Ishura - Volume 5 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Sixth Match

In the Sixways Exhibition, the desperate fights to the death didn’t only unfold between the hero candidates standing on the battlefield. Negotiating the terms and conditions, and beginning with a battlefield and match date that would guide said candidates to victory, was a serious matter handled by the candidates’ sponsors, holding sway over their political careers.

The Coordinating Room—meeting premises used to host such negotiations—had been newly constructed to coincide with the opening of the Sixways Exhibition. The Coordinating Room was protected by strict security, and sponsors were able to hold one-on-one negotiations with guaranteed safety. Inside the facility, there were several other rooms in addition to the main meeting room, including a nap room, all constructed with the estimation that a single period of negotiations could potentially take up more than a day’s time.

The day before the Sixth Match. Brilliant balloons were coloring the sky, and the sound of fireworks had continued unabated since noon.

“Now then, Kaete. I don’t really think there’s any reason to alter the match conditions at this point in the game. The citizens are looking forward to tomorrow’s fight. In which case, it’s our duty to make sure their expectations are met without incident.”

“…Expectations? Hmph. What should I care about the expectations of the ignorant rabble?”

The two people facing each other in the Coordinating Room were the sponsors involved in Sixth Match. Aureatia’s Fourth Minister and Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge’s sponsor, Kaete the Round Table. Aureatia’s Thirteenth Minister and Zeljirga the Abyss Web’s sponsor, Enu the Distant Mirror.

Kaete folded his legs with a pompous flair, while conversely, Enu looked just as expressionless as usual.

“They’re no different from a pack of soulless wild beasts. They fear, flee, and, in the depths of their hearts, crave a new tragedy. That foolish nonsense is nothing but a way to vent a fear that’s taken on a new shape.”

To Kaete the Round Table, it appeared like not one person understood the true nature behind it all—or, perhaps, tried not to see it. Even after the True Demon King was dead, many fools longed for their own destruction.

The New Principality of Lithia was burned to ash. Both Aureatia and Lithia themselves should have been able to adopt some other means to solving the situation.

Gruesome massacres were occurring out on the frontier, like what had happened at Alimo Row. People who persisted in their oppression of the Order appeared from among the citizenry, and the Old Kingdoms’ loyalists’ lust for war led them to take advantage of the Particle Storm.

In the fourth match, in full view of the public, the man who was supposed to be a symbol of hope—Rosclay the Absolute—was reduced to a pitiful state. It was the Aureatia public itself that had hoped for such a sight.

This world continued to go mad.

“By exposing the states of these hero candidates killing each other to the public, we’re substituting where they’re focusing their urge for slaughter. Ultimately, the goal of this Sixways Exhibition is to add more fuel onto the flames of violence.”

“As a method of public control, that may indeed be quite an intriguing discussion. You’re striking right to the essence, in a certain sense.”

Enu merely nodded slightly. Kaete couldn’t read any emotion from his wide, owlish eyes.

“…And what’s the topic of our negotiations, exactly?” asked Enu.

“The venue for the sixth match has been changed.”

“…What?”

“I’ll say it again, in case you didn’t hear me. The sixth match is going to take place not in the castle garden theater, but in the old town plaza, like for the first match.”

Kaete told him, as if it was a completely settled matter.

Even after receiving Kaete’s entirely too one-sided notice, Enu showed no signs of agitation. He remained dispassionate and cold as he replied:

“We reached a consensus regarding the arena in talks two big months ago. Talks between you and myself. This has already been accepted by the council, and even should either one of us have a desire to change it, it should be impossible to overrule that. Or perhaps this is some new attempt at a joke, Kaete?”

“The real joke is that bold-faced performance of yours. Did you really think you could finish your little survey of the castle garden theater without me finding out?”

“Hmm? Find out or not, that is nothing but an urban surveying plan that I previously submitted to the assembly, progressing as scheduled. It’s part of my official duties within the Twenty-Nine Officials, so if anything, it would be a bigger problem if you didn’t know about it.”

“A piss-poor front, I’d say.”

Enu’s urban surveying plan had been thrust through hastily, using a transport stoppage that occurred in Gimeena City as an excuse. His claim was that he needed to perform surveys and studies as part of an effort to streamline the traffic in the vicinity of the castle garden theater, seeing as it was going to be the biggest nucleus of traffic as the Sixways Exhibition continued.

