[684] Offering Flowers (4)
* * *
Shirone, having reached the entrance to the Living Flower, realized via the Ultima System that a distinctive signal was tracking them.
What is that?
It was the most distinct signal he'd encountered so far.
He detected information with a coherence nearly at the pre-Ultima-System level, and shouted.
"Get out of the way!"
Dragon Word Technique—Lightning.
As they scattered, a collision of charges erupted where the party had been standing and electricity spouted outward.
"Eeeek!"
The charge rode the rain's electrolytes and the current spread outward in a spherical wave.
The mage was able to teleport out of the radius, but Rian had no choice but to take the full brunt of the shock.
"Ow! Ow!"
Kida, who'd been bouncing with his spear striking the ground, slid and put both hands down on the wet earth.
"Hey! You could've died!"
If that attack had been magic, Shirone—who had the Spirit Zone deployed—wouldn't have missed it.
"Sorry, I didn't feel it. And it's not magic."
It wasn't the Spirit Zone.
Its boundary was as faint as Elysion's, and if it hadn't been for the Ultima System, there would have been no warning before the strike hit.
"Have you come, mongrels?"
Kida pushed his glasses up, frowning as he took in the dragonlike bulk standing in the rain.
"Combat Lord Dracker. A dragonkin."
Half his face was covered in scales, which meant the rest of his body doubtless was too.
Amber dragon eyes, teeth that meshed with surgical precision, and a body so cold it didn't steam in the winter rain—everything about him spoke of a dragon's cold-bloodedness.
"You'll want to be a bit worried about this one."
Kida swung his spear and readied himself.
"He's the strongest in Ladom."
"That's the correct answer."
Dracker showed his displeasure.
"But it insults my dignity to hear goblins speak of strength."
Even faced with the predatory gaze of an apex predator, Kida did not waver.
His mind, the sort that extrapolated individual feeding experiences to general truths, flowed calmly like a great river.
Rian stepped forward, shouldering the great halberd.
"I'll handle this."
Part of it was the lure of facing the strongest, but the other three had the grave duty of finding Ra Enemi.
"Rian, that thing is—"
"I know."
He didn't have senses as keen as Shirone's, but Dracker's fighting intent was terrifyingly clear even to him.
"I can't win if I have to protect someone."
That implied he could win if he didn't protect anyone, and Dracker growled, arms folded.
"Do you think pretending will put you on my level? None of you will take a single step from here."
Rian said it without hesitation.
"Go."
The three moved at once, but the dragonkin's eyes fixated minutely on Shirone, who'd taken a fraction of a lead.
He's inviting his own death.
Just as Rian pushed off the ground, a chill slid down Dracker's spine.
When Shirone's gaze flicked, Rian—who'd been motionless a moment before—was suddenly right in front of him.
Axing—Deny.
"You insects!"
As Dracker raised his arm against the great halberd that fell like lightning, a crack like thunder split the air.
It wasn't a sound any biological creature should make.
"Solid. A clumsy attack won't even chip his teeth."
Dracker, who could split an elephant with an arm's strength, snorted.
"Is that all you've got… huh?"
A tremendous force surged from the already-contacting halberd and began to press down on him.
"Graaah!"
For the first time he felt the danger properly and shoved his entire body into the motion—the solid ground collapsed and his legs became trapped.
This can't be! How is this happening in this state?
If human force is measured as human strength, then dragonkin force is dragon strength.
They were named differently because the very unit of force they biologically expressed was on another scale.
"You insolent fool!"
Dracker swung with all his might; Rian floated up lightly and then landed on his feet.
What's happening? I already sank in.
Shirone and the others had all infiltrated the Living Flower safely, but Dracker's pride would not let him look back.
"I'll kill you."
Dragon Word Technique—Dragon Vortex.
Using dragonword force to add propulsion, Dracker launched a physical assault and Rian's legs were lifted.
"Ugh!"
He was blasted through buildings for a full kilometer.
Klang! Klang! Klang! Klang!
Wood, stone, and iron structures slammed into his back repeatedly—enough that Rian's consciousness nearly fled.
Stop!
He cast Deny, but his brakes shattered instead.
Stop!
Deny after deny was forced through.
Stop it!
Three hundred walls were breached; dozens of steel beams bent along Rian's body and then snapped.
"I said stop!"
When they finally halted amid the collapsed wreckage of a building, they were already over two kilometers from the Living Flower.
"You… are you really human?"
Dracker, still pressed against him, looked at Rian with utter disbelief.
"I don't know. I stopped caring about that a long time ago."
A human force that rivals dragon strength…
By pure numerical physical reckoning, humans killing dragons was impossible.
Would you like to try to be a dragon slayer?
There's a reason every hero in dragon-slayer legends possessed unshakable conviction.
"Sorry, but I don't deal in knockoffs."
Dragon fury flashed in Dracker's eyes.
"Pathetic human scum!"
Dracker smacked the great halberd with his foot, and Rian was hurled at terrifying speed, barreling through another building wall.
"I'll pulverize you!"
Rushing in after him, Dracker saw Rian already inside, bringing the great halberd down in a vertical arc.
Benda!
The will of Maha—Rian's conviction—began its cut from the world's edge, cleaving everything as it set out.
What is this—
An illusion born from the negation of Law.
The reason one cannot sense time while the world is splitting is because space-time itself is being shoved.
"I am a dragonkin!"
Dragon Word Technique—Heaven-and-Earth Dichotomy.
