Chapter 177: The Righteous Breaker: Dead Weight

Gouging the asphalt and scattering sparks, my sword slashes upward from below. But Metius has already vanished from that spot.

An unnatural weight presses down on the hand gripping my sword. Looking up, Metius had used my propeller sword as a stepping stone to vault into the air, and her heel was currently plummeting straight toward my face.

"Nuooh?!"

"Tch!"

Bending backward with everything I've got, I narrowly evade the heel drop. Her heel violently scrapes against my chest plate. The exact moment one of us lands and the other recovers from leaning back, we both move simultaneously.

Taking the center of the main street, I intercept the nimbly bouncing Metius and launch a counter-pursuit.

My gauge is literally pixels away from a full charge for my Super Art. But when do I use it? Cursed Prison's Super is somewhat different from the rest of the cast's Supers.

It's not something you can just pop and expect an automatic win. I need to carefully consider the exact moment to pull the trigger... Oh, chaaance! Drop dead! Crap, she dodged it.

"Darting around like a...!"

"Don't rush, don't rush. Let's use the full time limit and enjoy ourselves."

Damn it, breathing all that good air... I'll kill you. I'm going to absolutely murder you.

Our HP totals have a slight difference, but we're both sitting at around 30%. If I go all-in on an aggressive rush, I might be able to shave off the rest of it. But if my focus slips for even a second, I could easily get fully comboed and lose mine instead.

She knows that too. Or rather, she might be playing exactly because she knows that. Right now, Sylvia Goldberg and I are continuing a slugfest while actively conserving our gauges.

"You can... use your Super Art too, right? Bring it."

"Right back at you."

Metius's Super Art, Meteor Strike, has homing properties. Fundamentally, it's a move you guarantee hitting by using it after a stagger, but the moment it's activated, you can safely assume it's completely unavoidable.

The only exceptions are if you're a character fast enough to outrun the projectile's homing speed entirely, or if you can dodge it using teleportation... but none of that matters right now.

(Do I pop mine first? Do I use it as a counter? Both have pros and cons, but trying to force the situation with this little HP is risky...)

If my HP bar was sitting at a pixel, I'd go all-in on a do-or-die gamble... but having a frustratingly decent 30% left makes me too cautious.

"Opening."

"Shit—?!"

Crap, I got distracted. By the time I noticed, it was already too late. A powerful impact slams into my chest, locking my body into a stagger animation.

"That was fun. That was really fun, Cursed Prison... But the Hero wins."

Metius leaps. Blue particles converge around her leg, pulsing with blinding radiance.

Is it checkmate? No, not yet! This stagger is a Light Stagger with short hitstun. I should have just enough frames to trigger my Super before that flying kick connects...! If I do that, I should be able to dodge it.

Supers generally chunk about 40% of an HP bar if they hit, and 50 to 60% on a clean hit. Meteor Strike generates a massive area-of-effect explosion the moment it makes contact.

Even if I dodge the direct hit, the blast damage will still catch me, so perfectly evading it is impossible, but I should at least be able to survive it.

"Don't... underestimate meeeeeeee!!"

Super Acti—

"Mommy, where are you...?"

My five senses—honed to their absolute limits through maximum concentration—finished filtering the data and spit out a conclusion before my conscious mind even registered it.

Voice. Child. Woman. Familiar. Chestnuts. Behind me. Blast radius. Chestnuts. Pencilgon. Chestnuts. Weapon. Chestnuts. Metius's settings...

My body moves on its own. No, that's not it; this is absolutely my own will. Skipping past the why, the how, and the what is behind me, my brain fires a single four-word order to my entire body: "Do not run away."

Meteor Strike is a technique that pumps energy into the target upon impact and explodes them from the inside. Which means the definition of a "direct hit" for that Super Art is "contact."

I can't dodge the blast. Evacuating from this spot is not an option. A shield. Make a shield. Form a line. Stack them. Overlap them. Forward. Push out. Shield Bash.

My thoughts scramble to catch up, later finding logical justification for the actions I was already taking.

I toss the swords in my hands forward to form an "X," grab the two blades at my waist, and throw them to overlap the first two.

Four walls. Head hurts. Vision blurring. Kick is getting closer. Brace yourself. Guard. Push in. Push out.

Sync the timing.

"Right here."

Dropping into a guard stance identical to an American football tackle, I lean my weight directly against the four blades that had just begun to succumb to gravity. The very next second, an impact pierces through the four propeller swords and violently rattles my entire body.

From an outside perspective, it looks like a direct hit, but mechanically, the target that took the blow wasn't Cursed Prison—it was the helicopter propellers.

The acceleration of my thoughts hits its limit. Beyond the propeller swords that were being devoured from the inside by a brilliant blue light, I caught a split-second glimpse of the Hero whose attack had been completely blocked by my wall of swords.

The eyes behind those star-shaped goggles shot wide open in sheer shock, and the corners of her mouth drew a crescent arc in an almost violently euphoric grin...

And then it exploded.

"Don't die, don't die... Phew."

Even though I avoided a direct hit, a point-blank explosion is not something Cursed Prison's weight class can simply brush off. My effortlessly blown-away body forces itself to stand, blocking the path.

