After grasping his stomach for a while, Noumi raised his head up and shouted.
“Nothing inside me!? An empty hole!? The one that’s like that isn’t me, but that guy now!! An ex-Acceleration Ability User that has lost Brain Burst. There is no other existence sadder and more pitiable than that! I’m different…I will obtain everything. Both in Accel World, and the real world. Even the illusions like friendship and bonds that you people believe in…”
The eyes within his visor glowed strongly.
“—I won’t be left behind, but steal and rise up!!”
Along with that shout, Noumi shook off his right hand with a big swing.
On his left shoulder, there was something that shot out from the cut-off section of his arm at a violent speed like black snakes. It was the three tentacles Enhanced Armament that he had equipped when he first dueled with Haruyuki. He must have secretly recited the equip command and had been waiting for it to regenerate.
The tentacles that could extend anywhere let out a roar and pounced, but it wasn’t towards Cyan Pile who was standing in front of him. Furthermore, it wasn’t towards Silver Crow who was squeezed within a vise either.
It was towards Chiyuri—Lime Bell, who had been sinking her body underneath the shadow of the distant school building and had not tried to speak a word until now.
“Wha…”
Although he leaked out a short voice of astonishment, Takumu still reacted and raised his sword up to cut away the tentacles.
However, one moment before he could do that.
The tentacles, which quickly contracted like rubber, coiled around the leaf-colored avatar and hoisted her beneath his blade.
*GISHI* Cyan Pile’s whole body jarred, and he stopped his slash. The sword edge slightly touched the brim of Lime Bell’s pointy hat, and let out a single spark.
The three tentacles instantly coiled around Chiyuri’s entire body and mercilessly constricted her.
“……!”
The delicate avatar bent backwards and leaked out a pained gasp. Added on to that gasp was Noumi’s snickering.
“Fu, fufufu. Did you think I merely called her here just for the role of healing me? No way! I’m already aware that Lime Bell is a weak point of yours. You have to effectively use any thing that can be used…That is the secret of «duels», right!”
“…You, bastard…”
As Takumu’s sword edge trembled and he let out that low growl, Chiyuri tried to say something to him. However, the tentacles instantly coiled around her mouth several times over and halted Lime Bell’s words.
“Now then, please throw away that sword and cancel your Enhanced Armament as well.”
After Noumi gave those cold directions, Takumu responded in a grating voice.
“…Lime Bell isn’t participating in our «Sudden Death Duel». You can’t make her a hostage.”
“Heh? Is that really so?”
Dusk Taker tilted his head.
And casually grasped around Lime Bell’s right elbow with his right hand that was trickling with purple wave surge.
*GOGIN*.
And then a very, very unpleasant sounded resounded. It was the sound of her thin yellow-green arm being cut off from her elbow joint.
“……————!!”
Lime Bell’s whole body convulsed and she let out a silent scream. Her back bent backwards as far as it could two, three times. Each time, huge amounts of green sparks gushed out from the cut-off section of her arm.
Haruyuki’s vision was suddenly dyed a blazing red. An overwhelming fury blew violently through him, and he frantically struggled to escape. However, the black vise didn’t so much as shake slightly, as if mocking his anger. On the contrary, the moment the output of his Laser Swords that had been resisting the pressure until now were disturbed due to his anger, they pressed against his shoulders even more strongly.
“You…bastaaaaaaard!!”
Instead, the one that shouted was Takumu. There was something which struck against his large avatar’s chest with a whack as he took a step forward. It was Lime Bell’s arm. After rebounding off him and flying through the air, it became countless polygons and disappeared.
“…You understand now, don’t you, senpai? She is Diving into the Unlimited Neutral Field for the first time. In this world where we receive twice as much pain than in the lower order field.”
He didn’t need to say that. Right now, Chiyuri should be feeling pain that was equivalent to having her body’s arm cut off in the real world. Perhaps because of how big the shock was, the slender avatar continued convulsing bit by bit.
Before the eyes of the frozen Cyan Pile, Noumi raised his right hand again.
“…Also, if I keep doing this, her special technique gauge for healing me will also fill up.”
Just as he said that, he pierced the tip of his sharp index finger into Chiyuri’s flank.
Once again, her avatar sprang up greatly. Even from beneath the tentacles coiled several times around her mouth, a thin scream could be clearly heard coming from her.
Stab. Again. And then—again.
Just before the fourth hole was stabbed into her.
“……Stop it!!”
Takumu shouted in a low and broken voice.
His whole body trembled. The Over-Ray covering his sword and arms flickered irregularly like a bad contact lighting.
‘—Don’t do it, Taku’, is what Haruyuki wanted to shout out. But he couldn’t speak.
“……Please, just stop…”
He spoke as if moaning. The «Cyan Blade» fell from his hands and rolled onto the ground with a clear metallic sound.
It then immediately dispersed into light. The light flowed through the air and was sucked into his avatar’s right arm, before returning to the original pile driver.
Takumu murmured the unequip command, and then the Enhanced Armament also disappeared. Immediately after confirming that, Dusk Taker swung his left arm widely and threw away Chiyuri towards a location far away.
