Chapter 261 : Chapter 261
Chapter 261. Overloading (16)
A heavy silence had settled over the deepest shelter of the underground cavern.
Alicia, the Dragoon girl in her black uniform jacket and red skirt, stood leaning against the wall in silence, lance in hand.
The thumping vibrations echoing from outside reverberated through Alicia's ears with an almost sickening emptiness.
Another violent tremor shook the ground beneath her feet. Voices drenched in anxiety erupted from the surrounding civilians.
"Please, please stop......!"
"What the hell is going on out there......!"
"It's, it's okay, right? Really?"
In Alicia's mind danced the image of people driven to the edge of a cliff, teetering dangerously with each tremor.
The pitch-black abyss spread beneath that cliff called despair looked dangerous at a glance, and she could intuitively understand that if they fell, everything would be over.
She didn't even want to think about what would happen if the civilians here gave in to despair and descended into panic.
CRUMBLE—!
Just then, a thunderous CRASH sounded from near the outer bulkhead, and along with a metallic vibration, dust from the ceiling came cascading down.
And then, as if it could hold no longer, a section of the ceiling began to collapse entirely.
A chill ran down Alicia's spine at the massive fragments crashing to the ground, and she hurriedly scanned the area.
"Is everyone okay?!"
Mercifully, no civilians appeared to have lost their lives.
But not everyone was unharmed. People struck by falling debris screamed in a mix of pain and terror, and even Alicia could only close her eyes and grip her lance tight.
The situation was growing worse by the minute.
No — this was precisely when she needed to keep her head.
Alicia shook off the stray thoughts and quickly assessed the surroundings.
Their current position was underground, but with an entire section of ceiling having caved in, debris had piled up.
A long, uneven slope had formed, effectively connecting them to the surface.
But perhaps because of the thunderous booms that had been shaking the area just moments ago, no one dared try to flee outside — not when the bunker's bulkhead could still protect them.
Alicia covered her mouth with one hand without realizing it and murmured softly.
"Direct Lineage......"
"......Ugh, I'm seriously losing my mind."
In the distance, April was also anxiously staring beyond the bulkhead, one hand clutched tight against her chest.
Seeing the reliable sniper's composure waver only made Alicia feel her own calm slipping further, impatience rising.
CRUMBLE—!
Just then, a sharp crash tore through her ears.
Alicia turned around hesitantly, gripped by unease. Everyone else inside also turned their gazes toward the sound in unison.
The source was the bulkhead.
Steel dust and debris exploded from the metal wall into the air, raining down among the speechless, horrified crowd.
What had punched through the bulkhead above their heads was, unbelievably, a long Carapace Lance.
The great lance, green light oozing from the cracks in its jet-black carapace, had ripped clean through the bunker's bulkhead — forged from a magic-stone alloy — and carved several meters further in.
At the same time, through the gash the lance had torn horizontally across the wall, a silhouette that had blocked the piercing blow came tumbling inside amid a shower of sparks.
Screams erupted from the people near where that silhouette landed.
No. It can't be.
Before she knew it, Alicia was suppressing the ominous premonition and rushing toward that spot.
No, there's no way. There's no way.
The only person who could be hope in this situation — the only hope Alicia could believe in here — should have been that black-haired boy.
It should have been.
But as Alicia ran forward in a daze, she spotted something and her eyes flew wide with horror.
"No, please no......"
As if to flatly deny Alicia's thoughts, what she saw before her was none other than Enoch and Sirocco.
And they were far from a normal state.
Sirocco was clutching Enoch's chest, desperately trying to hold up his collapsing body.
"He, he tried to protect me, and then......!"
Sirocco, her voice soaked with tears, wasn't even looking this way. She was supporting Enoch, her face buried against his chest.
"Lady Sirocco......"
It was a sight utterly unlike the Sirocco that Alicia had come to know in their short time together.
The reason became clear at once.
The moment Enoch swayed and Sirocco's body shifted to reveal his waist, Alicia drew a sharp breath.
What met her eyes was an amount of blood loss so extreme she couldn't fathom how he was still alive.
And yet he still hadn't let go of the weapon in his hand — a sight that sent chills through her, bordering on an obsessive fixation.
When her gaze reached the section of Enoch's waist that had simply been erased, even Alicia nearly buckled. But her body moved before her mind could.
Alicia saw Enoch, who had been supported by Sirocco, start to stagger and topple toward her, and she barely managed to rush forward and catch him.
"Direct Lineage!"
She sank to the ground as if collapsing and carefully lifted Enoch's head onto her soft thigh.
Kneeling, she positioned the crown of his head toward her abdomen, laid his body out long, and secured his airway.
