Chapter 150: The Biggest Enemy

“…Zenith, I managed to contact Maya… what are you doing?” Nadir asks, holding a communicator he managed to find inside the ship.

“I’m using my powers to try to sense Nemesis approaching. I think she lost track of us when the ship crashed. Anyway, how are things over there?” I ask him while continuing to expand the range of my spatial perception.

I’ve expanded it so much that, at this point, it’s as if it were a thin, circular disk. The area has become so vast that I can’t maintain anything thicker than three centimeters, which means I’m only detecting things partially.

“Maya’s doing what you’d expect, wiping out powerful monsters as if they were toys. In the end, she’s the strongest. There are also plenty of other Kairas fighting. The city is chaotic, but they’re managing to keep things under control… The only problem is that dead Kairas are turning into monsters, so everyone has to be careful.”

‘That’s pretty bad… Kairas turning into monsters…’ I can faintly sense something moving. It’s very far away, but I can’t be sure what it is until it gets closer.

“If the Kairas are managing to handle things, then tell me who’s coming to back us up. I don’t think we have much time left.” I wonder if the higher-ups are still unsure whether to believe what Nadir reported through the Nexus.

“Maya said Charlotte is coming with reinforcements, but unfortunately, there isn’t much help available. Most of them are extremely busy. The monsters are trying to get underground to attack the civilians, so only Charlotte and Rouge are coming…” Nadir looks irritated.

“Are you fucking kidding me? The higher-ups are only sending two rookies!!?” Even I’m getting irritated. I’m not underestimating their abilities, but just the two of them won’t be nearly enough.

“You’re making me feel inadequate, Professor.” I hear Charlotte’s voice and see her stepping out of a rift in space alongside Rouge.

“Don’t you trust us, Professor?” Rouge asks in a serious tone. She doesn’t seem to like that.

“…You two will be useful. Better than having just the two of us. The problem is that the four of us won’t be enough. Anyway, take these.” I toss them two of the weapons we have. They aren’t the final versions, so they’re not very good, since I never imagined we’d end up in this situation.

The two of them look confused, but they finally seem to realize what they’re getting into now that they see how serious we are.

“You two will provide support. Let Nadir and me focus on the fight, and most importantly, stay alert. Charlotte, you’re our escape route and the perfect taxi for bringing in more allies when they become available.” Charlotte would normally complain about being called a taxi, but she stays quiet while briefly trying to figure out how to use the weapon I handed her.

“Zenith, the communicator’s dead.” Nadir shakes the damaged device, making me let out a frustrated sound.

“I—” I stop speaking when the thing gets close enough for me to get a rough idea of what it is. Judging by its size and physique, I know it’s Nemesis. That bizarre anatomical form combining metal, monster, and human is unmistakably hers, and I can sense the drone floating near her.

“She’s coming, Nadir!!” I quickly warn him as I feel her approaching. She seems to have noticed me too, and her movements have accelerated considerably.

“You two! Keep your distance!” Nadir orders Charlotte and Rouge, who end up obeying.

‘This won’t be easy…’

…

…

…

Nemesis arrives at the spot where Nadir and Zenith’s ship crashed. She looks around and sees only Zenith, but she can sense the others nearby.

“What a warm welcome.” Nemesis speaks while using Delilah’s appearance, making Zenith give her a look of disgust.

“That appearance again?”

“Yes, I thought it was appropriate. We had some wonderful conversations while I was using this appearance. Unfortunately, you never really trusted me, and thanks to Maya, my identity ended up being exposed.” Nemesis speaks in a falsely sorrowful tone while her drone flies overhead, analyzing everything around them.

“Are you really going to keep using that appearance?”

“No, I just thought it was a good time to use it. Have you thought any more about what you discovered?” She taunts Zenith about what Nadir and Zenith really are.

“We’re human, and the past doesn’t change that. Just like what I am won’t change the outcome. You’ll be a corpse with a bullet lodged in your head.” Nemesis looks at the gun in Zenith’s hands and smiles.

“Cold.” Nemesis returns to her true form. At three meters tall, she makes Zenith look small, and her appearance—a mixture of three things that should never coexist—is deeply disturbing.

“You’re really brave. Four against me? That’s it? Do you really think you can beat me? Or are you just buying time?” Nemesis’s voice is strange, almost a form of violence against anyone who hears it.

