Chapter 33 - EP.1 The Butterfly Dream 6

Sword energy.

By its very nature, sword energy was the crystallization of internal power. The deeper a practitioner's attainment, the richer its color became; the more tightly it condensed into a single point on the blade, the more powerful it was judged to be.

The essence of perfectly controlled power.

That was sword energy.

But the blue radiance coiling around Ash's sword now departed entirely from that principle. Far from being refined or condensed, it was spraying blue lightning in every direction even now, as wild as an enraged lightning dragon. Wherever the arc discharges passed, the air made a strange burning sound, and black scorch marks bloomed across the cavern floor and walls.

This was not refined power. Rather, he merely held the reins of a rampaging force for a fleeting moment.

Was this what it felt like to hold lightning from the heavens in one's hand?

[POWER LEVEL: 71%...68%...]

[WARNING!]

[CORE TEMPERATURE RISING...]

[NEURAL MATRIX STABILITY: 21%]

'Not easy to control.'

System warnings poured down. His battery drained in real time, and his artificial neural network screamed. His main core, processing it all, was hot enough to feel as though it might melt at any moment. Simply maintaining the plasma sword energy brought him close to overload.

But Ash was satisfied. He was pleased to have incorporated even a fragment of the martial world he had once known—and with its extraordinary destructive power.

He had never wanted an easy path to begin with.

So this would do nicely.

For disposing of that arrogant "bodyguard."

"Then, here I come."

Ash's figure, shimmering with blue light, hurtled toward the bodyguard in a swift charge embodying the principles of Flying Dragon Shrinks the Earth.

Forcing down an inexplicable sense of foreboding, the bodyguard met the blue lightning, resolving to resist with everything he had.

But...

CRASH!

A single clash.

That one clash shattered the shielding field that had protected the bodyguard until now. The keen force of the plasma sword energy had torn apart everything composed of electricity and energy.

"...!"

Horrified by the unexpected result, the bodyguard scrambled backward. His golden optical sensor flickered unsteadily.

But Ash was not something one could shake off by retreating. Driven onto the defensive without even time to dodge, the bodyguard met the repeated blows with his single-edged sword gripped in both hands.

A steel blade shrouded in blue lightning.

It left blue afterimages in its wake, dazzling his vision with still more vivid arc discharges. Blue lightning was all he could see.

CRACK! CRACKLE!

Each time their swords met, blue electricity flowed down his blade. With every clash, sparks flew from different parts of the bodyguard's frame, and his internal systems fluctuated wildly.

Blocking was all but meaningless.

"D-damn...!"

The bodyguard swiftly withdrew his sword, but his hands were already numb, as though paralyzed.

Ash did not miss the opening. The steel blade imbued with plasma sword energy trembled finely for an instant, then began spilling hazy afterimages. Unleashed at point-blank range, the Supreme Clarity Dragon-Form Sword billowed like clouds.

These were no longer clouds of mist. They were closer to storm clouds laden with thunder and lightning.

With destructive plasma sword energy added to an illusion sword art whose movements were already unpredictable, its force was overwhelming, as though a lightning dragon had descended from the heavens.

The bodyguard could only stare blankly at the blue thundercloud swallowing him.

KRA-BOOM!

Lightning struck.

Amid the lightning that washed his optical sensor white, the bodyguard's left arm was ripped away from the shoulder down. Even the single-edged sword he barely managed to raise could not withstand the impact; it snapped clean through and tumbled to the floor. His silk robes burned in patches, their remnants clinging to his body like soot.

"... Gah!"

Having lost both an arm and his sword, the bodyguard fell to his knees before he could even regain his balance. His golden optical sensor stared blankly at the blue lightning in Ash's hand, as though unable to believe it.

'... No.'

In that desperate moment, the bodyguard thought:

'I cannot die like this. Not like this!'

He would fulfill his role.

"Kh, khh...khhh...!"

The bodyguard raised his head and spoke to Ash, who stood looking down at him.

"Mag...nificent! Tru...ly tremendous...skill...!"

Something between praise and wonder emerged from his broken voice module.

"Your...sword...is unlike...anything... I have ever...known."

Ash made no reply. He simply gazed at his opponent.

"What...is that power?"

Then, after a time, Ash slowly lowered himself onto one knee to meet the bodyguard's eyes. He began speaking of something rather unexpected.

"Those I fought in the past—the demonic practitioners, that is."

"...?"

"They valued their own lives no more than a fly's."

His low electronic voice echoed through the quiet cavern.

"They were not easy opponents. They cast their lives aside like so much straw. How was one to predict their next move?"

"..."

"Still, they did have something in common."

The bodyguard found himself asking:

"And...what was that?"

Ash's teal optical sensors flashed coldly.

"Before dying, they would try to take their enemy with them—even if it meant blowing themselves up."

Ash extended the sword fingers of his left hand and lightly touched the center of the bodyguard's breastplate.

"Did you think I would not recognize your little ploy to buy time with pointless chatter?"

