“This is a real pain,” cut in Mugino as she held her palm towards the blonde St. Germain.

“So basically, we just have to wear down their numbers without actually killing them,
right? Well, Academy City’s tech is pretty great; my body’s proof enough of that. They can
live a perfectly normal life even if I blow off a limb or three!!”

A brilliant beam of light surged out, but the blonde St. Germain only smiled a little.

She did not dodge with all her might or even shrink back.

She simply rotated the spear in her hand.

The beam had definitely hit, but...

“What!?”

“Is it really that strange?” asked St. Germain with a smile. “This was an attack I had
already seen.”

She had caught it near the top of her Chambord and she had done so as easily as catching
a white ball thrown by a pitching machine.

“What you have been calling spears are no more than the roots of the Chambord. That
name comes from the laboratory I once used. Simply put, it provides all of the tools I need
to pursue my research themes. You could say it is a vanguard that takes water and
nutrients from others, but you could also call it the fragile fingertips that have difficulty
maintaining themselves when not protected within the earth.”

She drew a ring of light by rotating the spear whose point was heated to orange.

“But unfortunately for you, the roots can grow stronger by twining together. Not to
mention the branches and trunk which are always exposed to the external air and external
enemies. Their durability is literally orders of magnitude greater.”

“Roots?”

In his Power Lifter, Hamazura thought on that unpleasant ring of that word.

Aneri recorded each individual term and drew connections with red lines.

“Branches and a trunk, too? What on earth are you talking about?”

“One could say controlling diamonds, carbon, and organic matter is nothing more than a
metaphor for life.”

The ring of light lost its axis and transformed into something like the numeral 8 on its
side or the symbol for infinity.

And the tip was pointed directly forward.

“Do you know the difference between plants and animals, you failure of a boy? There are
a few notable traits, but the most well-known is the difference between the cell membrane
and the cell wall. Plant cells are a single almighty cell that provides all the necessary life
functions such as skin, skeleton, and blood vessels, but that has made it difficult for them
to move under their own will. One can only laugh at the irony of fate, but at the same time,
it leads to an interesting idea.”

A strange shivering sensation ran up Kinuhata’s spine.

“For example, what if plant cells were fully divided between different functions such as
skin, skeleton, blood vessels, and muscles? And what if they were then reunified to
stimulate optimization? Now, what kind of evolutionary tree would that produce? If you
compare the animal cell membrane and the plant cell wall, the plant’s is undoubtedly
stronger. A beast made of plant matter would be much stronger than one of animal matter,
wouldn’t you think?”

They did not wait any longer.

Mugino Shizuri fired her #4 beams into the blonde St. Germain again and again.
However, there were no screams or cries.

The pillar directly next to St. Germain had swelled out unnaturally.

Something had shielded her.

The overflowing roar sounded just like pressure escaping a steam engine. The Dianoid’s
floor shook as a massive insect slowly revealed its form. To the very top it was just below
two meters tall, and it was over four meters long. Its overall silhouette resembled a
scorpion with a thick arcing tail in the back.

But instead of legs, it had complexly intertwined tree roots; instead of a mouth, white
flower petals with a hint of red; and instead of two giant pincers, the predatory pouches
of a carnivorous plant.

It was a mixture of plant and animal, much like an orchid mantis.

The upper body of a man in a tailcoat grew from the tip of the large arced tail where a
venomous stinger would normally be found. Needless to say, he was one of the many St.
Germains. So in a way, this was essentially a bizarre version of Hamazura’s Power Lifter.

For an instant, Hamazura thought Aneri had undergone a serious error after succumbing
to all the rigorous work he was putting it through.

But in reality, the creature’s estimated muscular strength was just that ridiculously high.

(What...?)

The flower scorpion glowed orange in places due to the heat of Meltdowner, but its
silhouette remained intact and its countless legs scraped at the ground. The blonde St.
Germain thrust forward her spear-shaped Chambord as if it were a conductor’s baton.

-Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Volume 12 Chapter 4 Part 1