Chapter 13: Riding Out Death
Chapter 13: Riding Out Death
Ouka
KIRIKO’S been shot!
No sooner did Ouka register the fact than a hail of bullets fired at him. In a moment of snap judgment, he pushed Kiriko down behind the cover of a row of seats. Cliff and Lovel dove behind the row on the opposite side of the aisle.
“Aggh…”
Ouka clenched his teeth when he heard Kiriko moaning in pain. Blood spilled from puncture wounds on both her legs.
They had been foolish in their carelessness. They should’ve been prepared for Heaven’s Gunner lying in wait for them, considering that their destination was technically still within Church grounds. Spinoza had ambushed them on the train cars, where they would have nowhere to run.
The showering bullets continued while Ouka regretted his lack of forethought, and No. 11, still standing in the middle of the train car, was caught in its assault. No. 11 protected his forehead with his arms, but the bullets cut through his entire body, splitting his wooden frame.
After what seemed like forever, the gunfire ceased.
“SPINOZAAAAAAAA!” Ouka shouted till his voice turned hoarse.
“…Ouka? Still alive, huh?”
Spinoza’s steady and quiet voice came from the front of the accelerating train car. Oddly enough, Ouka could hear his voice loud and clear over the noises of metal squealing, the rumble of the locomotive engine, and the wheels turning over the railway track. He poked his head out from behind the cover of the seats.
About twenty meters ahead, the door to the inner engine room was open, revealing Heaven’s Gunner and Spinoza. Spinoza was armed with a shotgun, which he aimed at the seats.
“I told you to back down before, Ouka… It’s still not too late. It won’t be long before every Golem goes berserk on the archipelago. Take Kiriko and those kids and escape this island while you have the chance.”
“You think I’d do that?!”
Kiriko was sitting beside Ouka with bloody legs. Lovel and Cliff were crouching behind the seats on the opposite side of the aisle. Ouka looked at each of them and said, “We’ve been used as your pawns from the very beginning. But we ain’t Golems. Don’t you go thinkin’ that everything’s gonna go as perfect as you plan!”
“I thought you’d say that. Then let’s put an end to everything in the five minutes it takes to arrive at the research facility…” Spinoza replied. “Here I come, OUKA!”
A barrage of merciless bullets sprayed the seats they were hiding behind. The cacophony of clangs and sparks from the ricocheting bullets surrounded them. They were completely unable to make a move.
“Torah Lord!” Kiriko rose partially above the seat and shot her tranquilizer gun. Four times the number of bullets returned fire, making the attempt futile. A bullet struck her arm and she dropped back down behind the seat.
“Damn it! Don’t shoot at him like an idiot!” Ouka yelled at Kiriko.
“Won’t he run out of bullets?!” Lovel shouted across the aisle. “Why don’t we aim for when he has to reload?!”
“You can bet your damned neck he’s got more than enough bullets for firin’ the whole five minutes. And don’t forget: his Golem’s got four arms, and he has two. As long as he can reload some guns while he fires the others, he never has to stop shooting.”
Kiriko took Ouka’s advice and raised her voice. “No. 11! Turn your back to the enemy and crouch!”
Obeying her command, No. 11 turned around and crouched, warding off a few more bullets than standing had.
Ouka bolted from the cover of the seat with Dram. Bullets grazed his shoulders, but he couldn’t stop to feel the pain. He slid into hiding behind No. 11 in the middle of the carriage.
Yet, despite how big No. 11 was, he couldn’t block all the bullets pelting them, evidenced by the countless bullet holes that opened in Dram’s torso, though his forehead remained guarded.
“Kiriko, can you do anything to close the distance?!”
“I’ll try!”
No. 11 slowly trudged backwards toward the enemy. Ouka and Dram advanced closer, matching his speed.
About twenty meters lay between them. If they closed the gap some more, Ouka could sic Dram on Spinoza. But it was impossible at their current distance. As a four-legged animal, Dram couldn’t protect his forehead. Lunging straight at Spinoza from this far away guaranteed that the “e” on his forehead would have a hole through it before he even landed a hit.
