Chapter III: Warped Aspirations
“...Time we got going, then,” I said as I walked through the [Gate] and set foot in Isengard.
Yumina, Sue, Elze, Linze, Yae, Hilde, Sakura, Lu, and Leen all passed through alongside me. Paula toddled along too, of course. We all gazed up at the puretree.
The sight was something to behold.
“Well?”
“Mmm... I don’t feel anything, so I think we’re good.”
“I do not feel anything strange, I do not.”
Elze and Yae did a small warm-up motion as they confirmed their status. Nobody else felt ill or tired, either. I didn’t really know why Paula was testing her range of motions, given she’d be completely fine, but it wasn’t really an issue...
I certainly felt no ill effects. A minor sense of nausea hit me, but it was just the kind of feeling you’d get after eating something funky. That meant the purification was coming along nicely. I had a feeling that my sisters needed to stay back a bit longer, though.
“Wow... It sure is big!” Sue exclaimed as she stared up at the puretree with amazed eyes. It certainly didn’t resemble the tiny sapling I had originally sent over. In fact, it was now so big that I had to crane my neck. I wondered just how many meters into the sky it stretched.
It was far beyond the size of our Frame Gears, even... Plus, it gave off an intimidating atmosphere, making it clear that it was the grandest tree in the forest.
“The sparkling is nice...”
“It is...”
Sakura and Linze looked at the magic particles being released from the puretree’s leaves, which were quite beautiful.
“Grand Duke, miladies. This way,” Nikola, who had come here earlier, came to meet us by the tree.
We entered the command tent that they’d set up, only to be greeted by various commanding officers from countries around the world. Our own commander, Lain, was also present.
There were no tense discussions or frantic arguments. The atmosphere was quite relaxed overall. They were all just sipping tea and making casual conversation with each other. I was a bit surprised, honestly. That being said, the moment I entered the tent, they all stood to attention.
“What’s the situation?”
“No problems so far, really. Those Frame Gear constructs, er... Fake Gears? They’ve been attacking us fairly frequently, but they’re few in number, so we’ve been beating them back on a rotational schedule,” Belfast’s deputy general, Neil, spoke up. The vice-commander of Lestia, Franz, also came over to talk shortly after that.
“We were concerned about Upper Constructs going on the offensive, however...”
“Oh, right. I don’t think there’ll be any Upper Constructs coming all the way out here. They definitely won’t show up out of nowhere like they used to, at least.”
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“The Upper Constructs we’ve fought so far popped in from a space between worlds. That’s why they cropped up in random locations during previous battles. We detected their emergence point and then hosted the battle in that area to intercept them. Basically, they can’t pick and choose where they emerge, it was just wherever they happened to come out. But now the mutants attacking us are ones that you could consider native to Isengard. If they attacked us, they wouldn’t be coming in from a space between worlds, they’d have to physically walk across the land to reach us.”
I did not doubt that they’d come from the direction of that golden palace near Isenberg. The Upper Constructs were massive, so they moved pretty slowly in general. Not to mention the fact that Bastet had left a surveillance drone on the giant tower in Isenberg, which was set to notify us well in advance if something that large came lumbering in our direction.
The enemy might have been sending Fake Gears over in quick succession because they knew sending an Upper Construct was pointless.
“That being said, we can’t slack off. We’ll need to keep regular perimeter patrols, and send out scouts as well.”
“Aye. We’ve got the Red Cats doing just that, so you needn’t worry,” Lain spoke clearly, but I was a bit surprised Nia’s group had decided to take on that role. I had a feeling they’d probably ask for extra compensation later...
“They actually asked for something in exchange. They wanted you to create a bathhouse once you arrived,” Nikola continued speaking as if reading my mind.
Pssh, extra compensation later? Never mind, they want it right now!
“A bathhouse, huh? I mean, that’s not a bad idea... I get why you’d want that if you’re over fighting for so long.”
“This is a fairly humid place, so it’s hard for sweat to even form to begin with.”
“I guess that’s fair... We do have a lot of female knights, so I should take their hygiene and cleanliness into account...”
Ugh, fine... I’ll make it... The commanders and sub-commanders of the other nations also expressed their support for the idea, so I decided to finish building a public bath before dinner. It’d be harder for them if they couldn’t sweat off the heat.
“We’ll help with the cooking, then!”
Yumina, Lu, and Sue trotted off to the canteen tent.
“We will participate in the battle, we will.”
