Because incomprehensible events had come crashing down like a storm, Nova’s mind was still reeling.
Only a few minutes ago, she had been a frail human waiting for death. Now she stood clad in an unknown suit of mechanical armor, facing down a monster.
But the situation gave her no time at all to accept this enormous change or get her bearings.
“Here I come, human!”
The lion’s thunderous roar rang out across the collapsing bridge.
Nova forcibly pushed aside the swarm of stray thoughts crowding her mind and decided to focus only on the battle before her.
But could she really win?
Perhaps it was the influence of the Core Relic, but an indescribable power was surging through her entire body. Even so, it was difficult to imagine herself facing a monster that had sent even an S-rank hero flying with a single blow.
The cold terror of death she had felt moments ago when she crashed into the container began to creep up again.
『Get a hold of yourself!!』
“Ah!”
At Stella’s sharp shout ringing inside her head, Nova snapped back to her senses.
By instinct, she twisted her body away from the massive forepaw that had already closed in and was slicing through the wind.
Just as she had when she dodged the lion’s first attack, Nova barely managed to throw herself aside, but the lion’s merciless chain of follow-up strikes seemed impossible to evade.
It was a desperate speed that allowed for one stroke of luck, but not a second. And yet.
‘──I can see it?’
It was a strange sensation. As if the world’s time had sunk into a thick liquid and begun to wind slowly, the trajectory of the lion’s forepaw cutting through the air came clearly into view.
Just before the attack reached her, Nova lightly ducked and let it pass over her, then avoided the third and fourth follow-up blows by a hair’s breadth.
“W-Wow… I can see all of his attacks…!”
『Of course you can! Who do you think lent you power? Don’t panic over speed of this level!』
Stella grumbled, sounding displeased.
『And how long are you going to keep dodging? You have to attack too! This suit isn’t for decoration!』
“Ah, right! Got it!”
Though a little rough, every word Stella said was correct.
She could never bring this hellish battlefield to an end by only dodging.
Having gained confidence after slipping past the lion’s attacks one after another, Nova clenched her fist and was about to take a stance to counterattack.
『Don’t tell me you’re planning to fight that thing with your bare fists? Like an idiot?』
“Huh? Yeah, why? This is all I have right now!”
『You can’t take him down with just your fists! Especially since his Core Relic is a power type. In hand-to-hand combat, you’re at a disadvanta—』
“You’ve been chattering on and on for a while now!”
The lion cut into their conversation and put strength into both forepaws, slamming them hard into the bridge deck.
“You dodge well for a little rat! Let’s see you dodge this!”
Kwa-gwa-gwang! With a terrifying shockwave, a massive crack split through the bridge deck, and soon the structure could no longer bear the load and began to collapse.
“Urgh!”
Nova was fortunately able to grab hold of one of the cables supporting the bridge and hang on, narrowly avoiding a fall.
But the situation was the worst possible.
The unstable structure dangled in tatters and swayed, meaning that if she moved carelessly, she would fall just like that.
“Now you have nowhere to run!”
Standing tall on an uncollapsed pier, the lion drew his arm far back.
Then golden light seeped out from between the plates of his mechanical arm, and the air began to tremble.
“I’ll end this with one blow!”
She couldn’t tell what he was trying to do, but the overwhelming pressure radiating from the lion’s entire body was anything but ordinary.
Nova’s face hardened.
『That bastard, is he really planning to smash everything to pieces!?』
Stella, on the other hand, let out a voice mixed with shock, as if she knew the true nature of the attack he was preparing.
“Now, here I com—huh?”
Shoooang──! Immediately after a sharp tearing sound cut through the air, a gigantic fireball flew in like a meteor and slammed into the lion.
“What──!?”
Because he had been standing on a fixed pier, the lion’s movement was actually restricted, and he failed to dodge in time, colliding head-on with the enormous flames.
Kwaaang!
With a tremendous explosion, the pitch-black night sky was instantly dyed in firelight.
“Hah… hah… How dare a villain like you……!”
“Flare!”
Flare, her entire body drenched in blood, was flying unsteadily toward them while gasping for breath.
“Are you all right, Flare?!”
“Who… are you……?”
Flare landed beside Nova and looked at her with suspicious eyes.
Realizing that the influence of the Core Relic had completely changed not only her strength but even her appearance, Nova fumbled, not knowing how to explain.
But even in her battered state, Flare coldly surveyed the situation.
“Judging by your outfit, you seem to be a hero. Are you backup? In any case, I thank you. Thanks to you, we can take down that villain……”
“──Who said I was taken down?”
“!!”
At the voice that should not have been heard, both of them turned their gazes to the same place.
The thick flames were swept away as if washed clean by a massive shockwave, revealing the lion holding a gigantic gauntlet that emitted golden light from its eyes.
“Kahaha! Now my body’s finally starting to heat up!!”
The lion drew his arm back wide once more.
No matter how massive his body was, he was still quite a distance from where Nova and Flare stood.
But the moment Flare witnessed the vast energy condensing in that gauntlet, she hurriedly spread a wall of flame. However, Nova felt it instinctively.
With the wall Flare could make in her current state, they could never block the lion’s full-force strike.
『Bring out your weapon! Hurry!』
“A weapon? What do you mean, a weapon?!”
At the same time as Nova shouted, blue particles swirled together in her hand and solidified in an instant.
It was shaped like a pistol, but it was far thicker and larger than most large-caliber handguns, an intimidating weapon that could easily be called a hand cannon.
Without even having time to be flustered by the sudden appearance of the weapon, Nova quickly aimed the muzzle at the lion.
“Try taking this!”
And at the same time, the lion thrust out his fist.
The vast energy accumulated in the gauntlet was fired, and a brilliant golden light filled the bridge, making the flames Flare had summoned look like child’s play.
『I’ll correct your precision aim, so shoot already!』
At Stella’s cry, Nova pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Instead of a bullet, a dark blue beam shot from the muzzle and sliced through the air, colliding head-on with the golden energy the lion had unleashed and causing a massive explosion.
Kwaaang──!
The powerful shockwave from the explosion forced Nova to brace her feet with all her strength to keep from being blown away, while Flare also lowered her stance and held her ground.
At last, when the deafening blast subsided and their surroundings fell quiet, the two of them turned pale at the sight before them.
“Water……?”
A gigantic wall of water stood between the lion and the two of them.
Soon the wall fell away without strength, and the lion was not the only one standing there.
There was a whale in mechanical armor, with a body far more massive than the lion’s.
“Ahem. Didn’t you go a little too wild?”
“Krk, sorry about that. I got a bit excited too.”
Judging by the tone of their conversation, the two villains seemed to be comrades.
They had barely survived a brush with death against the lion alone, and now another being similar to him had appeared. Despair surged in like a wave.
“Urgh……”
“Flare!”
Flare, who had already been fighting past her limits, finally lost the strength to endure once the tension loosened and collapsed weakly on the spot.
While there were two villains who might perhaps be above S-rank, on this side there was only Nova, who had just awakened, and an injured person losing consciousness.
In the midst of that truly hopeless situation, one judgment flashed through Nova’s mind.
‘We have to retreat. We can’t fight anymore.’
It was impossible to face those two at the same time.
But if it was only a matter of taking Flare and escaping from here, there seemed to be a chance.
There were no longer any people nearby to protect, nor any targets to escort.
Now, while the villains were off guard, was her chance.
“By the way, are the others all finished?”
“Yeah. I finished them off ages ago and had been watching from the beginning. It was quite entertaining.”
“What……?”
The moment she heard the whale’s words, an icy chill ran down Nova’s spine.
At the same time, several presences approached through the thick haze.
Beyond the wreckage of the bridge that had not completely collapsed, bizarre silhouettes slowly came into view.
A wolf, a horse, a crow, a turtle. Animals armed in elaborate mechanical armor, just like the lion and the whale, appeared one by one from the darkness, and Nova was swept up in despair at their overwhelming numbers.
And from the center of that group, a man slowly walked forward.
“It seems the Core Relic Stella has found a compatible host.”
He was a man wearing a black coat, his face hidden by a mask.
Compared to the enormous animals around him, he looked small and shabby, but Nova sensed the thickest, coldest scent of death from him.
And sure enough, the arrogant lion immediately bent one knee toward the man the moment he appeared.
“I apologize. The Core Relic reacted to that human, so we were unable to retrieve it. But if you give the order, I will kill her right now and forcibly separate it from—”
“It’s fine.”
A single word. At the man’s cold voice, the lion immediately bowed his head, and no one dared open their mouth carelessly.
Without even glancing at his subordinates, the man stared intently at Nova’s changed form and stroked his chin.
It was the gaze of someone observing an interesting experimental subject.
“Hmm. A Core Relic synchronized with a compatible host is not easily separated. If we tear it out by force, there is a risk of damage, so retrieving it immediately would not be efficient.”
Feeling the cold gaze from beyond the mask, Nova asked in a trembling voice.
“Who are you people…? Why are you doing this?”
The man answered with a graceful slight bow of his head.
“My name is Sigma, and we are called Deviant.”
From far away, the sound of sirens cut through the night air.
The man who had introduced himself as Sigma leisurely turned away and gave his final farewell.
“I’ll leave the Core Relic in your care for the time being.”
“And we will meet again soon, Hero Nova.”
With those words, Sigma and the Deviants vanished into a dazzling dance of light.
“Sigma… Deviant……”
Nova murmured those names and collapsed unsteadily.