“Get me another fifteen meters—even ten will do! At any rate, help me get up to the front car!”
Kiriko nodded, though he couldn’t see her. No. 11 succeeded in gradually advancing another five meters against the hail of bullets.
Keep it up, No. 11…! We’ve got a chance at winning if we can get a little closer! Just as Ouka got his hopes up, he heard a thundering burst that sounded different from a shot fired by a revolver.
The back of No. 11’s right leg exploded into sharp fragments of wood, halting his forward advance.
“Spinoza busted No. 11’s right leg…!” Kiriko hissed over the flying bullets.
The bullets from Spinoza’s double-barrel shotgun had blown the Engrave Incantation clean off No. 11’s leg. He was trying to inhibit the mobility of both the Tamer and her Golem. Against all odds, No. 11 dragged himself forward with just his left leg. His speed decreased to half of what it was before.
“Kiriko, how many shots does a shotgun have?!” Ouka hollered, his voice straining with his attempts to avoid bullets.
“Seeing that he’s not firing it like crazy, I’d say he doesn’t have many shotgun rounds on him… But our advance will be over if he gets the left leg too,” Kiriko answered, her voice bitter.
Cliff turned to Lovel and urged, “Lovel! Can’t you fix the chipped Engrave Incantations with your Remote Engrave Incantation?!”
“Sorry, I’ve got practically no knowledge about Engrave Incantations! I can’t do something so detailed without a textbook!”
Ouka grit his teeth at her disappointing answer. Neither he nor Kiriko could use Remote Engrave Incantations. They couldn’t fix No. 11’s right leg, and it was only a matter of time before No. 11’s left leg was blown off. The remaining ten-odd meters felt like hundreds.
Lovel’s voice came behind Ouka. “Kiriko, break this window!”
Hesitation flashed across Kiriko’s face for a moment, but she promptly reloaded the tranquilizer gun and shot the window above Lovel’s head. Lovel leapt and leaned outside the train car through the broken window.
“Lovel?!” Cliff cried out as bullets zoomed after her. She pulled herself onto the train car roof before the bullets grazed her.
Her voice echoed through the ceiling. “…I’ll spring a…surprise attack through the…roof…to distract…him…” They barely heard her say before her footsteps disappeared onto the next train car.
“That’s too reckless…!” Cliff exclaimed.
Kiriko heard him and shouted, “No. 11, please advance on a little farther, no matter the cost!”
No. 11 crawled the distance with his one leg. Once he almost reached the end of the first train car, the explosive burst of a shotgun cracked the air. What they had feared happened. The shotgun bullets ripped through No. 11’s Engrave Incantation, rendering the left leg immobile.
“Shit!” Ouka swore against his better judgment. Their hopes of closing the gap any farther had been completely dashed. Around twelve meters stood between Ouka’s current position and Spinoza. The distance was still too great.
Should we wait until we arrive at the station? No, No. 11 won’t last until then.
Innumerable bullets had pierced holes through the Golem’s neck, and his whole head threatened to fall off at any moment.
To make a dire situation even worse, Dram was reaching his daily time limit. Ouka had used him nonstop since the day started. He had a few minutes of use left at most.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, Ouka thought.
“Dram, let’s do this,” he reluctantly groaned to his partner. Dram moved out of his stiff crouch.
Behind him, Kiriko shouted, “Ouka! You aren’t planning on having Dram attack from there, are you?!”
“…I am.”
“You can’t do it! You won’t reach him! Dram will be destroyed before he arrives at the enemy!”
“What other option do we got?! We’re out of time!”
“Please wait, Ouka!” Cliff cut into their conversation. “I have an idea!” Tension rang in his voice. Bullets sliced through No. 11’s wooden frame without pause.
“You have an idea?”
“Yes! I’m positive Lovel is waiting for the right timing. This method won’t work more than once, but you’ll have one shot to pull it off!” Determination colored his voice now. His voice was of a man who had made up his mind and wouldn’t go back on it. “The key moment is soon…when Heaven’s Gunner stops firing—”
Ouka heard glass shatter at the front of the train car. It was the sound of Lovel breaking the window next to Spinoza!
