Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume5 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 2===

They could have chosen that future.

They only needed to nod their heads in response to Transline’s suggestion.

They would have been given a happy life where they wanted for nothing.

But.

If they could do anything that irresponsible, they never would have avenged their friends and become known as the Four Living Gods.

Karuta swatted aside the outstretched hand.

Transline remained frozen in place with a puzzled look on her face.

He shouted at the top of his lungs before she could think anything at all.

He had made his choice.

He grabbed the modified military flashlight from his hip, gripped it tight, and held it at the ready.

“Back to the fight, Aineeeeeeeee!!!”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

The crystal girl produced a high-pitched sound as she readied her sword.

Maybe this would drag a lot more people into the fight.

Everyone might resent the world’s strongest for failing to do their job.

Nevertheless.

He could never choose to let 5.5 billion people die, their complaints silenced forever, while only the four of them survived!!!

Marika and Kyouka smiled a little.

They were implicitly saying this was the only real option they had.

“Oh, dear.”

Finally.

Transline spoke after an obvious delay. But this delay was brimming with a confidence that she would never lose to mere humans even if they got the jump on her.

She had been rejected.

But her face displayed neither displeasure nor anger.

She was smiling.

“Yes, you are the superior humans known as the Four Living Gods. You must have more fight in you than you know what to do with. But perhaps that is what makes you what you are. ''Hee hee''!!”

That was all it took for something invisible to pierce every single one of Utagai Karuta’s cells at superluminal speed.

“Gah?”

He couldn’t breathe.

He floated in the zero-g space, unable to even hold a hand to his chest. His mind was only able to comprehend that he had been hit by something devastating. But even after being hit, he had no idea how to see it coming or how to dodge it.

With a violent zapping sound, sparks erupted from the floor and wall behind him. Something had harmed him and damaged the space station’s delicate equipment just by being emitted. It apparently didn’t matter that this was a large orbital facility designed to defend against the high levels of radiation found in solar winds and cosmic rays.

Even a specialized spacesuit or environmental suit wouldn’t have helped.

(What about my flashlight?)

Still having trouble breathing, he flipped the switch on and off with his thumb.

It was a miracle the device still worked.

Transline.

That monster would slaughter any lifeform or machine that opposed her, except now she was doubled over trying to endure something. But that something was likely a pleasurable or joyful urge rather than anything related to fighting.

Simply put, it was the desire to show off.

Or maybe she simply wanted them to admire her.

“''Hee hee. Ee hee hee.'' Sorry, that was inappropriate of me. It only slipped out, I promise. ''Hee hee.'' Oh, dear. I can’t seem to restrain myself. You intend to fight? Against me? Why would you go out of your way to choose something so suicidal? Huff, puff. Oh, no. Not even taking deep breaths is enough!! This is just so amusing I can’t stop laughing. ''Pff, hee hee. Hee hee hee ha ha gya ha ha ha ha ha!!!''”

“Karuta!!”

Amaashi Marika swung her rapier device.

But not at Transline herself. She sliced through a nearby wall, tearing it away. It stuck out to cover Karuta, Aine, and the rest like an umbrella.

Countless sparks burst out like pouring rain.

The wall was made to block radiation, but Karuta still felt the tingling pain in his skin growing at an accelerated rate. They weren’t going to last long.

Then the woman’s ticklish voice arrived from beyond the umbrella.

“Oh, how fun. ''Pff, hee hee.'' I would love to join in this game☆”

Several metallic sounds followed.

Karuta had a very bad feeling about this, so he peeked around the edge of the shield to find something unusual. Glass tubes thicker than relay batons were shooting from all over Transline while she remained doubled over in laughter. They were probably some kind of vacuum tube, but it wasn’t clear what they were used for. Karuta had thought of vacuum tubes as outdated tech, but he was pretty sure they were still used to produce microwaves in things like microwave ovens. So were these used to create and send out that kind of energy? Whatever the case, he could tell this indicated some kind of mode change. She had some reason to not keep them out in the open all the time, so she had kept them inside her body until now.

Two transparent horns grew atop her head and she raised that head.

A pair of glass or crystal objects grew from the metal lifeform.

(Are those like Aine’s horns?)

He doubted she would explain it for him right now.

Her cold and beautiful face was distorted by laughter.

“''Hee hee hee. Ah ha ha''!! Let me join the fun!!!”

