3 bar menu

Last Embryo Volume 2 Chapter 7 Part 5

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Using her Gift, Suzuka managed to teleport a few of them close enough to the surface that they were able to avoid any harm, but if they were to include all of the non-combatants that were still inside of the train, then their numbers were simply too big to take care of them all before they would inevitably crush. Even so, though she knew that she won’t be able to help all of them, she still wanted to save as many of them as she could.

Inside one of the further wagons, Calico Cat in boots were getting flung from one wall to the next like a bunch of ragdolls.

「Falling~~?!!! 」

「Not falling~~?!!! 」

「Not falling, right~~?!!! 」

「No, you dumbasses, we’re falling no matter how you look at it!!! 」

「「Ukyaaaaaaa~~~!!!!!!! 」 」

The Spirit Colonies rolled around through the air as if they were enjoying this deadly serious situation. Well, considering their size and weight they would probably be fine even if they crashed into the ground head-on, but unfortunately not everyone was in as comfortable of a situation as they were. The one who was in the biggest danger, for instance, was Ayato, since she was still on the Giant Spirit Train’s top deck. Right now she was able to avoid falling off of it by clinging onto the deck’s protrusions, but if there was any upside to her current situation, it would be that she was able to understand what exactly happened just now.

(The boy riding on top of that tiger beast… is he the Minotaur’s true form?)

When that boy cut the space in front of him with the double-edged battle axes he was holding in each of his hands, Ayato’s field of vision was flooded with a myriad of multicolored lights, so it wasn’t hard to guess that they have been forcefully summoned to the Gift Game’s gameboard that was most likely the Labyrinth.

When that happened, Ayato realized that their reasoning was the correct one. Next, she looked down at the Labyrinth’s landscape that was sprawling out beneath them. The giant structure created on an island floating in the sky was most definitely the same maze as the one spoken of in the legend of the man-eating bull.

They might have been summoned right to the center of the enemy territory, but since they managed to obtain a partial solution needed to clear one of this Gift Game’s Winning Conditions, this development was not necessarily a bad one, because now that he transported them onto his home turf, it meant that the Minotaur won’t have anywhere to hide or escape. Now, if only they could somehow turn the tables on him, they would be able to clear the Game right there and now.

Taking out the Gift Card that was returned to her by Queen Halloween, Ayato summoned her beloved sword. As she did do, an affectionate smile naturally bloomed on her face. That was her weapon of choice, her irreplaceable partner that together with her went against countless Gods and evil deities in the past, overcome numerous battles to the death and even went against one of Little Garden’s most destructive evils, the Zoroastrian Demon Lord, Azi-Dahaka. They might have been in the middle of a battle here, but Ayato couldn’t help herself from being overcome by the sense of a warm nostalgia.

However, it could only last for so long, given the circumstances. Ayato immediately snapped back into reality and assumed a defensive stance.

(Here it comes!!!)

Readying her sword that was forged with the fairy’s wrought iron technique to withstand even the strongest of blows without breaking, she intercepted the two figures that rushed towards her in the blink of an eye and aimed her slashes between their eyes.

Having their initial assault repelled, Shen Gongbao, Byakko and Asterios fell back a short distance and immediately dashed in again. Out of all three of them, Shen Gongbao was especially fierce with her attacks, because she wanted to repay Ayato for beheading her with her arrow earlier. Every initiative she could take, every opportunity she could use, every opening she could exploit, she was doing her absolute best in order to obliterate the golden-haired girl before her.

「Why hello there, little miss Beheading Knight~~! You know that arrow of yours which sent my head flying off my neck?! That was a pretty nice attack, I’ll at least give you that much credit! But you know what? Even if it didn’t kill me, it still hurt like hell, so I would very much like to thank you for that with a gift of my own, okay? NOW GET BLOWN TO BITS AND DIE, YOU BLONDE BIMBO WHORE!!! 」

She manipulated her Paopei jewels that she used to gather the water and wind around her before with the two of them: Kaitenjyu and Houju, and used them to surround Ayato from all sides, cutting off all of her escape routes.

The Paopei was a set of weapon-type Gifts that could only be used by the Chinease Sendou. These seven jewels worked by gathering the spiritual energy of their possessor and utilizing it in a variety of different effects, such as controlling the basic five elements or making it possible for the user to fly through the sky. These Paopei were like a multi-purpose tools, possessing both offensive, defensive and speed increasing capabilities at their disposal. None of the jewels was specialized in any specific field that would make it better at something than the rest, but in order to compensate for that all of them were equall to one another and possessed an unparalleled strategic value as long as the user knew how to utilize them in the most effective ways. Gathering and manipulating that many of them would normally be so troublesome that most would probably thought of such a Gift as unusable and impractical, but Shen Gongbao wasn’t like all the other, because she understood the nature of her own weapon so perfectly that she didn’t even perceive it as a Gift, but rather a natural extension of her own body and senses. She had all seven of them circle around Ayato in large arcs for a while so that they could enclose her further, and when she was absolutely sure that her prey won’t be able to do anything to protect herself against them… she ordered them all to attack at once is a single, unavoidable, omni-directional strike.

But Ayato wasn’t going to falter. Not when she managed to go this far. Even if she was surrounded with no way out, all she had to do was to make that way out herself by breaking through the enemies and their tricks. She faced down from the deck of the falling Giant Spirit Train and dashed forward while simoultaneously cutting through the two Paopei that came at her straight from the front. She knew that it won’t be enough to destroy them, but at the very least she managed to secure a clear path for herself. She turned around and charged at the remaining 5 Paopei that were still coming after her. She wanted to attack Shen Gongbao herself as soon as possible, but with those things still around that would be nothing short of suicidal. It was during the moments like this one that she was cursing the fact that her current body was so young and small, unable to pull off most of the things that she wouldn’t have any difficulties with if only she was still her former, adult self.

「Ha! Getting a bit too arrogant for your own good, are we, little miss Beheading Knight?!」

The five jewels have already approached Ayato. The ones responsible for controlling the elements have already gathered so much wind around them that it was clearly visible even with the naked eye, and their roars when they fired the condense wind bullets towards her were comparable to the exploding noises made by the battleship’s main gun battery when it was firing its full salvo.

But Ayato wasn’t afraid of them. Her eyes remained cleared and focused as she continued to charge ahead. She slightly twisted the handle of her beloved sword, and when she did that, its blade got separated into a number of smaller segments, drawing a crescent moon-like arc trajectory through the air (TL Note: Howl, Zabimaru! Who else remembers Bleach here?), coiling in the empty space between the Paopei like a steel serpent. It was one of her ultimate moves, a manuever that has been dubbed as Serpens Scorpius Sword Flash by those who have fought with her before and lived to tell the tale, and right now it was intending to challenge the mysteries of the Chinease Sendou mystic arts.

「*Inhale…*, *Exhale…*」

She synchronized her own breathing and strained her eyes to properly read the  flow of the energy in the air. Now that things have went this far, even the slightesy misstep, even the teeniest, tiniest lapse in judgement or lost focus could mean the difference between her life and death…