Chapter 142
Chapter 142
Why Should I Be the One to Deal with It
A lone wolf thrown into a flock of sheep.
A celebratory burst announcing the arrival of a different species erupted from Rouge's throat. Only after the pure white cloth was dyed red did the others grasp what had happened and shout.
“Quick, drag that lunatic out of here!”
The loudest ones dying first was a slasher movie cliché.
Following the sound, a dark blade flashed.
—Slash.
Though the frame had been reinforced with a special alloy equivalent to MUG–3 to protect its owner, it was cut apart as easily as tofu.
Once might have been a mistake, but twice was intent.
It took only a moment for the hall to fill with screams and shock.
Many people rose from their seats to avoid Ga-on as he glided across the round table, but none escaped the conclusion of having their necks separated from their shoulders.
Like grains falling one by one in a wheat field at harvest time, bodies dropped to the floor.
At the end of that trail sat the leader.
Without a word, Ga-on pointed his sword.
“Even so, everyone attending here is a pillar of society. Can you really handle the consequences if you kill them all?”
“Why should I be the one to deal with it? You're the one who'll have to.”
“Ah, so that's why you specifically chose this place.”
As of this moment, the Gathering was effectively destroyed, yet Gabriel didn't even blink. After savoring the last morsel of delicacy on his plate, he wiped his lips with a napkin.
“Should I call your solution barbaric? The idea that cutting off the head and pulling out the tendons solves everything. Such one-dimensional thinking disgusts me.”
The Gathering had been held underground. Moreover, the entrance was under Gabriel's control, making the place no different from an impregnable fortress. Yet despite causing such a commotion, Ga-on spoke as though he would walk out on his own two feet.
What an optimistic and convenient way of thinking.
“You're the only one left. Why do you think I can't get out?”
“Who said I was alone?”
The moment Gabriel raised one hand, a series of metallic clicks thundered from the second floor of the hall.
An armed android force had surrounded the area.
There was no way such a large army had been assembled overnight.
“The fact that you brought this many troops means you considered a plan like this from the start, huh?”
“I'm merely cautious. Didn't someone like you actually appear?”
“Right.”
The victor dumped every burden onto the loser.
It was an exceedingly clear and simple rule.
That was why Ga-on swung Polar Night without even a preparatory motion.
A slash faster than sound itself.
The merciless opening strike split the white cloth in two, revealing Gabriel's face behind it. Glittering golden hair that looked as though gold dust had been sprinkled over it, and perfectly balanced features filling a small face. It almost seemed as though starlight floated within his melancholic eyes.
It was a dazzling face, but Ga-on wasn't distracted. He focused only on the result.
He had clearly aimed for the neck, yet what fell to the floor was not a head, but a piece of cloth.
Proof that Gabriel had dodged in that split second.
And what did that imply?
Seeing the corner of Gabriel's lips twist upward, a chilling premonition passed through Ga-on's back. However, he had long surpassed the stage of being shaken by variables. While his reason remained calm, his instincts had already surged far ahead, summoning a violent gale.
A separation that sharply cut through the air.
Yet once again, the blade failed to reach Gabriel's neck, and Ga-on could only watch as he vanished like a mirage.
He couldn't even launch a third assault.
As the ceiling opened, six 25mm Gatling cannons lowered their barrels.
The moment battlefield weaponry appeared, offense and defense switched places.
Sensing danger, Ga-on raised Polar Night diagonally like a shield, and at the same time, the first round split in two.
A downpour erupted indoors beneath a cloudless ceiling in an instant.
Not to be outdone, the android force joined in with covering fire. The deafening roar resonated like applause filling a grand theater, growing ever more intense.
The sound alone was enough to make anyone's knees weaken, yet Ga-on used that torrential barrage as momentum and leapt with all his strength. A suddenly formed vortex swallowed the continuous crossfire.
At the tip of the spiraling current stood the dark blade.
The moment Polar Night flashed, the ceiling collapsed.
Stepping on the falling Gatling cannons that had lost their supports, Ga-on immediately entered the second floor of the hall and swept through the android force. High, low, then middle once more. His sword path moved freely like a flowing river, never stopping until it reached its destination.
Yes, there were no more androids left to catch on the edge of his blade.
Silence descended upon the area, but Ga-on did not rejoice.
Far below, Gabriel, who had occupied the seat of honor at the round table, was nowhere to be seen. Not even his shadow remained.
Yet he felt neither disappointment nor impatience.
The stage might have changed, but the essence remained the same.
In the end, it was a drama of the masses that would not conclude until one of the two died.
***
Walls opened, releasing laser cutters in a mesh-like pattern. Fixed railguns emerged from sections of the floor that suddenly sank inward, firing metal projectiles.
A relentless chain of booby traps built with lavish amounts of money.
Explosions, shattering, rupturing—
Nowhere in the mansion offered a place for Ga-on.
Yet he advanced through it all indifferently. No matter how dense the thicket, if one kept cutting through it, eventually an open clearing would appear.
Sure enough, a vacant zone completely free of threats revealed itself.
But he did not let down his guard.
The setup looked almost as though it were inviting him to rest, and that was what made it suspicious.
Hadn't he just experienced firsthand that the owner of this house possessed no such consideration?
That was when a faint vibration echoed.
