Editing Unlimited Fafnir:Volume 7 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 5===

Following the NIFL drones, we flew through the night sky.

Lacking flying skills, Iris and I were carried by Ren and Ariella respectively. As the key personnel in the operation, Mitsuki was flying alone.

In order to be able to attack from long range, the goggles issued to us were equipped with telescope functions in addition to communications. It was the same type that Lisa had used for sniping during the Basilisk battle in the past.

Although the goggles also provided night vision, the NIFL drones would fire flares for illumination once the operation began, so there was no need for us to use such functionality.

"...So dark, down there."

While transporting me, Ren looked down at the ground.

"It's all mountains nearby, so it's definitely suitable for a battlefield."

Since both sides were going to be firing antimatter at each other, damage to the environment would be unavoidable. Hence, I could understand Shinomiya-sensei's determination to end the battle before the target reached urban areas.

"—Although the drones definitely lowered their speed, keeping up with aircraft is actually pretty tough."

In the middle of transporting Iris, Ariella commented with sweat appearing on her brow.

The outlines of the three drones flying in front could not be seen due to the darkness of the sky, but we were able to use the red lights on the drones as beacons, moving at high speed.

"Shinomiya-sensei said the target's not very far, so we'll surely get there soon. Hang in there, Ariella-chan!"

Iris encouraged the exhausted Ariella.

At this moment, Shinomiya-sensei happened to speak on the communicator.

'You are about to arrive at the combat zone. Kraken Zwei is currently engaged in battle against NIFL's ground weapons. Slow down your flying and let the drones go first. Once the flares are up and the target comes into view, Mononobe Mitsuki will attack using antimatter.'

"—Affirmative."

Just as we replied, a huge explosion happened ahead.

The starry sky instantly turned white while we heard a heavy explosion.

While we slowed down, the drones pulled ahead and flew towards the explosion's location.

Several seconds later, multiple light sources appeared in the sky, apparently flares, illuminating the surrounding scenery.

Perhaps the result of ground weaponry in combat, the land in the vicinity had turned barren with multiple large craters superimposed on one another. A large patch of the mountain forest had been gouged out.

And in the center, a small silver entity was reflecting light from the flares.

"That's—"

I operated my goggles to magnify the image.

The same silver cocoon as what we had seen in the conference room monitor—Kraken Zwei, all covered by threads of mithril.

The drones circled in the air above it and started attacking with machine guns, but of course, that level of firepower was all deflected by the mithril cocoon.

Then just as the machine gun barrage concluded, purple light flashed from a gap in the cocoon. The small projectile of light sank into a drone, then immediately caused a giant explosion far surpassing a flare's brightness. It was most likely attacking with antimatter.

Caught in the annihilating explosion, a second drone exploded next, leaving only one.

"—Commence sniping!"

Mitsuki shouted acutely then raised her fictional armament of a bow—Brionac. Once all the drones were shot down, there would be no diversions left. Mitsuki had no time to waste.

Nocking an arrow of dark matter to the bow, Mitsuki aimed at the target.

Although I could see nervousness and a stiff demeanor from the side of her face, there was the light of fierce resolve in her eyes

"It is a dragon, an enemy that must be defeated."

Mitsuki persuaded herself while drawing the bow.

The final remaining drone suddenly stopped unnaturally in the air. Upon closer examination, I could see shining silver threads entangling the fuselage.

—Could the threads of mithril extend that far?

According to Shinomiya-sensei, the range was dozens of meters but from what I could see, it looked like almost a hundred meters.

Perhaps deciding defense was no longer essential after restraining the drone, the cocoon swiftly unraveled.

Purple light could be seen from the gradually expanding gaps.

I had seen reference photographs of the Kraken during lectures at Midgard. A monster with a giant purple eyeball and countless tentacles—That was what the Kraken looked like.

Hence, I always thought the "inside" protected by the silver cocoon would be something similar.

However—

"Eh...?"

Mitsuki exclaimed in surprise.

Iris, the others and I all gasped in surprise.

