3. THE WOUNDS ONE BEARS Rain gradually regained consciousness, stirring from the damage inflicted by the shock wave. …… His field of vision cleared, and his hazy mind started to focus. “…Ugh,” he groaned as he opened his eyes. What’s going on? Cold white stretched out as far as his eyes could see. Rain had fallen onto the snow. The moment he tried to get up, intense pain shot through his left breast in the exact spot the mysterious girl had stabbed him earlier. Aaah… The sword was still buried in his chest. Goddammit… His upper body felt awfully heavy. The steel…the sword…was weighing him down, impaling him back to front. The sword had slowed the bleeding, so removing it would have spelled his doom. And so, Rain had no choice but to get up with the sword still in his chest. Where am I? He was no longer on the train. The white snow and tall trees around him told him that he stood in a forest. And there was no one else but him in sight. He’d landed on an uninhabited, snowy mountain. Burning, smoking pieces of wreckage and what looked to be man-made debris were strewn about. Rain assumed they were the remains of the train car. There were more pieces of metal around than he could count, sending billows of black smoke into the air. What happened…? How had he ended up there? As soon as Rain started questioning the situation… “Rain!” …someone called his name. Of course, he remained utterly alone, but he hadn’t imagined that voice. Someone had called for him. “Rain, are you there?! Can you hear me?!” “This voice…” The distorted sound came from his waist, from the wireless transceiver Athly had handed him when they began their watch. Rain recognized that tinny voice instantly. “Athly…” “Rain!” she screamed, sounding mightily relieved. “Thank God. I’ve been calling you for so long with no response…” “What…?” “Hmm?” “What happened…?” The fact that the transceiver still worked was a stroke of luck, but he didn’t have the time to rejoice. Understanding what was going on took precedence. “Well, part of the train got bombed and slipped down the mountain.” “Wait, what?” “Three cars in the middle of the train fell down the cliff, taking their cargo with them. The couplings were severed to protect the rest of the train, but the three cars around the epicenter couldn’t be saved…” Apparently, they’d all tumbled straight down the cliff. Climbing up is probably not an option…, Rain thought as he looked up. He stood below the cliff face he’d been looking down from a short while ago. The incline looked to be over sixty degrees, which made climbing up effectively impossible. The snowy wind picked up, obscuring the top of the cliff. Still, the rails were definitely behind that curtain of white. Rain knew that was where he’d fallen from. So that’s what happened… That explained the wreckage around him. The train car’s frame had probably shattered during the fall. Rain had likely lost consciousness partway down. He could easily have died in the crash, so sheer dumb luck had saved him. “Anyway, the rest of us are unharmed because we were in the other cars, so they told us to continue the escort mission. Once we figured out you were in one of the fallen cars, we tried to contact your transceiver…” Everything clicked into place during Athly’s explanation. “Rain, are you all right? The people in charge said they’d send a rescue party soon, but that fall must have really hurt you.” “I’m…fine. You’ve got nothing to worry about,” Rain lied to her. “I’m not hurt.” He had nothing to gain by telling Athly about his injury. It would just make her worry unnecessarily. “I’ve got a handle on the situation now,” Rain answered. An injured soldier would only serve to slow down the rest of the pack. “I think I’ll…stay put and wait for the rescue party. Just focus on guarding the cargo. That bombing from earlier was caused by a western soldier. More of them may be preparing to raid you.” And with that, Rain cut off the transmission. Normally, he would have left the transceiver on, but he had to keep his injury a secret. If he talked any longer, his pained panting would give him away. Aaah…! The moment he stopped concentrating, pain jolted through his body. He placed a hand over his chest, and sticky blood clung to his fingers. Athly said a search party would be sent to rescue him, but he was in the middle of the mountain, and the snowfall was severe. It would take them quite a bit of time to find him. Will I last in this cold weather until they do…? Of course not! He would either bleed or freeze to death. He couldn’t afford to wait for a search party. Dammit… Regret washed over him. He’d been such an idiot. What happened back there…? Rain thought back to