Chapter 234. The Immortal (2)
Enoch stepped back, unable to contain his inward shock. Unconsciously backing up a few steps, when he stepped on the edge of the cliff, the ground gave a screeching cry.
Somehow without stumbling, he glared straight ahead. A chill ran down his spine at what had unfolded before his eyes.
Its brain must have been blown off, surely.
Even if it had been born as the result of experimentation, Anarchilon was still a creature in the end. No matter how thick its carapace armor, its organs had to be composed of cells.
At the end of damage of that magnitude, death was guaranteed — and yet an experimental magical beast with stats for super-regeneration that far exceeded that?
"……"
Suddenly, the decisive battle against Tantalus during the previous joint mission — dispatched to the Beast-kin village — flashed through Enoch's mind.
Anarchilon's regeneration speed, moving even without a head, far exceeded anything Tantalus's experimental magical beasts had shown back then. And on top of that, with that far greater size, and even wielding high-firepower magic, an immortal like this.
That such an entity was the enemy's supreme commander.
Trying to think of what means there might be to defeat Anarchilon, Enoch unconsciously clenched his fist.
Commanding such an enormous army, with regenerative ability that might as well be called immortality. An enemy protected by a solid carapace.
As if it couldn't care less about such worries, below in the forest, the scene he had witnessed before was repeating.
All the Experimental Subjects halted their attack in unison, and, escorting the jet-black colossal beetle — Anarchilon, headless — they slowly retreated.
Anarchilon's army swept out in a great wave from the plain at the forest's border and surged back this way.
Seizing the chance, Enoch leapt down from atop the cliff and landed on a nearby massive tree trunk. He slipped out of the retreating army's line of sight.
Gripping a branch above the enemies pulling back across the ground, he flung his body up high into the air. Sprinting between the towering tree trunks, he twisted his body in midair and plunged downward in a single bound.
Upon landing, he ran in the opposite direction from the enemies, toward the stronghold where the freelancers had set up their defensive line.
Amid the many freelancers dazedly standing on the plain, Enoch suddenly spotted a figure and stopped in his tracks.
"Sirocco!"
Among the freelancers in tatters, the red-haired, red-eyed girl alone stood quite a way ahead. He confirmed her and walked toward her.
She stood barefoot on the wildflower-filled plain.
Sirocco, too, seemed to have noticed him. Sharply turning her head, she looked at Enoch and her eyes went wide. Then, suddenly angry, she stomped her bare foot down on the ground with a heavy thud.
"Hey, you──!"
Almost at the same time, a powerful shock was transmitted to Enoch's chest. He realized only belatedly that Sirocco had charged at him from the front and landed a flying drop-kick square on him.
"Gurk."
Losing his balance under the fierce impact, he collapsed onto the grass. Luckily he still managed to take a proper break-fall.
Cold dew soaked into his back, and the early-dawn scent of grass pricked his nose. His view swam for a moment, and Enoch closed his eyes.
And when he blinked them open again, he found himself staring blankly upward without thinking.
Soft bare legs, characteristic of a girl, had settled across his waist, pressing him down.
He realized Sirocco had straddled him and was glaring down with his shirt collar gripped in her fist.
Just then, the dawn broke far in the distance. The clouds in the sky were stained in gray light, and orange sunlight filtered down through them onto the blue sky and flowed in.
Night had ended, and the glow of first dawn was breaking through.
In Sirocco's ruby-like eyes, sitting atop Enoch, clear tears welled at the corners, beautifully shining in the morning light.
"Hey. You. Why did you just go off without saying anything to me? I was worried!"
Then, with a pouting glare, she thumped his chest with her fist, tap tap tap.
"And me! Did you think I'd be fooled by that excuse of that dumbly busty female? I knew it was a lie, obviously!"
"No. Honestly, I didn't think you'd be fooled."
Enoch shook his head.
As long as she had at least obscured Enoch's whereabouts enough to confuse her, Nano would have played her part.
