The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume10 Stage2

Status: Incomplete

1/8 parts completed

   

Stage 02: This is the Chosen Final Stage

“RQ Cat. Standby!”

“Get ready, Sword of Truth. Obey my command (jh – a – ra – ou – v)!!”

(Stage 02 Open 08/23 12:23)

This is the Chosen Final Stage

Part 1

In real time, all of this took only slightly more than three minutes.

They had not arrived at some grand cathedral or temple. This was Toy Dream 35, the city built by the world’s largest entertainment corporation in place of a rural city that had collapsed economically. The coastal city included countless attractions like roller coasters and Ferris wheels, its many skyscrapers moved past the coast and rose directly from the ocean surface, and innumerable giant bridges connected those. The intense heat of the midsummer sun must have been too much even for the urban crows because there were very few wild animals at this time of day. The only noise came from the cicadas on the trees planted along the midair bridges and the swimsuit-wearing guests who had descended from the steel and concrete city to enjoy some marine sports.

They were on one of those many bridges.

But despite being a bridge, it extended in every direction like the roundabout access roads leading away from a large train station. Dirt had been piled up afterwards for a nice meetup point with grass, trees, and a small fountain, so it was a lost like a small park at this point.

Pluto and Spica.

Compared to the planets and stars they had visited today, this might seem ordinary and boring.

But neither Kyousuke nor the Queen were laughing.

Tearing up and blowing away some dried and lifeless land they had never before visited would not inspire any emotions at all. But that changed now. This was a living place that played a role in plenty of stories and that had taken root deep in people’s souls. They could not allow this to be accidentally blown away. Every single attack would be an opportunity, but it would come with just as much responsibility.

That was how it was with fights to the death.

They could not just throw a lever and hit a button to have victory fall in their lap and they could not stop thinking about it all once they did win.

“Brother.”

“What is it, you coward? Are you gonna take the entire city hostage next?”

“No, you chicken. I have only ever been looking at you, brother. What I must do at the ends of the universe is the same thing I must do here on earth. I would prefer you did not start coming up with excuses for after you lose.”

“Is fucking all you ever think about, you crazy girl?”

“My, my, what is this chicken even talking about (ob – ob – pi – u – ng – vd)? You don’t even have the guts to accept my advances (du – vo – a – lui – ei – lvz – ya – fu – iu – oo).”

Any attack now came with a risk.

Even if they won, there was still risk involved.

In reality, the true winners were the ones who never encountered the incident in the first place and lived in peace.

Then Kyousuke and the Queen spoke simultaneously.

“RQ Cat. Standby!”

“Get ready, Sword of Truth. Obey my command (jh – a – ra – ou – v)!!”

A gust of wind unrelated to the atmospheric pressure blew out in all directions from the Colorless Little Girl and the White Queen. It must have been a strange wind for a mere human like Biondetta. But the Unexplored-classes like the Wicked Green Woman and the Yellow Gills actually tried to flee behind the humans’ protective circles.

That wind was power.

It was the very source of what flowed from the other world to distort this one.

Just like formless electricity could damage the signal carried by a precise circuit, this chaotically scattered power could damage the orderly Materials.

<Gh…>

Shigara Masami held her chest like she was in pain.

Meanwhile, Kyousuke and the White Queen had already begun to move.

The visible number of wounds meant nothing when she could repair them at any time if she wanted.

That made this chess rather than shogi.

Only after gouging into, tearing away, and robbing the functionality of the pieces set up on that human shaped board could they finally pierce the single core and achieve victory.

In other words…

“The Silhouette.”

“So you did indeed think it through that far, brother.”

“We only need to directly destroy your Silhouette!!”

To put it another way, she could only accept it if he crushed anything other than that. Not even the greatest chess player could win against a complete amateur without having a single piece taken.

While their raging power pushed at each other like a powerful wind, it was the Colorless Little Girl who took the first step forward. Was it to protect Shiroyama Kyousuke, or because she feared having the host of her ghostly possession taken from her?

The White Queen responded by taking a step forward as well.

They glared at each other from close range.

And a moment later, their right arms reached out to tear into each other’s chests.

The Silhouette was an organ located somewhere in a Material’s otherworldly body to carry the vessel’s mind. Its location changed from Material to Material, so it could be the brain, the spine, their single horn, the vulnerable scales below the jaw, the third eye, or whatever else. That was the one definite weak point of the Materials summoned with the Blood-Sign system and they would be killed instantly regardless of Cost or Sound Range if it was destroyed.

However, things were different with the Unexplored-classes, who all looked very similar to human girls. For whatever reason, their Silhouette was almost always located in their heart.

The Colorless Little Girl’s core shined at the center of her translucent body like a clione.

The few times the White Queen had been seriously injured in the past, Kyousuke had seen the core in her heart.

So.

Therefore.

Once they were in arm’s reach of each other, the Little Girl and the Queen showed no mercy. Everything else was secondary as their right arms shot out like spears and pierced the other’s chest.

A wet sound of destruction burst out.

The first to smile was the White Queen. She spoke with her fingers still piercing straight through the girl’s translucent and undeveloped chest.

“My, my. Nothing there after all this? Did you make a last second decision to flip it horizontally?”

<Nii-sama.>

The Colorless Little Girl had always been expressionless. With her arm crossing past her enemy’s and piercing the left side of the White Queen’s chest, she silently tilted her head and gave a mechanical report.