his confrontation with the girl of ebony who’d ambushed them with an Exelia. He’d tried fighting her despite not knowing anything about her. “Wait!” Air had tried to stop him, but he’d ignored her. Quit acting like I can’t do anything! he’d thought, and like a child he’d refused to heed critical advice. “Rain, don’t! Get away from her!” He’d ignored her…and his stubbornness had landed him here, at the brink of death. The car he’d occupied had tumbled down the cliff, taking his gravely injured body with it. Shit… A wave of regret struck him once more. He hated his own foolishness. Air understood everything. She had always tried to guide him with the right words throughout the transport mission. Rain had assumed the West would never attack and treated the whole thing as a pointless chore. But they’d sent in a mage powerful enough to dispatch Rain in the blink of an eye. That was proof the West was gunning for the new Exelias. It still seemed like an unpredictable turn of events in his mind. But back then, if he’d remained calm and stopped when Air had warned him…perhaps they could have protected the train. Perhaps he could have avoided that life-threatening injury. Perhaps he could have stayed with the rest of his unit. He realized how childish he’d been acting. Air had even told him as much when they’d argued. “It definitely isn’t. Quit sulking like a little kid. And don’t you dare put words in my mouth.” When she’d called him a kid, Rain’s anger had boiled over. But looking at where that uncontrolled anger had gotten him, the word felt generous. He was an utter fool. Something… There had to be something he could do. As bad as things were, dying while drowned in his own regrets seemed far worse. He tried to focus and come up with a solution. He had no way to take back his mistakes, but he could at least not make them worse. And so, he attempted to gather his thoughts. Right now, I’m at the bottom of the cliff with a sword stuck in my chest. I need a way to get back up there… Unfortunately, right when he started thinking about possible solutions… “Wow!” “Ah…!” …an ominous voice reached his ears. “So this is where you landed.” He lowered his gaze to the western soldier who’d attacked the train. “How…?” “You still have a sword in you even after you fell from that height, but you survived. You must have amazing intuition as a mage. Or perhaps it’s just luck…? Well, not like it really matters.” “What are you doing here…?” The girl from earlier did nothing. “No need to be alarmed. I don’t intend to gobble you up or anything…” Her black clothes were damaged. She must have fallen off the cliff, just like Rain, but she stood on the snow without a scratch on her. Was she completely unscathed? “I have some business with you,” she said. Then she instantaneously closed in on Rain. “You see, I only have one sword.” Faster than he could draw his gun, the girl circled around him and… “So I’m afraid I’m going to have to take this back.” …reached for the sword. No way…! She drew the sword out of his chest in one swift, flowing squelch. “GAAAAAAHHHH!” It was just as painful as when she’d first stabbed him, and he had to fight to keep from losing consciousness. But the experience was about to get even worse… “Try not to scream. I’d rather you not burst my eardrums.” The girl thrust the muzzle of her gun, a small pistol best used for assassinations, against Rain’s wound. The barrel soon turned red with blood. “But it will hurt.” She pulled the trigger, and Rain experienced a sudden burst of white-hot agony, like molten iron pouring through his entrails and into his whole body. “Gaaah—AAHHHH!” “It’s only surface-level treatment, but this should at least seal the wound.” It wasn’t an attack, nor an ordinary bullet, but Bullet Magic. The projectile was laced with magic that condensed heat. The bullet cauterized Rain’s wound in the blink of an eye, reaching temperatures hot enough to melt iron. Wait… She stopped…my bleeding? It was an extremely crude form of first aid, but it saved Rain’s life all the same. But…why? Rain failed to understand her intentions. What did she have to gain by keeping him alive? Right when such thoughts crossed his mind, she slipped behind him and grabbed him by the wrists. “I need to tie your hands.” Rain was in too much pain to resist. And on top of that, the girl seemed rather skilled. She took a strap of leather used by the military for restraining prisoners and coiled it around Rain’s wrists, then tightened it to bind his arms. “Well, what do we do now?” she wondered aloud once she finished. “…What?” “Got something to say?” “What…or who are you?” Rain didn’t understand anything about her. What was a