Somewhere inside the cyberspace.
Arus Marina was there.
"Basic Realizer control hijacked. Main cannon online. Targeting... this should do for now."
Marina muttered as she aimed the main cannon at Tengushi City.
"I’ll fulfill the duty given to me. And I’ll learn a ton of things I don’t know! That was my only wish..."
As she said that, Maria suddenly recalled one memory.
It was the memory of Higakieta Hai praising her and patting her head.
"...Why is Higakieta Hai’s face popping up at a time like this? No, I don’t need Higakieta Hai!"
Sizzle!
At her words, noise rippled through the space Marina occupied.
"...I can’t access the Control Realizer? I see. So it’s physically blocked, or maybe it’s manual control..."
With her work interrupted, confusion spread across Marina’s face.
"...Tch, but that’s causing an anomaly in the mana charge. You’re trying to buy time... is that it? Fine, I’ll play along a little. After all, you’re all going to disappear with this world anyway."
*
When we left Upper District Park and stepped out onto the street, the world had already gone wrong.
The time had somehow turned to daytime, and the graphics all over the city were breaking apart.
Even the NPCs wandering around had completely vanished.
"The street..."
[...Ah, it looks like there’s a problem with the structure of the space. You should assume we don’t have much time.]
"Marina is probably trying to erase this world. Saying people like us, who trapped her, are no longer needed."
"If we vanish..."
[You’ll die.]
Death.
The end of life.
Even if it didn’t matter to me because I was immortal, it mattered to everyone else.
If it were only me dying, we’d have some breathing room. But it wasn’t, so...
We had to hurry.
"Tch. This is bad. If we stop Marina, will the collapse stop too?"
[...Yes. If the plan I mentioned earlier succeeds, you should all be able to return safely.]
At Murasame’s words, I let out a long sigh.
"Haa... Then we need to find her as fast as possible. To protect both this place and reality."
[...Yes. Exactly.]
"...I’ll help as much as I can too."
"That’s reassuring. I’m counting on you."
"Yes...!"
In this world, Marina could wield power close to omnipotence.
That meant my attacks would be blocked, and so would everyone else’s.
Only Miss Maria, the one person outside Marina’s interference, would be able to stop her.
Just as I was thinking that, people came running from far away.
Since the NPCs were gone, the people in front of us had to be real.
"Hieta! And Maria too!"
Itsuka-kun, who had run over, was panting hard as he checked on Maria and me.
"Everyone! You’re safe!"
"Yeah. Reine, the management permissions for [Fraxinus] haven’t changed, right?"
As if he already understood the situation, the commander stayed calm.
As expected. She really was a commander, one way or another.
[...Yes. It’s the same as the report from earlier. Nine-tenths of it has already been taken over. I’m buying time with a few tricks, but I won’t be able to hold out much longer.]
"Then we’ve got no choice but to hurry to the destination. Once we get there... something will work out."
"Where’s the destination?"
At my question, the commander answered briefly: the Mother Room.
Mother Room.
Judging by the name, it sounded like the control room of this world.
"The Mother Room?"
[...It’s the core block of the cyberspace world. An artificial spirit can’t operate in reality.]
"So that means she’d be in the Mother Room, where she can control [Fraxinus] inside the cyberspace world."
[...Exactly.]
Good.
With that, the destination was decided.
The problem was what to do if Marina wasn’t in the Mother Room, but that was something to think about when the time came.
For now, that was still the most likely place.
But there was one more problem.
"Even if we get to the Mother Room, how are we supposed to stop Marina? We don’t have any power at all."
Just as Itsuka-kun said, we had no power here.
Not the spirits’ angels, not Mana’s CR-Unit, not my weapons.
Even if I fought relying only on immortality and physical ability, I’d just get blocked, so we needed everyone else’s combat power.
Our worries were solved by Murasame’s words.
[...That’s fine. If it’s Maria, the only one in this world who isn’t affected by Marina’s interference, then she can reproduce the spirits’ spiritual power. That strength.]
"Yes. I’m connecting that domain to Reine through the system. As long as I exist, I can reproduce spiritual power in the cyberspace world just like in reality."
