In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter 4

Chapter IV: A Foreboding Encounter 

“They aren’t here yet...” 
“No, they aren’t,” Lu sat on a nearby rock, muttering a little. 
We were in the Islum Plains in the middle of Regulus territory, just a little bit north-east of their capital city, Gallaria. The place resembled the plains of Mongolia, vast fields and rocky mountains in the distance. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, either. 
It had been four days since we brought out the Frame Gears and deployed a forward base. The Regulus guild had sensed that the Phrase were incoming, but we had up to a week until they actually showed up. There was nothing to do but wait. 
It wasn’t like I wanted them to appear, I just hated the waiting game. We couldn’t go back to Brunhild since they could emerge at any moment. 
The girls took turns going back to the castle through a [Gate]. 
Lu, Sue, Linze, and Leen were currently deployed. Yumina and Sakura were back at the castle having some downtime, while Yae, Elze, and Hilde were sleeping back home after finishing their patrols. 
We couldn’t really afford to drop our guard because we knew that an Upper Construct was coming... but constantly keeping tense was pretty rough, too. 
“Touya, it’s lunchtime. Would you like to eat?” 
“Already? Sure. Sounds good to me.” Lu took out two boxed lunches and two flasks from her bag. One was larger than the other. She poured us a bowl of soup each from the large flask, and a cup of tea each from the little one. Then she handed over a boxed lunch to me. I opened it up and saw a tasty display of rice and side dishes. 
“Wow, it looks amazing. Did you make this, Lu?” 
“I did. I made it this morning. Crea made everyone else’s, but I wanted to make yours...” Lu formed a bashful smile as she spoke. The little princess had quite a talent for cooking, and she’d further refined it after coming to Brunhild. Crea had taken Lu under her wing and used many recipes from my world that I’d provided in order to make the girl into an excellent chef. 
I looked down at the meal, smiled, and started eating the fried prawns. It was delicious. Better than the ones made by Crea, even. 
“I love it. You’ve really improved, Lu.” 
“Thank you so much... I’m happy to hear you say that.” The karaage and tamagoyaki were really good, too. Truly the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, I tried the stew. 
“Man, this is seriously good... I wanna eat this every day.” 
“I-I think when we get married I’ll be able to do that! Hehe...!” Lu started munching down on her food with a red face. I was grateful for my current life. I really had a lot to thank god for. Suddenly, I remembered something. 
“Lu, currently we’re working on Sakura’s Frame Gear... but what about yours? I imagine you’ll want a high-mobility type with twin blades?” 
“Uhm, let me think... I quite like that style, yes... but I’d like to prioritize adaptability. Elze, Hilde, and Yae work as vanguard units right now, while Sue, Sakura, and Leen are rearguards. I believe that I should be a commando unit that can alternate between those, much like Linze.” 
“A commando?” 
“I think versatile weaponry would be useful. The ability for me to alternate between long and short-range combat.” 
Hm... I guess that’s doable. It’ll need to transform from a high-mobility mode to an armored or more powerful mode, I guess. We’d need it to be able to transform on the go, too. Don’t want any time wasted or cooldown on the battlefield. I can see a transforming Frame Gear being useful for unconventional tactics... 
“Alright. Let’s try and do that, then. Right now we only have the Dragoon as far as high-mobility types go, anyway.” I looked over toward the green-painted Dragon Knight nearby. It was the same model as Ende’s, but it was an old model nonetheless. 
Lu currently piloted the Green Dragoon while she waited for her personal Frame Gear to get produced. Still, Lu was plenty capable of handling it so it wasn’t that bad as a temporary measure. 
“Thanks for the food, Lu.” 
“No problem, I’m glad you liked it.” I wrapped up my lunchbox and smiled. After that, we took a rest and sipped our tea. 
“Grand Duke, Princess, is now a good time?” 
“No worries, Gaspar. What’s up?” I looked over to the source of the voice and found Regulus’ Knight Commander, Gaspar. The attack was in Regulus territory, so a lot of their knights were on hand to help. 
