Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume1 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 5===

The pitch-black dragon’s sharp fangs bit deep into the throat of the giant that held a burning magic sword. It tore the throat out. Ink-like black light burst from the wound at point-blank range. After the horrifyingly primitive violence, the enemy Material vanished. Azalea, who had been held inside the protective circle, and Fractal, her vessel, rolled along the floor after being hit by the shock that had killed a god. They were nearly zombies in the original sense of the word. After controlling the gods and losing, they were ironically made to dumbly obey any instructions. To prevent any unnecessary injuries as Azalea crawled slowly off, Kyousuke lightly pushed on the back of her head with his Blood-Sign so she would lie down where she was.

He had won.

He had achieved victory.

(No…)

He pulled out his smartphone during the few dozen seconds of their Chain state. The screen indicated they had less than an hour until the limit.

<U-um…is something the matter?>

Higan said something, but Kyousuke did not respond.

(Unless we defeat the White Queen who Guard of Honor worshipped, we can’t remove the three thousand or more thorns from Higan’s body. And they’ll definitely take her life once enough time passes. …What should I do now? It would be very bad if the White Queen showed up, but I can’t save Higan without someone summoning her!!)

That was when he heard air bubbles bursting so loudly he felt it in his gut.

He looked up at the Repliglass water purification system. Its core was an artificial bacteria pool made from silicon. The contents of the transparent hundred-meter sphere had grown and were bubbling madly. When Kyousuke saw that, he felt sweat pouring down his body.

The equipment was meant to change seawater into fresh water in order to mass produce fresh water.

Pure water welled up from within, so it symbolized a spring.

Azalea…no, Guard of Honor had rethought the existing summoning ceremony from the ground up and attempted to build a new system to eternally control a Material.

Yes.

That meant the normal process was unnecessary. There was a chance they could overwrite the rules that required summoning one hundred Regulation-class and fifty Divine-class or to accurately hit the Petals in the Spots in just the right order if you wished to summon an Unexplored-class.

“Don’t tell me…”

In a way, this was what he had most wanted.

In a way, this was what he had most feared.

“Is that it…? Oh, no!! Higan, get ready. No, maybe it would be best to tear through the bacteria pool before it’s complete!!”

<Eh? Eh?>

“''She’s coming!!''”

His warning proved meaningless as it happened before Higan could react.

The spherical container burst from within and stained the entire golden palace with its living soup.

It was like a white downpour.

It was a similar phenomenon to the red tide where an excess of plankton gave the seawater a rusty color. In this case, the world was dyed white rather than red. It covered up the colors of Golden Luxury in the blink of an eye. All of the decorations and artworks were thoroughly stained to display their master’s color: white.

That was the color of the Queen who ruled this bloodthirsty world that reeked of rust.

“It’s been too long, brother.”

“She” floated calmly in the spot the giant crystal ball of a container had been.

There was no real reason for it, but since she preferred to stand in the same place as him, she floated down to the palace floor so slowly that gravity did not seem to apply.

He had seen his new enemy.

The Chain state changed to something else and the enemy was taken into the Artificial Sacred Ground.

“Hmm. I have a feeling you met ''a different me'' a little ahead of time, but every day away from you feels like a thousand years…no, a trillion years. …So I’m glad everything advanced as planned. If you made me wait any longer, I might just have been angry enough to split apart an earth or two☆”

She had loose pure white clothing and a silver coloration.

Her waist-length twintails were closer to white than silver.

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

Shiroyama Kyousuke was forced into silence.

He had toyed with the summoners of Guard of Honor who were powerful enough for a direct war with the aces of Government, Illegal, and Freedom and he had coolly defeated Azalea Magentarain who had ruled over them, but one look at the Queen’s face was enough to silence him.

It was best to view her as just that great an opponent.

She was not controlled by a summoner or bound by a vessel. She was not restricted to the Artificial Sacred Ground or to the ten minute time limit.

The White Queen had been released upon the world.

Just like the mistake a young Kyousuke had once made in his ignorance.

“There is no need to tremble like that. Heh heh. But I kind of like it when you act like a cute little animal, brother.”

