Rescue Fantasy (26)
Ahaha— At the ringing laughter, both Celestia and Carry's expressions hardened. Mine was not much different.
'Should I kill her?'
Right now, I could kill the woman before my eyes with just a flick of my finger. I didn't care whether she was human or monster. After all, it all depended on my own intent.
"I thought my acting was pretty good, but I got found out faster than I expected. Pureblood supremacists, huh... I definitely overlooked that part. I forgot things change based on the environment, even if you start from a default state."
The woman said this, wiping away the tears that had formed at the corners of her eyes from laughing so hard. As soon as I saw her eyes, I felt the need to subdue her—if not kill her right away, at least stop her from doing anything foolish.
That was only natural; after all, only her mouth was smiling, while her eyes were strangely sinking and dull.
I darted forward and subdued her at once. Her slender body was pinned under my rough strength, and her red hair fell into disarray.
I pressed a plasma cutter to her neck, giving her no chance to resist. The woman, wearing Licorice's face, broke out into a tearful grimace. But she did not waver.
"You're hurting me, Lee Hyun-woo."
"I'll ask again. Are you Lobelia?"
"Secret. I can't tell a man who can't even remember a promise."
"What?"
My face contorted. I couldn't believe she was acting so calmly after being overpowered so completely. And yet, I felt an inexplicable sense of unease.
This woman had something about her. My instincts were constantly screaming in warning. My heart began to pound from the sense of dissonance.
'If this woman is Lobelia, then I...'
What should I do? Cystus once called me Lobelia's toy. The emotion behind his words was clear hostility. So, what position does Lobelia hold?
Are the pureblood supremacists her enemies, thus putting her in a position to cooperate with us—or is she in a completely different position neither aligned with them nor with us? I had no idea.
"Hyun-woo!"
Celestia and Carry ran to me. They looked flustered, but still raised their weapons at her in support of me. The woman wore a pitiful expression as if putting on a show.
"Are you going to kill me? I'd rather you let me live while you're at it. Or not. You can just kill me, too. This body's just a shell anyway, so dying doesn't mean anything. It's just a bit uncomfortable, that's all."
A shell. It was the moment I realized how she was in Licorice's form. I'd considered the possibility that she might have hijacked Licorice's body back in town without us knowing. Thankfully, it seemed that wasn't the case.
The woman looked at me and burst out laughing.
"You're relieved, Lee Hyun-woo. Because I'm not what you know."
"..."
"Your thoughts are so transparent. How are you still so unchanged?"
"What do you know?"
"I told you, it's a secret."
Despite saying it was a secret, she made no effort to hide that she was, in fact, Lobelia. I hadn't expected to encounter her like this. Meeting her so unprepared only made me more frustrated.
But nothing really changed. No matter what, I had to extract information. That was all I could think about.
"Are you playing—"
Just as I was about to shout 'Are you playing with me?' my vision went black, just like the blink of an eye. It was so natural, slipping in through the faintest opening, that I thought I'd simply closed and opened my eyes again.
But what I saw next made me realize it wasn't the case.
She was gone.
Just a second ago, Lobelia had been pinned under me, and I hadn't loosened my grip at all, yet she had vanished as if I'd never caught her in the first place.
"Dying once isn't so hard, but this is a body I'm quite fond of. I even changed into new clothes just to see you, so I can't let them get dirty already. That's why I escaped. Ta-da."
"... Damn it."
Hearing her voice from behind, I turned my head. The curse escaped my lips almost simultaneously. Lobelia hadn't gone far. Actually, she hadn't gone anywhere at all.
She was just a short distance away, watching our confusion as if she found it amusing. The problem was, she wasn't alone.
A lithe physique, a long tail snapping like a whip, a color as if darkness itself had been poured over it. A mutated creature identical in form to Whiteout prowled around Lobelia protectively.
I didn't need to see the name to know what it was called. Blackout. The twin organism to Whiteout.
"... Hyun-woo."
"Get behind me."
Having already experienced Whiteout's mind-manipulation once, our sense of wariness was heightened to an extreme.
'We didn't even react just now.'
Unlike before, when I could barely resist Whiteout's attacks by staying alert, I had no clue how to withstand it this time—or how to overcome it.
My grip tightened. My gloves and baton produced a tense, squeaking sound from the friction.
Lobelia noticed how our nerves were fixed on Blackout. She stroked Blackout's head and spoke.
"Step back for a bit. I'm not here to kill them."
「.......」
As expected, it seemed Blackout could communicate just like Whiteout. Considering it seemed above Whiteout in the hierarchy, it made sense.
Blackout bowed its head and stepped back. My vision blinked again, and, as light returned, Blackout was gone. It was out of sight, but I was certain it could reappear at any time.
