There are broadly three ways to counter conceptual power.
The first is to respond with conceptual power of the same kind. At the time of the Belchis Fortress battle, Anne Myer, her sister Frai Myer, and Rain using colored wave energy all fall into this category in a broad sense. After all, the blue-red wave itself already has the nature of a conceptual weapon.
The second is to fight it with an ability from a similar line, one that manipulates reality. Dry Leonhart’s technique, [Mandala], belongs here.
And the last is...
- Research records from the conceptual weapon research institute directly under Mother Knight, year -429
========================================
There was no choice but to take a gamble. The moment that judgment was made, he ran through the possibilities and came up with the most likely option.
Star Breaker? Rejected. The suppressive force of the wave energy released before use is meaningless against Cross Eye. The instant before activation, that brief opening, would be more than enough time for Cross Eye to take my head off.
What about dual wave...? No, that would just be cutting into my own flesh. Even if I cranked the specs up higher, if I couldn’t land the enhanced ability, it would only weaken me instead.
Everything else... rejected. Rejected. Rejected. Damn it. No matter what ordinary method I tried, it would just be blocked by that [Absolute Barrier]. It even stopped Heaven-Splitting Slash. A technique with enough power to break through the [Absolute Barrier]...
...There is one. Even if I reinforce it with wave energy, I don’t know whether my body can survive using it.
The amount of wave energy left... even if I scraped together every last drop, using that technique would be the end of it. There wouldn’t be enough left to reinforce my body. That would be a problem. At the very least, I had to have a body left that could keep holding a sword until the technique finished.
There is a way, but... it’s a gamble.
Come to think of it, this whole move is a gamble, isn’t it? Fine, let’s try it once. Sink or swim. I guess I should count myself lucky that Gamma bastard’s skill had improved in such a half-baked way. If anything, that raises the odds of this working.
He let the red wave he had raised throughout his body sink back down. Normally he would have rushed in, but instead he retreated.
Just as expected. If someone’s skill is only half-baked, their next move becomes easier to read. They’ll think I’m after some kind of trick. And that’s exactly what I want them to think.
Suppressing a laugh at the absurdity of playing mind games against a Heroic Spirit, he thrust out a sword with no red wave in it toward Gamma, who came charging again with Barisada in lance form, blazing with light. It wasn’t his specialty, but...
Three-way single point.
Boom! Barisada and the sword collided, producing a deafening roar. The principle of conceptual weapons is to realize the possibility the user has calculated as the desired outcome. In other words, if you use a technique the opponent cannot predict, and it has enough power, it is possible to stop a conceptual weapon.
The problem was that the standard for “enough power” was far beyond ordinary means. If he were in peak condition, maybe, but with his body already worn down, it was effectively impossible.
So he used Three-way Single Point, adapted from dimensional interference. It was a technique Sophia Vista used in the original work as well. And in its own right, it possessed considerable power.
Damn, the backlash... Blocking it without red wave is brutal. In this state, using blue-red wave, I can’t even use colorless wave... It’s been a long time since I had to endure an attack with my bare body. Usually I’d just let the wave energy flow it away.
Still, I bought enough time. If Gamma had rushed in immediately, I’d have been dead, but his suspicion made him hesitate and buy a brief, but sufficient, amount of time. First gamble: success.
Replacing the red wave he had suppressed, he drew up the blue wave filling his body. It felt a little awkward. Still, there was far more of it than the red wave he had been spending continuously.
He drew the blue wave up as far as it would go, pushing his physical abilities to their limit. At the same time, he scraped together the last remaining red wave from the bottom of the barrel, pulled it up toward his hand, and poured it all into the sword.
His hand trembled from the repulsion between blue and red wave, but he forcibly suppressed it and released that repulsive force forward. White light burst out and poured toward Gamma.
The amount was small, but this too was dual wave. It was only the first stage, yet its power was enough to make Gamma choose to retreat instead of defending.
The repulsive force dropped sharply, and he regained fine control over his hand. A little repulsion remained, but this was bearable.
