Chapter 316: ERROR 405
--This Chapter is written from Erik’s POV--
I was confident in my ability to kill the invaders regardless of Maya’s interference, but the presence of the Witch of Narrations completely changed that equation.
Even under the best of circumstances, such a variable required my full attention.
Piper: "Hmph. Destroying the console was too far, but... Good job, Maya."
Her experience with desolate crises showed instantly. A single glimpse was all she needed to understand the situation and the culprit behind it all.
After scrubbing Maya’s head with her knuckles, the Witch of Narrations stepped forward. Her sharp eyes fixated on
as she furrowed her eyebrows with silent rage.
Several cartoonish clouds puffed into existence around her, each revealing an equally cartoonish object that floated mid-air as she geared up.
In response, I allocated all of my mana output to reinforce my body, pulling back my arm to counterattack whatever may co.
Maya: "You must understand what this ans, right? You can’t win here, Erik. So please-"
What precise wording.
Yes, with this one move, Maya had completely reversed the hopeless scenario that her brother had created.
What should have been undoubtedly a devastating defeat for him had turned into a life-threatening proposition for .
The mont I failed to kill the won, or Maya herself, any asure of victory had slipped through my hands.
A beautiful maneuver, truly.
Her ability to read the board, as well as to control and position even the pieces she didn’t own, remained unmatched.
However, even her miracles couldn’t completely fix this situation.
Her strategy, interesting as it was, had a few crucial flaws.
The most obvious was that she revealed a reliable way to exploit Piper’s recklessness.
Her role as the final guardian of the old system had always been flimsy at best, but knowing I could so easily move this wall made her much less of a threat than I initially assessed.
Furthermore...
Erik: "Ever since you declared war on the governnt, you’ve beco as much of a terrorist as I... Who’s to say the Witch of Narrations won’t target you, as well?"
Their words made it explicit that Maya had to attack Alpha Team’s base for Piper to chase her.
That alone would warrant an arrest.
Though it’d be naive to think that such a scenario would co to pass, as neither seed at odds with the other. At least, not more than superficially.
Still, it’d be worthwhile to asure her resolve, and to do so, I needed to hear it from the source herself.
Without wasting a second, Piper Williams answered my question.
Piper: "She might be the most annoying brat in the world, but she’s my annoying brat. If any old geezer tells
to hurt her, I’m ending their career the traditional way. Roman-style."
Emotion over reason.
The sa flaw that plagued the family extended to those around them.
Erik: "I see. Does that apply to her brother, as well? What about them?"
Piper: "You bet your ass."
She didn’t flinch, even for an instant.
Good.
As long as these words were true, she would value the siblings’ safety above all else, making her predictable.
My preparations for her weren’t complete yet, but the more I learned about her, the greater their chances of success beca.
Piper: "I don’t like those eyes. Just co with
quietly, will you?"
Even though there shouldn’t be any noticeable change in my expression, she seed to recognize my intentions with sothing akin to a sixth sense.
The Witch of Narrations equipped the last of her items, a pink magic wand that drew mysterious shapes with its sparkly trail.
Squishy noises rang from the star-shaped tip of the wand as its glow intensified.
Despite its childish exterior, I’d be remiss not to notice the increasing heat that set the ground around us ablaze.
But once the light surrounding the tip hid the star, Maya grabbed Piper’s arm and pulled it aside, diverting the pink magic beam into the concrete.
Maya: "Ah, wait, Pip! That’s not gonna work!"
Piper: "Have you lost your mind, Maya!?"
Quite the contrary.
She was thinking one step ahead.
Maya: "Sorry, Pip. I can’t let you kill him, either."
...Oh?
Interesting.
Piper Williams seed to have misinterpreted her role in this battle.
While it was true that her presence rendered
unable to kill the defeated won surrounding us, it wasn’t a true reverse of the dynamic between Maya and .
If the Witch of Narrations and I were to clash, the unconscious girls would have no hope of survival.
Despite using all of her cards, Maya’s strategy only amounted to mutually assured destruction.
Initially, I believed Maya wouldn’t be so oblivious as to misinterpret this standstill, but her last words suggested otherwise.
Even if she was aware, there seed to be another reason that even I hadn’t realized.
Piper: "...Is that so?"
While I thought about what may lie beyond Maya’s reasoning, the Witch’s eyes began to glow.
Their green light pierced the darkness cast by her spaceship’s shadow, as her forced smile increased the intimidating aura she emanated.
Maya, already smaller than Piper, looked like a little kid being scolded by their parent.
And yet, she stood defiantly, raising her chin to et Piper’s eyes.
Maya: "I’m not scared of you, Pip."
She spoke firmly, with the sa cold composure she always shows when treating
seriously.
A mont passed as the two faced each other in silence, testing how stubborn the other could be.
Piper: "Oh?"
Her defiance, while fierce, noticeably crumbled with each step the Witch took towards her.
Before admitting her fear, Maya’s eyes seed to fill with tears, which she had to turn away to hide.
Maya: "W-Well... Maybe I’m still a little scared of you. But... I’m not backing down, Pip."
She had effectively lost the sa battle twice in one second.
Still, Maya was a sore loser.
