The tip touched the part of the jet-black chest armor that rolled up the highest. He pulled the resolution of his perceptions up to the maximum and concentrated his power only on the point where blade touched armor.

Cut the minuscule with the maximum.

The resistance that was communicated to his hands changed from slight to great in an instant and then back to slight. Rather than the shriek of metal, he heard a woody sound like bamboo splitting, and Lucid Blade ripped five centimeters into the thick chest armor to come out directly below the gash. About 10 percent of the first level of the Enemy’s health gauge vanished. Considering that it had a total of four, this was meager damage.

But something snapped past him from behind, grazing his shoulder as it started to drop—Rose’s whip. The needle-sharp tip stabbed into the slight gap carved into Einherjar’s chest armor and was immediately yanked out again.

The roses then scattered, taking the electric shock with them, but the Enemy remained with its sword held high, unmoving. Landing on the floor, Haruyuki ripped his gaze away from Einherjar’s massive bulk and turned to his partner.

A burning blue flame was caught on the tip of the whip extending from her left hand. The weak point she mentioned—it had to be the Einherjar’s soul flickering there. When Rose waved her hand forcefully, the whip screamed and hit the ground, and the blue flames scattered into countless tiny sparks.

Haruyuki timidly looked forward again, in time to see the Enemy’s health gauge vanish, all the way down to the fourth level.

The Legend-class Enemy, the commander of the Einherjar, crumbled to the floor, its jet-black armor breaking apart.

“We… won?”

He stared dumbly at the pile of armor slowly melting into the air, unable to believe their victory.

“There’s no time for slacking off!” Rose shouted, coming around in front of him and pointing at the pillar on the right side of the hall. “You save that duel avatar, Crow! I’ll take the left!”

“R-right!” He nodded deeply and shifted gears. Their objective wasn’t to defeat Einherjar. They had to rescue Orchid as soon as possible and get her through the portal.

Still gripping his sword, Haruyuki raced across the floor, now devoid of green leaves.

Even a meter away from the pillar, he couldn’t tell if it was Oracle or not wrapped in those thick chains. He would have to cut through them first to find out who lay beneath, so he brandished his sword and set his aim. They looked seriously tough, just like Rose had said, but they couldn’t have been harder than Einherjar’s armor.

“Fah!” Letting out a sharp breath, he brought Lucid Blade down, but it simply bounced back with a dazzling shower of sparks, leaving nothing more than a faint scratch on the surface of the chain.

“H-huh.”

Frustrated, he tried another few blows, but the results were the same. He felt like the third Disaster aka Centaurea Sentry was sighing somewhere, and he stepped back from the pile of metal for a second.

It wasn’t about force or speed. The secret of Omega style was to sever the one point that could be severed. As long as he could pick out the seam, at its most extreme point, there would be no need to even bring the sword down… supposedly.

He relaxed his shoulders and gently set the tip of Lucid Blade on the iron chains. Sensing the minuscule point of contact, he imagined the sword sliding through it…

Shf. The blade sank into the chain and came out directly below it.

He returned his sword to its scabbard and pulled on either side of the cut. The super-high-priority chain still resisted, but eventually the circle fell apart with a high-pitched squeal, and then the whole thing dropped to the floor with a loud clatter.

“Orkki!!”

Haruyuki heard a cry that was almost a shriek from behind him and hurriedly looked back. Straining his eyes, he saw Rose kneeling at the base of the pillar holding a pink avatar in her arms. Her trademark hat was missing, but the large ribbon at the chest and the dress-shaped armor were without a doubt those of Orchid Oracle.

Thank goodness.

Relief washed over him.

So then who’s over here?

Doubt came to him next. Haruyuki turned back around. His jaw dropped.

Now freed from the chains, what leaned against the pillar was a dull silver color, slender limbs sprouting from a cylindrical torso—a robot.

But robotic-looking duel avatars weren’t that rare. In a grander sense, the majority of duel avatars, including Silver Crow, could have been said to be robot-style designs. But common to all duel avatars was the fact that inside their multicolored armors, there was a gray nude body, the naked avatar. Even Aqua Current, who looked like her entire body was made of flowing water, was no exception.

