novelnext Parallel: For the next generation
Parallel: For the next generation
The silence in the City of Gears was no longer that of a perfectly oiled machine, but that of a mechanical corpse bleeding out in steam and sparks.(Sssssssss-hiss... glug...!!)
What was once a metropolis of bronze and precision was now a nightmare landscape; the clock towers, which previously set the rhythm of existence, lay toppled like decapitated giants, their crystal spheres pulverized and their hands twisted like agonizing fingers pointing toward the chromatic aurora.
(CREAK... CLANG-GG...!!)
The floor of the central plaza, which had borne the weight of eras, was now fractured into a thousand pieces.
"Haa... haa... haa..."
The northern lights flagstones had turned a deathly gray, pierced by cracks so deep that a suffocating industrial heat emanated from within.
(Drip... splat... sizzle...!!)
In every corner, the air was saturated with the acrid smell of burnt metal and the sweet scent of rotten cocoa, creating a dense atmosphere that made vision difficult.
"Fuuh... I feel great..."
The bronze colossi that once patrolled the streets were nothing more than piles of smoldering scrap metal, their circuits exposed and their lens eyes dark, melted by the friction of attacks that even their sensors couldn't register.
(K-chak!)
In the midst of that desolation, leaning against the shaft of a master gear that refused to stop turning despite being split in half, Yumemaru tried to find his center.
"It has been a long time since my birth that I haven't felt this burning... Just as I thought... I truly love fighting..."
Before him, the figure of Sirael, reclining with a smile of satisfaction, was muttering to herself while gazing at the smoldering sky.
(¡¡K-ZAK... CHONK!!)
There, struggling to stand, Yumemaru wore his tunic—once elegant—now turned into a rag of burnt cloth soaked in blood as he tried to pull himself up.
"Hey, you think the same way too, don't you?!"
Yumemaru's consciousness had become blurred after pushing himself to the very limit of his being, unable to comprehend the words that the monster before him uttered...
"..."
Each time the gear released a puff of steam, the Founder's silhouette was revealed for an instant: a figure who, despite broken ribs and a uselessly hanging left arm, continued to grip the hilt of his sword Split Moon with a determination that defied the logic of pain.
"That look you keep giving despite your state... It really makes my blood boil."
His eyes, bloodshot and darkened by the exhaustion of days of uninterrupted combat, scanned the horizon of ruins.
(... Shija... I... must... buy... time...)
Even at the gates of disappearance, he kept his goal in mind, trying to push on, knowing that they had not left; instead, they were simply waiting for the dust from the last collision to finish settling.
(¡¡VROOOO-MMMM-KRRR-SHHH!!)
But at that moment, in the distance, a rhythmic vibration ran through the twisted metal walkways.
"Data collection has concluded... Changing objective..."
The city was attempting to repair itself under the will of Machina, but the damage was so massive and the energy emanating from the battle was so disruptive that the new gears were born deformed, screeching in a symphony of metallic agony as the sky turned black.
"I’m... still here."
However, none of that mattered to Yumemaru in his final moments...
"¡Bluarg...!"
He spat out a string of thick blood, leaning on the remains of a stretched column, trying to rise to catch the interest of the "monsters" before they changed their prey.
(CLANG... CLANG... CLANG...)
However, the sound of metallic steps—slow and rhythmic—that emerged from the mist of steam was unimpressed.
"Negative. The duel has been decided according to the calculations and analysis of your current state."
Dea-Machina's voice cut through the air with surgical coldness.
"The duration of the conflict was 336 hours in external time; an admirable achievement. However, everything has ended."
She emerged from between two split master gears, her mechanical wings half-deployed, releasing small bursts of pressure to clear the dust from her path.
(... That's it... keep going...)
In response to those words, Yumemaru could barely manage a cynical smile, but before he could answer, a melancholy laugh vibrated from the heights of a leaning tower.
"Leave it, Machina! He doesn't understand... he can't understand."
At that moment, after saying those words, Mirabellis let herself fall from the heights, landing with terrifying lightness upon a pile of scrap metal.
"Finally free from the bonds... I understood it..."
Her red cloak, now torn at the edges, billowed like a warning flag.
"He doesn't give up because he loves us... right? He hates me so much that he has decided his own death isn't punishment enough. It's so sweet... to see your muscles tear just to give us one more second of attention... It's irresistible!!"
Her mismatched eyes shone with a mixture of tears and ecstasy as she toyed with a piece of a gear in her hands, crushing it effortlessly.
"Poor thing, it's so sad, someone has to help him! Should I not kill him then?!"
Guided by the noise, Yumemaru tightened his grip on Split Moon.
(... Keep capturing... Their attention...!)
Soon, the air began to charge with a static electricity that made his hair stand on end.
(¡¡SHIIII-IIING!!)
And immediately after, a line of silver light cut through the dark steam in a single slash, clearing the view of the plaza.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"
In the center of the cleared path, Sirael walked with her sword held high. Her gala armor bore the marks of impacts, but her face... it showed an unimaginable coldness compared to moments before.
"Don't interfere in my fight."
Thus, Sirael stopped a few meters from Yumemaru, standing her ground against her sisters out of a burning desire to fight even more.
(Is this all?)
Under the sky suffocated by black steam, Yumemaru’s figure no longer seemed like that of a man, but rather a biological ruin that refused to collapse.
(I can't feel my hands... What a shame... my body no longer responds, but my soul wants another round...)
As he tried to take a step forward to face the trinity of madness, his body protested with a dry, agonizing crunch.
(¡¡KRRR-ACK... SISSS...!!)
His right leg, from the mid-thigh down, simply did not exist.
"We... are not... finished..."
