Every time Arato had met Snowdrop, she had twisted the world around her into something terrible. And, at that moment, she had become a monstrosity by fusing with Methode. She had no interest in guiding Arato with her form. Rather, she was a figure that represented a completely different set of values from his own.
When faced with a true monster, humans had no choice but to fight back with everything they had. That was why humans prepared tools; to stay alive.
“Are there any poles or pipes around I could use?” Arato asked.
“If you’re looking for a weapon, at least make it something useful,” Ryo said, passing Arato three artificial nerve needles. He had opened up the gun and removed them from the clip.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Ryo said, when he saw Arato’s expression. “This thing is made so you can open it up and put it back together easily. That tells me Lacia made it that way, because you don’t actually have to shoot the needles for them to work. If you stick one of these into the control panel for the security system, we should be able to take control of it.”
“Damn Ryo, you’re always so smart,” Arato said. Their cooperation may have just been on the surface, but it was affecting reality, and even the superficial appearance of cooperation was enough to move their hearts.
“I’ll back you up,” Ryo said. “The panel just outside the entrance is connected to the security system.”
Arato had no idea what would happen when he stabbed the panel with his needle, but Ryo had no time to explain it to him. He did seem surprised, though, with how little hesitation Arato had to leaping into action.
“The other machines and panels around here might be connected to Higgins,” he warned. “Don’t stab them!”
Arato trusted his friend and ran, wondering which machines were connected directly to Higgins. He figured that must have been why Ryo was so careful about not shooting wildly into the room.
“Arato, roll! She’s aiming for you!” Ryo shouted, firing off a shot. As if their hearts had united, Ryo and Arato moved in sync.
Snowdrop-Methode’s arm stretched out toward Arato’s shoulder as he rolled toward the control panel. No human could survive getting snatched by those hands, so Arato threw himself away from her with all his strength. He landed hard on his badly burned right arm, causing him to curl up from the shock of the impact and the nauseous feeling that washed over him afterward.
Ryo leaned out and yelled something at him, his face stretched taught in obvious, panicked worry. He seemed to have been freed from the demonic expressions Arato had seen him make before. It seemed that his feelings toward Arato had changed completely from what they were then.
Arato scrambled at the ground. He couldn’t die yet.
He and Ryo were completely opposites. Growing up, he had always relied on Ryo to pull him out of tough situations. They’d had a falling out, and neither wanted to lose to the other. But, for the moment, things between them had calmed down.
Wheezing, Arato pushed himself to his feet and stumbled out through the large hole in the security barrier. Outside, he spotted the security terminal on the wall, and slammed one of the darts he had been given into it.
A screen above the small keyboard on the terminal displayed 〈Activate intruder elimination function?〉in red text. It sounded dangerous, but must have been what Ryo had been aiming for. He punched his finger into the button on the terminal.
A short, menacing warning tone played throughout the room. From the ceiling, a white net fell, trapping the Snowdrop-Methode amalgam. With the first net of some kind of sticky material stopping its feet, the amalgam was hit by at least ten more nets. Finally, a spear as tall as a human stabbed at Methode from above.
But even the spear wasn’t enough to finish her off. From within the cocoon of countless nets binding it, the amalgam glowed with a faint blue light. Lacia’s railgun shot had been the only attack so far that could break Snowdrop’s device; unable to pierce the sturdy shield of Snowdrop’s device, the spear was snapped in half.
Fire consumed the nets from within, fired by Methode’s device. Snowdrop’s artificial nerves, which weren’t resistant to fire, began to burn away, along with the needles and vines attached to the amalgam.
“Arato, use another one! Look for some way to get her really hot!” Ryo ordered.
Arato jammed in the second needle as hard as he could. The screen on the terminal read 〈Please enter query.〉 But, Arato didn’t have the time to blindly look up ways to burn away Snowdrop’s artificial nerves. Snowdrop-Methode had knelt, and was pressing its hands to the floor.
With a powerful explosion, a pillar of metal powder was thrown up into the air around the amalgam, obscuring it. Not just once, either; the first blast was followed immediately by a second, and then a third.
Arato and Ryo were rocked by the sound of the explosions, as though they were being smashed by a hammer. Inside the room, Ryo gave up on hiding and climbed up onto the control panels, obviously thinking he was safer there.
Arato clenched the final artificial nerve dart between his teeth and covered one ear with his good left hand.
The intermittent explosions began to sound more and more metallic with each blow. When Arato looked into the room, he inhaled a mouthful of metal dust. His body spasmed as he felt the dust enter his airway, and he was forced to drag himself out of the room, hacking uncontrollably.
Unable to escape the roar of the amalgam’s aural attack, he was jerked in and out of consciousness. His sense of time was blurred to incomprehensibility. He had no idea how much time had passed before the sound stopped.
He couldn’t hear anything through the ringing in his right ear. Unable to stand, and with drool smeared around his mouth, he crawled to the hole and looked into the room. The floor, from the entrance to the control panels, had completely crumbled. The Snowdrop-Methode amalgam had used Methode’s device to destroy the very floor beneath them.
Beneath the floor, Arato could see a huge open space full of light. When Arato realized what he was seeing he forced himself to stand, ignoring the weakness and numbness of his legs. “So this is Higgins,” he said.
Directly below the Operators’ Room was a wide open chamber, at least ten meters deep, and covered with computers on every wall from floor to ceiling. Arato and Ryo were standing right above Higgins’ true form.
Arato wiped his mouth with his sleeve and yelled, “Ryo, are you okay?!”
Arato saw Ryo curled in a ball on top of the control panels. The horrendous sound, reverberating within the chamber, had been too much for his consciousness to bear. The control panels appeared to be undamaged. Ryo had climbed up on it before the attack had begun. To Arato, the panels now seemed like the top of an iceberg sticking out, connected to the massive network just below.
The Snowdrop-Methode amalgam had failed to land properly, and had lost Methode’s right leg from the knee down. It tried to stand, but the burden was too great and Methode’s left leg also snapped, twisting under the weight.