Apocalypse Witch:Volume5 Chapter3

Chapter 3

Part 1

What did she say?

What did that even mean?

Utagai Karuta’s mouth flapped wordlessly for a while. He had completely missed the moment when he should have drawn that puny weapon, his modified military flashlight, from his hip.

Marika and Kyouka were in a similar situation.

And if they didn’t say anything, it remained her turn.

The woman calling herself Transline smiled and continued.

“I am Transline. The central being of what you call the Threat.”

“That we call?”

It was true the humans had come up with that name on their own.

So did they have another, more official name?

“Why would we call ourselves the Threat? In your language, the closest term for us would be Metal-Based Naturally-Occurring Lifeform.”

Metal.

That was clearly different from humans, but some metals were still necessary components of the human body.

“From our perspective, you would be Carbon-Based Naturally-Occurring Lifeforms. Oh, and because you are the world’s strongest, I could add the ‘superior’ qualifier to that.”

Omotesandou Kyouka pressed a hand to her chest and took a slow, deep breath.

After refocusing her mind that way, she made a cautious attempt at making contact.

“Why go out of your way to add ‘naturally-occurring’? Are there other kinds of lifeforms?”

“Yes, there are. Such as most of the ‘Threats’ you have seen so far. Although the difference between natural and mass-produced is a trivial one to us,” replied the dark woman, tilting her head curiously.

The look on her face said she wasn’t sure why they felt the need to ask about that. It was like she had been forced to explain that most fishing line was synthetic these days and you rarely saw natural lines anymore.

“We have put together a factory for such things. And even your Earth has taken the first steps in that direction. You know, cloning and stem cells. Your efforts have stalled, but it is unclear to me if that is because you lack the necessary technology or you have stopped researching it because you find it distasteful.”

What path of evolution had these beings taken?

It was unclear if they had even achieved diversity through reproduction the way humans did.

The Threat did not gather up humans or any of Earth’s resources, but they did strengthen their own power by cannibalizing their fallen and taking their parts. The decoy and real ones had both done that. They might fluidly adapt to changes in their environment by repeatedly tearing away the necessary parts and customizing themselves rather than using the Darwinian theory of evolution.

“Why are you called Transline? In our language, that makes you sound like a power line or a wire or something.”

“That is not inaccurate. I act as a transmitter and a pipeline, so I combined the words in your language.”

She didn’t bother to hide the answer and even smiled as she responded.

Marika had reported that the Threat operating on the ocean during the Port of Kobe battle had periodically received supplies. And Kyouka had convinced Letnahe to tell them the sea anemone ones made fuel by gathering and concentrating the energy that poured down from space and dissolved into the ocean.

In other words…

“You alone provide the power to keep 300 million Threats running?”

“Hee hee!!”

A strange zapping sound made the humans flinch.

It came from the space station wall.

The wall had burst from within and the remnants of a thick cable jutted out.

The dark woman probably hadn’t meant that as an attack. She elegantly placed a hand over her mouth.

“Oh, dear. I apologize. I got a little overexcited there. Hee hee hee. Sigh. I am trying to restrain myself, I promise. Hee hee hee.”

“…” Karuta felt another prickly sensation.

It wasn’t visible, but there was some kind of energy roiling within Transline. She said this was while she worked to restrain it, so if she were to let it go free, would it be enough to fry them until not even the double helixes within their cells remained?

“There. I’ve calmed down☆”

Transline placed a hand on her large chest and took a deep breath. A breath. It was unclear if she needed to do that to live, but she was apparently working to calm herself.

That was how she saw it.

She didn’t even see this as a battle.

She was only making sure she didn’t accidentally kill Karuta and the others.

“I am no more than a power transmitter, so I do not create anything myself.”

Wasn’t Crystal Magic defined as techniques that read the waves similar to high and low pressure fronts which were created by the clash between the energy pouring down from space and the energy of the Original Crystal Embryo found at the center of the earth?

In that case…

“Were we borrowing your power to use magic?” asked Karuta.

“I can’t blame you for failing to notice. We have had very few chances for direct contact since we slowly follow a ‘loop’ separate from your galaxy. But since we were in the neighborhood, we might as well take you in, don’t you think?”

She had the look of someone in the comfortable, open ocean watching a small fish try desperately to survive in a small puddle leftover on the rocks. And from her point of view, that was probably accurate.

Her legitimate sympathy only made it more disturbing.

That thought led Karuta to realize something important: disturbing? He sensed a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. He felt a doubt that made him hesitant to even ask this being standing before him.

Marika asked a different question.

And being Marika, she asked an even more dangerous question than the one Karuta was hesitant to ask.

“Who is this ‘we’ you keep mentioning?”

“The unlimited numbers we can produce in our factory. But I couldn’t look after them properly if there were too many, so I’ve limited them to just 3 cargos.”