“I’m glad to see the two of you are close as ever. Brunhild and Regulus will truly prosper at this rate...” Gaspar laughed heartily as he spoke. 
“Something going on?” 
“Well, nothing in particular, no... I was simply wondering if we might have more units from the Regulus military.” 
“Hm? Even more?” I was surprised by the request since I’d already given Regulus more Frame Gears than usual. Twenty-seven Chevaliers and three Knight Barons. 
“In truth, much like Brunhild, Regulus has done a recruitment drive for its knight order. We’d like to allow our newer men to get some battlefield experience. That being said, I am aware there’s a strong one amongst the Phrase, and I won’t endanger us by having the newbies in the vanguard. That’s why I’d like you to authorize one other group of Frame Gears who would focus on the Lesser Constructs.” That made sense enough to me. Brunhild was also deploying a squad of newbies to give them hands-on experience with the Phrase, so the request wasn’t unreasonable. I didn’t want them fighting an Upper Construct, though. Basically, their job was to follow instructions and just get a general feel for the atmosphere of a combat situation. 
“Have they used the Frame Units to train?” 
“They’ve finished their training, yes. I wouldn’t have made the proposal otherwise. So long as they don’t get rushed, I feel as though they’ll be able to handle the weaker ones without a problem.” I wasn’t too concerned since the emergency escape magic would save anyone that got defeated... But I imagined it wouldn’t be necessary if they were given proper instruction. 
“Alright, then. I’ll give you one more Knight Baron and nine more Chevaliers. How about that? If they get damaged, Regulus will have to pay for the repairs.” 
“Very well, thank you.” I contacted Monica and told her to send ten Frame Gears down from the hangar. 
Even though an Upper Construct was coming, the readings didn’t suggest a massive amount. There weren’t even ten-thousand coming through. We were using the new Frame Gear models, too. I didn’t see the fight posing much of a challenge. 
After Gaspar left, I asked Lu for another cup of tea. 
“Hm... Regulus has more people in its army, eh?” 
“It seems so. After the coup, Regulus lost a lot of military power after all...” 
“That general really went too far...” General Bazoar had tried to kill the emperor of Regulus using the power of the Blockbracer and the Drainbracer. He ended up summoning various demonic creatures and even caused a full-on coup. 
After the coup, he and his sympathizers were all put to death. A great number of people in the military were given hefty sentences as well. The knight order of Regulus was separate from the Regulus military back then. But after that, the military became a subdivision of the knight order. They were guilty of dishonoring the nation, so they needed to have a close eye kept on them until they were reformed. 
Luckily my connection to them had resulted in their foreign relations becoming much, much better. Thanks to that they didn’t need to worry about defense from foreign nations as much. They were fine with Belfast, but thanks to my intervention they’d also bridged peace with Roadmare and Ramissh. 
“It was a tragic incident for the empire, but I’m still glad it happened. It’s how I met you, Touya. Is it wrong for me to think that way?” 
“Not at all. Without that incident, I’d have never met you either. If you put it that way, I might even owe that general a little for his wicked plans. Even if it’s selfish, I’m glad we met.” The two of us smiled at one another. I was truly thankful to have her by my side. 
Lu was a hard worker. She was also focused to the point where she didn’t give up on her goals. But despite that, she was gentle and kind. 
We gazed off into the distance and sat close together. Gradually, both of us closed our eyes. And then... 
“Ohoho... How bold...” 
“Shhh, Sue. Keep your voice down.” 
“Hmph... I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little jealous.” The sudden appearance of hushed voices made us open our eyes up. 
Sue, Linze, Paula, and Leen were all sneaking a glance at us from behind a rock in the distance. 

 

“G-G-Girls?! Wh-When did you girls start peeking on us?!” Lu suddenly went red in the face, stammering toward the three people and one animal. 
“Since Gaspar was here, I guess?” 
“W-Well, we were just curious about lunch... s-so we came to ask about you guys, and we didn’t want to ruin the mood...” 