"You still can't handle the Core, can you? You're too easily taken down. Still, don't be afraid, I'm not planning to hurt you. Hmm... at least, not right now?"
"I'm not in the mood for games."
I expressed my displeasure at her playful remark. Regardless of my reaction, Lobelia was unshaken. She just let out a little laugh, as if asking me not to be so on edge.
She looked me over, arms crossed, with a thoughtful gaze.
"If nothing else, I'm curious about this: why did you think I was Lobelia? Do you remember something? Or was it just an intuition?"
Expectation glimmered in her eyes. What was she hoping for from me? I said nothing. Rather, I couldn't say anything.
Even so, the expectation in her eyes only grew larger, as if it didn't matter. A smile, barely stifled, escaped her lips.
"Lee Hyun-woo, have you ever seen a star?"
"..."
"Well, you must have seen a star. But have you ever thought of each of those stars as a gaze?"
"..."
"No, huh. I figured not. But that's how I feel."
"What are you trying to say?"
"To sleep beneath the stars—that's what I'm telling you about. You used to be curious about it, you know. All the time."
Lobelia started to walk slowly. She stroked the massive tree in which the supply crate was embedded.
"Should I make it simpler? That's what the pureblood supremacists ultimately want. They call it a Miracle."
"Miracle?"
"A power that twists common sense. It's not that unfamiliar, is it? You already know this. You couldn't not know."
"... Blue Crystal."
"Correct. Although it isn't the only one, it's one of the many answers."
Lobelia clapped, saying I'd gotten it right. The hollow sound echoed within the chamber, then faded.
My head was a mess. I'd already learned from records that pureblood supremacists were more than just a cult.
I also knew their goals were clearly terroristic. But I hadn't realized it was all to obtain a Miracle.
Miracle—a word used when something impossible by normal logic occurs. Usually, the word was associated with gods. Did that mean they were trying to awaken a god?
'Core.'
A word suddenly came to mind. I realized it was connected to the Miracle. The black smoke Cystus used, and the special powers wielded by Blackout, were probably linked to the Core.
'Am I supposed to be able to handle it?'
Cystus thought so, and so did Lobelia. They found it strange and laughed at the fact that I couldn't use it. Yet, I'd never so much as felt what a Core truly was.
"Those blinded by the Miracle have brought disaster. They won't stop."
Lobelia continued. All I could do was listen, tense. With Blackout present, any hasty movement would bring harm to us. Targets of attack could change at any moment.
"The time is coming. Soon, the Age of Purity they scream for will dawn."
"It's already too late."
We knew this wasn't happening on Titan alone; we failed to respond, and that resulted in massive casualties. Countless people died—and many more would die before it was over.
"You're right. It's already too late. But how you respond can still change things. If you keep resisting, it can't truly be an Age of Purity, can it?"
One hundred years. That's how long the pureblood supremacists had been preparing to bring about the age they desired, and how long it took for Titan to change from a wasteland to a frozen moon.
Just one hundred years. That was all it took to change something that had remained unchanged for eons.
Carrot's words echoed in my mind—only we humans could create an environment suitable for ourselves. This was war. It was a desperate struggle for survival in the world each of us wanted.
"The war has already begun. You stand at a crossroads: will you submit, or will you resist?"
"Which side are you on?"
"Secret."
"Why have you shown yourself to us now?"
Why now, of all times? Why reveal yourself at this moment?
Given that she'd spoken of a promise, it was easy to guess that there was something between me and Lobelia.
But I still couldn't grab hold of her true position. She didn't feel like enemy or ally. The ambiguous timing of Lobelia's appearance made it impossible for me to trust her.
"To keep a promise."
"What promise?"
"Secre~t."
"Hah."
That answer somehow didn't even surprise me anymore. Lobelia, amused by my irritated expression, let out a giggle and raised her hand.
"Let me say one thing, personally. Lee Hyun-woo, you're not Lobelia's toy. You're her gift. I'm serious, so don't let that nasty Cystus get in your head."
"What's that suppo—"
Just as I was about to ask what that meant, Lobelia snapped her fingers. Almost instantly, the sprinkler system installed in the water pipes burst forth.
"...!"
With water suddenly gushing out everywhere, we hurriedly switched our helmet modes to fully sealed, just in case it wasn't ordinary water.
〈Alert. An error has occurred in the plumbing facilities. Workers in the sector, please resolve the issue immediately at the central hub control room.〉
A base announcement played. Celestia and I looked at each other. We should never have left control of the sector to Lobelia. If I'd known, I would have insisted on giving it to Celestia.
Regret always came too late. The situation had already unfolded.