With that bit of good news, everyone’s expressions brightened.
"Wait! Then what about me?"
Ah, right. Mana was here too.
[...Don’t worry. Mana’s CR-Unit can be reproduced too.]
So Mana had her CR-Unit.
With the spirits’ angels, Mana’s CR-Unit, and my physical ability, let’s go.
Itsuka-kun and the Fire Keeper, I had no idea what to do with them.
They didn’t have any combat means.
"...Wait a second. Reine, what about me?"
Itsuka-kun, apparently wanting to help too, asked Murasame.
The answer he got was...
[...Sorry.]
An apology.
"Huh!?"
[...I’m sorry, but there’s nothing a god can use.]
That devastating news made Itsuka-kun look depressed.
But it was fine.
He had something he could use to protect himself.
"Itsuka-kun. Wait a second."
I searched around and found two steel pipes.
I tossed one to Itsuka-kun and kept the other for myself.
"This is...?"
"You need something to protect yourself with, right? Besides, this is the only weapon I’ve got too, so let’s fight with these."
As I said that while swinging the steel pipe around like a sword, Itsuka-kun still looked gloomy.
"Don’t worry! I’ll protect you and Sachi!"
"I’m counting on you."
At Mana’s confident words, Itsuka-kun’s depressed expression eased up a little.
The Fire Keeper seemed to trust Mana too and was steeling her resolve.
[...Looks like you’re ready. Just remember one thing. This cyberspace world is, so to speak, Marina’s domain. Think of the opponent not as one person, but as the world itself.]
"That much, I’ve already prepared for."
After all, I was a body that kept dying and coming back.
I could keep trying forever without worrying about aftereffects.
So even if the enemy was the world itself, I wasn’t afraid.
So what if the world itself was the enemy?
I’m immortal.
"Good. Everyone’s already prepared to that extent, right?"
At the commander’s words, everyone nodded, united in purpose.
Seeing that, the corners of her mouth slowly lifted.
"Reine, are you ready?"
[...Yes. The manifestation of the spirit weapons, angels, and CR-Units is finished too.]
"Perfect. The rest is just achieving our goal. Reine. I’m leaving [Fraxinus] to you."
[...Leave it to me.]
With that, it seemed the connection with Murasame had been cut.
And the spirits’ outfits changed.
The manifestation of their spirit weapons and angels.
Mana’s CR-Unit had arrived too.
"I’m sorry. Everyone’s getting dragged into this because of me..."
"Maria doesn’t need to apologize. The bad one is the artificial spirit, isn’t she?"
At Maria’s self-reproach, Tohka comforted her.
"Tohka is right. So don’t blame yourself."
"But because of me..."
"Enough! Stop blaming yourself! Nothing changes if you keep doing that. And look around. Who here is blaming Maria?"
At my words, Maria looked around.
The others nodded as if to say I was right, and no one blamed her.
"I-I’ll do my best...!"
『Yay~! Yoshino! Let’s show them our power~!』
"Mm!"
"I’ll do the same."
"It’s not because of Maria, okay~?"
There were other voices too, each cheering her on in their own way.
After hearing them, Maria smiled.
"Thank you, everyone."
"Yeah. And like I said earlier, this world is mostly under the artificial spirit’s control right now. Even if we have this many spirits on our side, there’s no guarantee we’ll win. We need everyone’s strength."
As she said that, the commander stroked her angel, [Kamiel], and continued.
"So, well... I’ll use everything I can."
『But you know~ Yoshinon’s been bothering me this whole time, but where exactly is that so-called Mother Room?』
After the commander finished speaking, that was Yoshinon’s question.
Just like she said, we still didn’t know where the Mother Room was.
To tell us its location, Murasame connected again.
[...Find the place where the space has split open, and infiltrate it. It’s only possible because the world has started to collapse.]
"Now that we know how to get there, let’s go stop Marina."
Now that we knew how to reach the Mother Room, all that was left was stopping Marina.
"All right, let’s go! We don’t know what the enemy might do, so don’t let your guard down!"
After saying that, the commander spoke the line she always used.
"Now then—let’s begin our [Date] (war)!"
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