“Fair enough—it was approved, wasn’t it? Then why don’t I cut down some of the time and effort that ‘work’ of yours will take? The castle garden theater… Right this moment, your men are surveying it. Am I right?”

There was an intense tremor.

While the sound was small and far in the distance, even the walls of the Coordinating Room swayed with a deep and low quake.

“……”

“Now, I’ll ask you again. What were your men doing?”

There were no windows in the Coordinating Room. However, at that moment, there was a thin black cloud trailing up to the sky in the direction of the castle garden theater.

Inferring from the scale of the explosion, the conclusion would probably be that at least a full storeroom of firepower must have been ignited. It was an amount of explosives that absolutely couldn’t be smuggled in by one or two intruders, and Kaete’s camp wouldn’t be brought up as part of the criminal investigation—

Composition C-4.

—so long as they based their thought on this world’s level of technology.

It was a highly effective plastic explosive from the Beyond, able to be detonated remotely.

“…Kaete. Do you know what you’ve done?”

“You’re wrong there. What you’ve done. Assuming that right now, there was some sort of accident in the area around the castle garden theater…and the busy team performing the survey work was not only unable to find anything out of the ordinary, but moreover, unable to provide a single piece of evidence to who the culprit was, then I’m sure you realize who’ll be the first one suspected.”

One day was left before the beginning of the sixth match.

Enu’s survey was suspicious, but there wasn’t any time to grasp what sort of foul play he was devising.

However, if there was someone whose position appeared dubious in the eyes of many, the solution was simply to then make the suspected foul play a reality.

“The investigation into the explosion will take three days, at least. Renovating the castle garden theater’s security based on the investigation, two days. Let’s test that duty you spoke about to the test. Go ahead—try holding the match without incident.”

“……”

Changing the date the day before the match. Common sense dictated such a reckless act would be impossible.

However, Kaete the Round Table was a despot. He had been capable of going through with a rather reckless plan of his own, knowing full well that there was the chance that innocent civilians would get caught in the explosion. If anything, some number of victims made it all the better for him.

The masses were nothing more than beasts being led by fear in the form of the Sixways Exhibition. In which case, if a different fear was thrust straight out in front of them, they were sure to want a venue change for the match themselves.

“Now then. As of just a moment ago, we need to adjust the conditions of the match. We’re going to delay the sixth match and change the venue to the old town plaza. If you have an alternative solution, go ahead and give it, Enu the Distant Mirror.”

“…It appears I don’t have any choice. Naturally, I will have them investigate this bombing. I’m sure it won’t take them long to prove who ordered it.”

“Hmph. Suppose I’ll hope for the same.”

Kaete the Round Table was a despot, but because the ignorant masses were as they were, he was thoroughly aware of what sort of actions they’d take.

Even if they tried to obey the previously agreed-upon rules and made the match take place in the garden theater, with the fear of another explosion, they wouldn’t be able to overcome the citizens’ protest. Holding a match in the castle garden theater now was an unrealizable and reckless move. No matter what Enu the Distant Mirror may have been scheming to do to the venue, this one move had changed everything.

Then as long as he fought through direct combat, where all intrigue held no meaning…Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge was an unrivaled hero candidate, in the truest meaning of the word.

If there was one point of concern left for Kaete, though…

“Enu. Let me ask you something,” Kaete said, stopping right before he was to leave the room. “You went and put down Obsidian Eyes, right? Did you really get inoculated with the antiserum?”

“Of course. You and I should’ve both gotten the serum around the same time.”

“…”

He was right. There wasn’t any room for doubt there. Even if Zeljirga was secretly maintaining her connection to Obsidian Eyes, it would have been inconceivable for her sponsor, Enu, to be manipulated, too.

“…Enu. Why then…are you taking on the Sixways Exhibition?”

“There needs to be another method aside from fear to control the people,” Enu replied matter-of-factly in a flat tone.

“If that’s your thinking, well, I strongly feel that way, too. While we may become enemies, on that point alone, I sympathize with you.”

Kaete didn’t turn around to look back at Enu, but there was a terribly eerie sound to his words.