Kugugung...!
The massive tree Lobelia leaned against began to tremble, and so did the surrounding plants. They greedily sucked in the pouring water, rapidly growing larger and larger.
I doubted they could get any bigger, yet they grew and grew, seemingly without limit. Their roots and stalks stretched outward, gripping the tower as if to crush it, shaking the floor so much it seemed like the whole tower would collapse.
Anyone would have noticed something was horribly wrong. Through falling chunks of ceiling, I could see Lobelia waving at us.
Celestia quickly decided what to do. She pointed her smart pistol at Lobelia and fired several times in a row, apparently thinking that taking her out would stop the situation.
But none of the bullets hit. They weren't off target, but Blackout appeared and blocked the shots with its body.
Clicking her tongue, Celestia swapped in a new magazine. But her efforts to hit Lobelia were soon thwarted by a thick pillar of mutated wood that rose up between us and her. The wood was so dense, it wasn't even scratched.
Seeing roots spread and fill in all directions, ripping up the floor, I cried out immediately.
"Carry!"
「(⌐■_■)-︻╦╤─」
Carry pulled out a flamethrower to burn the wood. As it squeezed the trigger, a stream of intense flame burst out.
For a moment, the wood's growth seemed to be stymied by the fire, but when the fuel ran out, the flames stopped and the wood returned to its abnormal growth spurt.
「Σ(； ･`д･´)」
Carry tried squeezing the trigger over and over, but with no gas left for flames, he panicked. The fire had an effect, but we didn't have enough fuel to capitalize on it. That left us with only one option.
I called out for Carry again and reached my hand out. He realized what I wanted right away. Soon, the polar impactor was in my hands.
'We'll just have to smash through, even if it's by brute force...!'
I didn't know if, like the other mutated creatures, these plants had a Core, or if they did, where it was. But hitting the center should work, I guessed.
As I was preparing to smash through, suddenly—crash!—the floor beneath us caved in. The collapsing floor revealed a pit of darkness long hidden underneath.
Below the tower was an unfathomably deep space. The facility was collapsing. As I felt myself falling, Lobelia's voice echoed in my ears.
"I'm giving you a chance. You might die, but if you survive, you'll get what you want."
Before I could even process her words, my gaze flicked back and forth between Lobelia, guarded by Blackout, and the gaping hole. Just before I fell, I grabbed Celestia and leapt for a vine that shot upward.
"Kya!"
"Hold on tight!"
Carry managed to support us with his weakening thruster, so we barely managed to hang on, but I could tell we couldn't keep this up for long. The vines writhed incessantly, erasing any safe grips, and the darkness below swelled, waiting for us.
It didn't take long before I couldn't hold on any longer and lost my grip on the vine. Whether it was the force I used or the plant's doing, or both, the vine I was holding snapped right off.
Carry's thruster was already maxed out, emitting ominous black smoke. Even if we hung on, there was no guarantee we could make it back up to the tower's entrance.
We fell—into the darkness where the bottom couldn't be seen. The tower's ruins were sucked down beneath us, and we were falling with them.
I had to make a choice—one I made in an instant. I spun around and aimed the polar impactor at the direction of the tower's entrance.
Then I fired. The energy exploded outward, opening a temporary hole in midair. At that same moment, I kicked Carry toward the breach.
"Carry! Remember what I told you! The biocell comes first! And report everything you've seen!"
The look in its eyes as it stared back at me told the story.
"We'll return, too! Now go! Get out of here!"
「(☍д⁰)」
Carry hesitated for a second, but realized leaving was the best option and redirected its thrusters. Without needing to support two people, even his weak thrust was enough.
"Not so fast!"
As a vine shot for Carry heading through the hole, I hurled my plasma cutter like a spear.
My stance was wobbly, so I couldn't throw with full strength, but it was enough to buy time for Carry's escape. The plasma cutter was smashed to pieces by attacking vines from all directions.
I glared at Lobelia, who caused all this. Our eyes met—hers as unreadable as ever.
"If I were you, I'd get out quickly. If you want to save the person you care about so much, I mean."
Lobelia's lips moved in slow motion.
"And the same goes for you, Myosotis. ... Oh, but I guess you don't need that distinction, huh? Next time I see you, I hope you'll be ready. Prove your worth."
"Lobelia—!"
I stretched out my hand toward her. For a moment, I foolishly hoped I could grab and pull her close, that she wouldn't slip away.
Naturally, there was nothing to grasp—my hand merely cut a futile path through empty air.
And with that, time, which had seemed to slow down, snapped back to normal, and Celestia and I plummeted down into the depths below.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Incoming power up?
【「(°ヘ°)?】