Emerging from the cocoon was a young girl. The exceptionally long silver hair writhed as though it had a will of its own. Only then did I realize that the silver threads constituting the cocoon was actually her hair.

Although naked, she had part of her hair wrapped around her body. Younger than Tia in appearance. Her left eye was covered her long bangs.

The exposed right eye was glowing purple. The instant that light intensified, a beam shot at the drone. With a flash of light tearing through the sky, afterimages were left on the retinas of observers.

Then with a massive explosion and noise, struck by the glowing projectile, the drone was devoured by the light of annihilation.

Then the girl looked in our direction with her eye that had released light of destruction.

"...We're discovered!?"

The instant our gazes met, I felt a chill rush along my spine. Instantly creating my fictional armament of a gun, I prepared to fire antigravity bullets any time.

"Mitsuki! We'll get taken out unless you attack soon!"

Ariella called out anxiously.

However, Mitsuki did not move, frozen in her pose with the fictional armament of a bow raised. Kraken Zwei seemed to be examining us in return without attacking immediately.

But time was probably in short supply for hesitation.

"Wrong..."

Mitsuki murmured to herself in a trembling voice.

"Mitsuki-chan—The Kraken is looking at us!"

Iris alerted of danger in an urgent voice, but Mitsuki kept shaking her head while trembling.

"Wrong... It is wrong."

"What is 'wrong'—"

"That is not the Kraken!"

Mitsuki interrupted Iris and yelled.

"Hmm... I get what you're trying to say, but if you don't make a move—"

Ariella hurried Mitsuki in a stiff tone of voice.

"I know! But... But no matter how I look..."

Accompanied by tears appearing in the corners of her eyes, Mitsuki's voice trembled.

"That is... She is—Miyako's child!!"

Mitsuki cried out hoarsely.

In the form of a young girl, Kraken Zwei had an extremely lovely face. The impression I got was very similar to Shinomiya-sensei's.

But what Mitsuki saw in the girl's face was probably the image of her best friend in the past, Shinomiya Miyako.

"...Mitsuki, let's withdraw for now."

Making the judgment call that Mitsuki was unable to fire at the girl, I suggested a retreat.

"Withdraw?"

Mitsuki was taken aback for a moment. Then relief appeared on her face.

However, she immediately came to a sudden realization, bit her lip hard and shook her head.

"No... Even so, I have no choice but to do it... I am the only one capable of defeating her..."

Despite looking like she was about to cry, Mitsuki refused to back down.

"Mitsuki-chan...?"

Iris watched her in worry.

"Sorry, everyone, I have put on an embarrassing display. However... I am fine now."

Despite the blow to her psyche, Mitsuki still barely managed to support herself with her sense of duty and obligation as the captain of the Dragon Subjugation Squad.

"Even if it is not a dragon, by my own hand, I must... Just like that time with Miyako—"

With trembling hands, Mitsuki tried to aim her arrow at the target.

However—Mitsuki suddenly lost balance and dropped in altitude.

"Huh...?"

Mitsuki was shocked. The fictional armament in her hand turned into black bubbles and started to disappear.

"Why—"

Dark matter was controlled by the mind. A so-called fictional armament was the mind's combat state.

—Sure enough, Mitsuki could not do it.

Because no matter how much she bluffed, Mitsuki was internally resisting the idea of vanquishing Kraken Zwei.

"Ren, fly over to near Mitsuki!"

I called out to Ren who was holding my left hand to support me in the air.

Mitsuki could not sustain her flying due to her fictional armament beginning to collapse.

"Mm!"

Ren instantly realized in alarm and nodded to me in response, then approached Mitsuki.

"Mitsuki, grab onto Ren!"

I shouted to Mitsuki who was about to fall to the ground.

"—!"

Mitsuki clung to Ren's neck and managed to avoid falling, but... even without physical injuries, her mind was not in a state capable of fighting.

"Sorry... Sorry..."

Mitsuki pressed her face against the front of Ren's chest and kept apologizing.

Was she sorry for failing to fulfill her duties? Or was she feeling remorse for Shinomiya Miyako? I could not tell.