Yae, Hilde, and Elze called their Valkyries from their [Storage]-enchanted rings, then charged off to the battlefield.
“As for us, we’ll erect a barrier around the camp. There aren’t just mutants here, after all.”
Leen, Linze, and Sakura flew off on Linze’s Helmwige. Considering the fact that the divine venom would affect them if they strayed too far, I couldn’t imagine they’d be erecting a very large barrier.
All that was left was for me to make a bathhouse. Mixed bathing didn’t really sound too relaxing, so I decided to separate by sex.
I walked a bit into the forest and looked for a suitable spot... I was pretty spoiled for choice, to be honest. The battles in the area had wrecked so many trees that most of the area was usable. I sighed quietly and started to clear the fallen tree trunks.
“This’ll do, I think.”
I dug a large pit for the bath using Earth magic. I’d already made a public bath at the Silver Moon in the past, which gave me knowledge of how to make the proper pipes and drainage system.
Well... there are a lot of guys here... Guess I’ll make the male bath a bit bigger. I’ll pay a bit more attention to the female bath, though... Don’t really want them fussing about it not being up to scratch later...
“Alrighty, time to get to work.”
I rolled my sleeves back and started chopping some nearby fallen trees. I’d decided to recycle them into materials for the bathhouse.
“Ooh, looks great! Real home-like! Good job, Touya!” Nia, who’d just returned with the other Red Cats, said that as she looked at the public baths with glee.
That’s right! Go ahead and praise me a bit more, why don’t you? I worked hard here!
“Oh, but wait... Since it’s an open bath, wouldn’t the whole place be visible from a Frame Gear cockpit?” Est raised a fair point as she glanced upward from the open-air bath. She was right, but luckily, I’d already created a solution.
“There’s a special kind of visual magic I’ve enchanted the entire bathhouse with. When someone’s in the bath, the whole place looks like a mass of trees from anywhere other than the entrance. It’s all good.”
The girls were clearly suspicious of my words, since they all went and confirmed that by themselves. And just like I said, they only ended up seeing a mass of reddish-orange, leafy trees. I didn’t like the idea of them thinking I had ulterior motives, to be honest.
“This isn’t some setting you can toggle on or off, right?”
“Obviously not! If I tried to pull something like that, my life would be in danger,” Norn, who’d come along with Noir, asked me that ridiculous question. Did she think I was suicidal or something? If I pulled something like that with my fiancees so close by, I’d be done for.
“If you’re still worried even after all that, I have towels available. There are also some swimsuits.”
This wasn’t like a hot spring back on earth. It was fine if they wanted to wear stuff in the bath. After all, I’d enchanted the place so [Clean] triggered every so often.
“...Why exactly do you have so many female swimsuits just ready to go, anyway...?”
“Yeah... I was wondering the same...”
“Well, you guys have fun! See ya!”
I dashed away before Euni and Euri asked any more weird questions.
Don’t get the wrong idea! They just got mixed into a batch I got from Fashion King Zanac! I didn’t buy them specifically or anything!
The area around the puretree had become a fully established garrison. There were tents scattered around, and knights walking about. It was pretty unusual to see knights from different countries fraternizing so casually. I saw some arguing, some talking about their homes, and there were even a few hitting on some women together.
A lot of the knights from the eastern side of the world were showing knights from the former Reverse World how to ride Frame Gears properly. But even so, this place was on the edge of a battlefield. Sometimes, the sounds of Frame Gears clashing against mutants could be heard in the distance.
I entered one of the nearby tents.
“Any news?”
“Negative. Mutants are attacking as usual, but they’re just mutants from the surrounding area. There is no reaction at all from the golden palace,” Cesca, still wearing her maid uniform, turned from a monitor and removed her comms headset to reply.
“Do ya think they’ve noticed us yet?”
“I, like, totally think that’s the case, yes. They should be aware by now that the divine venom is disappearing in this area.”
Rosetta and Monica muttered amongst themselves as they stared at the monitor. The monitor showed a feed from the surveillance camera drone we’d set up at Isenberg’s tower. The creepy sight kind of gave off a bad Zombie B-movie vibe, but it was a bunch of golden Skeletons instead of Zombies.
“They may be coming up with a plan, you see.”
Flora had a point. They very well could have been biding their time. Our enemies had to know what would happen if we were left unchecked, so I couldn’t imagine them not retaliating.
“Just keep up the surveillance for the time being. Rosetta, Monica, you two handle Frame Gear maintenance.”