<Something within her body is stopping my nails. It appears to be her ribs.>

With several high-pitched sounds, multiple Petals were absorbed by the Spots.

“High #813 (s – et – ag – td). Detonate it there.”

“I knew you would say that☆”

A blinding flash of light erupted out.

But it came from the White Queen’s wrist before the Colorless Little Girl could do anything. The attack came from the fingertips stabbing into that childish body. A welding-like shine came from the translucent Little Girl’s palm a moment later, but she had already been blown away and her hand had left the White Queen’s chest.

Her prey had escaped.

She instead detonated the bridge below their feet.

Kyousuke had thrown the Incense Grenade to set up the Artificial Sacred Ground, so a new one would be established wherever he set foot next, be it a wall or the ground.

(It is true brother is in control here.)

But the White Queen saw no reason to wait for that.

She even licked her lips.

(But the Spots needed to accept the Petals disappear during the gap between Artificial Sacred Grounds. That means he cannot give the Colorless Little Girl any instructions in that time. She is defenseless right now. With the wave of a hand, I can remove her entire weak point from her ribcage!!)

Her silver twintails trailed behind her as she lightly walked along the concrete blocks falling from the collapsing bridge. She approached the Colorless Little Girl who could not even recover her balance in midair. The Little Girl had experienced an explosion inside her body, but her Silhouette had not been destroyed. Regardless, she was damaged now. Whether she moved her core to the left or the right, the next attack would tear that Silhouette from her young chest. The White Queen’s eyes shined bright as she pursued her prey.

Just then, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye: Kyousuke spinning his Blood-Sign around.

Hitting the White Thorns was meaningless now. The old Artificial Sacred Ground had been destroyed and the Spots for the Petals would not return until the new one had been set up, so not even the godliest skills could earn him a single letter right now.

Then why?

The White Queen questioned it specifically because she had driven him into such a corner.

That was when it happened.

The end of Kyousuke’s Blood-Sign did not strike a White Thorn. It hit one of the many concrete blocks pulled down by gravity. He pressed the tip of the rod against it and used the strength of his arms to forcibly push.

Almost like he was pole vaulting.

He repositioned himself.

He used his own body to protect the Colorless Little Girl.

A dull but deafening sound exploded out.

The protective circle guarded summoners against all causes of death, but it was still far from perfect. As soon as the White Queen’s fingers were launched forward, her arm was diverted off course by a resistance similar to punching an exercise ball affixed to the wall. Meanwhile, Kyousuke was far from fine. The sturdy barrier meant to protect him bent inwards, slammed into his body, and sent him spinning through the air.

“Brother…”

The girl in love clenched her teeth.

Partially for the simple reason that she had harmed Kyousuke with her own hand, but also because the Colorless Little Girl could freely enter his protective circle yet she was immediately rejected when she only reached out her hand.

She was only an enemy to him.

Her mere presence nearby was considered a threat to Shiroyama Kyousuke.

“Brotherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!”

No.

The boy had been counting on being sent flying like this.

Summoner and Material had swapped places once more. The Colorless Little Girl let Kyousuke escape overhead after shielding her and then she held her small hand out in front of her.

She was not close enough to directly tear into the White Queen’s chest.

But she was close enough to count as point-blank range with a shotgun blast.

The White Queen clenched her teeth.

“…”

No matter what anyone said, the Colorless Little Girl was working on her own at this moment.

It was too late for Shiroyama Kyousuke to give her any instructions.

So…

“If that’s all you’ve got, then die, you thief!!”

The White Queen’s pure white battle costume swelled out in response to her yell.

Separate from that, there was a solid sound of impact, like a baseball bat swung hard against a ball.

It came from the tail extending from the back of the Colorless Little Girl’s hips.

At some point, a weight larger than a bowling ball had been attached to the end and it had smacked down Kyousuke and his protective circle behind her. With an explosive roar similar to a lightning strike, Kyousuke crashed down to another bridge cutting by on a lower level.

Yes.

Kyousuke had thrown the initial Incense Grenade. Wherever he set foot was where the new Artificial Sacred Ground would be created. And once it was set up, the Spots would appear in that space and he could resume sending instructions with the White Thorns and Petals.

(Even so…)

The Colorless Little Girl, the White Queen, Biondetta, and Shigara Masami were all sucked in toward the new Artificial Sacred Ground.

And the White Queen heard some pleasant, light sounds of impact before she set foot there.

After knocking several Petals into the Spots, Kyousuke released a low voice.

(It might be logical, but can he really take it this far!? The Colorless Little Girl was accepted by the protective circle not long before that. The rules of the Summoning Ceremony have grown so vague and inconsistent, so the slightest confusion in the on-off switching could have reduced him to mincemeat!!)

“RQ Cat. Low #44 (b – fh – fh), standby!!”

<Understood, Nii-sama.>

Yes, it was all for this.

But the most badly injured one here was not the Little Girl or the Queen; it was Shiroyama Kyousuke.

Regardless, the Colorless Little Girl’s attributes were greatly changed.

Several cloths flew in from every which way like white wings, but it was no use. The Colorless Little Girl’s path through the air unnaturally bent, her fist glowed red, and then a fearsome blow tore through all of those defenses and slammed mercilessly into the Queen’s head.

“Kah…!?”

Even her shout was delayed.

The White Queen crashed down to the lower bridge like a meteor.

Between the Lines 2

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