1With another slash, the last of the dolls falls apart and vanishes.
"Man, I'm starting to get real sick of these things. Any idea how close the root of our problems is?" - I ask. Things have been going rather smoothly once I stopped trying to punch the dolls as cutting them into pieces works much better, but I still have my limits.
"I'd say a few hundred meters. Can't you feel it?" - Manami asks in response. Shit, am I supposed to?
"Uh, I...I think I can?" - I reply. I can certainly feel the magical girl's presence and there's...something else, but I'm not sure what it is.
"What are you guys talking about? The monster of the week?" - Tomoko asks.
"I guess you can call it th-"
"Wait, weren't you supposed to dump her with the rest of the civilians?" - I ask the redhead who immediately looks away.
"...I forgot about that...but maybe it's not a bad thing? There might be times when I have to look after people until I can find a suitable hiding place for them." - she replies. Makes sense, but I really don't want to spend time with that idiot.
The sound of something approaching quickly puts an end to this conversation. I sigh as I crack my knuckles...until I see just how many spiders are crawling towards us. There's no way in hell I can deal with so many enemies. Even Manami doesn't look very confident as she raises her sword, which is quickly engulfed in flames.
"Stay behind me." - the redhead says and we both comply without a word.
The fire grows wilder and hotter until it's a raging inferno threatening to engulf the whole room. I can already see various gears melting as the flames lick them and yet we haven't turned into charred corpses from simply being near the sword. Somehow, that's not enough to deter the spiders. They just keep crawling, blindly advancing towards us with their jaws snapping at thin air like some cheap movie monsters. The magical girl in front of me waits until the horde is at a very uncomfortably short distance away from us before pointing her weapon at the enemies and taking a step back, then she finally thrusts her sword forward, unleashing a fiery beam that wipes them all out. Fortunately, that doesn't completely demolish the whole building like it really should.
"That was cool and all, but...it looked like something that would drain your energy like nothing else. Are you sure you can use it on random mooks? And shouldn't it have some cool name too?" - the silver-haired girl asks. That's a pretty damn good question...The one about energy, not...Whatever.
"Um, it actually is. I'm very low on energy now, but I should have enough for one more." - Manami replies. It's great that she has one more shot, but...
"Were those pillars of fire draining too?" - I ask.
"Oh? Yeah, they take a lot out of m-"
"Then why the hell do you keep using that shit?! What do you plan on doing if you run out of energy?" - I yell at the girl as I smack the back of her head. I don't actually know what would happen in that scenario or what this energy is, but it doesn't sound good either way.
"I didn't think of that..." - the redhead says, rubbing the back of her head.
"You really shouldn't be so angry, Zero-chan. It's not healthy." - Tomoko says with that stupid relaxed voice of hers.
"Shut up...Wait...Do you guys hear anything?" - I ask.
"Hm...No?" - Manami replies.
"...Oh, I get it. Something must have happened to the others." - the silver-haired girl says.
I almost fall over when something roars loudly. It sounds too much like a screaming human, but it's too loud and there's just...something off about it. The sound of a heart beating seems to grow louder too and it's actually getting kinda distracting.
"Wait here and don't get in the way." - I tell the taller one of the girls before the rest of us proceeds. Fortunately, she obeys.
I get a really bad feeling when we enter a very large circular room filled with a lot of metal junk ranging from giant metal gears sticking out of the walls to literal scrap metal on the ground and...something else attached to the walls. The ceiling here is too high and insufficiently lit to even see what's going on there. It feels a little like a video game...a boss room to be more specific. As if that wasn't enough, I can actually feel something here...and it's rapidly descending.
Suddenly, something giant lands in front of us, kicking up dust and scattering metal bits everywhere. When the room clears out, I get a good look at a giant spider, but unlike the smaller mechanical ones, this guy has only four limbs and it's also composed of an insane amount of mannequins pressed together into a horrifying white mass. Each of its limbs' joints also has gold and silver rings decorating them with something written on them, but I can't make it out. To top it all off, the tip of each leg has a giant blade attached to it.
When the monster roars again, my attention is drawn to what looks like a emaciated human corpse sticking out of a warped metal coffin growing out of the spider's back. It tries to rise from the coffin, but then two mechanical arms push it back down, with one of them belonging to a strangely beautiful feminine figure on the left and the other being attached to a much more masculine humanoid figure on the right. For some reasons, both have mechanical wings growing out of their shoulders and neither seems to have any eyes.
As the corpse lies in the coffin, breathing heavily, the mechanical figures turn their heads to look at us.
"You are different." - the feminine one says.
"You are defective." - the masculine one continues.
"Different means defective. Imperfect. All imperfections must be eliminated. We know what's better for you." - they both finish in unison before the spider slams its front legs into the ground in front of it.
"Are you serious?! How the hell are you supposed to kill this thing?!" - I shout, pointing at the monster in question.
"S-Shouldn't you know?" - Manami asks.
"I mean yeah, I know, bu-"
I quickly roll out of the way before a giant mechanical limbs can crush me. Fortunately, I have enough stamina to do it a few more times until the damn thing gets stuck in the ground. With my nails turned into claws, I try to slash the now vulnerable limbs, but to my surprise, I can just barely scratch it. Even when Manami joins, her sword fails to inflict much damage. We both move out of the way when the monster pulls its limb out with an obnoxious metal groan.