Karuta felt faint.

The difference between humans and the Threat was too great. They had no upper limit and all the Threats they had fought were a reduced number to make things easier on Transline?

If that was 3 cargos out there, then a cargo likely meant 100 million. And she made it sound like 3 of those units was keeping the numbers low.

They had never stood a chance. From the very beginning.

Meanwhile, Transline didn’t even seem to consider the possibilities of winning or losing. Even after reducing Earth’s population to 5.5 billion, she didn’t even see it as a battle.

In other words…

“We have come here to take you in. To protect you.”

There it was.

They hadn’t misheard that incomprehensible part after all.

“Some might be happy with constantly keeping our numbers up using the factory and rejoicing in our prosperity as metal lifeforms, but I don’t see it that way. That might bring stability, but it will not lead to evolution. No matter how far we expand the status quo, repeating the same stimuli on and on forever will only lead to gradual decay. Biologically and culturally. Thus, I am constantly seeking out new lifeforms. They don’t need to share our origin. They can be nitrogen, silicon, or carbon-based. I just want to find as many of them as possible and collect the greatest units of each species.”

Carbon-based.

Utagai Karuta kept a cautious eye on Transline while looking to something else. He looked to the back of the crystal girl’s head while she stood protectively in front of him in zero-g.

Crystal Girl Aine.

Did she fall under the silicon-based category?

“So you’re saying you have no reason to fight us?”

“Yes.”

“And we don’t have to worry about dying?”

“Yes, yes! Hee hee. But of course!! I will accept you and the sword-wielding one as a set.”

Transline smiled and promised them their safety. At the same time, several of the artificial lights on the ceiling nearby burst from within.

And still smiling…

“So let’s just clean up the rest, shall we?”

Something about her peaceful face felt wrong.

No, there was some fundamental disconnect here.

Yes, that was it.

If Transline was commanding all of the Threats and she had never intended to fight, then what had all of those Threats been doing? Had they gone berserk while down on Earth? Of course not. The Threat had clearly been acting as a group toward some kind of goal.

“It was not easy searching out the strongest lifeforms among so many. And while flipping over those cards to check, the population of nearly 8 billion dropped to only 5.5 billion.”

“So all of those battles were a test to identify us!?”

Marika shouted without thinking, but Transline’s demeanor did not change.

She continued smiling.

“And whenever I did narrow it down to one or more strongests, they just kept refusing my offer. Some challenged me to a meaningless battle, some inexplicably killed themselves right here, and others panicked and fled right out into the vacuum of space. But that just proved none of them were who I was looking for. And now I have found you and it didn’t even require flipping over half of the cards first, which just goes to show how clever I am☆ So now I will take you in. Do not worry. There is really, truly nothing to worry about.”

The human string pullers down on the surface had only been able to check whether or not the shuttle had launched and the Threat’s invasion speed.

What if the previous strongests had all fought self-destructive battles against Transline after launching the empty shuttle into distant space so no one would feel a need to visit the space station and find out what had happened? And even if there were any doubts, the human string pullers would have to believe it worked when the Threat actually did stop.

Karuta’s throat was trembling.

He tried to speak, but it didn’t work the first few times. He eventually did get the words out.

“Just to be certain. You say you’re taking us in. You mean you’re rescuing us?”

“Yes.”

“So you’re interested in humans and you want to acquire the four of us if you can?”

“Yes! Oh, yes!!”

She had a beaming smile so full of adoration that Karuta was afraid she was going hug him to her chest. Given the energy she contained, that would probably be enough to vaporize him.

And with that established…

“So why target Earth? We’re already here, so you have no reason to attack the surface anymore!!”

“Yes. Because I do not need them anymore.”

Transline did not even tilt her head.

The crackling around her died down. This was apparently a calmer topic for her.

She had no interest in ruling the planet or wiping out humanity. She really did see securing these four as more important.

And with that in mind…

“I am not attacking them because I want anything from them. I am simply cleaning them up so you have no lingering regrets here. We are only interested in the strongest ones. Well, with a species split between male and female, I would like to have a pair of them. But since I already have that with only the strongests here, the rest are not necessary.”

She wasn’t destroying them out of hatred or disgust.

But she would do it anyway.

She was so different. This leader of the metal-based lifeforms known as the Threat could verbally communicate with them, but the foundation of her thoughts was just so different.

She had said the previous world’s strongests had acted suicidally after learning the truth. Which was why she had not yet acquired the world’s strongest humans.

Why had they done that?

Maybe there was no reason and they had simply been unable to handle the truth.

But Karuta thought he knew the answer.

If Transline took someone in and was satisfied, she would then slaughter the rest of humanity. But she would let humanity live until she had accomplished her goal. So had those people chosen to die in order to delay that moment of utter destruction?

