Chapter 251 : Chapter 251
Chapter 251. Overloading (6)
A wave of vertigo swept through his body. The unbearable sensation churned through him, and Enoch dropped to one knee. The impact of his body slamming into the ground left his head spinning.
Shadows had already begun to creep faintly along the edges of his vision. The erosion was undoubtedly resuming.
Maintaining his composure, Enoch raised his head.
Don't panic.
His molars clenched together like a hand gripping an axe handle with all its strength. Nothing was over yet. First, he needed to assess his own condition.
Still on one knee, he looked down at his empty hand, clenching and unclenching it to gauge his body's state.
The forced inheritance hadn't begun yet.
But it was unmistakably harder than usual to read the presences around him.
For now, if he paid close attention, continuing to fight still seemed possible, but the real problem lay elsewhere.
The erosion's progression had resumed, and on top of that, the possibility of it accelerating had grown significantly.
The fact that he didn't know when the forced entry into the Inner World might begin again, just like last time, pierced through his mind, and a chill swept down his spine.
If he entered that state in the middle of combat, nine times out of ten, everything would be finished.
"......Kh."
The image of a hole in a dam suddenly flickered through his mind.
He definitely remembered hearing it somewhere. No matter how sturdy a dam was, even a small hole could be utterly fatal.
Eventually, unable to withstand the water pressure concentrating on that tiny crack, larger fractures would spread everywhere like dominoes, until the entire dam collapsed.
Enoch's current state was no different.
To put it as a metaphor, the dam was Persona's Unique Magic that had been holding back the erosion, and the inheritance restarting just now was the small hole in that dam.
The inheritance itself was progressing excruciatingly slowly for the moment, but now that it had restarted, the collapse of the Unique Magic Persona had laid in place might accelerate as well.
That ominous intuition seemed to crawl up through his fingertips, and he shook his head, forcibly scattering the thought.
No, it's just speculation and intuition anyway.
There's no guarantee anywhere that the halted inheritance will collapse like a dam with a hole in it.
Of course, considering that Persona had been suppressing the rising waters of the Rhodes lake in the Inner World from overflowing, it might have been a rather apt metaphor. That thought drew a thin, bitter smile from him.
Shaking his head to forcibly redirect his thoughts, Enoch lifted his gaze and tried to look ahead.
Regardless, there was no time to catch his breath here.
Just then, from behind him, a high and clear girl's voice, completely out of breath, rang in his ears with worry.
"Haa, haa! D-Direct Lineage! Are you okay?"
Still on one knee, he glanced back over his shoulder, and his eyes met those of April, who had already closed the distance behind him.
It seemed she had rushed over here the moment she finished sniping, as she was gasping for breath.
April's crimson eyes stared up at him with an anxious expression, fidgeting restlessly. Seeing that, Enoch kept his expression unchanged as much as possible and nodded.
"I'm fine."
"A-are you sure? But no matter how I look at it, your condition looks seriously bad......!"
The thought that even April could tell that much crossed his mind, and Enoch shook his head in silence.
"It doesn't matter."
Letting on that his condition was poor in the middle of combat wouldn't solve anything in this situation.
What mattered now wasn't something like receiving treatment, but the success of the operation. Enoch immediately looked at April and spoke flatly.
"Right now, we need to find the remaining enemies quickly. Let's move."
"Th-then just a second. Let me support you!"
April hurried over, and before he could stop her, she draped Enoch's arm over her shoulder.
Perhaps because of the difference in their heights, his hand brushed past her slender shoulder and reached the soft swell beneath her thin tank top. The smooth skin was vividly felt at his fingertips, and Enoch gazed at her quietly.
So I still have enough composure left to feel warmth like this. Then things should be fine for now.
"Thanks. I'll walk on my own from here."
After slowly rising with April's support, Enoch expressed his gratitude to her. Then, despite staggering, he pulled away from April and stood on his own.
Enoch's black blazer with its silver trim brushed against the girl's half-unzipped jumper as it fell away.
"Ah! Direct Lineage......!"
April reached out a pale hand toward him, but then hesitated, clenching it tight before pulling it back. She looked up at Enoch with worry.
"Um...... Y-you're really okay, right? For real?"
"More or less."
Enoch answered only that with an expressionless face, kicked the axe lying on the ground upward with his foot, and caught it sideways. Then he glanced around at the city skyline.
