“Rumble—!!!”
An explosion erupted beside her ears, the impact hurling her high into the air.
Before she could fall, the beating wings of the Gnaw Stings rapidly drew closer until they bit into her arms and tore at her hair.
“Let—go of me!”
Mini Herta thrashed her fists and legs, struggling with all her might.
She punched away the Gnaw Sting tugging on her hair, kicked apart the mandibles of the one tearing at her left leg, and wildly flung away the insects surrounding her.
Then, without the flying Gnaw Stings supporting her, she plummeted from midair.
“Bang—!”
Her head slammed hard against the metal floor, leaving Mini Herta feeling as though her processor had been thoroughly shaken up.
Yet even then, Mini Herta was astonished to discover—
“I’m still alive?”
Her arms and legs were still attached too?
Pushing herself up from the floor, Mini Herta looked down at her body.
Although her beautiful, exquisite clothes had been torn to shreds and her entire body was covered in scratches from the Gnaw Stings’ bites and scorch marks from their point-blank explosions, she was still alive!
It didn’t hurt.
Or rather, as an automaton, she had no pain perception system.
Her self-diagnostic reported: outer shell damaged and deformed by 25.7%; internal core functioning normally; mobility functions fully intact.
Could it be—that I’m actually really strong?
Several Gnaw Stings had exploded at point-blank range, after which she had been grabbed, bitten, and dropped from high in the air, yet only her outer shell had been damaged?
Maybe I can survive?
Mini Herta raised her head toward the overwhelming swarm of Gnaw Stings.
Her detection system locked onto the Starcrusher Swarm King beyond them as she curled her right hand around empty air.
The Herta Puppet’s signature weapon, an enormous hammer, appeared in her grasp.
Execute command.
Activate Indiscriminate Attack Module!
She neither fled nor dodged.
Charging straight ahead, she swung her hammer and sent an approaching Gnaw Sting flying.
The resulting gust blasted away several more following close behind it.
During that brief opening, a bag of Trick Snacks materialized in her left hand.
She bit open the package and poured its contents straight into her mouth.
3,550%!
Those were her current Stats after constantly ‘upgrading her configuration’!
18.77 seconds!
That was how much time remained before the Starcrusher Swarm King reached its fifty-six-second survival limit after leaving the incubation chamber!
“Upgrade my configuration!”
To avoid being surrounded and pinned down by the Gnaw Stings, Mini Herta broke into a run.
Despite never having fought before, she relied on the Automatic Combat Module in her programming to weave through the swarm at high speed while swinging her hammer.
Her goal wasn’t to defeat the Starcrusher Swarm King, but to hold out for another eighteen seconds!
“Boom-boom-boom—!”
At seventeen seconds, the self-destructing Gnaw Stings surrounding her exploded.
Without slowing, Mini Herta smashed several Gnaw Stings to death, her gaze fixed on the Starcrusher Swarm King beyond them.
She knew that it was the greatest threat!
Sixteen seconds!
“Bzzzt-boom—!”
The Starcrusher Swarm King abruptly beat its wings at high speed, and several self-destructing Gnaw Stings surrounded Mini Herta.
“Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom—!!!”
Fifteen and a half seconds!
“Upgrade my configuration!”
It was coming!
Amid the flames and shock waves, Mini Herta forcibly steadied herself, discarded the empty package in her left hand, and gripped her enormous hammer with both hands, bracing it in front of her.
“Whoosh-boom—!”
Fifteen seconds!
Enormous blue mandibles burst through the flames and slammed violently into Mini Herta’s hammer.
Sparks from the grinding metal sprayed from the point of impact, and the tremendous force left her completely unable to hold her ground.
Fourteen seconds!
The smoke had been entirely dispersed by the gusts from the Starcrusher Swarm King’s wings.
Its immense, oppressive body, which seemed to distort space simply by existing, appeared before Mini Herta in its entirety.
She saw blue radiance erupt from the Starcrusher Swarm King’s mandibles.
She saw the point where her hammer met them visibly dissolving.
Mini Herta remembered.
This was the Starcrusher Swarm King’s Radiant Venom!
Duck!
Crouch!
Roll!
Thirteen seconds!
The instant after Mini Herta completed that series of movements, the Starcrusher Swarm King’s venom-coated mandibles swept across her right shoulder.
[Warning! Right shoulder armor 42% destroyed! Right arm functionality impaired by 10%!]