Just where did this man’s goals lie…?

“I couldn’t care less. You’ll be knocked out of the tournament in this fight anyway,” said Kaete.

Finished with his meeting in the Coordinating Room, Kaete met up with Haizesta on his way out.

Though they were both among the Twenty-Nine Officials, the sight of Kaete wearing a picture-perfect bureaucrat outfit while walking alongside Haizesta and his dingy unshaven face must have made for a terribly abnormal combination.

“The explosion was a success.”

Haizesta the Gathering Spot’s role had been to remotely detonate the high explosive, which had been placed inside a food storehouse near the castle garden theater, while observing the flow of the crowds from a high vantage point.

“For injuries, there are only three or so people with light wounds. Just enough to leave behind some wounded, but not enough to kill… Nyeh-heh-heheh. One of ’em was a woman aged like a fine wine, too… Maybe I’ll send her some flowers while she’s in the hospital. Nheheh…”

“No nonsense. I’ll cut your head off.”

“It’s a joke. I know plenty well that it’d be real bad to leave any evidence behind for this little op… Still, you sure we shouldn’t have used those drones? And here I finally got used to controlling the buggers…”

“The superiority of those reconnaissance drones lies in the display that transmits images instantly. We need to generate power and charge them every time they’re activated, and someone always has to be there controlling it. If we’re looking for a machine we can utilize at will, then the golems Kiyazuna the Axle makes are far superior.”

“Well now. That’s really something.”

Tricking the eyes of Enu’s soldiers who were in the area while they were conducting their survey, then setting up the explosion mechanism had been extremely simple. Using one of Kiyazuna’s mini flying golems, they slipped through the surveillance network from midair, cutting off the high explosive and dropping it below.

In the future, this sort of bombing tactic could make it possible to bring down an enemy army without a single personnel loss.

“Anyway, just relax, okay? I didn’t give any room for Enu to come up with some excuse, trust me. It exploded in a way that ensured the citizens witnessed it all, not just that guy’s subordinates, too. Nyeh-heh-heheh. Gonna take up a whole bunch of his time and energy just to clear his name…”

“Hopefully.”

Kaete didn’t want to defeat and degrade Enu, but he didn’t want to stop it from happening, either.

To prepare for the day when he’d be going up against Rosclay’s camp, he simply wanted to dispose of any unpleasant obstacles he could, even if only temporarily.

“What about your job, then, huh?” queried Haizesta.

“I got Enu’s word. I had anticipated the chance he’d come after me, as the sponsor, myself, but… Hmph. Looks like a letdown in that regard.”

Kaete took out the tiny machine he had hidden in his clothes. It wasn’t a weapon from the Beyond. It was a small golem that Kiyazuna had created with specialized sensory abilities. If anyone besides Kaete and Enu had broken into the facility, it would have detected them with its sonar mechanism, and it would’ve prepared to make the next move as necessary.

“Was there even a reason to be scared anyway? Like there’s any assassins out there who could sneak into the Coordinating Room,” said Haizesta.

“Stupid oaf. The fact that Aureatia soldiers have strictly tightened up the security and blocked anyone uninvolved from getting in…means that for someone with the skills to fool Aureatia soldiers, they could set up an attack completely unopposed. Assuming Enu is indeed allied with Obsidian Eyes, that place would give him his best chance. Even something so basic’s too much for you to understand?”

The Coordinating Room was supposed to be a safe zone, built for negotiations. As long as the Sixways Exhibition was involved, however, there wasn’t a true safe zone anywhere. That was the major premise behind this battle.

“…But even then, these enemies of ours never attacked… Well then. I mean, at that point, maybe it’d be fine to say Zeljirga’s clean… If anyone’s scheming anything, it’s on Enu’s end.”

“Except there’s no way of knowing what’s in that guy’s head. The man’s always been eerie.”

For starters, Kaete thought, why had Enu, who was supposed to be the head of the urban planning section, volunteered his name to subjugate the remnants of Obsidian Eyes? Around the time Aureatia was established and they began reorganizing the districts, he had worked together with the medical division as part of his metropolitan epidemic prevention plan. That connection, somewhere along the line, led him to being in charge of stamping out vampires.

