protect. Akina—and perhaps even that noisy lady.

It was an unfamiliar feeling. But not an unpleasant one. Rather, something that had gone cold in a corner of his chest seemed to stir with a faint pulse.

That fleeting reflection ended there. Ash adjusted his grip.

His sword drew another straight line through the air. Grotesquely twisted hands and feet split apart. Like a living creature, his blade sought the most fitting path and struck unerringly at their vital points.

[00:01:13]

[POWER LEVEL: 15%]

He had to be efficient. He could no longer scatter sword aura with reckless confidence as he once had, nor unleash a storm of linked sword strikes. His purpose was to survive and buy time. Only refined, concentrated blows could be permitted.

"Ahahahaha!! Die, all of you!"

A madwoman's laughter rang out, followed by a succession of gunshots. Ifrit's bullets targeted the Grotesques beyond his sword's reach.

Her attacks were indeed brimming with overbearing force, but they were growing less frequent. She was clearly running out of ammunition. As her gunfire dwindled, the burden on Ash only grew heavier. He could almost feel her anxiety seeping into him from behind.

"Last magazine!"

Announcing her situation, Ifrit finished reloading. The Bloody Heart Mk.7 spat its final flames.

BANG! BANG!

Several Grotesques that raised their heads between the strokes of Ash's sword dance burst apart and fell to the floor. An empty click followed.

"Fuck!"

Ifrit hurled her pistol to the floor with a curse. She was out of ammunition.

Ash moved even faster.

[00:02:03]

[POWER LEVEL: 13%]

He swept away the Grotesques rushing him in a single stroke, then threw his blade toward Ifrit, who stood awkwardly with her fists clenched.

"Take it!"

The sword flashed through the air like lightning, piercing the maw of a Grotesque roaring right in front of Ifrit and punching out through the back of its head. As the creature toppled backward, killed instantly, the steel blade buried itself at her feet.

"Whoa!"

Startled by the blade embedded at her feet, Ifrit reflexively grabbed its hilt.

"Ah, fuck it!"

She awkwardly pulled the sword free and made her way to Ash, hacking wildly as though chopping wood. Beside him, she brought it down on a Grotesque's head and shouted,

"What about you?"

Ash did not answer. Instead, his stance changed.

With a sword in hand, his presence had been weighty, embodying the principle of Mount Tai Presses Down—a vast mountain bearing down upon one's head.

Now he was different.

He extended one hand straight ahead, as though pointing somewhere. A keen edge lay hidden within the posture.

Immortal Points the Way.

The form resembled an immortal showing the path.

"I have another."

[LEFT ARM CYBER-CLAW ARRAY. . .]

[DEPLOYING. . . NOW<<<]

With a metallic click, his left arm opened and a blade sprang out, sharp and menacing as a predator's claw.

An arm blade.

From that moment, Ash's fighting style changed completely. A blade deployed over his forearm required a different method than a sword held in the hand. It was closer to a claw than a sword. Accordingly, he shifted from swordsmanship to claw techniques.

No longer did Ash cut his enemies down. With each thrust of fist and palm, he pierced Grotesque skulls, wrenched joints, and tore away flesh. He resembled a dragon roaming the heavens, snatching up insignificant creatures on the ground.

A martial art of Kunlun.

Cloud Dragon Claw.

[00:03:28]

[POWER LEVEL: 12%]

Precise, merciless attacks followed. He knocked aside an outstretched Grotesque arm and smashed its skull. At times, he gouged their vital points from unpredictable angles. His movements were aloof and fluid, so beautiful that, were it not for the Grotesques bursting apart, they might have passed for a dance.

"Take that, fucker!"

Ifrit's attacks, by contrast, bordered on the primitive. Like a monkey wielding a club, the dazzling idol swung the steel blade any way she could. Sometimes she failed even to align its edge, sending her opponent flying instead of cutting it. Viewed another way, though, that proved her brute strength was every bit a match for Ash's.

[00:04:13]

[POWER LEVEL: 11%]

At some point, the two found themselves back-to-back. The warning lights overhead kept flashing, bathing everything in the passage in red.

Corpses piled up. The monsters' bodies piled higher and higher. Yet even now, still more Grotesques were flooding into the passage.

"Goddammit! They just keep coming!"

Ifrit's voice was ragged. Fighting an unfamiliar battle with an unfamiliar weapon seemed to be wearing her down.

"Hold on a little longer! Miss Akina will surely open the door!"

"Fuck, but when is that..."

It happened just then. Ash's energy sense detected a chilling danger. This was no ordinary Grotesque. He felt an overbearing presence on an entirely different scale from anything before.

"My lady!"

Even as he shouted, Ash grabbed Ifrit mid-swing and leaped backward. Almost simultaneously, an enormous, unidentified arm slammed into the spot they had occupied.

KRAAASH!

The floor shattered, scattering debris. Ash hurriedly regained his stance and stared ahead.

An enormous figure stood before him. It was horrific—as though countless corpses had been mixed together and stamped into a human-shaped mold. Its entire body was twisted, with bones exposed in places. At the sight, Ifrit blurted out in shock,

"... A mutant?"