"Sirocco, get off. You're heavy."
"Huh, ridiculous. I am not heavy!"
Sirocco, just shooting back sharply with her pouting look, suddenly realized something, her eyes widening, and she gazed down at Enoch blankly.
Then, only now — as if she couldn't believe it — she carefully touched Enoch's stomach beneath her and murmured,
"Wh, what? You, why did you let my attack land……!!"
Normally, he wouldn't have allowed even a single strike and would have dodged every one — yet he had taken a straightforward head-on kick dead-on?
Sirocco couldn't understand it. With her wolf ears atop her head flicking, she looked at Enoch hesitantly.
"I, I was sure you'd dodge. So now, you — I don't know what happened over there, but your condition…"
And then, seeing the stain of Enoch's blood that had seeped into the shirt she was gripping, she was stunned into silence and let her head drop.
"……What the hell. You."
Clear tears were running in drops down Sirocco's pale cheek, and Enoch watched her quietly for a while.
It was an awkward situation to give an answer in.
In truth, since the side effects had begun eroding his mind, he was hardly in condition to react to all of Sirocco's sudden attacks.
Just then, Sirocco wrapped her legs tightly around his waist and buried her face in his chest.
The girl tucked against him held a fragrance so delicate and sweet, it was hard to believe she had been the one maintaining the freelancer army's front line alone just moments before.
As Sirocco pressed herself close, the sound of her pounding heart seemed to reach him through her chest.
Then, in Sirocco's slender voice, she whispered sullenly against his chest.
"Idiot. Real idiot. You."
"……"
Enoch looked down at Sirocco quietly.
She had rested her forehead just below his chest, clutching Enoch's shirt.
Between Sirocco's white, slender fingers, the bloodied shirt from earlier was being pulled tightly. Enoch, still lying on the ground, looked up at her silently.
Perhaps he should have told her the situation. He felt he was only now beginning to understand himself a little.
April's words from before drifted past his ear.
[Say, aren't you… broken somewhere inside?]
Yeah. Maybe I am broken.
Enoch suddenly looked at his own hand. Despite feeling that he should be wracked with guilt for leaving Sirocco without a word, his own emotion wasn't coming into clear focus.
──It was as if his own feelings were being blocked off by a door he himself had put up.
He didn't know why, but perhaps the original Enoch had intentionally restrained his emotions like this. Perhaps that was why he could remain so composed in everything.
Enoch lifted his arm and placed his hand on Sirocco's head. Then he gently stroked her hair.
Above Sirocco, trembling faintly as she pressed against his chest, her wolf ears flicked, as though she'd felt his touch.
Watching her drooping tail perk up and begin swaying side to side, Enoch quietly spoke.
"Thanks for worrying. Sirocco."
"Huh, I'm still not forgiving you yet."
Sirocco muttered in a tear-tinged voice and buried her face deeper.
"Ah! Direct Lineage……?"
Just then, April's voice rang at his ear.
Enoch gently pried Sirocco off him and stood up, looking toward the voice. Then his breath caught.
April's pale skin was smudged all over with soot and blood, and the cut on her eye had left it coated in blood and closed shut.
Looking more carefully, her clothes too bore marks of being slashed and torn all over.
Still, April held back tears brimming in her eye and, with one hand placed at her hip, glared at him.
"Haah, seriously, unbelievable. Why are you so late getting here? Direct Lineage!"
"I apologize for that."
Enoch let out a small sigh and lowered his eyes. He felt he should feel guilt at such a reaction, but─.
Just then, he slowly raised his head at a voice saying, "Hey, isn't that the Young Master?"
The surviving freelancers gathered one by one from a distance, looking at him as if watching a man who had risen from the dead.
The techwear-style robes and jumpers they wore were all tattered from the fierce battle, fluttering in the faint dawn wind.
Looking around, freelancers in blood-spattered suits were gripping their rifles and other magic gear, staring at him as though in a trance.
Immediately whispers that none of them bothered to hide spread among them.
