Campione! - Volume 17 - Chapter 4.1

Chapter 4 - The Vagabond Sword God 

Part 1 

"Truly what a shame. In the end, I missed the show..."  

Princess Alice sighed and voiced her feelings.  

She was currently in the Kantou region of Japan. This was her first time visiting again after several months since the incident with Great Sage Equaling Heaven, Sun Wukong. Like last time, she was only visiting as ectoplasm.  

Princess Alice was highly experienced in using the spirit power of psychic sensing.  

This special power was extremely rare. Only a small fraction of miko were capable of learning it. Through this type of spirit power, one could separate ectoplasm from the body and send it to faraway places.  

Naturally, eating was not possible in this form, thus reducing the pleasure of traveling by half at least.  

However, other pleasures were gained conversely. Like now, Alice was making flexible use of ectoplasm's advantage, being able to move lightly through the air, to enjoy a voyage through the sky.  

While flying in the sky above the city of Minamibousou in the prefecture of Chiba, she looked down at the relatively low-altitude mountains below.  

Mountains filled her entire field of view. Only scattered home dotted the landscape sparsely. Population density was probably low in this area.  

"I want to confirm the whereabouts of the legendary hero, at least."  

There were extremely few people who could personally savor the scenery from 500m in the air.  

While enjoying this privilege, Alice was greeted by the morning glow.  

Several hours had passed since the battle between the revived "King of the End" and the two godslayers, Kusanagi Godou and Luo Cuilian, hence it was now morning.  

Following news of Pallas Athena, Alice had entered the Philippines last night.  

As for news about the Divine Ancestor's intention to land at Japan as well as the arrival of the "King of the End," she had already received reports from the Witenagemot staff stationed in Tokyo.  

Upon learning of these major events, she hurried over to Japan but the battle had already ended.  

No helping it, she thought, at least I'll use this trip through the sky as an opportunity to scout while I'm at it.  

"I must meet Kusanagi-sama as soon as possible. I'll contact Erica as soon as the sun rises completely. As for Her Eminence Luo Hao... No helping it, I'll just have to brace myself and take a gamble."  

Alice had never met the godslayer hailing from southern China.  

The other party probably did not recognize Alice either. The level of the Witenagemot's chairperson only reached so far in the eyes of the peerless Luo Cuilian.  

I must use this opportunity to establish deeper relations—Just as Alice was thinking that...  

Suddenly, she felt a gust of terrifying, bone-chilling air. As ectoplasm that was not supposed to feel cold in the first place, what was happening abruptly?  

Her body shook and started falling towards the ground of Minamibousou.  

Instead of intentionally lowering her altitude, this was because she suddenly became unable to fly with stability.  

"Power is being—sucked away...?"  

Alice noticed that magic power was continually sucked out from her ectoplasm.  

At this rate, let alone flying, even the state of spirit body separation would be hard to sustain. She must return to her body as quickly as possible—Alice's own body sleeping in the Greenwich mansion!  

"An ominous... wind?"  

Feeling the stimulation of spirit senses, Europe's most powerful Miko-Hime whispered.  

The wind was especially strong this morning. Alice had been enjoying the feeling of strolling through the air amidst strong gales.  

However, her consciousness was starting to grow a bit hazy. She was almost at her limit.  

"I-I must return first right now. But with such an interesting—no, important— incident happening, I absolutely cannot remain uninvolved..."  

Despite being a princess of noble birth, she was also driven by a sense of morbid curiosity.  

While whispering these determined words of tragic affectation, Princess Alice started focusing her concentration to have her ectoplasm make an emergency return to English soil.