“Now’s the time!” Cliff yelled and bolted from behind the seat.
Ouka looked at Spinoza. Lovel was gone. Heaven’s Gunner was firing out the window and the ceiling with all four guns.
Cliff darted in front of No. 11 in the quick second the guns stopped firing down the aisle. He stroked No. 11’s legs with light-imbued fingers.
“You’re pulling off a Contact Engrave Incantation!” Ouka exclaimed as the Engrave Incantations on the broken legs repaired. Spinoza noticed Cliff, and Heaven’s Gunner turned all four guns toward him. Cliff dove behind the nearest row of seats just as the guns fired.
“Reckless child!” Kiriko shrieked.
Cliff turned and grinned at Ouka, even as blood poured down his arm. “Ouka…that Golem will start moving again. Are you ready?”
No. 11 restarted his forward advance. Seeing Cliff’s triumphant expression brought a smile to Ouka as well.
“You’ve got guts, Cliff…!”
No. 11 was closing the gap. The cadence of explosive shotgun bursts eventually stopped the left leg from moving again. But it was enough this time. No. 11 had finally stepped foot into the front train car. Spinoza was about eight meters away. He was within range!
“…It’s my turn to risk it!”
Ouka mounted Dram’s back. Guarding Dram’s forehead with his quarterstaff, he fixed a hard gaze on No. 11’s back. No. 11 was on the verge of falling over after being filled with bullets.
Spinoza stood on the other side of the punctured Wood Golem, along with his four-armed god of death. A memory from four years ago flooded into Ouka’s mind as he waited to face his foe.
Alita died to protect Kiriko back then. I didn’t protect anyone. And now Kiriko is in danger once more. I have to be the one to protect her this time. He could feel his regrets from the past granting him the power to defeat the enemy armed with five guns, on the other side of the wood giant.
“Here we go, Dram!”
Dram broke into a run just as the shotgun fired.
No. 11’s head blew off and the massive body slowly crumbled to the ground. Dram used the brief gap to reach his top speed, and kicked off the ground into a flying leap. On the other side of the crumbling No. 11, Ouka saw Spinoza.
“SPINOOZAAAA!” Ouka howled.
“OUKAAA!” Spinoza roared.
Heaven’s Gunner fired his revolvers. Burning pain shot through Ouka’s shoulders, arms, and legs, but he endured the agony to defend Dram’s forehead even if it killed him.
Dram alighted on the ground and propelled himself at Spinoza with the momentum. His full bodyweight slammed into Spinoza.
“GUAAH!”
Dram’s charge struck Spinoza square in the chest, crushing his back against the wall. The blow shattered the surrounding windows. Blood spurt from Spinoza’s mouth. But Spinoza’s blood-soaked lips twisted into a demented smile. His arm was wrapped around Dram’s neck. He flexed his shoulder muscles and the vestments ripped right off. Then, clenching his teeth, he belted out a war cry as he threw Dram off him.
Ouka reflexively leapt from Dram’s back. Dram rolled right through the swing door and fell outside the train car. Ouka hit the ground with Spinoza’s shotgun trained on his forehead.
“…It’s your loss, Ouka.”
Ouka stared at the gun muzzle from the floor. Heaven’s Gunner had his revolvers pointed at Kiriko, Cliff, and the ceiling. No one was free to make any last-ditch moves.
Sadness tinged Spinoza’s voice as he said, “I warned you not to get too deeply involved in this… This isn’t the job I hired you to do.”
“And I told you, I’m doin’ this to help me make sense of things. To move on.”
“You stupid bastard… I really took a liking to you.” Silence fell between them, leaving just the sound of the accelerating train.
Ouka fixed an intent stare on him and asked, “…Hey, Spinoza, will you let me say one last thing?”
“Sure.”
“I seriously respected you. Your strength, your intelligence, your Taming skills, and your sly tricks were all things I looked up to.”