CRACK!

Condensed lightning energy emerged from his sword fingers, slipping inside like a needle before expanding rapidly within the bodyguard and precisely cutting off his overloading power source.

The dark red light faintly glowing inside the bodyguard's frame faded to nothing.

Electric Acupoint Sealing.

It was another of Ash's arts, made possible by the electromagnetic energy sense that allowed him to manipulate microwaves at will.

"...!!"

Even his final desperate struggle had been seen through with humiliating ease. Deprived of his last resort, the bodyguard turned his head toward Akina, who lay beyond Ash on the other side of the cavern.

"Divine... Lady..."

Ash blocked his view. And so what appeared in the bodyguard's golden optical sensor was not the sleeping Akina, but Ash's steel foot.

"She is no Divine Lady."

Ash took his blade in a reverse grip.

"Akina Greenwood. A Technomancer."

His teal optical sensors gleamed faintly.

"So I hope you will wake from your dream now."

With those final words, Ash drove his blade straight through the bodyguard's head.

CRACKLE!

With a sharp crack, arc discharges erupted from within, burning every part of the bodyguard white.

As the world bleached to white, the bodyguard recalled a woman from the distant reaches of his memory. A woman clad in splendid silk, with a striking pair of horns rising from her head.

The Divine Lady.

She was smiling. As though forgiving him.

But even that smile dissolved into faint static and crumbled into white.

And so the golden optical sensor lost its light.

"..."

Ash regarded the bodyguard for a moment, then walked toward his gathered companions. The sword in his hand had already returned to being an ordinary steel blade.

* * *

"Unbelievable! The ultimate winner of the Halloween Festival is none other than Team Elementary Girls! Plenty of people call her a washed-up has-been, but they won't be able to say that anymore! With this festival, she has proven her—"

"So fucking loud. Seriously."

Grumbling, Jack O' Lantern switched off the car radio. With the excited voice of Chatterbox, Sanctum's top DJ, gone, a heavy silence settled over the armored vehicle. Only the occasional rattle as they traversed a slope broke the quiet.

Ash's party—Team Elementary Girls, that is—had escaped the ruins.

They had clashed with Sentinels several more times after the battle in the cavern, but none had posed much of a threat. For some time, they had trudged toward their parked armored vehicle, their bodies stained with blood and grime. They had finally climbed aboard and set off for Sanctum ten minutes ago.

Thus the eventful Halloween Festival had come to an end.

With a victory for the Elementary Girls.

Yet no one celebrated. Perhaps too much had happened for them to wrap everything up with a simple smile.

The armored vehicle jolted again.

"Urrgh...!"

"H-hey! Are you okay?"

[Move aside a sec]

Siren and Lamia were also aboard ROA's armored vehicle. Keeping the gravely wounded Lamia alive required the state-of-the-art life-support equipment installed in it.

Dullahan went to Lamia's side and checked the equipment.

"... How is she? Will she be okay?"

[Dunno? Kept her alive for now. Can't promise anything after that]

After that brief answer to Siren's question, Dullahan took out an ampoule and attached it to the medical line connected to Lamia.

While the injured were receiving emergency treatment, Ifrit spoke to Ash, seated across from her.

"Ash."

Ash turned from brushing back the sleeping Akina's hair.

"You know..."

Ifrit hesitated briefly.

"... Those things. What do you think they were?"

"Those things?"

"The Sentinels."

At Ifrit's words, everyone aboard the armored vehicle tuned in to their conversation.

"I've never seen anything like that. Their eyes turning gold, and that body-whatever you fought."

Jack O' Lantern, at the wheel, agreed vehemently.

"Exactly, ma'am! I've been in the idol business for three years now, and I've never seen or heard of Sentinels like those! Weren't they just a defense system? Ugh, gives me the creeps."

[Yeah, definitely weird]

"And all that stuff about a Divine Lady and a bodyguard. What, does that mean the Sentinels were actually serving something? But if you look at it that way, they're almost..."

"Like people."

Siren joined the conversation.

"... Too...cunning to be a simple defense system, perhaps? That's how it felt to me."

Everyone seemed to share that opinion, voicing their agreement. The conversation inside the armored vehicle continued to revolve around those "unusual Sentinels."

Meanwhile, Ifrit turned to Ash, who still remained silent.

"What do you think? I mean, isn't there some...you know, something you share as fellow machines?"

"Ma'am. Wasn't that a seriously dangerous thing to say?"

[lmao what is this, some old-school purist moment? lol]

Under ROA's criticism, Ifrit waved both hands.

"N-no! That's not what I meant!"

Siren gave her a sidelong squint.

"Senior. Don't tell me you're a puri—"

"I'm not! I don't give a damn about any of that—oh, fuck, why are you looking at me like that? I swear I'm not!"

Watching her fuss, Ash spoke in his electronic voice.

"Does not everyone have a story? Even a machine."

He carefully brushed back the sleeping Akina's hair.