“Aaah... Stern as ever, sir!”
“She isn’t incorrect. You should, like, totally let us watch some anime as a reward. I wanna watch some anime and stuff!”
I sighed a bit and gave in to the demands of the booing duo. I said I’d let them watch a mecha anime after all this was done. They kind of forced me into it, but it wasn’t really that big of a compromise for me. The two of them then bolted out of the tent with smiles on their faces.
“Master, if you’re giving out rewards, then I’d like a hardcore S&M maid—”
“Enough out of you, you demented gynoid.”
I glared over at Cesca, who was looking at me and breathing heavily. She was much harder to deal with than the rest.
After that, I called over Ende from Brunhild, since I figured the environment was tolerable enough for him at this point. I felt a little bad, though, since he’d probably get a bit sick. He was Uncle Takeru’s beneficiary, so he obviously had some divine blessing in him, but I needed him on the front lines.
He was also the one I was counting on to deal with that Phrase General, Xeno.
After I ended the call on my smartphone, I opened up a [Gate] to pull him through. Ende walked right on over, followed by Melle, Lycee, and Ney. The three Phrase girls were in their human disguises, since I didn’t want to cause a ruckus.
“Yo. You called us in sooner than I thought. Are we charging them?”
“No, not yet. I just wanted you guys on hand just in case.”
Ende seemed a bit puzzled, but I caught him up to speed. Originally, I’d given him the impression they’d be coming in a bit later, but that was my bad.
“Oooh, what a lovely scent!”
“Lady Melle, this must be curry!”
“Oh... I smell fried pork... It must be katsu curry.”
As I spoke with Ende, the three girls zeroed in on the pleasant scent in the area. Even I wasn’t sure the smell was katsu curry, so I was a bit frightened by how adept their senses were. Lu was probably making it in the cafeteria. Given that she had divine taste buds, I had a feeling she was making an incredible dish.
“I’ve set a tent aside for you guys already. You can basically do whatever you want until the battle starts, but try not to get into any arguments.”
“I got it. Oh right, Touya... Sorry and all, but can you...”
“...Cafeteria’s down in that direction.”
“Yeah. Sorry, the girls will be restless until they’ve eaten a bit... Okay, ladies, we’ll head to the— Huh?!” Ende turned around and found that the three girls were already well on their way to the cafeteria tent.
“H-Hey! Wait up!” Ende roared, running after them in a panic.
...You know, Ende... when I first met you, you had this stoic and mysterious air about you. You were super cool, actually. I kinda thought you might be a credible threat to me if I got on your bad side. When did you turn into comic relief? Same goes for the rest of them, really. But I guess because I got to know them, they’ve become a lot more human in my eyes.
I watched the four of them run off before I heard the sound of a mechanical whirring and looked overhead. Linze’s Helmwige was above, lowering itself slightly. Sakura and Leen jumped out of the cockpit, while Paula just kind of fell out.
...P-Paula? Your neck’s bent at a weird angle... I know you’re a stuffed toy, but are you sure you’re okay?
Linze’s Helmwige had a wide cockpit, since it contracted during the transformation sequence. As such, there was room for the two girls (and a stuffed toy) in the rear seats.
“We’ve set up several barriers. There shouldn’t be any magical beasts near the camp, now.”
“There were some flying mutants as well... We shot them down...”
“We? I was the only one doing any shooting,” Linze hopped down and cut in after Sakura.
“There are dozens of Fake Gears headed our way from Isenberg. They’ll probably be here in around thirty minutes or so.”
“Copy that. I’ll be sure to relay the info. Thanks again, girls.”
I heard Linze’s basic report, then opened up my smartphone map. The map had previously been blocked by the divine venom, but now it was usable because the atmosphere was less saturated with it.
“Run search. Use my location as the focal point. Find all mutants and Fake Gears.”
“Searching... Search complete. Displaying.”
The map ended up being projected into the air. It showed that there were quite a few enemies left. We needed to defend the puretree until Moroha and the others could come through to take over defense, and we could begin our attack on the palace.
I decided to ask Ende to help in his Dragoon. It was time to fight.
“[Gladius]!”
Forty-eight glimmering projectiles attacked all the Fake Gears around me. The daggers busted the cockpits, then went after the golden Skeletons that had fallen out from inside.
“Sphere mode.”
