Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume5 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 3===

In his T-shirt and shorts, Kyousuke rode the emergency escape elevator all on his own.

That last thread of hope made of modern machinery swiftly pulled the survivor up from that hell 500 meters underground.

(If I can get to the top…)

He kept his woozy mind active and desperately thought about what he could do, whether it was the best, second best, or whatever other option.

(If I can get to the surface, I’ll find the team meant to kill the Queen. With their help, I might be able to pull the others up from underground!)

But that did not last forever.

With a loud clunk like a gear jamming, the elevator came to a grinding halt. His bones were already broken, but he bounced up from the floor, fell back down, and was thrown into a world of pain.

“Khah…ah…!?”

He did not have time to writhe around.

Something like white claws tore into the rectangular box like the thick blade of a can opener digging into a metal lid.

What were those?

They were white. So were they a part of the Queen? Had her clothing or something else transformed into them???

“Kh…!!”

It was all for naught if he was caught here.

The elevator was dangling in midair and it had probably risen 200 meters.

Biondetta, Alberto, and other survivors had to still be down there. It was unclear how much accurate information had gotten out or how far it had spread, but it had to mean a lot that all of this had been caused by Shiroyama Kyousuke himself.

Unable to even stand up, he crawled over to the elevator panel. He grabbed at the metal fragment torn by the White Queen’s claws and he turned the screws to pry it open.

All the while, an ominous creaking surrounded him.

It should not have taken her even a second to crush the entire elevator.

“…Brother…”

A voice called for him from the depths of hell.

It was probably a lot harder to extract him from the box without crushing him.

But that hesitation opened the next path forward.

“Brooootherrrrrrrrrrrr…”

If dying would have brought it all to an end, he would have torn his own heart out right that instant. But this was not so kind. Committing suicide now would only be a way of running from his responsibility.

(There are 4 emergency escape elevators. The control panels are connected through the internal network, so this will work!)

Kyousuke grabbed the round metal sphere that Biondetta had given him. He pulled out the pin with his mouth and tossed it into a gap in the jagged torn wall.

He doubted it was an Incense Grenade.

Incense Grenades were fine-tuned for each individual summoner, so Biondetta giving Kyousuke hers would have accomplished nothing. That meant it was disguised as an Incense Grenade while containing normal explosives. It was likely meant to blow up another summoner while pretending to start a Summoning Ceremony battle. It was a cruel trick for use against her siblings.

At any rate, he let it detonate.

While fully contained in the gap, the grenade did not scatter an explosive blast and shrapnel. Instead, it blew open the wall. And with an ear-splitting roar, the elevator itself tilted diagonally.

Kyousuke rolled along the floor.

And he did not hesitate to jump right toward the large hole in the wall.

“Brooooooooootherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!”

The countless claws holding the elevator danced out toward him, but they just barely missed.

He flung himself into the empty air and landed on the roof of another elevator ascending alongside the first.

He had used the panel to send a request to the connected elevator.

When he looked back, he saw the previous elevator was wrapped in what looked like white cloth. It was like a strange cocoon. And that cloth rising from the dark depths of the earth mercilessly crushed the metal box it no longer needed.

“Pant, pant…!!”

Kyousuke gasped for breath and lay on the elevator roof while desperately trying to keep his thoughts positive. If he did not, he would have broken right then and there.

(Up…to the surface…)

That was his one hope.

It was the final chance to save everyone still trapped 500 meters underground.

(I need to get the details to the team up there… With their help…)

And the elevator arrived at the surface.

He removed a roof panel, rolled inside the elevator, and dragged his broken bones along to desperately arrive outside. Even in the tropical location, the air was chilly.

Something was not right.

He saw no hope.

He found the stench of something burning and voices from all around. When he focused on it, the unclear mass of noise sounded a lot like shouts of anger and fear.

Was something happening here too?

“Someone…”

He dragged his aching body and used his dried throat to force out a voice.

“Someone please come here!! The Miniature Garden…everyone is down in the Miniature Garden…!!”

No one responded.

Kyousuke crawled along the dirty ground like a caterpillar and tried to find out what was happening. He moved to the hill Biondetta had once shown him.

He had no idea how many times he nearly passed out before arriving at that point giving him a view of the wandering land.

His T-shirt and shorts were filthy by the time he saw it.

The trees of the tropical forest had been felled or burned away.

And the entire land was covered in a horrifying swarm of Materials.

