Apocalypse Dark Elf Style -Magical Tribes Reincarnated in the Modern World

†

As soon as I opened my eyelids, I let out a groan. The thought that I had actually made it out alive was ridiculous.

All hell broke loose in the body’s seat. Most of the consoles and monitors were unlit, and some of the parts had come off or popped out due to the impact… My body was barely held together by the harness, but my arms and legs were still shaken and flailing from the impact. My gloves were cracked and my fists were gouged out, my knees were dislocated. If I had not been a tree man, the damage would probably have been much worse. There’s a lot of blood and flesh splattered all over this seat right now, limbs torn off, spine broken from the impact, internal organs ruptured… if I wasn’t already a dead man, I’d be one by now.

I lifted my hand in front of my face and looked at it. The damage was as expected, but there were no abnormalities to support the strange sensation I had felt earlier in that extreme situation. I wondered if that was just the power of foolishness in the heat of the moment. … Anything goes, as long as it doesn’t result in an explosion and destruction I guess.

Apparently, the RV was lying on its back. In this state, it should be possible to activate the emergency switch.

With the push of a button, the bolts were forcefully popped off, causing the front of the vehicle to purge and open.

The scene before the crash was in the mountains, as expected. The slope was not too steep, perhaps by accident or unconsciously targeted as a descent point.

In the exact direction where I had come from, it looked as if a meteorite had fallen. The ground was gouged out at great length, and the trees in the path had been cruelly ripped down.

There was a smell of scorched earth in the air, but as far as I could tell, there was no sign of fire or explosion in my RV. In the first place, EF was an energy material that became popular because of its safety and stability. In comparison, a gasoline-powered car was just a running bomb.

“Maybe I can get a manual booting…”

I decided and took a look at the body seat, then sat down on it.

The RV was originally designed for fierce battles with radiant beasts. It was not designed to be half-heartedly durable. There was a chance that the contents would remain coupled together even if the impact was too much for the human body to withstand.

The main console was obviously dead, but I attempted to get it back on by playing with the circuitry directly behind it. Sort of like directly connecting to the engine in a car. Even without any software support, as long as the EF control system survived, linking the body parts and providing power support – I might be able to get the RV up and running.

As I was working on this task, I heard a sound.

It was the characteristic walking sound of an RV.

I wondered if someone had come to rescue me, but I was naive.

“─ You really have bad luck, don’t you?”

A cold voice came over the external speakers.

When I looked over, I saw that it was Yuika’s RV.

“Class President…”

” I tell you this in case you haven’t noticed. This was my doing. Do you understand?　I was gonna make it look like an accident, and then I was gonna kill you.”

“What are you…?”

For a moment, I was speechless.

“Why? At school, you never did anything…”

“You’re really stupid. I’ll probably never do anything in front of anyone. So, an accidental death during training would be the best way to put it.”

I was soft. I was too naive. I didn’t think she would go this far.

I thought that since we were in school, Yuika shared my views on the matter. It was foolish of me to think of it that way.

Unlike me, who was withholding as a means to escape, she viewed me as an enemy.

There was nothing more to it than that…

“Did you make it so that my RV would naturally crash?”

“Yes. Conveniently, I was a part of the maintenance crew at the time.”

“It would have been perfectly normal. There was nothing wrong with it or anything. I merely swapped the ‘original part’ with a ‘replica part’.”

“Ah! It was made by glutton magic …!”

I remembered the incident at the construction site. It was a scene where the steel frame that pierced the corpse of a yakuza melted and disappeared. It was probably the ability of the glutton magic.

The replica parts were fitted into the machine. At that point, the machine was working normally. But if it melts like that over time, or at the will of the creator, it could be the perfect criminal trap to cause a serious malfunction later on, when a vital part was lost from the machine…

“Since the mountain is large and I jammed it at the moment of fall, no one is officially aware of where this crash site is. Not only did it stop the flight unit, but it was also designed to lose the RV’s location at the same time. That’s why they’re now splitting up into platoons to search for you. No one will be coming here for a while.”

I’ve heard the RV walk one step. Two step.

“Well, I guess the time limit is until the Shinjin Knights arrive to deal with the radiant beasts that appeared.”

It’s needless to say when the time limit is.

Approaching, Yuika’s RV stretched out its steel arms without hesitation towards my defenseless body seat with the front of the RV open…

I grasped the main control stick with a prayerful heart.

A moment later, the EF glow ran thinly across the energy lines of my body. The arm that was half buried in the ground due to the impact of the fall creaked and squeaked as it lifted up and managed to repel the arm of Yuika’s RV. After that, she put some energy into the RV’s legs and managed to get up.

“Alright…!”

“Ara. You’re motivated using analog controls huh?”

I could feel the cold gaze reaching me. Of course, all it can other functionality has been discarded and it’s all it can do was ‘moving’. It’s like the difference between an old-fashioned plow and a modern sports car.

“Even if no one sees us now, won’t it be bad if there are traces of a battle between RVs, like my RV’s body being crushed by one?”

An exasperated sigh came over the speakers.

“You really think I care about that?　After eveything that we’ve been through…”

Yuika reached into a box in her hip area and pulled out something for the RV to hold. It was a telescopic stick weapon. The tip of the weapon is swollen and vibrates the moment it strikes the target. Its oscillation mechanism and center-of-gravity correction technology are naturally based on EF. In other words, it is one of the RV’s equipment – a mace type that can be used to break the core of a radiant beast that is resistant to firearms.

“Damn it, are you serious!?”

“Yes, it’s over, it’s really over. There’s no other way but to do this. I have to do this. You know that and you stop pretending like you do now!”

The milk-white colored iron mace swung strongly as the words were spoken, and I hurriedly retreated. It barely grazes the front of the RV’s body, and I felt the chill run down my spine.

She’s serious. She’s serious… on killing me!

Yuika may have made up her mind, or she may have answered the question that Rensuke could not.

But no matter what, I can’t let her kill me. Not until I see Sheena again.

I moved even further away from the EF mace as she continued to swing it. I was hoping for a glimmer of hope as I searched my RV’s box, but it had been completely damaged by the impact of the crash. There were no weapons that I could use. There was nothing to be done but to fall back and continue to evade with a sluggish movement.

“Are you really that desperate, Class President!?”

“Desperation? I really wish it were that easy to describe.”

I went around behind the tree to use it as a shield. However the super-vibrating mace easily gouged through the thick tree trunk, forcing me to retreat even further.

“It’s over, everything’s over, there’s nothing I can do about it!　But I can still see it. I can see what lies ahead… my salvation!　Then I just have to do it!”

“Kuh…?”

I remembered something that stuck with me with that line of argument, but survival was my priority right now.