With the arrival of an unexpected power, it changed the flow of the battle to be more balanced, or not.
Louise, who managed to land a direct hit, was still above ground. Her expression twisted as the monster's head cracked and glared at her. Its one red eye emitted a sharp, creepy glow that made the hair on the girl's body stand on end.
"Louise dodge!"
Rika's shout made the brown-haired girl glance to the side and widen her eyes as a tentacle made of merged cables almost struck Louise with ferocity.
She raised her spear and received the attack right on the shaft of the spear. It made her body thrown to the ground, scattering red dust and small debris as she spun for dozens of meters before stopping.
The vortex of wind spinning around her faded, successfully absorbing most of the impact that could have destroyed her armor suit.
From a distance, a shadow approached while carrying a rifle in her hand. Rika crouched down and opened her mouth.
"Haa,, huff,, Louise, are you okay?"
Her erratic voice made Louise widen her lips, feeling blessed to have an understanding friend like Rika. The red-haired girl noticed her behavior, and Rika wrinkled her eyebrows unpleasantly.
"Why are you smiling like that, it's not funny!"
Louise shook her head, saying it was not because she was underestimating the current situation.
"No, no, that's not it, it's just that I feel lucky to have a friend as good and caring as you, Rika."
Rika raised her eyebrows, surprised by Louise's sudden sweetness and the aura she exuded, which looked different from usual.
Her stiff expression turned soft, but within that softness, it held the sharpness of a martial arts expert who could one-shot kill her enemy without them realizing it.
The girl who often showed her dry smile now transformed into a blooming spring flower, radiating a thick aura of life.
"What's wrong with you, suddenly giving me praise."
Roar!
A roar that shook the atmosphere sent a shockwave through the girls' consciousness, awakening them to the critical situation before them. They turned and glared at the enemy side.
Rika, who snapped out of her reveries, glanced right and left. Her red eyes scanned the area, searching for the boy in his dilapidated armour. But the result was nil.
Her red pupils shrank, feeling chill run down her spine. Rika twisted her neck and glared at Louise, her soft expression replaced by a demonic wrath.
"Louise, where is Cain? I ordered you to take him away, so why did you...?"
The brown-haired girl nodded and shifted her gaze to the spot where she had emerged, a large hole leading to the secret facility.
"Leader said, he will follow us later after fixing his armor suit."
Rika gaped, wondering if the girl in front of her was the same person who had said those incomprehensible words?
She was getting dumber!
'Follow? Fix the Armor suit?'
"Rika, I'm going to the front line."
Without hearing an answer, Louise rose to her feet and ran to help her other friends who were having difficulty facing the angry iron-primate monster. On the other hand, their vice-leader was still mumbling to herself, trying to process the information that entered her brain.
The monster's roar pierced her eardrums, which instantly roasted her overthinking brain, and Rika reached one conclusion.
Louise must not know this, but there was nothing around here that could fix the damaged armor suit. So Cain's words telling her to go first were just a bluff so that he would be left alone and die without anyone seeing him.
Lonely and suffering the consequences of the cosmic virus seeping into his body.
"Rika, dodge!"
Hearing the warning from Abel, and without turning her body, Rika, who saw a black shadow approaching next to her, jumped before running with all her might. She peeked over her left shoulder and saw a large piece of debris being thrown towards her.
The large debris landed, scattering red dust, and other small debris rained down on Rika. Quickly, she changed the direction of her run to the right, closing the distance with the monster.
'You Idiot, Idiot, Idiot, Idiot...!'
Rika kept repeating the curse in her head. Her teary eyes shed tears that streamed down her cheeks. She never realized that losing someone could feel like this.
A heart that felt squeezed by an invisible force. The emotions in her head churned, flooding her brain with anger clothed in sadness that slices her feelings as a human, especially a girl.
It was the first time this had happened in her life, even though she had lost both her parents before; Rika could still stand alone until now without shedding a single tear.
However, this time something was different; she was still oblivious to any of this, but something inside her changed. And it was a worse feeling since she was too late to realize it.
When Rika got out of the dust range, she raised her rifle. Her body stood tall with the rifle stock against her shoulder. From inside her body, a hot sensation like lava flowed into every vein in her body, but it didn't cause her pain, but rather comfort, as if she were at home.
'...You huge Idiot! I'm going to kill you myself if you turn into one of those mindless beasts!'
The warmth from her body flowed out, seeping into the rifle's body. Rika aimed the muzzle and pulled the trigger, releasing a red meteor that traveled straight and exploded upon contact with the target.
Boom!
The explosion that hit the primate's chest directly made its large body sway, and thanks to the smoke blocking its vision, this became the perfect opportunity to attack.
"Now!"
Rika's shout echoed on the battlefield. Instantly, Abel, Peter, and Louise took a deep breath and tightened their grip on their respective weapons.
Abel raised his sword close to his chest, a symbol of chivalry, as he held to his faithful vow. A golden aura exploded from his body, where the light attribute he chose coated every part of his body like a divine halo.
The boy himself was still unaware, but the area around him was distorted thanks to his power, which simultaneously purified the cosmic virus. Although not yet matured, it was undoubtedly official that Abel was a real saviour of the world and a threat to those machines' livelihood.
Peter placed both his hands on the ground, his eyes shut, and made every sound that entered his ears fade. From his body, a brown aura seeped out and merged into the barren ground.
When the aura touched the land, it emitted a seismic vibration that gave him a clear picture of the surrounding geography. The boy channeled a lot of his aura, which made cold sweat drip on his forehead.
Louise twisted her wrist, and the green flash in her eyes shone brightly, drawing the wind around the area to gather near her. The wind spinning at her side whistled, then coiled around her spear once more.
Three great powers were ready, and without a command, the three moved. Abel and Louise charged like bullets, while Peter was still closing his eyes because his ability was still too early to be released.
Rika pulled the magazine and threw it away before taking a new one, intending to load her bullets. However, her body felt a tingling sensation that wrapped around her throat tightly as if wanting to choke her.
'What was that!?'
Unconsciously, or her survival instinct, suddenly activated her eagle-eye skill. The pupils of her eyes contracted like a lens, and her perspective changed; the world felt darker with black and red dust mixing in the atmosphere.
Her eyes narrowed, and she could see something from a distance. A shadow of someone wearing a robe that covered his entire body. Both his hands were raised, and a buzzing sound echoed throughout the world.
The high-pitched voice felt like a sharp knife tearing her ears. Rika, Abel, and Louise were affected and covered their ears, while Peter somehow managed to endure.
The giant monster raised its hand to the sky as if responding to the call, then slammed its chest with a 'clang-clang' several times, making the ground Rika stood on tremble.
The loud noise subsided, but Rika's vision remained blurry from its lingering effect.
"...der!?"
Her ears buzz once again, but a few seconds later, her hearing slowly improved along with her vision, which could take in the surrounding view.
"Vice-leader!?"
Rika snapped out of her daze, and she shifted her attention to the source of Peter's voice. Her expression twisted when she saw a plume of smoke billowing in the distance, and Peter's warning struck her with cruel reality.
"This is bad, a horde of virus beasts is coming this way."
She widened her eyes, her brain shut down by itself as if unwilling to process all these events.
'Is this the end?'