[706] God of the Desert (5)
According to the esoteric sect's doctrine, it's a bardo — a zone where one experiences the source of existence; medically, some liken it to a near-death experience.
There have been frequent reports of coma patients confronting landscapes unlike reality, and great ascetics have, through extreme training, peered into the world of the soul.
But Shirone's Pakji in its current state was not a fleeting epiphany; it perceived both the surface and the other side at once with crystalline clarity.
"Confirming again."
As Baknyeo advanced, smashing everything in sight, the color drained from Shirone's face.
'Choeeni Bardo!'
As Sibulsangpokmae fused past and future and Choeeni Bardo merged two spaces, countless routes unfolded where none had existed before, like the electric circuitry of a precision magic circle.
Shirone, having evaded the attack, cast a Homing Photon Cannon; a blinding spiral of light roared out as if given spin.
Baknyeo's monstrous senses activated and her upper body trembled like a plucked string.
The air detonated from the mere shaking of her torso, and the photon cannons that had wrapped around her collided with one another and were snuffed out.
'Is that human?'
Baknyeo was startled as well.
'She definitely opened the Pakji.'
The Seventh Sense, by heavenly standards, corresponds to the sensory tier of an archangel.
Not merely an overseeing gaze, the countless judicial arts of a plain angel were the product of exploring this world with no fewer than seven senses.
Baknyeo lowered her stance and said, "From now on, I will judge you my way."
Utterly intuitive — and therefore rarely wrong.
'What is that now?'
Behind Baknyeo, a massive mechanism that looked like a heart forged of steel shimmered like a hallucination.
Axing‑Nirvana E‑Engine (V‑12 cylinders).
The vision vanished and a sharp V‑shaped incarnation surged up like wings, and Shirone's face contorted.
"Guh!"
The world seemed to bend around her center, the same crushing sensation one got facing Rian's Mach.
'Since that day…'
Baknyeo had tasted peak acceleration when she'd faced Rian in Apocalypse, but that hadn't satisfied her.
If you're using the same incarnation, a straight layout is wasteful — bend it into a V and fit more cylinders of Law.
'Now I can run faster.'
Few knew that before gaining immortality, Baknyeo had been a genius mech engineer and a savage speed addict.
'Amita will oppose it, though.'
The Ten Elders disliked the pre‑immortality habits of the immortals.
"Shirone."
Baknyeo's mouth split into a long, cruel smile.
"Will you...go with me to the end?"
The chill only lasted an instant; the V incarnation flared like a blaze and Baknyeo's figure vanished.
'Damn!'
Shirone tried to avoid the strike by throwing everything at it — Sibulsangpokmae and Pakji together — but honestly he didn't think he could hold out.
'How can she be that fast? Is this even controllable?'
Momodo watched the battlefield Vanguard had become and buried his face in his hands.
"No! How am I supposed to guard Vanguard like this!"
A perfectly intact wall suddenly blew open and a crash came from inside.
After a moment the dust cleared and the storefronts began collapsing one by one.
'She's catching up!'
At that speed, a hundred magics were useless.
Baknyeo, having taken a route seven times farther than Shirone's, suddenly leapt in front of him.
"Shirone!"
Rian blocked her path and swung the great broadsword; the blade sang as it deflected.
"I'll take this! Get Latusa!"
Shirone bit his lip. "Will that be okay? That woman…"
He trusted Rian as always, but this time he couldn't leave him alone.
"I know what you mean. We've already fought."
The memory of that battle in Apocalypse still made his skin crawl.
"Don't worry. I won't die. But honestly… I don't think I can win here."
Rian's words cleared Shirone's judgment, and through Choeeni Bardo he stepped away from the spot.
"This is the second time I've seen you."
Baknyeo let her sword drop and moved closer.
"Shall we see who runs?"
Rian could only give a wry smile.
Kraaaang!
The sound of Baknyeo's Axing tearing the Vanguard apart reached Kido's ears.
"Tch! Are we only goblins to them?"
When the Maga Bandits arrived, Kido was perched on the spear shaft, gripping it with all ten toes.
"Who are you? Why attack us?"
"You don't need to worry about your own death."
The vice‑captain drew his blade and stepped forward; a murderous aura singed Kido from head to toe.
'Unbelievable, these people.'
There were hardly any organizations that could reduce even the formidable Vanguard to ruins in the Central Desert.
Each of them was a Drackur, and the woman fighting Rian had long since surpassed human limits.
"Heh‑heh, kekekeke."
At Kido's chuckle the vice‑captain's eyes hardened.
"Have you lost your mind? What's so funny?"
"Finally my head's clear."
There are things you only realize when faced with imminent death.
'Any fate that might or might not come…'
It's useless.
"That's right, Shirone?"
Kido flicked the spear he'd been holding with his toes; the shaft whistled as it shot into the sky.
As it fell back down, Kido spun with the spear's rotation and rolled to the side.
"Best to run!"
Kido rolled the spear like a wheel and descended the apartment block vertically; the Maga Bandits leapt after him.
"Chase! We must catch them at the Vanguard!"
Meanwhile, Baknyeo — driving Rian back — spotted Shirone climbing over a wall.
'Chose to meet Ra?'
Unable to let Shirone go, Baknyeo ran to a nearby propulsion apparatus and grabbed a tank.
"Wait! Don't touch that!"