"—It's okay, Mitsuki-chan."

The one who spoke to Mitsuki was Iris, hovering in the air through Ariella's assistance.

"I will fight in your stead, Mitsuki-chan."

Iris raised her free hand, which started glowing red. It was the light of Catastrophe, capable of weathering all substances within its range of influence.

"Caduceus Catastrophe!"

A staff of red light manifested in Iris' hand.

Pointing the staff's tip at Kraken Zwei, Iris recited something like an incantation:

"Come, come, fragments of time..."

Seeing the red staff glow progressively brighter, I asked Iris:

"Iris, you can bring yourself to do it?"

"Yes, because even though it looks like a girl... That's the dragon targeting Kili-chan, the enemy that must be defeated. Also—"

Iris paused, looked at Mitsuki and smiled.

"—I want to protect Mitsuki-chan. This is for her sake and yours."

I could feel from Iris' tone of voice that she truly wished for Mitsuki and my happiness. Just like her joy when my memories recovered, Iris smiled and ignored her own ''pain''.

With eyes burning with the light of fierce resolve, Iris turned her gaze back to Kraken Zwei.

The dazzling red light at the staff's tip expanded, but at this moment, I saw several black spheres appear around Kraken Zwei.

—Don't tell me that's dark matter!?

"Catastrophe, actualize!!"

While I was holding my breath, Iris released the time-stealing light.

However, just as that brightness dazzled me, I saw them. I saw the black spheres change in shape, manifesting a silver shield in front of Kraken Zwei—

Unerringly, the red light of Iris' Catastrophe devoured the spot where the girl was standing.

Unprecedented in scale... A gigantic beam of Catastrophe was fired, possibly surpassing that of Basilisk's.

"Amazing... This might be able to destroy it together with the mithril defenses."

Ariella exclaimed, impressed.

Mithril was the most stable alloy and highly resistant against Catastrophe. Be that as it may, it could not escape the weathering caused by time.

The surrounding rocks, soil and collapsed trees were turned into fine sand. The location exposed to the red light was gradually turned into a desert. Changes that originally required thousands, tens of thousands of years were completed in an instant.

Nevertheless, a silver object rushed out from the giant beam of light that stole time persistently.

It was Kraken Zwei, the girl whose body was completely wrapped in hair of mithril.

"No! She's still alive!"

I raised Siegfried, my gun-shaped fictional armament, and yelled.

She had most likely used transmutation to create a mithril shield to buy a bit of time in order to retreat from Catastrophe's line of fire.

"...!"

Iris hastily tried to correct her aim, but before that, a purple light flashed from a gap in the girl's hair.

"Antigravity!"

In that instant, I used all the dark matter in my fictional armament, firing it as a bullet.

The bullet of dark matter transmuted into high-density antigravitational matter along the way, generating a repulsive field nearby. Immediately, Kraken Zwei's beam of light was deflected greatly, disappearing into the distant night sky.

But at the same time, the repulsive field also distorted Catastrophe's trajectory, so Iris stopped firing the beam for now. Standing at the girl's former position was a silver shield with a large hole in its center.

"Someone hurry and deploy a smokescreen—block her view! We have to retreat to the ground for now!"

"Mm!"

Ren immediately answered my call.

Accompanied by an explosion of "bang," smoke shrouded the surroundings. Hiding inside the smoke, we descended to the ground.

We landed in the forest, escaped from Kraken Zwei's view and breathed out deeply. Although the forest was totally dark at night and the humid air was sticking to our skin, it was incomparably better than getting sniped by antimatter projectiles.

"Mononobe... What do we do next?"

Iris checked on Mitsuki while asking me. Holding onto Ren, Mitsuki did not look up.

"Most likely, she—can also control dark matter. If she uses transmutation to replenish mithril, then even Iris' Catastrophe won't be able to breach her defenses."

"In that case, we have no choice but to retreat..."

Ariella murmured after listening to me.

"Wait! If we run away like this without achieving anything, NIFL might try to kill Kili-chan. Then Lisa-chan and the others together with her will be in danger. We must pin down Kraken Zwei here at least!"

