Chapter_5_Gears_and_Light
There were no enemies in front of the library door.
“Those soldiers’ objective must be the books in this library. They’re probably inside.”
Irina called out to Sylvia in a low voice, and Sylvia nodded quietly. Exchanging glances before the aged door and confirming their assault, Irina slowly reached for the door.
At that moment, the old library door was blown away from the inside with a thunderous roar. Violent impacts sent shattered fragments raining down all at once. Irina and Sylvia reflexively jumped backward, narrowly dodging the falling debris.
“Really! What is this!”
Irina shouted. What suddenly appeared was an unimaginably bizarre existence. Four arms, three legs—a mechanical doll that mimicked a woman’s form while exuding the cold beauty of machinery, slowly but surely approaching with its overwhelming physique. Countless gears exposed on the metal surface formed incomprehensible patterns, and combined with movements that made mechanical sounds pierce the ears, it even felt like a kind of religious solemnity.
“My lady! Be careful! That’s a mechanical doll!”
“Don’t tell me… they’ve sicced even this monster on us? No wonder the mansion’s defense systems were breached so easily.”
Abruptly, the mechanical doll turned toward Irina and emitted an ear-splitting strange cry. At that moment, dazzling light emblems appeared in the surroundings.
“—That’s! Sacred Emblems!”
Sylvia involuntarily cried out. Irina also realized what was happening and was seized by fear that squeezed her heart tight.
“This is bad… it’s Holy power!”
The emblems created by the mechanical doll, as a preemptive strike, simultaneously radiated light rays imbued with Holy power. Like judgment from heaven, brilliant flashes poured down on the two while tearing through the dark night. Irina and Sylvia immediately took evasive action, but could only barely dodge the countless light rays pouring down like sideways rain.
Though the two somehow managed to evade the attack, Irina fell to her knees with a pained expression. From about halfway down her left upper arm, it was missing as if torn off, with the grotesque interior of intertwined flesh and mechanical parts visible between horrifying bodily fluids. Looking back, the other half of her arm lay near where she had been standing.
“My lady! Your left arm…”
Sylvia approached Irina, somewhat distraught.
“My left arm… just broke. Calm down. The enemy is still before us!”
Irina quietly admonished Sylvia. Nothing was over yet—they had to think of a way to deal with that mechanical doll. Fortunately, the mechanical doll had stopped moving after its initial attack. The Holy power it had unleashed was one of the major techniques. Given that mechanical doll’s capabilities, it probably needed dozens of seconds of cooldown after use. It had likely intended to finish off Irina and her companion with the first move—their survival must have been a miscalculation for the mechanical doll.
“I can repair the left arm later. Please just stop the bleeding while it’s stopped!”
Sylvia immediately took out a small bottle of liquid from her suitcase and sprinkled it on Irina’s arm. It was a healing potion infused with recovery magic. This would suffice for stopping the bleeding. Once the bleeding stopped, Irina immediately stood up. Though she swayed slightly, there seemed to be no problem for the next battle.
“It’s moving!”
The mechanical doll began moving again, gears resonating.
The fierce battle began. The mechanical doll now began attacking Irina and her companion using lower-output Holy power. Though lower output, attacks that would be fatal if hit were repeated numerous times. Irina fired the Arcadian Revolver at the mechanical doll repeatedly while performing evasive maneuvers. Fire ether bullets, electric ether bullets, ice ether bullets—all bounced futilely off the mechanical doll’s armor.
“Sylvia, this mechanical doll probably has special armor including anti-magic! Let’s concentrate our attacks!”
Irina signaled to Sylvia. Single attacks had little effect against that special armor—they needed to concentrate attacks to destroy the core operational parts.
“Agreed, my lady! I’ll concentrate attacks on the leg joints!”
Sylvia pressed one of the multiple switches on the suitcase. The suitcase instantly separated and equipped itself on both of Sylvia’s hands, each transforming into something like a small rifle. At the same time, Sylvia began concentrated fire on the joint of the leg positioned on the mechanical doll’s right side. While gracefully dodging the Holy light rays and blast waves the mechanical doll emitted, rifle gunfire rang out. Meanwhile, Irina loaded magic explosive rounds into the Arcadian Revolver’s cylinder while Sylvia drew the mechanical doll’s attention.
“Uah!”
With a groan, Sylvia was blown away. She had been swept aside by the mechanical doll’s arm after dodging a Holy light ray. Sylvia was slammed against the wall and collapsed powerlessly. Seizing this opportunity, the mechanical doll raised one of its three legs toward Sylvia, preparing to crush her.