The daggers transformed into spheres and began to crush the Skeletons to bits. The [Gravity]-infused spheres were able to crush the Skeletons along with their cores in no time flat, melting my foes into mush alongside their Fake Gears.
“They’re more annoying to deal with than regular mutants, but I’m glad we don’t need to trace their cores or anything.”
I sighed quietly from inside Reginleif’s cockpit as I watched some of our Chevaliers smashing a few Fakes Geats with battlehammers. Hammer-based weapons were more effective, since they could smash the Skeletons inside with the raw blunt force trauma.
“Run search. All purified territory within Isengard.”
“Search complete. Displaying.”
My cockpit projected a map of Isengard with the purified areas displayed in blue. The red areas were places that were still steeped in divine venom.
The map showed that the purification zone had reached the golden palace, which basically meant we didn’t have to worry about the venom anymore. Now all I needed to do was call Moroha and the others to have them defend the puretree, then begin my march on the enemy.
I hopped out of Reginleif, contacted Moroha, and used [Gate] to bring the group through. Moroha, Takeru, and Karina all flexed and stretched after walking through the portal.
“Mmm. I don’t feel like I’m at my best, but it’ll do.”
“You can still feel the venom? I thought we’d purified most of it.”
Moroha worried me a bit, which made Takeru and Karina laugh.
“It’s just because this whole territory is connected to parts that are steeped in the venom. We’re in our human forms, but we’re still full gods. That makes us sensitive to even the tiniest bit of atmospheric impurity. Don’t sweat it, though. It won’t actually hurt us. Just makes us a little queasy at worst.”
“Aye aye! I got guts to power through, no big deal! Leave this to us, and you go do your mission, kid! God Almighty is watching from home, don’t forget it!”
It seemed like they’d be fine, thankfully. All three of them gave me a motivational pat on the back. I knew that the puretree would be completely safe in the hands of the trio, so I just had to make sure that the rest of my mission went off without a hitch.
I pulled out a greatsword and a longsword for Moroha from [Storage], then a bow, quiver, and hand-axes for Karina. Lastly, I pulled out the same kind of gauntlets Ende was wearing and gave them to Takeru. All the weapons were made of crystal. I’d even made sure that Takeru’s gauntlets were the same design as Ende’s, which I had a feeling he’d appreciate. Probably, at least... The moment they took up their weapons, they charged off to the battlefield. They really ran off quickly, so they must’ve been itching to fight.
It was pretty amazing that they were going up against Fake Gears without anything other than their weapons and bodies, but I knew that they’d be capable of handling it.
After all that, I threw Reginleif into [Storage] and headed back to my fiancees.
“Are we heading out, are we?”
“Indeed, is it time?”
The moment I entered the tent, Yae and Hilde stood up. Yae had her blade in hand, and Hilde was wielding the crystal blade I’d given her on our first meeting. Seemed like they were itching to go, too.
“It’s time. I called Moroha and the others out, so the puretree’s fine now. We just need to advance on the forest and take out the wicked god.”
Everyone nodded at once. None of them looked the least bit apprehensive. I was pretty amazed by their calm attitudes, but part of me was worried, since I felt like I was the only concerned person there.
I called up Ende’s group and told Commander Lain that we’d be beginning our mission at any moment.
“Very well, Grand Duke. I wish you the greatest of luck.”
“Thanks. We’ll be off, then.”
I opened up a [Gate] that took me and the others to Isenberg, the former capital. The ones joining me on this mission were my fiancees, Ende, Melle, Ney, and Lycee. It was a grand total of fourteen people. Sadly, Paula had to stay behind.
As we stepped through the portal, the scene that unfolded around us stunned us into silence. The place was positively desolate. Dark clouds loomed overhead, and corpses piled up in the streets. The city that was once the witch-king’s greatest achievement was no more. Isenberg was basically just a mass grave.
“I’d heard the stories, but seeing it in the flesh is awful...” Elze shook her head quietly.
Bastet’s report indicated that the corpses had no physical signs of damage, and that was definitely true. The only proof of their exposure to the elements was their worn-down clothing. Each one of them had died with expressions of twisted agony and grief on their faces. It was a little unsettling just to look at...
“Touya!”
“Huh?”
I turned in response to Linze’s shout and saw a man charging toward me. A man who had been a prone corpse mere moments ago. His tongue lolled out of his mouth, and his eyes were perfect whites. He was the spitting image of a Zombie, and I was honestly frightened.
“[Slip]!”
“Gruuugh!”
The Zombie slipped, moaned, and fell face-first into the ground.