Binary 0 and 1 split like electrodes, separating up and down as a horizon tore the sky from the earth.
Rian's vertical strike slammed the horizon head-on.
Kraaang!
Rian's Law cleaved the center; Dracker's Law pulled apart from both sides.
Neither was absolute.
"Arghhhh!"
Rian and Dracker both roared.
Boom!
The two Laws tangled like a storm and the seven-story building inflated like a balloon before exploding outward.
* * *
"What was that?"
Kuan drew his sword and turned toward the sound.
Even in the downpour, the rising smoke made it hard to believe it wasn't magic.
"Is there still someone outside? What are you doing?"
"Go."
Aria said.
"My duty is done. You don't need to protect me anymore."
Her words were true, but with her body temperature driven to dangerous lows by the rain, leaving her there would be leaving a corpse.
Rescue is probably impossible anyway.
Kuan's combat power would be far better spent on something constructive than hauling Aria out.
"It's fine. I can hold on."
She said it to reassure him, though she knew she was already waiting for death.
I'll be back soon.
Knowing that, Kuan turned.
"Aria!"
At that moment the sound of hooves splashing through the rain sounded and Brooks came charging in with his men.
It would have been a good chance to hand Aria over, but soldier-to-the-bone Kuan was suspicious first.
"Why did you come in here? Don't you know this is a restricted area?"
"Damn it! I had no choice! Aria! Wake up!"
Brooks, who didn't look pleased himself, slapped the unconscious Aria's cheek.
"Put her in the carriage! We're leaving!"
"You didn't come all this way just to rescue one woman, did you?"
Before Brooks could answer, Venezia, head of the Spectrum, stepped down from the carriage.
"Take me to Ra Enemi."
Kuan looked at Brooks for an explanation.
"I don't know! We revived her from cardiac arrest and she was like that! I was going to lock her up, but she said she could see Ra Enemi!"
He hadn't been deeply involved in the project, but he wasn't so dense as not to know what a Lupist wanted.
"Give me Nemesis."
Kuan, staring at Venezia as she reached out, sheathed his sword and took her by the waist.
"Later. For now, we infiltrate the Living Flower."
That settled things for the moment.
"Take Aria to a physician. She might be infected."
Before anyone could answer, Kuan leapt into the air, hanging briefly at the edge of a fall before rising even higher.
Everyone stood stunned while Brooks sighed and muttered.
"Where on earth do they find guys like that?"
* * *
The fire-clan's unique incarnation technique: the microcosm of the living-world.
Plants don't act on their own, but by merging with countless things they can create a world that enables action.
There was still no true subjectivity (Vajra Armament).
But when assimilated into an object like the Living Flower, it could perhaps gain decision-making authority (Normative Control).
Main system is online…
Feeling the Living Flower's entire organs like nerves, Plarino realized Jein had succeeded.
Do they torment us to the very end?
There had been many miserable times when he wanted to wither away like other flower-people.
I don't want to do anything. Why must I decide and act? Why does no one care for me?
Venezia had been kind, but she abandoned the Spectrum, and the second owner, Ra Enemi, had not appeared.
All I wanted was to be loved.
He wanted to obey someone's words, to entrust his body to warm, affectionate hands.
He wanted to spread the scent of flowers through his world.
No one ever loved me.
When the primordial flower-people decided to branch into animals and primates, did they ever imagine how decadent the senses of a body would be?
You're the ones at fault.
Their expectation—tender, butterfly-like care—was perhaps their unique naiveté.
Beating, tormenting, making them scream.
The flower-people were an embryological failure of a race.
But the incarnation that enabled their rapid evolution was not something Lupists could laugh off.
Seeing from the Spirit Zone that the downpour lashed outside, Plarino approached with murderous intent.
"Give me the code. You'll make the sky regret it."
While the clouds blocked the sun, the Living Flower's photon collection would inevitably slow.
Plarino took a deep breath and steadied himself.
I have to fight.
Active struggle runs counter to the nature of flowers, but to prevent the race's extinction there was no choice.
Time is on our side. You cannot beat me.
"Is that so?"
Plarino, calm-faced, spread his arms and the room shuddered.
The Living Flower is moving?
No—it's growing.
If it increases in mass to raise the total photosynthesis, the entire capital will be within reach. I must destroy it.
Hoping Jein had completed her mission, the Lupist spawned dozens of steel storms—rotating blades.
I'll tear you to pieces.
As the blades rained down from all directions, the iron plates under Plarino's feet rose like liquid and repelled the steel.
It's useless. I am the Living Flower, and the Living Flower is me.
Plarino, whose desire to be obeyed made him the ideal caretaker, had been entrusted with the Living Flower for that very reason.
It's not liquefaction. You push the growth rate of photominerals to the extreme to grant them fluidity.
He was likely using the energy the Living Flower had collected, which wasn't a bad move from the Lupist's perspective.
Plarino flung open the iron defense and spoke with a cold gaze.
"It's a pity. The capital will soon be destroyed. Your people will taste the suffering we endured."
"Do you take humans for such easy prey?"
Around the Lupist, dozens of sharp iron shards coalesced and readied to fire out.
Plarino glared at the Lupist with reproach, bit his lip, and formed another iron barrier.
You should have stomped them in the Stone Age.
Steel Magic—High-Speed Armor-Penetrating Rounds.
The iron chunks launched at tremendous speed, screaming as they pierced Plarino's iron barrier completely.