Enu, too, possessed a highly trained field-operation squad, despite being a civilian official himself. Almost as if he had been aiming to stamp out Obsidian Eyes long before the start of the Sixways Exhibition—

“…Ha.”

Kaete laughed at himself derisively.

What, because he’s a creepy man? What about it?

In the end, Haizesta’s opinion on the subject was the more correct one. There wasn’t any need to read deeper into things and be afraid.

Even if they had held their match in the castle garden theater as scheduled, Mestelexil should have naturally claimed victory. There were no means that Enu could have at his disposal to surpass Mestelexil’s immortality.

At the very least, Kiyazuna and Haizesta had been asserting as much the whole time. Kaete may have been meaninglessly fighting against an invisible enemy and just exhausting himself in the process.

But there’s still a remote chance. Always.

Rosclay had avoided going up against Zeljirga. If, by any chance, Aureatia’s strongest man also had a hunch that there was something peculiar about her, it was indeed the insignificant opponent in the very first round whom he had to be the most proactive against. Kaete couldn’t help feeling like that was what his instincts were whispering to him.

…If, by any chance, there’s someone unknown to me making their moves…

Night. In a room inside the lakeside manor, a returned spy was giving his report.

“The match venue has been changed.”

Obsidian Eyes seventh-formation rear guard Wieze the Variation had a body that had been deformed from birth. He could only walk by crawling around on all fours, but his abilities of surveillance, lurking in gaps and high places, was exceptional.

“The sixth match will be delayed by two days, and it will be held in the old town plaza. The official announcement will likely come tomorrow morning.”

“…I see.”

Meanwhile, in the case of the young well-to-do woman receiving the report, everything about her outward appearance was put together perfectly. Vivacious and pale skin, together with a slender yet smoothly curvaceous body. She was the girl commanding Obsidian Eyes, named Linaris.

“We should think about how to act from here. Will you assist me while I get my thoughts in order?”

“Of course.”

Considering Kaete the Round Table’s temperament, she had predicted that there’d be some sort of interference in Enu’s survey plans. It wasn’t difficult to imagine that the smooth approval of the survey plan had happened with the intent of the leading faction to fan opposition like this to begin with.

Nevertheless, the enemy’s moves were far more forceful and destructive than she had expected. Never would she have imagined they would kick up an explosion themselves and make it impossible to use the castle garden theater as a whole.

“Will Aureatia be able to identify the criminal behind the explosive?”

“No. I stole the investigation data, but it seems impossible for simple gunpowder or oil to have caused it. Similarly, the method used to set up the explosive is unknown. Given it was such a large-scale explosion, I can only assume they used an extremely high-powered explosive that we have no knowledge of.”

“As long as the substance can’t be explained with our current sciences, then they can’t investigate the crime under the premise that such a thing exists. I see what they were doing.”

“At the very least, I don’t believe we will be able to grab any evidence on Kaete the Round Table before the start of the match. Changing the match venue is one thing, but…we didn’t anticipate we’d be unable to use the garden theater like this.”

While they needed to work out some sort of strategy, there weren’t many moves Linaris could make. The soldiers of Obsidian Eyes were powerful, but their group comprised barely ten people in total, and it would be premature to systematically mobilize the corpses they had lurking in various organizations.

Linaris placed a slender finger on her lips.

“…Could we show that the castle garden is safe? Control one of Master Kaete’s soldiers and make them surrender themselves as the criminal behind the explosion. So long as the perpetrator’s arrested and the goal behind the attack is brought to light, I’m sure it’ll make the people’s confusion subside faster.”

“I see. Just as our enemy created their own example of foul play, we can create our own criminal to be responsible for it. Indeed, I couldn’t think of a better way to get our revenge.”

“Tee-hee. Not that revenge was my intention, mind you.”

Linaris smiled stiltedly.

“At the very least, it will be necessary to fight Master Mestelexil in a match before the eyes of the public. My concern is that if another camp besides Master Kaete’s…such as Master Rosclay’s or Master Zigita Zogi’s camp were to bring Master Kaete’s faction down before the sixth match starts, we will end up losing our big chance.”

“…A two-day postponement. Hopefully, there won’t be any problematic developments until then.”

“First, we’ll get in touch with Miss Zeljirga and prepare to interfere with the other factions. More than anyone else, it will be Miss Zeljirga who will be the one putting her body on the line.”

Zeljirga the Abyss Web was sent out to do her street performances day and night, and it seemed as if she had absolutely no connection to the organization whatsoever. Even using drones, a technology they were totally ignorant of, proved unable to catch any suspicious movements on Zeljirga’s part.

Nevertheless, as long as she was among the land’s greatest spy guild, Obsidian Eyes, there was always a method to communicate with Linaris and the others.

The combination of the tricks she put on display. The order of colors to the balloons she brought out. The subtle differences in the shapes of her confetti. Zeljirga was constantly sending signals using her street performance—openly, in front of the public’s eyes. The techniques that could freely control the perceptions of others, making things visible but never revealing their truths, was Zeljirga the Abyss Web’s true power as a clown.

While maintaining her link to Obsidian Eyes, she moved out in the open as a hero candidate. It was something only she could do.

“Do you think Zeljirga…can win against this Mestelexil?”

“She doesn’t necessarily need to win. Just as long as she can survive.”

Linaris smiled.

The reason she made Zeljirga enter the Sixways Exhibition was definitely not to have her advance through the tournament. If Obsidian Eyes was only concerned with victory, the best method would be to assassinate the sponsors one by one and induce victories by default.

“Thank you very much, Master Wieze. You may return to your mission.

“Understood. If you’ll excuse me, my lady.”

Wieze departed the parlor.

“……”

This latest incident was an unexpected turn of events, but still tolerable. Obsidian Eyes would speedily carry out the young woman’s will without any changes. The sixth match was going to be held.

In just a few days…Miss Zeljirga will have to fight. Against Master Mestelexil, with her life on the line.

Every time she became cognizant of this reality, she felt fear coldly shiver down her back.

The fear that Zeljirga might die.

The fact that it was Linaris and Linaris alone who was leading this operation.

She had been forced to come to a decision. Gamble with Zeljirga’s life and take on the Sixways Exhibition? Or do nothing while they all eventually died off as ghosts of the times?

…It’s okay. I can do things like Father. When he levelheadedly treated everyone and everything like pawns…he always understood what the best possible options were… Always.

She pressed her hand up to her mouth. No one was watching. Wieze had left, and Linaris was alone in the large parlor.

An age of chaotic war that Father sought to realize…without anyone being sacrificed or anyone’s identities behind exposed. I… A daughter like me, at the very least, has to achieve that much.

Linaris had a brilliant talent for intrigue, but because of it, she knew how precarious it was.

Just as she had been unable to anticipate the castle garden theater explosion, Linaris knew there were bound to be unforeseeable circumstances. She was risking Zeljirga’s life, someone she loved like family, while based on this uncertain footing.

Everyone has done this. My father. And the leader before him… I must be able to do it, too.

The sixth match underwent major changes out of necessity, right before it began.

The match between Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge and Zeljirga the Abyss Web would occur not in the castle garden theater, where there had been a bombing, but in the old town plaza, where the first match took place.

Compensating the stores that served as brokers for the spectator seats had required an enormous sum, but Aureatia’s Third Minister Jel the Swift Ink had issued orders and directions to various places with incredible finesse—proving to all that even these circumstances were nothing more than one of the many possibilities that had been predicted ahead of time.

Mestelexil’s sponsor, Kaete the Round Table, glared at the venue from his sponsor-exclusive seat. Kiyazuna the Axle was there as well in the seat beside him.

“…Can’t say the conditions are great.”

Richly colored balloons floated in the blue sky, with a flurry of confetti waving in the air. A scene of festive citizenry.

“I had estimated with the sudden venue change that there’d be a bit of a smaller audience… With this, Mestelexil won’t be able to put his true value on display. Any gas or rocket bombs’ll get the rabble caught in the attack.”

As long as one was a hero candidate, a major premise to the title was that one needed to constantly demonstrate that they were an ally to the minian races.

Kaete was personally unconcerned if ten or a thousand of Aureatia’s citizens got caught up in the blast, but he wanted to avoid having Mestelexil get recognized as a self-proclaimed demon king and become targeted by the rest of the hero candidates as a threat to be culled.