Geez, that was freaky. It’s scary as hell when you’re attacked out of nowhere.
Linze didn’t skip a beat, casting [Fire Storm] on the Zombie. It was consumed by the swirling flames and burned to ashes... Or at least, that was what I thought before a golden Skeleton emerged from the inferno.
“I knew it. Those who have their souls sucked out are fated to become these golden Skeletons. Look at its chest,” Leen spoke up, and I glanced over at the Skeleton’s ribcage. There was a mutant core nestled inside, around the size of a golf ball. This body had already become a mutant, well and truly.
“Lestian Sacred Sword: Fifth Swirl!” Hilde roared and plunged her blade into the Skeleton’s chest. Her rotating strike shattered both the Skeleton’s ribs and the core they were housing.
The Skeleton melted into nothingness, letting out black smoke as it vanished. It was likely that they’d been building their Skeleton army from the dead here.
“We’ve raised a bit of a fuss, Touya.”
“Hm?”
Ende’s comments made me turn around, and I noticed that all the corpses in the vicinity were now shambling toward us. It was gross.
“Will purification magic work on them?”
“On ordinary Zombies, yes... But these ones are just Crystal Skeletons wearing skin... so I doubt it would do a thing.”
“Hmph...” Sue seemed unsatisfied with Leen’s response. She was probably annoyed because she could’ve easily wiped out an undead horde with her light spells.
Sakura used [Icebind] to freeze the feet of the approaching Zombies. This allowed Leen to cast her own spell as a follow-up.
“Burn forth, Wind! Gale of Flames: [Ignis Hurricane]!”
A massive whirlwind started blowing through the area, incinerating everything it touched. The spell Leen had unleashed was a compound spell she’d learned from Babylon’s library.
It was truly a terrifying force, reducing the Zombies around us to Skeletons in an instant. But sadly, even powerful magic could do little more than burning away the flesh. Their bones still had the Phrase’s anti-magic attributes, after all.
Luckily, we had Yae, Hilde, Lu, Elze, and Ende to make up for that. They charged in and started shattering cores. I didn’t want to seem like I was just standing there, so I took a few potshots with Brunhild as well.
“Seems like all the corpses here are Skeletons, then.”
“But why did they attack us? They hadn’t moved at all before now...” Lu muttered to herself as she sheathed her blades. Much to my surprise, Ende came over with the answer.
“They operate similarly to the Phrase, so I’m willing to bet they reacted to our heartbeats. Look at Melle and the other Phrase girls. They haven’t reacted to them at all, see?”
He was right. There were no golden Skeletons near that trio at all. Melle, Ney, and Lycee all had a small [Prison] enchanted around their cores that prevented sound from escaping. It was a countermeasure that prevented them from being detected by the other mutants. Their heartbeats, or rather, their wavelengths, weren’t audible.
“Let me put it this way. If you walked past a group of magical beasts while playing loud musical instruments, they’d obviously wake up, right?”
He had a point. If someone woke me up by playing loud instruments, I’d probably want to attack them too.
“Well, let’s not waste our time here. We should head to the palace.”
I opened up [Storage] and pulled Reginleif out. Everyone else summoned their Frame Gears and climbed into the cockpits.
Ende’s Dragoon was built for speed and maneuverability, so it didn’t have much space in the cockpit. Melle managed to squeeze in with Ende, but Ney and Lycee had to ride outside on its hands. They could have easily ridden along with Linze in Helmwige, but the two of them said they wanted to stay as close to Melle as possible.
Linze and I took to the skies, hovering above the others as we began our march to the palace.
“Must be nice flying up there, Touya. Can’t you upgrade my Dragoon so it can do that, too?”
“Why not outfit yourself with one of our flight gears?”
“You kidding me? This is a machine built for speed! A big-ass shield like that would just slow me down... Guess it’s a no-go, huh?”
I had nothing to say to Ende’s grumbling. He was right. The ideas behind the Dragoon and the flight gear were fundamentally incompatible. The Dragoon was built for land speed, so it was pointless making it fly. My Reginleif was the culmination of Frame Gear tech, combining the knowledge gained from every different version we’d built, so I wasn’t just about to let him have one too!
We headed out of Isenberg and came to a vast plain. The dark clouds in the sky blotted out the sun, making it seem like night had fallen despite it only being noon.