And yet the robot before his eyes now had a torso and joints made up of nothing more than metal frames and cables. He saw no sign of any naked avatar. It was an absolutely impossible design for a duel avatar.

“Um… Who are you?” Haruyuki asked ever so hesitantly as he looked at the robot’s face, and he was hit with a new shock.

On its simply designed head—it looked like the robot was wearing a hood—sat a circlet of countless silver hooks linked together: the Luminary crown he’d seen a number of times in this tower, digging in tightly. Maybe that was why the robot avatar didn’t respond to him, but in that case, this meant that the Luminary’s fearsome ability Divine Light demonstrated the power to control the minds of not only Enemies but even Burst Linkers.

“What the—? Is that a drone?”

It was Rose who had spoken. He looked behind himself abruptly.

She was standing there, holding Orchid Oracle lovingly in her arms. Oracle’s armor was badly damaged, but there was no crown on her head.

“Uh, um, is Oracle all right?” Haruyuki hurried to ask. “Is she conscious?”

“She’s not.” Rose shook her head. “Because she’s forcibly connected with Cerberus’s quantum circuit right now. But if we go into the portal, we’ll burst out properly and the real-world Orkki should wake up.”

“Sh-she should? That’s a relief. So then please go on ahead of me, Rose. I don’t know who this is, but I’ll help them before I—”

“That’s not a person—or rather, not a Burst Linker.”

He gaped once again and asked timidly, “Huh? S-so then is it an Enemy?”

“Not that, either. That is a drone,” she declared. “In other words, a shop clerk. An NPC of the Unlimited Neutral Field. You’ve never been to a shop?”

“N-no, I haven’t. Kuroyukihime forbade it…” Haruyuki stared at the silver robot once again.

Not an Enemy nor a Burst Linker but an NPC. Now that she mentioned it, this harmless design did indeed fit that mold. But the mystery only deepened. For what purpose would Oscillatory Universe tame a shop clerk and then lock it up in a place like this?

“Um. So a clerk means it’s not dangerous, right?”

“So long as we don’t attack it,” she agreed. “Although it’s not a rival and has no health gauge, so there’s no point in attacking it, anyway.”

“Then I can take the crown off its head, right?” Haruyuki asked, and Rose thought for a second before nodding.

“I think that’d be okay.”

“Okay then…” He drew Lucid Blade and brought the tip up to the hooks of the crown. Since it would have been stronger than it looked, he focused his mind again on the minuscule and severed the object’s seam.

Ting! He heard a faint noise, and the severed hook fell to the floor. The remaining parts followed, clattering to the floor and disappearing.

“Hey, Silver Crow?”

Haruyuki looked back as he sheathed his sword. “Y-yes?”

“I wondered this when you sliced me, and when you cut into Einherjar’s armor back there,” she said. “Did you learn that technique on your own? Or did Lotus teach it to you?”

“Uh,” he hesitated, briefly. “Kuroyukihime has taught me so much, but…”

But actually, he apparently had another teacher of the sword arts, the mysterious master of Omega style, Centaurea Sentry. But he wasn’t sure whether he should say the name or not. Because Sentry himself had said that he had been the third Chrome Disaster. If anyone found out that Haruyuki could communicate with the third Disaster, who had to have lost all his points in the distant past, they might suspect that some element of the monster still remained inside of Haruyuki.

“Crow. Are you maybe…?” Milady took a step forward, and then there came a curious sound from behind him.

“+-++++-++…?”

It sounded like electrical noise, but was also clearly some kind of speech. Having rebooted, the robot/drone was talking to him. Semicircular eye lenses blinked with white light in the depths of the hood as it continued to speak to Haruyuki.

“+++-++…?”

Naturally, he had absolutely no idea what it meant.

“It is asking if you are the one who helped it.”

“Huh…?!”

Haruyuki shifted his gaze to Rose and asked, “You understand what this person is saying?”

“Well, I wouldn’t have made it as a Burst Linker for this long otherwise. You should probably answer it.”

“B-but I don’t speak drone…,” Haruyuki murmured as he turned back to the robot and said in Japanese, “Y-yes, it was me who broke the circlet on your head, anyway.”

“+++-+++++”

“It says ‘Thanks,’” Rose interpreted again.

“O-oh, you’re welcome,” he hurried to say. “But… What are you doing here? Why did they capture you?”

The drone spread its slender arms like a human being would. Rose continued to turn the electronic noise into a language he could understand.

“‘When I returned to Tokyo after being away for a while, I ran into a pointy white avatar. After I carried out his order, I found this strange thing suddenly attached to my head, and I couldn’t move.’”

“Pointy… and white.” Haruyuki frowned. “I guess that would have been Ivory Tower.”

“Probably,” Rose agreed. “In which case, I guess he bought something from this drone. So then why lock it up here?”

Of course, Haruyuki had no answer for her. He looked at the drone again and thought a bit before asking, “What kind of shop do you run, anyway? What do you sell?”

“+++-++++-++, +-+-+-++”

Rose changed the drone’s electronic sounds into Japanese.

“‘I’m the wandering blacksmith, Mr. Smith’—Huh? Blacksmith?! The legendary—?! It really exists?!”

Haruyuki’s shock was about three times as great as Rose’s.

The blacksmith roaming the Unlimited Neutral Field. The most critical factor in their strategy for attacking the Sun God Inti, the shop that Nega Nebulus—no, the general membership of the five Great Legions—was scheduled to look for until their eyes bled was standing right in front of him.

In which case, it was easy to guess what a duel avatar that looked like Ivory Tower had asked the blacksmith to do. He had enhanced the Luminary to resist heat so that it wouldn’t melt in Inti’s flames. And to keep any other Burst Linkers from doing the same, he used the newly improved Luminary to take control of the blacksmith, brought the shopkeeper here to Midtown Tower, and held it captive together with Oracle.

“Uh, um… Ummm…” Not sure of what he should say, Haruyuki flapped his mouth open and closed.

The drone—or rather, Mr. Smith—made its electronic noise once more.

“+-+-++++? +-+++-+++++-”

“It’s asking if you want to place an order. Otherwise, it’s going to start traveling again…”

“A-an order,” Haruyuki murmured before moving his head up and down on a return trajectory at lightning speed. “I—I do. I do, I do! I want to request a weapon enhancement!”

He’d gotten that far when he remembered.

At the meeting the day before, they had decided that the weapon they would enhance at the blacksmith was Trilead Tetroxide’s Arc Infinity. But Lead wasn’t there now. Haruyuki could go back to the real world through the portal, contact Lead, have him dive into the Unlimited Neutral Field, meet up, and come to this place once more… In theory, it was possible, but even if Lead responded immediately, a full day or more would probably pass in inside time. As to whether or not the blacksmith would wait here for them until then…

His hopes weren’t high, but Haruyuki started to open his mouth to at least ask.

“This is bad.” Rose stopped him before he started, her voice tense as she turned her face toward the large doors, still holding the unconscious Oracle. “Enemies coming up the stairs. Three—no, more than that. They’re reacting to my Incarnate technique. Crow, if you’re gonna ask the blacksmith for something, we’re out of time.”

“Unh… Unnnnh.” After agonizing for another second, Haruyuki made his decision. They might be able to find the blacksmith again, or this might be their last chance. In which case, it wasn’t what the Legion had planned, but his only choice was to act now.

He thrust forward the Lucid Blade still clutched in his right hand and shouted, “Please! Enhance this sword, please!”

“+-+-+-++++-++”

When the blacksmith drone emitted its electronic noise, a purple window appeared before Haruyuki’s eyes. The row of characters—apparently a weapon enhancement menu—was in Japanese, fortunately. Physical attack enhancement, endurance enhancement, heat attribute addition, corrosion performance enhancement… He found the thing he was looking for fairly near the bottom of the scrolling list.

“Th-this! This heat invulnerability, please!”

“”

At the top of the enhancement menu, a new smaller window popped up. Barely bothering to check the sum of Burst Points displayed in it, he was about to press the OK button when he froze.

“Huh?” Blinking rapidly, he stopped to count the number of zeros with his index finger.

He didn’t have enough. He didn’t have anywhere near enough.

