Chapter 253 : Chapter 253
Chapter 253. Overloading (8)
After bounding down several flights of zigzagging stairs, the surroundings grew increasingly choked with pitch-black smoke. At some point, it became nearly impossible to see ahead.
The moment they finally reached the first floor, Enoch faltered and stopped in his tracks, staring at the scene before him.
Beneath the eerie glow of emergency lights, the interior of the vast underground shelter was a landscape no different from hell.
April, who had been following right behind Enoch, also stopped beside him and murmured softly.
"Ah. This is......"
Enoch slowly walked forward.
The echo of his footsteps rang faintly, making him realize the ceiling was far higher than expected.
The floor of the underground shelter corridor, with its ceiling stretching dozens of meters high, appeared to have been solidly reinforced with aluminum plating, but even that was shattered and broken apart in disarray.
Everywhere Enoch walked, people lay collapsed and groaning, while fires blazed from the wreckage of caved-in walls and pillars.
The black smoke billowing from the inferno made the surrounding air almost impossible to breathe.
Enoch stopped in his tracks for a moment.
Beyond the curtain of smoke, a massive silhouette was visible.
The shadows of Magical Beasts, their grotesque forms over a dozen meters tall, moved like reapers.
And before those beasts, a red silhouette that had been darting fast enough to leave afterimages was struck by one beast's attack and sent flying with a heavy rebound.
That something came hurtling through the black smoke from straight ahead, rocketing toward them.
Flipping through the air in an acrobatic series of somersaults, kicking off the ground multiple times to bleed off speed, the silhouette touched down lightly atop a pile of rubble beside Enoch.
And from that spot, an indignant, prim voice reached his ears.
"Grr, those things......!"
Spotting a pair of snow-white, soft bare feet right beside him, Enoch glanced that way.
"Sirocco."
Sirocco was perched on the railing. Tail bristled straight up, both arms braced against the floor as she glared at the enemy — every bit the posture of a wolf on the hunt.
As expected, Sirocco had already descended underground and been engaging the enemies.
Enoch instinctively covered the stab wound on his abdomen with his jacket and arm. If Sirocco noticed this wound, she would surely be shaken.
Having decided that, he concealed the injury as best he could and asked her calmly.
"......Sirocco. What's the situation?"
"Bad, as you can see. But it's not too late yet. The people here — not that many have died."
"What do you mean?"
"Those huge Magical Beasts — for some reason, they're not killing the people they attack outright. The ones collapsed everywhere are just unconscious."
At her strange words, Enoch surveyed the area for a moment.
People propped against the shelter walls or collapsed on the floor were still squirming and moving. Just as Sirocco said, those who had fallen were still alive.
"It does look that way."
In a literal sense, hardly anyone seemed to be dead, but paradoxically, that only made the surrounding carnage even more grotesque.
The shelter was awash in a river of blood shed by those who were alive only because they couldn't die.
A man with his shoulder and leg sliced open lay heaving on the ground, and dark red blood silently crept across the aluminum-plated floor.
"Aah, it hurts! Somebody save me!"
"No! I don't want to die here...!"
"Sis, sis! Where'd you go......"
A man drenched head to toe in blood, hobbling as he ran. A girl with a broken leg unable to walk, crawling across the floor.
The sight of children desperately reaching out to one another made Enoch slowly tighten his grip on the Magic Gear in his hand.
Freelancers were engaging the enemy as best they could, but with wounded civilians and beasts intermingled, they seemed unable to bring their full strength to bear, retreating again and again at every turn.
The Magical Beasts were clearly exploiting this advantage — rather than immediately infecting or killing the people in the shelter, they appeared to be wounding and then leaving them.
Sirocco slowly rose from her position, glanced around, and asked.
"But I don't get why they're doing that. At the very least, I don't think they're doing it because they look down on us."
"It's simple. Most likely, they're leaving them alive so they can infect all the wounded at once later."
Sirocco's ears perked up.
"All at once? Hmm, wouldn't infecting them one by one be better from their perspective?"
"No. They're obviously aiming for something bigger."
Enoch scanned the surroundings.
"If there are wounded, the other people slow down trying to tend to the injured and can't flee far. That's what they're exploiting."
Enoch looked at the Master Class Magical Beasts visible beyond the surging flames and spoke.
"They're trying to turn every last person in this place into Magical Beasts. Every single one of them."
The positions the enemies had taken told the same story.
Even now, rather than pushing deeper into the underground shelter, the beasts were holding at the entrance, attacking everyone who tried to escape.
With the Master Class Magical Beasts blocking the outer entrance, getting past them and going further inside would inevitably require a fight.
Around the time Enoch sent a look toward April and Nano, who had come up beside him, signaling them to scout the situation deeper inside the shelter—
Sirocco perked her ears, glanced at him from right beside, and then puffed out her lips in a pout.
"So that's how it is? As I thought, I can't stand those things."
Despite her composed words, Sirocco's crimson eyes burned vividly with anger.
