[477] Her Name Is Gangnan (1)
Gaold lifted his face to the sky and accepted the situation without a shred of doubt.
After twenty years running the project, had he ever truly believed this could happen?
But there hadn't been a single day in those twenty years when he hadn't pictured this moment, so instead of panic or doubt he simply thought that what had to happen was happening.
"We have to run."
That imperative snapped Gaold's mind into action.
From now on there was no looking back.
Getting away from this place was the only earthly task left for him.
"Krrroooooo!"
Gaold's concentration dug to the very edge of his mind, reached the realm of death, and his brutal Air Press slammed down on Uriel.
Power enough to freeze even an archangel for an instant.
It was only that, but for Gaold it was enough.
"Run at all costs!"
Sein landed on Gaold's back, and the others followed immediately.
Gaold turned once more and, in his revolving view, froze at the sight of Kariel, immobilized.
No matter how great an archangel, time cannot be transcended while a Stop is in place.
But the swarm of fallen angels charging like mad beyond Kariel would be another matter.
"Get out at maximum speed!"
As Gaold finished speaking, the mages cast Teleport and bolted.
They were among the best on each line, so the flashes swept them off the plain in an instant and finally into the drawbridge.
Sein cut Miro's leash.
Arius attached to the collar was cumbersome, and once they picked up speed the leash could strangle him and become dangerous.
Arius rolled across the ground, scrambled upright, and charged forward. Though blinded, he had once been one of the Black Line's Seven Magi; fleeing on his own was nothing.
"Activate it!"
On Sein's command, Gangnan kicked open the engine room door.
She found a huge operating lever that no one but a giant could have pulled. She kicked it, and the metal handle rang and slid into place.
It wouldn't do much against flying fallen angels, but it would at least delay ground-walking Mara from coming closer.
And once the drawbridge was raised, it would block the enemy's ranged attacks.
When she emerged, Gaold and the others had already entered the drawbridge.
Kugugugugugung!
The center of the drawbridge split into two and began to rise toward the sky.
A one-kilometer-wide, four-kilometer-long drawbridge being raised whole was beyond ordinary human engineering.
"Miro! Recover Miro!"
The fallen angels stampeded straight for Miro.
They knew that if they seized her, everyone else's feet would be bound.
Having long since forgotten even the noble memory of once being angels, the fallen angels became a single spear and surged onto the drawbridge.
The bridge was filled with enemies in an instant, and another battle erupted on its increasingly steep slope.
Even fallen angels, when attacking with full intent, were terrifyingly powerful.
Gaold's group felt in their bones how pivotal Armin's Stop had been for this whole project.
"But we can't use Stop anymore. We have to do this ourselves."
Stopping time did not mean canceling the event.
Right now the Stop field was anchored to Kariel, and if the field broke, Miro's head would explode before they could do anything.
Meanwhile, instead of pursuing Gaold, Uriel flew to the fortress wall to check on Kariel, trapped in the Stop.
"Kariel…"
Miro was a secondary concern for Uriel.
After all, Kariel had planned all this, and Uriel had only aided him to a degree as an onlooker.
But seeing Kariel had inflicted a profound shock.
There was no radiance to be found in the archangel frozen by time.
"A mere human has neutralized an archangel."
The Geukrak-gon whistled through the air as it spun, but Uriel could not bring himself to destroy it.
He would be frozen in the field too.
"I can't undo this right now."
To accelerate to light speed and reverse stopped time he would need the help of Rayel, the archangel of light.
"But…"
Uriel turned his head to the Gaold group receding in the distance.
"We have to take back what was stolen first."
As his body turned to light, Uriel arced across several kilometers and landed at the center of the bridge.
Kuuuuuuung!
When Uriel touched down, a tremor traveled through everyone's soles like standing on a wave.
They stood a kilometer from the drawbridge entrance.
Gaold's group were not simple prey; once they left the one-way approach it would be hard to chase them.
"I will shatter your will."
As Uriel spun the Geukrak-gon, Gaold struck with Air Press.
The air ignited and an explosive blast shot up the bridge.
"Krrrgh!"
Gaold's group was thrown to the ground by the shockwave.
Even without seeing, they could tell from the result that Gaold had been overpowered.
Gaold staggered, drained of strength, his eyes fixed on Uriel.
He must protect him.
Even if it meant dying here, he could not allow Uriel to pass.
With every step the pressure doubled, quadrupled.
When the force that could stop a heart pressed down, Uriel halted.
"You're just like him, Kariel."
"Kariel?"
Hearing that name, Gaold suddenly felt a chill of fear.
As he turned around with a startled look, he heard Sein call.
"Miro!"
Miro broke free from Sein's grasp and shot high into the sky.
Seals of fire blazed on her arms and legs like a burning brand.
Seal Technique—Prison of Fire.
