Maria’s sudden awakening? I wasn’t sure if that was the right way to put it, but whatever. Let’s call it an awakening.
With something like a spirit’s vessel equipped, Maria appeared in front of us to block Marina’s attack.
"That’s... a vessel?"
Seeing Maria manifest a vessel and stop her attack, Marina halted in surprise.
"Some of [Fraxinus]’s authority has been transferred. Because of that, it seems I was able to generate this pseudo-vessel."
"When did authority slip away from me...!?"
"I don’t know. I only wished for it. And the world... [Fraxinus] answered that wish. This is power for me. Power to embody my feelings. Power to protect Hii... the people precious to me!"
As Maria said that, everyone was freed from their restraints.
And since even my health had recovered somewhat, it really did seem like she had taken the authority over.
"There’s no way that kind of convenient development is allowed! You have to disappear here...! Like the fake you are, lose to the real one and vanish!"
Marina launched another attack.
A storm of crackling electricity poured down like rain.
Maria stepped forward and blocked those overwhelming attacks head-on.
"Interference initiated... power reduced, coordinates scrambled."
Maria’s body flashed, and I could feel something interfering with this space itself.
Whether I was right or not, Marina’s attacks all veered off toward the wrong places.
"No way... they’re not reaching!? You’re interfering with the space... no, with the process itself!?"
Having deflected all of Marina’s attacks with ease, Maria prepared a counterattack.
"Marina... please, think a little more. Maybe we can understand each other."
A blue beam of light shot from Maria toward Marina.
I wondered if that was what they called dialogue by force, but it clearly worked, because Marina screamed.
"Aaaagh!!!"
And just like that, Marina was subdued.
Afterward, Maria’s words confirmed that restraining Marina had been a success.
"...The collapse seems to have stopped."
"R-Really?"
"Yes. I intervened in the system and shut down the main cannon."
"Thank goodness..."
Itsuka-kun, listening from the side, collapsed onto the floor.
Maybe because the tension had finally broken, my own legs were starting to tremble a little too.
It felt like a somewhat anticlimactic ending, but I guess good is good.
[...Everyone. Can you hear me? Control of [Fraxinus] has returned. The Realizer is stabilizing as well.]
With Murasame’s words, it really felt like the end.
At her announcement, everyone let out a breath of relief.
"That’s a relief."
[...Yes, that’s right. You all did well. It was an incredible achievement.]
"Right. But where’s Marina...?"
In the midst of everyone celebrating, Marina was nowhere to be seen.
If she’d been subdued, she should still be somewhere around here.
But she wasn’t.
A bad feeling flashed through my head.
"Hii, I have a bad feeling about this!"
"Same here!"
"What is it? What happened?"
The commander came over and asked what was going on.
When we told her we had a really bad feeling about this, everyone finally started looking around.
With Marina nowhere to be found, the celebratory mood began to cool again.
"Everyone! Follow me!"
Right away, we ran after Maria, who could sense Marina’s location.
"Marina!"
And there, somewhere in the Mother Room, we found Marina crouched over and muttering to herself.
"Ah... when did I become like this? When did I start thinking about feelings like this?"
"Marina! Snap out of it!"
"No... no, no, no, no, no!!!"
No matter how many times we called her name, the muttering wouldn’t stop, and everyone’s expressions turned tense.
Mine too.
I had a bad feeling that if we left her like that, something terrible would happen.
"That girl, quickly..."
"Commander! Wait!"
I stepped in front of the commander as she was about to swing Kamiel at Marina.
For some reason, I had a very ominous feeling about this.
It felt like she couldn’t be left alone, but at the same time, if the commander attacked her, it felt like touching her would cause a disaster.
It was basically just a time bomb...
The problem was, it was a crazy bomb that would explode even if you left it alone, and also explode if you touched it.
"I can’t go back now. I can’t go to either side, stuck like this, unable to do anything..."
"Marina! Why are you—"
"I hate this... someone, please... erase me."
The moment Marina finished speaking, warning alarms began blaring throughout the virtual space.
While everyone was still stunned by the sudden turn of events, Murasame’s voice echoed in my head.
[...Everyone, bad news. There’s a problem with [Fraxinus]’s flight system.]
"What? The system was already back online..."
