The sound of bullets firing tore at his ears, and the explosions of bombs shook the ground.
But Bill couldn’t afford to ignore any of it.
The louder the battlefield grew, the busier his eyes became.
“Anis, one o’clock! One target!”
“Got it!!”
Anis ducked as a bullet whistled over her head, then reacted instantly and fired a grenade round.
Before long, a massive blast rang out, and a single shard of metal dropped behind her.
Confirming that the Rapture from a moment ago had been blown apart, Anis hurriedly aimed at another one and fired again.
“Rapi, three on your right!!! Neon, provide cover!!”
“Yes!!!”
Rapi vaulted over a wall in an instant, and before anyone knew it, she was standing in front of the Raptures that had been twenty meters away.
By the time they noticed her, the core of the lead unit had already gone dark.
Kkik-kkik.
The remaining units fired at Rapi, but she had already moved.
They swivelled their cameras to search for her after she vanished from sight, and in that gap, their cores were shattered one after another.
After confirming that no moving Raptures remained, Bill muttered under his breath, “They just keep coming...”
They had been on the surface for a little over four hours now.
And during that time, they had faced an unprecedented number of Rapture encounters.
Right after resting in that stinking apartment, the moment the missile barrage began, Raptures had multiplied in an instant and swarmed them.
Of course, Bill didn’t know why, so he asked the operator.
“[I-I don’t know either... Even if the density is high, I’ve never seen this many Raptures before. I’m sorry.]”
“It’s fine. If you’ve got time to feel depressed, keep an eye out for more Raptures.”
“[Y-yes...]”
Bill’s half-joking push made Shifty wear a gloomy expression as she checked the screen.
—What in the world is going on at that research facility?
Something was definitely wrong.
Raptures were attacking at intervals of less than twenty minutes.
The encounter rate was triple the usual.
If this were food, like cake or a shake, it would just mean there was a lot of it... but if the subject was Raptures, the story changed completely.
As an example, there was the orbital elevator Bill had mentioned earlier.
Near a production site with absurd density.
The number of enemy forces seemed to multiply exponentially the farther in you went, enough to make even the elite combat power of the Goddess Squad struggle to break through.
It wasn’t exactly the same situation.
Each individual unit was weaker, and they were clearly advancing deeper and deeper, but at the very least, the reason was the same.
It meant there was something at the research facility they themselves hadn’t noticed.
“Shifty, any Rapture signals?”
“[No more Raptures are detected nearby. The area has been cleared.]”
“Understood.”
After hearing from Shifty that there were no more Raptures around, Bill called the squad that had been standing guard outside back in.
The first Nikke to return was Anis, who had been guarding the supplies nearby.
“Good work.”
“Haah... I’m starting to get... pretty tired... Why are there so many Raptures here?”
“How should I know? Here, take some water.”
Bill tossed her a water bottle.
Still panting, she caught the bottle easily, twisted off the cap, and drained it in one go.
“Haa... that’s refreshing...”
“Rapi, Neon, you two okay?”
“I think so... But is the surface always like this? I heard the encounter rate was a little different from what I’d been told.”
“No, not at all. I’m fine. The two of them seem pretty tired, though.”
“Looks that way.”
Rapi still seemed to have some room to spare, but Anis, who wasn’t especially outstanding in combat, and Neon, who was climbing to the surface for the first time, both looked like they were reaching their physical limits.
And that was despite the fact that Rapi had handled most of the front line while they only provided rear support.
Even Rapi, for all her apparent composure, had probably burned through several times more stamina than either of them, so she definitely wasn’t in normal condition.
Each individual enemy was weak.
If you put a bullet into the core properly, one shot could kill one.
The problem was that the numbers kept increasing the closer they got to the research facility, and the Raptures were moving intelligently.
The closer they went, the more stamina they lost, while the enemies only grew stronger.
It was clearly a losing war of attrition.
If he stepped in, he could probably stop them from wearing themselves down.
The problem was that his power was, naturally, a secret.
If he was going to act directly, he’d first have to cut communication with Shifty, but in an area without Eblah particles, the chance of losing comms was effectively zero.
If he kept doing it, the operator would likely notice something strange, so even if he used it, he judged that once might be the limit.
“Rapi. How long do you think this mission will take?”
“...”
Rapi wore a somewhat ambiguous expression and couldn’t answer right away.
Of course she wanted to give a positive answer, but that wasn’t possible.
The reality that they couldn’t use their strongest card didn’t matter much.
Normally, Nikkes were the ones who fought Raptures, so in a standard situation, he should have just been giving orders.
But this was different.
The absurd encounter rate of three times normal had even left Rapi, who had survived countless battlefields, visibly shaken.
That alone made it clear the mission was difficult even for them, and that most squads would never make it through.
“I originally thought it would take two or three days... but I think we need to consider mission failure. We’re burning through ammunition far too quickly, and at this rate, it’s obvious we may run out of resources before we even reach the research facility.”
“Not ‘there’s a good chance’... but ‘it’s obvious,’ huh.”
After the battle ended, while checking their remaining ammunition, Bill thought that wasn’t exactly wrong.
They had only made it halfway, and yet their consumption had already exceeded sixty percent.
Anis and Neon had used forty percent of their ammo, but Rapi, who accounted for eighty percent of their current combat power, was the most important factor.
—I came here saying I’d make it happen, and now I’m going to look like an idiot...