Due to the tides and the accumulation of sand, the area around the Miniature Garden was cut off by seawater, making it something of a large island.

And that entire island had become hell on earth.

He seriously doubted these were vessels being controlled by summoners.

For one thing, there was no Artificial Sacred Ground in effect.

And yet hundreds, if not thousands…no, even more monsters were enveloping the lower world. They might be a giant collection of gears, countless wolves connected by the single shadow they shared, an endlessly swollen eyeball, or a suit of armor with nothing inside.

And those Regulation-classes were joined by a group of what were clearly the gods of legend as they spread destruction endlessly. Beams of light surged out and explosions erupted. The forest was carved away, the distant bridge was broken at its relay points, and large pillars of water rose from the ocean. Were those caused by submarines exploding underwater?

The occasional Incense Grenade was thrown and Artificial Sacred Grounds opened here and there, but they were tiny. They were miniscule. In the face of the fury covering the entire land rising from the ocean, they looked like no more than small bubbles doomed to pop.

That was the source of the angry and fearful shouting.

The Cost and Sound Range were irrelevant. They could not even set up a one-on-one battle. When surrounded by Materials of multiple Sound Ranges and Costs, the proper summoners and vessels could not even hope to fight. They had already forgotten to function as a group, so they were running around like a swarm of bees was after them.

They tried to escape the hellish battlefield, but they could not.

The bridge had fallen and the submarines had exploded and sunk.

(Wait. The ocean…?)

Kyousuke moved his muddy face to check on that again.

Yes, the ocean.

The Materials were pushing in from the beach like white waves. Their numbers knew no bounds, so it looked like they were crawling endlessly from the seawater.

“Ah.”

He realized it. He realized the truth.

The Sewn Realm Summoning he had used to summon the White Queen was based on the fairy’s spring seen in fairy tales and children’s books. That meant water defined the line dividing this world from the other.

Was that why?

As the Queen lost control and her power surged out, the entire surrounding ocean had become a spring that summoned “fairies”. The surface team had suddenly been surrounded by Materials from the ocean all around them, so they had been unable to continue on or fall back. Destruction had been their only option.

It had happened again.

Yet again, Shiroyama Kyousuke had pulled the trigger on all these lost lives.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He could not save everyone still underground.

He had even needlessly gotten the people on the surface involved.

The White Queen was still on a rampage and no one could hope to stop her.

Shiroyama Kyousuke could protect no one.

He could protect nothing.

“Dammit! Is this where you were!?”

He heard a rustling in the underbrush and a man appeared with wounds all over his body.

It was the large blond man who had once overlooked Kyousuke and Biondetta’s outing.

“I saw the elevator had run, but was it just you? Were you the only one that got out!?”

The “only” one.

Even after all this, it was “only” him.

He thought the man was going to kill him.

With all his broken bones, Kyousuke started thinking that was unavoidable.

After all, there was no hope left. Kyousuke was worthless. He had pulled a fatal trigger on the world, sacrificed so much, and lost the possibility of saving anyone at all. After all this, there was nothing he could do. If he was of no use to them, they should at least use him as a target for their hatred and execute him. He had done enough to deserve that.

But then the man spoke.

“Thank goodness…!! Damn, finally some good news!!”

The man picked him up.

He had lost track of how many times it was now.

Everyone who had carried him like this had disappeared.

“The transport helicopters are gathered on the eastern plain. That’s our last escape route. Not only are you from the 15, but you were the one from the special Queen killing team. You’ll get the VIP treatment, so they’re sure to give you a spot.”

“St…stop…”

“Sorry, but you can complain later.”

An unbelievable tremor reached them.

The entire battlefield sticking up from the surrounding ocean like an island had split like a cookie.

Pure white light welled up from directly below. And that antlion pit swallowed up everything. The ground crumbled and collapsed in a mortar shape, but the man desperately ran to the eastern plain with Kyousuke in his arms.

The ground could crumble away below his feet and drag them into that underground world at any second.

Nevertheless, a few people in military uniforms passed them going the other way.

Those people were turning their backs on the escape route and running to the core of the fighting in the center of the mortar.

They were recklessly fighting the White Queen.

The blond man spoke to them as they passed by.

“Sorry, I promise I’ll catch up with you!!”

“Don’t worry about it. Just one of the children? You did well to make it this far. Leave the rest to us and get on that rescue chopper!!”

They did not stand a chance.

Their odds were suspect even at the best of times, but now that they were no longer functioning as a group, they would end up facing the White Queen as individuals, ensuring an immediate defeat.