“What are you trying to say at this point in the game?”
“But y’know, you’ve become weak.” They heard an odd sound mix with the train noises as Ouka spoke.
“…Who did you just call weak?” Spinoza turned a wary eye on the ceiling. But Lovel wasn’t making the noise. It was coming from outside the train. The sound of running feet came from the other side of the missing door, outside the moving train.
“Your instincts have dulled, Spinoza. Why do ya think I’ve been dragging on this meaningless discussion?”
The pounding of multiple feet reached the door. The Golem that had been chucked out of the train had pushed its broken body to its limits to catch up to a moving train on four legs.
“Ouka! Damn you!”
Heaven’s Gunner aimed every gun outside the train. Ouka smacked away the shotgun barrel and shouted with its point away from his face, “COME, DRAM!” Heeding his call, an amber lion leapt inside the train.
“DIE!” Spinoza snarled. Heaven’s Gunner fired at random. Dram broke through the wall of bullets and swept at Heaven’s Gunner with his tough forelegs.
There was a loud crack and bones flew through the air. The single strike sent Heaven’s Gunner backward and he crashed through the window, tumbling outside of the train.
Ouka struggled to his feet and swung down his quarterstaff. Spinoza redirected his shotgun at him again. Gunfire reverberated from the back of the train car, blowing Spinoza’s shotgun out of his hand.
Spinoza’s eyes bulged as he watched the shotgun arc through the air. Kiriko had shot him. Ouka didn’t have to see her do it to know. And in that momentary opening, Ouka brought down his quarterstaff with every bit of strength left in his body.
He heard a dull snap. His strike was a square hit to Spinoza’s cervical vertebra.
“…It’s our win, Spinoza.”
Spinoza slowly crumpled. The train began decelerating. It finally stopped at the station as his body hit the ground, signaling the end of the battle that had continued for four years.
***
OUKA ran out of strength and fell on the floor of the halted train.
“Ouka!” Kiriko dragged herself across the floor to him. Cliff and Lovel appeared from hiding and peered at Ouka’s face.
“Ouka…” Lovel said, her face white.
“Ouka?” A question hung in Cliff’s voice.
“Stay with me, Ouka!” Kiriko begged.
Ouka forced a weak smile to reassure them. “Don’t ya worry. We’re still alive, Spinoza and me both.” Relief washed over all three faces. Ouka directed just his eyes to Cliff and Lovel as he apologized. “…But I’m sorry to say I don’t think I can show ya the way there. Dram’s reached his daily limit too…”
Dram laid face-down in a corner of the train car after succeeding in his life-or-death struggle to save Ouka. He had used his full two hours, taking him out of the fight for good.
“Nor can I…” Kiriko admitted weakly. “But Sephiroth is just ahead.”
Cliff and Lovel shifted their eyes outside the train. A massive door stood in the darkness at the end of the platform.
Ouka locked his eyes on the door and said, “Go, kids… And if you happen to reach Sephiroth sooner than Grinzam, please name him instead.”
Cliff and Lovel nodded in silent agreement. They disembarked the train together and disappeared into the facility past the platform.
Kiriko waited until they left to ask, “…Are you all right, Ouka?”
“That’s my question. You doing okay, Kiriko?”
“It hurts something terrible and I can’t walk anymore, but they aren’t life-threatening injuries.”
“We’ve become a sorry mess, huh?” Ouka said. Kiriko giggled. He smiled at her and then shifted his eyes to Spinoza on the floor. “…Why did he do it?”
“Why indeed…” Kiriko seemed to feel the same way. Sorrow and a hint of loneliness overtook her voice as she said, “I don’t understand what reason could drive Torah Lord Spinoza into supporting Grinzam to the death. What mattered so much to him to betray us, to sacrifice Alita and everyone else…?”
“Because I’m the same as him.” Spinoza slowly rose.
“…!” Words escaped Ouka. Spinoza dragged only his upper body upright, and looked at Ouka and Kiriko.
“Th-The same? How?” Kiriko asked, her voice cracking.