Most likely, that was her only reason.

She was not motivated by a vast conspiracy or a nasty grudge.

He heard something slice through the artificial air. Transline’s slender arm did not carry a sword or a spear. To Karuta, it looked like a long, glowing whip.

“Ma-”

That weapon concentrated down all of the energy used to move 300 million Threats.

“Marika!? You need to dodge this!!!”

“?”

Pausing out of confusion was a definite mistake.

The childhood friend’s silhouette suddenly collapsed. Specifically, her empty hand was lopped off at the shoulder. She had been sliced through along with the wall she was using as a shield.

No, Transline hadn’t even done that intentionally.

''Let me join the fun.

She was like a small child. She had only innocently wanted to do the same thing the four of them had done a moment before. She was only trying to attack the wall and peel it away.

Immediately afterwards, the space station’s wall was roughly sliced to pieces.

Rather than cut a hole in the wall, it was more like she sliced the entire station in two. There was nothing Karuta and the others could do while floating in the zero-g space. The artificial air flowed out with a sound like air leaving a balloon and they were blown toward the newly created exit.

Karuta felt dizzy.

This wasn’t a perfect vacuum, but the rapid change in pressure was too much for his body to deal with.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Stopping Marika’s bleeding takes top priority!! Apply pressure, tie it up, and do whatever it takes for her to last 30 seconds. The bleeding is going to be weird in zero-g and we can’t let her die before the regeneration is complete!!”

“I will obey, but ''she'' is coming.”

“!!”

He heard the air being sliced through.

There wasn’t just one anymore. She wasn’t just wielding them in her hands either. Several glowing whips extended from her lower back. They glowed like lava, so he got the feeling they would blind him if he viewed them for too long. A single hit from one of those had been too much for the giant space station. If she swung them all around at once, they would probably turn the entire location into space debris.

If Karuta hadn’t reflexively aimed his modified military flashlight and activated its dazzling infrared laser, they might have all been sliced through.

“''Hee hee hee hee.'' If you’re willing to boast like that, you must have the strength to back it up, right? I’m happy, happy, so happy!!! I have finally found the superior units I have been looking for – the world’s strongest I have dreamed of!!”

With Marika’s makeshift shield gone, the invisible attack battered all of Karuta’s cells again. The piercing pain was less like a burn and more like a laceration that tore his skin like a stocking. He felt a rough sensation followed by the exposed part of his skin crystallizing.

No matter how beautiful Transline might be, she was still a Threat made of metal, so she did not care at all if she was thrown into the vacuum of space.

“Excellent. Truly excellent!! Now, entertain me more, more, more!! ''Kee kee ee hee hee''. Okay, world’s strongests!?”

She laughed while swinging her glowing whips and filling the air with energy.

The attack…was coming!!!

“Karuta-kun!!” shouted Omotesandou Kyouka.

Karuta still had his injured childhood friend in his arms, so he gave up trying to resist and let the blowing wind carry him. He heard a deafening sound of scattering sparks as the many whips filled the space and forcibly tore through the ceiling and floor.

He would have been burned through too had he stayed where he was.

But simply following the course of the wind would get them thrown out into space.

“Let it…happen,” said Marika, holding her shoulder wound with her remaining hand. She moved her pale lips to speak. “Our barrier preset can forcibly stop an assault rifle bullet. Maybe we can’t handle it alone, but that should change if we gather together and combine our barriers.”

Yes. During their aerial battle against Susannia of the Problem Solvers, Karuta had received the blessing of Marika’s magic while holding onto her hips.

“But we’re in outer space. Will it really work the way we want?”

“Aine-chan can’t use the barrier and yours is really weak, but mine and the 3rd year’s should be enough. Remember, Crystal Magicians can fly through the ordinary atmosphere at Mach 2 or 3. We know the barrier is airtight, so this should…work!!!”

They flew from the station together.

Well, Karuta couldn’t bring himself to commit to that and grabbed onto a metal railing to slow down, but Marika cut it away with a laser.

Transline’s attacks poured in a moment later. The chaotic dance of light filled every part of the sliced space station. They burned through walls and burst outside of the station. They could no longer hear it, but the unrealistic visual of the kilometers long station being sliced apart was overwhelming enough.

Transline placed a hand on the wall and looked out through an opening in the collapsing station to watch them float away.