"I was already in a foul mood just looking at them. And now they're pulling petty tricks on top of it — I hate them even more."
She crouched low, baring her small fangs as she growled.
"Then I'll blow every last one of those weaklings away!"
"No. There's something a bit more important than that."
"Huh?"
Sirocco turned to look at him, puzzled.
Enoch flicked his gaze toward the leader-class Magical Beasts rampaging throughout the shelter.
"One I could handle, but taking on all four Master Class at once comes with too much risk of collateral damage to the people around us. I need you to handle the civilians' evacuation."
"Hmph, no need! There's no need to evacuate anyone. I'll blow all of them away myself...!"
"If you could have done that, you'd have already done it."
"Wha?!"
When Enoch cut her off with a flat expression, Sirocco whipped around to face him.
"What, are you saying I can't?!"
"That's right. You were just sent flying over here while trying to fight the Master Class ones. Can you honestly handle all the enemies by yourself?"
Sirocco flinched as if struck at a vital point, her face flushing bright red as she averted her gaze.
But then, as if refusing to back down regardless, she folded her arms in front of her chest and looked up at him.
"What, so you're saying you'll fight alone again this time?"
"Yes. I already took out one of them on the surface. I'll just do the same with these ones......"
"No! That's not what I'm saying!"
"What?"
Sirocco, as if unable to hold it in any longer, shouted in her clear voice and leapt down from the railing. Then she marched straight toward him.
"You! You've been reeking of blood this whole time!"
"That's......"
Only then did Enoch realize the injury had already been discovered. Sirocco didn't stop, padding up to him step by step until she halted in front of him and glared up with sharp eyes.
Then she stared straight at the wound Enoch had been casually hiding with one arm, and her usually aloof eyes reddened slightly, as if emotions were welling up.
"Listen, I can tell by the smell. This is definitely a serious wound, right? So this time, let me fight in your place!"
Sirocco stared straight up at Enoch with eyes so clean and direct they seemed transparent.
"I'm, like, seriously worried about you! So this time, I'm going to protect you as your Follower Family so you don't get hurt anymore!"
"Sirocco."
"You know? Last time, when you took on that solo mission or whatever, I couldn't help you either. So at least here, I want to help you!"
Fists clenched tight as she shouted, clear tears had gathered in Sirocco's eyes, glistening and shimmering.
Her words, spoken with every fiber of sincerity, felt as if they reached all the way to his heart. Enoch slowly shook his head.
"There's no time for that, Sirocco. The situation's urgent. Whoever can do it right now, does it."
"No! Sure, you might be stronger than me, but still, taking on all those monsters called Master Class by yourself is......!"
"Right now, it's possible."
"Whaat?!"
Sirocco's eyes went round, and she took a step back as if she couldn't believe it. Then, paying no mind to the tears in her own eyes, she asked.
"B-but. How are you going to beat all of them by yourself? And even if you really do win, the blood......!"
Hearing Sirocco's worried cry, Enoch lifted his head and quietly gazed at the enemies ahead.
Well, come to think of it, the situation might indeed be hopeless. Facing powerful enemies while wounded. Not knowing when he might be rendered combat-incapable.
But even so, there was no other way.
"It's fine. Don't worry."
"What do you mean by that?!"
Enoch passed by Sirocco, who was staring at him with a stricken expression and shouting, and added briefly.
"Sirocco. Earlier, you said you'd protect me as your Follower Family so I wouldn't get hurt."
"Yeah. So?"
"It's the same for me."
Enoch reached out and gently ran his hand over Sirocco's head as she looked up at him from right beside.
"I'm just going to protect you as your squadmate so you don't get hurt either."
"You......"
Sirocco stared up at him in a daze, cheeks flushed, tears still gathered at the corners of her eyes. Glancing at her pretty face, openly worried for him, Enoch added quietly.
"And this is the only way, right now."
***
"U-um. Are you really okay?"
Seeing April approach from right beside him, Enoch nodded.
"What's the situation deeper inside the shelter?"
April glanced down at her sniper scope and nodded.
"Nano and I checked earlier, and it doesn't look like the Magical Beasts have gotten that far in yet. Like we thought, the Master Class and their underlings are holding this entrance area and blocking everyone trying to run."
"Good. Then please handle the evacuation of people further inside the shelter. Support Sirocco while protecting Nano."
"But Direct Lineage, your wound......!"
"There's no time. Follow orders for now."
Enoch said that and slowly walked forward. April stared blankly at his back for a moment, then bit down hard on her lip and grabbed Nano's hand.
"Grr, you'd better really be okay! I'm trusting you!"
Glancing back at the two girls dashing away behind him, Enoch slowly walked forward.
Sure enough, a Master Class Magical Beast that had spotted him through the black haze slowly turned its body.
Only then did both it and the other Flying-Type Magical Beasts in the distance come fully into view.
These were enemies of an entirely different form from the Master Class beast he had fought on the surface.