“I told them not to interfere, good grief...” The three of them replied in their own ways as Paula stood proudly at Leen’s feet. She puffed out her chest with pride. It was a little bit annoying and out of place, but that was Paula for you. 
Lu crouched down and put her hands over her face, the poor girl was completely beet red. 
“Uwaaah... H-How embarrassing...” 
“You shouldn’t be embarrassed, silly. Touya’s our husband-to-be! There’s no shame in getting a little lovey-dovey as a couple!” Sue very plainly spoke up, tilting her head as if she didn’t understand the problem. 
“I-I’m not quite ready for the next level...” Lu averted her gaze at Sue’s provocation. She was right. It wasn’t like we were at that stage, yet. Still, I felt like a lot of personal barriers had been broken over time. 
“Our precious little darling doesn’t do things like this with us very often. I’d like to get a little bit more up close and personal with him, myself...” 
“That’s right! Touya needs to flirt with us a little more, if I’m being honest!” 
“Wh-What?!” 
Gimme a break, I’m Japanese! My culture is socially modest, so most of the guys from my generation don’t even get girlfriends! You’re asking me to climb a mountain here... If I did something like publicly flirt in my old world, I’d invoke the ire of keyboard warriors. Seeing that kind of thing makes you wanna scream “Die, normie! Get the hell outta here!” 
“That’s right! I want you to gimme a big squeeeeeeze, Touya.” 
“Me too. I want to walk hand-in-hand with you, and feed you food in restaurants...” 
“That sounds nice. Can’t we do that much, at least?” 
Hngh... It’s just a big hurdle to climb for me... I don’t wanna piss anyone off by doing that publicly. 
“It’s fine, right? How about if we do it without people around. Let’s cuddle in private.” Sue suddenly charged headlong into me and started cuddling me from the front. 
H-Hey! Just because nobody’s around doesn’t make it less embarrassing! 
“A-Ah... M-Me too!” 
“Hm... I want in on this.” 
“Gh— What?!” Linze and Leen suddenly attacked me from the left and right. 
Ugh! G-Gimme a break! Even Paula joined in on the attack and hugged my leg. 
“D-Don’t hog all of him! Me too!” 
“Whoa!” Lu suddenly spoke up and grabbed me from behind. I was surrounded with nowhere to escape. Four enemies, or uh... cute girls, surrounded me from all angles. 
It’s not like this isn’t nice, but it’s still embarrassing! This is worse than I feared! Someone save me! 
“Attention! Crack in the sky located! The Phrase will be mobilizing soon! All units, prepare for battle!” An alarm suddenly sounded, and the surrounding area woke up with noise. Linze and the others suddenly detached from me and headed to their Frame Gears. 
I was saved by the bell... Though, I did have mixed feelings about the Phrase rescuing me from my situation. 
It wasn’t like I didn’t wanna get flirty with them... All nine of them were engaged to me, after all... I knew I had to be a little social with them, but still... 
Well, I decided to take it slow. I didn’t need to be flirty in public... I just didn’t want anyone to get mad or jealous about it, after all. In this world, someone could literally make me “get the hell out” with a well-placed spell! 
I heaved a sigh and headed toward our base of operations. 
 
The Phrasium bullets that came out of Leen’s Gatling gun reduced an entire crowd of Lesser Constructs to shreds. 
“Hoho, they’re more fragile than I thought.” Leen grinned as her Grimgerde tore down an entire squadron of airborne Manta Phrase with a hail of bullets. 
The chest hatch opened up and yet more Gatling guns emerged to obliterate yet more enemies. After the barrage, Grimgerde began its cooldown period to prevent overheating. 
Several Chevaliers moved in during this period to shatter any Phrase cores that her barrage had failed to destroy. 
Leen’s Frame Gear had several drawbacks. The first was that her allies couldn’t go in and attack during her barrage. Friendly fire was a massive risk due to the imprecision of her assault. 
Secondly, her attacks weren’t precise enough to hit the cores all the time. Even if the enemies were smashed to pieces, if the core was intact they’d just regenerate. That being said, she was capable of concentrating her volleys. 