“I was raised by the Church too. The Church kept on picking up children and raising them to do their bidding. Me, Jair, and Grinzam were kept like pets by the Church, for the sole purpose of devoting our whole lives to researching the cubes,” Spinoza spat with disgust. “Then, one day, Catalina appeared before us hopeless men. She was an amazing woman, just like her daughter Lovel. That’s why I swore to bring her back to life with Grinzam.”
“…!”
“We were able to use the Church to its full extent. Now that we’re finished with it, all that’s left is to activate Sephiroth and crush the Church. Doing so will prevent any more people like us, and poor women like Catalina, from being born into the world. Grinzam and I fought for over eight years to make this tragic wish a reality.”
Ouka listened to Spinoza in silence. After a slight pause, Kiriko quietly asked, “Torah Lord, I have one question for you… Did you arrange for Sephiroth to go berserk during the unveiling?”
Another long silence. Forever seemed to pass before Spinoza answered, “Yeah, I removed the Restrictor… I did it to make the military and Church pull out of their research on the cubes. I thought Heaven’s Gunner could stop him right away.”
“I can’t believe you…!” Kiriko blanched.
“I didn’t shy away from any method that would help bring Catalina back to us. You were all nothing more than pawns in my plan.” Spinoza smiled as though he had given up on everything in the world. Kiriko’s shoulders trembled, and she dropped her eyes to the ground as if it hurt to look at him.
But Ouka blatantly pointed out, “That’s a lie.” Kiriko’s head jerked toward Ouka. He held the frowning Spinoza captive in his gaze and clarified, “You bit out between your teeth, ‘I didn’t make it in time,’ when Alita died. I don’t think your expression then was fake.”
Ouka thought of the injuries Spinoza had inflicted on him. The bullets had hit his arms, shoulders, and legs, none of which were fatal enough to kill him. Strange wounds, considering that Heaven’s Gunner’s Engrave Incantations endowed him with the ability to aim precisely at his target.
“You must’ve regretted it all this time…that your plan created so many victims… Lemme guess, you wanted to use the red cube to bring Alita and the others back from the dead?”
Spinoza’s expression fell away.
“He’s right, isn’t he?” Kiriko said, tears in her voice. “We obediently followed you because that’s the kind of man you are. Am I wrong, Torah Lord?”
Spinoza buried his face in his hand. A pause stretched between them until he bitterly muttered, “For heaven’s sake…you two never lost your naiveté, no matter how much time passed.”
A dry click echoed outside the train. Ouka and Kiriko whirled their heads toward the open door. Looking like nothing more than a deranged, beat-up corpse, the Golem crawled into the train car.
“…No,” the word fell from Ouka’s lips like a drop of rain. In its one remaining hand, it held a gun. “emeth” glowed from the piece of skull it still had attached.
“Heaven’s Gunner!” Kiriko exclaimed. Ouka wrapped his arms protectively around her.
Spinoza’s voice fell on his back. “…You don’t know what you’re talking about, Ouka. There are only four red cubes. We can’t bring back the nine people who died in that accident.” Grief filled his voice. Ouka prepared himself for death as Spinoza vented, “We aren’t God! There’s a limit to what we can regain once it’s lost…! Which is why I chose to live the way I did!”
Dry gunfire cracked through the train car.
“…Eh?” Ouka said, his voice hollow. He didn’t feel pain anywhere.
Heaven’s Gunner’s bullet had pierced through the left side of Spinoza’s chest with absolute precision.
“Torah Lord, why?!” Kiriko rushed over and tried to put pressure on the bullet hole.
Spinoza held back her hand and quietly admitted, “I allowed nine people to die…all to bring one person back…”
“…!”
“I shouldn’t live any longer, now that Grinzam’s wish has come true… This is about the only thing I can do for Alita and the others…”
Ouka finally understood everything.
Alita and the others hadn’t been disposable pawns. They mattered just as much to Spinoza as Catalina. He must have been distraught with grief and regret when he let them die—enough to want to kill himself.