dainty girl who seemed to be his age doing on the battlefield? Why did she raid a transport train? Why did she stab him, and…why didn’t she finish him off? “Do you want to know my name?” the ebony girl asked. She held her sword with the snowy mountain behind her and told him without a hint of hesitation. “I’m Deadrim, a soldier of the West.” With the field of white around her, she was eerily beautiful. “Killing you here would be easy,” she stated flatly before moving to make a proposal—or, more precisely, to start a negotiation. “Honestly, in any other situation, I’d abandon an enemy soldier like you, but I can’t exactly afford to do that right now.” “Huh…?” “Look up.” Rain gazed up as instructed, but he didn’t see anything. A white void stretched out before him. He then looked around and realized his field of vision was extremely limited. First, there were the trees, and the snowfall only grew stronger as time went by. The situation already felt worse than when he’d first awoken. “Can you see the problem? It’s freezing cold, and the snow won’t stop… The way things are going, even a healthy person will freeze to death within the hour. And unfortunately, I haven’t been trained to survive on snowy mountains, so I assume an active soldier like you is better at this than I am.” Essentially, she wanted him to lend her his knowledge. To cooperate with her until they found a way off the mountain. In exchange, she would spare his life. “I honestly didn’t expect this, either,” Deadrim said. “I planned to simply steal the cargo and run, but my ally probably fell off at the same time, so I have to find him.” And so, she wanted Rain to accompany her. Of course, this was more of a threat than an offer. Rain couldn’t afford to say no. She could have killed him if he refused, but that wasn’t the only danger he faced. Rain was gravely injured, and if left alone, he would freeze to death. No… Even if I do help her… Deadrim always had the option of killing him the moment he finished serving his purpose. She was a soldier who belonged to the enemy nation’s military, after all. Rain’s life had effectively been placed on a timer the moment the girl came up with the idea of using him to escape the snowy mountain. Still, I have no choice… For the time being, he had to cooperate. Given his injury, Rain was useless in battle. It was an unbalanced deal, where his life rested entirely in Deadrim’s hands. But so long as he clung to life, a chance to break free still existed. Thus, he prioritized staying alive. “Well, what do you say? Will you help me?” Deadrim pressed him for an answer. As if I can say no… “I have an idea,” Rain said. “Let’s hear it.” “Even if we get off the mountain, we’re in the middle of nowhere. There are no settlements in a twenty-five-mile radius. Plus, we won’t get far in this snow without any gear. We can try if you want, but we’d just die.” “What, you want to wait for the snow to die down?” “That’s also too dangerous. We don’t know when that will happen, so waiting without any food or equipment isn’t an option.” Everything was stacked against them. And having arrived at that conclusion, Rain proposed what struck him as the best possible solution that also prolonged his life. “The car we were on probably crashed nearby. Let’s go look for food and any machinery we can recover.” They had to travel along the cliff to find it, which raised the chances of running into her comrade. Rain and Deadrim were thrown off, so the car hadn’t fallen directly where they were. Still, it couldn’t have crashed too far from their position, which made their search radius one mile at best. The snow severely impacted their visibility, but not enough to obscure wreckage. And so, they started their trek with Rain walking ahead. “That girl who was with you earlier…” “What girl?” “The one on the train,” Deadrim whispered, her gun fixed on Rain’s back menacingly. “She looked extremely white… No, silver. She was tiny and innocent-looking enough, but she didn’t hesitate to drop the whole car down the cliff in that situation. She has grit, as well as the marksmanship skills to back it up. I know we’re enemies, but I have to admit, she has skill. She used her Bullet Magic to pinpoint the coupling and safely blow the cars off the rails. Seeing tactics like that on a modern battlefield surprised me.” As she talked, she confirmed his suspicion that Air had caused the explosion. Figured as much… Enemy soldiers had no reason to blow up the train in that situation. If they wanted to knock it off the rails, they could have simply sniped it from a distance. The only reason they’d charged in personally was because they didn’t want to damage the cargo. Air