The third and final issue was that she couldn’t keep a sustained fire going on for a while. The body of the Frame Gear slowly heated up as it continued its attack. Grimgerde was partially constructed out of Phrasium, so there was an element of self-repair in its make-up, but it wasn’t enough to mitigate the damage of a constant barrage. That was why the cooldown period became necessary. 
That was also why we needed to pair her up with people who could cover for those weaknesses. Grimgerde was defenseless when it stopped firing, so the airborne Phrase began focusing their attacks on the inactive machine. But suddenly, bullets appeared as if from nowhere and destroyed the lot. 
“Thanks for the assist, Linze.” 
“No problem!” Helmwige flew by like a jet plane and destroyed a ton of the ones still in the air. Good job, Linze! 
Linze’s Frame Gear soared around the battlefield and supported various areas with raid-styled attacks. Much like what we wanted Lu’s Frame Gear to be, it took the position of commando. 
On the ground, Lu rushed around in her Green Dragoon, slicing through the enemies with her twin blades. 
Leen and the others had already begun another fight to the rear. 
“Stardust Shell!” Sue raised her voice as the Ortlinde Overlord raised its left arm, producing a wall of star-shaped shields of light. The shields lined up and defended her allies in the area. 
The Stardust Shell was a powerful shield that completely bounced back the beams that had been fired by a bunch of airborne Koi Carp Phrase. At that exact moment, the golden mecha raised its right arm and fired off the entire forearm at the elbow. 
“Cannon Knuckle Spiraaaaaal!!!” The fired hand flew into the air, crushing the Koi Carp Phrase one after the other in quick succession. The rocket punch flew in an arc before returning to the main robot body. 
Wow... They added in a motion that makes it do that... Well, I guess that’s pretty handy. 
I told Sue to use Ortlinde to focus on defending the HQ. Her mech was suited for that, given its high defensive capabilities. Plus, I didn’t want Sue out on the front lines. She was still too young for that. I didn’t want her to think I was being unfair, though. 
I used [Fly] to soar across the battlefield and check up on a group that looked like they were having a rougher time. 
“Fifth Squadron! Just because they’re Lesser Constructs doesn’t mean you need to face them one-on-one! Support one another and pay attention to your allies.” 
“Yes sir!” I instructed them all through my smartphone. The Fifth Squadron was composed of the new recruits. They weren’t quite used to battles that weren’t just one-on-one. They needed to pay more attention to their circumstances, really. Their power was a double-edged sword. 
“Entwine thus, Ice! Frozen Curse: [Icebind]!” 
I invoked a restraint spell and cast it on the Phrase attacking the Fifth Squadron. Their legs were snared in ice, restricting their motion. They could easily escape by snapping off their limbs, but even stopping them for a short while would be a great advantage. 
The Chevaliers of the Fifth Squadron began to shatter cores one after the other. I felt they’d be fine at that point. 
As I looked around, I saw three Frame Gears come in from the HQ. A red one, a purple one, and an orange one. 
“Kept you waiting, huh?” 
“Please forgive our lateness, Touya-dono!” 
“A-Apologies for being late!” It was Elze in her Gerhilde, Yae in her Schwertleite, and Hilde in her Siegrune. 
The three of them had been sleeping in the castle, so their late arrival was to be expected. 
Yae took the lead, dancing through the battlefield with her Phrasium blade. She sliced the Phrase cleanly in two, not missing a single core. 
Thus, the three maidens of death began their rampage. 
“My liege. There’s a large spatial distortion about one kilometer from the HQ. The Upper Construct is coming soon.” 
“So it’s nearly here, huh...? All squads, distance yourself from the projected emergence point.” 
“Roger.” 
Tsubaki confirmed that the big one was coming, so I used my [Storage] to pull out some hunks of Phrasium to use for my Meteor Rain attack. 

The plan was to pelt it the moment it came out. Using a strike like that probably wouldn’t be enough to take its core out, but wearing it out with the surprise attack would be enough to weaken it and then finish it with an all-out attack. 