Yet, for all he wanted to die, he didn’t take his own life. After all, their deaths would truly be meaningless if Grinzam’s plan never succeeded. He had lived in purgatory until today to make their deaths mean something, planning to atone for his sins with his life once everything was over.
“Spinoza…!” Ouka took Spinoza’s hand.
Tears in her eyes, Kiriko called his name, “Torah Lord Spinoza?”
But he could no longer answer them. Warmth seeped from his hands. Heaven’s Gunner quietly crumbled behind them.
***
Cliff
CLIFF and Lovel advanced deeper inside the research facility searching for Sephiroth. Guided by electric lights, they threw open several doors and proceeded even farther inside. Then, after a while, they spotted the door in the deepest depths of the facility. A plate reading, “Research and Development Sector” hung over the steel door.
Deep in his gut, Cliff knew Sephiroth was on the other side.
“Cliff…”
He nodded to Lovel and opened the door. The room beyond was vast and empty. Wrecked Golems were scattered about the dreary steel-reinforced room. Old bloodstains dyed parts of the room even after all this time, speaking volumes of the tragedy that had happened here four years ago.
At the farthest end of the room, a massive giant of pure silver lay senseless on the ground.
“That’s…Sephiroth!” Cliff breathed. Modeled after an archangel, the giant gleamed under the electric lights. Not even the word “giant” could accurately capture the sheer size of its colossal body. It easily surpassed four meters in height.
Supple arms and folded wings were attached to its torso. It still clutched a long spear in its hands. This was the militarized Silver Golem Prime Body that had massacred Ouka’s friends.
Unfortunately, Sephiroth wasn’t the only one in the room. Beside the Prime Body stood two men with their backs to Cliff.
“JAIR!”
The men turned toward Cliff. One was Jair, while the other man had a beard.
“You came? I take it Spinoza lost,” the bearded man remarked bitterly.
“I can’t believe you were Grinzam…!” Lovel uttered, her voice sharp enough to cut. At once, Cliff understood the man was the Rabbi known as Asusrad Grinzam, the cause of everything. But Grinzam himself quietly shook his head.
“That man no longer exists. He was killed by the Torah Church eight years ago.”
“And now you’re just the embodiment of revenge? Stop this nonsense. I don’t want Golems to disappear from this archipelago.”
Sadness flickered in Grinzam’s eyes as he demurred, “I can’t believe you would say that… Countless numbers of people have suffered at the hands of Golems, including you both. Putting an end to this archipelago’s distorted history with Sephiroth is my calling.” Conviction close to madness laced his voice.
Though Cliff was overwhelmed, he called out, “But Grinzam! You can’t activate Sephiroth without this cube, can you?!” He pulled the red cube from his pocket and thrust it out for Grinzam to see. “I’ll crush this if you won’t quit this ridiculous plan. And if I do—”
“Unfortunately,” Grinzam interrupted. “I no longer have a need for that cube.”
“You don’t…?!”
“I was searching for Miss Lovel because we didn’t have the cube necessary for activating Sephiroth. But we just got ahold of another one not too long ago—the last red cube that exists on this island, that is.”
“What?! Where did you get something like that from…?”
Grinzam didn’t answer Cliff. He looked at Jair and said, “Jair, begin.”
Jair nodded and faced Sephiroth.
“…My name is Jair. In the name of the 72 gods, I give thee the name Sephiroth.” Sephiroth’s chest began glowing with Jair’s ceremonious voice. Cliff stared on, too stunned to do anything. He didn’t know where they had retrieved the other cube from, but sure enough, one was embedded in Sephiroth’s chest before they had arrived.
“Don’t do it, Jair!” Lovel shouted, trying to stop him.
Jair sonorously chanted without looking back. “Live as one with me and return to dust with me. I order thee to destroy the Torah Church!”
His voice was portentous and solemn. It was a declaration of war to grant Grinzam’s long-standing wish. And something came to life to obey that voice. An automaton gripping a deadly spear came into existence for the sole purpose of slaughtering.
The monster that had killed many Rabbis right here four years ago—Sephiroth—slowly rose to his feet.