Danmachi : Shinigami

Chapter 266: Chapter 266

"Bankai."

Rayleigh’s voice cut through the roar of Knossos.

"Kannonbiraki Benihime Aratame!"

Crimson light swallowed the chamber.

A colossal woman formed behind him, her body wrapped in red cloth while jointed arms unfolded from her back.

The structure filled the rising shaft, yet it passed around Kaguya, Ryuu, Cassandra, and Merek without touching them.

Valletta’s laughter stopped.

The chamber continued surging upward, grinding through old corridors and support pillars as Knossos obeyed the command burning through the Orb.

Rayleigh felt all of it through Benihime.

Stone foundations.

Moving walls.

Ancient mechanisms.

Thousands of connected parts forcing themselves toward Orario without regard for what broke along the way.

His Bankai could restructure anything it understood.

The problem was understanding an entire labyrinth before it crushed the city.

’Start with the chamber. Stop the climb, isolate the Orb, and keep everyone alive. Don’t get greedy.’

Benihime’s enormous hands opened.

Red seams appeared across the walls, floor, chains, and central eye.

Each line revealed how the chamber had been assembled and where Valletta’s command had forced separate systems together.

Rayleigh drove the blade into the platform.

"Open!"

The central chamber split along the crimson seams.

Stone peeled apart in controlled layers instead of exploding outward.

The rising supports disconnected from the surrounding levels, and the violent climb slowed as Knossos lost the structures it had been using to push itself upward.

The sudden stop threw everyone from their feet.

Ryuu caught Cassandra before she struck the broken bridge, while Kaguya drove her sword into the floor and grabbed Merek by the back of his coat.

Valletta remained standing inside the stone eye.

The Orb had fused deeper into her hands, sending black lines across her throat and jaw.

"What did you do?!"

"I separated this chamber from the routes carrying your command."

Rayleigh’s breathing grew heavier as Benihime continued opening the labyrinth around them.

"You can still control what’s inside this room, but the rest of Knossos can no longer hear you."

Valletta thrust both hands forward.

The Orb flashed.

Every loose chain in the chamber shot toward Rayleigh.

Benihime’s giant hands moved between them.

Crimson seams spread through the metal, and the chains opened from within. Links unfolded into harmless strips that passed around Rayleigh and clattered across the floor.

Valletta stared at the ruined weapons.

"You think dismantling a few chains makes you Daedalus?!"

"No."

Rayleigh pulled Benihime from the platform.

"I think it makes your attack useless."

Valletta screamed and forced more power through the Orb.

The stone eye broke apart around her.

Its pieces reassembled into a towering body with Valletta embedded inside the chest, while dozens of unfinished arms pushed from its shoulders and spine.

The construct struck before it had fully formed.

Kaguya shoved Merek aside as a stone fist crashed through the bridge.

Ryuu caught both of them with wind, but the impact split the platform beneath Cassandra.

She fell toward the open machinery below.

Rayleigh turned Benihime.

A giant crimson hand reached through the chamber and caught Cassandra before she disappeared into the gears.

She landed beside Merek, shaking hard enough that Yumeutsutsu’s petals scattered around her feet.

"Rayleigh, the ceiling is still collapsing! I can see the city breaking even though the chamber stopped moving!"

The labyrinth had already damaged too many supports during the climb.

Sections above them were falling under their own weight.

Rayleigh felt every fracture through Benihime.

Stopping Valletta would not matter if several streets collapsed before they escaped.

"Kaguya, Ryuu, take Cassandra and Merek to the western passage!"

Kaguya looked toward the wall he indicated.

"There is no passage!"

"There will be."

Benihime’s left hand pressed against the chamber wall.

Red seams opened through thirty meters of stone, separating blocks, supports, and sealed machinery without allowing them to fall.

The wall unfolded into a straight corridor leading away from the central chamber.

Fresh air entered from somewhere beyond it.

Merek stared into the new route.

"That connects to the old drainage spine. If it remains open, we can reach the surface!"

"It will remain open for three minutes."

Rayleigh’s knees nearly gave out as Benihime began reconstructing the collapsing supports above them.

The Bankai’s right hands reached through the ceiling, opened broken pillars, and rearranged their inner stone into temporary braces.

Cracks stopped spreading across the streets overhead.

Blood ran from Rayleigh’s nose.

Ryuu saw it.

"You cannot hold the city and fight Valletta at the same time!"

"I don’t need long."

The towering construct swung three arms toward the escape corridor.

Kaguya intercepted the first, cutting through its wrist before it reached Merek.

Ryuu’s wind drove the second upward.

The third came from beneath the broken platform and caught Kaguya around the waist.

She struck the stone fingers repeatedly, but they tightened faster than she could cut through them.

Valletta laughed from inside the construct.

"You brought them here, Yōtōsai! Watch them die while you waste your strength holding up a city that hates you!"

Rayleigh raised Benihime.

The hand gripping Kaguya split at every joint.

Stone fingers unfolded around her body and released her unharmed.

Kaguya landed beside Ryuu.