A sudden chill crept down her spine, and she glanced at the bulkhead. Beyond the steel wall the lance had torn open, a Green Gleam flashed, as if checking the interior.
A vanguard of the Magical Beast Anarchilon.
The jet-black artificial angel, its entire body encased in obsidian-like carapace, pulled the great lance that had pierced the bunker wall free from where it stood.
Immediately after, beyond the metal bulkhead, the heavy thud of a massive carapace hand bracing against the wall echoed through.
The next moment, the great lance was shoved back into the gap it had created in the bunker door, punching a second, then a third hole.
At that rate, just a few more thrusts and swings would obviously tear the bunker door clean off.
Only then did Alicia stare at the sight with a blank expression and realize.
The enemy intended to force its way in.
By tearing open this bunker's door with its lance, and into this shelter packed with people.
Voices of terror from those who had come to the same realization echoed from every direction.
"N-nooo! S-someone stop it!"
"Interims, battle stations — what are the ones still outside doing instead of coming here?!"
"Move! Run! RUN!!"
The crowd began streaming past Alicia where she sat.
But the running people only pushed and tripped over one another, all in blind panic. Unable to even think about where to flee, they simply scrambled to get as far from the bulkhead as possible.
Before long, everyone had pressed toward the back of the shelter in the darkness, wailing in desperate agony.
This was bad. Alicia gripped her lance tight.
She remembered the teachings from the Royal School. The most critical element of an evacuation operation — control of the civilian population — had been completely lost.
But right now, she couldn't afford to worry about the others lost in panic.
"E-Enoch?!"
A shrill voice rang at Alicia's ear. She turned to find Lily, already arrived and gasping for breath.
The young nun saw Enoch collapsed and bleeding, and without a moment to register shock, immediately dropped to her knees.
Seeing Lily plant her Magic Gear upright against the ground, Alicia asked, unable to even hide the urgency in her voice.
"Sister, is he going to be okay?"
"No. The injuries are too severe. He'll die at this rate! We need to start treatment right...!"
But Lily, mid-examination with her magic circle deployed, soon wore a look of horror.
"N-no. My healing magic isn't working...!"
"What?! What do you mean?!"
Alicia grabbed Lily's shoulder with wide eyes before she could stop herself.
But Lily herself looked just as cornered and helpless, staring down at Enoch.
"Again? Why, why? It's as if healing magic itself is acting sluggishly on Enoch's body! As if his body is resisting the magic itself......!"
The air around them froze.
"What, do you......"
Alicia murmured that much, then quietly clenched her teeth. The creeping despair seemed to stain the inside of her heart pitch-black.
Lily, frantically pressing her magic-circle-deployed hands to Enoch's wound beside her, continued.
"He definitely received special ampoules supplied from Holy Sejour. Whether he took them or not, at least minimal recovery effects are in play and he barely avoided instant death, but......!"
The young nun seemed to be forcibly swallowing her dismay, suppressed by her sense of duty to stay calm as a medical professional.
Paradoxically, seeing Lily like that drove home the reality that Enoch had sustained injuries bordering on unrecoverable.
Alicia murmured in a shocked daze.
"Th-then. You don't mean that......!"
Glancing to the side, she saw April in the distance — who had been trying to control the civilians — had apparently noticed something wrong and was now running this way.
Sirocco was still burying her face in Enoch's chest as if she couldn't hear anything.
Lily was at Enoch's side, sleeves of her nun's habit soaked in blood, still attempting treatment.
All of it looked like a scene of tragedy straight from a film.
Everything was falling apart.
"No, that can't be right."
Just then, the memory of planning the solo strike operation against Indiviltal alongside Enoch flashed through Alicia's mind.
Back then, Enoch had clearly accounted for everything — even the parts she herself hadn't thought of.
That was the kind of person he was. This black-haired boy she had promised to serve as Follower Family.
Alicia wiped the tears that had begun streaming down her cheeks with the back of her hand. Then she took a deep, steady breath. She gathered herself.
It had been a short time working together on operations, but having crossed the line between life and death together, there were things she could know.
There was no way he would go down this helplessly. The Enoch that Alicia had seen was that kind of person.
"......I believe in you."
Alicia slowly looked down at Enoch, whose head rested on her lap, and whispered softly.
"Direct Lineage. There's still hope, right?"
***
Enoch quietly opened his eyes at the sound of Alicia whispering to him.
He had lost count of how many times his consciousness had blurred.
Was the flickering consciousness from the inheritance, or from the blood loss?
He didn't know. Didn't need to know. His thoughts were growing hazier by the moment. If so, he would discard everything unnecessary from his mind.
Beyond his flickering vision, he could see the girls of his squad.
