Bang! Bang! Bang! Several golden bullets ricocheted off the crocodile's fist, creating an opening for Texas to seize. She swung the wolf sword in her hand, slashing at the center of its chest.
"Ugh!" It was like striking a thick layer of diamonds. A numbing sensation shot through both of Texas's arms. She switched her sword style to a battering one, instead using her force to send the figure before her flying.
Thud! The giant body crashed through the wall of the abandoned building behind it with a loud noise.
"Ren, are you al—" Hearing the sound, Texas knew instantly that he had broken free from the spell. But when she turned back and saw the familiar face, now with a brown halo and the wings of a Sankta behind him, the words caught in her throat...
"Your race..."
She looked at the two features as if she had a million questions to ask, including how he had been able to turn into a Lupo earlier. But Ren spoke first.
"We can talk about that later! For now, let's focus on the mission at hand," Ren replied, turning to Exusiai and the others behind him.
"Are you two still okay? If so, I need your support!"
Seeing his bright yet serious aura, both Croissant and Texas saw a different version of the red-haired girl.
"...I don't know why, but it's like seeing a serious version of Exusiai," Croissant grumbled as she saw his carefree smile, slowly getting up to join them.
As for Exusiai, although she was startled by the halo and wings similar to her own race appearing on Ren, that wasn't what truly captured the girl's attention...
"So cool! Are these two guns yours, Ren?! C-Can I try holding them?!" Exusiai, who had sprung forward the moment she saw him draw the guns, gazed at the dual pistols in his hands with adoration, like a girl lost in the throes of love.
Ren glanced at the dual pistols in his hands. Although he had drawn them without thinking, after becoming a Sankta, the weapon's abilities appeared in his mind as if they had become a part of him.
Judgment Gun (SR) A pair of replica pistols based on the (Judgment of Shamash). They possess the ability to use bullets created from the surrounding elemental particles and can convert those particles into special bullets with various elemental attacks. Has a severe effect on enemies with high negative Karma and is effective against Honkai-type enemies. Skill - Pulling and releasing the trigger fires a normal elemental bullet. Skill - Holding the trigger down before releasing creates a large bullet, its size proportional to the gathering time.
"Once this is over, I'll let you look at them to your heart's content. But right now, we have something to take care of!" Ren said, glancing at the crocodile's body, which seemed to be starting to move.
"You promised! Awesome! This gives me the motivation to fight!" Exusiai waved her gun cheerfully. Perhaps it was the Sankta's sense of 'camaraderie,' which she hadn't felt in a long time, that made Exusiai feel so much more alive.
Texas watched the two of them getting along like a house on fire with complicated feelings, but she didn't say anything about it. She just asked Ren, her eyes on the crocodile's form starting to emerge from the ruined wall.
"Even if we team up, it doesn't mean we can take it down. Its skin is incredibly thick, almost inhuman. Maybe its body is also a machine. We need to find its weak point, or we have to fall back and regroup."
"No need! I can already see the Originium power source connected to the musical instrument on its back. If we can destroy that, its body will shut down," Ren said.
"You can see it?" Texas looked surprised. If she remembered correctly, Ren had said he could see the light from Originium but couldn't clearly identify its components.
"Yes... It's hard to explain, but it seems the 'Sankta' abilities have improved my cognitive and visual systems. It feels like I have a computer embedded in my head, increasing my calculation and power control abilities."
As he was now, he could control the elemental particles around him with almost no expenditure of his own energy. Although the physical strength he gained was inferior to a Lupo's, his agility was still much higher.
"Can't other people normally do that?" Exusiai turned and asked in surprise, as if she had always thought everyone could.
"Are you crazy? What kind of person has a computer in their head? If we had something like that, would we still need to study math?" Croissant grumbled with a sigh.
"If that's the case, I'm really jealous of you Sankta. If I had that ability, I wouldn't have had to waste so many years in university studying calculation—wait a minute... speaking of calculation, didn't you say you were bad at it, so you had me help you record your expenses! So you've been tricking me all this time!" Croissant, feeling betrayed by her sister-in-arms, glared daggers at the girl.
Who, in turn, could only avert her gaze sheepishly...
"Hehe... I really am bad at math, you know~"
"She's just lazy. Her sister usually handles it for her," Ren revealed Exusiai's thoughts directly.
"Ah... how did you know that, Ren!"
The young man didn't answer, as he saw the crocodile creature beginning to do something.
As if seeing a vision of the immediate future, Ren quickly shouted to Croissant.
"Croissant, shield up, now! He's about to attack!" Ren pulled Texas behind Croissant. As for Exusiai, she had already dashed behind the shield the moment he grabbed Texas's arm, as if their feelings were connected.
"I don't get it... but you got it!" Croissant's expression turned serious. She slammed her shield into the ground with both hands, bracing it in front of them.
The crocodile creature raised its hands, then clapped them together with great force while blowing into the musical instrument on its back.
BOOM!!!! Suddenly, an immense power generated by the clap, channeled through the instrument, burst forth as a white wave, like a violent sonic boom.
"Oh, crap!" Croissant's face went pale. At first, she thought it would be a normal attack, but seeing the powerfully compressed sound wave heading straight for her, she knew instantly it was likely no less powerful than an 'Originium' bomb.
"It's okay... just hold the shield tight," Ren said, placing a hand on Croissant's shoulder as if to comfort her. But that wasn't all. He gathered elemental particles, concentrating them on the shield in the girl's hand.
Fwoom! In an instant, the shield in Croissant's hand expanded from the coalescing brown light, completely enveloping her and everyone behind her as if they were wrapped in a sacred light.
