Campione! - Volume Ex - Chapter 4.2

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Two-sword style using the divine sword of salvation and the golden sword.

The “trump card” that war god Verethragna finally liberated──. Godou shuddered while readying himself. No, he couldn’t help but readying himself.

Verethragna stared at such Godou and made a hazy smile.

「Fufufufu. It looks like you understand the dreadfulness of these two swords.」

「Obviously. Your sword had also been a great help to me after all.」

Godou grumbled.

Verethragna’s sword that was shining gold. It was tempered by words of power and increased its might using wisdom. It was a secret sword that was combining offense and defense. However, it couldn’t become a threat to the degree of cutting down the enemy in just one stroke. Godou who was its user understood that well.

Lacking in power to conclude the battle. Those were the words that a representative soccer player of Japan often said in the past.

Those words could also be applied as it was to Verethragna’s sword. It was useful whether in offense or defense, and it also could endure being used flexibly. But even with those advantages, it didn’t have the showiness of splitting the target into two with one stroke.

In contrast, the divine sword of salvation was exactly the definition of power to decide the battle.

It possessed the might to bury even the stubborn and tenacious Campione with just one attack, and it could emit such might without end. If its fault had to be listed, then it would be how it was leaning too much to its destructive aspect.

This two-sword style so to speak was the fusion of hard and soft.

The divine sword of salvation that was hard to the extreme. The golden sword that was soft to the extreme. Godou could comprehend better than anyone the how troublesome it would be when both were combined.

The black star of Kusanagi Godou was suppressing the white star in the sky above.

The whole rain of lightning that was fired endlessly was continuously absorbed by the super gravitational force.

But, even so it was unknown how long it could keep doing that. Of course he could also similarly chant the words of power of the sword to oppose the enemy with the same two-sword style but──

(Perhaps I’ll be the one……my control of Ama no Murakumo will be really lax.)

He had that kind of premonition.

But, even so it seemed like there would be no way except that. Godou tensed himself and be on his guard of when the youth Verethragna would start chant his words of power.

How much would he be able to put the detail of the Black Sword authority in his words of power to tear it to pieces──?

However, the radiant fifteen years old youth said 「Damn you」 with a bitter smile. He glanced to the sky and stared at Godou’s dark star with suspicion.

「What’s that power? The authorities of multiple gods are entangling with each other into a strange state……」

「Aa, now that you mention it. It was really a mess when I received it. Certainly, it must be hard to understand.」

Godou recalled the way the Black Sword came to be. Those events could even be called as weird.

Originally it was the secret formula of mother earth goddess that Goddess Athena left behind. “The Witch of the Dawn” Circe then did something with it so that even Godou could handle it. The last deciding factor was Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi.

Three gods were involved to grant him this extraordinary authority.

Exactly because of that it was hard to understand. In a sense, the process of battles he had gone through until now became of help to Godou at this point.

He had to be thankful to Athena and Circe, and also to his “iron partner who was quick to get into battle”.

A strange deep emotion was welling up. However, Verethragna finally narrowed his almond eyes further and glared at Godou while rebuking him!

「It’s vague but I can see it. The spirit of earth dwelling deep inside you and──the spell book of the age of god that is engraved with the crest of the dawn! First I will expose those 『names』 under the light of the sun!」

「Shit, as expected from you!」

Verethragna was approaching the heart of the matter.

Perhaps it would be finally time to invest his rook and bishop pieces. The war god of the lance Lancelot and the white monkey god of the wind Hanuman. He was going to summon the 『ace up his sleeve』 that he had been preserving until now.

Godou heard that voice.

『Your majesty, quickly come here──Kusanagi Godou! Let’s chase after Aisha-san together!』

「What do you say!?」

He certainly heard Seishuuin Ena’s voice regardless of the distance separating them.

The first avatar Gale. The power in order to save someone in danger was reaching him. His heart was also connected the princess shrine maiden of the sword through Ame no Murakumo.

Godou guessed Ena’s intention and smiled fiercely.

「So that’s how it is. Then it’s change of plan!」

「Mu!?」

「My bad. The match with you is suspended. First I’ll──go save Aisha-san!」

He declared and used the avatar of Gale.

Wind was whirling noisily around Godou.

Furthermore──the Black Sword was also halted. The storm of super gravitational force and its source the dark star, they disappeared easily along with Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi that was stabbed on the ground. The infinite lightning attacks that the white star unleashed weren’t sucked anymore. They scattered to all directions at this timing!

The boisterous dance of lightning scorched the air and ground. Verethragna yelled in the middle of that.

「What’re you planning to do, Kusanagi Godou!?」

Godou didn’t answer the question and rode the wind to teleport instantly.

And then after an instant.

He appeared in the demolished site of a hall that was buried highly with mountain of rubbles. Four girls were facing a mysterious god there.

The enemy was a stone mask with lion face floating in the air.

The left eye of the mask shined just for a moment. Bathed by that light, Ena was sent flying backward. She was rolling until where Erica, Liliana, and Yuri were standing at.

Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi also fell down from the princess shrine maiden’s hand──Godou quickly picked that up.

「Your majesty!」

Godou nodded at Ena who tried to stand up and the other three.