Momodo's shout was swept away by the wind as the V‑12 cylinders began channeling power into Baknyeo's frame.
"Raaaar!"
RPMs spiked wildly and the tank shuddered.
"No, no—"
After mounting vibrations, metal screamed and tore.
"Kyaaaaaaa!"
Baknyeo howled like a beast and twisted her waist; the tank, driven by centrifugal force, spun wildly and flew toward Shirone.
"A hundred tons…"
Momodo, dazed, snapped to attention and shouted, "This is bad! If the outer wall collapses—!"
"Shirone! Dodge!"
At Rian's voice, Shirone turned and gaped at the massive tank.
"What the—!"
The hundred‑ton machine roared and smashed through the wall.
"Oof! What the—"
Thrown clear of the Vanguard, Shirone landed face‑first and clawed at the desert sand.
The first thing he noticed was a burning, roaring wind.
'It's coming.'
From the deep darkness of the desert, something enormous was surging in.
"Activate the secondary tank and repair the windbreak! If we don't stop it early, everything will be destroyed!"
Momodo barked orders, but a powerful gust flooded the Vanguard as if the embankment had been breached.
Sand blew everywhere, the double doors rattled, and wounded people were struck by falling debris.
A subordinate who'd leapt from the watchtower shouted, "Administrator! Noskarta…! No—"
He changed his words, deciding that a mere gale's name couldn't capture his fear.
"The Desert God is coming!"
Shirone cleared his head and cast Shining; from the moonlit sky a Kaidra shrieked and swooped down.
'Good. They were nearby.'
Kido and Rian ran for the exit, and at the right moment a photon cannon blasted the iron gate.
"Rian! Kido! Hurry!"
Shirone waved them on; from a distance the vice‑captain shouted to the guards at the exit, "Stop them! Don't let them mount those monstrosities!"
The gang members on Omeks drew blades and charged from both sides, and Kido halted his stride.
"Tch! Go on ahead!"
"Catch the goblins first!"
The Omeks leapt, claws extended, and hammered the spot Kido had just left.
"Kido!"
Rian, who'd reached Shirone, shouted back.
Kraaaang!
As the dust settled, Omeks with severed legs rolled and writhed in pain.
Kido, having rolled out like a ball, bit into a beast's leg and sprinted for the exit.
"Fuhahaha! How about that? Pretty good, huh?"
"Stop eating that!"
At Shirone's rebuke Kido tossed the leg aside, climbed atop the Kaidra and seized the reins.
"I'll drive! This place is done for!"
The Maga Bandits mounted on Omeks cracked whips and charged after the Kaidra.
"Boss! Shall we pursue?"
Woooooo!
The roaring wind drowned out their voices.
"Go all the way."
Baknyeo twisted the reins and took the lead; the vice‑captain glanced back and ordered, "Beat the drums! Use sound to find them!"
Dum! Dum! Dum! Dum! Dum!
At the drumbeats, the Kaidra rose.
"Damn! This wind's insane!"
But the resistance was so fierce they couldn't gain much altitude.
The roar grew without end and even the most fearless bandits swallowed hard.
'They really think they can break through this?'
Sensing the wind's power, Kido shouted, "It's coming! It's coming! It's coming!"
Just as Shirone tilted his head against the deafening roar, Rian pointed ahead.
"Shirone! There!"
Noskarta.
A desert tidal wave — two kilometers high — swallowed the horizon and advanced.
Shirone burst into hysterical laughter.
"Puhahahaha!"
Riders on the ground also saw the towering wall of sand and felt their heads swim.
"Brace yourselves! If we get swallowed it's over!"
Dum! Dum! Dum! Dum! Dum!
Baknyeo inhaled against a wind that seemed to tear skin from flesh.
'It's the wind of nature itself.'
She shrugged off the thin robe she alone wore, spread her chest and lifted her chin.
"Haaaaa."
The whites of her eyes showed beneath trembling lids, and her waist rolled like a wave to the Omek's rhythm.
'Truly an animal.'
The vice‑captain pressed his lips together as he watched the soft, raised muscles along her back.
'She may become a beast. If it's her…'
Even if she fell to the animal realm, he would gladly make Baknyeo king and give his life.
Kido gripped the reins and shouted, "Hold on tight! We're colliding!"
Staring at the gargantuan sandstorm that could drive anyone mad, Shirone perceived the law ruling the desert.
'It's not wind.'
The Noskarta's reality, transmitted through the Pakji, was the void of countless lives snuffed out over the ages.
GRAAAANG!
Whether by coincidence of airflow or some darker will, grains of sand flowing down the desert wall formed the shape of a giant skull and howled.
'I will not be swallowed by nihilism!'
Even if the only fate left is misery, they would fight the world to the end.
"Rian! Kido!"
A skeletal hand burst from the sand wall and reached for the Kaidra.
"Go!"
At the same moment Rian swung the broadsword vertically.
"Waaaaaa!"
Divine Transcendence — Mach.
Pfoooooom!
Rian's will split the world apart, and the skull carved into the sand wall exploded and cleaved in two.
The desert storm surged and tried to swallow the Kaidra.
"Yoohooo!"
Kido's shout rode the wind.
"Don't let them go! We are the Maga Bandits!"
Dum. Dum. Dum. Dum. Dum.
The Desert God comes, devouring the void.