I invoked [Long Sense] to check the perforated area in space. It was cracking wider, meaning the creature was about to emerge. 
The sound of splintering glass rang out into the air. In a matter of moments, the Upper Construct came screaming through the tear in reality. 
“GRAUUURGH!” It screamed into the heavens, its body shimmering and sparkling in the sunlight. The creature’s mountainous form caused the very earth to tremble underfoot. 
Its back was large, curved, and smooth. Its six legs were stubby and chunky. It had a long, snake-like tail with several spiked, thorn-like protrusions running along it. Its short head jutted outward. 
It was a giant turtle. Or perhaps it was more similar to a tortoise. Still, no tortoise I ever saw had six legs and sawblade-like lining on its shell. 
As far as cores went... It had only one. I could see the dull orange light come out from deep in its shell. 
“It’s huge! Although... maybe it’s about average for an Upper. If anything, that just makes it an easy target... Let’s get this over with... Meteor Rain!” I invoked [Gate], opening several above the beast. The crystalline “meteors” started raining down upon it, their weight enhanced by [Gravity]. Just as I was certain of my success, the tortoise withdrew its head, tail, and legs into the central shell. I could only look on in shock as my barrage pinged off the shell, doing absolutely no damage at all. 
“Gh... Its defenses are that good?” It seemed like it was a defense-oriented Phrase. I sighed slightly as the massive creature protruded its thorny tail from its shell. All of a sudden spines fired outwards in multiple directions, like a missile barrage. 
“Tsk, no good! All units, evasive measures!” The spines splintered as they flew through the air, creating more fragments. It was like a cluster bomb attack. 
Goddammit! Fortunately, the damage was negligible. Everyone had already vacated the area preemptively due to my Meteor Rain attack. That being said, several Frame Gears were impacted. They stopped moving, and their colors grayed out, signifying that their pilots had been warped away. 
“Gaaah! Shatter!” Elze’s Gerhilde charged toward the lumbering giant, smashing against one of its massive legs with a pile bunker. She got two hits in, the first causing a short crack, and the follow-up shattering the leg entirely. 
Still, the tortoise had three pairs of legs. It wasn’t going down so easily. I considered using [Slip] to get it on its back, but Elze was in the way. I didn’t want it falling on her. 
Elze suddenly retreated, allowing Hilde and Yae to close in with a two-pronged attack that crushed the remaining two legs on the same side. 
The creature immediately lost its balance, falling to the left. Yae and Hilde withdrew in seconds, skillfully avoiding its falling form. 
We couldn’t rest easy, though. It might have been immobilized, but it still opened up its mouth to gather particles of light. 
Crap! It’s gonna fire a beam?! Leen’s Grimgerde launched a devastating salvo, but each shot simply pinged off its shell like it was nothing. The shell wasn’t just hard in terms of structure, it also had some kind of naturally reflective property. In a sense, it was similar to Spica’s defensive fighting style. 
“Cannon Knuckle Spiraaaaaal!!!” Sue’s Ortlinde Overlord smashed a rocked-charge fist straight into the tortoise’s head, shattering it into tiny pieces. The gathering light faded away as its neck dangled limply. 
Good job, Sue! Unfortunately, I celebrated too soon. Its legs and head began their regeneration cycle. We needed to break the core, but the only issue was figuring out how. 
As I wondered what to do, my smartphone started vibrating. 
“Touya... Don’t you want to try using... that...?” It was Doctor Babylon. 
“Wait... you mean that...?! The thing Rosetta made...? Didn’t you say that thing takes up a ton of magic, though?” 
“Well, it does... Even combining Linze and Leen’s magic, you’d only be able to get one use out of the thing... Still, it’s better than nothing, right? I have their consent, too. It’s all up to you.” 
Hrmph... I kinda wanted to get a chance to test it first, but the situation’s a little dire... 
Helmwige and Grimgerde got into formation, bracing themselves against the heavy cannon that materialized before them. A huge anchor came out of the cannon and rooted it deeply to the ground, preventing any major recoil damage. 