had apparently figured that out within moments and shifted into action, even when the enemy held all the initiative. She’d sought a way to keep the enemy away from the train, accurately gauged their skill, and elected to blow their car off from the rest of the train. At first glance, it seemed like a reckless solution, but considering the presence of an Exelia, her choice felt rational. If she hadn’t gotten rid of the attacker right then and there, the whole train would’ve been in danger. The West had sent in only a single unit, which meant they were confident that was enough to complete that raid. …… Rain had witnessed a rather odd sequence of events. The Exelia had fallen down from above, but it hadn’t jumped. The massive unit simply landed atop the train. It appeared out of thin air… The phenomenon was physically impossible. A cliff face stood on the right end of the train, while a steep 160-foot mountain rested on the left. An Exelia couldn’t have driven through that terrain, and yet here it was. There’s something…some sort of trick to it. His assailant, Deadrim, had done something impossible. And until he figured out how it worked, he couldn’t afford to make any reckless decisions. “Stop, please,” Deadrim said suddenly while he racked his brain. Rain froze in place. “I smell smoke,” she remarked. And indeed, upon taking a deep breath, the stench of smoke filled Rain’s nose. Based on the wind’s direction, the smell came from north of their position. The two of them followed it and discovered the charred, smoking wreckage of the train car. However, someone had planted themselves right in front of it. “Oh…” Deadrim grabbed Rain’s bound arms and lifted them up. Rain’s face contorted from the strain on his chest and the injury in it, but Deadrim held on to him tightly, preventing him from so much as stirring. “It seems we both have hostages,” Deadrim flatly stated as she fixed her gaze forward. “I didn’t expect this,” a female voice replied. Two people stood before Rain. One of them was a soldier clad in the West’s uniform with faint scarlet hair. He appeared to be in his thirties, and blood stained the bandages around his leg red. And standing right behind him was… “We both had the same idea.” …the silver girl, Air, with her gun trained directly at him. She had fallen down the cliff, too, when the car flew off the rails. Her situation mirrored Deadrim’s, down to the fact she took an injured enemy soldier prisoner. “You’re the mage who raided the train,” Air said as she faced Deadrim. “And you’re the eastern soldier who derailed us. Your name?” “Air,” she replied curtly. “Hmm. Well, I’m Deadrim, a soldier of Harborant. Now, then, Air…” She paused and trailed off there before continuing the tense negotiations. “…I’m certain you’ve noticed the weather. Fighting in this blizzard will only result in us both freezing to death, and I don’t think either of us wants that. We should instead focus on securing the cargo.” There was no point fighting. No matter who came out on top, the victor would meet a frosty death. Cooperating gave them a better chance of escaping alive. “I suggest we work together,” Deadrim said. She proposed they begin by exchanging hostages. “Very well, then.” Air accepted Deadrim’s offer without setting any further demands. A second later, she made the captured western soldier walk forward. “Go on, you too.” Deadrim shooed Rain away and kicked his back, which prompted him to walk forward even though his hands remained bound. “……” Rain silently stepped forward. After walking thirty feet, he crossed paths with the soldier Air had captured. It was hard to tell what he looked like through the snow, but like Rain suspected, the man was a commissioned officer. He had a certain frail, timid air to him that made it hard to believe he’d stage a raid. Yeah, like I thought… The raid was likely the ebony girl’s idea. “Hey there.” The blunt greeting came, of course, from Air. She faced Rain, who had walked all the way over to her without even realizing it. “Show me your wound.” And that was what she chose to start with. He listened to her and shifted his torn clothes as soon as she freed his hands. Upon looking at his closed wound, Air immediately realized its severity. “…The bleeding has stopped, but that’s it,” she whispered plainly. “The wound itself hasn’t healed at all. It’s pretty deep.” Rain’s selfish actions had caused all sorts of trouble, but there was no anger in her voice. She calmly, rationally analyzed the situation. “We should cooperate with them for a while.” Apparently, she’d picked up on his silent question. “What now?” “Are you sure it’s a good idea to work with enemy soldiers?” Rain