"Black hair, right? I heard he had a dispute with that Victoria officer — Shepherd or whatever."
"Hold on — so comms coming back, and the drones being operable again, means…"
"He took that Monarch Class — Indiviltal — down with just a solo squad and came back?!"
"No. Damn, i, is that even possible?"
"Ha! Hold on, wait. So those rumors about the Elsyde's 9th Placement that were plastered all over the media every day were actually true…!!"
"Hahaha, this is insane. First it was the unsurvivable mission, now this, right in front of us…"
Beyond those, the murmurings around Enoch were growing too tangled to make out.
Through that reaction, Enoch could immediately confirm whether his having gone on the Indiviltal Suppression Mission had spread among the freelancers.
Apparently, since leaving here, there had been no way to hold back the rumor — that much flashed through his mind.
Enoch surveyed his surroundings expressionlessly.
The freelancers who had been fighting in whatever way they could seemed to have been reduced to ruin, both in body and in spirit.
It was plain from their thoroughly cowed eyes that they were all even more emaciated than the visible wounds indicated.
Glancing upward, he could see Nano's drone drifting in the sky far above. It seemed she was safe too.
Thankfully, Nano, Lily, April, and Sirocco were all confirmed safe, but out of the freelancer army of hundreds that had still been around before the enemy's second attack, only about seventy of them were visible.
What on earth was going on?
"U, um! Is, is it true that Direct Lineage is back?!"
Just then, from between the crowd, Lily — gripping her medical staff in both hands — came rushing over breathlessly, doubling over and propping herself on her knees.
Seeing the young nun utterly undisturbed by the gazes that surged toward her, Enoch was a little surprised.
Even with tears welling, Lily brought her staff close to Enoch's body and, drawing mana, began checking his condition quickly.
"E, Lord Enoch! Thank goodness, truly!!"
"Thank you for your concern."
Nodding repeatedly, Lily continued meticulously checking him for any other injuries.
Watching her display the thoroughness befitting an official nun of the Holy Séjour's medical support, Enoch asked without thinking,
"The numbers are too small — where is everyone else?"
Lily, who had just been examining Enoch, wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her habit, then looked at him with a grave face.
"Direct Lineage…… Th, the others are…"
Lily paused her examination for a moment and gazed up at him intently. She continued to try to say something, but in the end, no words came.
She folded her hands in front of her chest as if in prayer, lowered her head, and her shoulders trembled faintly.
Then April walked over and quietly placed her hand on Lily's shoulder. Then she gazed at Enoch.
"Direct Lineage, no. Leader."
A cold gust of wind blew through once. Through her bright pink short hair, the crimson dawn light filtered out and fluttered faintly.
April, with an unusually composed expression, looked up at him.
"The leaders of the seventy-two Interim currently carrying out combat contracts here — all of them have fallen."
At the unexpected words, Enoch nearly held his breath without thinking.
All of them, fallen — the leaders of the Interim?
The image of Damastes, the leader of his freelancer group, flashed through his mind.
Without question, Interim leaders, within the lawless territory of the Outsourcing District, were among the most exceptional combat-skilled freelancers recognized.
And yet, even those freelancers — even Damastes and others like him — had all died?
April lowered her head slightly under her ballcap. Her hair waved over her slender nape.
"By Article 32 of the Empire's Freelancer System Manual, when Interim or Squads are jointly conducting a large-scale operation and the representative leader falls, command is to pass to the leader of the Interim or Squad with the next highest degree of influence."
"Then the current supreme commander is?"
April lifted her head and looked at Enoch directly. Glancing around, the freelancers in the vicinity were all looking at him.
Seeing the various colored eyes turned toward him, Enoch realized in that instant.
Don't tell me…
"Lord Enoch."
April, standing before the freelancers as their representative, looked straight at Enoch with eyes that shone in the dawn light.
"From now on, you must command the army and fight, Lord Enoch. Please, Leader. Lead us."