“Your opponent is me!!”
Irina shouted, aiming the Arcadian Revolver’s muzzle at the right leg joint Sylvia had been attacking and firing the magic explosive round. A dull thudding sound echoed as it embedded in the mechanical doll’s leg joint metal. However, the mechanical doll still didn’t stop moving and turned its body toward Irina. But the leg joint was moving with a subtle wrongness. Some parts seemed damaged from Sylvia and Irina’s repeated attacks.
One more push. While feeling certain in her heart, Irina again aimed the Arcadian Revolver at the mechanical doll. While lightly dodging the mechanical doll’s fierce charge, she fired another magic explosive round into the damaged right leg joint.
“GIGIGI—”
The mechanical doll raised a grating metallic sound like a roar. The right leg creaked sharply and simultaneously couldn’t support the weight, collapsing and falling to the stone floor with a dull sound on its knee. The torso tilted greatly, creaking as if appealing in pain.
“Now!”
Irina quickly crouched and drew the Amalgam Disruptor. With her left arm unusable now, even the Amalgam Disruptor’s power was halved. But given the mechanical doll’s current state, there was a high probability of inflicting a fatal wound. Irina ran at full speed toward the mechanical doll. She would cut down the mechanical doll’s core part with the momentum of that run. Namely that female-shaped torso portion—if she split that in two, that mechanical doll should stop.
Sensing Irina’s movement, the mechanical doll immediately tried to prepare for interception. After trying to move its legs and finding they were broken and useless, it immediately switched to an attack using Holy power. Multiple light emblems instantly appeared in space—the technique that had taken Irina’s left arm.
It would be difficult for the thoroughly exhausted Irina to dodge all that rain of light. Furthermore, Sylvia collapsed near the mechanical doll would almost certainly be hit by the attack and lose her life.
I have to do this now Irina increased her running speed further. Which would come first—the mechanical doll’s Holy power or Irina’s Amalgam Disruptor? That was all that mattered now.
Irina gritted her teeth and kicked off the ground harder. The light emblems had already begun flickering and could explode at any moment. If hit by the attack, not only Sylvia but even she herself would be instantly incinerated. Even so, she couldn’t stop her feet.
In that instant—the dazzling light beginning to burst and the Amalgam Disruptor’s tip catching the torso were nearly simultaneous.
“—!”
Irina aimed for the mechanical doll’s chest and swung down the sword with all her might. A sharp metallic sound rang out, and the blade sank deep into the mechanical doll’s body as if piercing through resistance. The multiple light emblems that had appeared around them wavered for a moment.
However, the mechanical doll’s “Holy power” couldn’t be completely misfired, and at the moment Irina’s sword struck, cracked light scattered in all directions like buckshot, as if exploding. Vicious light grazed Irina’s body and further pierced the ground and surrounding debris.
“Aah…!”
Hot, sharp pain gouged Irina’s shoulder. But maintaining that posture without faltering, she tore into the mechanical doll’s torso as if prying with the sword.
The mechanical doll emitted sparks and strange noise centered on the torso that formed the woman’s figure. Part of the torso barely split, a deep wound that seemed about to expose the internal structure. The figure that had shown overwhelming power until now began to crumble slightly.
“Is this… the end…?”
Irina took a shallow breath. But the next moment, the mechanical doll made a creaking GIGIGI sound, shook off its arm, and pushed Irina away. In the mechanical doll’s eyes, remnants of holy light still dwelt. It seemed to have merely given up on “continuing combat” there, as if it had judged “now is the time to flee.”
The mechanical doll retreated toward the library behind while spewing sparks and black smoke from its cracked torso. Then red-uniformed soldiers appeared from somewhere and began guiding the mechanical doll in a specific direction. They paid no attention to Irina at all—no, were they panicking at having the mechanical doll destroyed?
“That’s… they’re going to escape—!”
Irina planted both feet firmly and tried to ready her sword again, but pain from the earlier light bullets coursed through her entire body. Also, the bleeding from her left arm was severe, and she couldn’t put in strength as she wanted.
While she struggled, the mechanical doll and red-uniformed soldiers disappeared, and along with a dull roar came the sound of thick mechanical operation. They had probably destroyed the library wall and forcibly opened a hole large enough to board a small craft.
“Damn…”
Irina desperately tried to move her body but couldn’t move as desired due to pain and fatigue. Also, the relief of somehow repelling the enemy further immobilized Irina’s body. She heard the engine sound of the small craft growing distant. At the same time, Irina’s consciousness also quietly grew deeply distant, and without any interval, Irina’s consciousness fell into the void.