found himself questioning her decision. Sure, he’d worked with Deadrim earlier, but only at gunpoint. “It probably isn’t, but we don’t have much of a choice. Before you two showed up, I looked over there and found the train car,” Air remarked as she pointed northward. “And there’s an Exelia inside it.” “…No way.” “A second-generation Exelia, to be precise. A prototype is inside that car.” Deadrim and her partner had offered to work with them, but they definitely planned to betray them at some point. Rain was sure of that fact. After all, Deadrim had only spared him because she needed him. Taking an enemy soldier captive was nothing but trouble, so she would’ve planned to dispose of him after he’d served his purpose. Even now, they only cooperated outwardly. On the inside, Deadrim was desperately searching for a chance to shoot them through the heart. “Not that we’re any different,” Air remarked. “We’re in dire straits here.” That went without saying. They’d been placed on the back foot the moment the car got knocked off the rails. Instead of outnumbering the enemy on the train, they got stuck in a one-on-one on the mountain, which placed them at a disadvantage. Normally, the irreversible shift from a superior position to a worst-case scenario would have been lamentable. Any ordinary mages would’ve had to work to slowly improve their situation. Luckily, they weren’t normal at all. “We still have a way out of this.” Even in the face of impossible odds, they had one option. The very same power that had helped them return from the most perilous battlefields still dwelled within them. “Good thing we have our ace in the hole.” They had one final option that no one else had. A choice that had the power to turn the scenario on its head, to change established history by erasing the root cause… “We can use the Devil’s Bullet.” Air reached into her breast pocket and pulled out a silver bullet. It gleamed faintly, nothing like standard ammo. The bullet contained great power that allowed it to overturn any advantage, to change the very fabric of history. “Think about it. Who mounted that raid? Who stood in the center of that operation? Whose absence would benefit us the most in this scenario?” Two enemy soldiers had attacked the train, but the injured redhead obviously wasn’t their target. He was but an ordinary mage, so he surely wasn’t in charge of that operation. The correct answer was— “Deadrim. That’s what that mage called herself,” Rain replied. Air then turned her gaze toward their target and whispered, “Getting out of this situation is simple enough. We need to completely erase the person in charge of the raid. If not for her, we would have completed the escort mission safely. So let’s make that ideal scenario a reality.” The wind picked up as she spoke, but it didn’t drown out Air’s voice. “We will erase Deadrim’s existence with the Devil’s Bullet. That is our objective during this superficial partnership. Assassinating her should get us out of this.” “Interesting.” Five minutes had passed. “It really is unlike any other unit I’ve seen.” Rubble covered the fallen cargo. The car’s fuselage had exploded, reducing it to a burning wreck. Air used her Bullet Magic to blow off the larger bits of debris, while Deadrim used her sword’s grip as a makeshift handle to move smaller parts aside. Rumble, thud! Rumble, thud! Rain tried to help, but every time he applied any kind of force, a rush of pain jolted his chest and brought him up short. In the end, Air and Deadrim removed all the rubble on their own. And upon clearing it all away, they found a most curious machine. “Have you ever seen a unit like this, Air?” Deadrim asked. “You know I can’t answer that question. It’s classified intel,” Air replied. It was a massive mechanical monstrosity, the new Exelia model Rain and the others had to guard. However, like Deadrim said, it looked entirely unlike any other Exelia. It felt so different from the clunky all-purpose models Rain often used. Its exterior had a streamlined, aerodynamic shape, and the structure of its skeleton and legs appeared far more slender. But there was something far more odd. “It looks like the type of tank they used before Exelias were invented…,” Rain mumbled. The enormous turret at its front looked large enough to fit a person inside. The machine eschewed the Exelia’s design philosophy, which stressed making the vehicle light. It had been constructed with no regard for the modern era’s conventions. The presence of this unfamiliar unit could only mean one thing. It’s a second-generation Exelia prototype… A new model that made use of a flow engine to supply massive amounts of energy. I’ve seen it a few