They had been exiled from Earth and thrown out into space. They had been pushed out of their ordinary lives and forced to choose death. But they had still wanted to be strong people.

Karuta’s dizzy spell was not going away.

How many layers of hell did this world have waiting for them?

“Karuta-kun,” cautioned Omotesandou Kyouka, floating nearby.

She was looking to the thick double-pane window.

Something was squirming there. The giant spider crabs, water bears, blue-ringed octopuses, and other Threats were moving away from the window. The view opened up. The blue ceiling visible there was in fact their home planet.

A red fireball was soaring toward it.

No, not just one.

There were so many. And each and every one was probably a ball of thousands or tens of thousands of Threats clumped together.

“Wait! Please wait!!”

“Sigh.”

“Why do you have to do this!? You said yourself the rest of humanity doesn’t matter to you! You’ve already accomplished your goal!!”

“Hee hee. The perfect strongest response. You have been through so much, but you still wish to protect the fellow humans who created that hell for you. Oh, how wonderful!”

Something somewhere overloaded and burst.

Even belligerent Marika took a step back when she felt the tingling on her skin. Some small translucent crystals had formed on her cheek. That was the Crystal Magic preset of regeneration. Something similar to a serious sunburn had been identified as an injury. Karuta would probably see something similar if he looked in a mirror.

How long would this giant space station last?

Transline continued with a beaming smile.

“Ah ha ha! Yes, yes! I figured it out this time. Hee hee. You aren’t just mindless violence!! The world’s strongest I want must also have a love for their fellow humans!!!”

Part 2

One fell on a weapons factory in India hidden from satellites by disguising it as a rundown city.

The fireball shined bright while it rapidly rotated like a curveball.

It launched countless laser beams in all directions, like a planetarium’s star projector.

Straight lines of green light streaked out.

And it was rotating.

The deadly storm sliced through what had looked like a fake city built for a movie. The production zone had been built underground to protect it from an exchange of ballistic missiles in an all-out war and there was a nuclear shelter for the leaders built even deeper, but neither was spared. The ground itself was sliced apart. Orange lava erupted out like the earth was hemorrhaging blood from a wound.

The attack was merciless.

The weapons production base was wiped off the face of the earth before the fireball even collided with the ground.

Another fell on a giant artificial float factory found 50km off the coast from Aichi, Japan’s general port for the Chubu region. It claimed to manufacture defensive weapons and intentionally avoided the word “military”, but the Threat must not have cared.

The downpour of laser beams sliced through it all and the giant black mass crashed into the center.

The mass partially submerged itself to sink the entire float, but then the mass broke apart and made its next move. The outer units had been distorted by the heat and impact, but those deeper inside tore away the usable parts and made them their own. They had never expected a safe landing, so emerging from a mountain of their own kind’s corpses was part of the plan.

Yes.

The mass was formed from thousands or tens of thousands of Threats.

The Smart Arms weapons manufacturing plant in North America’s Silicon Valley was no exception.

Susannia Evans of the Problem Solvers had once used the place to look after her cyborg body and Anastasia Blast had ultimately used it as her secret base.

But it only took an instant to destroy.

“…”

Chrisbart Firenze sighed softly as the many reports came in.

The Threat had made their move.

It might look like an indiscriminate attack all across the world, but anyone privy to certain special information would recognize what was happening here. The Threat had excellent aim as they bombed more and more of the human string pullers’ hideouts that had deceived everyone until now.

Or maybe the humans had only thought the deception held. This result suggested it never had fooled the Threat.

Which led to one inevitable conclusion.

(Here too.)

The operators were practically screaming as they gave their reports. Some were ignoring their orders and attempting to run away, but if they did not listen when ordered to stop, they would be shot by security. Or maybe they wanted to be killed by human hands.

The old man in a lab coat looked upwards.

He could only see the sterile ceiling lined with artificial lights.

But he stared into the distance like he could see right through it.

“Perhaps these are our just deserts.”

A moment later, the base of the space elevator was vaporized the carbon nanotube wires lined up like violin strings all snapped.

Part 3

A deep rumbling shook the entire space station.

They were 36 thousand kilometers from the surface, but it didn’t matter. How quickly was that vibration moving up the wire?

It had begun.

That was simple enough to say, but what was actually happening down on Earth?

“Leave those trivialities to me. Now, tell me. What kind of life would you like next?”

Transline smiled.

There was no sign of malice there. She seemed to think she was doing them a favor by taking revenge on humanity for tormenting the four of them for so long.

But had anyone asked her to do that?

“Dammit!! Aine!!”

“What shall I do?”

Karuta called her on reflex, but then he froze.

Right.

