The colossal dragon loomed over us, its presence radiating an overwhelming pressure. I knew instantly that this was more than just an obstacle—it was a monumental wall.
The others were just as quick to realize it. Fey-san, the only one capable of striking the beast from this distance, began tapping away at her laptop with frantic intensity.
"I’m unloading everything I’ve got while we still have the range!" she shouted.
As she spoke, a swarm of what looked like missiles appeared in the distant sky. They slammed into the dragon one after another, blooming into massive explosions that swallowed the creature in a shroud of fire and black smoke.
"Whoa... I have to say it, don't I? Is... is it over!?" Arisa yelled.
"Hey, you idiot! Don't go triggering flags!" I snapped back.
Arisa had uttered the forbidden phrase. It was the classic trope—the one that almost guaranteed the enemy had survived completely unscathed.
Sure enough, the dragon emerged from the dissipating smoke. Not a single scale was scorched.
"Hey, Admin! What’s with this game balance?" Arisa complained, her voice a mix of panic and exasperation. "I don't exactly have time to go dungeon-crawling for a legendary sword! You have to at least make it so normal attacks deal—!"
She was cut off as the dragon turned its gaze toward us and unhinged its massive jaw. A terrifying light began to gather deep within its throat.
A gargantuan Flame Bullet erupted from its maw. It missed our van by a wide margin, but the sheer force of the impact vaporized the elevated highway behind us.
"Ririka-chan! We’re sitting ducks up here! Get us down to the surface streets!" Eri-chan-sensei commanded.
"Understood! Hold on tight! Try not to bite your tongues!"
Realizing we were far too exposed on the highway, Riri-senpai didn't hesitate. She kept the pedal to the metal, drifting the van down the off-ramp and onto the local roads without losing an ounce of speed.
"It’s a gamble," Arisa muttered. "Let’s just pray this thing doesn't have some broken ability to track us no matter where we hide."
Riri-senpai navigated the surface streets with incredible skill. Even though the roads were far from straight, she maintained top speed, clearing corners with controlled drifts and weaving through the skyscraper district with masterful precision. Her dynamic vision and reflexes were truly on another level; it was obvious why she was the one behind the wheel.
"Bump coming up! We’re going airborne!"
To keep the dragon from pinning us down, she chose a complex route, using the city’s layout to break the beast's line of sight and avoid the trajectory of its Flame Bullets. The van bounced violently as we hit several dips and rises, but Riri-senpai gripped the wheel firmly, never wavering as she drove us toward our destination.
Fortunately, it seemed the dragon didn't possess the kind of "all-seeing" ability Arisa feared, nor was it firing its Flame Bullets indiscriminately. It would be a slight detour, but at this rate, it looked like we might actually make it.
We were almost to the cemetery. But as we emerged from the skyscrapers onto an open road, the van's brakes screeched as we came to a sudden, jarring halt.
We hadn't reached the goal yet. We had been forced to stop.
"Well, I guess that makes sense," Arisa whispered, beads of sweat rolling down her forehead. "Even if it can't track us, if it knows where we’re heading... it can just wait for us there. That’s what I would do."
Following Arisa's gaze, I saw it. Standing guard before the small hill where the cemetery lay was the Jet-black Dragon.
"It’s not attacking..." Eri-chan-sensei murmured as she stepped out of the van. "Is it waiting? Waiting for us to walk right into its range?"
The rest of us followed her out. Seeing the beast up close, its scale was truly terrifying. While it was smaller than Magnawell-san, it was still the most formidable foe I could imagine facing in this world.
It was an absurdly massive tank that had shrugged off a missile barrage without a scratch, yet it possessed long-range firepower and the speed to intercept us. I couldn't see a single opening. But if we stood here in a stalemate, we would simply run out of time.
"I guess... we really have to do that?" Fey-san asked.
"It seems so," Riri-senpai replied. "I was hoping we could clear this before it came to such a measure."
"With the time limit looming, our choices are few," Lidi-senpai added.
I looked between them, confused. I couldn't think of a single way to get past that monster, but did they have some kind of trump card?
"Our chances of winning are low, aren't they?" Eri-chan-sensei asked.
"But... we have to try," Iris-san said firmly. "Otherwise, our chances are zero."
"That’s the spirit," Arisa said, a look of resolve hardening her features. "Let’s give it everything we've got."
"Arisa? What are you all planning?"
"It’s simple, Kaito-san. We’re going to do exactly what our opponent did. You're the exception, but the six of us are characters in this Virtual World. We each possess a Resource, just like those Black Zombies. And if they can merge their Resources, then we can too."
"What!?"
Arisa's words brought back the image of the zombies fusing into that nightmare. She and the others were going to do the same thing.
As if to confirm my suspicion, the six of them gathered in a circle and joined hands.
"Since we possess memories and emotions, our individual Resource capacity should be worth tens or even hundreds of normal zombies," Arisa explained.
"Even so, we’re up against a Seven-billion Resource Aggregate," Fey-san noted with a weak smile. "The odds are pretty grim."
"Doesn't matter," Riri-senpai said. "We're doing this. We’re getting Kaito to the end."
Riri-senpai, Fey-san, Iris-san...
"It will be a desperate struggle," Lidi-senpai admitted. "But it’s our only move."
"It might be because of who we’re based on, but Eri-chan-sensei has the highest base stats among us," Arisa said. "So, the five of us are going to entrust all of our power to her."
"I'll do my best," Erina promised.
As they nodded to one another, a blinding light enveloped their bodies. The five girls—excluding Erina—transformed into pure radiance. That light flowed into Erina, who stood at the center of the circle, absorbing every bit of their strength. Once the process was complete, she turned to look at me.
"Erina..."
"If we can defeat it, that’s great... but we probably can't. I'm going to do everything I can to keep it distracted. Kaito-kun, you find an opening and run for the cemetery."
"I... I understand."
I felt a surge of bitterness at my own helplessness, but I could only nod. Erina gave me one final, encouraging smile. Then, drawing a handgun in each hand, she charged toward the dragon at a speed that defied the eye.
It was a battle of six against seven billion—an utterly desperate, lopsided war.
Serious-senpai: "It’s finally my turn!!"
???: "Well, the Light Serious phase is wrapping up, so the end is near."
Serious-senpai: "...Can't we stretch it out just a little longer?"
???: "Request denied."