times already, but… Its developer was the nuclear physicist, Kreis Falman, who had put all the East’s advanced technology together into a machine the West wanted to steal. Any would-be thieves needed to be eliminated by its guards, a rule that all involved understood. Yeah, this is the supposed new face of war… It was a new model designed to turn the tides of the war. But in that situation… “Can we even move this thing?” Deadrim asked. “If nothing else, we can use it to keep ourselves warm…,” Air responded. …it served as little more than a stove. Air hopped into the manipulator seat and turned the key to start the flow engine. Meanwhile, Deadrim slid a finger across the engine’s exposed parts. No sound of metal clicking against metal rang out. And yet… “Oh, it is getting warmer!” Deadrim exclaimed. “Guess we don’t need to worry about freezing to death.” …the engine loaded into the back of the vehicle emanated heat. It worked. Unlike older models, the throttle didn’t make the engine suck in air. Instead, an electrical current started the nuclear alloy’s decay. It didn’t produce any hot exhaust, so it didn’t have any temperature regulation technology inside, either. Luckily, as the flow engine heated the vehicle, they could just touch it to help retain their body temperature. The second-generation Exelia became a precious source of heat in that frozen ravine. Air then tried moving the machine’s legs, which gave her little trouble. “It seems this unit is called the Turret Model.” “Turret Model?” “I found a manual in the equipment compartment, and that’s what it said.” Air found some documentation in the manipulator’s seat. It said this was a Turret-Model Exelia and confirmed that it was indeed a second-generation prototype. A Turret Model… Rain was involved with the second generation’s development, so he had some knowledge regarding the machine. Second-generation Exelias made use of the flow engine, which granted it additional functionality older models lacked. The one before them was the Turret Model. The design philosophy ran against that of older Exelia models, where the mage was the one who handled the firearms. Instead, it came with a single large tank turret. It absorbed decay heat with the flow engine, condensed it, and used it to create a heat cannon stronger than anything a mage could muster. Operating it appeared simple enough. All one had to do was press the steering switch. And firing the 30-caliber heat cannon was just as simple. “Should I fire it once to check?” They decided to activate it once at Air’s suggestion, since it was best to always test potential weapons. She followed the instructions to the Exelia attack. “I’ll try shooting down a tree,” Air said. Then she pulled the trigger. And the moment she did, the tree she’d targeted exploded with a deafening sound. “Ah…” The explosion rattled their eardrums. The massive tree splintered and caught fire, burning blue—it was reminiscent of a Bullet Magic, Voldora. I see… The turret was as powerful as Bullet Magic, yet any trained person could use it. Yeah… I get how this weapon will change the battlefield. Even the strongest mages were held back by limited stamina and mana, but a machine could keep up a consistent sequence of attacks. It could fight far longer than any human. But with functionality that mimicked Bullet Magic— “Huh. Is that it?” Air whispered. “This second-generation Exelia is pretty plain.” Rain thought the same thing. Sure, being able to fire a bombardment of that magnitude without a mage was groundbreaking and had practical applications. But when one examined it more closely, it became clear that this only added to something that already existed. A single unit with this capacity had no hope of changing the state of the war. “Well, at least we’ve got a nice, hot stove,” Rain replied. Air and Rain didn’t investigate it any further and moved on…but they knew only 1 percent of the Turret Model’s true capabilities. They moved forward in single file, electing not to stay still. The flow engine’s energy was by no means unlimited. They still had to escape the mountain before their source of heat depleted, lest they freeze to death. Deadrim didn’t object to that decision. They could only hazard a guess, but the enemy faction most likely wasn’t going to send any reinforcements. Rain and Air couldn’t afford to wait for the search party to arrive, either. The blizzard narrowed the chances of being found, so they needed to escape on their own. “Not a single opening…,” Air remarked. She and Rain actually had something else in mind. They didn’t intend to escape the mountain through conventional methods. That was merely a lie they told Deadrim