No Breaks

「A Remnant, too...?!」[Nova]

He was stunned.

The girl kept running at him, but stopped for a moment when she saw him collapse onto the floor.

『Nova…?』[Girl]

He lost his will to fight, staring at the grotesque Remnant lumbering behind the girl.

Suddenly, the girl fell down, as if all of the energy in her legs disappeared.

『N...Nov….a?』[Girl]

She stared at him for a moment before turning around wildly.

『No…! NOOO!』[Girl]

The Remnant stood above her, their body making a clattering noise, as if it was laughing sadistically.

『Rkrkrkrk...』[Remnant]

She crawled backwards with tears running down her cheeks.

『Nova! Novanovanova! Pl..Please!』[Girl]

She turned back to him, but his mind seemed to have shut down.

『A...』[Nova]

She turned around and saw the Remnant lifting its arm and slowly moving its hand past her and toward Nova.

They watched numbly as its hand slowly came closer.

「What…?」[Nova]

His vision was filled with the pitch black of the Remnant's abyssal bones.

『NO!』[Girl]

She jumped toward the arm to try and push it away, but the arm didn't budge at all.

It slowly raised the arm that the girl was pushing on.

She lost her balance and stumbled onto the floor.

She stared at the skeleton's glowing eyes staring back at her.

「Kuhukuhuk..」[Remnant]

At the peak of its' arm being raised, it immediately swung down with a surprising amount of speed compared to its slow movement just now.

The girl closed her eyes, expecting to be smashed into bits, but it didn't come.

After a while, she opened her eyes to find herself facing a broad shoulder.

『N...No...va?』[Girl]

Nova formed a blade and was putting everything into blocking the Remnant's arm.

「I… can't give up here! I've gotten so far!」[Nova]

He glanced back at the girl behind him while struggling with the sheer force from the Remnant.

『I… don't know who you are, or how you know me… but...』[Nova]

He forced his mana to circulate in an explosion of strength, allowing him to throw the Remnant's arm back up.

『GET OUT OF HERE!』[Nova]

『Kururu?!』[Remnant]

It flew backwards, losing its balance and falling on its back.

『But… you beat it-』[Girl]

As soon as those words left her lips, the Remnant got on all fours and began flashing about the area like a car.

『It was toying with us!』[Nova]

He raised his arm up, as if telling her to stay behind him.

『No… way.』[Girl]

『Blessed Flame Rebirth!』[Nova]

Blue flames enveloped the two of them, taking mana in the atmosphere to fuel Nova's body once more.

「...I'm going to pass out any second now… The strain on my body is too much...」[Nova]

His body had already been in constant pain since he had last fallen from the sky.

To call it a miracle he was still standing would have been an understatement.

「I don't know why… but the more I heal myself with my flames, the less effective it gets…!」[Nova]

Regardless, he pushed his mana circulation to the maximum.

『What the hell are you doing here, anyways?!』[Nova]

She looked surprised that he lashed out at her, tears falling out from her eyes.

『It.. It… chased me here! What was I supposed to do?!』[Girl]

Nova felt a massive headache coming on.

「What in the heavens..? First, this whole situation, then I'm falling out of the sky, fighting a member of the Cardinal Sins… next I'm fighting a Remnant?! What the hell?!」[Nova]

He kept following the flash of darkness going left to right, but it just stood still after a bit, staring at them.

「...I thought… The Brown was taking care of this thing…?」[Nova]

After seeing it stand still, Nova readied his defense, raising his sword.

The very same second he did that, the Remnant was already staring at him, inches away from his face.

『AAAAAH!』[Girl]

「WHAT?!」[Nova]

He quickly put a barrier of mana around his sword and smashed it into the ribcage of the Remnant.

The moment it made contact, the Remnant was surprisingly sent flying far away- but at the cost of Nova's sword shattering into pieces.

「...Did I… put a repulsion enchantment on that mana shield…? I… got lucky.」[Nova]

He watched the Remnant land on its feet and hands seconds after flinging it, not giving Nova a chance to get anything ready again.

『Another sword..!』[Nova]

He didn't get the chance to do anything before it was already inches away from Nova's face.

In a blink of an eye, it had its jaw open, ready to bite into Nova's neck.

『I'm…-!』[Nova]