282: Funaka = Conplarex

"!?"

My left hand drives into Funaka's face.

A normal human would have had their head completely obliterated by such a punch, but the resistance I feel is immense and soft, as if striking something large and yielding. Funaka flies backward without a sound, landing softly and regaining composure against the rock wall behind him.

At the same time, just like during the first surprise attack, an anomaly begins in my left hand—but this time, I quickly improvised a mod between attacking with my right and then my left to neutralize the effect.

It hasn't been fully analyzed yet, so there was some bleeding... but this level can be quickly detoxified and healed, and my right arm has just finished regenerating.

"Ahhhh... If I were into masochism, that one hit would've been enough to make me cry from pleasure. And yet, you're able to respond to my rule so casually... I see. This isn't something you could handle with just some ordinary angel made from random materials. Unable to reach my core, yet your adaptability is leagues ahead."

But I couldn't follow up with another attack.

It was because Funaka's smile was too unsettling.

Yet, although I couldn't fully grasp what Funaka was saying... it seemed Funaka had figured out that my main body was located in the Ether Space, and that generating countermeasures was relatively easy.

"But now it's becoming troublesome—suspicious, really. The people you've sent are just too perfectly suited to target me. Are the maidens and Bentos not natural, but artificially cultivated? If that's the case, then reaching out to whoever's behind you... it'll still take some time. That means I'll have to dismantle the foundation of your imperial faith and spread discord among humanity..."

"Satu. Just for a moment, may I have you look directly at Funaka?"

"..."

I hesitate at Vilijanira's words.

Funaka's combat ability is formidable.

At the very least, I'd barely be able to flee from her if we were to fight now.

Therefore, what I need to win here and now is to destroy the strange device Funaka was manipulating, and then escape.

Moreover, giving her any opening or opportunity too easily could directly lead to defeat.

Yet at the same time, Funaka's strength lies within a manageable range.

Her power isn't some insurmountable gap, like the raw output disparity seen in something like a Blackfall Shark. Instead, it's a strength built upon skill and knowledge—so precise, in fact, that if we could reverse-engineer it, we might literally turn it on its head.

And if Viridianiela gazes directly at Funaka... the amount of information she could obtain would be immense.

There are risks.

But the return is greater still—and that return will surely be necessary.

"Anyway, for now..."

So I briefly opened an extremely small gate right before Viridianiela's eyes.

"You two will be dealt with, and the Imperial Star Vanilla Sid will be erased."

"Satā!"

"Wha—!?"

Immediately afterward, without regard for my will, my body was moving at maximum speed to the right.

I realized, a moment later, that it was being forcibly moved by Viridianiela's control.

And then, a moment after that...

"—!?!"

"Satā!?"

"What—!? Is that really Satā-sama's true body!?"

"H-huh!? What's going on!?"

I became aware of a deep gash on my body, existing within the Ether Space, through the sensation of pain.

I couldn't help but scream, but managed to apply the pain-dulling mod and the fast-recovery mod somehow, beginning to heal the wound.

All I could do in that moment was keep the powered suit active and maintain the gate as Viljaganiela's field of view.

"Hmm? Hmm hmm hmm. This is strange. I was certain I cleanly severed it with that strike, and I easily dodged the follow-up. Something's off. There's definitely disharmony in Bentos's thought process right now—there shouldn't be any coherent, harmonious thinking capable of properly controlling the body. Ah, so it's the shrine maiden manipulating it. I see. I hadn't considered that."

"Heh heh heh..."

'Y-You're amazing, Vee-sama...'

'T-This is getting out of hand... This guy...'

The pain had subsided, and finally I could focus on just observing Funaka.

Without me noticing, Funaka was now holding something like a sword... no, a Magatsuuki.

Most likely, it was the very same Magatsuuki Funaka had taken with her—undoubtedly the finest one available.

And inside the greenhouse, Vilijanila was clearly breathing heavily.

It seemed she had been carefully dodging Funaka's attacks the entire time I was writhing in pain.

"Sat! Withdrawing completely into Ether Space! There's no way to recover from this anymore!!"

"No, I can't let that happen."

"That's right. We can't retreat. If we do, we'll all be cut down instantly—no exceptions, whether it's a slime or a cosmic monster."

"What kind of senseless, arbitrary killing is this!?"

"...I see. So this is what it means to be a god."

Joharis suggests a retreat.

But that's not acceptable.

It's become almost habitual by now—I analyzed the mod used against me... But something akin to Magatsuki's presence is clinging to my core.

If I don't remove it, the next attack will be fatal. And if I flee first, they'll use this clinging presence before I can eliminate it.

And this clinging presence... has already reached Vilijani, Memoxi, and Joharis as well.

It was as if the enemy directly confronting them would never let their target escape.

"Hmm, this is troublesome. My tech can't catch the Benthos controlled by the priestess. Yet she won't just retreat and make things easy for me. Spending any more time like this might cause a fatal disruption to the course I want... "

Yet, the situation seemed equally troubling for Funaka as well.

Holding Magatsu in his right hand and a cigarette in his left, he murmured something.

"That's right. This is the perfect moment to end it."

"!?!"

"What...?"

Funaka suddenly moves.

He stabs Magatsu into the polyhedral object and tosses the cigarette at it.

"If it succeeds, the Imperial Star Vanilla Side will vanish within three days and three nights. If it fails, we can correct the information. Either way, it's a beautifully clean outcome—no unpleasantness at all. Then, farewell. Maiden and Vents.

And with a movement and phenomenon so indistinct it seemed to dissolve into the cosmos, he disappeared.

'Shut it! I'm sorry! That object... it's about to trigger a large-scale, cascading collapse of events!'

'!?'

At the same time, Viridianiya screamed.

Her words were equivalent to warning that if the phenomenon currently beginning to glow on the polyhedral object wasn't stopped immediately, an unimaginable catastrophe would occur.

05/14 text adjustment