In its place, an irregular and charred stump, sealed by the brutal cauterization of an energy attack, ended in a mass of exposed flesh and bone.
(I cannot fall!)
Yumemaru held himself in a precarious balance, using the remains of Split Moon driven into the ground as an improvised crutch, while his left leg tried to bear all the weight.
(... I will not... fall again...)
But that leg was not intact either.
(... Amber... I’m sorry... I couldn't protect you...)
His left foot, caught days ago in a chemical explosion orchestrated by Machina, was a deformed mass of melted skin and exposed tendons.
(That night... I couldn't protect anyone... And yet...)
The toes had disappeared, fused into a block of charred flesh that adhered to the burning metal of the plaza with a constant hiss.
(Why did I survive?!)
Every breath was a triumph of pain.
(Why did you save me too... Paradox...?)
His tunic, now reduced to black tatters, revealed a torso that was a canvas of technical destruction.
(... A priestess of the Flame... A hero... Even that four-eyed wretch... All of them deserved to live more than I did...)
Marks of geometric cuts, perfect and deep, covered his chest and abdomen, tracing the exact trajectory of Sirael's slashes.
"Haaa... haaa..."
Some wounds were so deep that the erratic light from the dying gears reflected off the whiteness of his fractured ribs as his past rushed back into his mind.
(... I didn't care about dying... I... I wanted to die... but... I made a promise...)
As he looked up to answer Sirael, the devastation on his face became evident.
(For the future you wanted to protect so much)
His right eye had vanished completely, replaced by a black and bloody hole, caused by a precision thrust that had pierced through the eyelid and the eyeball.
(... For the one that everyone gave everything for...)
A trail of dried blood and black scabs originated from the empty socket, furrowing his cheek until disappearing into his neglected beard.
"Dammit..."
His left arm hung uselessly at his side, dislocated and broken in multiple points, with the left hand swollen and bruised, unable to close.
(... I gave away part of my soul... I inherited what I could, involving innocents... I really am...)
Only his right hand, numb and trembling, continued to grip the hilt of his sword, his knuckles white and skin torn by the friction of steel against steel.
(I am pathetic...)
His pulse was an agonizing drum, a vibration that resonated in his astral bones.
(I can't help but think... Shija... The answer you gave at that moment... If I had taken it... If only I had...)
No trace remained of the elegance of the Kyōgetsu Style; there was only pure will, a spark of consciousness burning in his remaining left eye, which scrutinized Sirael with an intensity that defied the logic of his imminent collapse.
"Just as I thought... Even in that state, you can fight!"
He was broken, mutilated, and at the limit of what the fragment of the soul that remained of himself could endure.
"Interesting... Analyzing. Re-analizando.... In light of the new data, observation will proceed..."
But he remained standing.
"... That look... it reflects so much love... And for that reason, in honor of love, I will only watch!"
And thanks to that, he managed to persist, buying enough time...
(¡K-THUMP... K-THUMP...!)
... For the weapon to complete its awakening.
(Finally)
The atmosphere, already charged with unbearable tension, fractured before a phenomenon that no one in that plaza could have foreseen.
(¡¡¡K-THUMP... K-THUMP... K-THUMP-K-THUMP-K-THUMMMMM!!)
It wasn't a sound, but a primordial pulse wave that shook the foundations of the City of Gears.
"¡¿?!"
"¡¿Is that...?!"
"Interesting..."
It was a rhythmic beat, deep and charged with an authority that caused the surviving gears to grind to a halt for an eternal instant.
(¡¡¡BA-DUM... BA-DUM... BA-DUM...!!!)
Yumemaru, with his single eye gleaming with bloody satisfaction, let out a raspy laugh that ended in a coughing fit at what was about to happen.
(... So far... everything is going as you said... you damned four-eyes...)
Sirael, Machina, and Mirabellis froze their movements, turning their mismatched faces toward the source of that disturbance.
"I never liked poetry..."
There, the sword that Shija had left embedded in the ground at the beginning finished its metamorphosis.
(¡¡¡VROOOOOOOOOM-SHINE!!!)
The blade had completed its synchrony and total integration with Mireya's soul, imbuing itself with massive amounts of energy.
(... That disciple is pushing himself)
That sword had evolved, finally feeling the call of its master...
(¡¡¡FIIIIIIIIII-SHUUUUUUUUU!!!)
And in response, with a sonic roar, the sword took flight, ascending like an inverted shooting star.
(¡¡In that case!!)
The sword cut through the sooty sky with a perfect vertical trajectory, leaving a trail of light that tore through the steam clouds, flying in response to Shija's desperate call.
(As the founder of the Kyōgetsu Style...!)
Taking advantage of the sisters' second of astonishment, Yumemaru burned every last gram of his spiritual essence.
"Don't get distracted!!"
Despite his amputated leg and shattered body, he propelled himself with explosive violence, becoming a bolt of silver desperation.
(¡¡¡BOOM!!!)
Split Moon traced a descending arc, charged with the weight of days of agony, seeking the neck of a Sirael who still had her gaze fixed on the sky.
(¡¡¡CLANG-VRAAAAAAASH!!!)
However, despite that, what struck against the steel was only more steel...
"I never take my eyes off my objective in a duel..."
The clash of metals was deafening.
"So come on, let's continue this fight!!"
Sirael, with reflexes that defied surprise, interposed her silver blade at the last millisecond, releasing sparks that bathed both their faces, illuminating the minimal distance separating their eyes.
(DON'T YOU DARE LOSE...!)
Betting everything, a legend opened the way for the one who would surpass him...
"¡¡HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
... That day, within the soul, a fragment of the past would disappear and, in turn...
(¡¡FSSSHHHH-ZING!!)
Amidst the light, a chain would break.