Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume3 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 5===

The twenty meter Artificial Sacred Ground was set up.

The three-dimensional Rose made up of 216 Petals appeared at the midpoint between the two summoner pairs.

As the glowing White Thorns appeared in the empty air, Kyousuke and Biondetta jabbed their Blood-Signs into them.

The Rose was smashed and 36 dark, fist-sized Spots appeared in the empty air.

The scattering Petals ricocheted around and a few of them fell into the Spots.

“Isabelle!!”

“Ma’am.”

The two girls changed form on the rapidly-moving Stingray’s deck.

Kyousuke had the Original Yellow (s). Sound Range: High. Cost: 1.

Biondetta had the Original Red (b). Sound Range: Low. Cost: 1.

(I have the upper hand in the sound range, but that does not matter.)

When she had the upper hand, Biondetta only had to “wait”. Victory would come to her on its own.

That meant Kyousuke had to take action. After he used a White Thorn to knock the desired Petal into a Spot to change his Material’s sound range, the waitress demon made her next move.

She followed suit and she mimicked him with stalker-like precision.

If he chose the middle sound range, she too chose middle.

If he chose low, she too chose low.

Kyousuke made feints, double feints, and every trick he could find, but Biondetta only had to follow suit after “seeing it for herself”. By taking the same sound range with a constant +1 in cost and always summoning her Material after him, she always had the newer and stronger one.

It was like repeatedly comparing benchmarks with a computer from the same company, the same brand, and the same line but one generation older.

(This is enough. If this is a game of chicken, then I have a distance handicap. He can’t wait until I’m right up on the edge before slamming on the brakes. If he tries that, he’ll drive right off the cliff.)

Of course, Kyousuke would have noticed this was the “first cage”.

But that knowledge did not allow him to ignore it. Even if this was only bait or a diversion, he would still lose if the Silhouette at his Material’s core was destroyed.

So he could not reach past it.

He could only wait for her to finish.

“!”

Shiroyama Kyousuke must have lost his temper because he charged toward her like a bullet.

Was he starting a close-quarters exchange like last time?

There was no point in a fistfight between summoners when they had their protective circles. But they could hit, deflect, and push at the Blood-Sign that stuck out and that could throw off the accuracy of their opponent’s shots.

However…

“Hee hee.”

Biondetta could not help but laugh.

They glared at each other from less than a meter away, sometimes attacking each other’s Blood-Signs with staff or spear techniques and sometimes finding a chance to launch a White Thorn. All the while, the waitress demon spoke.

“You are correct to take away my resources, but if you lose the same amount of resources in the process, my advantage remains. Thus, you cannot escape this cage☆”

“…!!”

A White Thorn that had seemed to fly way off the mark made a sharp curve in midair and collided with the target Petal. Instead of hitting the center, she had intentionally put a major spin on the ball.

“And you still do not know my true power.”

A high-pitched sound filled the air.

“I am only restricting myself to this speed so I can match your speed and follow your lead. If I release my spare resources, I can do this.”

Biondetta’s Blood-Sign briefly bent in two.

And she touched the sniper trigger.

With a loud bang, a 7.62mm rifle bullet was released from the center point.

It could not reach the summoner inside his protective circle.

However, she had not targeted his Blood-Sign either.

Biondetta scored a direct hit on something beyond Kyousuke: the clashing monsters.

The Materials.

“There are some exceptions, but the Materials summoned using the Blood-Sign system – especially the Regulation-class – are generally quite dumb.”

She reconnected her Blood-Sign and smiled.

At this point, Kyousuke had the SSC for Puppet #2000 (yi – a – ns – ou – wh – ia – iu – seb – e – hig – o – sd – c – li – dr – oq). Sound range: Low. Cost: 30.

It was a giant western suit of armor with countless red strings wrapped around it and it turned their way after the hit from the rifle bullet.

“Whether it’s a peashooter or whatever else, they will set their sights on whatever attacked them. So it isn’t hard to manipulate the enemy.”

An explosive sound reached their ears.