He no longer paid any more attention the body-bent and pain-enduring Lime Bell.
The dark-colored avatar charged straight at Cyan Pile and embedded his right claws into his robust abdomen.
*DOBAH* There was a wet set, and his black arm stuck out from Cyan Pile’s back.
A rapid stream of pale blue sparks came out as he drew his arm back out. Takumu staggered, pressed against his knees to hold himself up from collapsing, and stopped moving while hanging his head.
“It’s because you believe in a lie like «bonds».”
Quietly—as if seriously having pity for Takumu, Noumi’s voice resounded.
“No, it’s because you act as if you believe in it, that you lost. If you really had faith in each other, you would have cut me along with her. Am I wrong?”
—You’re wrong…you’re wrong, you’re wrong!!
Haruyuki fiercely struggled. As he tried to escape from the vise and go save Takumu, sparks flew out from the joints of his arms in resistance. As he fought against it, he cried out in an unspoken voice.
—What do you understand!! There’s no way you could understand just how much Taku feels for Chiyu!! If he had cut down Chiyu as well there, that wouldn’t be faith, but just cold calculation!!
But, the black lumps on either side of him coldly applied pressure on him as if trying to crush even his anger.
—Why can’t I move? Why can’t I even let out my voice? Right now, if I don’t move right now, then what was the point of everything I did until now…
“Sorry, boy.”
From behind him, Haruyuki heard a quiet whisper. It was the voice of the laminated avatar who had been completely quiet until now.
“This technique stops your speaking as well as your movement. Therefore, you can’t speak nor use any voice commands. I would have liked to at least let you say words of farewell to your friend, but…Sorry.”
Hearing those words that sounded like a serious apology, Haruyuki’s anger became eve
n more inflamed and raged through the inside of his avatar.
*ZUKIN* His back hurt.
*ZUKIN, ZUKIN* A lightning-like pain periodically spread out from the middle of his shoulder blades.
He felt like he could hear some kind of voice. However, as if it too were being obstructed by the vise, it didn’t reach Haruyuki’s consciousness.
If he couldn’t talk, he could only resist with mind power—with his «Laser Swords». He knew that, but his pounding anger disturbed his concentration.
In the schoolyard, Dusk Taker raised his right hand while facing Cyan Pile who was on his knees.
The wave surge of nothingness once again changed into a thin sword. Making a ‘BYUBYUN’ sound, he cut down twice.
With a heavy sound, both of Cyan Pile’s arms were severed from the joints and fell to the ground. A mass of lightning gushed out from his shoulders like a waterfall.
Haruyuki heard a voice,
…Haru, I’m sorry.
…I can’t fight anymore. I’m truly sorry…
The tears that overflowed beneath Haruyuki’s mask blurred his vision. Within his distorted screen, he could see Dusk Taker raising his sword high in order to deliver the finishing blow.
—Here.
Is it going to end here? This is the ending of my…and also Takumu’s «Brain Burst»?
Those thoughts fell down with a plop within his mind.
As if that was also a drop at the freezing point of absolute zero, the flames of his anger became frost and dissolved. His limbs suddenly grew cold. The lights on his hands flickered, and vanished. All sensation in his body went far away. The feeling he had experienced several times before, the premonition of the phenomenon where an avatar stops in a standstill.
…Ah, I see. «Zero File[41]». So this is also an act caused by the Incarnate System. The Minus imagination negates the heat of the heart, and changes an avatar into a cold lump.
…Even if I noticed such a thing, there’s no longer any meaning to it.
…No, that’s not right.
If «Zero-fication» was the «Minus mind power» that all Burst Linkers could use, the opposite must also be true. An avatar that couldn’t move should be able to move through Plus imagination. Even if—he was in a situation like this where he was trapped in a vise of absolute strength.
Like that time once before, where he had spurred himself on with his tattered body while next to that person who had been sleeping on a bed of black thorns, and rose back up once again.
With a ‘PO’ sound, a small fire was lit in Haruyuki’s chest.
It wasn’t the flame of black anger that he had felt many times until now towards Noumi. It was what could be called ‘will’. The pure power of the heart that Kuroyukihime, Niko, Blood Leopard, and Sky Raker had taught him.
The small heat began to melt the ice binding his entire body. The connection to his limbs was restored.
A blue radiance that also resembled a hot flame—«Over-Ray» was suddenly released from the thin seems and joints of Silver Crow’s mirror-like armor.
However, without even being conscious of this light, Haruyuki tightly applied both his palms to the vise on either side of him.
“Gu…uh…”
A low voice leaked out from his throat. He mustered all his power, and tried to widen the gap. His avatar creaked and groaned, and sharp pain burst through his elbows and shoulders.
Many shrill metallic sounds resounded consecutively. It was the sound of fine cracks running through the armor of his arms. A blue light radiated in thin streaks from within them as well.
“U…o…oh…!”
Lumps of pure pain exploded everywhere in his nervous system and dyed his consciousness white. But, Haruyuki continued putting forth his strength. Some of his broken armor tore off and scattered at his feet. His slightly exposed dark grey body was surrounded like flames by a blue aura.
