The Tower's Trial: Floor 11. Deputy Warden

- Bang!!

Rebecca, sent flying, slams straight into the wall.

Without time to check on her condition, I fling myself to the side.

- Whoosh~~!

A powerful gust of wind brushes past my face, whipping my hair violently.

I raise my head and look behind me,

"You..."

"Yaaawn... How did you get that necklace off? The system says everything is normal."

The deputy warden comes down from the upper floor in his pajamas, yawning without a hint of tension. His face shows annoyance more than anger or curiosity.

"Well, I can find that out slowly after I catch you."

He casually reaches a hand into the air.

- Wooooong!!

I can see something making the air ripple ever so slightly, but it's too blurry.

'Damn, I can't see it at all!!'

Telekinetic-type superpowers are generally divided into two kinds.

One is a force like psychokinesis that moves objects through empty air.

In this case, the power is weak, so it's usually used for strategic play or combat support rather than direct attacks.

The other is an invisible hand.

It looks like telekinesis, but in reality, an invisible hand directly exerts physical force.

For this invisible-hand type, assuming the same level, the actual physical force is extremely strong. Of course, it exerts physical force, but it can't be seen, and the hand itself can't be attacked. It feels somewhat like compressed air.

And based on my firsthand experience of feeling his telekinesis, the deputy warden's ability is the second type—the invisible-hand type.

- Whoosh!!

I dodge his telekinetic fist once again,

- Smack!!!

and get hit by another fist, flying away. I don't stop until I've flown a long distance and slammed into the partition blocking the corridor.

"Ghk...."

'Damn...'

His telekinetic fists are about the size of a human torso.

This morning, he held my torso, lifted a man, and rotated both legs, so he appears to use at least four invisible telekinetic fists.

Even so, each fist is stronger than me.

"What troublesome bitches. One of you resisted, and one tried to escape. As payment for annoying me, I'll personally execute you with my own hands."

He folds his arms and leisurely approaches.

"Ghk... Don't act so high and mighty..."

I charge forward once again.

To improve my odds even a little, I need to close the distance.

- Whoosh!! Whoosh!!

This isn't about dodging by watching, but by predicting.

Looking at the data from the blow just now and the movement of his eyes, I slip sideways past the attacks and keep charging forward.

But,

- Wham!! Smack-smack!!!

"Oh, you're pretty tough?"

I get caught by his telekinetic fist midway, struck from the front, then hit by the fist that comes back from behind, and then hit by the fist coming forward again, sending me flying.

- Bang!!

He doesn't move even one step, while I'm battered from head to toe and slam back into the partition I hit earlier.

'Feels like I got hit by a car...'

Every muscle in my body trembles from the impact.

If my defense stat hadn't been high, my bones would already be broken or my insides ruptured.

I charge forward again despite my aching body.

"Oh? You're coming at me again?"

- Whoosh! Whoosh!!

'The same one-two pattern.'

Followed by a straight uppercut up the middle.

I lean backward and bend my knees at exactly the right moment to evade it. Then I jump high using the rebound of my knees to avoid the attack that follows.

- Thud!

His fourth fist strikes the bare floor.

'I got past four. Is that it?'

But for some reason, that guy's expression looks completely relaxed.

"Is that all...? I guess you didn't have any hidden abilities after all."

"What...?"

- Smack!!

My head turns to the side.

I lose my balance.

I try to regain my stance before I fall, but another hand delivers a powerful blow to my abdomen.

"Ghk!!"

The hand pulling me back catches my flying body.

Both arms, both legs, torso, and head.

Everything is seized in an instant.

"This should be enough for me to execute you on the spot, death-row inmate."

- Crrrkkk....

"Gaaaaaaaah...!!"

He starts pulling on my arms and legs.

Dismemberment.

At this rate, I'll be dismembered and killed.

"I'll kill you slowly! Huhuhuhu..."

His grin stretches beside my ear.

He revels in my suffering with a gloomy, psychopathic expression.

"You crazy son of a... You die too!"

"What?"

"Rebeccaaaaa!! Now!!!"

Rebecca had regained consciousness a while ago.

She had collapsed between the deputy warden and me, deliberately remaining still.