Iris interrupted Ariella in a strong tone of voice and raised her red staff. Precisely because she had experienced being a target in the past, she poignantly understood the urgency of the current crisis.

"Pin her down... How do we do that?"

After hearing Ariella's question, someone spoke next to me.

"Onii-chan, I have an idea..."

"Ren?"

I saw Ren looking up at me with a serious expression.

"If the ground that's turned to sand is weathered further, a hole should appear. We can drop a large amount of mithril over the hole... Bury her alive."

"Even if you suggest burying her alive... But with antimatter shots—"

"She probably won't use it because she'll get caught in the explosions when firing antimatter while buried."

After listening to Ren's answer, I knew it was the best method.

"Right, if we use mithril as a lid, even mithril strands won't be able to cut it open easily. Escaping will be a challenge. If it works out, let alone pinning her down, we might even be able to seal her away completely."

We looked at one another, nodding in agreement.

"After Iris opens up a hole in the ground, I'll borrow dark matter from Ren to cast down a large amount of mithril. Mitsuki should wait here."

After saying that, Ariella took Iris and flew up into the air again.

Just as I was about to return to the sky with Ren, Mitsuki looked up in her depression.

"Nii-san—"

Mitsuki called out hoarsely, extending her hand helplessly.

"Don't worry, Mitsuki. We'll find a way to handle the rest."

"......Yes."

Mitsuki bit her lip in chagrin, lowered her head then nodded slightly.

"Let's go, everyone."

Leaving her behind, the rest of us carried out the plan devised by Ren.

—Siegfried.

I constructed my fictional armament again to guard against enemy attacks.

The instant we increased in altitude, purple light flew at us.

It was Kraken Zwei's antimatter shot.

—It's coming!

"Antigravity!"

The expected attack was deflected to a different direction by my bullet of repulsion. Then Iris fired Catastrophe immediately.

"Catastrophe, actualize!"

Simultaneously, Kraken Zwei created a mithril shield while the red beam was shot.

But that was fine, because Iris' target was the surrounding ground.

Already turned to sand, the land turned into tiny particles and dissipated.

Land erosion—The land, literally worn away by weather, was gradually gouged away. Then with a deep and heavy sound, the ground rumbled.

Next came even more intense shaking.

Perhaps the weathering had reached deep underground. The ground collapsed over a wide area.

Together with her shield, Kraken Zwei was swallowed into the collapsing ground.

"Now is the time!"

"I know, Mononobe-kun!"

Without missing this opportunity, Ariella used dark matter borrowed from Ren to create a vast amount of mithril.

The silver rocks covered up the created hole while the deep rumbling reached the heavens. A cloud of dust shrouded the area.

"Anyway... Plan succeeded?"

Ariella breathed a sigh of relief and asked.

Even after waiting for a while, we did not see any changes in the blocks of mithril plugging the hole. Just as Ren predicted, using antimatter to escape would be very difficult.

"Yeah, although we didn't manage to defeat her, if the outcome is like this—"

Iris dispelled the red staff in her hand and wiped sweat from her brow.

"—Shinomiya-sensei, what do we do?"

Through the communicator, I called to our commander, Shinomiya-sensei.

'Everyone back to base. Leave the situation for NIFL's unmanned military hardware to survey and analyze.'

Shinomiya-sensei issued orders to us.

"—Affirmative!"

"Mm."

Ariella and Ren immediately responded and started to descend to where Mitsuki was waiting.

Enveloped in Ren's wind, I stared at the silver rocks that were sealing Kraken Zwei away.

If possible, I hoped she would stay there quietly underground and not come out.

Whether Mitsuki... Or Iris, as long as the situation permitted, I did not want them to dirty their hands.

That dragon looked far too human.

One knew just from appearance that she was half-human—in other words, a D.

I could not help but hope in my heart that it might be possible to communicate with her.

But now that she had targeted Kili, we could only be enemies.

Because from the perspective of Ds, dragons pursuing mates were natural predators that must be defeated.