and her partner. “Even you can’t find a chink in her armor?” “Well, if I try to watch for an unguarded moment, she’ll pick up on what I’m doing.” They had one objective… Shoot Deadrim with the Devil’s Bullet and Reprogram the world. That was why they had chosen to cooperate with her and share one Exelia. “It’s such a tight squeeze…” “Well, obviously. This seat was meant for one!” Rain and Air had to sit in the manipulator’s seat together. The Exelia’s front seat was for the manipulator, while the back one was for the gunner, and each of them only fit one person. In that regard, it was no different from the older models. It was only meant for two people, but four could cram themselves in if necessary. And so, they decided that each seat would be shared by soldiers of the same country. “Rain.” “What?” “You smell like blood. It reeks.” “Can you cut me some slack? I have a literal hole in my chest…” Since they shared a seat meant for a single person, Rain had to spread his legs and Air had to squat in the space between them and grip the steering stick. Thankfully, her petite frame allowed her to fit in snugly enough. It was still uncomfortable, and the closeness made it impossible to hide anything. Rain’s injury was severe and hadn’t truly closed. He smelled like blood, which meant— “You’re still bleeding,” Air said. Rain averted his gaze to slightly below her head and looked at his chest. A red stain soaked through his clothes. His wound had reopened, and blood was seeping out of it. “…At some point, we should stop to take a closer look at it.” Remembering the Lemina Mountain Range’s topography from the mission briefing, they headed northwest. They could only roughly estimate where they fell, but they knew they would find themselves on a wide-open plain once they got off the mountain. The shortest route there involved traveling northwest along the cliff. Even with the mountainous terrain and snowy weather slowing down the Exelia, they only needed about ten hours to escape. Or so they thought. However… “The snow…,” Air whispered, and looked up, where she saw absolutely nothing. The snowfall had grown more intense, which completely blotted out all color, and the billowing wind was picking up as time went on, as well. While they initially saw a few miles forward, they lost even that visibility. A whiteout… Rain recalled the name of the phenomenon. It was one of the hazards of a march through snow. The blizzard would fill one’s vision with sheer white, making it hard to distinguish snow from sky, to say nothing of the terrain or one’s bearing. Seeing anything in any direction would be impossible. Rain remembered hearing about an incident where a unit of four hundred got stranded in a whiteout, and they all froze to death. The only solution was to stand still and let it pass. “We have to wait until it dies out,” Air explained as she made that judgment call. The four of them decided to wait until visibility improved. Staying in the Exelia with the snow falling would endanger their lives, so Air used her Bullet Magic to blow a hole into a nearby cliff face, creating a makeshift shelter from the wind. It was roughly 130 feet deep, and they used the Exelia to block off the entrance. They also left the flow engine on, which produced heat for them and kept the entrance from freezing shut. “Clever,” Deadrim whispered, sitting deeper into the cave with her partner. “Getting someone who knows their way around a snowy mountain was the right idea. I never would have thought of digging up a cave to take cover. I’d probably have suggested we press forward.” “Just to make this clear, Deadrim…” “I know,” the ebony girl said. “I thought it would be a good time to stop and treat Isuna’s injury, too. Neither of us wants to lose our partners, right, Air?” “……” As she spoke, Deadrim squatted down in front of the western officer, Isuna, and ripped through the hem of his trousers. She threw away the ragged cloth and pulled out a handkerchief and sewing needle to stitch the wound closed. She looked defenseless in that moment. Her back was turned, and she concentrated on treating her partner. Should we shoot? Rain wondered. And yet— “Take off your clothes,” a voice ordered him. “Huh?” “I need to treat your wound. Come on, hurry up.” “But…” “You’ll die before you get anything done.” Air had read Rain’s mind. However, there was no guarantee they’d hit Deadrim, so she chose to focus on stopping Rain’s bleeding instead. Rain listened to her orders and took off his top. A deep, vivid laceration appeared beneath the fabric. Blood was oozing from it. Air gazed at the wound, then curtly said, “This’ll hurt.” “Ugh…!” She wasn’t lying. “I’ll try