08 The Power to Change the Cosmos 5

Is this truly right?

I've caused nothing but trouble for countless people.

Mio believes this battle is her fault.

— Harold would have used any means necessary to secure Mio.

Thus, regardless of whether it was voluntary or not, the situation likely would have been the same.

Still, Mio made this choice herself.

She chose to fulfill her duty, even if it meant hurting someone.

Or perhaps she sought her own sense of purpose through fulfilling that responsibility.

Only Mio herself knows what lies within her heart.

"I've done so many bad things."

"Yeah."

"Then is this really right?"

"Of course not. We'll go apologize to everyone we've troubled. I'll go with you."

Wherever it is, Sō will be there.

He forces open the sealed door and reaches out from beyond.

With cautious hesitation.

With a caution bordering on doubt, Mio reaches toward Shu’s hand—her own trembling slightly.

She screams at something slicing across the edge of her vision.

“Move!”

Mio pushes against Shu’s chest.

As she tumbles into the cockpit, her body simultaneously launches Shu’s Leopard into the air.

A moment before, the space where Shu had stood was crossed by a shimmer of ether.

“Harold Byron!”

‘Narrow escape. Eastern Mio.’

Nonchalantly. Or perhaps shamelessly, Harold said it.

‘…You were listening.’

‘Thought it’d be rude to interrupt.’

The timing was too perfect.

He must have been waiting for the opening.

The Leopard regains its posture. Shu has begun proper controls within the cockpit.

Antares.

A large mobile weapon resembling a scorpion, adapted from the reactor built by Harold.

Its sub-unit—autonomous mobile armament lances—surrounds the two.

‘You can’t just abandon this now, Mio Higashi.’

‘Don’t call me so familiarly.’

‘Cold. Did I do something wrong?’

Is this serious?

Or is he pretending?

Hard to tell at first glance.

‘After pulling a trick like that…’

‘We’re equally guilty. We were comrades striving for the same ideal.’

‘That’s over.’

Severing the core completely from the Laitera.

Cutting the final tether—once clung to desperately, hoping to change the past with one’s own hands.

The reactor should cease shortly. The Laitera should stop soon.

That was the expectation.

‘…Why!?’

The link won’t break. Mio is trying to sever it from her side.

But from the Laitera’s side—more precisely, from the reactor within it—Mio is not being released.

It was impossible. Even if a processor existed, a reactor did not possess such will-like functions.

But this was the original Queen’s.

There might be a difference.

If so, that was troublesome. Destruction was the only option.

‘Hm… You’re still not fully complete, are you? Why aren’t you trapped on the other side?’

‘…The other side?’

Shu tilts her head, unable to grasp the meaning.

‘What… You haven’t so much as glanced toward the other side…? Then this is—’

Harold laughs.

Not a modest chuckle, but a hollow, mocking one.

‘Hahaha! You’re loved, Minato Mio! You there, boy! Seems you’ve got the hots for her!’

Mio frowns, unable to comprehend why such a conclusion had been drawn.

Kindly—more accurately, perhaps, driven by a need to speak his hypothesis to someone.

He begins explaining with cheerful certainty.

“This collective unconscious state emerged after the alteration of the past. Simply put, one’s consciousness depends on whether the pre-alteration or post-alteration state is chosen.”

Thus, nearly everyone prefers the post-alteration state.

Seen from that angle—perhaps, in a way, he had done something good.

“That boy over there has no attachment to the other side… desires unfulfilled even through repeated alterations are few in number.”

Because Mio is not there.

Thus, Shu remained conscious and stayed here.

In other words—

“Just as you imagined, Minato Mio. It seems Jin Minato is indeed happier remaining with Kusunoki Rei?”

Mio bites her lip.

She understood.

She had known it all along—but hearing it stated so directly was painful.

The Leopard of Shu slightly advanced.

"Playing with a younger girl at your age? That's a poor taste, old man."

"Ah… I don't recall. And that unit… could it be a trainee?"