"Let's move for now. There are still enemies remaining."
April still wore an expression of concern as she looked around beside him, then reluctantly nodded.
"Mm, right. The earlier comms said there were definitely multiple Master Class ones. We only took out one here."
"Ah! You're both here-mka!"
At the familiar speech pattern from the side, Enoch turned to look. There, Nano was running toward them with her drone.
As if just remembering, April jolted in surprise and looked toward her.
"Aah, right! Sorry for leaving you behind and coming alone!"
"Ahaha. You suddenly said you were worried about the Direct Lineage going to his knee and just took off without me, so I had a rough time catching up-mda! Are you okay-mka?"
"I'm fine. Nano, what about you?"
Nano smiled brightly and scratched the back of her head.
"Ahaha, you don't need to worry about me-mda! As long as I've got Bzz-Bzz, dodging enemies while moving is nothing-mda!"
"That's right! Nano was a huge help in confirming there were no enemies nearby so I could set up my sniping position too. Isn't that amazing?"
Seeing April lightly link arms with her and give a little wink, Enoch nodded.
Come to think of it, those two might produce an excellent synergy effect together. Having thought that far, Enoch looked at Nano, thinking the timing was perfect.
"Then Nano, can you locate the remaining Master Class Magical Beasts with your drone?"
"About that, I've been scouting with Bzz-Bzz for a while now-mda."
"Did you find them?"
"No-mda! It doesn't seem like they're anywhere on the ground or in the sky around here-mda! On top of that!"
Nano, who had been operating the drone through the display projected behind the visor that came down just enough to half-cover her eyes, let out a troubled groan.
Then she turned to look this way.
"Now that you've taken out the leader-class Magical Beast, Direct Lineage, it's really hard to get a proper look around-mda!"
"What?"
Enoch was momentarily at a loss for words and looked around.
Before he knew it, jet-black ash was swirling thick all around them, slowly rising into the sky.
Even as the erosion of his vision continued to progress, he could tell clearly. The Black Ash spewing from the dissolving mass of the Master Class beast was filling the surroundings like a pitch-black curtain.
At this rate, someone could approach from right behind and he wouldn't even notice. It also made sense that even Nano's detection capabilities couldn't easily scout the area.
"But it hasn't been long since the transmission came in saying enemies appeared at the defense line. Even if they're Flying-Type Magical Beasts, they should still be visible nearby, shouldn't they?"
As Enoch said that much, something suddenly clicked. In his mind, blurring from fatigue and confusion, a single possibility narrowed itself down.
Enoch turned his head and stared at the underground shelter visible some dozen blocks ahead, murmuring.
"Don't tell me, then......"
As if she had just been thinking the same thing, April snapped her head up beside him.
"Ugh. No way. Underground, you mean?"
"By process of elimination, that's all that's left."
Enoch turned his head to the side.
"Nano, can you look inside there with the drone right now? I'd like to get a grasp on the situation inside in advance if possible."
Beside him, Nano pushed her visor up, then shook her head with a somewhat troubled expression.
"The thing is, the fire inside the shelter is too intense, and the smoke blocks Bzz-Bzz's line of sight-mda! Plus, equipment like thermal cameras can't be used either because of the heat-mda!"
"But if Master Class Magical Beasts were roaming the area, there's no way Nano wouldn't have noticed. They've got to be inside the underground shelter!"
April's shout from beside him drew an involuntary nod from Enoch as well. It was unfortunate that they couldn't get an accurate read on the interior with Nano's drone before going in, but it was certain.
If the enemies were underground rather than on the surface, that also explained why Sirocco, who had gone ahead to provide support, and Alicia, who should be linking up from another direction, were nowhere to be seen.
If those two had already arrived here, they might have gone down there and were already fighting.
They couldn't waste any more time here.
As Enoch staggered slightly and slowly began to walk forward, April suddenly stepped in from ahead and blocked his path.
"April?"
"Direct Lineage, going now is dangerous!"
"What do you mean?"
"The comms have been silent for a while now. Something's clearly gone very wrong inside. We should at least link up with the other freelancers coming here for support before going in!"
"That'll be too late."
"What?!"
"If people start getting infected inside that underpass, it's over. I don't want that."
"That's...... true, but are you really okay? No matter how I look at it, your condition......!"
"You don't need to worry about it."
Enoch slowly shook his head.
