Chapter 320 - What Rika (Really) Saw

‘What defines something as human?’

That was one question that Rika held onto, desperately searching for the answer as she messed around, deciding to destroy her relationship with Saki.

Even in this body that was made just to suit Saki’s preferences, she couldn’t tell the difference between her and any of the artificial people that existed here. They were all fake, puppets to entertain a single girl. Yet, she was bound by a single order: To raise Saki into a suitable person for summoning.

How she went about it was up to her. But this fact made their entire relationship seem like an utter farce, no matter how comfortable she became around Saki.

Rika loved her with all her heart. It didn’t matter anymore that she was made to be that way.

But love had a funny way of expressing itself sometimes, especially under pressure.

“Hate me, please. I don’t deserve any of your attention. Not when I have to do what I’m supposed to.”

Rika cried alone for quite some time next to the terminal, once the kill order had been given. But she knew that if she didn’t arrange for it, then the terminal would find some way to handle it with another agent. If it had to be done either way, then it would be by her terms.

She had arranged for Suou to give Saki a bit of a scare, promising that he and his friends could have a little fun with Rika if they simply showed Saki that their relationship had fallen beyond repair. That she had offered Saki up as a sacrifice.

They were supposed to have stopped short. And in her despair, Saki should have run away. Lost in turmoil and confusion, there was a truck that was arranged to drive straight into her path. Her soul would be carried off, and with it, a desire to do better in the next life – the very spirit of a ‘hero’.

But apparently, Suou became a bit too interested in Saki. And before she could stop them, Saki went on a murderous rampage, awakening her abilities. And now, she held Saki in her arms, ready to deliver the final blow.

“B-Because… I hate you, Saki. You ruined my purpose.”

Rika didn’t want to believe that she was this weak – to have a dying girl block her last strike. But perhaps, Saki put everything into it. Her eyes were sparkling with hope and relief.

Saki’s hand shook as she gripped the sharp edge of debris, it digging into her skin and causing blood to drip.

“I am… relieved… that you are okay… so relieved…”

“How? I offered you to Suou and his friends just to save myself! I’m even planning to kill you now!”

“Oh… really?... I’m such an idiot… so I didn’t notice anyyything… I just wanted… to protect the girl I love… that’s all….”

Saki stopped pushing back Rika’s hand, letting the sharp tool stab into Saki’s neck. Saki was content with a death at her friend’s hand. If that was what Rika wanted, then she would no longer resist. But instead, the debris scraped a thin line upon her skin, a mere dribble of blood resulting from Rika pulling back.

Surprised at her own hesitation, Rika raised the piece above her head, only for it to fall right out of her hands. Her eyes swam in tears, which dribbled down onto Saki.

“I-I can’t do it. I can’t complete my mission.”

Rika bent down slowly and kissed Saki on the lips, finally admitting to herself that she could no longer follow the will of her creator. Light surrounded them, and gradually, the wounds that Saki incurred began to heal. There was magic all along in this place, but its use had been sealed to create the proper environment of modern Tokyo.

Saki, feeling like her vitality had returned, sat up suddenly and eyed Rika. She completely ignored her restored state. Instead, the feeling of that kiss filled up her thoughts instead. She grabbed Rika and hungrily went for more. The two friends admitting their feelings for each other.

It didn’t matter if they were different. An Apostle and an agent – two completely different existences and destinies. Their regrets and hesitations were cast aside by the heat of their lips, the warmth of each other’s embrace. They merely wanted to enjoy what they held before them.

Suddenly, alarms sounded in the distance.

Rika stopped and pulled back, knowing what those sirens meant. In that moment, she decided.

“Saki, escape from this place. I’ll do what I can to hold them off. Please! They are after you. If you could just-”

Saki clung onto Rika tightly, enough to clamp shut her plea.

“No, I’m prepared to die if I don’t have you. I didn’t feel like I ever lived to begin with before you. You’re everything to me.”

Tears streamed from Rika’s eyes. “Silly girl. Never knowing what’s best for you. But I love that about you…”

Rika wiped her tears with her sleeve and explained to Saki about the current situation in what little time they had.

Saki’s awakening had triggered the terminal’s defenses, as such an occurrence was too irregular to be dealt with under normal circumstances. Rika had tried to kill her before it set off the terminal’s detection, but that had failed.

Now, the only result left was to face an all-out assault by this site.

“Listen, you possess the power of unbridled strength. Normally, such a power would come gradually, but for some reason, your feelings brought it out of your core, bypassing the normal seals.”

Rika pointed to the building’s wall.

“Focus your will to protect on that wall and punch it. Don’t worry about being hurt. I can heal you again.”

Saki nodded and believed in her friend. Winding up in an awkward swing, she let her fist loose. As soon as she touched the wall, a large section of it exploded away from her. Saki could only stare in wonder as the concrete wall felt like nothing more than Styrofoam to her.

“Wha, wha, wha, what the hell?!”

“That is the power of an Apostle. I will do all I can to support you.”

Rika picked up an iron bar and swung it, glowing with power and determination. She looked like a magical girl prior to a transformation. With one swift motion, Rika advanced right up to Saki, iron pipe held against her neck.

“Be careful though. Your defenses have always been a little weak. So I’ll be your protector.” Rika reached over and captured Saki’s lips again for a quick, gentle kiss.

It made Saki fall in love with her all over again.

Rika handed an iron pipe to her as well before the two girls raced outside, the alarms still blaring. By now, the streets had been cleared. It was only the two of them.

“Here they come.” Rika pointed up high.

A swarm of white, flying beings scoured the sky, scanning the area. One of them apparently took notice of them, stopping for a moment to emit a pulse. Immediately, the formations of the other flying beings changed and turned towards them.

