Story Reader / Interlude / Valkyrie / Story
After Vera massacres heaps of Corrupted, another horde surrounds them.
—!
Uh...
The familiar Construct in front of her is moving sluggishly, his mechanical insides laid bare in plain sight, with vital fluid seeping into the sand. One arm is broken, causing his attacks to look like comedic flails.
Just one... If I could save just this one...
In a flash, Vera slashes through the horde of Corrupted moving toward her and rushes to the familiar construct, supporting his sagging form.
Being a support-type Construct after all, Vera can feel her combat computation modules reaching their max capacity.
Hey, Average Joe. You're an Attacker-type, right?
Yeah... No need to rub it in, I'm an Attacker-type, but you fight better than—
His speech is interrupted by a brief, metallic screech. Vera has yanked off one of her arms and is hurriedly attaching it to the Construct in the place of his broken limb via nano-reinforcement.
You...
I'm reaching the limits of my battle capabilities. I'm a Support-type by design, after all. You can still fight if you've got your structure intact, right?
...If just one person survives... I'll no longer have to hear the nickname "Death".
Use my arm to get past the defense and leave! Leave like you had planned to in the beginning!
Stop leaving me with pain. It hurts deeper than the pain in my receptors right now...
But well... I guess being able to feel pain is what proves that we're still alive.
...Watch out!
Vera is suddenly doused with a faceful of ice-cold vital fluid. She pauses mending the limb of the Construct.
Before the Construct is crushed, he has swung his intact arm into the core of the culprit—a towering Corrupted that leapt into sight out of nowhere—effectively crippling it.
Live.
The words reach Vera before he crumbles into lifeless parts. Live—honest well-wishes, but also a curse.
Live... What's even the point of living?
The Construct is a lost cause. Vera sprints out with her blades.
Damn it... damn it!
Even as she fights, Vera no longer feels alive. Were she to live through this, only more fear and pain await.
One after another, the Corrupted land their blows on her. Once, twice... with every new mark on her body, the pain intensifies.
The exhausted Vera kneels down on the remains of countless Corrupted and Constructs. Overwhelming pain burns through her. For a split-second, the thought of turning off her pain receptors flashes past.
I don't care if it hurts. Please, don't switch off my pain receptors.
...?!
A painful memory streaks into Vera's mind. Struck by a sudden revelation, she stabs her blade into the ground, forcing herself to stand.
Every action—her whole person—was born because of pain.
Because of pain, she realized the shape of her life.
Hah... So that's how it is, huh...
—!
With the pain spurring her on, Vera straightens her upper half. She pulls her blade out of the ground and swings it forward aggressively.
A new sensation trickles through the weapon—the pain of the Corrupted. The screams of the devoured civilians, too, flood into her being.
The living feel pain, but not mere things. Lifeless things are without form, without self, devoid of everything.
You're right, Average Joe! At least I'm able to feel!
Unlike mere things, she can feel pain. Even the pain of others, too.
Ahaha, it hurts... it really fricking hurts... bastards!
For a brief moment, Vera allows the swirling pain to stir in her head, enjoying it as if it were some kind of reward.
All right! I'll live! I'll live, and feel the pain that you cannot feel! I'll pillage all that you'll never own again!
Meanwhile, a Kurono transportation truck arrives and parks soundlessly at the extraction point.
The Kurono personnel are patrolling the battlefield, seeking for what they deem valuable among the remains of Constructs, humans and Corrupted.
A short series of mechanical scraping attracts the attention of some of the workers. Amidst the sand and corpses, there is a girl lying silently on the ground with her heavily damaged blade, missing limbs and all.
Her red bangs, wet from vital fluid, barely conceal a pair of sparkling eyes. She is grinning a wide, unhinged smile—a ghoulish sight contrasting the dead bodies surrounding her. She is smiling, just like Death herself.
And what better a recommendation letter, than the heaps of Corrupted bodies beside her?
Let me... live.
With her still intact vocal modules, she whispers.
Version BPN-13, Support-type Construct. Name... Vera, huh.
The very same words are spoken once more, but the circumstances are entirely different.
On that day, Vera resigned from the military. Her files are stamped with the Kurono seal.
A blessing, but also a curse.
—Bring the pain on.
