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While he was listening but not really listening to these sounds, his mind slid down into the depths of darkness but was yanked back, just as it was on the verge of being swallowed up completely.
He was so tired, he could hardly stand it, but the anxiety in his heart would not let the switch in his brain be turned off. He had exited the Unlimited Neutral Field three hours ago, which meant four months had passed in there. If Urocyon and Complicator had stayed on their dive without returning to the real world, this was more than enough time for them to have investigated every nook and cranny of the twenty-three wards of Tokyo.
Actually, it would have been good news if they were contenting themselves with just gathering information. But given how belligerent Urocyon was, he was likely to march right on into any great dungeon he happened upon. He might charge in with the intention of testing his skill, send all the Enemies inside flying, and reach the deepest level. At which point, wouldn’t he use that momentum and keep going to challenge the boss? Haruyuki highly doubted that the first form of one of the Four Saints, which Kuroyukihime had said would require at least a party of eighteen people to attack, would be defeated by Urocyon and Complicator alone, but the more he thought about it, the bigger this seed of anxiety grew.
He curled up in a ball beneath his blanket and murmured in a soundless voice, “Metatron.”
Naturally, he got no response.
Currently, she and the other five Beings were taking turns shifting to the Highest Level to continue monitoring and searching the Unlimited Neutral Field. She would definitely notice if the Drive Linkers infiltrated a dungeon somewhere, and he’d asked that they please inform him if that happened. So no contact meant nothing was happening…probably.
He had to sleep. He had a ton of things to do the next day. They couldn’t waste the extension Chiyuri had wrested from the Drive Linkers. He had to make sure he got a proper sleep so that he could perfectly carry out preparations for their countermeasures.
He relaxed his entire body and focused only on taking deep, slow breaths. The sounds of the city receded until he could only hear his heart in his chest. Thmp, thmp, thmp…
Ting.
He heard the sound of a bell over his heartbeat, and just as he really was on the verge of sleep, his eyes flew open.
He wasn’t imagining it. This was a call from Metatron. Which meant Urocyon and Complicator had made a move.
His sleepiness was instantly gone. Taking a deep breath, he half shouted the acceleration command, “Unlimited—”
And then he noticed something strange floating above his chest.
With his mouth still open wide, he stared at it, stunned. A small particle of light shining white. Ting, ting. Emitting a faint sound, it grew darker and brighter at regular intervals.
Abruptly, the point of light whirled around counterclockwise and formed a sharp spindle about ten centimeters tall. A small ring appeared above it and adorable wings on either side. This was the 3D icon Metatron used when appearing in a normal duel stage.
She had appeared in this room immediately before the Silver Crow rescue mission, too. But at that time, he’d been accelerated with the Burst Link command, so he was his pig avatar, and his room had been changed into the Blue World.
But he had not used the acceleration command now. And while his Neurolinker was equipped, he hadn’t launched the Brain Burst program. So how could he be seeing Metatron’s 3D icon?
Ever so timidly, he lifted a hand and brought it closer to the icon. But the instant the tip of his finger touched the tip of a faintly shining wing, an even more inexplicable phenomenon occurred, stopping his breath.
The 3D icon began to spin once more and melted into extremely thin lines. Countless shining threads gathered and wove together, painting a complicated pattern, and spun the figure of a life-sized person.
The moment the silhouette was complete, it flashed with an even brighter light, and he reflexively squeezed his eyes shut.
He felt a sudden pressure on his stomach, soft but weighty, and he let out a yelp. When he nervously lifted his eyelids again, there, before his eyes, was a woman of unreal beauty, with a crown of light above her head and massive wings spread fully.
“M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M…” Haruyuki flapped his mouth open and closed as Legend-class Enemy Archangel Metatron looked down on him coolly.
“You were the one who called me, servant,” she said, her voice like bells ringing. “Why do you appear so surprised?”
“…B-b-but it is a surprise…” He managed to answer somehow before looking the Archangel over from head to toe once more. Since the room lights were off, the only source of illumination was the pale blue of the streetlight making its way in through a gap in the curtains, and yet he could see her entire body quite clearly.