Bill scratched his head.
He didn’t entertain thoughts like, I could probably do this alone.
The reason for the mission failure was simple: stamina depletion and a lack of supplies after more than twenty consecutive Rapture battles.
As the Commander, he was just window dressing.
As long as Shifty, an operator from Central Government, was with them, he was nothing more than a command post that wouldn’t die even if it took a bullet to the head.
“Shifty. You alive?”
“[Ah, yes. Go ahead.]”
“Tell Commander Andersen about our situation. The faster he answers, the better.”
“[Understood.]”
Shifty quickly began typing.
The report, systematically detailing the number of battles with Raptures, remaining resources, and the squad’s declining morale and stamina, was finished in no time and sent to Andersen.
There was only so much she could do, but Shifty’s expression was complicated.
“[The message has been sent... but I don’t know when he’ll reply. The Deputy Commander is usually busy... Huh? Already?]”
They had already realized something was strange when they asked to send a mail directly to the Deputy Commander, but even so, this was too fast.
And the reply, just like its speed, contained shocking content.
“[He said that if you want to retreat, you should pull back, but if not, he’ll send supplies and reinforcements within an hour.]”
“Reinforcements...”
Andersen didn’t have any Nikkes personally stationed at his side.
For him to send reinforcements to help them was as absurd as saying the Rapture Queen was actually an alien from outer space.
Then the only available force with connections would have to be Ingrid’s.
“It’s Absolute...”
“[Absolute!?]”
“Yeah. Absolute.”
Bill said it without much reaction, but Shifty had no choice but to be shocked.
Absolute, one of Elysion’s squads and one of the Ark’s strongest forces among the three major companies.
The Nikke among Nikkes, who had even joined forces with Matis to take down a Heretic.
Those women were coming here.
“Shifty.”
“Y-yes!?”
“Tell them to send them. If they’re offering, we might as well use them.”
“A-alright!!”
A polite mail was sent quickly, without needing to follow the same procedure as before.
The sent confirmation appeared on the screen, and soon after, another letter arrived just as quickly as the last one.
Shifty read it at once and relayed the contents.
“They say they’ll arrive in about an hour.”
“So, one hour from now...”
Bill, who had been standing with his arms crossed, glanced sideways at Rapi, who was resting beside Anis and Neon.
—How is that anywhere near okay...
Contrary to her claim that she was fine, her whole body was limp.
Normally, after intense exercise, you’d need to massage your arms and legs to loosen up the tense muscles, but it looked like Rapi didn’t even have the strength for that.
Bill slowly walked over to her and said, “Rapi, relax your body.”
“Commander?”
“Just do what I say, quickly.”
“Understood.”
Rapi let the strength leave her body as instructed.
Then Bill began by slowly kneading her arm.
“C-Commander?”
Her expression was full of confusion.
Rapi couldn’t openly shake him off, so she tried to resist by wriggling a little.
“Stay still. If you collapse, who’s going to keep fighting?”
“Ah...”
“Your muscles are locked up...”
Indeed, Rapi’s muscles were tightly knotted.
But as Bill massaged her over and over, the muscles that had been as hard as bricks loosened and returned to their original softness.
Though, of course, he couldn’t do anything about the weak little cries of pain that escaped Rapi’s lips.
—All right, then. Now I need to figure out how to deal with Eunhwa, that nasty-tempered one...
Even in a simple one-on-one, she was a difficult Nikke to face.
She refused to take orders from anyone she didn’t acknowledge, and she’d glare at you like she wanted to devour you whole.
When they were subjugating Leviathan, the relationship between the Commander and her had improved considerably, and her grudge with Rapi had also been mostly resolved, so things were much smoother then.
But now, with neither of those conditions satisfied, could they really get through the operation without clashing with her?
“Haa...”
“Commander, is something wrong?”
Apparently he’d sighed out loud, because Rapi had come over to him.
Anis had gone off to keep watch at a distance, but Neon was also looking at him.
—Right... I should say it.
“Rapi. Listen carefully.”
“Yes.”
“Absolute is probably coming here.”
“What?”
Rapi made a face that was hard to describe.
Maybe because it was so sudden.
At the very least, there was no way she had been prepared to meet them.
Bill remembered Rapi’s first meeting with Absolute taking place during the battle against Tov. The gap between the present and that time might not have been very large.
If there was one thing they had in common, it was that whenever they met, they’d probably snarl at each other just the same and make Rapi miserable.
“Still awkward, huh?”
“It seems you know... But how...”
“I heard it from Ingrid. Anyway, I’ll handle Eunhwa, so you keep an eye on the other two.”
“Thank you...”
“Go rest. Rotate the watch properly.”
Rapi bowed her head and left to relieve Anis.
Her back looked lonely, mixed with complicated feelings about herself.
He had no intention of forcing the two of them together.
Their relationship was something the people involved had to settle themselves.
He could give them a little push, but asking them to deal with such a sudden appearance as this was impossible.
—Cloudy.
Half-reclining against a rock, Bill looked up at the sky, which had grown even darker under the thick clouds.
Just like Rapi’s heart, the gloomy sky showed no sign of light breaking through anywhere.
And then the promised time passed.
A faint sound came from the direction of the Ark.
When Bill turned toward the noise, he saw three black dots descending under parachutes, along with a large piece of luggage.
“They’re here.”
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