This was effectively a giant magic-powered cannon. I called it Brionac. Its barrel was three times the length of a standard Frame Gear and fired a massive, specialized bullet imbued with [Explosion]. It was also imbued with the [Spiral Lance] spell, causing a fragment of the bullet to rotate after impact for maximum velocity and damage potential. 
It took time to charge up the gun with magical power, and it couldn’t exactly fire in rapid succession. Even so, it was capable of devastating damage output. It was a kind of one shot, one kill blast. 
“You two ready?” 
“Yes, we are!” 
“As we’ll ever be.” Linze channeled her Fire magic into Brionac as Leen channeled her Wind magic into it. The gauge on the side of the barrel gradually began to climb. 
“Seventy-five percent... Eighty... Eighty-five... Ninety...!” The doctor kept us updated on the situation as I looked back to the tortoise. We were aiming for its throat. A shot there would be able to penetrate through to the core and explode inside the shell. It wouldn’t be able to defend. 
Its head and legs were almost completely restored, so we needed to take the shot immediately. 
“Ready to fire!” 
“Got it! Take the shot!” The Brionac let out a thunderous bellow as it spewed flames. The barrel of the gun itself splintered and cracked as a result of the recoil. 
The massive bullet came flying out of the end, and smashed into the tortoise’s neck. Alright! Show them what you’re made of, Brionac! 
After the initial explosion, the bullet, now somewhat more pointed and grooved, began to violently rotate against the tortoise’s body. It was drilling. The Upper Construct was completely powerless to prevent it from breaching its crystal body, so it could only roar as it was violently penetrated. 
The trajectory of the bullet led it straight to the core, pulverizing the orange sphere in a matter of seconds before making a swift exit right out the back of the beast. 
The Upper Construct stood still, and then its entire body began to shatter. 
The cracks connected and the entire structure collapsed, creating a glittering mountain. In a matter of moments, it was nothing but debris littering the beautiful plains of the Regulus Empire. 
“We did it...” Steam rushed right out of Brionac as its cooling mechanism set in. Helmwige and Grimgerde also stopped moving entirely, falling to one knee and going completely silent. 
“You two alright?” 
“S-Somehow, yes...” 
“That... That was terrible, darling... All of my magic is practically gone... Agh... A second shot would be impossible.” It really did take a lot out of them. I figured we could maybe squeeze a second shot out if we used Yumina and Sakura, though. I couldn’t do it myself, since the recoil was strong enough to wreck a Frame Gear, and Brionac itself was damaged in the process... It was honestly pretty dangerous. 
Either way, I felt like we’d be able to improve it for future use. The doctor had her ways, after all. 
“Alright, people. The Upper Construct is done. Commence cleanup operation.” 
“Roger!” The Frame Gears began mopping up the remaining weaker Phrase, one by one. I didn’t actually end up doing anything important in this fight, either... 
There were several new Frame Gears being used, and the girls all worked great in tandem, but it seemed like I didn’t need to do anything special. 
Still, I sighed in relief and was about to commend myself for a job well done... When I noticed all the Phrase in the vicinity had stopped moving. 
What’s with them...? 
“T-Touya, look!” Linze used Helmwige to point up at the sky, showing a new rip in space. The sound of tearing and cracking spread through the air. Far more intensely than it did when the Upper Construct came through. 
Oh shit, don’t tell me...! Something came through. Something small. Something humanoid. It leaped through the hole in space and began surveying the area. 
A body of crystal, a human form, unbelievable power... A Dominant Construct. 
This was the fourth one I’d ever seen. I remembered Ney, the female-looking one that sought to hurt Ende. I remembered Gila, the battle-crazed guy. And I also remembered Lycee, the female-looking observer who sided with Ende. 
This one, I didn’t recall. It was someone new. He had a handsome face and looked distinctly male. I didn’t know if sex or gender was important to the Phrase, though. His ‘hair’ was long and elegant, but his eyes were chilling like ice. 
I descended to the ground in order to confront him. He looked at me, but the expression on his face didn’t budge an inch. 