A faint hint of disappointment.

"Regrettable. I did wish to witness your pure affection—yet my priority now is completing the Laitera. I wanted at least to push this Antares to its fullest before the end."

As the words ended.

The surrounding lances simultaneously activated.

The former residential sector, sealed within the Laitera, was vast.

Large enough to allow the massive Antares to move without obstruction.

The space was filled with angular lances, firing in unison.

Mio plunged into her core body, extending her hair.

High-frequency wires obliterated ether rounds, simultaneously bringing down several lances.

(Toya-kun!)

Mio, having estimated Shu’s strength as no higher than that of a trainee, grew anxious.

Even if that attack had been a试探, it was a barrage any regular soldier would struggle to evade.

The target Mio saw, whom she thought might have been shot down without fault.

‘Hm.’

Harold’s voice, astonished, and the maneuver that produced it.

Harold offered a candid compliment, impressed by Shu’s movements—anything but those of a trainee.

‘Remarkable. If a trainee can perform like that, future prospects are promising.’

Of course, there were mechanics at play.

The nanomachines fixed to Shu, as Mio had said.

Thanks to their assistance.

By clearly recognizing their presence.

And because the one he was protecting was immediately beside him, Shu was in a condition unlike any he had known before.

‘Well, thank you!’

'Well, how long can you hold out? That last unit put up quite a fight—'

Blood surged to Shu’s head upon realizing the target was May.

He attempted to strike at the main body while deflecting the lance with a counterattack.

A single flash of the ether dagger, drawn and swept aside to evade the large shears.

But—no attack found its mark.

The disparity in output was immense from the start.

Had it been Jin or Kou, the convergence of ether would have amplified their offensive power. Shu lacked that skill.

Only his physical strength and sensory perception were greatly enhanced.

That aspect remained unchanged.

And mentally as well.

'Think you could become something with training—yet not here. Try harder over there.'

Mio had no chance to intervene.

Split apart by the lance’s fire, Shu was overwhelmed by attacks from all directions.

Eventually, he missed the large shears—then seized them.

His lower body is being crushed.

He struggles to break free, but the power is overwhelmingly on the other side.

"Chik... shoo!"

The机体 is severed in two.

Even after losing his lower half, Shu does not surrender.

Reorienting his upper body alone, he prepares to counterattack—

『Then farewell. You’d best wait for me there.』

Before he can act, the damaged机体 is riddled from all directions.

Yet he maintains the will to resist until the end— only the arm holding the rifle remains, the Leopard's torso colliding with the wall, momentum carrying it to a stop.

No sign of the pilot ejecting.

"To-o-ya-kun!"

『Now then, you’d best remain still—something interesting is about to happen.』

Mio’s main body is caught off guard by Shu’s destruction.

She fails to evade the lance’s fire—she is hit.

Even if Mio realizes the attack is meant to disrupt her balance, she is helpless—without proper combat experience, once entangled, there is no way out.

Attempting to counter with her hair is futile against the lance; it would not work even against the Antares core.

‘Cease resistance. You cannot stop me, no matter what.’

She cannot win.

No matter how strong her power, she lacks the skill to wield it.

‘There is no combat-capable force left in this sector. The alteration of Littera’s past is confirmed. The plan will be completed.’

Is this a victory declaration?

Or is she simply overwhelmed by the imminent fulfillment of her long-held wish?

Mio clenches her eyes shut at Harold’s words.

Her kind should be here.

Yet the voice she heard moments ago is utterly silent.

Even the Terminus people have accepted the outcome of Littera’s past alteration.

‘Help me…’

She knows it’s selfish. She wanted this outcome herself—Mio.

She knows it’s selfish. Wanting a different future after it has already come to pass is weakness—Mio.

Yet the only one Mio can still rely on at the end is one person.

The only one she can truly ask for help from is one person.

“Help me, oto-san…!”

To her one remaining parent, Mio speaks her selfishness.