Sitting straddled across his stomach, Metatron was not in her usual white robes but rather the kind of short-sleeved shirt and pleated skirt a student in the real world might wear. The skirt pattern was a little different, but it was basically the same as the “uniform” that Goddess of the Dawn Ushas had been so proud of.
He was very curious about this new look, but he was even more curious about how Metatron, a resident of the Accelerated World, could materialize in the real world. Had he gone into a full dive without realizing it himself? Was he dreaming?
He raised his hand once more and was about to touch the smooth thigh, as pale as porcelain, before he realized the truth in the nick of time.
This wasn’t a real body. The mattress beneath them wasn’t deformed with the addition of Metatron’s weight, and when he really looked closely, her slender legs passed right through the thin blanket, as did her spread wings through the curtains. Which meant that she was a sensory sensation his brain was receiving via his Neurolinker. Haptic technology was a basic Neurolinker function, but even so, the amount of data here was too great.
Restraining the impulse to reach out and grab the edge of her stylish tartan skirt, he said, “Umm. I wasn’t calling you before. I was just kinda worried and accidentally said your name…”
“What? A soliloquy?” she said, exasperated. “The signal strength was quite high for that, you know. I told you that I would inform you should something happen.”
It seemed impossible that her voice was only in his brain and not in his actual ears.
Swinging her right leg over his body, Metatron sat down on the edge of the bed and folded up the wings on her back as she continued in a tone that was a tiny bit gentler. “But I understand your feelings of anxiety. The world where you have fought is facing a critical moment, after all—the question of annihilation.”
“When you put it like that…!” Haruyuki sat up reflexively and earnestly connected his thoughts with words. “It’s not like I’ll disappear in the real world if the Accelerated World is gone. But Metatron… All of you Beings…”
“I suppose we will be completely annihilated.” Her voice, so readily assenting to the idea, sounded calmer than it ever had before, and he swallowed hard. It was almost like…almost as if she’d already accepted that fate.
She turned her face toward him only slightly, raised her eternally closed eyelids softly, stared at him with golden eyes, and smiled.
“Please don’t misunderstand. It is not the case that we have given up on victory. But I also have the feeling that I might well at last learn the answer to the question that I have carried since the moment the consciousness that is myself sprang forth.”
“The question…” He paused to think. “The meaning of your existence in the Accelerated World…?”
“Yes.” Metatron nodded. “The person who created and controls the Accelerated World designated as the targets for attack in the final stage the seven Beings, of which I myself am one. This could not have been some passing flight of fancy. Most likely, we were generated for this end from the start. In short, we are not merely a single object—no, obstacle set—in this game Brain Burst 2039.”
“Of course you’re not!” Haruyuki cried desperately. He was loud enough that if his mother had come home, she would wonder what was going on and peek into his room, but he didn’t care about that. “If your job was only to be a boss monster, then the fact that you Beings have light cubes—souls like us—doesn’t make sense! Tezcatlipoca is proof that you’d be plenty threatening even without a light cube. And…if you were generated as nothing more than targets for attack, then why would you…? I mean, a mere player like me…”
He actually couldn’t bring himself to ask her the rest: Why would you like me?
But the Archangel smiled once more, as if she had picked up on everything in his heart. “…Indeed. If there are emotions born from what could be called a heart in me, these are an unnecessary feature in a target for attack. But—or rather, because of this…”
“Huh…?” He stared at her, uncomprehending.
“No, pay that no mind.” She shook her head slightly before extending a hand and lightly pressing it against him. The pressure was supposedly only virtual, but he fell back onto the bed anyway.
“You must be tired,” she said sternly. “Go to sleep, Haruyuki.”
“…But…”
“Do you wish me to lull you to sleep? So like a child, hmm?”
Pardon?
Before he could respond to this question, Metatron was lying down beside him and pulling his head onto her chest. The material of the shirt that touched his face was smoother than silk and imbued with a refreshing scent, like a breeze blowing across a grassy field.
He froze at the everything-ness of it. There was no way he could sleep in a situation like this. Or so he thought, but the instant he felt the warmth and softness enveloping his whole body, the clock of his thoughts decelerated. He still had so much he wanted to talk about, to tell her, but her merely patting the hollow at the nape of his neck scattered his consciousness like downy fluff.
Good night, Haruyuki.
He heard a gentle murmur and fell into a gentle darkness.
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