5.5 billion people were being slaughtered for no real reason, but what exactly could they do about it? The Four Living Gods already knew they could not defeat the 300 million Threats. If they descended to Earth now, they would only find an uncontrollable hell. They couldn’t protect anyone by returning there and fighting to the death.

Aine tilted her head, awaiting his orders.

The four of them could not survive whether they remained on Earth or were launched into space.

That choice had been heartbreaking, but even that was falling apart. Meanwhile, Transline looked as happy as someone about to open a present wrapped with a ribbon. Her joy was genuine, but she did not look at them like she accepted them as her equals. The idea of going with her scared Karuta. But they could survive a while longer if they obeyed her for now. Unfortunately, that miraculous opportunity meant nothing if they slapped her hand away and refused.

Transline probably would do it.

This was not an agreement between equals for her. The Threat was granting lesser beings mercy. So as soon as she knew she could not have them like she wanted, she would lose interest and kill them. Then she would stick her hand back into human society and make a mess of things in order to search out a strongest she preferred. And if at any time during the process, she lost interest, she would kill every last human, and ride whatever “loop” the Threat followed to reach another planet.

“Karuta.”

The next thing he knew, Marika had a different color scattered across her summer uniform. She had already activated her crystal armor and pulled her rapier Device from thin air.

“I’ll let you choose. What do we do now? I didn’t really follow what she was talking about, but if this Transline is something like their core, we have an extremely rare opportunity while this close to her. Whether we choose to shake her hand or give her one hell of a punch, this is probably our last chance.”

“Since she contacted us directly, she must have taken the possibility of a surprise attack into consideration,” said Omotesandou Kyouka, brushing her black hair off her shoulder. “This Transline is a special Threat unit. We have zero information on her. Don’t forget the lesson we learned all too well when dealing with the Problem Solvers. We know nothing about her power and have nothing prepared. What chance do we actually have of winning if we attack her head on now?”

Aine continued to tilt her head with sword in hand.

She didn’t need to say out loud that she would support whatever decision Karuta made.

The boy focused on the modified military flashlight at his hip. Would he wield it as a weapon, or would he throw it out into the zero-g space? That would make his choice clear to everyone watching.

What would he do?

If they stayed here, they might just barely cling to life. But if they thoughtlessly refused Transline, even that small chance was gone.

Utagai Karuta asked himself the crucial question.

What would they do now!?

Part 4

Thinking back, the world had been an awful place as far back as the Problem Solvers.

The five previous world’s strongests and their God-Worshiping Magic had been overwhelmingly power, so Karuta and the others had been helpless as their ship was destroyed out at sea. It had all begun with that experience. The few students who remained had never even considered making it a fair fight. They had hidden, deceived, and used every trick in the book to kill. That was how they had arrived at the top, so perhaps that was what had created such a depressing world afterwards.

The world had been a terrible place to begin with, but Karuta and the others had clearly made the wrong decision when choosing how to fight back against it.

They had failed to escape the ugly side of humanity on Second Grimnoah.

All hell had broken loose on their school trip to Iceland’s Crystal Beach. In a frigid resort where they could not ask for help, they had been surrounded by what they thought was the Threat and forced to fight with the ordinary tourists over the few livable spaces remaining. They had ultimately discovered the supposed Threat was a military decoy created by humans and they were being controlled by a group who had infiltrated Second Grimnoah in order to seek vengeance.

Near the Port of Kobe, they had been shocked to discover how pure the real Threat was.

Unlike before, the tens of thousands of Threats there had been the real deal. Karuta and the others had worked to retake Second Grimnoah from them, but the Armored Warrior and the other Threats there had only been interested in the schools humans attended and had never intended to fight. It was Karuta’s side that had gotten the wrong idea and slaughtered them.

The human string pullers had taken away everything they had worked so hard for by using the Catastrophe meant to reunite the fracturing human race.

Their own parents and siblings had been working behind the scenes of the martial arts tournament. Of course, they were not trained professionals. The human string pullers hid in the shadows and manipulated information to have the 5.5 billion ordinary people unwittingly do their dirty work. They were so good at what they did that they could have people betray their own family with a smile and truly believe it was in their family’s best interests because “someone important” or “everyone” says so.

The boy asked himself again.

There was no salvation to be found on Earth as it was.

Was that world and the people living there really worth protecting? The current situation was undoubtedly wrong. But could he really find a reason worth returning to that hell when it meant abandoning the only chance at survival he still had?

Say you had the winning lottery ticket.

And then you find out multiple of the same number were printed by mistake and you hadn’t actually been testing your luck at all. Would you really ask for a redo that was completely fair? You didn’t have to. Maybe it was dirty and maybe it was ugly, but if you just held your tongue, you would be set for life.

He thought about it.

He considered it.

Agonized over it.

Part 5

Utagai Karuta made his decision.

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