“Watch out! It attacks with long range!” Rika dragged Saki off to the side, just as a beam glided along the road, right where they were standing. A moment later, the asphalt erupted and the ground around it shook. Like bombs had been set off, the road exploded and sprayed debris everywhere. The two of them ended up ducking under the awning of a building.

“H-How am I supposed to fight against that?!” Saki yelled, having only been told to ‘hit things’.

“Don’t worry. They’ll try to minimize damage to the buildings unless they are desperate. First, they will try to surround and contain us.”

As if on cue, one of the flying beings appeared before them – a faceless, white golem with wings that looked like something out of a well-known, apocalyptic anime.

“Ungyahhhh!!!” Saki cried out in surprise, swinging the pipe in reflex.

Metal collided with the golem, sending it hurling backward so fast that they hardly had time to blink before it crashed into the building across the street. Saki’s strength was enough to lodge it into brick with no issue.

“Ah chaaaa…”

“Saki, warn me next time. Otherwise, you might be escaping from here on a nice boat with only my head.”

“Please, not that reference.” Saki snorted, calming down immediately. Rika knew exactly how to change the mood for the better.

But then, Rika smashed the window next to them and pulled Saki inside, just as the area where they were standing erupted. The two of them retreated into a lobby, presumably that of a fancy hotel. But neither one of them could enjoy the cushy interior as several golems stepped through the ruined window.

The golems were met with the next surprise as a chair was flung at them, smashing into one and sending it right back out.

“Good throw, Saki! Keep at it! Use those carnival game skills!”

Rika stood out in front as Saki scrambled to pick up whatever she could find to hurl at the golems with her monstrous strength. One fired a beam at them, which Rika confronted with her glowing iron pipe, reinforced by mana. The two energies collided before the beam was reflected off to the side, destroying a section of the lobby off to the side.

A keyboard sliced through the air, books spun like discuses, and furniture was upended to slam into the monsters that spilled into the building. Even normally harmless pens stabbed deeply into the bodies of the golems when hurled by Saki.

But eventually, they ran out of things to throw, so they had to escape elsewhere.

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We watched videos of the fight between the two girls and the golems. As they relentlessly chased Saki and Rika through the streets of Tokyo, I couldn’t help but clench my fists so tightly that they hurt. These were the same golems that I had encountered at the Divine Isles, and they were the same ones that I recalled ruining my previous world.

Had my world been torn down in a similar way? Were they after me or something as well? After seeing this, I couldn’t deny the possibility that I had lived in one of these so-called ‘sites’. And that the destruction of it resulted in me being summoned by Eryn.

‘Am I fake as well? Raised for the sole purpose of being an Electi?’

I had to push away those thoughts as I continued to stare at the screen. Saki and Rika fought for their lives, taking down golems at every turn but seeing more and more come after them. The attacks became fiercer, tearing down entire buildings. The flames that raged across Tokyo soon matched the background of the distress call that the other site received.

The distress call had been made by the terminal itself, requesting for more golems, its guardians, to converge upon the two ‘dissenters’.

“We were doomed from the start. Just us two against an entire army. The very will of the Gods had turned against us,” Rika said with a downcast look. “I… I was the first to fall. Eventually, I ran out of mana to block everything.”

She turned toward Saki, tears welling up in her eyes.

“The look on your face was so painful. You didn’t care that I was actually an android. You didn’t care to leave me behind. You just held me, even as the world around you exploded, even as your back seared from the heat of the blasts. You choked out blood with a smile.”

Saki approached her, tears also in her eyes. The rest of us watched on in silence as the golems surrounded the two fallen girls in the recording. With spear-like arms, they stabbed into Saki’s back as she held dearly onto Rika’s broken form. They had ended up under Tokyo Tower, after Saki made one last ditch effort to make it collapse on top of her enemies. But still, too many remained.

All Rika could do was watch those final moments, her right hand brushing against the side of Saki’s head gently. She had no other limbs to do anything else. But there was one last thing she could do.

“Forget me. I don’t want you suffering so much in the next life. When you wake up, please let this all be a dream, so it doesn’t hurt you so badly.”

A flash emitted from Rika’s palm, shooting right into Saki’s head. The unconscious girl fell right on top of Rika. And even when the final blade pierced both of their torsos, Rika’s face glowed in relief, like a person wrapped in gentle warmth.

One golem reached into Saki’s pierced back, plucking out the core within her. After that, they flew off with it, leaving behind a ruined Tokyo. It had been too damaged in the fight, so it was left abandoned. The surviving androids that lived in the city slowly shut down as a result, with the terminal falling dormant afterwards.

The recordings stopped at that point. The site’s usefulness had ended. And all that was left was the ruins that we stood upon, talking to a revived relic of the past.

We didn’t know what to think when our very existences started to be questioned. But as we looked at Saki and Rika hugging, reviving their feelings that had been put on hold for over 600 years, we nodded at each other.

“The past does not matter. It is the future that we seek,” Lady Kaguya said.

“You’re right. We can’t do anything about where we come from, but we can learn from it,” I added.

“The fact that all of us have come together here, it is divine providence. We must simply face it together.”

The words from the youngest, the Electi of Luck, made us feel more confident of where we stood. Whatever the gods had planned for us, we couldn’t imagine. But we had walked along this entire journey up to this point. The world had indeed changed for the better, and we were all living in it.

However…

“Um, everyone… I think you should take a look at this…,” Katalina suddenly spoke up, with a tone that felt like it had burst our bubble.

Pulling up a large holographic screen for everyone to see, the words ‘Operation Godfall’ was displayed, and at the same time, sirens sounded in the distance.