Chapter 387: Bring Down the Ancient Aerial Fortress! 10
* * *
"RAAAAAAAAAAAHーーー!!!"
Squeeze.
Squeeze it out.
Desperately!
Flapping my unfamiliar [Black Wings].
Ignoring the unpredictable wind.
I forcibly eject mana from the nozzles I created on my back armor and glide!
<...!! To the right, Emi!!>
I tilted my body, following Extra-sama's words.
Swaying slightly to the right.
BOO, BOO, BOOOM!!
The sound of bombardment, slightly delayed.
A cannonball, fired at the spot where I was just a moment ago, falling towards the ground.
That cannonball, stirring the air.
My trajectory, wavering.
Whoosh!
WHOOSH!!
Squeeze.
Squeeze.
Squeeze out the mana!
Jet propulsion, forcibly correcting my course!
<Now to the left, Emi!!>
BOO, BOOM!!
The bombardment, relentless.
Once again, I narrowly dodged it.
WHOOSH!!
Scattering jet-black mana from my back.
GUGYUGYUGYUGRURURURURURURU!!
My stomach growled.
Like a scream.
I'm at my limit.
But.
I glared ahead.
A giant sphere of light, glowing red.
The power source... of this weird steel jellyfish... is right there.
If I can fly a little further, I'll reach it.
Dazzling.
Dazzling.
The red light, so dazzling, it's annoying.
The sun has started to rise too.
I don't need two suns.
So.
GUGYUGYUGYUGYUGYUGYU!!
Ah...
I'm hungry...
WHOOSH!!
Whoosh, whoosh...
Pssst.
I squeezed out everything I had.
Out of fuel.
I can't... produce any more mana...
<Ah! Emi, dodge...>
The last thing I heard was Extra-sama's panicked voice.
BOOM!
And then, the sound of bombardment.
Immediately after that, I felt heat and impact on my back.
And my consciousness... faded to black.
* * *
Emi was at her limit.
Gliding with [Black Wings].
It did startle Megzam and Engee, but it was nothing more than a desperate struggle.
After all, she's only used [Black Wings] once before.
This is as close to winging it as it gets.
Moreover, she's low on mana.
She...
...Was finally hit by the bombardment from 'Soul Conqueror' and fell.
Who can blame her for that outcome?
Anyway, the Cursed Child, has fallen to earth.
Evil laughed triumphantly, ascending even higher.
Higher, higher, ahead of the sunlight.
Arrogantly, it climbed to the top.
* * *
".........Guh."
Even though a cannonball directly hit my back.
And I was slammed headfirst to the ground from the sky.
I'm still alive.
But I'm completely wrecked.
I don't even have the energy to create armor.
<Emi! Emi! Are you okay!?>
I vaguely heard Extra-sama's tearful voice.
What spread out before my eyes was the morning sky, cloudless, dyed in three colors.
The base was still a slightly dim blue.
At its eastern edge, the white of the sun.
And the annoying one, still shining brightly, the red of the steel jellyfish.
GUGYUGYUGYUGYUGYUGYUGYU!!
"A-Aah..."
This hunger... is terrible.
I somehow managed to sit up, my body embedded in the cobblestones, and looked around.
It seems I'm on the main street.
But there's no one around.
Good thing.
If there was someone, I would have probably...
...Both physically and mentally, easily...
...Torn them apart and devoured them.
"Guh..."
Anyway.
Anything will do.
I have to eat something.
I stabbed my fingers into the cobblestones around me, gouged out a piece, and put it in my mouth.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Eat.
Eat.
Anything will do.
Eat.
Scrape.
Scrape.
Scrape the world.
Scrape the world and cling to life.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Crunch, crunch, crunch...
On all fours, I frantically devoured the cobblestones.
The sun, rising from the east, cast my long shadow.
And at the end of that long, stretched-out shadow...
...There was a large black lump.
"A-Au... a..."
Noticing it, I desperately crawled over there.
Its shell, glistening in the morning sun.
It was the corpse of a warrior, dead with a ripped abdomen.
Crack.
I exerted my superhuman strength, forcibly crushing its shell, harder than cobblestones.
And then, I put it in my mouth.
Swallowing it whole.
"!!"
What spread through my stomach was... dense, concentrated... mana.
An excellent...
...Excellent warrior, it must have been.
"Ah... chomp, chomp...!!"
I desperately, frantically devoured the remains of Destroy Bunbun.
* * *
After consuming every bit of that warrior's remains...
...Emi finally stood up.
Her hunger hasn't subsided yet.
There's no way it would.
But she managed to stand up and think.
She has regained that much energy.
"Extra-sama..."
Emi muttered.
"I... lost..."
<Emi...>
Looking up, at evil.
The steel jellyfish floating in the sky.
The magical cables, its tentacles, which had been connected to the ground... were retracted.
There's no way to reach it.
"I lost..."
She stared blankly at the jellyfish.
The power source, the sphere of light, still flickering with a red light.
Flicker, flicker, flicker.
Showing Emi that it's still intact.
Watching that...
A feeling... welled up inside her...
...Anger, frustration... such emotions...
".........Tch!!"
Clicking her tongue, she gouged out a piece of cobblestone.
And then, she threw the pebble, now as small as a bean, at the steel jellyfish, fueled by her frustration.
The pebble flew straight... straight ahead...
...And probably hit the steel jellyfish's power source.
But nothing changed.
A mere pebble couldn't even scratch it.
<I-It reached it...>
Extra-sama continued, slightly taken aback by that fact.
<But, it's just... a pebble... It's not hard enough to damage that aerial fortress...>
"............"
Listening to Extra-sama's words.
Emi glared at the steel jellyfish... grinding her teeth in frustration.
But...
"...Hardness?"
Emi suddenly realized something.
"Then... if I throw something really hard... it'll... break?"
<Well, that might be true, but... we don't have anything that hard. That aerial fortress is probably an artifact from the super ancient magical civilization. There's no throwing weapon that can damage its armor...>
Ignoring Extra-sama's words, Emi fumbled through her bag, which had barely retained its shape.
Inside is a blue flower.
But... that's not all.
When she parted ways with her large underling, Zaratopu, at sea.
The gift he gave her.
Emi...
...Has been carrying it with her, always.
<Ah...!!>
Extra-sama unintentionally cried out, seeing what Emi took out of her bag.
Bathed in the morning sunlight streaming straight down from the eastern sky.
That white jewel, shining beautifully.
A fist-sized sphere, so hard that even Emi can't break it.
Its name...
...Is 'Divine Jewel'.
[Divine Jewel]
Appeared in Arc 16.
It was the root cause of what went wrong in the country of Ashgo.
But now, it's been reduced to just a jewel...
But the important thing here and now is...
...That it's incredibly hard.