Burning with revenge, her red eyes had been waiting for this moment.

- Fwoooosh.... Boom!!!

The flames Rebecca had secretly been gathering explode.

They spread instantly down both sides of the corridor.

"Oh, shit!!"

The deputy warden hurriedly recalls his hands. If I'm right, the flames should engulf his body before he can retract them all...

But,

The hand he'd hidden until the very end pushes back the flames. Then the other hands, retracted at high speed, hold the flames back with remarkable stability.

'Damn it...'

The flames engulf not only the deputy warden but me as well.

But I don't retreat here.

If anything, I charge through the flames.

I plunge into the fire, my clothes burning away and my body being roasted.

"Ghk..."

Even so, I keep charging.

My last chance.

"Hahahaha!! You think I'd be defeated by some pathetic ability like this..."

My vision is obscured by the fire.

I charge through the flames obscuring my view.

"Dieeee!!!"

"Where do you think you're going!!"

In the narrow corridor, ashes scorched by the intense heat flutter through the air.

And amid them is an incongruous white space.

His hand comes crashing down, but now I can see it.

Not a faint ripple in the air, but the complete outline of his telekinetic hand.

- Whoosh!!

I dodge the one-two combo he throws again out of habit.

I jump over the fist flying low straight at me, plant my feet against the ceiling, and run.

The Mekarto family's secret art, Spatial Footwork, which I learned in the past to close the distance against ranged attackers in confined spaces.

Since it isn't a skill registered in my status window, I can't fully reproduce it using divine power, but knowing the principles and technique lets me reproduce a short, imperfect version.

As a fist flies toward the ceiling, I dodge to the side and run along the wall.

Right now, it's the same as having four surfaces to run on.

"You little rat!!!"

Startled by me moving between the ceiling and walls, he sends all his remaining hands flying, but—

The hands already visible to me can't stop me.

Moving along the walls with acrobatic movements, I evade the enormous hands.

And then,

At last, I arrive in front of him.

"You think you can win just because you got close!!"

He throws a fist at high speed. He has two superpowers: telekinesis and physical enhancement.

If I hadn't known that, I might have been caught by his surprise punch, but I already knew about it.

Lowering my body as naturally as flowing water, I slip past the punch and strike the vulnerable spot on his flank with all my strength.

- Boom!!

"Ugh!"

With a sound like bursting air, he instinctively wraps his arms around himself and hunches his upper body.

I grab his descending head and drive my knee upward into it.

- Crack!!!

Hot.

The flames flickering behind us writhe as if they're about to burn us both to ash.

Enduring the pain of my body burning, I move my feet.

I knee his head once more, then move behind him as he falls backward and wrench his neck.

"Geeeegh!!!"

The deputy warden braces himself and tries to control his telekinesis, but—

- Crack!!

I was faster.

His neck breaks, and his body collapses limply to the ground.

- Thud...

The muscles in my body and my burned skin scream.

"Haa... It's over now..."

I'm okay.

I'm almost there.

I've defeated the final boss, so all that's left is getting out.

"Rebecca!! Can't you put out the fire?"

"Cough!! Can't... put it out..."

We could put out the fire and leave, but if we wait for it to die down, the guards we've trapped will put it out first and come running.

A corridor this open, with no cover, is the perfect place to get shot and die. The outside is no different.

The problem is, the detention center's forces won't be all we have to deal with.

An emergency request for support probably went out to a nearby military base or somewhere similar because of the incident at this prison. Would a superhuman detention center not have even that much insurance?

The moment I killed a guard, the clock started ticking.

"Can't be helped..."

I put my hand in my pocket, grip the authentication key tightly so it won't fall out, and charge back into the flames.

- Sizzle...

"Ghk..."

Enduring the feeling of the soles of my feet roasting, I push through the flames. In the distance, I see Rebecca slumped amid the fire.

When I approach her, her condition looks worse than I'd expected.

"Rebecca? Can you stand?"

"......"

"Phew..."

I can see it in her expression.

Anger, regret, and despair.

I can feel all kinds of emotions.

"I... can't move my legs. Escaping is impossible... You go on without me. I'll hold them off here..."

