26 The End Approaches 3

It remains untenable as it is.

Yet the Third Fleet remains, still moving—trapped in another future forged by the Literator.

Escaping that state on one's own is not easy.

"The warriors of Terminus..."

『Impossible. They endured the high-output ether waves at close range. Recovery will take time.』

That leaves no reinforcements.

Bringing Mio here gains nothing—she is no more than a novice. If only she understood even the basics of combat—perhaps...

In short, Jin has no reinforcements.

Thus, there is no choice but to continue this precarious defense.

Yet stagnation serves no purpose.

『Rotational speed increased by 0.1.』

"Accelerating?"

It is a negligible difference.

A value so small it might be dismissed as observational error.

Yet it is accelerating, unmistakably.

The motion attempting to envelop the cosmos is accelerating.

Unmistakably cosmic in scale. Not a matter of what happens in a few seconds, yet Jin and the others face a clear time limit.

Terminal seizes the moment, exploiting the distraction.

It does not flatten the situation—instead, it begins tilting it in its own favor.

Terminal’s offensive thrusts, now launched in earnest, all aim for lethal effect.

The Reactor. The Edelweiss’s processor. The cockpit where Jin is located.

Parrying with the Long Sword, deflecting with fists, evading with footwork.

The fatal three-stage thrust is barely avoided once more.

Jin feels the familiar brush with death, cold sweat forming on his skin.

“Does it know I’m here?”

Each destruction would immediately render the current state of Edelweiss unsustainable.

Destroy the Reactor, and combat cannot continue.

If the processor is destroyed, this body cannot be controlled.

If the cockpit is destroyed, Edelweiss—leaning now on Jin—will die.

But why did it detect the last one?

Or so Jin thinks.

(Its enemy, the one it knows… was structured like this…?)

There is no way to know unless he asks Seven.

More pressing is the fact that maintaining equilibrium has become increasingly difficult.

In that case, Jin resolves himself.

All or nothing. Bet his entire spirit on defeating this terminal.

He raises the Long Sword.

"Harmonic Razer."

He invokes the weapon’s name. The blade extends, revealing its internal structure.

A spatial vibration weapon shaped like a sword.

The moment its true form is exposed, the reaction is dramatic.

The terminal retreats sharply.

The warning is unmistakable.

‘So you do know.’

‘The claim that it originated from the End is apparently correct.’

A reaction impossible without prior knowledge.

Before the maximum threat, Terminal.

Raised the right arm still dangling.

‘How do you see it? That.’

‘…An interference weapon capable of affecting space over an unprecedented range. There’s no other way to describe it.’

Beyond normal parameters—capable of inflicting damage across light-years.

Whether this blade could withstand a direct clash remains uncertain.

‘Harmonic Rayzer, when operating at full capacity, can sever space itself. If so, it might endure a collision with that lance.’

‘Which means, if we collide at less than full power, we’re finished.’

‘Likely. We’d both be ensnared.’

An outcome difficult to imagine. What would happen if caught in spatial distortion?

Curious about the result—but no desire to experience it firsthand.

The swordplay of the left arm now amounted to little more than jabs.

Yet even so, it was fatal.

The right arm, reserved for the decisive strike.

A hit would be lethal—Jin deflected it with ease.

His intuition told him that aiming for the margin of existence would end the fight in an instant.

"...The target is the shaft—its belly, if you will."

That area should have minimal interference from the ability.

If he drove the Harmonic Razer’s full force there, victory might be possible.

But—

For Jin, there was an issue he could not overlook.

"Still, actual swords won't work. The weight destabilizes the frame."

"Fine. We'll discuss that later."

Edelweiss, insulted by the dismissal of her favored weapon, appeared slightly irritated—yet adjusted herself slightly, as if compensating.

Increased the ether flow to each actuator to prevent the frame from being displaced by the sword's swing.

"Helpful."

"Take him down in one strike."

A dry laugh at the high demand.

He lunged forward, still drained.

Whether he struck the opening or not.

Jin could not read the opponent’s expression—no color, no reaction.

But one thing was certain.

The tip was aimed—straight at the harmonic razor’s blade, targeting its belly.

(Their aim too…!)

Same intent—weapon destruction.

The only threat to their side, eliminated first.

Impressed by the speed of judgment, but now it was Jin’s turn to prove his skill.

Splitting a second into fragments, stretching time, he aligned the frame to his mental image.

That image was shared with Edelweiss.

The frame moved accordingly, adjusted for Jin’s ease of motion.

The terminal adjusted in precise response.

A movement akin to territorial dominance.

A clash exchanged in a fraction of a second.

Each targeting the other’s weapon’s destruction.

How many would understand it after the fact?

In that moment, Jin realizes.

(One move too late…!)

The terminal had moved first—Jin’s response lagged.

The tip pierces the unguarded underside of the blade.

An entity intruding into the world shared by the two machines.

A surprise unfolding—Jin, and the terminal focused on the enemy ahead, both show a flicker of hesitation.

(Mio!?)

Hair extending from her body wraps around the terminal’s lance, constricting it entirely.

Seizing the fleeting moment of confrontation between Jin and his opponent.

Such a maneuver could not have been achieved by chance—Mio would not have done it.

Then necessarily, no one but Mio could have executed that move.

Mio’s ingenious tactic—inspired by Takenaga’s question, realizing she could control her own body as Edelweiss did, under Takenaga’s command.

Two individuals deemed non-combatants, transforming into jokers upon this battlefield.

‘Got you with one shot, you bastard…’

A single, fleeting moment of support in a domain where only a handful of strikes could penetrate.

The instant when the man known as Shu Tōtani unequivocally demonstrated his own power.

The entangled wires attempt to slice through cleanly, but fail to breach the coating’s integrity.

Mio’s hair—wires of no ordinary strength.

The wires, vibrating at high frequency with etheric flow, lack the individual potency of Edelweiss’s Harmonic Lazer.

Yet, when bundled or woven, their combined force can surpass it—depending on conditions.

Mio is surprised that Terminal easily deflects it.

Instead, it attempts to wrap Mio up, hair and all—but too late.

At the end of a fight too fast for ordinary eyes to follow—.

Harmonic Lazer severs the spear in two. The descending blade cuts through the opponent’s weak point in spatial interference, reaching the core.

“Good!”

Jin exclaims, pleased with the precise strike.

‘Contraction has stopped… we did it.’

Edelweiss’s voice carries a faint vibration.

A phenomenon on a cosmic scale. One that has halted.

Which means, indeed, that the weapon in question was the cause.

A terrifying thought. The time until universal extinction was being measured, even if slowly.

If that weapon is on par with ASID, it might regenerate.

But if we keep pressing the attack without giving it a chance to recover—

No, Jin reconsiders.

It is not a matter of preference.

It must be done. Otherwise, humanity faces annihilation.

The shattered spear detaches, revealing the lower arm. Symmetrical in form.

Likely, an ether dagger lies there as well.

Terminal stares at the arm with its blue camera eye, as if observing something unfamiliar.

Preparing to deliver the final blow while Mio’s wire still wraps it, it launches the next strike.

A masterful flash, seamlessly connected to the full-force blow. The returning blade cuts cleanly—nothing more could be desired.

But it is evaded.

With a violent tug, Terminal tears the wire apart, regains freedom, and leaps backward to gain distance.

Constraints no longer exist.

"Next time, both arms..."

Jin murmurs, watching Terminal now fully unbound.

The opponent, once evenly matched with one arm, now attacks with both arms.

But this time, support is also available to me.

At the very least, they won’t be a hindrance. Jin’s thoughts turn to that as a voice reaches his ears.

‘—Question’