He slowly pointed toward me, extending his finger in a skewering motion. 
“Wh—?!” The finger extended toward me, and I deflected it using Divine Brunhild. 
That came outta nowhere! If I was a normal human, I’d be dead for sure! His finger shattered, and I noticed a subtle change in his expression when he noticed that. He seemed a little shocked, but only for a moment. His finger restored itself in a matter of seconds. 
“...Hmph. Then that must make you Endymion’s accomplice.” 
“You can talk?” 
“Gila shared the language of this world with me. You must be the Touya.” 
“...Uh, sure.” 
Who the hell is this guy, and how does he know about me? Has that Gila bastard been spreading rumors about me over there? Damn it... I sighed, quietly cursing Gila’s name. 
“I am not like Gila, I have no interest in a wretch like you. I have something I must take care of before the recoil kicks in. Stay out of my way.” 
The recoil...? The thing that sends Dominant Constructs back past the boundary? Ende had explained to me that this recoil would draw creatures of a certain strength back to the other side, but it would gradually get less effective on them as they came through more. Eventually, they’d be able to freely travel across the world with no limitations. 
The Dominant Constructs couldn’t stay in the world for long. Even Gila could only remain for a total of thirty minutes. Even so, that’s enough time for them to wreak havoc, so I had to take care of this guy quick. 
“I don’t know what you aim to do, but there’s no way I can stand by and watch while you do it.” 
I used [Teleport] to warp behind him. Then, I brought my weapon down above his head with the aim of cleaving him in half down the middle, but he dodged and I only caught his arm. 
He turned to me from his new position, glaring at me in shock. 
“...I see, now. Gila truly had a reason to rave about you as much as he did.” His right arm began to regenerate itself before my eyes. The speed at which his body could recover was far faster than the other Phrase. 
“I am unlike Gila. I find no pleasure in war. I have no interest in you, either.” 
“...So you’re just here for the Sovereign?” 
“I was, once.” 
“Huh?” Before I could ask him what he meant by that, I noticed a flying hairtail fish Phrase heading in our direction. 
I got distracted, so I didn’t notice the Dominant Construct run up to me and attempt a palm-strike. 
“Guh!” I instinctively raised my left arm, but I was knocked back by the incredible force. 
Holy hell...! I shifted my position to prepare for a follow-up attack, but the Dominant Construct had already made his move. He jumped over me, landing on the back of the hairtail Phrase. 
“The recoil is coming, soon. I have no time to entertain your petty battles this day. You may call me Yula. We shall meet again, Touya.” Yula started soaring away on the flying fish. 
Like hell I’d let you escape! I invoked [Fly] and gave pursuit. Just as I was about to catch up to him, his body suddenly let out a blinding flash of light. 
“Hngh?!” My field of vision was reduced to a pure white. When I could finally see again, Yula had vanished. 
Was that a smokescreen tactic...?! 
“Search! Airborne Phrase!” 
“Search complete. Four results.” My smartphone displayed the results, and I saw that three of them were still on the battlefield. That meant the other one had to be the one Yula was aboard. It was heading west, tremendously fast. 
I made a beeline to intercept. I flew for about five minutes before finally catching up with it. It was facing me, and ready to fire a beam of light. However, Yula was nowhere to be seen. 
“Goddammit!” I angrily pulled out Divine Brunhild and shot a bullet straight through its core. It was just a measly Intermediate Construct, in the end. 
It fell down, pieces of it glittering as they smashed into the ground. 
“Search. Dominant Construct.” 
“...Search Complete. No Results Found.” 
Wait... nothing? What the hell? Did that recoil thing send him back already? Or can he block my magic somehow...? Just what was he going after, anyway?! 
Suddenly I felt a stabbing pain in my arm. I looked down and saw it was just about broken. I was so absorbed in the chase that I didn’t even notice. And so, I cast a recovery spell to relieve the pain. 
The Dominant Constructs were unable to stay in this world for long, not for as long as the backlash was active. They’d always get pulled back to the space between worlds, so the only question I had was just what that Phrase was trying to accomplish in so little time. 