We carried on across the plains until we could see a muddy golden mass of giant crystals on the horizon. The fact that it was visible despite the distance meant it must have been massive... It really did seem like some kind of palace. At that point, we decided to stop our advance in order to figure out our plan of action.
“Is there a chance they haven’t noticed us yet?”
“They’ve definitely noticed us. The golden Skeletons that were surrounding the palace are inbound.”
Yumina’s words made me zoom in my camera, and I saw the mass of Skeletons making their way in our direction.
“Looks like it’s my turn.”
The black Frame Gear, Leen’s Grimgerde, stomped forward.
“Guess it’s war, eh? Might as well start it off with a bang!”
Grimgerde’s chest armor slid open, revealing two gatling guns. Two cannons atop its shoulders also slid forward and angled upward. The six-barreled gatling gun on both arms began revving up, as did the head-mounted vulcan cannon and the sixteen-shot rocket pods on the shoulders and waist.
Grimgerde’s heels dropped a deep anchor into the ground, fixing it firmly to one spot.
“Volley primed! Full Burst!” Leen yelled out, and a veritable storm of bullets went flying toward the approaching Skeleton army. Frame Gears couldn’t technically run out of ammo, since they automatically replenished themselves using teleportation magic connected to the ammo storage on Babylon, so Grimgerde was more likely to overheat than anything.
The golden Skeletons were smashed to smithereens by the incoming projectiles. It was hard to say whether or not any of the bullets or rockets hit the Skeletons in their cores, since they were obliterated along with the landscape at their feet.
The Skeletons were blown sky-high, glimmering as they flew through the air in several pieces.
“That is certainly a bang, it is...”
“I can’t believe it... It just keeps on firing...”
I was pretty amazed as well. It was basically a non-stop barrage of the [Explosion] spell. Plus, the power fluctuated depending on which type of ammo was being launched, so it was variable. I had a feeling that only Leen or I could sustain this kind of attack.
Shell after shell landed on the enemy, but the artillery fire showed no sign of stopping. Each explosive blast dug another chunk out of the ground, reshaping the plain’s very landscape. This was the true power of Grimgerde, a Frame Gear that had been designed for overwhelming mass destruction.
After many long minutes, the hail of bullets came to an end. Grimgerde stopped moving entirely, and white smoke vented from every port on it.
Grimgerde’s main weakness was that it needed to enter a cooldown period after unleashing an attack like that. The machinery would heat up to an extreme level, so the magic engravings would begin cooling the armor. Several blue lines ran across the black armor, generating more and more steam that rose upward and dissipated. The entire process took roughly twenty seconds, but Grimgerde was extremely vulnerable during that period.
That was why Leen never just used the full burst attack in regular battles. It could only be used when there were allies around to keep her safe, or if she was firing from a completely defended area.
When the smoke finally cleared, roughly ninety percent of the Skeletons were on the ground in fragmented chunks, dissolving into nothingness as black smoke plumed from their parts.
“Grand Duke... I hear something... Cracking and splitting... right ahead... from the crystal mass...”
Just as Sakura spoke, a crystal pillar broke off one of the golden palace’s corners, and a group of Fake Gears came swarming out toward us from the massive hole. They were moving to our location at high speeds.
They all wielded dark gold weapons and moved in unison. Their synchronization was confusing to me, since I hadn’t expected them to be so organized.
“Touya. Melle just registered General Xeno’s wavelength. He’s among that group.”
“Seriously?”
Ende’s words made me zoom my camera in on the group of Fake Gears. There were several spike-armored versions mixed in with the crowd, with an even more unique one among those. It was larger than usual and had a comb-like plume atop its head like a Roman helmet. It was likely the one that belonged to their commander.
“No doubt about it. Xeno is inside that one. And those spiked Fake Gears around him are likely being piloted by his subordinates from Phrasia. They’re moving very differently from the others.”
Just like that, a new enemy stood in our path. He was the Phrase’s ultimate combat-oriented lifeform. The strongest of their species. General Xeno.
A high-pitched voice resonated across the battlefield. It was vocal magic being released by Sakura’s Rossweisse. Her song had the effect of increasing all our agility when fighting against the enemy.
The French pop song rang out as we clashed against the Fake Gears.
I switched the twelve Fragarach boards on Reginleif’s back to form an enormous lance.
“[Accel Boost]!” I roared as I charged ahead, my Frame Gear infused with my magic. Then, I speared Fake Gear after Fake Gear with my lance, charging through their ranks like Moses parting the Red Sea.
“Take this!” Sue, in her Ortlinde’s Overlord form, said as she brought a hammer smashing down on incoming foes. It wasn’t a throwing hammer this time, but a regular old warhammer. It wasn’t anything special at all, just a huge hunk of metal that was only good for smashing. However, in the hands of the enormous Ortlinde Overlord, it was a brutal weapon of mass destruction.
The golden Skeleton pilots that had fallen from the Fake Gears I’d smashed were turned into paste by Sue’s furious hammer attacks. Those that tried to get out of the way were trampled by Ortlinde’s feet. It was an utter massacre; none of them managed to escape.
Sue’s Ortlinde may have shimmered a similar gold to the Fake Gears, but it was clearly leagues ahead of them in terms of might.
“Hiyah!”
Ortlinde swung its hammer like a golf club, sending several Fake Gears flying into the distance. The airborne enemies were promptly dispatched with pin-point accuracy by Yumina’s Brunnhilde. Thanks to her precision, we were able to press on without worrying about what was behind us.
“Gaaaaaah!”
Elze, presumably emboldened by the knowledge of that safety, had her Gerhilde charge into the enemy ranks and started brawling. At least, I hoped that was why she was being so reckless. Gerhilde shattered each and every Fake Gear that dared to step near it.
“SMASH!”
Gerhilde’s fist smashed into one of the Fake Gear cockpits, following it up instantly with an [Explosion]-propelled pile bunker blast that completely annihilated the Skeleton inside. Just to be certain, Elze stomped on the fallen Skeleton fragments. It would’ve been a waste if the core survived, after all.
“Kokonoe Secret Style: Bee Stinger!”
“Lestian Sacred Sword: Fifth Swirl!”
The purple samurai and the orange knight stood back to back, shattering Fake Gear cockpits on either side of them. Yae masterfully handled her Schwertleite alongside Hilde’s Siegrune. The two of them slashed foe after foe, staying back to back in perfect tandem. With each flash of their blades, more muddy-golden fragments fell to the ground.
Bullets flew in from afar to finish off the Skeletons in the wreckage. They were fired by Lu’s Waltraute, which was equipped with the C-Unit for long-range engagement. The emerald-green Frame Gear launched payloads that exploded above the enemy, bursting into a shower of [Gravity]-enchanted phrasium fragments that rained down on the fallen foes. The attack worked much like the cluster attacks I employed against Upper Constructs in the past.
Leen’s Grimgerde, which had recovered from its cooldown period, was launching similar attacks.
High up in the air, Linze’s Helmwige soared across the battlefield. She was relaying real-time intelligence about battlefield changes to us. Linze was also casting [Ice Wall] from above, blocking off enemy groups as necessary, and luring them into traps. It was pretty amazing.
I looked to the side and saw Ende’s Dragoon veering away from the battle. Of course, I knew that he wasn’t fleeing. I could see that he was luring several of the stronger, spiked Fake Gears away with him.
Since I left the Phrase General Xeno to Ende’s group, I released the [Prison] spell I’d placed around the three girls’ cores. That effectively meant they were broadcasting their position to the mutants in the area.
Thus, Xeno would be able to see that the Sovereign was right before him. In effect, that turned them into bait. I was still a little worried about the size of the group Xeno had with him, though...
“Hey, Ende. Seems like you’re pretty popular right now. You gonna be able to manage?”
“Pfft. Don’t give me that, Touya. You’re way more popular. But don’t worry, the ones chasing us aren’t mutants. They’re Dominant Constructs, regular ones, just like Melle and the others. Pure Phrase from the homeworld.”
That information confused me. I wondered if there was some reason they hadn’t been converted.
“Elze, Sakura. Sorry for the trouble but can you lend Ende some help? Just stick to supporting him, don’t charge in.”
“Mmh... Fine... Guess I can help out my useless fellow disciple...”
“Are they slowing you down, Grand Duke...? They deserve to be reprimanded...”
“Touya... Your brides-to-be are a little bit...”
“A-A little what? W-Wonderful? I know!” I answered quickly, since Elze and Sakura were still on the line. I couldn’t exactly say anything bad about them while they were in earshot!
There were about twenty of the spiked Fake Gears heading after Ende’s Dragoon. Gerhilde and Rossweisse came up from behind them, hot on their tail.
I decided to entrust them with handling that situation, so I could focus on the battle at hand.
“This’ll do,” Ende proclaimed as he spun his Dragoon around, ready to face his pursuers head-on.
