SOS CH 62: Vanishing (Patreon)

Morgiana was angry, to say the least. This whole situation was a giant pain in the butt. This entire mission was a fiasco as it ended in a complete net loss. After this, their credibility would definitely fall to the ground.

I guess I can worry about this after I survive.

She thought as the red lines on her body started to shine. The stampede rushing at them was clearly filled with monsters full of fear who had no thoughts other than escaping from this place. Thanks to this, the place where they stood was not particularly the primary target of the beasts but it did not take long for a group of them to run in their direction. A red flame she may be but she definitely was not some helpless lady. Her armor covered her body and the helmet fell perfectly over her face, completely changing the world she was observing.

I am full of energy now! Combat mode

[Understood]

Her armor completely changed, going from a sleek design to something extremely bulky and clearly geared toward defense. Furthermore, two small cannons appeared on the hands of her armor.

“Morgiana, you are taking the back. I am counting on you in case I miss anything.”

Morgiana nodded wordlessly at Dorothy's order and took some distance as she adjusted herself ready to attack.

“Sir Noah. I would like to ask you to say perfectly still. We will take care of everything.” Dorothy gave a smile filled with confidence as she strode forward causing Noah to frown slightly.

“Hey…”

“Let her do as she wishes.” Morgiana intoned, “You clearly seem weakened whatever happened in this gate, and honestly…She doesn’t even need us.”

“What do you mean…Oh…”

Noah closed his mouth when he suddenly had a huge presence. One so gigantic that even the power Omid had shown seemed to be nothing more than that of a paltry firefly.

Her aura alone seemed to be that of an otherworldly entity and the sky above them seemed to be distorted as thousands of stars appeared all around them.

[STOP]

All she did was take one step and utter one word. But the world stood in silence in front of her pure majesty and obeyed.

Everything froze in a two-hundred-meter radius and came to a halt, causing even the light to change as a monochrome black-and-white haze covered them.

“Morgiana.”

“Understood.”

Thrusters appeared on the back of her armor, projecting her into the air. It was only a small jump all things considered but she was still able to reach an impressive five meters high. Which was more than enough for what she wanted to do.

As a red flame, Morgiana never had a huge firepower. At least not compared to the others of her race. She was extremely limited in how much destruction and how hot her flame could be.

But — That was only when she was on her own.

Targets after targets were marked by the AI of her armor, reaching more than a few hundred. Fighting them in normal time would have been hard but now — They were nothing more than sitting targets.

Pushing her two hands forward, Morgiana focused all her energy on the canon.

[Boost x5]

The air distorted for a short second and two beams of pure light and fire flew at incredible speed toward her target. This was followed by a powerful explosion that completely engulfed all the monsters that were running at them and frozen in time by Dorothy.

[Calculating result: All targets dead. Perfect sweep.]

Morgiana chuckled as she landed gracefully. Inwardly, she was sweating quite a bit inside the armor. The attack she had done was extremely taxing for her. But still, it had been some time since she could properly release steam and after this whole fiasco, killing monsters like this was definitely therapeutic.

“This should have done the job.”

“Well done.”

Dorothy’s voice was terse and slightly cold even as she praised Morgiana but Morgiana did not mind. She knew Dorothy enough and knew very well that using her power in such a way greatly affected her psyche. Stopping time, even in a very small zone was definitely no small feat even for someone as powerful as Dorothy.

Is she trying to impress someone?

Obviously she was not the target. This only left one person.

Noah

Uh…I didn’t think she had such weird taste in men.

There was no other way to explain why Dorothy would strain herself like this when she didn’t need to. She certainly had other skills in her arsenal that could have done the trick in a more efficient way.

Thinking about this, Morgiana's gaze moved toward Noah and she chuckled inwardly, Noah’s expression was cold and scrutinizing. This was definitely not the appearance and expression a small child should have.

Even so, the shock swimming in his eyes was definitely impossible to miss and Morgiana was delighted to see him like this. This should take him down a peg.

“What do we do now?” Morgiana asked quietly. Having fun was great and all but she did not forget the current situation they were in. This planet also had abyss beasts on it and those were generally more resistant to Dark Matter related skills.

It would have been one thing if Dorothy had her frame, but as she was now things could be very problematic if a horde of Abyss Beasts.

“Now we wait. I can maintain this zone for a short time. But after this display, the beasts should understand that rushing toward us is not the solution.”

Like this, an unexpectedly dangerous situation was changed in nothing more than a small cruise.

The rumbling of the earth slowly grew fiercer, more and more cracks appeared all around them and the beasts were running for their lives in all directions. But the charred remains and the gigantic and powerful presence was enough for them to ignore them.

One minute went by in perfect peace and no unexpected situation arose.

[The beam is ready.]

“Gather up.”

No sooner was the warning given that one gigantic beam pierced the clouds from high above and reached down to them.

Noah, who had stayed silent all this while even after witnessing something as nonsensical as time being stopped, gave one last look at the surroundings.

This was a place I had lived in for who knows how many years. Those years were full of suffering but they were also simpler times.

Now though. It was time to leave this place toward the greater cosmos. He did not know what awaited him and what kind of people he would meet. Most likely even more monsters that could do illogical things such as stopping time or worse.

But it was alright. His fight with Omid had already made him understand that he was the strongest no more.

He simply needed to climb back to the top once again.

Goodbye Venus. If the true you is still alive somewhere — I will make sure to find you.

Those were his last thoughts as they were finally teleported and nearly instantly appeared in the spaceship of Dorothy.

“My Queen, what do we do?”

With Outsiders present, the Prideful Lion does not address Dorothy as he usually would. It was important to keep decorum after all.

“We need to leave, as far as possible.”

.

.

.

Meanwhile, in the virtual world, Venus gave a bloody smile even though half of her body was destroyed.

She did not know who bothered to program blood in such a place as it was completely unnecessary but so be it.

“Heheh. This was fun…”

Her opponent was as wounded as her. But she knew that if this fight continued, she would only lose.

[Priority Target, Code name: Noah, has left the planet.]

“I guess my job is finally done.”

As if realizing that something was amiss, the being she was fighting started roaring, clearly intent on destroying her and escaping from its restraint.

Sadly for it —

“Protocol Apocalypse activated.”

[Confirmed.]

A white light started bathing the world and as Venus’s body broke down, a perfect smile stayed on her face.

Was she Venus or nothing but a Digital copy used as a sacrificial pawn? Such things did not matter in her opinion.

Noah would always be Noah and she…Would always be Venus. The most beautiful woman out of the Thirteen constellations.

***

From the perspective of the outside world, those who were sitting in the spaceship witnessed a sight they would most likely never forget for their entire lives.

The destruction of a planet was something all too common in space. Such things would never surprise them. What happened here though was different.

The planet did not explode. The planet was not destroyed.

One moment they were looking at an entire planet bathed in a white soothing light and the next moment, the planet was entirely erased from existence as if it had been in the first place.

It just — ceased to exist.

(AN: Next chapter will be the Epilogue and a few interludes and this will be the end of Book 1. I hope you liked it. Don't hesitate to share what you feel.)