"It's a three-month back-rub voucher. Even now, Chairman Koleda still goes to Grace's bedroom every night to give her a massage."
"This massage of hers... is it actually on the level?"
It wasn't really Geno's fault his mind went somewhere else with that — given how Koleda and Grace usually behaved around each other, he couldn't shake the feeling there was some secret lurking behind these 'massages.'
"Suspected forbidden vocabulary. Access denied."
"~Stingy."
Disappointed, Geno patted Groy's cold shell. Still, he knew that meant Groy's logic core was continuing to optimize itself.
Maybe one day he'd get to see it: the day Groy's own personality — born from the machine's self-calculation and gradually shaped by daily life — finally grew into something with a heart of its own.
While the two of them talked, man and machine, the distance to the calamity beast kept closing.
Meanwhile, the calamity beast pressed on toward the distant Hollow without pause. It was simply starving.
It had only just been born, right when it most needed to feed. The Skymoon energy that had finished shaping its body was all but spent, nowhere near enough to sustain the activity it needed.
So it had set its sights on a small Hollow not far off. This Hollow sat between Throne Quarter and Port Elpis, but since it was too small to affect the main shipping routes — and since clearing it would cost more trouble than it was worth — no one had ever bothered dealing with it.
But a Hollow was still a Hollow, no matter how small. And to something like the calamity beast, a mass of condensed Ether energy, the Ether inside a Hollow was without question the finest tonic there was.
But before it could reach that dining hall and enjoy its meal, it caught a far more delicious scent.
"Grrr?"
Puzzled, the calamity beast stopped in its tracks, sniffing carefully at the Ether-laced fragrance drifting through the air.
Ether of this density and quality was, without question, a delicacy of the highest order.
And if it could swallow down this dessert, that measly little dining hall wouldn't be worth its while anymore.
The calamity beast kept hunting for the source of that delicious scent, and at last it turned around — and there, racing toward it, was a cluster of metal hulks with a tiny figure riding on top. That was the delicacy it had been looking for.
"GRRROOOAR!!!!"
Frost-flames burst up across the calamity beast's body, and the seawater beneath its feet froze solid, ice spreading outward and outward into the distance.
Geno noticed the change in the beast too, and his first instinct was that it was trying to intimidate him.
Well, he sure wasn't about to back down, was he?
In an instant Geno summoned his greatsword and armor, hopped up onto Groy's head, leveled his blade at the distance, and roared at the beast.
"You! Get over here!"
"GRROAR!!!"
The calamity beast had never once, in its whole life, received an invitation like that — though to be fair, this was its entire life so far.
But just as Geno wanted, the beast's four claws pounded across the ice and it came flying at him at full speed.
"Whoa, hold on! I was joking! You're actually coming?!"
Watching the beast close in, Geno panicked a little. Sure, he'd always said you could lose the fight but never lose your nerve — but seeing the beast actually take the bait still left him more than a bit scared.
Still, this counted as achieving his goal. At least the beast wouldn't be heading for the Hollow and Throne Quarter anymore.
All he had to do now was stall it long enough for Yanagi Tsukishiro and the others to arrive with reinforcements — or come up with some plan.
"Friday, Hans! Time to show some real backbone!"
"Yes, Big Brother Geno!" both machines shouted in unison.
The pile driver and the grabber charged after Geno toward the calamity beast, full of bravado.
Then, with one swipe of a paw each, the beast batted both machines flying.
"Whoaaa!!!"
"That's not what I meant by 'charge'!!"
Geno buried his face in his hand. He hadn't expected these two big guys to be so simple-minded that they'd charge straight in like that.
Even judging by size alone, they were no match for that thing!
"No choice, then. It's down to the three of us."
Geno said this while holding his sword crosswise in front of him, Groy behind him brandishing an assortment of tools and equipment, putting on a show of force at the beast.
But to the calamity beast, these hunks of metal weren't the slightest bit threatening. Its target, from start to finish, had always been that little cake — Geno.
"Grr!"
"Hey! Check this out!"
The digging machine — the only one of the three intelligent machines still standing, and a girl at that — was a little scared, but she still bravely stood with Geno against the beast's assault.
A blow from her demolition hammer knocked the beast back just as it lunged for Geno.
"Nice work!"
Geno seized the moment to leap onto the beast and swing his greatsword, trying to land some damage — but all he got was a clang of metal on metal, and the blade snapped clean off in his hands.
"What the— it's that hard?!"
Staring at the hilt left in his hand, Geno froze for a second. This was the first time he'd ever faced an opponent that could shatter his greatsword outright.
But he had no time to worry about the sword. The frost-flame wreathing the beast's body clung to his shin like a maggot burrowed into bone, creeping steadily upward.
"Hot, hot, hot!! No — wait, it's freezing!"
It was fire, unmistakably fire, and yet it was bizarrely cold. Geno felt his feet going numb, and the flow of Ether inside him slowed to a crawl.
Realizing something was wrong, Geno hurried to pull free, then jumped onto the digging machine and called for a retreat.
"Move, move! We'll figure it out later! ...Digger?"
"I— I can't move!"
He patted the big machine under him and got no response at all. Looking up, he saw the digging machine's demolition hammer had frozen fast to the beast's body, the frost-flame creeping steadily up along the hammer toward her.
With no other option, Geno steeled himself and ripped the demolition hammer clean off the digging machine, and only then could the two of them break free.
"Aaarrooo!!"
Frost-coated, the calamity beast threw its head back and howled, its aura flaring up again. It flicked the demolition hammer off its body without a care and lunged straight back at Geno.
"Suppressive fire!"
A calm voice carried in from the distance. At some point Groy's tools had swapped over to cannons and guns, and now they were pouring fire onto the calamity beast's position, trying to cut it off.
But were these weapons actually doing anything?
Facing a sky full of gunfire, the beast wasn't afraid in the slightest. A flash of red light crossed its eyes, its movements grew sharper still, and it slipped through every attack with an almost weightless grace.
Geno had seen this move before. It was a footwork he'd once watched Hoshimi Miyabi use.
"Not good! It's catching up! Go on ahead! I'll go help Groy!"
Geno waved the digging machine on ahead, telling her to go rescue Hans and Friday, while he turned and ran off in the other direction.
He'd realized something else too — the beast seemed to be after him specifically. So as long as he drew it away, the digging machine would be safe.
____
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