Surviving Another Second
Blood splattered within the MCS. The tip of the Corvus’s sword had pierced straight through the chest of the Accipiter.
Inside, the blade had reached Yuzuki’s abdomen. The chest armor of the Accipiter was thick, covered by layers of armored muscle. Yet, it had been easily penetrated—likely a testament to Castor’s skill.
Corvus began to withdraw the sword.
「Stop it!」
Hyoue screamed.
The sword was pulled swiftly, shaking off the blood. As it was withdrawn, Yuzuki coughed up even more blood.
Castor readjusted his hood.
Yuzuki stared at the monitor with vacant eyes. Surprisingly, she was still alive.
Her eyes were losing their light, but her fighting spirit remained undiminished.
Yuzuki cursed her own weakness. This was her failure.
Castor did not let down his guard. The tip of his sword remained pointed at Yuzuki’s Accipiter.
「I am fortunate. I was able to kill a warrior as skilled as you.」
「I’m… still alive…」
She had been careless. A person who should not exist was standing before her. She couldn’t die like this—not as a woman, not as a swordsman.
She tried to muster strength into her arm to grip the lever. As long as she had the will, the MCS would respond.
「…Whether it’s a god… or a devil… I don’t care… Just give me strength… Even if it’s just for a second… Let me swing my sword… once more…」
A barely audible murmur.
She had to at least land one more strike.
‘Activating Prometheus’s Fire.’
A voice responded to Yuzuki’s will, the Accipiter had answered—it wanted to fulfill the dying wish of its pilot. And it did.
Yuzuki smiled at her machine. The Accipiter had ignited her very soul.
「Ten seconds… you’ve given me that much, huh?」
The Accipiter glowed brilliantly. Smiling, Yuzuki gripped the lever once more, feeling as though the power flowing through the Accipiter had even restored her vitality.
「Hmph, Prometheus’s Fire, huh?」
To Castor, it was a flawed and trivial feature. The Accipiter’s chest armor had been pierced all the way to the inside of the MCS. If Yuzuki tried to accelerate at supersonic speed, the sheer force would kill her instantly.
Castor dodged the Accipiter’s slashes. It was an impossible feat without reading the trajectory of her strikes.
「Can you survive for ten seconds?」
She should have been on the brink of death. The fact that she was still conscious must have been a testament to her pride as a swordsman.
「Three seconds have passed. I suppose I’ll use Prometheus’s Fire as well.」
It was Castor who had first taken notice of Prometheus’s Fire. He had researched its various elements.
Given that the MCS or the A-Spinel would be destroyed and the machine would explode after ten seconds, it was only natural that the one who used it last had an overwhelming advantage. Castor’s Corvus began to glow just as brilliantly.
Neither used their thrusters. Instead, they measured the distance between each other, avoiding direct clashes of their blades while waiting for an opening. Yuzuki’s Accipiter executed its strikes with the unpredictability of a wagtail’s dance, making it impossible for her opponent to read her next move.
But Castor’s Corvus kept up with her movements effortlessly.
「Gah!」
Yuzuki closed the distance, betting everything on a final strike as she coughed up blood. She aimed for Castor’s arm from the lower guard position, the blade poised to descend.
Corvus mirrored her stance, and the two machines crossed paths.
「Uragiri!」
‘Uragiri’ was the name of the technique. Known also as the ‘Lure Gauntlet’, it involved leaving the right gauntlet open to invite an attack, only to counter and strike the opponent’s right arm.
Corvus’s right arm, weapon and all, was blown away.
Castor realized that Yuzuki had deliberately chosen to use this technique.
Corvus swiftly drew another sword from behind and executed an overhead strike. This basic technique, known as nukitsuke, was one Yuzuki recognized well.
The twin arms of the Accipiter were blown away. The battle was decided.
「…Of course, you had two swords…」
She laughed bitterly, realizing the inevitable. The bleeding wouldn’t stop anymore. It was no longer possible for her to maintain consciousness.
The Corvus held its sword with its left hand, remaining vigilant, never letting down its guard.
