Chapter 511: Resound, Grateful Legacy — Aster Sky
The balance had been tilting steadily toward Zenoselgus. The one to put a stop to it was Valkyrie—until now, she'd been brushed aside because she was only an outsider to this fight.
Still reeling from the Gun Hand shot, she begins widening the crack in her bullet-struck left cheek even further—from the inside.
After a certain amount of time, the mechanical maiden who destroys herself gains access to a special action.
G-G-G-G-KRCHCHCH!!
No Face: "!!!"
Backed into a corner, I watch Valkyrie's right arm twist unnaturally of its own accord, swelling from within. Information, thoughts, and conclusions race through my mind like lightning.
No Face: "U-OOOOOOOOH!!"
I wrench free of a grab from Zenoselgus—whose body has somehow turned hard again after satisfying its transformation condition—and dash straight toward Valkyrie at top speed.
No Face: "HERE'S A GREAT BIG HUG FOR YOU!!"
I kick away the assault lance held in her left hand, reducing Valkyrie's total weight, then kick Valkyrie herself straight at Zenoselgus!!
Hannya: "Wh—You idiot! That won't even work as a smokescreen!!"
No Face: "Her actions and her actual body aren't the same thing, dumbass...!!"
DETONATION. Valkyrie's limited-use action, Part Eruption. In short, it's a self-destruct attack: she gives up components one by one in exchange for high-powered explosions.
Of course, Zenoselgus is invincible at the moment, so there's no way it takes damage. If anything, I'm the one who's lost still more of my already pathetic HP in the explosion. But...
No Face: "Ever heard of the strength test they ran on Prison Breaker?"
Hannya: "Guh—WHAT!?"
A half-assed, imitation sumo tackle—a butting charge! Super armor is powerful, but it doesn't protect against absolutely everything. For example... If you've got enough STR to throw even Zenoselgus's gigantic body, you can hurl the bastard right off the building, no matter how tough it is!!
Hannya: "I'm fall—"
Fifteen seconds remaining! Hey there, bird of prey.
No Face: "DO YOU KNOW WHO THIS SKY BELONGS TO!?"
Hannya: "What are you—... What did you just say?"
Oh, you've heard that line before? This'll be easy, then.
No Face: "Sorry, but there's a limit to how closely I can reproduce it! I'm skipping Sky High and linking just Sky Fall and Sky Strike!!"
Time to show you the results of all that practice!!!
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The struggle for the Ult Crystal. Valkyrie's detonation. And the movements Prison Breaker begins the moment Zenoselgus is hurled from the roof... Mysterious Silver Mask recognizes what they are. She stands up involuntarily, too stunned even to speak.
Mysterious Silver Mask: "...Master Sky."
At the name she murmurs, Kei's eyebrows shoot up in an expression somewhere between astonishment and confusion.
Kei: "...Seriously?"
Mysterious Silver Mask: "Without Sky High, if he's only linking Sky Fall and Sky Strike, then it would be that other one, though..."
Eight: "Uh, hold on! Explanation! Could I PLEASE get an explanation!?"
Only seconds after blurting that out, Eight realizes there are more pressing things to worry about.
On the screen, Prison Breaker has thrown his body upside down in midair and is kicking off empty space to accelerate straight down.
In an instant, Prison Breaker catches up to Zenoselgus as it falls at terminal speed. With one knee extended, he crashes right into the falling heavyweight.
Eight: "A knee drop! They're going to hit the ground like that... Huh? No?"
Mysterious Silver Mask: "He can't recreate it perfectly... Oh. So that's why he needed the building's wall."
Eight: "He's air-jumping back to the wall, running down alongside Zenoselgus, jumping out to attack, returning to the wall... Wait, isn't this...!?"
Mysterious Silver Mask: "Sky Fall. Twenty consecutive hits landed between the top of the fall and the bottom..."
Eight: "But what does that mean...? Oh, somebody in the comments is saying something... The 'Legend of Master Sky'?"
There was once a game called Justice Versus.
