"Save?"
At first, Anna thought she was hearing things but Osian's answer was equally absurd.
The word "save" was something she hadn't heard in all her years in the industry but when she saw the look on his face, she realized he wasn't kidding.
"......I'm not the one who gets to tell you what to do, but remember what you just went through?"
“It was a surprise attack, and I didn’t use all my strength,”
"So you're going to go where that demon is?"
Osian nodded but Anna wasn't even angry at his lighthearted behavior.
At the same time, she felt like she knew who Osian was.
When the intruder's deflected bullet was about to strike her in the forehead, Osian stepped in and saved her even though he didn't have to.
He didn’t have to but he brought the wounded Jonathan over there."Is this about pride?"
"It's not pride."
"Of course not."
In Anna's opinion, Osian was a funny man.
The way he talked was strange, as so was his use of a sword as a weapon in this day and age.
Even stranger was his behavior.
In this business, people think they can get away with anything.
At the very least, you're considered a very good person for not betraying them.
It's not the deceiver who is criticized, but the deceived who is criticized.
This was the world but Osian was different.
On this stage of Tirna, Osian was a very alien actor.
From his behavior to the atmosphere he gave off, it was as if he didn't belong here so she couldn't help but ask him.
"Then why do you want to go?"
As they headed back to the power plant, Osian pondered Anna's question.
Rationally, Osian had no reason to go back there at all.
It wasn't like he was desperate after the fight he had just lost.
It wasn't that he was deliberately trying to build up his karma by fighting, but that wasn't the decisive reason.
It was just.
"I have to help."
"Help?"
"Yeah."
Osian thought back to the fight earlier.
The trespasser's surprise magic had dealt him a significant blow.
If he had taken more time, he might not have died, but he would have been seriously injured.
That's when David came to his aid.
He stepped into the fight to support Osian even though he knew he was no match for the intruder.
"Then why don't we just count ourselves lucky to be alive and walk away? We barely escaped with our lives."
David's help is no reason to save him.
You can't give him recognition and expect it back.
And you can't regret it.
This bleak world has always been that way but Osian saw David tending to the wounded while everyone else abandoned their colleagues to save themselves.
As a veteran of the industry, he must have realized the futility of his actions and yet he saved a man's life while on the other side was a terrorist, a man who had killed countless others, trying to kill him.
"That's not honorable."
Osian strode toward the power plant.
Anna and the other survivors stared after him, speechless.
*
"Is everyone okay?"
The inside of the power plant was dark and silent without a single light.
David, who had managed to escape, asked as he checked his surroundings but there was no answer.
There were a few survivors, but their hearts had long since broken.
David pursed his lips to speak, then gave up.
‘It's understandable. They didn't really run away and were trapped here.’
Inside the power plant, it was quiet.
There was no sign of the gangs taking up residence.
From the beginning, the gangs had been nothing more than bait to gather forty mercenaries and fixers, to test the Tesla Arms' capabilities, perhaps.
‘Blood Brotherhood. Among them, there is only one that uses fire and gravity magic.’
Daver of the Flames.
Despite being a mage, he was known for his fierce temper and cruelty without mercy.
He is characterized as a madman who will always burn his opponents to death.
Although he is low in the Blood Brotherhood in terms of power, his radical methods make him one to avoid.
What a shame to face him in a place like this.
We were out of luck and outgunned.
'There were rumors of a recent looting of military supplies, but I can't believe it was Tesla Arms.’
Daver had lost an arm in a mysterious incident in the past and used a prosthetic to replace it but the rumors didn't mention him using Tesla Arms.
The sudden appearance of this man, the fact that he was wearing Tesla Arms and the fact that his compound had recently been raided.
Putting it all together, David realized that the Brotherhood had taken the Tesla Arms and implanted it in Daver.
‘Can we get away?’
David thought hard, but nothing came to mind.
He knows that Daver is planning to corner them and hunt them down slowly.
They'd been forced into the power plant, but this was his lair after all.
‘If we can't run, we have to fight.’
David looked at the demoralized mercenaries and shook his head.
‘Even my automaton is broken.’
Ronald and Reginald were his favorite automatons, but they couldn't withstand Daver's fire magic.
However David wasn't the type to take the fight into his own hands.
‘The only one who can still fight is that Steel Follower over there.’
David let out a self-deprecating laugh as he watched the middle-aged man sit still and meditate.
'There's no way that a full-bodied, steel-armored meta-human could stand a chance against Tesla Arms.’
He knew that, and that's why he didn't challenge Daver.
‘Even without the Tesla Arms, he's a mage who could wipe us all out. And now he's got the Tesla Arms.'
Their chances of winning a fight are virtually zero.
The only way they would have a chance it’s if they receive reinforcements.
