ing sound reverberated in his world.

Instantly, his five senses were cut, in the darkness ?HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!? words burned. Right after, his view returned.

However, there was no longer his home bathroom with ivory makeup panels. Unbelievable that it was high up in a apartment floor, it was a huge open space.

Haruyuki had already accelerated his thought with the Neuro Linker, and fully dived into the virtual world created by the duel fighting game application ?Brain Burst?. The surrounding world, was made up of images from Social Camera Net all over Japan, a virtual ?Duel Field?.

However, normal residences including Haruyuki’s home did not have a social camera, so this was supplemented with guess work - that is the software built it up with the structure. This time, the apartment was returned to while it was being built. The concrete littered floor had steel pillars here and there.

In this bleak space, Haruyuki and the girl faced each other in their real form for about half of a second.

However soon, both their body color and shape started changing. Towards their other self, the combat use ?Duel Avatar?.

Haruyuki’s round limbs were covered with silver from the tips and at the same time twisted smaller and smaller. What appeared was silver armor covered robotic hands. The change reached his body, and his stomach shrunk by more than half in one go. When the slender metallic body was finished, the white light covered his head, and became a slippery round mirror helmet.

While he was transforming to his duel avatar ?Silver Crow?, Haruyuki continued to stare at the girl a few meters in front of him.

The doll like delicate arms and legs were covered by a deep red shine. As the light circle moved up, the places it passed were transformed to a ruby colored armor. The flat stomach and chest were also changed to be covered by dark grey and ruby mixed half transparent armor, and with a last flash, an android like head appeared.

A mask that only had bead like eyes. Front hair shape metal extended from both sides of the head, like pigtail shaped antenna.

The twin pigtails wiggled, and a deep red light shone from both eyes.

‘- This is the ?Red King??’

Haruyuki stood still and looked at the Duel Avatar a few meters in front of him.

Small. Height only around 130cm. For weapon-like items, only a toy-like handgun on the right waist.

“...E, err.”

He unintentionally opened his mouth, and under the mirror helmet, a metallic effect voice leaked out.

“Are you really...”

‘Accelerated world’s only seven level 9 Burst Linker, highest commander of huge legion, one of the ?Pure Color Six Kings??’

He wanted to ask that, at that moment.

Suddenly, the space behind the cute girl avatar became twisted.

Four brusque blocks shining pure red appeared from the void, and warped around the girl’s arms and legs. Then thick armor surrounded her from left and right, fully covering the elegant body.

“What the...”

Haruyuki looked with a daze at the red avatar that became several times bigger than him in one go.

However, the addition of armaments did not stop there.

With low Gon Gon sounds reverberating, huge hexagon pillars, cylinders, and plates kept appearing behind and connecting. The height soon reached for the ceiling, compared to the panicky retreating Silver Crow, its height was 2 meters more, 3 meters more...

A few seconds later.

When silence finally returned, what stood in front of Haruyuki’s eyes, was a tank, or might be a thing better called a fortress.

Like an extension of its original arms, two huge cannons were slowly lifted up, and white steam came from various heat release valves.

In the center of the armor container, two shining red eyes peeked out just a bit.

“...No way...”

At the same time as Haruyuki’s whisper, in front of him in burning font, ?FIGHT?, shone, then blew apart.

‘I should run away first!!’

That was the first thing Haruyuki thought of, he wanted to turn around and quickly dash away behind, but stopped when he thought that would be dangerous.

The enemy’s type is ?Long range red?. This huge fortress like duel avatar, no matter how you look at it, is a demon of long distance attacks. In addition to the main cannons on the left and right side, the containers on both shoulders were probably missile pods, and the short tubes in front should be some kind of machine gun. Against this type of opponent, trying to distance himself would be foolish.

With that determination, he gathered courage to stand still, then the fortress avatar ?Scarlet Rain?’s red eyes focused on him.

“...Hmm, not running away. You have guts.”

The metallic yet cute voice, was released by the Red King.

“I, I am so scared that my legs won’t move.”

