Chapter 41

Breathing heavily, the girl crouched inside the skeletal remains of a building.

"Huff... huff... cough, mmm..."

The dust-laden air brought an unpleasant sensation to the girl's taste buds. It was dry and carried the distinct bitterness of something long dead. She forced the air back down her throat with her left hand, pressing the frighteningly disproportionate firearm she clutched even tighter against her body.

"Huff... huff..."

She steadied her breath, trying to make it as quiet as possible, so as not to be noticed, so as not to be found. If she could do that, she would be able to feel the vibrations that shook her from the outside, rather than from within, as her heart pounded painfully fast.

"Aaaaaaaaa..."

"!"

A groan, a song, a creak—something that seemed to fit all these descriptions and yet none of them. It was as if it was performing a shallow emotion, a voice that shook the building and the girl with the force of its footsteps, making the dusty air tremble.

"Just two more..."

Fiddling with the ill-fitting jacket and the worn-out pocket with a logo that had rubbed off, she rolled out two peculiar devices, cylindrical with suction cups attached. There should have been more in the shoulder bag she had slung over her shoulder, but the number had dwindled due to consumption and loss on the way... and only these two remained.

"..."

The word "surrender" flashed in the girl's mind. But it was quickly erased, and her eyes glowed with a resolve tinged with a hint of self-destructive recklessness.

"Aim for the ankle, if I can destabilize it...!"

"Aaa?"

"!"

She had been detected. A chill ran through the girl's body, and she forced her muscles, stiffened by fear, to move with a scolding similar to anger, leaping away from the spot.

"LaaaaaaaAA...!!"

In the next moment, the wall, which had once been painted to give a clean impression but was now riddled with holes, was crushed by the pressure from the outside. A huge "finger," connected by a smooth ball joint, intruded into the space like it was digging for the last piece of chocolate in a box, advancing rudely toward the girl.

"Now's my chance...!!"

But the route the girl chose was not to escape from the finger, but to run toward it, toward the "hand" that had entered. Making the most of her small frame, she slipped through the gaps between the fingers and reached the spot where the building's walls, which had once separated the inside from the outside, had failed to do so...

"Aaaa?"

"Hii!"

She met the gaze of a gigantic "eye," large enough to envelop her entire body, at point-blank range.

"A, ah... u..."

Her throat dried up, and her body began to tremble more violently. It was not a living thing, and the girl knew that even the ancient civilization, which had been destroyed by the calamity that had rained down from the heavens and where all kinds of atrocities were allowed, could not have created such giants.

If so, what was it that had caught sight of the girl, opened its hard mouth with a grinding sound, and was it?

It was once considered a "resource."

It was once used up as a "tool."

It was once revered as a "blessing."

They were all called by a common name: the giants that had fallen from the heavens, beings that were not human but perhaps coexisted and mingled with humans...

"I will make you stay still...!!"

The Nephilim.

◆

"!!"

"LuuuaAA?"

The Nephilim, with its "mouth" of a strange texture unlike metal, slowly approached the building, showing its throat that could turn rocks into gravel like a blender, and its gaze wavered as it realized it had lost sight of the girl.

"Neck, muscles...!!"

With a soft, deflated sound, the peculiar device... the adhesive mid-range activation bomb "Leech" attached to the Nephilim's neck.

"Distance, from...!"

From the left side of the neck to the left shoulder, and down to the waist, where the left arm, already destroyed and lost before the engagement, had once been attached.

"AiiiiiAAA!!"

"A... ugh!?"

But perhaps showing discomfort at the device attached to it, or perhaps dealing with it without restraint despite the girl's small size, the Nephilim's large body shook, and the girl's limbs, which had been sliding down, easily detached from their support.

A brief sensation of floating, and then the impact of being slammed to the ground, which forced all the air out of her lungs, contrasted with the frail girl's body screaming in agony.

"A, c, h, hii...?"

The girl's thoughts, vision, and senses sparked uncontrollably. The intense pain and sense of detachment felt as if her consciousness was being peeled away from her body. She couldn't even draw a breath, as her lungs wouldn't expand.

Her whole body ached, not with sharp, bleeding wounds but with a slow, unbearable pain that seeped into her.

Her thoughts were bleached, and for a moment, her memories vanished... but if her rational mind had scolded her instinct, which was trembling with fear, then now it was her instinct that moved her paralyzed rational mind.

"A, g, k... h, i"

Kicking and thrashing like a drowning person, she managed to escape from the spot, rubbing her cheek against the sand. Immediately after, the Nephilim's enormous foot was dropped next to the prone girl.