Nano, pale-faced, staring this way. April, right beside her, ashen and having dropped her sniper with a THUD, stumbling back several steps.
Lily, casting magic as if trying to somehow staunch the blood flowing from his waist like a broken machine.
Enoch lifted his blurred gaze and met the eyes of Alicia, who was shedding tears above his head.
He knew. Even at this very moment, she hadn't given up and was placing her hope in him.
Through the haze of fading consciousness, he thought quietly. He knew better than anyone that achieving his purpose in this world and surviving was impossible with his strength alone.
That was precisely why he had gathered his squadmates until now. Because Enoch alone could never be everyone's hope.
Suddenly, words spoken by the Rhodes Knight Commander, which the young Sword Saint had heard in the past, flickered through his mind.
[—I do not wish to become a symbol.]
Only now could he understand. The weight of what it meant to become a symbol of something, to become someone's hope.
——Direct Lineage. There's still hope, right?
Through his blurred consciousness, those words alone came through with crystal clarity. At the very least, Alicia — his squadmate — was placing her hope in him. That much he felt with certainty. Enoch opened his mouth quietly.
"Yes. There is hope."
"......!"
Beyond his blurred vision, he thought he could see Alicia's expression brighten at that answer. He could faintly sense that she was relying on him.
"I'll follow your orders. Direct Lineage, your command."
"I can't...... see well. What's the situation?"
"The civilians have lost hope and lost control."
Somehow, he understood. The civilians, believing Enoch had been defeated, had fallen into panic and lost control, while just outside the bulkhead, a Magical Beast was on the verge of breaking in.
Of course. No matter that they were from the Outsourcing District, no civilian could possibly keep their wits in a situation like this.
To successfully protect such people, normal methods were no longer possible.
But even in this situation, there was a move he had prepared.
Enoch silently gazed at the Dragoon girl looking down at him with unwavering eyes.
To Alicia, Enoch was certainly a hope she could depend on. But here, now, in this underground shelter, Enoch didn't need to be the civilians' hope.
What was needed was someone who could become a 'hope' they could rely on even more powerfully.
And Enoch knew who that was better than anyone here.
Enoch looked up at Alicia gazing down at him and let his dark blue eyes shine as he spoke.
"Because hope itself is my Follower Family."
"......!"
The instant Alicia's eyes flew wide, a civilian beside them shouted urgently.
"L-look. The ceiling! What on earth......?"
At those words, every pair of eyes turned toward where the voice pointed. And the next moment, a tremor ran through the people in the darkness.
It was as if time had stopped.
——Hope was there.
A girl with long, flowing golden hair rippling in waves, a thin black veil trailing from the back of her head.
Golden hair gleaming like wet silk, skin so white it was sacred, a slender neck. The feminine curves that gently pushed against her white vestments added a heavy, shapely volume to her frame.
In the hands of the girl who shone with bewitching beauty were the long vestments symbolizing The Order.
"......Saintess, Amelia."
Someone's awestruck voice echoed.
The Saintess descended from the surface into the underground, stepping down the makeshift stairway of debris that connected to the collapsed ceiling.
Only the sound of the Saintess's snow-white footsteps echoed through the underground cavern.
The dark clouds in the dusky sky parted slowly to either side, as if opening a path just for her.
The Saintess, Amelia, Tin Staff in one hand, was walking straight toward Enoch.
Without anyone leading the way, one person, then another, slowly knelt before her.
The torches, Magic Gear, and terminal lights they had held to brighten their surroundings lowered in height, becoming lanterns that illuminated her path through the pitch-black darkness.
In the darkness, the people bowed their heads as hope passed through their midst.
Everyone who saw her stood still.
Suppressing the emotions welling in his chest, Enoch quietly slid his gaze to the side and watched her.
Enoch's other Follower Family — the beautiful girl who had solemnly sworn to become his sword in the Magic Empire — stood right before his eyes.
"I've kept you waiting, Lord Enoch."
Through the silence of all, the Saintess spoke as she approached Enoch.
"I have come to this place to fulfill my duty as your Follower Family."
Amelia slowly knelt on one knee and looked straight down at Enoch.
The Saintess, her golden hair cascading down to her white thighs, took one of Enoch's hands — resting on Alicia's lap — between both of hers.
"I once told you that I would simply show you a presence worthy of being your Follower Family."
And the next moment, an intense cluster of green light swirled around Enoch, then drove back the darkness and began scattering brilliant radiance.
The hem of Enoch's black uniform and the Saintess's long sleeves fluttered and snapped together in the surge. In that instant, Amelia whispered into Enoch's ear.
"Now, the time has come to keep that promise."