Haruyuki replied with a pitiful sound, then he desperately looked at the Red King’s different parts.

Normally in games, the strategy against this kind of huge armored boss enemy, is to attack the thin area weak point in a blind spot. Attacking from the front is out of question, left and right is probably covered by those movable main cannons. That leaves right behind. If he could dash at full speed around to the back side.

Unknown if she knew of Haruyuki’s thinking or not, Scarlet Rain laughed.

“You said a cute thing? But, you didn’t forget, right?”

“Eh? About... what?”

“That I will...”

Guin! With that sound the right main cannon moved, pointing right at Haruyuki.

“- beat you to death, you hentai[1]!!”

“That was beyond my controlll!!”

While shouting back a reply, Haruyuki kicked the ground hard. He moved towards the enemy’s left side at lightning speed, then made a sharp turn for the back side.

Scarlet Rain who turned while chasing Haruyuki, was surprisingly quick for such a huge size, but even so, Silver Crow - is a very specialized speed type duel avatar, so she could not catch up to his dash.

“And you were the one who came into the bathroommm!!”

With another shout while turning, Haruyuki finally saw the enemy’s back and rushed forward.

As he had predicted, the back side had large heat releasing fins and vernier like things lined up, but he did not see any armaments. The armor looked thinnest at the connection between the missile pod and fin, his right fist aimed for that - .

‘...Vernier?’

At the same time he thought of that, four black exhaust holes let out fierce jets of flame.

“Uwaa hot -!!”

He had a strong feeling of heat when he was covered by the flames, so he screamed. In his view’s upper left, his own HP gauge dropped.

However, Haruyuki did not stop moving forward.

The damage to him, was not an amount to be feared. The metal color Silver Crow has heat attack resistance.

“Fire won’t work against this Silver Crow!!”

‘- It’s decided.’

While thinking that, Haruyuki put all his strength behind his punch against the back armor in front of him. However.

“It’s not that easy, brat!!”

Fuhahaha, with a roar that he could almost see the words, at the same time the containers on Scarlet Rain’s shoulders opened their covers.

From those, numerous small missiles flew out, Haruyuki opened his eyes wide on seeing that.

‘Wait... here, the building... inside...’

Right after, the concrete ceiling, floor, and steel pillars were all covered by red rose like explosions.

Haruyuki desperately ducked when a missile headed straight for him, it hit the concrete ceiling above his head, breaking it up mesh like, and it started falling.

“No way...”

He dangerously dodged a huge slap of concrete that fell down, it hit near his feet and the floor abruptly sank.

“No way -?!!”

With that shout, Haruyuki dashed fiercely. This was no longer the time to worry about keeping distance with the enemy or not. This was the 23rd floor above ground. If he was caught in the collapse, his HP would be gone in an instant.

The originally Haruyuki’s home apartment was now a building with only floor and pillars, so tens of meters ahead he could see the outside space. He jumped around the broken floors and used his fist and head to break falling concrete fragments, while checking the special attack gauge below his HP gauge.

The damage that he dealt and received did not amount to much, but maybe due to the stage destruction points, his gauge was at about 20% with a green shine. With this -

He could fly!!

Haruyuki took a deep breath and exerted force on his shoulders.

On his back, folded metal fins started to make a crisp sound.

With the fins’ high frequency vibration, Haruyuki’s dash speed also increased.

“Fuooooo -?!!”

With that shout, Haruyuki aimed for the grey space coming up in front of him and dived head first.

Haruyuki’s home was very high up in the building. That meant, the moment he jumped out from the building, he could see all of the streets from Kouenji to Shinjuku.

The superb panoramic view - was there, but all the buildings were similar to his apartment, becoming stark segments with steel pillars. This is probably the ?Weathered? stage. Its properties are: easy to destroy, dusty, and occasional gust blowing...

While thinking of many things, Haruyuki controlled his metallic wings' speed and hovered in the air.

He checked his special attack gauge, there’s still a little left. With that, he should be able to fly continuously for three minutes.

He turned around - .

That was about the same time as the huge high-rise building split almost in half and collapsed.