"Holy shit!/Oh my god!" The exclamations in two languages rang out. Meanwhile, Ren and Texas, who had remained focused ahead, exchanged signals.
When the sonic wave dissipated, Texas was the first to dash out from behind the shield. She sprinted forward rapidly, rushing past the crocodile creature without doing anything.
The creature saw this and tried to turn and grab her.
"Apple pie!"
But at that moment, a volley of bullets from Exusiai slammed into the side of its face, causing it to miss. It turned back with rage.
"!" Its eyes widened when it saw two glowing pistols aimed directly at its chest.
"Get blown away!" Ren, standing right in front of it, unleashed a fully charged shot.
BOOM!!! The light from the fully charged muzzles exploded, striking the center of the figure's chest head-on.
As if struck by a hammer weighing dozens of tons, its massive body was sent flying backward like a giant ball. And just as it flew back, not far behind it, the figure of a black-haired Lupo girl was already waiting with her sword drawn.
Like a professional baseball player, as the body neared, Texas swung forward in a 120-degree arc.
Swish! With the combined force of the swing and the sharpness of the wolf sword, the musical instrument, larger than the creature's own head, was sliced cleanly in half.
The massive body flew, skidding across the ground for dozens of meters before the instrument on its back fell to the ground, revealing numerous tubes and threads woven like blood vessels spilling out from within.
The giant crocodile's body became like a robot that had lost a gear. Lying on the ground, its body twitched, its hand convulsing as it reached for the musical instrument, as if desperately trying to grasp it.
"Don't... leave... me."
"Mommy... don't... leave... me."
The words that came from its mouth for the first time were like the whisper of an ordinary child, filled with sadness and fear.
Even Texas and the others couldn't help but feel a pang of sorrow upon hearing that voice.
"..."
Ren watched the scene without a word. He walked toward the body. As Texas started to move to stop him out of concern, he gave her a signal that it was okay.
The young man bent down, picked up a fragment of the instrument from the ground, and placed it in the man's hand.
"Thank... you."
The figure uttered its last word in a voice full of happiness before hugging the instrument in its arms, its large body slowly disintegrating into dust, just like the Shadows.
[Emergency Quest: Rescue [Selina Texas] [Complete]] [Skill Acquired - Advanced Vehicle Piloting (SSR)] [Skill Acquired - Texas Family Sword Style (SSR)]
"What happened? Why did his body turn to dust..." Croissant asked in confusion, having witnessed what happened.
"They are the same. Just another victim of the 'Troupe Master'," Ren answered.
He thought back to the memories of his former self, in that laboratory. There were other children imprisoned there besides him...
Among them was a gentle Sarkaz (Blood Demon), adorable crocodile twins, and... a Feline girl who was as close to him as a little sister.
'All those children were victims of this...'
Ren clenched the dust on the ground tightly before taking a deep breath and letting it go.
"Let's end this."
Ren turned to everyone.
"Let's go save Sora Senpa!"
.........
Meanwhile, on the top floor of an abandoned building, a woman in a black dress and a bear-like mask stood, smiling down at Sora, who was tied to a chair.
"Ah, I'm so jealous of you... having so many wonderful friends who would go to such lengths to help you."
The woman spoke, then used a blade-like finger to make a small cut on Sora's neck, adding another to the countless wounds she had already inflicted to cure her boredom.
"What kind of despair will show on their faces? When they see me slit your little throat right in front of them... the scent will surely be magnificent."
"..." Sora said nothing. She merely stared silently at the woman, showing no fear or despair as her captor wanted.
That pair of eyes greatly displeased the woman...
"Hmph... pretend to be tough all you want. I wonder if you'll still be able to act so strong when I slit the throats of your friends' corpses in front of you."
"...Why are you doing this?" Sora feigned asking to gather information. The reason she could remain this calm was that this wasn't the first time she had been kidnapped. But she wasn't as composed as she appeared; deep down, she was still terrified, hopeless, and felt guilty for dragging her friends into this kind of trouble again.
Right now, she only knew they were searching for something, and their goal was to use her blood, the blood of a so-called 'traitor,' to find it.
But after they took her blood, they still hadn't done anything...
The masked woman had only said that the 'Troupe Master' hadn't ordered her to do anything yet, that she was just waiting for his command. But a long time had passed... and she still hadn't received a response from the Troupe Master.
This seemed to be making the woman very anxious, and she began to take out her frustration on Sora with increasing frequency.
"Hehe... you don't need to know. Just remember that a great performance naturally entails delays... so be patient. You'll see something good soon enough."
"And I hope you don't die of a heart attack after witnessing my prince's magnificent performance."
"Prince?" When Sora said that word, the woman before her immediately began to contort.
"Yes!! The Son of Gaul!! The last royal of Terra! The one who is like the prince of this land!"
"Soon... it won't be long now! Those countries will pay! And all of you disgusting traitors will die! The Troupe Master is the one who will—"
BOOM!!! But before the woman could finish her sentence, a sudden, deafening explosion echoed as the building began to shake violently before collapsing.
It sent both Sora and the masked woman plummeting down.
"Aah!" Sora screamed in shock, but suddenly, the music box in the woman's hand flashed, and a red barrier enveloped the two of them.
This allowed them both to float gently to the ground.
"That idiot! What the hell is he playing at!" the woman in the dress cursed, thinking it must have been the work of the crocodile.
But after the barrier dissipated, the first thing the woman saw was a pistol pointed directly at her face.
"You—" Bang! A bullet pierced the woman's face, sending her body tumbling to the ground.
"Payback for earlier, you bitch..." Ren cursed, before unloading his gun into her body, taking his revenge.
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