She refused to look at Piper again, pretending to be angry.
An emotion I wasn’t aware she possessed, as even after everything I’ve done, she had yet to show
an ounce of it.
The glow faded from the Witch’s eyes as she let out a long, exasperated sigh.
Piper: "Hmph. You’re lucky you’re so cute."
Seemingly regretting her actions and wishing to make peace, Piper approached her further.
Her hands almost reached Maya’s shoulder, but a magnetic force seed to draw them towards her cheeks.
She joyfully pinched them, completely forgetting she had ant to console Maya.
Without much available information about the Witch of Narrations and her personality, I was forced to watch and study the trivial play before my eyes.
Maya: "A-Ahem..."
Despite her initial protests, she seed to enjoy the interaction.
Though she tried her best to mask her satisfaction, she couldn’t contain the rebellious smile that slipped through her lips.
Erik: "...What’s your next move, Maya?"
Even after analyzing all of her movents so far, the only pattern I recognized was unpredictability.
Her limitations, like the lack of any remaining pieces available for her to use, only fueled my intrigue.
It bothered
how much I looked forward to her next move.
Maya: "...I was hoping it wouldn’t co to that. I know you hate wasting ti, so... Can’t you take this for what it is? You can go ho with the others. Piper will take the girls ho. And I’ve already taken Ceres anyway, so... No one loses?"
"Hoping".
She really liked that word.
Any other person would use it as an excuse, as a way to justify not acting.
But not Maya.
She hoped for what she had worked for.
She made it a humble wish that reality had no choice but to grant.
A natural outco that brought
imnse satisfaction to deny.
Erik: "Give
Ceres back, and you have yourself a deal."
I pulled the red-haired swordswoman from the ground, holding her by the neck.
The expression on Maya’s face turned to disappointnt as Piper began charging her wand again.
Maya: "Why do you want her back? You were going to kill her anyway."
So Red Mask had told her.
Interesting.
In that case, maybe her objective had been to capture Ceres using her brother’s attack as a distraction?
No, that couldn’t be the case. Bringing Piper Williams in advance proved this was a strategy designed specifically to counter .
I shouldn’t allow ego to obscure the truth. She was a step ahead of her brother and , using us both to achieve multiple goals at once.
Erik: "Why do you want her, then? You should already have all the confidential information you could wish for."
Maya stopped for a second, turning her head in several different directions as if searching for sothing.
Her shoulders lowered with dejection, and she closed her eyes, letting out a long exhale before finally answering .
Maya: "We both know that’s not true, but... It doesn’t matter now. He’s already here..."
A deafening roar shook the nearby buildings, shattering their windows as tallic fragnts from Piper’s spaceship crashed to the ground, along with glass and concrete.
Maya: "Before we end this, I want to hear sothing from you, Erik. Don’t you think you’ve gone too far? Using civilians, prisoners, and even your own soldiers in those inhumane ammo factories... Is this how you believe we should move forward?"
Ever since her brother and the Witch of Narrations destroyed one of the factories, I worked under the assumption that the governnt and thus, the Aegis, already knew everything there was to know about them.
Though it seems they were unaware of the scope of our production, given how easily they fell prey to blood bullets that inflicted status like [Packet Loss] and [Enforced Tiout].
Erik: "What do you take
for, Maya? Once I take over the country, I can work towards integrating the crystal and blood bullets. With the growth of the Gifted skills and the infrastructure, a once-a-year blood donation will be enough to maintain supply."
The AOTG has always been pro-Gifts.
Once that is achieved, these alternatives will beco just that. Secondary weapons to ensure Earth will never lose a Divine Event again.
Maya: "I see... I still don’t like your answer, but... It just ans I’ll have to work harder."
As she spoke those words, Piper’s spaceship split in half.
The sunlight briefly illuminated Maya, and Maya alone.
Quite an angelic sight.
However, with a massive dragon spearheading into the ground, any thought of the divine felt misplaced.
Piper: "Oh, that was so cool, I’m not even mad you destroyed the Starblazer!"
Though she waited a second to register the "cool" imagery of the city-sized spaceship exploding in ice and flas, Piper undid her summoning before it could crash-land.
Because of her actions, Maya scrambled flimsy barriers of solid light to protect the won from the falling debris, including the red-haired girl I had in my hands.
At the sa ti, once the sky was fully cleared, one figure jumped out of the blueish dragon.
He carried an old man by the collar, and a small woman wrapped around his shoulder.
Maya: "Miwen!"
Miwen: "Sis..."
A slight smile appeared on his face when looking at his sister, but he couldn’t keep it for long.
His eyes only briefly landed on each of the fallen won before they settled on .
The depths of his stare were nothing like that of Maya.
If her green reflected a vast grassfield, his amber reflected a darkening abyss.
For a mont, I felt inclined to believe what everyone seed to repeat about him being worse than her.
Once the wolf-girl I had thrown to another city jumped out of the back of the dragon, I prepared myself for another fight, but...
He seed to have taken a note from his sister’s book.
Instead of a brawl, he ca prepared to force my hand.
If not for his sister, he would never have had the chance.
Alas, it was the correct choice.
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