He refined and forged the last remaining red wave poured into the sword. He refined it again and again to the extreme, then released it from the tip of the blade so it stretched out for tens of kilometers.
With the sword raised, he spread his legs and took a formal stance, then brought the sword down.
Heaven Sword.
Heaven-Splitting Slash - Red.
Gamma, having felt the power of the previous strike, deployed [Absolute Barrier]. He had already blocked it once; there was no reason he couldn’t block it a second time.
And that thought was wrong. Of course it was blocked. A small crack appeared, but the barrier unfolded by conceptual force defended against the red slash that had cleaved all the way through the atmosphere.
But he had already predicted this much. With a snap of his wrist, he bent the sword’s trajectory through spatial refraction.
Heaven Sword.
V-slash.
The sword’s path bent, and with a thunderous blast, its power increased severalfold through explosive acceleration. Yet even that was not enough; the barrier took a massive crack, but still blocked the attack.
Yes, with a massive crack. He clenched his teeth against the enormous pain shooting from his shoulder and bent the sword’s trajectory again through spatial refraction, adding another explosive burst of acceleration. Four times in total. This was probably his last technique. He poured his life into it.
Heaven Sword.
Starlight.
───────!!!!
A roar beyond description rang out, and a tremendous pain surged into his brain. He widened his eyes and gritted his teeth, enduring it.
Come to think of it, in Night Run, if you fired off a life-or-death finishing blow, your life really did get blown away. Huh, is this a defeat flag?
Pointless thoughts flickered through his mind.
++++
“?!”
Anne, having combined Monday and Tuesday to unleash a turning strike and knock away the Barisada fragments flying toward her, saw both Cross Eye entities stiffen for an instant.
0.1 seconds. It might have been that short, but in a battle like this, it was also a long enough opening.
Yes. Long enough, for example, to read the other’s heart instantly with someone so close that words weren’t even needed, and long enough to take an enemy’s life.
Why? For a moment she felt puzzled, but that didn’t matter. After identifying Frai’s position and her own, as well as the positions of the two enemies, she hurled herself toward the side with the higher chance of success.
Frai also came into view, throwing herself that way. Anne reached out her empty right hand and supported Frai’s foot.
At the same time, she swung her arm forward and “threw” Frai. Frai’s hands, flying straight toward Cross Eye Beta, were wrapped in blue energy.
With her sword destroyed and her hands bare, a deep blue covered both fists. Unlike the blue wave she had worn until now, it was such a vivid blue that it looked as though she had wrapped her hands in blue cloth. The prototype of the technique later called Crescent Moon was wrapped around her hands.
Beta realized it too late and tried to react, but it was already over. Frai’s fists hammered Beta’s entire body in rapid succession.
If Rain had seen it, he would have shouted, “Rush?!” but she didn’t know that, so she didn’t say it.
In any case, each time the blue fists smashed into Beta’s body, the armor caved in and a red liquid resembling blood splashed out. One arm was torn off, the head was crushed, the chest caved in, and pieces of armor flew away.
Seeing Beta shot down, Alpha judged there was no chance of victory and slipped away in the meantime.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Frai, who had literally turned Beta into paste, hurled herself at Alpha, and Anne tried to do the same, but it was already too late.
Even if she boosted her physical abilities with red wave, she could run at a speed comparable to a Heroic Spirit, but flying through the air was impossible.
“Damn it, so you run because it’s getting bad for you!”
“Haah... still, we won.”
“...I guess so. Honestly, I can hardly believe it.”
The two of them collapsed onto the ground and talked to each other. They were nearly out of stamina, and because they had just fought a life-or-death battle, the tension had been so extreme that once it broke, all strength left their bodies.
“Ah, Rain... looks like... he won too. The fighting stopped...”
“Well, if that bastard had lost, that black one would’ve come running here like he’d been stabbed in the ass.”
“But why did it stop at the end?”
“No idea. Maybe Rain finished off that black bastard then and there. Tch. If he won, he should’ve come running to this senior right away.”