It tries to crush us both a few more times and when that fails to work, the spider jumps so high I lose track of it. The magical girl, on the other hand, detaches her gun from her sword and starts blindly shooting above her. I can't tell if any of those bullets actually hit the mark and I'm not sure if that even matters.
"Alright, do you have any other abilities?" - I ask, making sure not to take my eyes off the ceiling.
"I can turn things into bombs, but this guy is too big for it to work." - she replies. That sounds awesome, but if it won't work here, then it might as well not exist.
Some sort of a sphere above us starts glowing brightly. I can't quite make it out, but I'm pretty damn sure it's the spider. Unfortunately, staring at the ceiling ends up temporarily blinding me when a beam of light hits me, but before a much more powerful laser can hit me, Manami grabs me by the waist and jumps out of the way. Damn it, I can't see what's going on...It feels like she's running and judging by that annoying whistling sound, the laser is following her. By the time I regain sight, she has has already stopped running.
As soon as it lands back onto the ground, the spider opens its mouth and spits out four smaller spiders. When one of them lunges at me, I knock its head off with a roundhouse kick. Two gunshots inform me that the redhead has already deal with her pair while I still have one more left...Wait...
"Hey, shrimp, can you turn this one into a bomb?" - I ask before smashing the monster in question into the ground, temporarily stunning it.
"Y-Yeah, it should work." - the girl confirms. In a few seconds, the redhead reaches me and taps the stunned spider with her sword, making it glow faintly.
"And how do you make it explode?" - I ask.
"Hit it very hard or throw it at something." - she replies.
I walk around the makeshift bomb and grab it by its hind legs. It tries to crawl away with little results until I start spinning. With a few more turns, I let it go and it crashes into its bigger counterpart, exploding on contact. Unfortunately, while that does make it stagger, it fails to really damage the giant. What the hell does it take to kill this thing?!
Soon, the spider recovers and immediately runs towards me. It proves to be much faster and so instead of trying to run away from it, I have to run between its legs to avoid getting skewered. It doesn't even flinch when Manami shoots it. At this rate, I'll run out of stamina unless I-
I bite back the scream when a giant metal blade embeds itself into my shoulder, pinning me to the ground. I finally let it out when the damn thing applies more pressure and severs my arm. The urge to just writhe and scream on the ground like any reasonable human should is very hard to resist and so I don't bother. I feel something pick me up before the ground shakes, but everything is too blurry to make out anything except for a red blob.
And then I feel it.
It's very hard to describe as I have nothing to compare it with...It's kinda...detached, but it's certainly not what people call an out of body experience. I just suddenly know that a part of me is now elsewhere. I can feel that part breathing and if I focus on it, I can see everything from a different angle. The pain is now gone too.
With some effort, I look around the giant room and finally see what's going on. The bloodstained metal blade that cut my arm off now has vines growing out of it and it has already taken over a quarter of the whole limb. In addition to that, there are white flowers with red eyes growing on the vines, all focused on me. When I turn my head to take a look at what's left of my arm, I also notice a trail of blood with very similar flowers growing out of it...I think I have an idea.
"The vines...growing out of its leg...Make them explode!"
With a nod, the magical girl runs towards the affected limb, easily dodging several strikes from the spider until she reaches her target and thrusts her sword into the vines. The giant quickly raises that limb to crush us, but as soon as it smashes the ground were Manami stood mere moments ago, the vines detonate and to my relief, the limb falls apart, leaving it with only one front leg.
"One more left. Can you get closer?"
Now that the spider can't afford to use its legs to attack, the mechanical figures on top of it clasp their hands and start charging their beam again, but then Manami shoots the sphere of energy, detonating it prematurely and temporarily stunning the spider, which in turn gives us enough time to get close to the other front limb.
I grit my teeth as I dig the claws of my remaining hand into what's left of the other one before swinging it outward, spraying blood onto the giant's leg. It takes only a few seconds for vines to start growing out of the gaps between the mannequins its composed of and once it spreads out far enough, the redhead thrusts her sword. This time, the spider doesn't try crushing us with its limbs and so Manami shoots the makeshift bomb instead, making the monster fall over.
"Now finish it off!"
This time, the girl puts me down before leaping towards the human corpse sticking out of the coffin. The mechanical figures next to it try to crush Manami with their arms, but they turn out to be much less durable and so one slash is enough to sever their arms. With two more slashes, both are severed from the spider's back, leaving the corpse completely defenceless. It just lies there, breathing heavily as the girl raises her sword and thrusts it into the giant's head. A black liquid sprays all over the poor kid when she pulls her weapon out before the whole thing starts collapsing into dust.
Then something falls onto the ground. It looks like a red glowing sphere...and it's so...I can't even put it into words. All I know is that it must become mine. I don't even mind crawling towards it just so I can get my hands on this thing. I think I can hear the girl saying something, but I'm not paying enough attention.
Once it's within my reach, I grab the sphere with my only remaining hand and take a closer look. It's almost like it's calling out to me except I don't hear anything aside from what sounds like a heart beating rapidly. Before I even realize it, I stuff the damn thing into my mouth and start chewing. It's feels like I'm trying to eat an empty glass, but I can't stop. I just keep chewing and swallowing until there's nothing left in my mouth.
"Zero-san, are you alright?" - Manami asks, clearly worried about me.
"Y...Yeah, I'm okay, just...gimme a sec." - I reply...Okay...That's an understatement, alright. I actually feel very good...I'd even say more...complete. Like I have just filled a gaping hole in my chest.
"Let's just...Let's just get out of here."