"I can still move. I have no intention of standing by while the people in there are turned into Magical Beasts."
At those words, April made a strained expression and stared up at Enoch with widened eyes for a moment.
A gust of wind blew across the battlefield. April caught the hair scattering in the wind with one hand, snapped her head to the side, and murmured in a voice that all but trailed away.
"......What's that about. It's different from what you said before, after all."
"What I said before?"
April lifted her head.
"That's what I mean! You clearly said you couldn't save everyone here, but if that's the case, then what you said back then wasn't really how you felt......"
The conversation Enoch had with April at the hotel before suddenly surfaced in his mind. Perhaps it was the talk about heroes and champions.
"I think you're misunderstanding something."
Enoch brushed past April, casting her a calm glance as he went.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm simply acting in line with my objectives. As I said before, saving the people here is nothing more than a secondary concern......"
But when Enoch had said that much, he involuntarily stopped mid-sentence.
It was because his eyes met squarely with April's, who was staring up at him with wide, round eyes.
"April?"
Wearing an expression distinctly different from her usual one, April gazed at him with a slightly dazed look and murmured softly.
"Direct Lineage...... Yeah, so that's how it is after all."
"What?"
At her cryptic words, Enoch reflexively asked back. 'That's how it is.' What part of what he just said could have possibly drawn that kind of reaction? He had absolutely no idea.
"What do you mean? It sounds like you've figured something out about me."
"That's right. I think there's one thing I've figured out about you, Direct Lineage."
Enoch tilted his head at an angle, enduring the dizziness. He didn't even know himself yet, so what could she have possibly figured out about him?
The thought that perhaps there were things only someone else could see sparked a sudden surge of interest.
"That's intriguing."
Paying no mind to his confused head, Enoch took a bold step toward April, who had been staring up at him from right in front of him.
"Aah, w-wait. Direct Lineage?"
As he approached without hesitation, the girl's bright pink hair, her eyes wide as she looked up, fluttered in the wind, sweeping past her slightly flushed cheeks.
"You said you figured something out about me?"
"It's, it's nothing special really......"
She clutched one hand in front of her chest and nodded hesitantly.
"At first, I just thought you'd simply carry out your family's mission exactly as you said earlier, that saving people really wasn't a priority for you or anything like that, you know......?"
April stared at him, then pointed a finger straight at Enoch.
And then she quietly whispered the very same words Enoch had once said to her.
"That thing you just said — it's not really how you feel, is it, Direct Lineage?"
Enoch was momentarily at a loss for words.
Not how he feels. So the freelancer girl standing before him was saying that when he called saving people a secondary concern, he didn't mean it.
Whatever side of him she was looking at, in any case, it wasn't the answer he had been expecting. Enoch let out a quiet sigh and shook his head.
"I don't know about that. Even if that were true, nothing changes."
"That's true, but......"
For some reason, April ducked her head forward and murmured quietly, her cheeks flushed.
"......You really do resemble that person, after all."
"Resemble? What are you talking about now?"
"N-nothing! Someone just came to mind all of a sudden! I just thought you were this completely cold person who only cared about his own interests. But that wasn't the case, that's all......"
April shrugged her slender shoulders as if it were nothing, then fiddled with the brim of her ball cap, trying to hide her expression.
But for some reason, the sidelong glances she kept stealing, unable to tear her eyes away, weren't fully concealed.
What on earth is that about?
Enoch stared at the freelancer sniper girl and her strange reactions for a moment, then let out a sigh. He didn't have the luxury of concerning himself with every little reaction right now.
Gripping his dizzy head, Enoch slowly shook it and opened his mouth.
"Let's cut the small talk here. We've confirmed the enemies have been dealt with, so let's move quickly......"
And the next moment, a massive impact tore through Enoch's body mid-sentence.
"......!"
He had just been planning to move to the underground shelter without interference now that the enemies were defeated, so Enoch could not comprehend the flower of crimson blood blooming from his waist.
For an instant, the world seemed to freeze and flow in slow motion.
A beat late, his gaze dropped downward. There, he saw it. A massive awl-shaped Carapace Lance had punched clean through Enoch's abdomen and was jutting out the other side.
Only then did he realize. He had been ambushed from behind.
Amid senses blurred by the onset of the inheritance and a battlefield blanketed in jet-black Magical Beast ash, Enoch's eyes flew wide.