Biondetta only had to take one step to the side.

The attack could easily have split open an aircraft carrier flight deck like it was a can. A row of violent steel spikes missed their target and fiercely struck Shiroyama Kyousuke who was supposed to be its master.

He was not killed thanks to the protective circle, but the great strength sent him and the circle flying like a pinwheel.

He was not injured and he felt no impact or pain.

But his position had shifted.

And that widened the gap.

“Gh…''Cheshire Cat''…!!”

“Shut up, ''you damn rabbit''. I can control my allies with Girl’s Backdoor and my enemies with my sniper shots, so I can dance across the board with everything under my control. Do you really think ''a lone summoner'' can stop me?”

Kyousuke had not even broken out of the first cage formed by her “same sound range with cost +1” strategy.

Now she formed the second cage by indirectly interfering with his Material using her rifle bullets. The wider the gap grew and the more freedom she gained, the more resources she could spare to end it all.

She would complete the third cage.

That greatest and worst arrangement of dominos would sweep everything away and swallow it all up when it all came tumbling down.

(I need to reach the Divine-class using the high sound range and with a cost of 10. I need that dog-headed god that gained a new name and power after mixing the Ancient Egyptian god of judgment with Hermes of Greece.)

Inside the twenty meter cube of the Artificial Sacred Ground, most of the White Thorns and Petals were moving near the deck of the high-speed Stingray. No, Biondetta had set it up that way.

The only exceptions were near the corners, walls, and ceiling of the giant cube. Clusters of three or four Petals had gathered there.

And there were more than one or two such clusters.

They were spread out like a spider web or like a jellyfish or sea anemone’s antennae drifting in wait of prey.

The countless clusters were complete and they surrounded the poor summoner.

“Farewell, my barrier.”

She sent out ''the signal to surpass Shiroyama Kyousuke'' who was still stuck in the Regulation-class.

This was the sweet flavor of revenge.

This was the moment when she turned the tables on a target who was confident he would never die. And not as a coincidence. This was the joy of tearing down their strength, their reputation, and their happiness thanks to her careful planning.

This was the pleasure of strapping a giant rocket engine to a scooter one third its size just to show up a braggart driving around in their Italian luxury car.

Biondetta felt a strange tremor run down her spine.

“You could not reach me. Like this, you are not even worth calling ''a damn rabbit''. You knew about this cage, but you were not skilled enough to interfere. You deserve to be crushed by overwhelming quantity and speed!!”

She held her Blood-Sign vertically, aimed straight down, and launched a White Thorn. It collided with the deck at her feet, bounced off, and used its intense spin to fly in a sharp curve.

End this.

Sink into despair.

Fall to your knees and sob.

And at the same moment…

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

Shiroyama Kyousuke left every last pattern Biondetta had imagined. He was still calm. His face had not gone pale, his eyes were not wandering aimlessly, sweat did not cover his face, and the parts of his face had not gathered in the center like a dried plum.

It was meaningless like this.

Revenge was more than just destruction. The true essence of revenge was how much that destruction tore into the target’s heart.

“Let me tell you something very basic, ''Cheshire Cat.'' ''You'' might think that you have indirect control over both Materials and that you control every Petal on the field, but you’re forgetting one basic fact. We’re on top of a Government Stingray, so this is a giant away game for you. ''You'' are the avenger, so you should have assumed everything around you could turn against you.”

“What…are you…?”

Two ricochets. Three ricochets.

The White Thorn bounced off the walls of the Artificial Sacred Ground and accurately targeted the desired Petal. Kyousuke knew the fuse has been lit, but the problem before his eyes kept him too busy to interfere.

Or so Biondetta had thought.

But if that was the case, why did Alice (with) Rabbit look so confident!?

“''You'' may have felt like a queen peering into the bug cage, but ''you'' were trapped in a larger bird cage all the while.”

“What are you talking about, ''you goddamn rabbit''? This is already over! I have you in checkmate, so feel some despair!! I’ve taken your king, so don’t just keep playing!! Tormenting you once you’re a dead-eyed zombie would just be boring!!!!!”