“You’re just as exhausted, Frai. Rain wouldn’t be any different.”
“Honestly, no guts at all. No guts.”
“Pfft. What does that even mean?”
Joy that the fight was over, and that they had won. Relief that they had survived. And exhaustion piled on top of it all, leaving their whole bodies drained.
Vrrrrr
“Oh, looks like they’ve come to retrieve us.”
“Let’s go see Rain.”
++++
He gritted his teeth and endured the pain that kept surging through him. When the pain eased a little, he came to his senses and opened his eyes.
He tried to move his body, but the instant he did, pain flooded in like a tidal wave, and he gave up on moving. He couldn’t even bring himself to check his condition, so he barely managed to lift his heavy eyelids, as if a Norton-class cruiser were hanging from them, and checked his sword first.
The sword... Hah. Never in my life did I think I’d see an AB Sword evaporate. And a greatsword-form AB Sword at that.
The blade, which had been nearly two meters long, had more than three-quarters evaporated into nothing, and the rest was red-hot, half-melted into a nearly liquid state. The only part that still retained its original color was the hilt. Even that was tinged faintly red.
Come to think of it, when did I let go? I’m pretty sure I was holding on until Starlight ended. Well, it doesn’t matter. Haha. The AB Sword’s gone, so whoever it is, I’m going to have to write a ridiculous number of incident reports.
He turned his eyes toward where Cross Eye had been. Hm, they’ve been neatly chopped into star-shaped pieces. Oh, the core should be fine. Anne will be happy. Barisada looks fine too.
Hm. I stuck in a defeat flag and still won?
Damn, this hurts. I’m scared to even check my body, but I guess I have to inspect it.
Let’s see... it’s hard to find a bone in my body that isn’t wrecked. Both shoulder blades are dislocated, and every rib is fractured in multiple places. Maybe a broken rib pierced my lung, because it hurts every time I breathe.
At least my legs are a little better. They’re dislocated too... well, whatever. But can legs even dislocate? I mean, I’m human from space, so...
My heart... isn’t in good shape either. Hah, it’s been torn apart halfway, but... at this level, I can still do something about it. I won’t be able to keep being a knight anymore, though... well, I was prepared for that much. Hmm, if I add my saved salary and severance pay, I can live idly for the rest of my life. At this rate... if I treat it well enough, I might even be able to handle lower-rank Heroic Spirits somehow... Hmm, I probably won’t die to monsters. I refuse to have a newspaper headline like, “Former Top Sword dies to a mass-produced monster!” I’d be too embarrassed to die like that. If I have to die to a monster, I’d rather die to a Heroic Spirit. Dying to a mass-produced one would be humiliating.
Hm, my arms... are a disaster. Damn it. It feels like all the retirement plans I was just thinking about have flown out the window. I had braced myself for losing one arm, but this is worse than I expected.
My left arm has been torn off below the shoulder, leaving muscle fibers dangling, and my right arm is in a similar state. Blood is gushing from both arms. I guess I should be grateful the right arm is at least still attached.
No, calling this “attached” might be a stretch. The skin is torn away, the muscle is shredded, and bones are visible through the blood pouring out... can I really call that attached?
Tch. I’m done for. With injuries this bad, surviving is impossible. If it had been a clean cut, maybe, but with a ragged wound like this, even stopping the bleeding is impossible. Even if it were possible, I’ve already lost too much blood. Hmm, how many minutes do I have left?
Vrrrrr—
Hm? They’ve come to retrieve me?
“Knight!”
...Sorry, but my body’s in such bad shape I can’t talk.
[Uh... sorry, I don’t think I can speak.]
“Ugh... at least take this first...”
A soldier who had run over draped a DC Coat over him. The DC Coat’s life-support function activated and stopped the bleeding, but it was already too late. Still, that bought him some time.
“Rain!”
Oh, Anne? You were here?
[You... ah, over there, I guess.]
He could see another ship had come into view at the edge of his vision. Hm, it came straight here.
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