Even after this, the absolute hardness and pressure of the black lumps didn’t loosen completely. But, Haruyuki believed.
Not in his own power.
He believed that the power of the people who didn’t think of Accel World as just as tool, and the power of the people who had supported and guided him this far would not yield.
“Oh…oh, ooooooh!!”
At the same time as he yelled, all of his upper body’s armor other than his helmet broke and was blown off him.
A blue flash condensed, exploded, and dyed the world.
Haruyuki felt it. That the restraint of the black vise weakened for just an instant.
He kicked off the through with all his power. His shoulders chafed against the surface of the walls, and his HP gauge changed and scattered into sparks. Putting all his energy into running across the distance of a single step that seemed infinite, Haruyuki finally escaped from the restraint.
He rolled over the ground. After turning over once, he stood up. While running with the momentum from that, he drew his right hand to his side. He concentrated his mind power.
He cried out.
“U…aaah!!”
As Dusk Taker’s arm stopped while in the middle of trying to cut off Cyan Pile’s neck and he turned around to look with a hint of surprise, Haruyuki mustered all of the will power he had left and fired a «Laser Sword» at him.
*SHUKIIIN!* The sword point of light that flew more than 5 meters through the air—
Cut off two of the three tentacles from Noumi’s left arm.
That was the limit.
As all his body’s strength faded and his legs got tangled together, Haruyuki collapsed flat to the ground and rolled over face-up.
Perhaps because he had mustered the image too strongly, Noumi’s voice sounded distant when it reached his flickering consciousness.
“Oops, please don’t startle me, senpai.”
He paused a little there.
“…Letting your prey slip out from your vise, didn’t you slack off a little too much?”
And then the laminated avatar responded from far away.
“How cruel, I was going full-out there, you know? You should praise that boy instead, he really is an incredibly tenacious person. Though, it seems he’s already reached his limit.”
And then—Haruyuki watched blankly as thin plates once again stretched up on both sides of his body.
He moved his gaze, and in the middle of his vision that had turned upside down, he saw Dusk Taker raise his purple sword high in order to properly finish off Takumu this time.
He couldn’t think of anything anymore. Haruyuki’s soul was exhausted to the point that he couldn’t even feel despair.
“Then…Goodbye, Cyan Pile.”
The purple blade dropped down through the air.
Leaving behind many afterimages in a semi-circular descent, it headed towards the blue avatar’s neck—
Just before Haruyuki tried to close his eyes and cut off his consciousness.
*KIN*.
A clear sound.
Just as it was going to touch Takumu’s neck right then, Noumi’s sword was severed from its base and disappeared as if dissolving away.
—Mind power cannot be cut except by mind power.
It wasn't by Haruyuki. Furthermore, the laminated avatar that was restraining Haruyuki shouldn’t have interfered with Noumi either.
In other words, there a new Burst Linker that had arrived on this battlefield.
Haruyuki opened his eyes wide, raised his head as if guided by something, and looked up at the night sky in front of him.
The magnificent grey palace that stood completely still. In the middle, on top of the spire that had originally been the staircase section of Umesato Middle School.
There was a single silhouette, with the enormous blue full moon in the background behind it.
Impossible.
A sturdy black horse stood there with its long mane fluttering in the wind. Its eyes shined a pale blue, and its four hooves were also wrapped in blue flames.
And on its back, a slender ride
r gallantly straddled it.
Black quartz armor that reflected the moonlight bewitchingly. A sharp V-shaped mask. A black lotus-shaped skirt that surrounded a delicate body.
Both arms were sharp long swords. Both legs were also—swords. That clever radiance, that seemed to cut apart even the pouring moonlight.
“…Aah.”
A quiet voice similar to a sigh fell out from Haruyuki’s mouth. And then once again.
“……Aah…”
He felt that, if he said anything more than that, the horse and its rider would become an illusion and vanish.
However, the rider bowed her head slightly just now, as if having heard Haruyuki’s whispers from where he lay far away on the ground, and lightly kicked the belly of the black horse with her right leg.
The horse raised its forelegs high in the air, spurted out blue flames from its nostrils and neighed furiously, and then started running through the air as its hoofs resounded with a ‘DOKA’. As the duel avatars on the ground watched while unable to speak, the ridden horse drew a pale blue trail through the night sky, reached right above the schoolyard—
And there, the rider jumped off nimbly.
She spread out her long arms and approached the ground as if gliding. Just before landing, she kicked out one of her legs a little right beneath her.
*KIN* A sharp sound resounded, and the avatar alighted down to the white ground on the tip of her right leg.
The black horse still in the air then drew an arc through the air, and immediately after starting to dash towards the southwest sky, it disappeared as if dissolving away.
After seeing it off, the jet-black avatar gazed straight at Haruyuki. She nodded once again. And then to Cyan Pile who had raised his head. Her gaze also moved in turn to the laminated avatar further way, and to Lime Bell who remained fallen on the ground.
And then lastly, she gazed straight at Dusk Taker.
Within her reflective mask, both her violet blue eyes made a noise and shone.