Several white beams scorched the air as if passing by Kyousuke and the man as they kept their backs to the center of the blast.

Each of those beams must have been taking an unbelievable number of lives.

The earth and even the clouds in the sky were split as the divinely bright light poured down. Something like white feathers began covering the entire area like snow that dyed everything white.

The world was changing. It was being recolored.

It was becoming pure white.

“Listen, boy.”

All the while, the large bond man did not stop running.

But not to save himself. He had told the other soldiers he would catch up to them. So once he left Kyousuke with the helicopter, he would turn right back toward that deadly battlefield.

“You worked hard. That White Queen is enough to make a group of grown men shake in their boots, but you kept challenging her until your tiny body was this beaten up. So, boy, that effort gives you that much more of a right to seek happiness. If it didn’t, this world wouldn’t be worth fighting for!”

Kyousuke wanted to snap back on reflex and tell the man he was wrong.

But the words would not come out.

There was an open clearing within the felled and burnt tropical forest. A group of helicopters were already preparing to take off.

“Please wait!!”

The blond man shouted over the rotor wind while holding Kyousuke.

One of the helicopters had already taken off and it was mercilessly shot down by one of the Queen’s beams of light as it gained altitude.

“From how you’re dressed, I’m guessing you’re a Government research group. Please, take this kid with you! If I said I know Humanism, would that be enough to warrant a favor!!”

“We’re already over our 20 person capacity. Can’t you wait for the next flight!?”

“You know damn well there won’t be a next flight.” The large man was soaked with sweat. “I’m not talking about me. I left my Government family, so I’m not selfish enough to think you’ll take me in now. But that has nothing to do with this kid! So please!! Can’t you do something!?”

Someone in the helicopter clicked their tongue.

And everyone inside had the same opinion.

“If you’re getting on, then hurry it up! Hurry!!”

“Thanks!!”

The blond man very carefully handed over Kyousuke whose bones were broken.

He did not try to board the helicopter himself.

And the developers onboard looked shocked.

“What about you!?”

“Didn’t I tell you? Does the name Claude Magentarain mean anything to you? I’m an outsider that left Government and joined Freedom. With all this chaos, there’s got to be a vessel that lost their summoner wandering around somewhere. I’ll find one, bind a contract, and then go for the White Queen. So don’t worry about it. You all get out of here!!”

It was true they did not have time to wait around.

Even if they escaped into the air, carelessly gaining too much altitude would get them pierced by the Queen’s beams of light.

And the helicopter took off, leaving Kyousuke’s savior on the ground.

The man named Claude narrowed his eyes and watched it leave.

And then a few of the developers next to Kyousuke jumped down from the ascending helicopter.

Claude was as surprised as anyone.

He was not the only fool who would waste his own chance to board the ark.

“What are you doing!?”

“We said we were over the 20 person capacity, didn’t we? It would probably just crash like that, so that kid has more of a chance of surviving if we lighten the load.”

One of the men in lab coats was far too skinny to fight, but he still forced a smile.

In fact, all of them were afraid.

But they had still come.

After all…

“Also, you’re not an outsider any longer.”

The lab coat man stuck a hand in his pocket, pulled out a handgun, and pressed the grip into Claude’s hand.

Claude was taken aback, but then he smiled and accepted the gun.

“So where should we start, summoner!? We only do logistical support, so tell us what we can do!!”

“First, gather any isolated vessels who have lost their partner. If we can join together everyone without a partner, we can reassemble a fighting force. Let’s show her humanity’s strength! If we reform a proper group, we can still fight!!”

That was when they heard static.

A transmission reached their radios.

“Attention, everyone! We have contacted Humanism, Open Bluff, and Perfect Equilibrium!! On their instructions, we will begin a simultaneous saturation attack using the Unexplored-class!! This is our first and last chance to push back the White Queen. Everyone who can participate is to gather at the following location!!!!!”

“Sounds like every last one of us is a damn fool…”

They were watching the end of the world, but oddly enough, they smiled.

“The leaders of the three major powers are the ultimate VIPs, so they could have used their authority to get on those helicopters.”

“If they were the type to do that, they wouldn’t have ended up at the top.”

''True enough,'' thought Claude.

It all looked like hell on earth, but that was not all it was.

The faintest heat seemed to have great meaning specifically because they were in hell.

They ran through the burning forest to reach the source of the pure white light.

There was only one thing on their minds: They would show the Queen what human strength was.