to stop the bleeding with what I’ve got in my Exelia maintenance tool kit. You might pass out from the pain, but take advantage of the chance to sleep. If you must moan and scream, you may as well do it in your dreams.” After that, Air took a needlelike wrench used for servicing pistols and drove it into his wound, twisting it as she did. The burst of pain did not immediately fade, and sure enough… Ah…! …Rain spiraled into unconsciousness. This wound…, Air thought, keeping her hands moving even after Rain passed out. It’s far worse than I imagined. Rain had fainted twenty minutes earlier. Deadrim had burned the wound shut when they first met to stop the bleeding, but that was by no means sufficient treatment. He’d suffered a severe, fatal injury, which brought him to the brink of death. …I have to at least stem the bleeding. Air spread Rain’s ribs open with a cloth and spotted his bleeding lungs, so she used the needle torque wrench to press the surrounding tissues together and stop it. Rain’s limbs suddenly spasmed. Despite being unconscious, his body reacted to the pain. Air used one hand to pin him down while working with the other. There wasn’t much light in the grotto, which made it hard to inspect Rain’s bloody innards. Still, after a few blind repetitions of the process, she managed to slow the flow of blood. Unfortunately, that was only a stop-gap measure. We don’t have any time… Air understood the situation. If things didn’t change, Rain’s lungs would collapse, and he would die before the day ended. We have to get out of this situation… Air heavily considered using her ace in the hole. I have to erase the person behind this raid… She’d been thinking about it ever since their car fell down the cliff. She had the option of using the Devil’s Bullet to erase a person and all of their achievements, to Reprogram the world. Deadrim… Erasing the girl in black could have changed their fortunes. That thought crossed Air’s mind, and she found herself glancing in her direction. She’s… Deadrim had focused entirely on her partner’s leg with her back turned to Air. Her hands were stained red with his blood. As she desperately struggled to save Isuna, she honestly looked like she had no intention to fight… …… Air hadn’t expected her to act like that. It might have been a surprise attack, but she was daring enough to attack a unit of mages head-on. And now here she sat, fighting bravely to save her comrade. The sight honestly surprised her. The girl in black struck her as a cold person. Her weapon was strange, her appearance was strange, and her way of speaking was so strange that she didn’t even seem fully connected to reality. Most young, skilled mages had an elusive air to them, but Deadrim took it to a whole different level. She was even audacious enough to try to steal an Exelia prototype without backup. Someone like her was the type to abandon their comrades when things got tough. But for some reason, she hadn’t. She’d even proposed their alliance of convenience. Something feels off, but what…? Air thought the girl seemed odd, but she couldn’t put her finger on exactly why. However, as she tried to put the pieces together… “Rain, do you copy?” …a distorted voice that didn’t belong to any of them echoed through the grotto. “I’ve received your transceiver’s serial number. Rain, do you copy?” It came from Rain’s thigh, from the wireless transceiver he’d received for watch duty. It’s Kreis… Air immediately recognized the voice. It was the woman who’d given them this mission. Kreis Falman, the developer of second-generation Exelia technology. Air reached out for the transceiver, knowing she had to push a button before it would pick up her voice. However— “I see.” “Ah…!” “Hiding something from us?” The moment Air heard the question, something struck her right hand. “G-gaaah…!” Air groaned. Her extended hand was violently beaten away. And the moment she jumped back… “Ah…!” …she found herself slammed against the grotto wall. Her back hit the rock, hard and painful enough to knock the wind out of her. “A wireless transceiver, huh?” “…Deadrim!” “Guess they can’t hear us right now.” Deadrim pushed her sword against Air’s throat, pinning her in place. If she so much as trembled, the blade would slice into her throat. “Wh-what are you…?” “Aren’t you going to answer that call?” Deadrim asked while holding her hostage. Ah… Deadrim had never let down her guard. She’d remained cautious and ready to act the whole time. They may have agreed to cooperate, but it was only a verbal agreement with no guarantees. She hadn’t trusted them one bit, so she’d remained wary of the chance one of them would draw a gun.
Chapter 25
33 min read