“Ah, ah... My home...”

He whispered unconsciously. Of course that was just polygon data created by the system, but this was the first time his home was destroyed in a ?Duel?.

“That was reckless.”

While shaking his helmet head, Haruyuki looked down at the rubble mountain that his apartment had become. The Red King seemed to be buried in her own destruction, and could not be seen. At that rate, probably even a fortress avatar won’t escape unscratched.

‘What was she thinking’, he shook his head and started to descend, right after.

Haruyuki noticed something and became horrified.

Scarlet Rain’s HP gauge - did not decrease. To be exact around 3% was lost, but that could not be called damage.

And then, her special attack gauge, was flashing at 100%.

It would be like that. With the destruction of that huge environmental object, a huge bonus must have been added. That meant, her reckless missile fire, was not to prevent Haruyuki from attacking behind her, nor was she trying to trap him in the destruction...

Suddenly.

From under the rubble, muscle like red light appeared from cracks. At the same time, a sharp shout.

“- ?Heat Blast Saturation?!!”

With a sharp squeal and explosion sound, a crimson flame extended from the wreck of the apartment, Haruyuki who saw that screamed.

“Hiaaaa!!”

He moved his right wing as fast as he could, and tried to avoid with a spin dive. However.

The flame was way too huge. He was unable to completely avoid the flame with a diameter about the same as his height, and the wavering hot column touched Silver Crow’s left hand, and below his elbow came a burning sound.

His HP gauge lost one fifth, at the same time a non-virtual hot feeling attacked him, but Haruyuki almost did not notice it.

Because, the heat ray that went by him head east of the stage, hit Shinjuku city far away, and blew up everything above 300 meters in that area.

“No way...”

The not sure how many time in this battle, shocked voice leaked from Haruyuki.

While his mouth flapped under the silver face plate, he moved his view to look at his home’s wreckage.

At that moment, from the huge hole in the rubble, the Red King’s majesty appeared.

The full body beautiful ruby armor, didn’t seem to have a single scratch. The back and lower verniers glowed red from exhaust, and white steam came from the slits on the left cannon.

“...Ooh, he’s flying?”

From between the front armor, the Red King’s two round eyes looked up at Silver Crow and said in a sing song voice.

“I wanted to try it once, like anti-air cannon fire? In SF movies and others, when they let it all out seems to be very fun.”

Clink.

With that clear metallic sound, the missile containers on both shoulders all opened, the right main cannon was lifted up, and the four machine guns in the front changed angle.

While trembling, a certain anime movie scene played in Haruyuki’s brain. A small robotic weapon, trying to infiltrate an enemy fortress filled with anti-air weapons - however, he was shot down like a small bug, and he shouted his lover’s name before exploding.

‘Ah, then it would be Kuroyukihime for me. But that’s just a nickname. Even though, it’s embarrassing to say her real name.’

While repeating escapist thinking, the enemy’s main cannon started charging with a rumbling sound. From the containers, around 100 small missiles appeared, their seeker head lenses shining.

Compared to the again full special attack gauge from destroying a city, Haruyuki’s own gauge only had less than 5% left. He only had tens of seconds of full strength flight probably. It was not his habit, but he might have to bet on a simple banzai attack in this situation.

“...I have to say this, huge war ship is supposed to be shot down by a single robot, it was decided in the past!”

With a loser like retort, Haruyuki took a dashing form in the air.

“As if a robot piloted by a hentai can be that active, idiot!”

The Red King shouted those very nasty words, then continued with a loud shout.

“ - ?Hailstorm Domination?!!”

Giyudoaaaapapapapaundaridaridari, those three attack sounds reverberated, main cannon, missiles, and machine guns fired at the same time.

This is truly, a huge manifestation of ?Long range anti-air attack? that Haruyuki was having long time trouble with. The previous week, and the week before that as well, Haruyuki was chased by one tenth of that firepower and was shot down.

Then why did he now, have no wish to give up, or feel any fear?

Since the enemy is so much stronger, he might just be having a ‘so-what’ attitude. However Haruyuki, for once in a long while, his whole body was covered by the heat of his boiling blood. That was, the excitement of ?Duel?.

“...Zuoriyaa -?!!”

With that roar, Haruyuki first dashed to the right in the air, avoiding the main cannon’s high heat beam. If he was directly hit with that, he would be burn to a crisp instantly. The beam dangerously passed by him, this time it opened a huge hole in park tower and NS building.

However, the enemy seemed to have predicted that move. Numerous small missiles came after him from the front with their seeker shining.

Taking a deep breath, Haruyuki started full body ultra high speed movement.

He flew straight and pulled a group of missiles behind him, then did a more than 90 degrees sharp turn. While he wavered from the explosions of missiles that lost their homing target, the next group of missiles closed in, and he again dodged.

He zig zag in the air like an UFO, and left numerous explosions as Silver Crow continued to fly.

Strangely, he could clearly see the missile and machine gun bullet paths. If this was result from the training in that white room, he could not tell.

While doing unlimited high speed flight, Haruyuki felt a strong resentment against himself.

Why couldn't he do this kind of movement in the weekly territory battle? Why did he always get shot by just one rifle and his legs - no wings shun and he stopped flying? If it was because of pressure, then his one on one fight with the one called ?Red King? should be way more fearful.

‘- I am this fast. I can fly this way. Then, why in the moment when it matters I was so clumsily hit by bullets? I should be a lot stronger. Become strong, raise my level, then that person...’

“...!”

While he strongly ground his teeth under his helmet, his flight speed slowed just a bit, and the only dodge route trace was missed.

In front of him was the remaining around 30 missiles group. Behind him was the machine gun bullet shower. And below him Scarlet Rain’s left main cannon finished charging, and started tracking him.

“Sh... it!”

Haruyuki right kicked the missile that came in front of him. It flew away and blew up. From the reaction, he changed his angle and dived straight below. However, in front of his eyes, the left main cannon’s hole waited -.

At that time, a fierce wind blew in the battle field.

It was the ?Weathered? stage’s geological effect. From the concrete buildings to the ground, a large sand storm blew up, his view was temporarily filled with grey. The surrounding missiles lost their target and exploded one by one.

‘...This is it!!’

Haruyuki opened his eyes, aiming just for the ruby color in the sandstorm, and did a rapid spiral dive.

In the middle of his path, the main cannon’s beam passed by, burning just air.

“Oooooo!!”

With that roar, Haruyuki changed his position, the sharp front of his foot moved forward like a spear of light. His all or nothing left kick, aimed between Scarlet Rain’s twin missile containers. If this could be a critical hit, there might be a chance for him yet -

- However.

“...!?”

Right before the sword sharp feet hit, the huge fortress avatar broke apart at once.

The containers and main cannons split apart, and the armor plates too opened up all around.

From the center, an elegant girl avatar appeared, and looked up at him.

With an unbelievable speed, she slid one step, and dodged Silver Crow’s kick.

Blam! Silver Crow made a big hole on the ground, he fell clumsily, and something was stuck on his helmet. Looking up, he saw a small gun hole. Scarlet Rain’s main body, the small girl avatar, held a crimson handgun in her right hand, and ‘hold up’ Haruyuki.

‘- When that kick was easily dodged, I lost.’

Even acknowledging that, Haruyuki said while not knowing when to give up.

“...Do you think that toy like gun can penetrate my armor?”

Then, on Red King’s mask that only had two lens like eyes, a bright smile showed.

“If I said this gun was my strongest weapon, would you believe it, onii-chan?”

Haruyuki took a deep breath, then blew it out, with both hands - his left hand was mostly gone - held up.

“...I believe you. You win, Scarlet Rain.”

Then, the Red King smiled once more, and said.

“Then, will you listen to my wish?”

“Eh? Wish...?”

It wouldn’t be betraying the Black legion right? That would be impossible negotiation.

While he panicked inside, the answer was beyond his expectation. With a sudden threatening tone, the girl haughtily said.

“- I want to meet your ?Parent?. In the real world... with our real selves.”