In that game, players didn't merely create their own characters from scratch. They could create those characters' special abilities, Gauge moves, and even their finishing moves themselves.
When the game had reached the height of its popularity, a certain player appeared.
That player went by the name Master Sky. A particular legend grew from the character that player created—a character whose creator might have been a man or a woman; no one here knew which.
Two techniques and one finishing move, devised and created by Master Sky, gave rise to a multi-part finishing combination called Master Sky—an attack that commanded the entire heavens.
First came Sky High, a grappling technique that launched both its user and the opponent high into the air.
Then Sky Fall, an airborne twenty-hit combo performed during the descent, linking an incredible seventy-eight distinct movement types with the help of bugs.
Finally Sky Strike, the game's default finishing move, which used the Gauge built up during those first two techniques to finish off the opponent's HP.
Limited though it was to matches without restrictions, Master Sky was the only recorded combo in Justice Versus to score an opening, full-health-to-zero victory. And that one combination was built from no fewer than 352 motions.
Its abnormal precision—and the spectacle of someone assembling all of Justice Versus without compromising even on the effects—earned it recognition as a work of art.
Later, many variants were developed: Buster Sky, with performance downgraded to something actually practical; Majester Sky, which went all-in on looks; Tempester Sky, which deliberately omitted Sky High so the technique could begin in midair; and more.
But the original was so fiendishly complicated that recreating it outside Justice Versus was considered impossible...
At least, until today.
First, there is the choice of Prison Breaker, a complete superior to Metius, itself among the most mobile characters on the entire GH:C roster.
Next, a makeshift Sky Fall, in which the fighter uses the side of the building as a foothold, leaping from it and returning again and again to attack while falling alongside the opponent.
Now all that's needed is to land the flying-kick finishing move, Sky Strike, to complete the recreation—
But there are only a little more than ten meters left before they hit the ground.
Mysterious Silver Mask: "No. That's not it! He's not using the flying kick!"
Prison Breaker's movements take yet another unexpected turn.
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NO DAMAGE! NO DAMAGE! NO DAMAGE!
Fucking invincibility mode! Thanks to that shit, my stress and excitement have both shot past the critical threshold!!
No Face: "BUT!!"
Time for another modification! Normally you'd finish with Sky Strike, the flying kick... But I'm changing it!
I only know bits and pieces, but apparently Master Sky, the person who devised this whole instant-kill combo, almost never spoke publicly except to upload combo videos. There were a few comments, though—short remarks, practically whispers.
I found one of them while researching Master Sky and how the combo worked. Master Sky was a compromise, it said. There was a true finishing move the creator couldn't implement, even with all those bugs. Ten years later, right here, Prison Breaker and I are going to make it happen!!
Hannya: "ONE SECOND! YOU'RE ONE SECOND TOO SHORT!!"
No Face: "I KNOW!!"
Exactly. Sky Strike won't work. I practiced it like hell, so I know. Even if I kick along the shortest possible straight line, I'd connect before Zenoselgus's Cell Burst runs out.
So—!!
No Face: "THE TRUE FINISH IS... A BLOW FROM THE GALAXY!!"
The move is called UNIVERSE TAIL! In Justice Versus it was a finisher that followed a grounded throw, so you couldn't link it out of the airborne Sky Fall. But with the building's wall and air jumps, I'm going to force the two together!!
No Face: "SAVOR THIS!"
I catch Zenoselgus by the ankle in midair. Kicking against the wall and empty space, I trace a circle through the air with both the one doing the throw and the one receiving it. Then, using all that momentum, I hurl Zenoselgus at the ground. Wall kick, air kick—one final burst of acceleration!!
God, games are the best. There's a world of possibility in a physics engine.
No Face: "MASTER SKY—NO LONGER!!"
I somersault forward in midair, focusing all that accelerated falling energy into a single point on my heel. Through the chaos in my field of vision, I can just make out the meatball of a monster below, now stripped of its shining effect.
No Face: "MY OWN RECREATION... ASTER SKY!!"
IMPACT.