A mutant.

Ash did not know what that was. He could probably find out by searching his database, but that hardly mattered now.

Then the creature called a mutant roared.

"GRAAAAAH!"

At the sound, the wildly rampaging Grotesques stopped moving. Then, as though welcoming a king, they began fearfully lowering their heads. Having let out its mighty roar, the creature strode forward with imperious confidence, and the Grotesques parted to make way.

Watching this, Ash retracted his arm blade and spoke to Ifrit.

"My lady. The sword."

Ifrit looked between him and the creature for a moment, then came to her senses and handed over the steel blade.

"... Can you do it?"

Taking the sword, Ash stepped forward and answered quietly,

"I must, must I not?"

As he spoke, blue electricity crackled from points all over his body.

The Neuro Internal Art had manifested.

[WARNING!]

[WARNING!]

[POWER LEVEL: 10. . . 9. . .]

The battery charge he had so carefully conserved began to plummet. Electrical power circulating through his artificial neural network matrix overloaded everything in his body, including the main core.

'At this rate of consumption, I can use it only once.'

Ash assumed his opening stance.

'But that will be enough!'

It was entirely unlike the stance he had shown against Santa, a posture that seemed ready to explode at any moment. Fierce sparks flashed continuously around his tightly coiled body.

"GRAAAAAAH!!"

Sensing something ominous, the mutant roared and charged at Ash. Its massive body shook the floor.

But Ash remained in his original stance, utterly motionless.

The mutant closed in. It raised a hand and brought it down as though to crush him. At the very instant it struck with murderous force, threatening to reduce him to bloody pulp—

Ash's teal optical sensors flashed.

He cut vertically with his sword.

Great Void Dragon-Slaying Sword.

Dragon Ascends in Thunder.

KRRRROOOM!!

Blue lightning erupted along the path of Ash's sword. Like a great dragon awakening and ascending into the heavens, a fierce wave of energy spread in every direction.

For a single instant, the ruins, stained entirely red by emergency lights, were engulfed in blue.

The giant mutant was swallowed by the blue lightning before it could even resist. Its horrific body began burning from its extremities, then shattered in a blue flash and became a handful of ash. A moment later, its enormous form was nowhere to be seen, as though its very existence had been utterly erased.

"... Huh?"

Having witnessed it all, Ifrit let out a dazed breath. Her red lips remained half-parted, unable to close. Her heart-shaped pupils quivered faintly with shock.

"What the fuck did I just see?"

He had reduced a mutant, a creature notorious for its tenacious vitality, to ashes in a single blow. It felt unreal to Ifrit, as though she had witnessed a scene from a myth. Her gaze remained fixed on Ash, who had just performed that impossible feat.

[WARNING!]

[WARNING!]

[POWER LEVEL: 3%]

A brief silence.

Ash's body shuddered. His optical sensors glowed dimly, and the artificial neural network matrix running throughout his body burned, giving off tiny sparks.

Meanwhile, the Grotesques, bereft of their leader, let out savage howls. He had succeeded in killing the mutant, but it was not over yet.

Staggering, Ash raised his blade. Ifrit, who had fallen back, came to his side and clenched her fists.

"Come on! Come on, you bastards! Bring it! Bring—"

A dull thud and the whir of machinery cut through Ifrit's shouts. It was unmistakably the sound they had so desperately hoped to hear.

"I did it!"

Akina's cry was urgent and jubilant.

The blue haze surrounding her dissipated, and her floating body descended to the floor.

"It'll close in five seconds! Hurry!"

They turned to find that the blast door trapping them was nowhere in sight. Ash and Ifrit briefly met each other's eyes, then spun around and ran toward Akina.

[00:04:44]

The Grotesques pursued them with shrieks, as though determined not to let them escape.

[00:04:45]

Akina grabbed her backpack, and Ash scooped her up and ran. Ifrit held off their pursuers, then rolled across the floor to get clear.

[00:04:46]

Several swift Grotesques closed in right behind them. Ash's sword and Ifrit's fists sent the nearest creatures' heads flying.

[00:04:47]

The moment the chronometer in Ash's system registered four minutes and forty-seven seconds, the briefly opened blast door plunged down at terrifying speed.

KRAAASH!!

With a deafening crash, the blast door sealed off the passage. Several Grotesques caught beneath it were crushed flat.

That was the end of it.

There were no more threats.

"Haaaaah..."

After glaring at the blast door for a while, Ifrit sprawled out on the dusty floor. A moment later, her deep sigh gave way to hollow laughter.

"Hahaha. Haha. Hahahaha."

Her laughter carried both disbelief and the relief of having survived.

Still sprawled on the ground, she turned only her head to look between Ash and Akina. Then she broke into a broad grin.

"Wow. We actually survived that?"

Ifrit gave them a thumbs-up. Akina blinked a couple of times, then, as though all her tension had melted away, smiled brightly and raised her own thumb.

Then the girl and the woman both looked at Ash.

"..."

Naturally, Ash's expression did not visibly change. But Akina and Ifrit laughed aloud.

Just like them, Ash had raised his thumb.