Five ricochets. Six ricochets.

Biondetta’s White Thorn slipped between the unwanted Petals on its way to the one that acted as a trigger. No one could stop it now. Once her Material reached the Divine-class, it would obliterate Kyousuke’s which could not leave the Regulation-class.

“What I’m saying is…”

Unbelievably, Kyousuke brought his Blood-Sign to a stop.

He snapped his fingers just as something shot by over his head.

“''That’s my line.''”

It happened a moment later.

With a solid sound, Biondetta’s seemingly unstoppable White Thorn was struck from the side.

“Wha-…?”

Kyousuke had not launched a White Thorn of his own.

Countless crane wires dangled down from the giant bridges or midair surfaces that supported parks, hospitals, schools, etc. As the Stingray moved at 200 kph, they were essentially a raging steel wind blowing by overhead. One of the J-shaped hooks had accurately struck Biondetta’s White Thorn.

“Did you forget our field is constantly in motion? And this isn’t a natural phenomenon. It’s being controlled by Government, who ''you'' made into an enemy.”

The single attack caused it all to fall apart.

“The Petals and White Thorns will bounce when they hit the Artificial Sacred Ground’s walls or another obstacle. Anything directly controlled by a human will, be it a thrown stone or a fired bullet, will pass through them, but that doesn’t apply here. While the field’s movement is controlled by a human will, the crane wire is simply hanging there.”

The White Thorn was not the only thing knocked out of place.

A great number of crane wires of various sizes tore apart the Petals that had been accurately positioned for a domino effect. They scattered everywhere and ruined Biondetta’s beautifully completed diagram.

Or so it seemed.

But that was not the case.

“And ''you'' did quite well.”

A solid sound followed.

The shock had created a brief gap in which Biondetta stopped moving. The first cage, created by the same sound range +1, crumbled away. Kyousuke used that opening to launch a White Thorn to a distant location.

He sent it toward the remains of Biondetta’s crumbled setup.

But he was not just hitting a few Petals into the Spots at random.

One of the clusters collapsed.

Those scattered Petals collided with other clusters.

Several clusters collapsed.

They spread out like a spider web and surrounded Biondetta as a dance of red lines. All of the Petals shot toward the Spots.

Almost as if…

“What…is this? I didn’t plan this. I don’t remember creating this domino effect!”

The dominos had not been swept aside by a brutish hand.

They had shifted from Domino Structure A to Domino Structure B.

Had they been accurately swapped out for a completely different formation!?

“Of course you don’t. I was the one to guide it in this direction.”

“————”

“Did you think you had created that situation yourself and for your own victory? You were only creating the basis I needed for my victory. Like the worker bee that busily gathers honey, oblivious to the bear waiting to raid the hive.”

He had been aiming for this from the beginning.

He had pretended to fall for her trap.

The data on the evacuation operation may have provided how many obstacles there were in Toy Dream 35, but the second Stingray’s presence had been an outright rebellion against his plan. That data would never have told him what route it would be taking.

But that had not mattered.

He had perfectly put together the algorithm in this short time, he had perfectly predicted the route and speed they would use based on what he would do in their position, and he had even used Biondetta who was at the 900s level.

He had been looking to this moment from the beginning.

Everything else had been how to ''manipulate'' things into arriving at this situation.

(Oh, no!! At this rate, he’ll take my Divine-class!!)

Biondetta immediately read the arrangement of Petals inside the Artificial Sacred Ground and launched a new White Thorn. When it hit Kyousuke’s Thorn, threw it off course, and prevented him from building up his Material, she could cut into the domino layout and steal its benefits for herself.

“This isn’t over yet, ''you damn rabbit''!! I can use this to reach the Divine-class too!! And then-…”

She trailed off.

Shiroyama Kyousuke’s expression remained unchanged.

It was just like when she had setup her dominos and achieved checkmate…no, thought she had achieved checkmate.

“It can’t be…”

She realized something.

“This was…exactly what you wanted me to do…?”