Her mouth was moving, but her voice didn’t reach them and they weren’t sure what she was saying or laughing about.

Aine must have read her lips, so she relayed it to them.

“She is saying, ‘oh, how wonderful. You are so adorable. I love you so much.’ ”

“I shouldn’t have asked.”

“That’s a haiku. Except no seasonal word.”

She was just messing with them at this point. Except she probably hadn’t done that on purpose.

Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka were gathered together. If they let go now, they would probably be separated forever.

And even with their barrier active, their air wouldn’t last forever.

There was only one possible destination for them.

The giant blue orb in front of them. The red lights they saw were due to the conflagrations larger than any slash-and-burn farming or forest fire.

“Do we really have to head down there? Do you have any idea how many thousands of degrees the thermosphere is!?”

The barrier alone wasn’t enough to protect them from that. If it was, they never would have needed to fear the light spears that Yukino Arakawa of the Problem Solvers had sent down from orbit.

“Sacri-sama.”

Karuta heard a sharp stabbing sound as Aine jabbed her sword into something black. It was a water bear larger than a car. That was one of the Threats that had been clinging to the outside of the space station. It must have been floating nearby after Transline sliced away its footing.

Aine did not hesitate before moving her sword to peel away its black armor.

“You can see their shells are not all that tough. Given the strength of their armor, I doubt the Threat bunches broke through the thermosphere by force. Even if they were willing to accept some losses, they likely also have an energy field similar to our barriers to protect them.”

“So if we use this?”

“We should have greater odds of surviving reentry than if we attempted it without.”

A few pieces of information immediately appeared in Karuta’s head.

At Iceland’s Crystal Beach, Aine had messed with the decoy Threat’s wiring to make them fire.

The Armored Warrior occupying Second Grimnoah had not originally taken that form. The lion-shaped Sparkle had devoured the corpses of the tadpole ones, taking in the other Threats’ powers and devices to transform.

“We can do this.”

It had all been hell.

But they couldn’t look away. They could make use of all those past experiences.

“We can do this!! We just have to build on what we’ve already seen!!”

“Aine-chan,” said Kyouka. “Karuta-kun may be super excited, but if you really can tear off and reuse Threat parts, try and grab us some rocket and booster parts.”

“If you say so.”

“Remember, this geosynchronous orbit is 36 thousand kilometers from the surface. Crystal Magic flight can only carry us at Mach 2 or 3, so it would take us more than 10 hours to get back. I doubt what little oxygen we have in here would last that long.”

“Yikes,” said Marika. “I get the feeling we would either dry up in space or pop like balloons. And I’m not sure Imi, Tayori, and the others down there could last nearly half a day.”

“So we need something to accelerate us,” continued Kyouka. “Mach 25 to 30 would be best.”

Super excited Karuta felt a chill in his stomach. He quickly asked Aine to do what Kyouka said.

The Four Living Gods held hands and formed a ring like a skydiving team.

Yes, Marika’s arm had already regenerated.

That meant they had been exposed to the vacuum of space for more than 30 seconds and still lived. They weren’t about to trust Transline, but it was very strongest of them. Their hardiness was reaching the level of germs and mold that rode a rocket or shuttle into space.

Could they even be called human anymore?

That thought gave Karuta a self-deprecating smile, but then the crystal girl spoke softly to him.

“Sacri-sama.”

“?”

“Your previous fantasy mode was transmitted into my mind through the Crystal Blossom. Do you really want to be a tropical king living out an explosively adolescent dream without even a swimsuit to be found?”

“I resisted the temptation all on my own, so can we not do this!?”

His childhood friend wasn’t going to overlook this, so she gave him a skeptical look.

“Explain yourself, Karuta.”

“Miss Marika sleeping in the nude is true to life, but Miss Kyouka doing the same and accentuating her chest size with the bed sheet does not seem to match her psychological profile. Were you ignoring everything about her except her chest size so you could use her as an easy source of boobs for your fantasy? Was this at all influenced by seeing them jiggle around when they were freed from gravity onboard the elevator car?”

“Karuta-kun☆”

“Please nooooooo!!!”

The station was in geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of 36 thousand kilometers.

But they had the flight preset plus the rockets and boosters stolen from the Threat. If Aine and Marika went all out, they could set a course in zero-g and travel at high speed.

Their destination was the giant blue planet spread out below them.