The White Queen laughed gently yet insanely as she spoke.

“Everything Guard of Honor had to offer just wasn’t nearly enough to reach your intellect, brother. They failed to control me with their Sewn Realm summoning and there are countless weaknesses all throughout their methodology, but that has not affected my specs all that much. I seem to be restricted to about the same level of power as with the Blood-Sign method you usually use.”

“…”

“But not to worry. The ‘things that crawl from the sea’ won’t appear unless I’m exposed for 180 seconds in a row. Right now I’m bound to your Artificial Sacred Ground, so you just have to throw a new Incense Grenade once the time limit arrives. Of course, that will mean building up your own Material from scratch.”

Their work had come to nothing. Their efforts had been wasted. The White Queen had indeed appeared in this world, but she was still contained to a smaller frame no different from the Blood-Sign method.

But she felt no frustration or anger over that.

That had been Guard of Honor’s desire, not the White Queen’s. Plus, she was already the strongest. It did not matter if some details had changed a little, if she was not at 100% purity, or if she was only the mere remnants of what she could be. Her position at the top would not be shaken.

“Now, brother.”

She spoke calmly, like a songstress speaking to the audience from a large stage.

“I have failed just as you wanted. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for you. Not taking advantage of this perfect setup would be a disgrace to your masculinity. Now, now. You can start whenever you like. Or if you want, you can stay on the run to delay things until I run out of time.”

(Like I can do that…)

He spat out the words in his heart without speaking them aloud.

The White Queen was not relying on an Incense Grenade this time, so she likely had no ten minute time limit. It might be a minute and it might be an hour. He knew Guard of Honor’s Fairy of the Spring style of Sewn Realm summoning had failed, but he had not analyzed how exactly it had failed. Going for a lengthy battle now would be like running full speed in an endurance race without actually knowing where the goal was. He would be unable to pace himself.

(No, it’s also wrong to think I could fight a defensive battle against someone with firepower as extraordinarily high as the White Queen. Whether it’s just a minute or just thirty seconds, we’d be worn down and killed. I’ll have to look for a way to attack, no matter how dangerous it might be. As she said, this is my best chance at this since Guard of Honor’s method failed.)

It may have been like taking a dose of poison one hundred times the lethal limit after diluting it one hundred times.

It may have been like getting hit by a three hundred kilometer per second bullet train after slowing it down three hundred times.

Either way, it was a threat. Either way, it was fatal.

But…

<Let’s do this.>

His vessel’s voice slipped into his mind.

<We can’t just ignore this. We may have been wrong to force our ideal onto her and she might actually be something else entirely, but if this goddess mocks human efforts and simply watches as her encouraging push actually pushes them off a cliff, then she’s nothing but evil. …Let’s defeat the White Queen here. We have to!!>

Her words could be seen as naïve, but it gave the push his frozen heart needed.

The summoner slowly inhaled and gave a shout.

“Higan, let’s go for it all at once! She isn’t at her best now, so we can defeat a foe we could never normally-…!!”

He was unable to finish.

A brilliant band of white light instantly slammed Higan into the wall in her gigantic black dragon form.

“Wha-…?”

The strike had pierced straight through her torso. Knowing where the Silhouette that held Higan’s mind was stored, the sight was enough to feel his throat dry up.

But Kyousuke could not even watch the Material’s giant body slide down to the ground.

There was a flash of light.

The pure white laser beam of an attack burned a seemingly permanent afterimage into the air. No…

(Did she tear away the world itself to make it pure white!?)

The standard theories no longer applied. Even the Petals and Spots that no one could normally touch were swallowed up and vanished. Everything from this world and the other world was torn away and deleted.

After a lag of a few seconds, the pure white remnant receded. The world returned with some static.

That compressed power was meant to kill a summoner and the Material.

No master plan was needed to destroy the world. If she lost control of her power and it scattered outward, that single attack might have caused the planet to crumble like a biscuit.

“Ahh, brother. …How could you speak another girl’s name during our date? What the hell are you thinking?”