The system alarm sounded within her, but before Mini Herta could respond, a blue beam was already bearing down on her.
It was the Pyrolysis Death Beam!
[Warning! Armor on left side of waist destroyed! Lower-limb connection module damaged by 25%. Automatically rerouting lower-limb signal transmission to Route 2!]
“Ah—!”
Although she couldn’t feel pain, the tremendous impact still frightened a scream out of Mini Herta.
She was sent flying once again.
Before she could land, a vast number of self-destructing Gnaw Stings, flickering with fiery light, closed in around her.
Like bees smothering a hornet, hundreds of self-destructing Gnaw Stings wrapped Mini Herta inside a sphere, and then…
Twelve seconds—
“Boom-boom-boom—!”
[Warning! Outer shell damage…]
Eleven seconds—
“Boom-boom-boom—!”
[Warning! Auditory balance system damaged by 47.1%! Neck armor…]
Explosions continuously erupted beside her ears.
Mini Herta felt like a lone boat upon a storm-tossed ocean, rocking amid explosions and breaking apart beneath the thunderous blasts.
She could no longer distinguish up from down or left from right.
All she could hear was the roar of explosions, and all she could see was their fiery light!
After roughly four seconds, the explosions stopped.
Like a bird with broken wings, Mini Herta crashed into the wall of the Seclusion Zone, trailing black smoke, then slowly slid down and rolled onto the floor.
Five seconds left…
Her entire body was charred black.
Her clothes were long gone, her hair burned into a pitch-black lump of carbon, and her shell was covered in pits.
Yet Mini Herta immediately scrambled back up.
She could no longer hear through her left ear, her right eye could no longer detect color, and two joints in her legs were suffering from input delays.
But hope was right before her eyes!
Mini Herta wielded the remaining handle of her hammer like a club and stabbed an approaching insect to death.
Dragging her damaged body onward, she took out another bag of Trick Snacks.
“Upgrade my configuration! Upgrade my configuration!”
She shouted for another configuration upgrade while dodging the Gnaw Stings’ attacks and repelling enemies that got too close.
Then the Starcrusher Swarm King’s attack screamed through a gap in the swarm.
Three seconds!
[Warning! Logic core contacts damaged! Connection anomaly detected!]
Two seconds!
The Starcrusher Swarm King closed in once more.
Mini Herta dragged her unresponsive body aside to evade it.
[Warning! Right foot missing!]
One second!
Mini Herta turned over with great difficulty as the Starcrusher Swarm King wheeled around and charged back, already within arm’s reach.
Just as its terrifying mandibles were about to strike her, the countdown reached zero.
I won!
Fifty-six seconds are up!
Mini Herta gritted her teeth and stared intently at the Starcrusher Swarm King.
Just as she had calculated, the Starcrusher Swarm King froze in place an instant before striking her.
Then red patterns spread across its entire body…
No.
When the Starcrusher Swarm King died, it was supposed to dissolve into blue light.
These patterns shouldn’t have appeared!
Mini Herta remembered that Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz hadn’t died like this in the game.
And then…
“Boom—!”
The instant the red patterns covered the Starcrusher Swarm King’s entire body, its blue carapace fell away, replaced by a black shell streaked with dark red markings.
The cutting edges of its two pairs of previously blue mandibles had transformed into sharp, venomous black fangs glowing bloodred.
Those colors resembled the Aeon of Propagation, Tayzzyronth, from the Simulated Universe in Mini Herta’s memories…
“Boom—!”
A wave of red energy spread in every direction as the Starcrusher Swarm King completed its evolution.
Mini Herta was sent flying once more, landing amid a vast swarm of Gnaw Stings.
She had examined Ruan Mei’s experimental records.
Because of defects in its genes and Path, it was only supposed to survive for fifty-six seconds.
Why hadn’t it died?
Why had it evolved instead?
Could it be trying to ascend to Aeonhood and reclaim Propagation’s divine seat?
After despair came not hope, but even deeper despair.
Mini Herta could sense that as Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz evolved, The Swarm had also grown even stronger…
Damn it…
“Upgrade my configuration! Upgrade my configuration!”
Configuration enhancement: 3,850%!
Mini Herta could no longer see any possibility of victory.
All she could do was grit her teeth and continue upgrading herself.
She prayed that she might manage to raise her configuration high enough to contend with the Starcrusher Swarm King—or hold out with hope in her heart until someone came to save her.
★ ★ ★
T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me!