At first, it was no different from the march of ants, but the vibrations gradually increased in amplitude until they finally manifested as thunder.
A figure burst through a thick blast door and appeared. Without a word, it brought down a massive combat hammer.
Boom!
The ground rippled like a carpet before exploding spectacularly, unable to withstand the displacement. It looked as though lava had erupted.
Sweeping aside a boulder that had rushed to right before his eyes, Ga-on stared at the figure emerging through the cloud of dust. The body was half again as large as that of an ordinary adult man.
What stood before him was a weapon that seemed to combine only the advantages of protect gear—a wearable full-body enhancement suit—and powered armor—a sealed full-body enhancement suit.
Too excessive to be called light armor, yet too lacking to be called heavy armor.
Its common name—
“Over Gear.”
An adaptive full-body enhancement suit. As the name suggested, it could be customized for various environments and was primarily used for space exploration.
“Did you enjoy the appetizer I personally prepared?”
“It was dull.”
“My apologies. I pride myself on being a first-rate gourmet, but as a chef, I'm still only third-rate.”
As expected, his opponent was Gabriel, fully prepared for battle. However, his choice of response was beyond imagination.
He looked like the type who would spend his time reading poetry and writing critiques or enjoy knitting as a hobby, yet in his hands was a combat hammer well over two meters long. One side was engraved with ominous circuitry, while the corners of the opposite side were fitted with four boosters.
Even the shaft was so thick and long that it left deep marks on the floor.
It was obviously a custom-made weapon, making it a threat that warranted caution without question.
“Still, the main dish will be fiery. So much so that once you taste it, you'll never be able to have a second helping!”
Contrary to his massive build, Gabriel's movement was comparable to a flash of lightning. By the time it seemed he had approached, he was already in the posture of bringing down the combat hammer.
It was as if the action had been fast-forwarded.
The miracle originated from a single device.
Slot, Lagrange.
A device that drastically enhanced perception, increasing one's subjective sense of time. Its effectiveness varied dramatically depending on the user's aptitude.
Since it wasn't a Slot that affected physical ability, it should have been limited to perception alone.
However, the Over Gear Gabriel wore was custom-made.
Psssh.
Designed solely to synchronize with Lagrange, it governed a world of accelerated time.
It would not have been an exaggeration to say that Gabriel had stepped beyond the laws of physics.
Even Ga-on, who had repeatedly dodged to shake him off, was forced to acknowledge it. No matter where he moved, that vicious combat hammer was thrust toward his face.
Would he keep retreating, or would he confront it head-on?
Faced with that forced choice, Ga-on boldly stepped forward.
The descending combat hammer and the ascending Polar Night collided in midair.
The instant they met, a sonic boom erupted, and the air filling the area was swept away like an outgoing tide.
It was a clash capable of shaking heaven and earth.
Yet the combat hammer remained intact.
Judging from the fact that it wasn't cut, Ga-on could easily infer that it was made by Hexagondice.
So he sought another method.
[Arhat Second Form Muwi Nature]
An arbitrary axis formed along the surface where the two weapons met.
The straight line connecting point to point intertwined and became a curve. The resulting curve raced across Gabriel's entire body.
Encompassing every range of movement available to him.
In response to the force moving left, an axis on the right rotated.
In response to the force shooting right, an axis on the left turned.
Losing control of direction meant losing control of movement itself.
In other words, it was no different from being restrained.
Indeed, Gabriel stared at Ga-on without moving an inch, as though he had been mounted as a display specimen.
“You've incorporated rotation into martial arts.”
Gabriel was the first person to see through it instantly. Just as in the hall earlier, and now again. Could it be that he possessed considerable knowledge of martial arts?
As Ga-on was about to speak, unsettled by the strange sense of incongruity, the boosters on the combat hammer let out a shriek.
Kiiiik.
With propulsion akin to that of a fighter jet, it was only natural that Polar Night was pushed backward.
However, the anomaly did not end there.
The contact surface began glowing red, as though it had been dipped into a furnace and pulled back out.
That was when the engraved circuitry became vividly illuminated.
Something's coming.
The moment Ga-on sensed it, a wave burst from the combat hammer and swept through every direction.
The floor beneath his feet suddenly turned soft and viscous like mud, forcing him down onto one knee.
A mechanism completely different from ordinary weapons that focused solely on firepower.
What exactly was this?
Before he could even reason it out, blood began pouring endlessly from his nose.
Startled by the abnormality affecting his body, he looked at his arms and saw them bending at bizarre angles.
Like the limbs of an invertebrate.
Realizing that it was all caused by the wave, Ga-on clenched his teeth.
As far as he knew, there was only one type of wave capable of creating fractures regardless of an object's durability.
‘Fission Wave.’
Originally researched for use in terraforming, it had become one of the technologies discarded thanks to Second's intervention.
It had once been expected to play a major role in crushing rock and leveling terrain for construction projects, but at some point it had fallen into obscurity.
The reason he hadn't recognized it immediately was simple.
The original heavy machinery it was based on was as large as a building.
Of course.
It had been designed for planetary development. Efficiency had practically never been a consideration from the beginning.
Some even called it a monster that devoured generators.
Given that common knowledge, a question naturally arose.
“How...?”
“Please refrain from asking how. Hearing such a low-level question makes me feel low-level as well.”