[...It should have been. Looks like there was some kind of backup plan in place for this exact situation.]
[Basic Realizer output at maximum! Return altitude to normal! What the... the system is locked!?]
Kannazuki’s frantic voice came through too.
What on earth was happening outside for words like altitude and locked system to come up?
[...While we were readjusting, the ship’s systems locked up. At this rate, control itself will become impossible... ]
"What!? Reine! What do you mean by that!?"
The commander shouted in shock at Murasame’s words.
[...Ah. [Fraxinus] is going to fall on Tengushi.]
The answer to the commander’s question was bad enough to call catastrophic.
[...An airborne ship carrying a Realizer in a critical state... and with this weight... the result is hard to even imagine.]
"Reine. Then what about the people in town...?"
[...I’ll make this clear, Shin. If [Fraxinus] falls in this condition, Tengushi will be completely destroyed.]
At the shocking words that Tengushi would be annihilated, horror spread across everyone’s faces.
"Is there a way? A solution?"
At the commander’s question, Murasame paused for a moment before answering.
[...Marina. Destroy that girl. There’s no other way.]
At the sudden death sentence, my fist clenched on its own.
How long had it been since I’d felt this powerless?
It was pathetic, really, that there was nothing I could do.
[The system lock can’t be broken from the outside. Snatching authority by surprise would be difficult too. In that case, the only way to reset it is to eliminate the one holding the authority.]
We had to kill Marina to save Tengushi.
There was no other way if we wanted to save everyone.
Then what about Marina?
Did the word everyone not include her?
Maybe it was because Marina’s outburst reminded me of myself when I first lost my parents.
My head knew Marina had to be killed, but I just couldn’t do it.
Considering what she had tried to do, it was unforgivable.
Still, we stopped her successfully, didn’t we?
Then Marina could just spend the rest of her life atoning.
But...
"Then why the hell do we have to end up with this kind of ending!?"
As the helplessness welled up, I punched the wall, and the entire Mother Room shook.
Maybe the others were thinking the same thing, because none of them looked good either.
"Hii, Marina is!"
At Maria’s words, I looked up toward where Marina had been, and there was a huge black sphere.
Marina was gone without a trace, leaving only a hollow-looking orb behind.
"Th-that is..."
"...It’s absorbing the surrounding data at random. At this rate, it may not be able to withstand the overexpanded data, and Marina’s personality could collapse."
"Damn it...!"
Now that we couldn’t even make out Marina’s shape anymore, the priority was dealing with that black mass.
"Isn’t there any way?"
"If we pull her out from there, maybe..."
"Hyaaah—!"
Itsuka-kun swung Sandalphon and cut into the black mass.
But the mass still held its shape and kept sucking in everything around it.
"What!? Even an angel won’t work!?"
"No, the power isn’t enough. It’s absorbing data too quickly, so it’s repairing itself at the same time."
"Then I’ll try!"
This time, Mayuri stepped forward and manifested her angel.
"〈Kerubiel〉! [Lahat Haelev]!"
Kerubiel appeared out of empty air and changed shape.
The pitch-black sphere wriggled and transformed into a winged drill.
Among all of us, that angel had the greatest destructive power, and it unleashed beams at the mass in front of us.
"That doesn’t work either!?"
But the attack still failed.
Just like before, the repair speed was faster.
Everyone’s faces darkened at the sight of Kerubiel failing, since we all knew how powerful Mayuri’s angel was.
"It’s even attacking back!"
On top of that, with attack functions built in, the mass was impossible to deal with.
"...I’ll go."
"Maria?"
"I have an idea... leave it to me."
Maria said she had a plan and that she would go inside herself.
"But if you do that..."
I couldn’t finish the thought.
Because Maria was wearing a determined expression.
"It’s fine. I’ll definitely reach it. I have something I must do."
"M-Maria!"
Maria flew toward the sphere, which kept firing indiscriminate attacks nonstop.
Even when her vessel was damaged by the attacks, she refused to retreat and forced her way inside the sphere.
[...Can you hear me, everyone? I’ll be able to contact Marina soon.]
And then Maria’s voice echoed in my head.
It seemed she was speaking through a method similar to the communication Murasame had been using.
[Actually, there’s a way to make Marina disappear for good.]
"..."
So erasure really was the only solution after all.
