Crackle!
Arcs of electricity danced across the exposed wiring, making the damaged circuits look as though they were shorting out.
Several bolts struck the dry leaves nearby and set them ablaze. The orange-red flames pushed back the surrounding darkness, if only slightly.
The electrical arcs and sparks came from a severely deformed machine that resembled an aircraft. Pieces of wreckage lay scattered all around it.
Not far from the aircraft, a figure sat slumped beneath a tree with her back against the trunk. Her head hung limply, and only the faint rise and fall of her chest showed that she was still alive. She had clearly lost consciousness.
There was no possibility that she was merely asleep.
They were not in the safety of a city. They were deep in the wilderness beyond the cities protected by the Monoliths, and nowhere near civilization.
These forests were crawling with monsters.
Strange cries echoed from every direction: birdlike screeches, canine snarls, tigerlike roars, and countless other sounds that belonged to no recognizable creature.
A girl wielding a long sword was fighting off the approaching monsters at speeds far beyond anything an ordinary human could manage.
Her blade moved so quickly that it left afterimages behind. Countless flashes of cold light streaked through the air as moonlight reflected from its edge.
Every flash was followed by sprays of fluid.
Some were red, some green, and others even black.
Several splattered across the ground and began to hiss, eating into the earth like highly concentrated sulfuric acid.
Clang!
A heavy metallic impact sent the girl flying backward. She landed on her feet and skidded several yards across the ground before stopping in front of the unconscious woman beneath the tree.
"Another Stage Three?"
Tendo Kisara's voice was grim.
The Gastrea she had failed to kill had blocked her blade with a scythe-like claw. That alone made its stage obvious.
Judging by its physical characteristics, it possessed the head of a fly, the upper body of a praying mantis, and the lower body of a lizard. It was a hybrid of at least three different species, which made it especially troublesome.
Gastrea of this level could regenerate even after losing an arm. A severed limb might even return to its original body, as though the cells could sense and respond to one another.
If there had only been one, Kisara could have handled it.
Unfortunately, Gastrea surrounded her on all sides.
Most were only Stage Ones, but their sheer numbers were enough to overwhelm her. Worse, she also had to protect that foolish woman behind her.
Damn it. I never should've accepted this woman's commission.
Kisara's life had become considerably more comfortable after joining the Superdimensional Channel, especially after that man's arrival unlocked the ability to earn energy coins through livestreams.
Of course, she wasn't foolish enough to spend energy coins having everyday supplies transported from other members' worlds. That would make it far too obvious that something was unusual about her.
Instead, she obtained weapons and other useful equipment from them, making her Gastrea extermination work much safer.
Saeko Busujima was generous enough to give her panaceas without even asking for payment.
Those panaceas could indeed help prevent infection to a certain extent.
Only to a certain extent, however. They couldn't guarantee complete protection.
Panaceas had been administered to the Cursed Children, but they couldn't cure them. At best, they reduced the rate at which the Gastrea virus eroded their bodies.
Once a Cursed Child's corrosion rate exceeded fifty percent, she would transform into a Gastrea.
A single bottle of panacea could reduce that corrosion rate by roughly ten percentage points, but it could not be used repeatedly.
Once the rate had been lowered to around ten percent, using another bottle would inflict more pain than the user could endure.
The lower the corrosion rate became, the more agonizing the healing process was. If they continued administering panaceas beyond that point, the patient would unquestionably die from the pain.
Apart from the panaceas, Kisara had also obtained a large number of weapons from Tessa, along with advanced equipment from A2.
Her favorite was a miniature aircraft.
After acquiring so many unusual items, however, someone had eventually noticed that something was off. The first person to set her sights on the miniature aircraft had been the very woman Kisara was now protecting.
The woman wanted it, but she wasn't shameless enough to steal it. Instead, she had asked Kisara to name a price.
Naturally, Kisara refused to sell it. She told her they could discuss it again in the future.
After learning a little about Kisara's circumstances, the woman had commissioned her to transport several unusual materials in secret.
Unfortunately, they had been ambushed during this particular delivery. The aircraft was struck, disabling its optical camouflage.
The camouflage could not necessarily fool every Gastrea to begin with, and once their presence was exposed, the situation became even deadlier.
They had ultimately crashed in an area that could only be described as a death trap.
Without outside assistance, there was no chance they could return alive. With only their own strength, they would eventually die beneath an endless tide of Gastrea.
That left Kisara with only one option: ask the other members of the Superdimensional Channel for help.
Unfortunately, most of the members who had been online when she sent her request possessed little to no combat ability. At most, they could send her additional supplies.
There was one person with considerable fighting strength: A2.
However, she almost never voluntarily left her own world.
From what Kisara could tell, A2's mission was simply to remain alive and become the key that would allow the person using the ID Golden Toilet to enter her world.
A2 could also send large machines to support her, but could Kisara even afford them?
Transporting a large piece of equipment that required more than 10310^3 cubic meters of space would mean opening an equally large transfer space on A2's side. Kisara would also have to help pay the cost of opening it.
Even if she could afford to buy something like a Gundam, she had no idea how to pilot one.
Her only realistic option had been to request support from several combat robots.
Yet even those robots had nearly exhausted their combat capabilities.
And reinforcements still hadn't arrived.
This is really bad.
Hm?
Sensing something, Kisara's expression changed sharply. She spun around and slashed behind the unconscious woman.
In an instant, her blade cut through a tree trunk nearly three feet thick and bisected the Gastrea hiding behind it at the waist.
At that same moment, an even greater sense of danger came from behind her.
Kisara desperately twisted around and swung at the charging Gastrea.
Clang!
Her sword collided with its scythe-like claw, which was as hard as metal.
Caught off guard and forced into a hurried defense, she had no choice but to grip her sword with both hands.
The monster seemed to sneer at her. Its other limb came crashing forward.
Bang!
The heavy blow struck Kisara in the abdomen.
Something surged up her throat, nearly spilling from her mouth, but she forcibly swallowed it and kicked the creature away.
She staggered.
Strength was draining from her body at an alarming rate.
This was bad.
Hm?
Ah!
Someone had requested permission to come over!
Of course Kisara approved it immediately.
Hurry up and get here!
In the next instant, the monster lunged through the air, its scythe-like claw descending toward her head.
A figure suddenly appeared between them.
Bang!
A deep roar, like the report of a sniper rifle, shook the forest.
Before Kisara lost consciousness, she saw the monster burst apart like a tomato struck by a bullet.
More thunderous shots followed as her eyes slowly closed, accompanied by an ever-growing chorus of screams.
They were the monsters' screams.
To Kisara, there was no sweeter sound.
It was the perfect lullaby.
She could finally relax and sleep.
(End of Chapter)
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