Chapter 106: Don’t you dare mock me!
Letting out a small scream, Iberis staggered on the spot. Neither flames nor anything else shot up, but the "space" jolted. Iberis, who looked up, stiffened momentarily.
The part where the attack from the Nightmares collided with the Bandersnatch that had been imparted with the ability to erase data within Iberis caused the sky to vanish. A pitch-black "void" spread across the air. The data fragments were raining down, scattering apart into dust.
This was the consequence of both parties exercising the authority of absolute erasure to wipe out the whole existence. As they constantly clashed, the effect of the "erasure" swelled tenfold or even a hundredfold. This led to a chain of collapses that the area around the collision was unable to withstand.
There was no easy way to launch an attack with the administrative authority. Judging this in an instant, Iberis manipulated the Bandersnatch on her leg and leaped back significantly. The promptness of her decision proved to save her life.
With a speed that no human could have reacted to, the blue-clad Nightmare… Haigha came flying out from underneath the desert where she had been standing. Apparently, he had been advancing like a talpidae, crushing the ground.
Haigha laughed in a high-pitched voice, whirled around in the air, and slammed his foot into Iberis in the manner of a heel drop. The Bandersnatch, which had been granted the ability to erase by administrative authority, acted to defend Iberis from Haigha's foot.
Again, another huge explosion occurred. The space trembled and burst, and the impact sent Iberis hurtling away.
Oh no…!
Watching her opponent's action, she cursed her own shallowness for passing judgment upon her initial observation. These two Nightmares were simultaneously in action. When Iberis caught a glance of this, she assumed that they were moving as a pair and that the administrative authority had been invoked.
They were not a set.
They were each independent of one another.
This was a two-on-one battle between those with administrative authority.
Without a choice, she plunged herself into the desert. There was a cloud of sand rising. Although the Bandersnatch was providing protection, Iberis looked sideways as the blue-clad Nightmare landed, raising a strange cry.
There was no way she could make it in time. Having judged that, she immediately authorized the Bandersnatch that was guarding her to perform an absolute erase. As Haigha was falling, he struck Iberis' Bandersnatch with another sideways kick.
A black light flashed, and the two forces of absolute erasure conflicted with each other. In a reflexive motion, Iberis extended the Bandersnatch on her arm and seized a desert boulder at a distance. Then extending and retracting it, she pulled her body backwards at once.
Yet again, a massive explosion ensued, sending fragments of data flying all around. Haigha spun around in midair and landed neatly next to Hatta. The red-clad Nightmare narrowed his eyes at Iberis, who stood up, breathing heavily. He then opened his mouth as if to mock her.
"Will that be alright? Backing off so much…"
"…"
Iberis moved her eyes with a start. The shelter's barrier was closing in on them, a dozen meters behind them.
"I thought you had stepped out to protect that place…?"
She clicked her tongue in her mind. The enemy had no hesitation in exerting the ability of absolute erasure. In the first place, that was their purpose.
She can hit the target with all her strength. However, the data would be destroyed if the administrative authority encountered each other. It would lead to spreading the void.
But…
Iberis' decision was swift. It was contemporaneously that Hatta and Haigha simultaneously dove into the sand and, like talpidae, began to proceed in different directions that she stomped the ground with her Bandersnatch feet and drew in a deep breath.
Then she opened her eyes. The Bandersnatch that composed her legs swirled.
In the next instant, it scattered to the surroundings like a shotgun. The Bandersnatch, with its absolute erasing power, rained down on a terrific range. It seemed like a rain that heralded the end of the world. It also resembled a rainbow descending.
One by one, the places hit by Iberis' Bandersnatch were "erased". The same was true for the ground where Hatta and Haigha had dived. Then it mercilessly pierced about half of the shelter.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeee!"
There were dreadful screams that were unbearable to be heard, and Hatta and Haigha sprang out of the ground. They tumbled across the desert ground with large holes in every part of their bodies, spraying black blood everywhere.
Both of them had barely escaped fatal injuries. However, the damaged parts did not regenerate. Their data had been "lost". The black hole widened and refused to close.
Iberis stepped towards the two Nightmares that were rolling on the ground, not even bothering to check that the shelter's electrical system had been damaged behind her and a series of small explosions that were taking place.
"… What have I misunderstood?" She broke into a small laugh, her pale face drenched in greasy sweat. "I've come out to annihilate you all."
Both Hatta and Haigha clenched their teeth together. Then, with their bloodied bodies covered in black, they joined their hands together.
"Don't you dare mock me!"
They simultaneously screamed and swung their linked arms down. But in the next moment, the faces of the two bodies were distorted in astonishment. Iberis, who had thrust a stomping blow into the desert ground, had "disappeared" just as the two bodies flared up in fury.
The two swelling forces of absolute erasure were on the verge of swallowing the shelter. Iberis, who had moved in an instant thanks to the expansion and contraction of the Bandersnatch to get closer to Hatta and Haigha, swung the Bandersnatch that formed her right hand wide to the side.
"Gah…"
Hatta and Haigha's movement came to a halt. The "authority" of absolute erasure that had been lifted also ceased in midair. Then, something like an electric charge was scattered and dispersed.
The heads of the two bodies slipped off with a slurp. Defeated by gravity, they rolled on the ground with an unpleasant sound. The gushing black blood gushed from the wounds of the decapitated heads like a fountain.
Looking to the side, Iberis confirmed that the decapitated Nightmares were slowly disappearing into fragments of data, and she slumped to her knees in the desert. Then she coughed violently.
There were several "administrative privileges" that had been downloaded to her. One of the most prominent was the power of "absolute erasure", which she had been employing until just now. Other than that, she could also move to a specific location by designating the coordinates.
I need to hurry up and search for Lewis' location…
She would have to track down Lewis and secure him before he could escape or hide. And to neutralize him and hand him over to the police in the "real world". That was what she must achieve.
That is the meaning of my creation.
That's right.
On shaky legs, she struggled to rise.
Iberis hadn't recovered much yet. Her body was not ready for such an intense battle. The shredded wound on her right arm was beginning to open, and she was forcibly restraining it with her Bandersnatch. Her physical strength was already at its limit.
But there was no way this opportunity could be wasted.
Iberis stood up, breathing roughly, but.
On her cheek.
All of a sudden, a merciless blow of the fist pierced her.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone