Chapter 12: Confrontation

This is the first time I meet Doctor, and he is quite different from what I imagined. If I had watched the anime, I probably wouldn’t be as surprised, as my perception of what Doctor should look like is completely different.

First, his voice is so hoarse that it sounds like he’s a man dying of thirst or an old man. Second, while I understand that he has just awakened from a six-year sleep, his cheeks are so sunken that he resembles a dying corpse. I wouldn't be surprised if, beneath that thick jacket, he looked like a mummy.

I held back my concerns until we started moving from the medical facility to the nearby pickup spot. However, Doctor's pace was so slow that I decided to take matters into my own hands.

"Alisia? What are you doing to Doktah?"

I ignored Amiya's gaze as I took out a small shard of Originium and began feeding Doctor enough nutrients with Wiederherstellung. At the same time, I used Verbesserung to enhance him to the point where he could run like a normal man.

"That is a high-level art."

I sensed awe from behind me but chose to ignore it as I remembered something important.

"Amiya, have you met Ace yet? Or encountered Talulah?"

"No, I haven't met Ace, but he is supposed to join us near the checkpoint. As for Talulah, she's the leader of Reunion, right? I haven't met anyone like that."

Amiya's response indicated that the scene where Ace sacrifices himself to hold Talulah back hasn’t happened yet, which means I still have time to prepare.

After healing Doctor enough for the journey ahead, we resumed walking, following Doctor's orders and avoiding Reunion members, as most of the operators in our squad were still unfit for battle. However, I sensed they were also worried about me.

As we walked, I focused on absorbing every piece of Originium I could find—whether from the infected, corpses, or chunks scattered along the path. I ignored the concerned gazes of my companions, knowing that the fight with Talulah was imminent. Without reaching at least 0.9 u/L of Originium in my body, I wouldn’t stand a chance against her.

While I trusted my high resistance to her attacks, I knew my damage output wouldn’t be enough to make her retreat. This urgency drove me to absorb every piece of Originium I encountered. Just as I was about to absorb a chunk, someone grabbed my hand. Turning, I saw Amiya, her face etched with concern.

“What is it, Amiya?”

“Please stop, Alisia. I know you’re stressed, but you don’t need to push yourself like this.”

“What are you talking about? I’m just clearing the Originium out of the way.”

As I attempted to argue, I noticed the other operators wore similar expressions of concern, silencing me. Doctor slowly extended a small tablet, likely containing the P.R.T.S. system.

“I will find a way with less Originium.”

“Thank you for your help, Doktah.”

By the end of our walk, there were indeed fewer pieces of Originium, but I continued to absorb it from the infected, ignoring their attempts to stop me. Glancing at my hand, I saw that my Originium level had risen to 3.1 u/L.

This was the highest I had ever reached, and I realized that a normal person might not survive with that much Originium in their body. I noticed signs of infection lingering on my hand, surprising me since this was the first time it had occurred.

(I thought my second talent protected me from the harmful effects of Originium. Had I overloaded it to the point where I needed time for the effects to subside? Now I understood why they all looked so distressed.)

I was confident this would fade with time, but maintaining this level would only heighten their worries. So, I used Umwandlung to manipulate the Originium in my body, transforming it into a pattern instead of allowing it to crystallize and protrude from my skin.

At that moment, everyone gasped in surprise.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you all. I’m fine now.”

“Are you sure, Alisia?”

“Geez, you’re such a worrywart, Amiya. I’m fine; this level isn’t a problem for me. My body just isn’t used to handling so much Originium, that’s all.”

I waved my hand dismissively, trying to downplay the situation, but their concern remained.

(For the first time, I wished I could return to Laterano, where I could at least understand others' feelings through empathy. While it only worked with fellow Sankta, it was far better than now, where I struggled to read their expressions and had no idea what they were feeling.)

To alleviate their concerns, I chose to absorb only the originium from the infected. I was uncertain if this would be enough to confront Talulah, and I also had to consider the possibility of facing FrostNova after battling Talulah.

This situation felt reminiscent of a hardcore RPG, where there's hardly any time to collect your thoughts before facing the second boss.

Keeping this in mind, we continued walking until we finally encountered Ace, and I started to prepare myself for the fight with Talulah.

In the end, just as Alisia predicted, they face Talulah, with Amiya releasing one of the rings. However, it isn’t enough to defeat her. When Ace prepares to say he will stay behind to hold Talulah back, Alisia punches him in the stomach with such force that it knocks him out in one blow.

Usually, Ace trusts everyone, which led him to let his guard down around Alisia, who is much shorter than he is. His knockout in one punch surprises everyone, but Alisia has one of the others carry him as she slowly walks toward Talulah.

"I will hold her back; now you all need to get as far away from this place as possible."

When Meteorite is about to argue, an ice wall suddenly sprouts between them, with Alisia blocking their approach.

"You see, this is the first time I will go all out, and I'm not sure I can protect you all at the same time. Compared to other Elite Operators, my experience is clearly lacking, and I don’t know how to cover everyone while fighting that thing. So go."

Alisia uses her Wahrsagung to compel them to obey her command, making them walk away. Normally, this wouldn't work on so many people, as she isn’t as skilled with this art as Virtuosa, but at that moment, the amount of Originium in Alisia’s body is 4.5u/L, nearly equal to Virtuosa's current level.

"Well, thank you for letting them go, Talulah—or should I call you Kashchey?"

Upon hearing Alisia's words, Talulah flinches for a moment before letting out a small laugh and suddenly attacking Alisia with a flying slash of fire. Alisia dodges, but sweat trickles down her cheek.

"Looks like I can't afford to hold back either, or I will lose."

The patterns on Alisia's body gradually turn light blue, mirroring her halo, wings, and hair. A cold aura envelops her, freezing the area around her, even extinguishing the fire. She holds an Originium shard in her hand and transforms it into an FN SCAR, her favorite gun she often use in the game from her previous life.

However, the gun slowly morphs, fusing with the ice surrounding her, making it look entirely different from a typical SCAR, with ice sprouting from everywhere. She suddenly points her gun toward the sky and fires numerous bullets.

Seeing the transformation, Talulah falls silent, observing intently. Alisia reminds her of Frostnova in terms of power, but she notices that the girl in front of her seems more stable, unaffected by the cold she emits.

As those thoughts cross her mind, Talulah feels a sudden unease and dodges back, only to find a hail of bullets raining down on the spot where she was just standing. Looking up, she sees a layer of ice floating in the sky, blocking her view. It dawns on her why Alisia was shooting at the sky—she was preparing for this.

While she watches, the layer of ice begins shooting at her. Although she can see the projectiles clearly, they suddenly change direction, homing in on her. Talulah parries them with her blade until she notices that her weapon starts to freeze over.

Alisia, who had not let go of her chance, charged her railgun with her ice power. Her halo and wings shone a bright light blue, catching Talulah's attention. However, Talulah was unable to act as bullets continued to rain down from the sky.

Realizing she couldn't allow Alisia to charge her power, Talulah unleashed her art at full strength, instantly melting the ice around her and causing the bullets to dissolve before they could hit her. But Alisia had already completed her charge and fired her railgun, releasing a trail of blue light.

Knowing it was too late to dodge the attack, Talulah opted to parry it with her art at full power. This led to a confrontation of fire and ice, freezing and burning the area behind the impact. The exchange lasted for a while, with Alisia firing a beam of blue light to reinforce her shots.

After what felt like a minute, both began to lose power. Talulah fell to her knees, and Alisia's halo and wings flickered as the patterns on her body started to dissipate.

(A draw, huh? Well, this is good enough. Time to retreat.)

As Alisia planned her escape, an unsettling feeling prompted her to dodge, just in time to see an arrow land where she had been standing. She looked over at Talulah, who was getting back on her feet, and then noticed Mephisto walking toward them.

(Well, just my luck—I'm surrounded by three bosses, and one of them is a medic. I was just wondering where Faust and Mephisto had gone since they hadn't met Amiya. Did they come here because of my art?)

Alisia began to think about how to escape. With her last attack, she was nearly out of stamina, and using her art again at this moment felt reckless. As she started to fall back, she noticed a chunk of originium at her feet.

Alisia slowly grabbed the originium and absorbed it, prompting Talulah, Mephisto, and Faust to halt in their tracks. This gave Alisia enough time to unleash her art, creating a giant mist that obscured the view of the three. Faust attempted to attack where Alisia had been.

However, Alisia quickly shifted her focus to Mephisto. She dashed forward with full power, using her electric art, catching Talulah off guard. Alisia knocked Mephisto down with a single blow but held onto his hand, absorbing nearly all of the originium from him before dodging Talulah's pounce.

With Mephisto's art now in her possession, Alisia summoned an originium shard that resembled a gorilla and enhanced its power using Mephisto's art to pin Talulah down. This provided Alisia the opportunity to approach Talulah and absorb the originium within her body. Just as she was about to aborb all of them, an arrow narrowly grazed her cheek, forcing her to dodge.

As a result, Alisia only managed to absorb a small amount of originium from Talulah. Suddenly, a giant owl appeared and attacked Faust, causing him to leap from the building he was on. Simultaneously, Orga dove towards Alisia, who jumped and grabbed his leg as they flew away, leaving Talulah, who had just dispatched the originium gorilla, staring after them.

(Thanks to Orga, I managed to escape. I almost forgot about him after sending him up to scout the area for Doctor.)

While flying, Alisia noticed Orga's wing suddenly break, struck by an arrow. She marveled at Faust's accuracy, as he had successfully sniped Orga, who was moving quickly in the air.

In her amazement, Alisia forgot that she was free-falling until someone jumped and caught her just before she hit the ground. She was surprised to find that it was Nearl who had rescued her.

(As expected from my favorite Operator, to catch someone who was free-falling from the sky.)

Alisia finally reunited with the others, thanks to Nearl guiding her to their checkpoint. However, she was soon lectured by Ace about her reckless behavior, emphasizing that it was wrong to suddenly attack a teammate. Ace's squad remained silent, grateful for Alisia's actions despite the reprimand.