There would be people who had escaped unharmed, and if they could contact the city of Tirna and get an enforcer, it was possible.
The Blood Brotherhood are designated terrorists by the city of Tirna, and there's a bounty on their heads.
‘No backup.’
David scoffed at his own thoughts.
'That's not what people on the run would do.’
They'd just be glad to be alive and move on but David didn't blame them.
'Me too.’
Commander, puppeteer.
He'd been labeled quite a few things. He was a veteran fixer who had made a name for himself in the industry but that, too, was coming to an end.
He wasn't sad or sorry.
Ever since he started walking through this field of blades, he knew this was coming.
He had prepared himself long ago.
‘Still, I can't just let it happen.’
David stood up, drawing his self-defense pistol from his waistband.
The mercenaries stared wordlessly at the sight, and even the still, meditative Steel Follower opened his closed eyes and spoke.
"......What are you going to do?"
"Fight."
"You'll die."
"I know but if I were to die silently, wouldn’t I be so bitter that I wouldn’t even be able to close my eyes properly?”
David's words were not bravado, but sincerity.
The mercenaries dropped their tongues at the sight of him; they hadn't been listening to the veteran for nothing.
Maybe he'd survived this long because he had that kind of mental toughness.
"I'll fight."
With that, the Steel Follower rose to his feet.
"Will you be okay?"
"If it's a foregone conclusion, I'll just try to stall for as long as I can."
Steel Follower was the strongest man in the room, but he was a bad match for Daver, who wore the Tesla Arms.
With more than half his body made of metal, he's susceptible to magnetism.
Still, he was willing to fight alongside David.
"This thing is so strong, I can't handle it, so what are we going to do about the others?"
David asked, and the mercenaries fell silent.
Then someone jumped to his feet.
"Yeah, let's go all the way," he said, "how long do we have to live?"
The other mercenaries' spirits soared at his courageous words.
Even in the ashes, the embers were still alive.
In the slowly heating atmosphere, David spoke up.
"All right, then, let's give it one last try."
The mercenaries all stared at him.
"Let's show the low life that we have teeth to bite."
*
"The worms are hiding very tightly indeed."
In the power plant with no light Daver muttered to himself as he looked around.
With giant pipes everywhere and all kinds of metal, there were only so many places a person could hide but it didn't matter.
There was no way to escape, and even if they hid, there was a way to find them from here.
Daver immediately focused his mind and drew mana from his body.
The mana spread out in all directions in a rippling pattern centered on him.
[Color Magic]
With this, the mercenaries would never escape his grasp.
Daver immediately used the colors to locate his enemies.
Then he smirked.
Kwagwagwang!
An explosion erupted above his head, bringing down a massive structure.
The trap he'd set had been activated.
"Funny."
Daver lifted his right arm and cast a spell.
A solid barrier of magic formed, blocking the falling structure.
"Now! Shoot!"
Simultaneously, the ambushers fired in unison.
Sparks flew in the darkness, and the pungent odor of gunpowder spread.
Some of the mercenaries threw down all the explosives they were carrying.
It was enough firepower to turn even an armored vehicle into a rag but through it all, Daver remained unharmed.
"Is the joke over?"
The mercenaries' faces contorted in despair as Daver sneered at them through his gas mask.
"I've watched you squirm and squirm and squirm, but you're still bugs."
As Daver summoned his magic again, David shouted.
"Get back!"
Ta-ta-ta-ta-tang!
With that, David spat out all the bullets from his self-defense pistol.
Still sprawled out on the magic barrier, David's uncanny shot struck five times in the exact same place.
It was enough to shatter the frail gold, but not enough to breach the barrier.
However Daver's pride was slightly wounded by the flaw in his barrier, and he became furious.
"You worm. I'll kill you in the most painful way possible!"
-Zap!
A bolt of electricity from Daver grazed David's right shoulder.
David gritted his teeth as the pain ripped through his skin along with his coat.
Wordlessly, he discarded the now-empty pistol and drew a military dagger from his waistband.
If he didn't have bullets, he'd use this crappy dagger.
His burning eyes clearly said so.
"......ha, you son of a bitch."
It bothered him that David didn't give up in this situation.
"I'll see if you can keep that attitude while your whole body is burned."
Just as Daver was about to unleash his fire magic, something caught in the flurry of color.
"What is it?"
Something was coming and it was coming fast.
Daver's judgment was quick.
He immediately dispersed the magic in his right hand and instead increased the power of his Tesla Arms to generate a magnetic force.
It was almost instinctive.
-Keeling!
The sharp tip of a sword was locked in midair, ten centimeters away from the gas mask.
Through the chilling sight, Daver looked up to see the man thrusting the blade at him.
"You......."
The black-haired young man spoke in a solemn voice.
"I have come to end the fight."