Clang—! Clang—!
Attack, attack, and more attack.
Sinclair had gone down, and the enemy's assault only grew fiercer.
We were managing to block everything, somehow, but if we stayed on the defensive like this, we'd be the ones to wither away first.
"To break this situation... I need something."
And then came the enemy's combined strike, right on cue.
The instant I saw it, the eye honed sharp by battle found a gap.
Come to think of it, it was nearly impossible for more than a dozen people to attack while dancing in perfect sync.
No matter how hard they trained, there would always be a few openings.
Seeing them shifted slightly left and right to avoid tangling with one another, I rolled straight toward the space between them.
Thwack!
Even though I rolled toward the opening, I didn't completely evade the enemy's attack, but this was more than enough.
"Damn it...!"
Whoosh—
In an instant, I got behind the enemy and swung my spear wide, striking the backs of two heads at once.
Thwack
...Too shallow.
I'd hoped that blow would knock both of them off balance, but unfortunately, though they staggered a little, both were still trying to stand and aim at me.
At this rate, I'd be the one taking on both of them. It would be easier than before, sure, but the odds of winning still wouldn't change much.
"The variable I can create before the enemy's next attack..."
There is one.
The strongest among the prisoners, the one holding two opponents at bay and fighting them evenly.
Having realized the answer, I immediately spun my spear once and gripped it in reverse.
What I took next was the stance for a javelin throw.
"Block it!"
My mind went perfectly still.
One chance. If I failed, there would be no taking it back.
In that state of extreme concentration, the world slowed, and all I could see was the enemy far away.
My eyes fixed precisely on it, the world began to accelerate, and the spear finally slipped from my hand.
Whoooosh———!
It flew.
Splat—crack
The thrown spear struck the leg of the person blocking Ryoshu with a chilling burst of impact.
"Ha! Nice one, Saramago!"
The moment I saw it land, I rolled to the side at once.
Whoosh—
Then a maracas swing sliced through the air right above me.
That was close. If I'd been a little slower, I would've been hit.
Whoosh—
"Ghk!"
Looks like if I didn't focus on dodging, I'd be turned into paste in no time.
Whoosh— whoosh—
Even while I was frantically evading the enemy's attacks, I caught a glimpse of Ryoshu, now unrestrained, cutting the enemies down.
There was a return for the risk she'd taken.
It was clear now that with Ryoshu freed, we were gradually gaining the upper hand.
And we weren't the only ones who knew it.
"Ah~ so it won't work after all?"
What was that supposed to mean?
"Even so, the people who can live should live, don't you think? Right?"
Aid, spouting nonsense, began to withdraw from the battlefield.
"Catch that bastard!!"
Heathcliff, furious to the point of exploding, shouted in rage, but Aid had already fled far away.
Crack—crunch—
Before long, the organization members who had been attacking me were cleaned up by Otis, who had finished off the rest.
So this was... over?
It didn't feel real.
Maybe because we'd been fighting so fiercely just moments ago.
I still felt like adrenaline was wrapping around my body.
One thing was certain: my gamble had been a huge success.
"...Heh."
I feel amazing.
**
Not long after the battle ended, time rewound and all our wounds and deaths vanished.
"Uu... is the battle over?"
"Yes, it ended just a moment ago."
It was a shame we'd let one get away, though.
Of course, no one cared about chasing after Aid, who had run off, because heading for the Golden Bough came first.
"That bastard... if I see him again, I'll kill him."
Except for one person.
Well, he'd been toyed with all day, so I guess it made sense for him to be that angry.
Anyway, rather than regretting the mistakes of the past, it was time to look toward the future ahead.
Apparently everyone understood that, because we were able to head for the elevator leading down into the casino basement without any major commotion.
Of course, avoiding the wreckage of the Ironworks boss in the middle was a bit of a pain... but it wasn't a major obstacle.
And once we reached the elevator, Rodion pressed the button for the basement.
Then, after a brief silence, Sword immediately hurled a question at Rodion, as if she'd been waiting for it.
"...How did you win without even using wish power?"
"No, more than that—how were you so sure you'd win?"
"Whoa, hold on, hold on... one question at a time, slowly. Got it?"
Rodion calmed Sword down just enough and slowly began to explain.
"The Ironworks boss was wary of the Kongkongi Gang boss from the very beginning."
