Chapter 49: Defending Tokyo (2)

"Natsumi! Fire the Varanium at their backline! Most of the Stage I Gastreas are at the front"

Kotori shouted while firing beams of mana towards Aries to keep him in place while the other promoters and Natsumi take care of the army of Gastreas charging at them.

"Hai!"

Natsumi answered as Hiruko launched several pieces of boulders up in the air with the help of his [Maximum Pain] before pushing them towards the army of Gastreas while her daughter protected him from then flying Gastreas, dashing at them in full speed.

"They are truly annoying, [Maximum Pain]"

Hiruko muttered before expanding the barrier of magnetic fields around him to kill off the remaining Gastreas that her daughter didn't kill.

"Rentaro!"

Kotori shouted causing him to turn his head as soon as he buried a Gastrea to the ground with his Varanium arm, while Enju assisted him by watching his back from the Gastreas that tried to sneak an attack at their blind spots.

"What!?"

"Go and assist, Hiruko!"

"Understood! Enju let's go!"

"Hai!"

Both of them quickly dashed at Hiruko's direction as Rentaro performed an upper kick at a nearby spider type Gastrea in the head while Enju jumped above the Gastrea, giving it a powerful axe kick on its body, splitting the Gastrea in half.

"Impressive"

Hiruko commented while holding two custom made pistols in both of this hands, firing at the hundreds of wasp like Gastreas before using his [Maximum Pain] concrete floor to carve out a large boulder, launching it at the Stage III Gastreas positioned at the back of the army.

"Can't I just transform the entire area into Varanium?"

Natsumi muttered in confusion before staring at Kotori's direction.

"You can't, they'll just scatter and find other places to pass through... it's much easier to eliminate them if they are all in a single location"

Kotori answered as she fired another beam aimed at the head of Aries, causing it to stumble and fall on its side, crushing the Gastreas on the ground close to him before angrily glaring at Kotori with ferocious eyes.

"... How tough is it's skin? Not even a Satan-Class will be able to survive 5 attacks from me"

Kotori frowned as she felt her mana being depleted from her simultaneous attacks, causing her to momentarily stop her attack to recover some of her mana.

"How the heck are they still alive if that kind of monster sieged the country?"

She asked herself in wonder how Rentaro and the rank 1 and 2 promoters were able to kill 3 of this monsters in the past.

"We can only hope that those guys were able to safely reach the [ladder of heaven]... I hope that they aren't incompetent fools"

-meanwhile close to the tower of heaven-

"Help!!"

A lean man with neatly combed black hair carrying a rifle on his back shouted in horror from encountering a Stage IV Lizard type Gastrea close to the tower of heaven, leaving his 8 year old promoter behind to serve as bait so that he can escape from the Gastrea.

"I don't want to die!"

The man desperately cried out as tears of horror flowed down his cheeks, desperately running away from the Gastrea but was pinned to the ground as the giant Lizard stepped on its body with all of its weight.

"UGHH I DON'T WANT TO DIE!! ANYONE PLEASE HELP ME!!"

"Sheesh, you're loud"

An annoyed voice of a man said from the dark woods of the forest.

"P-PLEASE HELP ME I'LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT!!"

The man shouted in hope as he clawed the ground, trying to escape and run towards the source of the voice.

"Shut up will you? All you're screaming is hurting my ears"

Najasho said in irritation while covering his ears with his fingers, casually walking towards the Stage IV Gastrea without fear in his eyes.

"PLEASE HELP!"

"Fine, fine"

Najasho held the handle of his sword, disappearing from his place before appearing behind the giant Lizard, yawning in boredom.

"That Aldebaran bastard is really smart, to send a giant Lizard to guard this place while the others attack the city"

Najasho muttered as several deep and clean slices appeared on the Lizard's body before collapsing on the man into pieces, showering it's oddly colored blood on the man who was pinned down to the ground.

"How disgusting"

He says disgust while watching the man push the sliced meat and organs of the lizard to the side as he tried to get up from the ground before looking straight at Najasho with a grateful expression on his face.

"I-I know right?"

The man wryly smiled at him as he tried to wipe the blood off of his body but froze when Najasho placed the blade of his katana close to the man's neck.

"I'm not talking about the blood, though"

"Huh?"

The man asked in confusion before having his head sliced off of his body by Najasho without hesitation nor remorse.

"Akame, did you save the kid?"

Najasho asked in empty air as a familiar black haired girl carrying an unconscious 8 year old child in her arms walked out of the darkness.

"Yes"

"Good now then... how do we activate that thing?"

Najasho pointed at [Ladder of Heaven], behind Akame while slashing his sword down to remove the blood from its blade.

"I... don't know..."

"... Maybe we should've brought Najenda or Schwi along"

-back with Kotori-

"Any news, Kisara!?"

Kotori asked in annoyance as she sliced a Humanoid type Gastrea in half with Camael, burning it to ashes as soon as the blade touched it's flesh.

"We're recieving no response from them!!"

Kisara answered in a panick as she smashed the transceiver in anger while a white haired man protected her from the attacking Gastrea along with his initiator.

"Did you really have to destroy it?"

"... Hahahaha..."

She laughed in embarrassment while her initiator Tina, sniped the incoming Stage II Gastreas hiding behind the weaker Gastreas to protect them from the rain of fragments of Varanium.

"You're just s- MOVE ASIDE EVERYONE!!!"