The helicopter armor covering my entire body is completely mangled, no longer serving any defensive purpose. Yet even so, Cursed Prison has not fallen. Clinging to the tiniest sliver of HP, teetering on the absolute edge of death, I still refuse to fall.

"Meteor Strike is a Super Art that pumps Metius's stellar energy into the opponent and detonates them from the inside... I'll admit you stopped a clean hit by using the propellers as a guard, but I don't get it."

"...You're asking why I caught it instead of dodging, right?"

Hah, it's nothing that serious. Think of it as a small apology to the NPCs who got dragged into our resident fiend's horrific meat grinder.

If I dodged it and let the blast kill bystanders, it'd leave a bad taste in my mouth. Plus, it's not like I'm trying to farm affection points or anything—I just absolutely refuse to be lumped into the same category as that monster.

"Hey, Chestnut Brat, you're in the way, so beat it. Your mom's looking for you."

"U-Un..."

Right behind me, a single child NPC was slumped on the ground, completely shielded by Cursed Prison's unnecessarily massive body. I know perfectly well there is no direct connection; I know the Chaos City where Clockfire rampaged and the Chaos City I'm currently in are fundamentally completely different instances.

Even so, having the Hero butcher an NPC just because the Villain dodged their attack... I refuse to let something that kills the hype happen in a climax like this.

I'll be using the ancient, time-honored logic of "A delinquent picking up a stray puppy in the rain instantly looks like a good guy." Now go, worship this Cursed Prison...!

"Good kid. Run straight ahead and don't look back."

"T-Thank you, mister..."

"Mister... Whatever, I'll take it."

A man's worth isn't in his looks; it's the youth of his soul. In the distance, I spot Chestnut's mother running this way... Confirming that the woman who was turned into a human landmine in another Chaos City was now hugging her child and running away, I turn back to face Metius.

"What's wrong, Hero? Not saving people in trouble makes you look like a total mob character."

"Ahaha, you sure talk a big game... Though I don't recall Cursed Prison ever being the type to save people."

"This isn't a comic, it's a game."

I repeat the exact same words I said... how long ago was it? It probably hasn't even been an hour in real time, but it feels like I said them ages ago. I think this is how they handle parallel settings in American comics.

"The universe is different. Don't complain about every little thing I... no, the Great Me decides to do."

My HP is at an overwhelming disadvantage. My heli-armor is useless, and I've lost the propeller swords. But it is absolutely clear who holds the advantage right now.

"You used your Super Art, Hero."

"...Bring it on. There's no point in defeating 'Cursed Prison' unless I crush that too!"

"My turn."

Cursed Prison's Super Art is fundamentally different from the rest of the cast, and its mechanics are deeply tied to the lore of the character known as Cursed Prison.

Cursed Prison is a Villain from the comic "Metius," and he has a deep-seated grudge against Galaxeus, the resident Deus Ex Machina of the Galaxia Label, who is practically the cause of everything.

In the ancient past of Earth, he was born as an irregular anomaly that even the omnipotent entity Galaxeus could not predict, wielding unimaginable power solely to fulfill his own desires.

However, recognizing him as a threat capable of endangering the very life of the planet, Galaxeus forced him into a cursed suit of armor. A prisoner forced to endure eternal captivity in a walking prison—that is the "Cursed Prison."

And the young man who was granted power mimicking the mighty entity that once rampaged across this planet is the protagonist, Metius. Cursed Prison attacks Metius solely to strip away the armor sealing his true self.

"Prison Break!!"

Therefore, Cursed Prison is Metius's true original. By sacrificing his gauge and the potential to seize the Cube, he activates his Super Art—temporarily unlocking his original power, "Prison Break"!

The helicopter armor covering my entire body shatters violently. The jet-black armor underneath begins to crack. Canonically, he breaks free by absorbing Galaxeus's power, but since this is a game, who cares about the minor details?

Just like the propeller swords earlier, a brilliant light overflows from within my entire body. It is a crimson radiance, the exact polar opposite of Metius's blue.

Unable to contain the sheer brilliance, the armor detonates, revealing a slender man glowing entirely in crimson.

Cursed Prison is an incredibly unique character. He alters his properties by absorbing inorganic matter, and by using his Super Art, the character himself fundamentally "transforms."

"This is the first time I've ever felt this excited seeing that form... Prison Breaker!"

The duration of Prison Break is thirty seconds—an incredibly short timeframe compared to the length of a round. But its power, its speed, its performance... it is a complete, strict upgrade over Metius.

"It's the climax. I'm putting an end to this."

"The one who wins is always... the Hero!!"

The blue meteor and the crimson star of ruin violently clash.

Author's Afterword
So-called Zero Suit Samus. Furthermore, Prison Breaker is half-naked, and on top of that, he's glowing.

Red. Glowing. Half-naked.

I won't say what I'm referring to, but TheBee is my favorite. [*1]

Translator's Notes

• *[1] TheBee is my favorite: A reference to the Tokusatsu series Kamen Rider Kabuto. "TheBee" refers to Kamen Rider TheBee, and the "Red, Glowing, Half-naked" transformation sequence references Kamen Rider Kabuto's "Cast Off" mechanic.