“Are you ready for this?”
“I am. Who else could put an end to this but me?”
Ende’s lover, the Sovereign that once reigned at the apex of Phrasium life, nodded solemnly. And, after hearing her resolve, Ende didn’t hesitate to press down on the button that opened the cockpit hatch.
The monitor in front of them rose upward, and dim, natural light shone down on to them both. Melle stood proudly atop the opened hatch, silently staring across the plain. Her visage was an imposing one, in all honesty. She shone with the majesty that suited the title of Sovereign. Ende couldn’t help but think she was far more regal than a certain grand duke they both knew. She’d already removed the illusion pendant that she’d received from Touya. She chose to stare down the incoming enemies with her true body, with her ice-blue eyes.
Ney and Lycee, true to their roles as her personal guards, stood in their true forms as well. Each stood atop one of the Dragoon’s hands, lying in wait.
Once the Fake Gears made it a certain distance from them, they stopped moving. Then, following suit with the Dragoon, the Fake Gear hatches opened as well. The comparatively tiny forms within were revealed to be crystal-clad beings of pure phrasium, Dominant Constructs.
The hatch of the largest Fake Gear opened up, revealing a much more imposing Phrase lifeform. He stood with his arms folded, prompting Melle and the others to narrow their eyes. He was a Dominant Construct with jagged, blood-red crystals clumped around his body. The Phrase were not a species that aged. They grew from cores, manifested a physical form, and at a certain point they reached maturity and no more physical changes came about. It wasn’t too dissimilar to how elves and fairies aged.
The man who stood before Melle and the others looked to be in his early twenties if viewed through a human lens. His eyes were sharp and narrow, like that of a hawk. His face was plastered with an arrogant grin. Back on Phrasia, this powerful creature had served as general, leading countless Phrase soldiers into battle against their enemies. His name was Xeno.
“Been a while, Sovereign. You’re looking plenty healthy.”
“I am Sovereign no more. I don’t need your false pleasantries, General... No, Xeno. Answer me this. Why did you leave Phrasia? I left you orders to stand by the new Sovereign’s side, did I not?”
There was a fair bit of distance between the two, but communication didn’t appear to pose any problems. It seemed that Dominant Constructs had some form of intuitive understanding in that regard.
The conversation extended to Ney, Lycee, and even Ende. The only ones who wouldn’t be able to understand the conversation were Elze and Sakura. They’d have been able to hear that some kind of noise was being transmitted, but they’d fail to grasp the intricacies of the conversation.
“The next Sovereign, you say? Sorry to say it, ma’am. That little runt doesn’t have what it takes. Hell, don’t those two weaklings next to you agree? They left Phrasia to look for you, didn’t they? It’s only natural we wouldn’t want our species to suffer under such weak rule.”
Touya’s going to be okay, you know? He got separated from everyone else, but it’ll only be for a little while. He’ll be back soon, you know??
Those words eased Yumina’s heart. It was true that Karen liked to tease and mess around, but she wouldn’t lie about something of this magnitude. If she said Touya would be coming back, then it had to be true. Yumina believed in Karen whole-heartedly. Everyone had their confidence restored by her words, leading them to take the advantage over the Skeletons again.
It’s a little dangerous over there right now, you know? I think you should make a break for it.?
“Huh?”
Just as Yumina was about to question what Karen meant, the ground began to rumble and shake.
“An earthquake? But how?”
“Gh... The space is breaking down!” Ende grumbled as he smashed another Skeleton.
“We need to get out of here. This whole pocket dimension is about to collapse. If we’re still in here it’ll crush us with it. Melle, can you take us out of here?”
“I can. But what about Touya?”
“He won’t be beaten by something this small. I’m sure he’ll be back before we know it,” Ende proclaimed. He did not doubt that Touya would be okay. Touya was a dependent of the god of worlds, a being far above his incredible master. Ende knew that Touya wouldn’t die even if he was killed. It was basically a waste of time to worry about his odds of survival.
Melle spread out her crystal vines on the ground by Ende’s side. They formed a wide circle.
“Everyone! Get in the circle!”
The girls all entered the circle, bashing a few Skeletons on their way. Ende hopped into the circle last, and the circle spread out, producing more vines that pierced through several Skeletons.
Melle took that opportunity to trigger her dimensional transfer ability, taking the entire group with her. But... within the rumbling, collapsing dimension, another sound rang out. The sound of a shell splitting open.
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