"───Hii"

Her rational mind, her instinct, everything stopped in terror and despair. The fear was so intense that it was almost a miracle she didn't lose control of her bladder.

When the girl cautiously looked, her right arm, which she thought had been crushed, was still there...

"A, ah... eh?"

But the girl realized that her arm was neither crushed nor torn off. It was because the Nephilim, a giant doll, had slightly different-shaped legs from humans, and the girl herself was in a state of malnutrition and below average health... the small gap between the ground and the Nephilim's foot had saved her right arm.

"!!"

With this, the waning fighting spirit flared up again. Moving like a rare earthworm in this era, the girl retrieved the "Leech" from her pocket and, with all her might, slammed it onto the Nephilim's left ankle.

"U, g..."

Her breath was ragged and unstable, but the girl, who had managed to stand up, staggered and desperately tried to put distance between herself and the Nephilim.

"......!!"

She aimed the SMG, a weapon that had miraculously fulfilled its role of firing eleven shots, and fired the remaining eight rounds without hesitation, after using three for test shots when she first obtained it. Of course, a malnourished and near-dead girl couldn't aim a submachine gun. The wildly scattered bullets hit the Nephilim twice by sheer luck, but they left only slight marks without damaging its outer shell.

But the girl was not so naive as to think she could defeat the Nephilim with a toy gun. The Nephilim had two arms and two legs, a shape very similar to Homo sapiens. This meant that it relied entirely on its two legs to move.

"Blow, fly...!"

"Aaaaarrrrrr?"

She discarded the submachine gun and pressed the switch to detonate the "Leech." The "Leech" was a downgraded, low-quality imitation of the officially manufactured remote activation bomb "Spider." Therefore, it detonated the closest one to the switch, and each one required the switch to be pressed again.

Thus, the one that detonated was the one placed on the ankle later. The giant, already damaged, could not withstand the impact on one side and lost its balance.

"...This, for!"

She pressed the switch again, and the second explosion detonated the "Leech" placed on the neck, the first one. The Nephilim, already in a damaged and unstable state, was hit in the neck.

"Aa, aaaaa..."

The Nephilim's eye rolled back, and its entire body was slammed to the ground. Dust and sand flew, and its body stopped moving...

"Choke, choke! Cough!!"

Hit by the blast and knocked off balance by the shock, the girl, despite her battered body, managed to stand up. She staggered toward the Nephilim, choking, and touched its surface, which was neither plastic nor rubber, with her entire body.

"...Let me..."

Now, she called out to the Nephilim she had defeated, as if praying or pleading, her voice tinged with the taste of iron.

"Let me ride...!!"

At that moment.

'Hey, you there! Get away, it's dangerous!'

The ground-shaking impact. The Nephilim the girl had defeated was still not moving. Therefore, the one causing the vibration must be another, giant entity.

'An Awakened Individual... The lack of a left arm means it's the target, no doubt.'

When the girl turned around, as expected, there was another Nephilim. But it was significantly different from the one she had fought for her life.

'Pilot "Mold," I propose actively evacuating the human girl.'

'Yeah, "Heads"... That giant is very dangerous. Get away immediately...'

"...I won't give it up."

'--What?'

The girl stood blocking the way, arms spread wide. As if to protect the Nephilim she had defeated from the armed Nephilim.

"This is... my... my Nephilim, it is!!"

'What, huh? I don't understand... Dangerous!!'

"Huh?"

When she turned around, there was the Nephilim, staring at her with its inorganic "eyes," closing the distance with its writhing limbs, and opening its large mouth...

"A..."

'Heads!!!'

'Understood.'

The ornate Nephilim, with its two eyes fixed on the monster, pointed its crude gun and fired. The girl, who knew nothing of it, saw the 15-centimeter caliber anti-Nephilim penetrator, manufactured to official specifications, pierce the head of the Nephilim that was about to attack her, tearing through the air.

"Choke!!"

The aftereffects of the stake, which had passed through the air at a tremendous speed, easily blew the girl away. The small body, flying through the air, hit the ground...

'To prevent the "death" of the target, this was the only option. Pilot Mold, swift action is required.'

'You can see it, can't you!!!'

Another impact that felt like it would crush her entire body, and the girl's world turned dark.

──

──

──

How much time had passed since the first Nephilim, "Grigori," fell to earth again? Humanity had no choice but to coexist with the giants, and humanity learned the secrets of the giants.

This is the story of a single girl's quest for a normal happiness in this devastated world, barely held together by the thin threads of the "corporations," the only "law" in this world.

Nothing, starts, grandly!!

I tried to convert the character settings in a star system-like way, but nothing, starts!!

Rest in peace... Namo Amida Butsu, Namo Amida Butsu...