I’m sorry, Shuji-san. Hyoue-san. Kou-kun, I leave the rest to you.
Her vision blurred, and she began to lose consciousness.
「Seven seconds… she passed before the time was up.」
Even so, her force of will was terrifying. She had severed the Corvus’s right arm and taken it with her.
Yet, somehow, Yuzuki’s consciousness flared back to life, her eyes regaining their strength. She didn’t even try to suppress the blood gushing from her mouth.
「It’s not over yet!」
She screamed, her voice drenched in blood. The thrusters roared, igniting violently as she closed in on Corvus.
「Damn it!」
Castor swung a diagonal cut. The blade pierced through the chest armor of the Accipiter, driving deep into its core. The impact struck Corvus like a hammer, pushing it with enough force to knock it off the building. Yuzuki kept accelerating at full throttle. The Corvus had no choice but to counter with its own thrusters. If it had been even a fraction of a second slower, both of them would have plummeted off the edge.
Castor’s blade was stuck. A sense of urgency began to set in him. If the Accipiter still had its arms, both would have ended dead.
「Castor… if it were that person…」
The Accipiter’s face, from below, seemed to gaze up at Corvus with intense focus.
Yuzuki offered a faint smile. It was a smile so beautiful that even Castor found himself captivated.
「You should’ve aimed for the torso.」
She spoke like a master correcting an incompetent disciple. Or perhaps, it was a message she wanted to convey to Castor.
There was no glimmer of hatred in her eyes. It was the face of a proud swordsman who had fought to the very last second.
Thank you, my Accipiter.
And with that, her consciousness finally faded.
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
「Yuzuki!」
Hyoue screamed as Chiba Yuzuki’s Accipiter exploded. Corvus’s Prometheus’s Fire also came to a halt.
「Yuzuki… what did you see…?」
Yuzuki and Castor had used a private line. He couldn’t understand what had shocked Yuzuki so profoundly that she lost herself in it. The answer eluded him until the end.
「You’re too soft, Hyoue! Don’t think of it as dishonorable!」
Hyoue was so stunned that his own Accipiter was left wide open.
Bardo swung his liquid metal sword in a diagonal slash, detonating it in the process. The force of the blast sent Hyoue’s Accipiter flying, making it fall off from the side of the building.
「If she was someone so important to you that her death made you lose your senses, then you should’ve locked her away somewhere safe. Damn it, don’t think this is the end!」
Bardo spat the words out, looking down at Hyoue as he fell.
「I know you’re not the type to die so easily. Next time, we’ll settle this for good.」
The building was over a hundred meters tall. With the MCS’s shock absorption capabilities and the performance of the silhouette Hyoue was piloting, Bardo was certain it wouldn’t be fatal.
He turned on his heel and leaped, heading toward Castor.
「Are you unharmed, Castor-sama?」
For a moment, it almost seemed like Corvus was standing there in a daze—but surely that was just an illusion.
「I’m fine. A mere explosion can’t leave a scratch on me. But the Corvus’s right arm was cut off.」
The Corvus armor had multiple tin cuts. The battle had been so close that one mistake in dodging would have spelled his end.
「That was a close battle.」
「Indeed. If we had fallen off the building together, the final explosion would have slammed me into the ground. In that case, I wouldn’t have escaped unscathed. That last struggle was really close.」
Yuzuki had intended to defeat Castor until the very end. If his machine hadn’t been the Corvus, perhaps she might have succeeded. She had won the duel, but Castor was the one who had survived.
「She was a remarkable swordsman… Chiba Yuzuki. I won’t forget her.」
The final smile she had given him lingered in his mind.
Castor noticed the Accipiter’s severed arms and its sword lying on the ground. Yuzuki’s sword was a masterpiece forged by Arges.
Castor picked up the blade, claiming it as his own.
「I’ll be taking this. Is Vasa still negotiating? I can’t contact him. We need to move out as well.」
「Yes, sir!」
The two black crows took flight, heading toward the sealed district.
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