"Stop rescuing me and finish her!"

"I was planning to."

"Plan faster!"

Ryuu pushed Cassandra and Merek toward the corridor.

"Kaguya, move! He cannot release the route while we are still inside the chamber!"

Kaguya hesitated.

Her eyes moved from Rayleigh to Valletta.

Then she sheathed her sword and followed the others.

"Do not make me come back for you!"

Rayleigh smiled faintly.

"That sounds unpleasant."

"It was meant to!"

They disappeared into the corridor.

Benihime sealed the entrance behind them, closing the route to prevent Valletta from sending constructs after them.

Rayleigh was alone with her.

The construct surrounding Valletta dragged itself free of the stone eye, crushing the remaining platform beneath its weight.

Its many arms spread across the chamber.

"You sent away your shields."

"They were never my shields."

"They were useful bodies standing between you and death. That is all allies are!"

Valletta’s voice echoed through the construct.

"Evilus understood that! Gods, adventurers, followers—everyone uses everyone until the stronger person decides the weaker one has become inconvenient!"

Rayleigh kept one hand pressed against Benihime’s hilt while the Bankai repaired another collapsing support far above them.

"You murdered your last follower because he tried to run."

"He knew too much."

"You had three people left in the world willing to follow you, and you killed one because fear mattered more than loyalty."

Rayleigh looked at the Orb trapped between her hands.

"That is why you lost before I arrived."

Valletta’s face twisted.

The construct attacked with every arm at once.

Benihime opened the floor beneath Rayleigh, lowered him through the stone, and closed it before the fists struck.

The impact destroyed the platform above his head, but the Bankai carried him through the opened structure and returned him behind Valletta.

Rayleigh drove Benihime into the construct’s back.

"Open."

Crimson seams raced through its entire body.

The arms separated first.

Shoulders unfolded.

The chest split into controlled layers, exposing Valletta without crushing her beneath the collapsing shell.

She ripped one hand from the Orb and swung a dagger toward Rayleigh’s throat.

He caught her wrist.

"You should be holding that with both hands."

The Orb reacted violently to the broken connection.

Black energy tore through Valletta’s free arm and burst from her shoulder. She screamed as Knossos attempted to force the missing link back into place.

Rayleigh drove Benihime between her and the Orb.

Crimson lines covered the fused flesh around her fingers.

Valletta understood.

"No! You cannot take it from me!"

"I’m not taking it."

Benihime’s giant hands closed around the connection.

"I’m removing the part that says you and the Orb are the same thing."

The fused structure opened.

Skin separated from stone.

Nerves withdrew from black channels.

The Orb tore free without ripping Valletta’s arms apart, and Benihime rebuilt the damaged flesh before blood could pour from the wounds.

Valletta fell from the collapsing construct.

Rayleigh caught the Orb with one hand and let her strike the floor.

The black lines across her face immediately began fading.

Knossos went silent.

The remaining constructs dropped where they stood.

Valletta pushed herself onto one elbow and stared at her restored hands.

"You healed me?"

"I removed a connection I understood. Leaving your arms attached was simpler."

She began laughing.

The sound grew louder until it turned ragged.

"You used your monstrous power to save the city, rescue your friends, steal the Orb, and even repair the enemy standing in front of you. How long can you keep pretending there is no limit?!"

Rayleigh did not answer.

Blood ran from his nose and mouth.

His left hand had begun shaking beneath the Orb’s weight, while the giant figure behind him flickered whenever another support collapsed above.

Valletta saw it.

Her laughter stopped.

"You’re finished."

She reached beneath her coat.

Rayleigh heard metal scrape against leather.

Valletta pulled a narrow black spike from behind her belt and drove it into the floor.

Evilus symbols flared beneath her.

The remaining ritual plates had not been part of the Orb’s network.

They were explosives.

The entire chamber filled with red light.

Valletta rose unsteadily, her grin returning as cracks raced through the floor beneath Rayleigh.

"You disconnected the labyrinth from me, but you opened every part of this room first! Now the blast can reach all of it!"

Rayleigh felt the charges through Benihime.

They had been buried inside the central chamber before Valletta arrived.

Too deep to remove individually before detonation.

Power gathered beneath his feet.

The explosion would destroy the chamber, the recovered Orb, and every temporary support holding the streets above.

Valletta spread her arms.

"Choose, Yōtōsai! Hold up Orario or stop me!"

Rayleigh looked at the giant figure behind him.

Its hands were already occupied.

Four held the city.

Two maintained the escape route.

Another kept the severed chamber from reconnecting to Knossos.

His Bankai had nothing left to spare.

’She finally found the limit.’

The charges ignited.

Rayleigh released the Orb.

Valletta’s eyes widened as it fell between them.

He caught Benihime with both hands.

The giant woman behind him opened one final pair of arms.

Rayleigh’s spiritual pressure crashed through the chamber hard enough to tear the remaining ritual plates from the floor.

"Who said I had to choose?"

Benihime’s last hands closed around Valletta and the Orb as the chamber exploded.

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