They were safe must be because of the divine protection of the Youth and the enemy was a type of god who didn’t hold any interest to worldly affair like a battle.

That enemy, the god who Ena told him as the god of time Zurvan was──

Speaking out his robotic voice with a peculiar tone.

「So you come, godslaying beast.」

The lightning of salvation was also raining down on this destroyed hall.

Here and there the floor’s stone was exploded apart, the stone wall and pillars were blown away to pieces. There was no leeway to converse with Zurvan. Godou spoke.

「I’ll take you on next time. ──You can do it right?」

『Ou.』

Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi that Godou picked up shortly answered and began chanting as a living sword.

『Eternity, infinity, perpetuity, creation, destiny……god of time there, I will borrow several authorities that you possess for a short while. I won’t stop even if you refuse though.』

「So you stole the authority of Zurvan, sword god from the furthest east?」

Yamato imperial court of ancient Japan conquered the barbarians who continued to resist the subjugation effort with swords and armies.

They employed the people who surrendered as manservant or soldier, making those people’s strength as their own. The sacred treasure that was worshipped by Yamato imperial court, Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi was the symbol of such armed might and plunder.

Therefore it could copy a fragment of the power and nature of the enemy it faced.

This time, the authority that the divine sword copied after Ena asked it to was──

「You opened the gate of time?」

「You can manipulate time, right!? You brought Aisha-san to somewhere using that power. My comrades have seen that through. If we reenact it after……!」

Kusanagi Godou and his comrades, all five of them shined white and suddenly vanished at the next moment.

It was the beginning of a journey that crossed time.

.

And then when he noticed, Godou and others were at the bank of a large river.

Although there were many clouds, the weather was sunny. The sunlight was quite strong. The season was around the early summer. They could guess that it was morning from the sun’s position.

The riverside where they were at and also the opposite shore were facing a bustling traffic.

「This river, I’m familiar with it for some reason……or rather, I’ve seen it quite recently.」

Godou carefully looked around at the scenery and muttered.

The river’s width was also wide. It was flowing right in the middle of a great city.

There was also a large bridge made from stone crossing it. There were five arches, wooden boat loaded with crated package was passing under them.

In addition, a lot of people and──large group of horse carriages were crossing the bridge.

Not to mention car, even a single bicycle couldn’t be seen. Liliana who was staring at the same scenery suddenly spoke.

「This is Thames River and London Bridge. I think there won’t be any problem to judge that our current position is the center of London. However it doesn’t seem to be the 21st century.」

「Guessing from the city’s state, it’s around 18th or 19th century I guess?」

Erica stated that.

Car still hadn’t existed. Or perhaps it still hadn’t been popularized among the people.

There were a lot of town houses along the main street that were built using brick, furthermore it was red brick. Surely if they walked in the city, they would be able to find landmark that was familiar even at the modern era.

Great Britain Museum. London Tower. Buckingham Palace. Westminster Abbey, etc…….

「We also have really gotten used to this kind of journey haven’t we?」

Ena commented casually.

She stapled her fingers together behind her head without looking particularly nervous. This too must be because of experience. On the other hand, her serious fellow shrine maiden Yuri spoke with a deep emotion.

「But I’m surprised. Both Ena-san and Godou-san suddenly decided to pursue Madam Aisha and crossed over time……」

「Even I thought that it’s reckless though. But, even in the case that I won against Verethragna」

Godou spoke seriously.

「We won’t have any clue of where Aisha-san is.」

「Ena also thought so. But, Yuri taught us of what happened over there. Ena got the idea that if we can borrow the authority used to send the madam to the past, then perhaps we would be able to follow after her.」

The nature child Ena also said carelessly.

She was an existence that was closest to Godou in the aspect of taking action using her instincts.

In contrast, Liliana was the adjutant whose role was to support Godou rationally. The silver haired female knight muttered in worry.

「The problem is……London is already developing into a metropolis. The population is easily over a million people here. Singling out Madam Aisha from all these people……」

「It will be hard huh, as expected.」

「Yes. Rather perhaps we should wait until that person mess up something in her usual style and cause a great commotion. Before that let’s secure a place where we can calm down.」

「That’s no good, Liliana-sana.」

Yuri raised her opinion in a hurry.

「King Mithra asserted that he sealed the power of Madam Aisha.」

「What? Then, the madam right now is a normal woman!?」

Liliana was astonished. Beside her Erica opened her mouth.

「Can I also say one more thing? Whether she has authority or not, our search target is Madam Aisha. Will that person stay still in one place?」

Actually what she pointed out was really correct. Godou gasped.

「Now that you mention it that’s true. Aisha-san might not be in London anymore!」

「Perhaps it’ll be no good if we don’t really put in effort and carry out a search for a long period……. Here there’s a suggestion that I want to make.」

A boldness to take someone by surprise was Erica Blandelli’s true worth.

She smiled with a gorgeousness that was really like her. The young lady who was called as Crimson DevilDiavollo Rosso said.

「Godou. Let’s immediately go to the suburb. We’re searching for a race track.」

「Eh?」

Godou was astounded by the suggestion that was overly unexpected.

Actually this conversation was exactly the one that would became the first step of a longstanding 『conquest』 but──Godou himself didn’t even think of such thing at the slightest.

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