“Brave, huh? Maybe we’re reckless, but you won’t beat us that easily.” A faint sound rings out, and Nemesis immediately catches a bullet, but she feels a slight pain in the palm of her hand.

‘A non-vector weapon?’ A fissure opens behind her, and Nadir and Rouge emerge. She tries to kick them, but Zenith drags the sky, pulling the space around Nemesis and forcing her body to shift, throwing her off balance.

Charlotte creates a fissure for Zenith, who appears beside Nemesis. Nadir and Rouge try to immobilize Nemesis, but the attempt fails miserably when she spins on the ground. The simple movement sends Rouge and Nadir flying as she strikes them.

“I see. You’re going to try to beat me with strategy.” Nemesis grabs Zenith’s arm and tries to break it, but fails, leaving her genuinely surprised.

‘Am I not strong enough to break this with my strength alone?’ Nemesis wonders as Zenith uses her tail to grab Nemesis’s leg and immediately fires her weapon at her enemy.

Nemesis’s drone moves in front of her, taking the bullets before firing a laser. Trusting her prosthetics and the cube’s strength, Zenith puts her arm in front of her to block the attack.

As she uses her knee to defend against a kick from Nemesis, the sound of Nemesis’s leg claws digging into the prosthetic echoes through the area.

“So you’re the frontline because you’re the only one who can physically withstand my blows. Good strategy.” She raises her leg, lifting Zenith before slamming her into the ground.

Zenith rolls away to avoid being crushed and manages to break free of Nemesis, who is struck from behind by several compressed-air blades that barely do anything.

“I’ll take care of this!” Charlotte seizes the opportunity, realizing that if an attack does nothing to Nemesis, she ignores it. She quickly steals Nemesis’s drone, teleporting with it as far away as she can manage in an instant.

“!!!” Nemesis grows furious when the drone’s vision in her mind suddenly shows a completely distant location. She turns in that direction, allowing Zenith to leap onto her, spin around her body, and lock her arm around Nemesis’s from behind, pressing against her throat with all her strength.

Nadir manages to return and uses his powers to increase Zenith’s strength. He sweeps Nemesis’s legs. He can’t knock her down, but he prevents her from using her legs right away.

Rouge launches herself like a cannonball, landing a flying kick against the folds behind Nemesis’s knees and forcing her down onto them. The three try to shoot her, but she spins her entire body, catching all the bullets before falling backward onto the ground and trying to crush Zenith, who manages to escape thanks to the sandy ground.

“You humans are so fucking annoying.” She tries to kick Rouge, but Zenith steps in front of her with her arms crossed in an X to protect her student. Both of them are sent flying, and Nadir, to protect them, delivers a powerful kick to the sand, showering Nemesis with it and obstructing her vision.

He shoots at her, and the fact that she has tried to block every bullet so far gives the trio more confidence that these weapons can kill her.

“You pieces of shit, with your stupid tricks—” Charlotte reappears, opening a fissure above Nemesis and dropping an enormous boulder on her head. The blow disorients her for a second before she strikes Charlotte, nearly taking her out of the fight. Charlotte only managed to react because Zenith had already done things like this during training.

“Hey, you three!! She can’t use her powers freely!! Keep attacking!!” Zenith shouts, mainly to motivate her students. There isn’t much around for Nemesis to work with, so she has very few ways to use the powers they know about. Her control over fear would only affect the four of them if any of them actually felt afraid.

“…” Nemesis looks at everyone, searching for whoever seems most susceptible to fear now that the battle has begun. She lunges at Rouge, but Charlotte pulls her out of the way.

Nemesis kicks the sand, copying Nadir, and creates an enormous curtain of dust. All four of them try to close in, but Nemesis grabs Nadir and knocks him down.

“You… are afraid of Zenith dying, aren’t you? Then why not make a deal with me? I have more powers than you humans think.” Nemesis takes advantage of the brief window of time to speak to Nadir.

“You’re fucking crazy if you think I’ll accept anything from a monster.” Nadir doesn’t waste the opportunity either. Alone and pinned down by Nemesis’s leg, all she has to do to kill him is press down, so he keeps the conversation going.

“Are you sure?” Nemesis begins intensifying Nadir’s fears, judging that he’s even easier to manipulate than Charlotte and Rouge.