Kotori shouted in a panic as she saw Aries charge at them with its horns at the front, ignoring the weaker Gastreas crushed underneath it's foot.

"IT'S GOING TO RAM US SO MOVE ASIDE!!"

Kotori shouted causing the white haired man to carry Tina and Kisara on his shoulder to move away from the range of Aries' attack.

Aries smashed into the large statue on the plaza with his horns, killing hundreds of promoters and initiators in an instant as they were crushed to death by the force of its charge. 

"Damn it!!"

Kotori shouted in anger as she jumped up from the ground, landing on Aries as she ran on top with her halberd imbedded to its skin, slicing a large portion of its meat as Kotori ran above its body.

"ROOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!"

Aries roared in pain as it try to shake off Kotori from its body, but failed due to the imbedded halberd on its flesh.

As soon as Kotori arrived at the top of its body, she poured all of her remaining mana into the halberd before piercing it, deep in its skin before scattering her flames inside its body, trying to burn all of the organs beneath it's tough and thick hide.

"Burn to ashes!!!"

Kotori shouted, hoping to at least heavily damage the Gastrea before she falls down, unconcious from using all of her mana during the war.

Aries roared as it desperately tried to shake Kotori off of the body while feeling the scorching flames spread inside its body, causing Kotori to bit her bottom lip to passing out as she injected the last drop of her mana into Camael before getting thrown by Aries towards the Army of Gastrea.

"KOTORI!!!"

Natsumi shouted as she saw her weak and pale body fly towards the army of Gastrea, causing her to panick and try to dash at location to save her.

"Natsumi! Stay focused! We willl all die if you leave!" (Rentaro)

"Kotori"

"Natsumi snap out of it!!" (Rentaro)

Rentaro shouted, causing Natsumi to look at his location with tears flowing down her eyes with desperation visible in her eyes.

"Calm down! We need to ward them off... Remember what Kotori said to you!"

"..."

Natsumi bit her lips, as she continued her task, quickly disposing the Gastrea close to them by creating massive spikes of Viranium around them to give all of them some time to breath.

"Kotori... I'll do my best, so please come back alive"

Natsumi muttered in a low voice while Aries fell down to the ground, dead from having all of its flesh and organs burnt to crisp by Kotori's flames.

-with Kotori-

"Ugh..."

Kotori growled in pain as her tired body laid down on the ground, surrounded by various types of Gastreas, making their way towards her with vicious auras.

"I can't die here..."

Kotori muttered to herself as she tried to stand up from the ground, summoning her angel, Camael in her hand with the remaining strength left in her body.

"Come at me..."

She says before slicing an incoming Gastrea in half before spinning her body around to kill the incoming Gastreas around her location.

She then pierced a lizard type Gastrea charging at her with her halberd, moving her halberd sideways, slicing a large cut on the Lizard's stomach before slashing her halberd on the giant wasp behind her.

"Shit... I can't..."

Kotori muttered as she observed their numbers, charging at her without regards to their life while Kotori desperately killed them with her strength alone due to her lack of mana.

"I'm sorry Lucias..."

She whispered under her breath before falling on the ground, weakened from using all of her mana.

"...I love you"

She muttered, embracing her death as she closed her eyes to allow them to devour her body without resistance.

"Ugh... Goodbye Lucias"

"It's a little bit early for you to say your goodbyes, Kotori-sama"

A quiet and shy voice suddenly says as a barrage of missiles imbedded with elven runes bombarded her location, blowing the Gastreas surrounding her body into pieces while a little girl with plum purple hair landed on the ground beside her.

"Schwi have been ordered by Lucias to bring you and Natsumi-sama alive back to the base"

-with Natsumi-

"H-hel-"

A promoter shouted in desperation before getting ripped into two by a giant spider.

"Shit... We're not going to hold out any longer"

Kisara muttered in a tired voice from being overwhelmed by the Gastreas from having hundreds of their promoters die from a single attack of Aries.

"[Maximum Pain]"

Hiruko snapped his finger, pushing all of the Gastreas around them as the magnetic field of his attack crushed the Gastreas who made contact with the barrier.

"I advise you not to give up, Kisara-san"

Hiruko says as he looked back at the severely injured girl behind him, shooting a giant wasp behind her back before pointing his gun behind him to shoot the Gastreas who sneaked up on him when he protected Kisara.

"They're too many of them"

"... Kotori"

Natsumi muttered while staring at the direction where Kotori was with an anxious expression on her face before transforming the ground below them into Varanium to keep the weaker Gastreas away from them.

"This will keep them at bay for a few minutes... everyone catch your breaths"

"... Is this the end?"

Kisara muttered under her breath as she gazed at the remaining promoters who survived the attack until now.

"No we're going to surviv-"

Natsumi tried to motivate them but stopped her words as a barrage of missiles bombarded Kotori's location while a massive lance of mana obliterated the Gastreas within a massive area, shocking all of them from the sudden turns of event.

"Oh we're right on time"

An androgynous voice said behind them causing Natsumi to immediately turn her head to look at the source of the voice followed by the remaining promoters.

There, they found a woman with short silver hair and a mechanical arm, standing confidently  in the battlefield together with a tall woman with long straight blue hair wearing a white military suit above her voluptuous body, staring at the Gastreas with excitement visible in her eyes.

"Who?"

Natsumi unconsciously asked the woman with a bewildered expression on her face from feeling a familiar magic signature from the blue haired woman.

"Reinforcements"