Enormous bodies over ten meters long, wrapped in jet-black carapace. Two pairs of long wings hovered in a low stationary flight, while beneath the abdomen, a long stinger like a spike and three pairs of razor-sharp legs writhed.
The carapace on either side of its flat, pointed head was perforated like the eye slits of a helm, and from those gaps, an ominous green light oozed and dripped.
The overall appearance called to mind a grotesque, enormous hornet formed from rock.
The moment it spotted him, it slid through the air with contempt and charged, arching its wasp-like abdomen high before lunging straight at Enoch.
But Enoch did not retreat. He braced the axe at an angle, supporting it with his other hand.
CLAAANG—!
The stinger, covered in serrated teeth like a spike, grazed off the steel axe shaft's side with a tremendous crash and a shower of sparks.
Reeling from the rebound of its decisive blow being parried, the Master Class Magical Beast staggered backward in midair.
Enoch swept the axe shaft wide to one side and continued advancing toward the enemy without stopping.
Despite the weight-class difference of nearly six times, the Master Class beast let out a bizarre roar, as if unable to believe its attack had been deflected so easily.
That roar seemed to be a form of communication.
The remaining three Master Class Magical Beasts, which had been hunting other civilians some distance away, also had their attention drawn, turning toward Enoch and tensing for a moment.
"That's right. Draw more attention this way."
Enoch whispered.
"From here on, I'm your opponent."
Enoch gripped the nearly two-meter-long axe offset and slowly raised it to his side.
The last time he was in the Inner World, the rising surface of the Rhodes lake had barely reached his thighs. In terms of erosion progression, it shouldn't be that far along.
But Enoch knew well just how powerful the individuals bearing the title of Sword Saint had been in the past.
Even if it was merely a fragment of that power, now that he was inheriting it directly, there was no reason not to use it.
SCREEEEEEE—!
When the Master Class leader roared again, the ordinary Magical Beasts that had been active in the area immediately halted and snapped their gazes toward him.
Then, Carapace Lances gripped at the ready, they began charging through the flames and black smoke from every direction.
From the side, where April had been evacuating as ordered, came a scream-like shout.
"No! Direct Lineage! Get out of the way!!"
Enoch paid it no mind and walked forward, laying the jet-black, modern-designed axe flat at his hip.
The weapon in his hand was not a sword, but imperfectly executing the motions a Sword Saint had perfected was no issue.
However, even granting that, the Sword Forms he had used until now would not suffice to take on enemies like these all at once.
[Reverse Flow] possessed a principle that could deflect enemy attacks, but it was not a wide-range counter designed for simultaneous oncoming attackers.
The same went for [Fire Wheel] and [Explosive Sword]. With his wounded body, executing the intense, mobility-focused style of those forms was impossible.
Then there was only one conclusion.
"......"
Walking alone, Enoch slowly raised his head and stared at the enemies charging in a black mass.
Until now, the inheritance had been halted, so he hadn't been able to inherit new Sword Forms.
But the Sword Saint's erosion of the Inner World was currently underway.
Enoch was gradually being eroded even by her memories and experience with the sword.
And moreover, the sensations he had inherited thus far had already given him sufficient understanding of the principles behind the Sword Saint of the Waves' swordsmanship.
——Right now, it might be possible.
That his memories were being gradually consumed by the Sword Saint of the past meant that the swordsmanship she had forged through her life was also flowing into him.
With each step forward, his breathing and his mind grew as still as deep water.
A talent for the sword that transcended even perception raced through his fingertips and transformed into cold whispers throughout his body.
And as he listened to that cold sensation of the sword whispering from his fingertips and gripped the axe—
Enoch assumed a stance from a memory whose origin he could not place.
Lowering his front leg deep, he swept the axe wide behind his hip.
What he desired was a single lethal counter strike that would skewer the enemy.
What he would unleash was the swordsmanship of the Sword Saint who had reached the pinnacle in ages past.
The instant enemies from every direction leapt skyward in a black wave, Enoch surged his left foot forward in a wide step and unleashed the form.
Sword Saint of the Waves - Swordsmanship Form 4, [Water Moon Rain].
Like a water's surface reflecting moonlight and rain, a massive horizontal slash directed at every attack around him.
The flow of a tremendous strike, like the rippling of waves, slipped into the rhythm of the charging enemies and carved through the fleeting instant.
A flash of enormous sword-light traced a perfect circle, sweeping everything horizontally in all directions. The roars of the Magical Beasts ceased in unison, and only silence fell.
With the axe pointed toward the ground, kneeling on one knee, Enoch remained frozen in his stance at the center. Everything around him seemed to flow in slow motion, as if time itself had stopped.
Only the faint hum of vibrating metal filled the silence in every direction.
CRUMBLE—!
And the very next moment, three massive concrete pillars around Enoch were all severed clean through. They rapidly spewed dust as they slowly tilted and began to fall.
At the same time, the charging Magical Beasts — all bisected at the waist — rained down as corpses scattering jet-black ash upon the ground, their remains pattering down like a shower.