On the opposite drawbridge, slanted up to a thirty-degree angle, the fire giant-mage Urotas raised both hands and shouted.
"Wahaha! I did it! I, Urotas, did it, Lord Kariel! Remember the name Urotas!"
He had dropped Gangnan onto the wall and, under Kariel's orders, concealed himself.
It was Kariel's ace up his sleeve in case of failure—to retake Miro.
"No!"
Watching Miro speed away under the seal's hold, a despair welled up that even the best party could not bear.
Gaold took a step and collapsed to his knees.
His head was full of thoughts, but they were a maddening tangle of black.
In that darkness he found one possibility.
"You mutt!"
At Gaold's shout, Gangnan twisted her body.
"Bite—!"
She sprang off the ground and ran, eyes fixed on Miro streaking through the sky, her legs moving in a blur.
Fallen angels turned to pursue Miro, while some lunged at Gangnan.
Thud thud! Thud thud!
Gangnan calculated their movements to the pounding of her heart.
Not a single pause could be allowed.
Before the onrush of enemies—like leaves caught in a storm—she moved her upper body and narrowly evaded them as if slipping through rotating blades, cutting through the ranks of fallen angels. When she reached a place she could no longer avoid, she leapt, stamped on enemies, and charged.
"Hrrrrn!"
The drawbridge now tilted to a forty-five-degree angle.
A slope that would stop any normal human from running at all, but Gangnan didn't slow a hair.
"Faster, faster!"
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
She struck the ground with tremendous force, cracking stones into flying shards.
Miro had already crossed to the other side; all Gangnan could see was sky.
"Gah…!"
She clenched her teeth and put every ounce of strength into her legs.
Even uphill she accelerated, and the drawbridge, now nearly cliff-like, sent her rocketing off its broken edge with every ounce of power.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Kwaaaaang!
The bridge's end exploded into shards as if consumed by detonation, and Gangnan flew.
A blue river shimmered in the sun a kilometer below, and nothing caught her as she ran through empty air, legs churning.
Miro disappeared beyond the opposite bridge.
Beyond her, the giant Urotas fixed a fiery gaze on Gangnan.
When the seal burned into her heart, the blood that had raced through her body slammed on the brakes and shock flooded her system.
In the whitening haze of consciousness, Gangnan's mind flowed into the one purpose and duty she had never forgotten.
"Gangnan?"
A man asked the last descendant of the wolf clan, wandering the gutters with a broken fang.
"The spirit of the wolf."
He smiled softly and said, "A fine name. Gangnan."
"Kyaaaaaaa!"
Gangnan let out a savage cry and moved her limbs.
With a pop, the seal's fire detonated and her heart began to beat again.
Urotas's loathsome face drew closer, eyes wide in horror.
Gangnan was not Rammuai's mightiest warrior. But she was the greatest fighter.
"I am the last scion of the Wolf Tribe!"
The investigator who had passed on the secret martial art echoed in her ears.
"Don't rely on fangs. Have a jaw that can crush anything."
Crrrk!
Gangnan's waist uncoiled like a bow and her stomach hardened like stone.
Then her body shot forward like an arrow, flying past Miro toward Urotas.
Rammuai Striker—Arang.
"Hrrrrn!"
Clenching every muscle in her abdomen, Gangnan drew her elbows and knees in like a coiled spring.
Her strike hit Urotas's crown and jaw. Kraak! The stone-hard face of the giant shattered like rock.
It was a wolf's jaw that had chewed through the giant.
Thud!
Urotas fell, and Gangnan hit the ground at nearly the same moment, grimacing in pain.
Her abdominal muscles were all torn; she could barely stand.
She gritted her teeth, twisted, grabbed the incoming Miro, and activated external gravity.
"Hrrrrrr!"
The drawbridge's angle neared seventy degrees; tilt a bit more and everything would be finished.
Clinging almost vertically to the bridge, spinning, Gangnan and Miro were finally able to meet each other's eyes fully.
Miro did not know who Gangnan was.
But in that brief instant the emotion in Miro's eyes said everything.
"I see… this child is—"
Even while whirled by centrifugal force, Miro shook her head.
She must not throw herself. What truly had to be thrown was…
When Miro signaled that she could not, Gangnan's lips curved into a dry smile for a flicker.
Then, like a warrior of the wolf clan, she snarled and let out a battle cry.
"Kyaaaaaaaaa!"
With all her strength she flung Miro into the air. Wind ripped; Miro's body traced the reverse arc and began to fly over the bridge.
"You ugly duckling…"
Gangnan's feet left the bridge floor, and she began to fall into the dizzying void equal in depth to the span of the bridge.
"Just one more time calling me mutt and—"
With her body upside down, Gangnan could no longer hold on to the receding consciousness and slowly closed her eyes.
The last thing in her memory was the countless faces of fallen angels pouring down from the sky.