"How did you know? He was a full-body prosthetic—there shouldn't have been any expression to read."
Unexpectedly, Meursault asked the question with an emotionless face.
As if she'd anticipated it, Rodion didn't stop and kept talking.
"That's obvious. The Kongkongi Gang boss had a wish power extraction machine to begin with."
"He must've been certain, one hundred out of one hundred, that it would be used in this gamble too."
Come to think of it, just from his tone, the Ironworks boss had been speaking about wish power with a harsh edge and acting pretty sensitive about it.
If all of that had been aimed at threatening Rodion, then what Rodion said became quite believable.
"So... you deliberately made it look like you were attaching the wish sticker?"
"Exactly! And then I shouted, 'All in~!' I needed to look absurdly bold in their eyes."
"All gambling is decided by momentum. Heh."
"..."
At Rodion's smug answer to Epi, Sword fell silent.
I suddenly wanted to ask what she was thinking, but Rodion kept going.
"See? You all thought I had a wish sticker too, didn't you?"
"In the end, this whole wish sticker thing is just a fancy name for the heart that hopes and expects, that's all."
"For someone with solid faith in themselves, it's nothing more than a weird scrap of paper."
...Wasn't wish power a proven Singularity? There were far too many counterexamples for Rodion's words to be true.
"That can't be... J Corp's wish power Singularity is already a widely proven official technology."
"There are tens of thousands of people depending on wish power alone..."
Sword tried to refute her with several arguments, but Rodion cut her off in a few words.
"In times like these, nothing sounds more convincing than confidence."
Then, raising her energy, she continued in the usual self-assured tone Rodion always used.
"But I'm different."
"I've had faith in myself since way back."
After hearing Rodion's words, Yi Sang spoke in a meaningful tone.
"...To have faith means the heart need not plunge downward."
"How does one obtain such faith?"
"Oh, that? It's a really simple method. I'll teach you specially, so listen carefully."
"Oh..."
Sinclair was impressed by Rodion's impressive-sounding words, but... usually nonsense followed right after lines like that.
"The most amazing one is me, so whatever anyone says is just bullshit! That's all you need to think."
See? Always like that.
"Indeed, that is correct. Faust thinks so as well."
...I should add something here.
"What a magnificent bunch of narcissists."
"...Perhaps it would have been better not to ask."
Good grief...
While the prisoners were still dumbfounded, a faint, trembling clock sound came from a little behind us.
"
"Mm~ no comment."
"You're really vicious, Rodion."
"...Sara, you're doing this to me?"
That somewhat warm atmosphere didn't last very long.
Bang! Bang!
In the cavern we descended into by elevator, the echo of pickaxes rang out nonstop, and armed guards could be seen standing watch over the vault with strict vigilance.
It looked like a warning sign, as if to say they wouldn't let us reach the basement's end so easily.
Yeah, what that meant was the victory we'd just won had gone up in smoke.
No matter how you looked at it, the mood here was not one of welcoming us.
Rodion seemed to realize that too, and voiced her irritation.
"Wait a second! Then what was the point of winning the game?"
"Why do we have to sneak down here like this? Who are those slaves swinging pickaxes?"
"We did gain ownership, but... as you know, we have no way to prove our identity, and strictly speaking, to them we'd be intruders."
"And since the person who seemed to be the intermediary, Aid, and the one called Sonya both ran off, there's no way to prove the result of the gamble either."
...Leaving aside Sword's and my explanation, the way we were standing awkwardly with the vault behind us did make us look exactly like thieves.
"Incredible. Even while digging out the tunnels, they still managed to build a vault so meticulously."
Ishmael seemed genuinely impressed by the size of the underground vault.
"What a beautiful sight... when I die, make sure you bury me in a pile of money like that. I'll fall asleep at the end while breathing in the smell of banknotes."
"If we have to prepare that every time you die, our wallets won't survive."
Thwack! Thwack!
"Wait, that hurts, Rodion. I'll stop teasing you, so stop. Ow."
Tch, I got carried away and paid for it.
After shaking off the pain, Gregor was staring at this way—more precisely, at Rodion—without blinking.
Only then did Gregor seem to find the right timing to speak, and he slowly opened his mouth.
"Come to think of it, that fellow who was looking us over from top to bottom earlier... were you acquainted?"
Ah, Gregor, that's not a topic you should bring up.