Currently level six, Haruyuki had been saving up a fair number of Burst Points to reach the high-ranker level of seven. His promised duel with Takumu would recede into the distance, but if it was for the sake of the Inti subjugation mission, then he was fine with pouring all of those points into this enhancement. He was prepared for that, and yet, the number of points Mr. Smith was asking for was nearly three times what he currently possessed.

This is ridiculous! he raged, but when he thought about it, it was also ridiculous to make a weapon invulnerable to flames. If he considered it calmly, this might have been an appropriate price, but that didn’t matter if he couldn’t pay it.

Grasping at straws, he was about to ask the blacksmith if he accepted installments, but before he could, Rose peeked at the window.

“Whoa, that’s some price!” She whistled. “Oh, but flame invulnerability. Yeah, that’s gonna cost you. And I mean, why would—?” She started and then paused briefly before continuing. “No, it’s obvious. To destroy Inti. In that case, I can’t pretend I’m not a part of this.”

“Huh?”

Before a dumbfounded Haruyuki, Rose shifted Oracle so she could hold her with just one arm and reached her free hand out to the window.

“I’ll pay it for you.” She had no sooner spoken than she was pressing the OK button.

He heard the cha-ching of purchase made, and all the windows disappeared.

“Huh? B-b-b-b-but that crazy price…!”

“We’ll work that out later. Hurry up and give him your sword! We have less than a full minute before those Einherjars get up here!”

Her voice was harsh, and he had no choice but to obey. He held out Lucid Blade once more, and the blacksmith accepted it casually with one hand before kneeling down formally on the spot for some reason.

Haruyuki heard a cool sound as the robot’s lower body transformed. Kashnk shnk shnk. Into a square worktable—no, an anvil. Then its right hand also changed shape. A steel plate rotated and pushed out to produce an enormous hammer about twenty centimeters in diameter.

“+-++++++”

Saying something in its electronic language like “I’ll get to it then,” the blacksmith set Lucid Blade on the anvil and brought down the hammer with a haphazardness that could almost have been called violent. Clang-clang-clang! Each time the metallic sound rang out, starry sparks scattered and bounced off the floor before disappearing. Haruyuki watched on tenterhooks, wondering if this process ever failed—or failed spectacularly to the point where the weapon was lost. The star-sparks that flew out from the tenth blow were even more remarkably brilliant.

Lucid Blade was enveloped in crimson light. He almost had to turn his face away, the light was so dazzling, but he kept his eyes intently fixed on the process. The light gradually grew weaker and at last disappeared.

“+-+++-+++-”

Together with an electronic “Sorry for the wait,” his beloved sword was returned to him, and Haruyuki timidly accepted it.

It looked basically the same as always. But the way the light hit it, it seemed like the blade shone just the faintest hint red. He couldn’t immediately believe that this would really hold up against Inti’s super heat, but he had no way of checking at the moment.

There was the pleasing kashnk again, and the blacksmith returned to its human shape. It looked at each of them in turn, made some sounds in the way of a farewell, and then flames jetted from its feet. With this propulsion, it flew across the hall, slipped out a window, and disappeared off into the distant night sky.

“Uh, um… Thank you!” Haruyuki called after the blacksmith before bowing his head deeply toward Rose. “Thank you, too, Rose. Really. I think it’ll take a while, but I’ll definitely pay back the points you put up for me—”

“Here they come!” she shouted sharply before he could finish.

With a tremendous, explosive roar, the hall’s double doors slammed open. Writhing in the darkness beyond were four or five Einherjars.

“Run!” she yelled and started sprinting for the portal at the end of the hall, while Haruyuki hurriedly chased after her.

Behind them, the deadly warriors made the ground rumble in their pursuit. He didn’t have the leeway to look back, but the bloodlust of the Enemies snaked out like a tentacle and tried to entangle his avatar. Mustering the last of his mental focus, Haruyuki caught up with Rose, grabbed onto her and Oracle tightly with both hands, and beat his Metatron Wings.

As he accelerated to the point where his entire body squealed in protest, the blue portal approached before his eyes.

He flew in.

Everything turned white.