Volume 1 – Following the Maze Drawn With Lines of Blood
Mary and Angel’s battle continued.
The furniture and the bed in the room burned away and the walls themselves lost shape.
The traces of a fierce battle – no, it would be more appropriate to call it a stampede.
“You dodge well. I understand why they said that Francis can ‘see the future’.”
A charred smell filled up the room, and Mary’s blood stained shoulders went up and down as she breathed heavily while facing Angel.
Many of her wounds did not recover, and she felt as if her entire body burned up.
“But, it’s no use.”
“I can keep going.”
“Keep going to do what?”
Angel’s exposed flesh scraped against itself as his mouth warped while he showed a twisted smile, making a wet sound.
His expression, his teeth stained pink with blood, everything about him was unpleasant.
(My attacks are hitting him. But he’s already recovered and back to normal…… How can I defeat this monster!?)
Mary held her giant scythe in both hands and grew arms that resembled wings from her back.
She dodged Angel’s fierce attacks with the guidance of Star, and slashed at him over and over again.
A few times, she even hit him deep enough to call it a critical wound.
But her enemy did not fall on his knees, not even once.
He always returned to normal with his overwhelming speed of restoration that surpassed even Mary’s, as if he felt no pain and was not even hurt at all.
“Don’t say I’m cowardly or anything now. This power is the same as yours. You should have died a long time ago too, right? I’m getting irritated here too. Because you’re still not dead.”
Angel’s arm transformed.
One of its tendons extended like a rod.
He grabbed it with both arms while the massive red blade extended further, and it transformed into the shape of a scythe.
“Myriad of Souls Nemesis!”
He attacked with a simple, single swing.
But it had the power of a ten thousand slashes.
His blade slid on the floor and scraped it apart, coming at Mary like a wall closing in on her.
Its range was wide, so Mary had to destroy the walls above, or to the sides, and escape the room.
She had to ‘destroy’ something. But she still couldn’t make it in time to evade.
So she looked at Star’s guiding light.
She did not evade, but instead stood and faced the attack.
She allowed the attack to hurt her enough that she could still survive, and let it pass by.
“Hnh, aaaaaaaah!”
Her entire body was cut up, but her limbs remained.
She created a scythe again, and slashed at Angel.
She cut him deeply.
But he did not move, and quickly kicked Mary’s side.
A fierce explosive sound loud enough to shatter eardrums resounded.
Mary’s abdomen was gouged, and she crashed into a wall on the brink of destruction, then penetrated it and crashed into the wall of the corridor.
“Gah!? Ugh, guuuh…..!”
“Is that the limit of your knowledge of the future? That’s how you always were, Star. You underestimate things.”
Mary writhed in agony while her dress was stained with rubble and blood.
Star, which took Francis’s figure as it appeared before Mary’s eyes, spoke in an apologetic tone of voice:
“Sorry, Mary, but that was the safest route.”
“I know. That’s how big the power difference between us is…..!”
Mary stood up while enduring the pain and the unpleasant sensation of her injuries healing.
(There’s no guarantee I can win by fighting him like this. I have to change the battle, and I need strength for that.)
She knew how to do that.
But her foe did not grant her any time to think.
“You must be relaxed if you’re thinking about things.”
“Wha-!?”
Before Mary knew it, Angel was right in front of her eyes.
He extended his arm.
He could easily crush her head if he wanted to.
“Shoot everything!”
“This is where we show off our poweeeeeeer!”
Then, countless mana bullets were shot at Angel.
Soldiers clad in the newest model powered suits released a tempest of bullets using their mana guns equipped on both arms.
“That voice…… From the Liberation Front!”
“Hm……”
Angel’s extended arm was torn to shreds and blown away.
He recovered right away, but this gave Mary a chance to run.
She distanced herself from him as the barrage of bullets continued and became fiercer.
“Captain, it’s working. I don’t know what that monster is, but it’s working!”
“Yeah, the firepower and functions are perfect – just as I’d expect of the cutting-edge models.”
“But he’s really disgusting, what the hell is he!?”
“I don’t know, but he’s the enemy, so shoot! Shooot!”
A powered suit connected to the barrier blocking the stairs, and hacked it open.
In fact, the person who led the people of the Liberation Front to the spot with the armors, and conducted this hack, was Noted.
The doctors who left the room while carrying Ami kneeled down behind them and blocked their ears.
“I can regenerate, but it’s hard to preserve this flesh.”
Angel finished regenerating his arm while still being shot.
Then, he squinted his eyes with hesitation, and glared at the powered suits.
“I hate mosquitoes flying around. I should destroy those first.”
He extended his arm.
A large volume of mana made waves through the entirety of his arm.
He was preparing to cast a spell, and this mana caused the bullets flying by to disappear.
“Captain, doesn’t that……. seem dangerous? It’s not working at all now!”
“We can’t do anything but shoot! Don’t stop!”
The powered suits were cutting-edge, and the sorcery guns installed on them were very powerful.
But they could not overpower arcana or Angel.
This also meant that the powered suits’ armor could not withstand Angel’s attacks.
“I won’t let you!”
Then, Mary, who seemed to have run away towards the back, closed in on her opponent and slashed at his arm with her scythe.
“You should have just stayed quiet and ran away.”
But Mary’s mana was not enough to cut Angel’s arm off.
The edge of her scythe got stopped by Angel’s mana right before it touched his arm, and started shaking.
She grinded her teeth and charged her blade with even more mana.
The dead dwelling inside her body gushed forth and her scythe became twice as large.
“Thousand Corpse…… Burial Scythe!”
The blade finally reached Angel’s arm and cut it off.
But the wave of mana floating in the air did not disappear.
“First of all, you’re mistaken to think that you can stop sorcery by stopping the body.”
“What!?”
“Myriad of Souls Nemesis Cannon.”
His spell was mercilessly completed.
The mana he was charging it with turned into a strip of light and shot towards the group members.
(I have to stop it, but I can’t, even I will die if I touch it! What am I supposed to do, Star!?)
She calmly answered Mary’s question.
“It’s okay. They will not die.”
“Huh…..?”
It was a heat ray defying all norms, which could vaporize a human body by touching it. The floor was covered in a white light, and Mary’s eyes saw nothing but white.
She could feel it burn her skin without even touching it.
Noone could survive after directly suffering an attack from something like this.
When Mary could see again, she expected that not even corpses would remain……
But the scenery Angel and Mary saw completely defied their expectations.
“Impossible. It stopped?”
The walls and the windows had melted from the heat, but the ray had snapped off on the way.
The group members were safe.
The powered suits were unscathed.
“Impossible…… They should all be dead……”
The one standing in front of them was……
“Ami!”
It was Ami in her hospital gown, with countless wheels floating up around her.
The wheels which stopped Angel’s attack fell to the floor and rolled back inside Ami’s body.
“Those wheels, Wheel of Fortune! You people would stop me at the cost of the lives you’re supposed to protect!?”
“I won’t let anyone hurt Lady Mary! Lend me your strength, God of Wheels!”
New wheels appeared from inside Ami’s arms.
They floated in the air, and charged at Angel with great speed.