Rebecca really has no ability besides producing flames.

One hit from a telekinetic hand, and she's already paralyzed from the waist down...

Her...

Instead of abandoning her, I pick her up in a princess carry.

"What are you doing... It'd be hard enough for you to escape without leaving me behind..."

'Yeah, why am I doing this?'

I'd told myself never to get emotionally invested in the people inside the Tower, but I couldn't do it.

No, it was already too late.

When I heard that the friend she'd trusted for five years had betrayed her, I'd already become invested.

'Right, I might still need her.'

Even with paralysis in her lower body, it doesn't seem to prevent her from using her superpower, so who knows?

I carry her through the flames.

Clutching the authentication key in one hand, I run through the flames with my injured, burned body.

My entire body stings.

My clothes have already burned away, leaving me practically naked.

I deactivate the partitions with the authentication key, never stopping my legs.

Just a little farther.

Once we pass through the main building's front entrance and cross the empty parking lot, there's the detention center gate.

We can take out the sentries in the towers on either side, use their authentication keys to open the thick iron gate, and get out.

- Clang.

I step through the main building's final door.

A bright light shines on us, blinding me.

- Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!!

As soon as the door opens, a merciless hail of bullets pours over us while we're blinded.

- Thud-thud, thud!

"Ghk..."

"Gup!"

I reflexively pull back and try to use the iron door as cover, but

I'm wounded in my left arm and shoulder,

while Rebecca takes a bullet through the abdomen.

"Cough...!"

She coughs up blood, blood mixing with her spit.

"You bastards!!!"

I leave her hidden behind the door for a moment and dash forward.

There are about ten enemies. The personnel stationed outside and those who remained inside the main building must have joined forces.

"They're out again!! Open fire immediately!!"

They've made a temporary barricade out of three vehicles in front of the main entrance and are firing their guns.

- Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!!

I sprint outside and use a nearby pillar as cover while dodging the bullets.

My defense stat is high enough that a single rifle round won't pierce my body, but it scrapes my skin, draws blood, and makes my body stiffen from the bullet's physical force. I should avoid getting hit whenever possible.

"They hid behind the pillar. Throw a grenade!"

'Idiots...'

- Tap...

As soon as the grenade reaches my feet, I grab it and throw it back at them.

The flying grenade slips neatly behind their cover.

"Huh?"

"Aaaagh, get down!!"

- KABOOM!!

I charge forward while they dive flat on the ground.

- Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!!

A few people who were beyond the grenade's blast radius fire again, but without coordinated fire, hitting someone running at high speed isn't easy.

What's more, once I get close and use one of their comrades as a shield, they can't shoot properly.

"You bitch!!"

A man charges at me from the front, holding a riot baton.

'Ah, this bastard...'

The man who sold me out for a computer.

The man who humiliated me while I was trapped in the vent.

- Whack!!

I swing my fist hard and blow his head clean off.

"Aaaagh!! What the..."

"They have enhanced physical abilities!! Just shoot them!!"

The guards, having watched a man's head explode as he died, begin firing wildly.

But by then, I'd already entered their midst.

Although one or two bullets lodge in me, they shoot each other, killing more than half their number.

In the confusion, I circle behind a nearby one, take him hostage, and snatch away his gun.

"Just shoot!! We're all going to die anyway..."

- Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!

- Rat-a-tat-tat!!

Bullets cross paths.

Bullets strike my hostage, and everyone else collapses from my gunfire.

They're faces I know.

The one who bought me three hamburgers for free.

The one who gave me strawberry cake and kindly explained the rules of the detention center.

"......"

I'm not sad.

It's just that they weren't all bad people.

We simply met under the wrong circumstances.

My vision turns red.

A bullet must have grazed my left eyebrow; it's split open and blood is running down.

"Phew..."

And then I head back to Rebecca...

"Surrender."

One of the guards is holding Rebecca hostage at the door, a gun pointed at her head.

Rebecca is being held docilely, her face nearly lifeless and unable to resist him.

"Ah..."

A voice that makes my uterus tremble the moment I hear it.

The guard who searched my body.

He is holding Rebecca hostage.