With no real way out anymore, I unconsciously tightened the fist I’d been clenching.
Until blood started to seep out.
[I’ll interfere with Marina... and by sharing the data I obtained in this world, I’ll cause an overflow.]
"Over... flow...? You don’t mean...!"
The commander was horrified by Maria’s method.
What kind of method was it to get that kind of reaction?
At the very least, it didn’t sound peaceful.
"Kotori, what’s wrong? What happens if she does that?"
[We’ll both disappear, Maria and I, faster than this world can be absorbed.]
That was Murasame’s answer to Itsuka-kun’s question.
That was basically no different from self-destruction.
"...Really, there’s no other answer? Seriously?"
[This is the most certain method. For everyone... for Hii... to survive.]
"...So there really isn’t another way."
[...Hii, I’m truly sorry. But I... you are more important than me—]
That was the end.
The communication cut off as if blocked by something.
I called Maria’s name over and over, but there was no answer.
"Commander. Is there really no other way?"
At my question, the commander answered with a bitter expression.
"That black mass is an overexpanded vessel. Unless we break through it, we can’t reach the artificial spirit. Maria can interfere once she touches the vessel. That’s why this was the optimal answer."
"But that’s not optimal at all!"
Itsuka-kun also didn’t seem to like the situation.
"Shido! It’s not like I want Maria to disappear either! But we don’t have time! We can’t keep sitting around and agonizing over it forever!"
In the end, there were only two choices.
Let Maria and Marina trigger an overflow, and save everyone at the cost of the two of them disappearing.
Or stop it and let Tengushi be destroyed.
"...Haha. I’m pretty damn powerless, aren’t I?"
"Hieta?"
"Hoo..."
I inhaled, forcing oxygen into my brain.
Right. Since when had I ever acted after carefully weighing every little thing?
Just do it.
Standing around like this didn’t suit me.
"Everyone, I have a favor to ask."
When I said that, everyone’s eyes turned to me.
My plan was simple.
First, make an opening in that damn sphere.
Then once I got inside, I’d figure something out.
"Please make an opening so I can get in there."
"Hiki. I get how you feel, but there’s no way, remember?"
"No. If we all attack at once, we might be able to make an opening."
In response to the commander’s negative reaction, Itsuka-kun suggested a possibility.
"Hmm... so we just need to break that thing?"
Tohka raised Sandalphon and prepared to attack the sphere.
"All right. Let’s do what we can."
"If it’s that big, we’ll need to concentrate our attacks in one spot. Miku, can you help us?"
"Yes, of course~ I’ll time it with [Gabriel]~"
"Yeah. Let’s do this."
"Like Shido said, if we attack all at once, it might work."
"Heh... a perfectly synchronized attack. For us Yamais, that’s nothing more than child’s play..."
"Agreement. The timing and the location are both perfectly aligned."
"Kotori... I-I’ll do my best too! So please, Maria...!"
Wind, ice, light bullets, beams, slashes, bullets, and more—all of our weapons aimed at a single sphere.
Seeing that, and hearing Yoshino’s words, the commander ran a hand through her hair in frustration.
"Ah, damn it! I said I want to save her too! At this point, it’s an all-out war!"
And just like that, the commander raised Kamiel and prepared to attack too.
"Miku! Please control the timing! When Kaguya and Yuzuru land the opening strike, everyone target that spot! Hiki, break through with everything you’ve got before the vessel is destroyed!"
"Got it."
We only had one chance, and we had to put everything into that one shot.
Don’t even think about failure.
Focus only on breaking through.
"Let’s start already. Here we go! 3, 2, 1—Miku!"
"Leave it to me~ [Gabriel]—[March]!"
Miku’s song rang out, and arrows of wind shot into the sphere.
After that came missiles from the CR-Unit, bullets from the young lady, Rinne’s light bullets, and Mayuri’s beams, all following the arrows toward the sphere.
"Hiki! Now!"
At the commander’s shout, I didn’t even answer. I just stomped hard and leapt.
The sphere hurled fierce attacks around itself, but—
"I’ll block the big ones!"
Itsuka-kun supported me by knocking down the larger attacks with swings of Sandalphon.
The smaller attacks would only leave scratches or shave off a little flesh if they hit anyway.
I squeezed through the opening everyone had created.
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