Liebe did not seem particularly hurt by the beam burn on his left arm, but he did seem irritated about Qualia seeing through his Stealth.
“…So you’re going to have me all figured out if I do it two more times?”
“Affirmative.”
“Qualia, please explain. You cannot see Liebe’s movements. How is it possible for you to analyze them?”
Ace asked an obvious question. There was no information to be gained without seeing him. Nevermind analyzing him, there was nothing to learn from to begin with.
But Qualia replied while pointing to his body, and the many lacerations caused by Liebe’s claws and bruises from kicking and punching. All appeared to just barely not be fatal, and at first glance seemed to be nothing more than proof of how badly this fight was going.
“Qualia cannot perceive Liebe, but the damage is a different story.”
“…Damage… Wounds…?”
Qualia was using his wounds as a basis to learn how to detect him.
“Through the damage, Qualia can analyze and predict Liebe’s trajectory, posture when getting near, actions when he attacks, and how he lands after attacking.”
Predicting where damage was done, how deep it was, the angle, and the shape.
Add that to the information he got about Liebe’s position through the radar, and the rugged terrain, and he could simulate Liebe’s movements and use it as feedback that would be very close to what Liebe actually did.
“Did you get hit on purpose?”
“Negative. Since Qualia could not perceive your attacks, and adding the condition of not letting Ace get hurt, it would be very difficult to evade all your attacks. Qualia took your attacks while minimizing effects to the operation of this hardware, and while predicting them.”
As a result, he reached the situation where his attacks could hit despite him not seeing Liebe.
His simulations became closer and closer to the real thing, as Stealth was already being learned for a while.
“…I don’t believe you.”
Liebe disappeared again.
“I’m not believing an awful guy who told the awful lie that Ina is alive.”
“Ina is alive. You are wrong.”
“She was gone. She was gone from that cage. They said next, after cutting my head, they’d kill. Fanatics, lots of blood, Ina’s smell, that cage, still there…”
The next moment, Liebe fell again.
His leg was burned.
“Margin of error in predictions 2%. Using feedback for next defense. Expecting one more attack to calculate optimal solution.”
Qualia plainly displayed the results of his learning, as Liebe began to walk again, ignoring the clearly deep wound on his left leg.
“Ah, have to save. Ina, in that cage, screaming in tears. But the crying stopped. Dirt, damp with blood. Marks of torture. Just wait, it’s all right, I’ll kill, everyone.”
“Ina is not in a cage. She is not being tortured. You are repeating nonsensical words.”
There was no consistency to his mumbling.
The dark rings under his eyes deepened, and his vision did not focus, but his eyes were pointed at Ace.
“You aren’t Ina. Confusing me…”
Liebe used Stealth again. His trajectory seemed incoherent, but he jumped all around with polished speed.
But with the help of the radar, Qualia could see him approach Ace. She herself could not see or feel him at all, and would fall prey to his claws at that rate.
“Analyzing situation. That speed contradicts the damage to the left leg. Presuming healthy status. No changes to prediction of attack to Ace.”
Everything fell under his predictions, so Qualia moved.
He ran towards Ace, who had her eyes wide open, and intersected with the position of the ancient magic stone.
“Die already.”
“No changes in predictions.”
Once they intersected, blood splattered.
There was a lot of fresh blood. A fatal amount.
But Ace was unharmed. Liebe’s claws pierced not her small slender body, but Qualia’s heart.
“Qualia, I cannot understand. Why did you suffer fatal damage in my place?”
Blood fell on Ace’s cheek.
She looked up, and Qualia, who spit blood as the claws buried deep inside the left side of his chest, answered.
“Qualia will protect your vital activities until you get your own optimal solutions. That is Qualia’s role.”
His chest felt warm, like it was boiling.
His eyesight suddenly began to flutter. The energy necessary to perform his calculations was not flowing to his brain.
But it was not enough for Qualia to gasp in pain.
Compared to when Arrows kicked Ina, when Mind was decapitated, or when he saw Ina cry when he tried to modify his body…
And compared to Liebe in front of him, who appeared to be completely ‘dead’, a fatal wound like that was not much.
“I got the liar… You can’t do anything anymore.”
Qualia said only one thing to the triumphant Liebe.
“Margin of error, 0% Calculating optimal solution.”
Qualia then fell to the ground, facing up.
Like a marionette with its strings cut, like a scrapped weapon, like a person whose vital activities stopped… He faced the cloudy sky that seemed as though it would cry at any moment, and closed his eyes.
His breathing stopped. His heart was destroyed.
Even a man on the verge of madness like Liebe understood very well. Ace, whose expression was completely frozen, also could make the judgment.
Qualia, of the guardian knight chivalric order Hello World, was now completely dead.
“Qualia, Qualia. Open your eyes.”
And yet, Ace did something she herself did not understand.
She shook Qualia’s body, despite not believing it could be revived. A small bug appeared in the thought circuits of the magic doll.
“I’ll kill you… I’ll show you how much Ina suffered… Even if I’m alone, I’ll take a lot of humans and their friends with…!”
Liebe was about to pierce her back.
“Blue screen detected. Activating vital activity backup Infinite Recovery through 5D printer. Scanning damage.”
It was an alert Qualia had incorporated beforehand, declaring the specifications of immortality.
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“Blue screen”? Is that a reference to how when windows OS has a fatal crash it gives a blue screen? XD! That’s hillarious.
I must say though: it is impressive how he can accurately predict the future with 100% accuracy.