The White Queen was not bothered that she had only temporarily deleted space-time.

The naturally regenerating rifts in the world must not have been worthy of surprise.

She did not bother running around or approaching. A portion of the white clothing loosely wrapped around her transformed in silence. It took the form of a hammer, flew through the air on its own, and dropped toward Kyousuke like a shooting star.

The summoner was contained within a protective circle that defended against any physical phenomenon and Material attack.

The impact that rattled his brain easily overturned that assumption.

It was not an issue of any actual injury. He could clearly sense “the presence of death” approaching.

He gasped, his mind grew muddy, and his vision twisted as he worked desperately to grasp the situation.

“Bh…gah!? Im…possible…”

Fresh blood dripped to the floor from his forehead.

The next one came before the confusion faded. The protective circle might as well have been a plastic balloon as the corner of a shield thrust up into his jaw and a club knocked him back down before his toes could leave the ground. His mind was shaken as he rolled away from the scorching light of the scene.

The damage of the white rampage was clearly arriving within the protective circle. That circle protected the summoner…or rather, the ceremony itself from any external attacks, internal illness, or anything else that might get in the way. But that assumption was rejected by the approaching chill of death.

“Ah hah hah!! Even in this state, I am still the extraordinary Queen that stands at the top of the Unexplored-class☆ The circle that protects the summoner…or rather, the ceremony is generally made from the excess energy of the Material. That small fry can’t hold a candle to me even if it goes all out, so did you really think the life support environment created from its dregs would be enough to block my lethality?”

She was insane.

Her actions completely ignored the laws of the world.

No other Material could replicate this.

Did the Queen’s clothing physically exist or was she just manipulating light to make it look that way? Before even judging her power, he had more fundamental doubts. And on that note, what was she herself? Could something like that really exist?

(Was I…wrong?)

More than the pain, it was the absurdity of what was happening that nearly robbed Shiroyama Kyousuke of his consciousness. He nearly forgot what he needed to do and lost sight of his very first assumption.

He wavered. He wobbled.

The extreme confusion turned that ever-composed boy into a mere human.

(No matter what happened, should I not have faced this monster using the rules of a summoner? Should I not have placed Meinokawa Higan in front of her?)

A gigantic being collapsed atop several crushed pieces of artwork by the wall, but now it began to move.

It was the pitch-black dragon. The will inside it was sent to Kyousuke via their contract.

<Don’t worry… I can keep going. If we don’t defeat the White Queen, th-this city is in trouble. No, it might not stop at Toy Dream 35. So we can do this. We can definitely do this.>

Her rebuke may have been misguided.

<At the moment, we might not have as much power as you had thought. In fact, there might not be any summoner in the world with the power to stand up to the White Queen. But still…>

She may have had the wrong objective in mind as they had intentionally kept information from her.

<When someone says “help me” and asks you to save them, it’s never wrong to want to reach out your hand to them even if you know it won’t end well for you! And you aren’t alone now. When a summoner has a vessel, then they have a hand to reach out to someone!!>

But…

<Right now, the two of us are Alice (with) Rabbit! So I’ll support you!!>

Those words saved him, even if just a little.

That nickname had actually been given to him by the nemesis before his eyes.

If he looked back on this later, it might seem like a traumatic mistake.

But at the time, Shiroyama Kyousuke was definitely saved by those words.

That nickname had been forced on him from above as he sank into humiliation and defeat.

But now he felt like it had been given new meaning.

Meinokawa Higan knew nothing.

She had not noticed the true meaning behind the original job at the harbor, she had mistaken Government for Guard of Honor at the school, she did not know the White Queen held her life in her hands, and she did not know Renge, Kyousuke, and the others had risked their lives to free her from that. She knew nothing from beginning to end.

But despite that, she was the one who had reached the most correct answer.

“Higan.”

He spoke her name again.

Just one of the White Queen’s eyelids twitched, but Kyousuke continued regardless.

“We’re about to defeat the White Queen, the peak of the Unexplored-class. Let’s end this farce as soon as possible and fix everything that was twisted! ''So lend me your strength, Meinokawa Higan!!''”