I didn’t have an answer... but an ominous and foreboding feeling settled in my gut that day. 
 
“Hrmph... Seems I’m back.” A victim of the recoil, Yula found himself back in the space between worlds. There was a small bump in the road, but he didn’t mind. He’d done what he set out to do, after all. 
“Yo! How was the other side? Anything interesting?” Gila’s voice echoed out from the dark. Yula looked at him, seemingly dissatisfied, then heaved a sigh. 
“I met with the Touya that you had so loudly spoken of. He’s a powerful creature. One of my arms was lost in a scuffle with him.” 
“Pfftahaha... See? Told you my most magnificent appraisal abilities were dead-on. Lemme just make this clear though, alright? Both that little punk and the Sovereign Core are my trophies to claim. Touch either and I’ll break you just as bad. Got it?” 
“If you say so. I have no interest in either the core or the Touya.” 
“Tsk. You’re as hard to read as ever, y’know? I ain’t got any idea what your plan’s all about, but I don’t give a shit so long as you keep outta my business.” Gila once again sank into the black. Gila was a person who thought simply, and only considered two things. Enemies to fight, and foes to subdue. 
Yula, however, was cut of a different cloth. 
Yula sought power, it was true. But it wasn’t the raw physical strength that Gila desired. Yula sought absolute domination, the ability to make any other cede to his will. 
Yula once sought absolute power over the Phrase, the power of the Sovereign Core. It was an ability that would give him control over the entire race. An ability that would even let him dominate other Dominant Constructs. That was why he worked so hard to discover the method to forcibly travel worlds. That was why he shared it with his species. 
But the more he traveled, the more he fought, and the more worlds he razed, he began to feel a growing emptiness inside him. 
If he were to take the Sovereign Core... If he were to take that power into him, he would have dominion over the Phrase. That much was true, and yet... It wasn’t enough. He would only rule over one world. Slowly, he realized the diversity of life. The vastness of the cosmos. Simply ruling the Phrase was no longer an option. He wished to rule all life, in every form. 
But how could he manage such a feat? The conclusion was simple. He would need to become an existence beyond the Sovereign. 
In his travels through the various worlds, Yula had become aware of vague existences. Something he couldn’t quite comprehend, but could undeniably sense. What he was sensing was divinity, something that belonged to creatures called gods. 
He couldn’t see them. He couldn’t really feel them. He’d never met one, and he had no way of proving they even existed. But he had seen glimpses of their divinity here and there, across the myriad worlds he had traversed. The evidence he had found wasn’t really all that much. Sacred treasures, holy blades, items of mysterious rumor and strength. But as small as his evidence was, he still sensed the faint divinity hidden within. 
Yula had sensed something before the rip opened up and he descended upon this new world. It was a pulse, similar to the wavelengths emitted by the Phrase, but also quite different. The pulse carried with it the scent of Divinity. There was surely a god in this world, Yula could feel it. It was calling out to him. 
The moment he felt it, he raced toward the boundary. An Upper Construct had broken through not long ago, giving him the perfect opening. After he had broken through and dealt with the Touya, he headed toward the source... and obtained it. Despite the obstacles, he had managed to acquire it just as the recoil brought him back into the space between worlds. 
The nature of the item he had acquired was simple enough. It was a tiny egg that shone a brilliant gold. 
“Hm...? What...?” The egg began vibrating and shivering, before dissolving into a muddy substance and slipping through Yula’s fingers. 
Slowly, the amoeba-like blob solidified and changed color, until it took the form of an old, human male. 
It took the form of a skinny older man with white hair. The old man stared around the area, and then at Yula himself. 
“This is... the space between worlds, hm? Oh, lovely. They won’t find me here...” 
“...Identify yourself.” 
“Me...? Er, well... I’m a god, of course.” 
Yula felt the muddy divinity emanating from the old man, and he believed his words immediately. A crooked grin began spreading across the crystal creature’s face as his plan swung into motion...