“You stupid or what? Wasn’t any need for that sorta stuff to begin with. Against an opponent like Zeljirga, a little poke to the head, and it’ll be over. Her brains are gonna splatter everywhere! Hee-hee-hee-hee!”

“I don’t want to give Zeljirga any more time to set something up. It would be ideal to snuff her out with the opening punch right as the match begins.”

“Hell, that’s easy enough.”

Kiyazuna bit down on the sweet rice cake she’d purchased from one of the stalls. She was enjoying her life in Aureatia a little too much.

“Soujirou the Willow-Sword apparently used just a single sword to hold out against Ozonezma’s Gatling gun–like throwing-knife barrage. There’s the incident with Kuuro the Careful as well. Shooting her dead right from the start isn’t a guarantee, Grams.”

“Bah, enough! I’m sayin’ it’ll be easy-peasy! You think I haven’t anticipated that much?”

Mestelexil stood in the ring. Both of his shoulders were fitted with thin mailbox-shaped equipment, two lined together on each side.

“The LRAD 2000X. It’s a directional acoustic weapon that selectively suppresses targets in front of it. Sound doesn’t need any line of sight; there ain’t no way to preemptively fight against it, and you can’t block it with a shield, neither. The thing’ll blow out your ears if you get hit by it, sure, but the ones Mestelexil’s got have a lot more functionality than that. They’ll knock ya unconscious in an instant. Let ’em rip right as the match starts, and that’s it. The end.”

“…Seriously? They really can do everything, can’t they? Over in the Beyond.”

Kiyazuna the Axle seemed sloppy in every possible way, but at the same time, she was careful.

Spending a majority of her many years in the maelstrom of battle, the self-proclaimed demon king had inevitably grown into an unrivaled master of war.

“Time to see. Gonna be a hoot if that Zeljirga got scared and ran away.”

Right as Kiyazuna muttered this, a zmeu appeared on the opposite side of the arena. Zeljirga the Abyss Web.

She carried the fifty-centimeter-long bird puppet she had used for her street performance, Morf.

“My, my, my, look at this! I am glad to see all our guests are enjoying themselves! Don’t worry, though, I promise to bring even bigger smiles to your faces! Please, I would love if everyone here watched my ultimate performance!”

The cheers she received were largely made up of children’s voices.

“Zeljirgaaa!”

“Zeljirga’s here!”

“Hello, hello! Morf here is downright ecstatic to see you, too!”

Waving at the crowd, she took out a balloon for all to see and folded it around and around. Was it her pride as a clown that stirred her not to neglect her craft, even right before a true duel of life-and-death?

“…How’s it look to you, Grams?”

“Hah?”

“I’ve never heard of someone using a puppet to fight.”

“Well, it’s gotta be a weapon. No way it’s empty inside, that’s for sure. Whatever it is, Mestelexil’s X-ray sensor will see anything there clear as day. No damn point in trying to disguise it.”

The Sixways Exhibition was a one-on-one true duel. Just as it was for Toroa the Awful with his enchanted swords and Mestelexil’s acoustic weapons, as long as the combatant could wield their weapon unassisted, there wasn’t anything banned from being brought or used in the duel. Be it a firearm or a puppet.

“Z-Zeljirga!” Mestelexil shouted. He practically dashed over to Zeljirga as she entered the stadium. “W-will you, show me, your magic tricks again?”

“Yes! You’ll get to see the best of my craft! With that in mind, I do hope you’ll go easy on me, Mestelexil…or maybe you’ll be nice and lose for me, hmm?”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I am going, to win, for Mama! I’m not, holding back!”

“Isn’t that wonderful? Having someone to dedicate your victory to.”

Zeljirga squinted as she smiled.

Match six. Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge versus Zeljirga the Abyss Web.

“Silence, both of you.”

A large-framed woman stepped forward between the two, who were standing opposite each other.

Aureatia’s Twenty-Sixth Minister, Meeka the Whispered. A woman with a stern look of iron.

“Candidates are not to put on any sort of show unrelated to the match at hand. Understand, Zeljirga?”

“…Ahem! Oh, this was, well… Er, my apologies.”

“And to the other candidate, are you ready?”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I—I am ready!”

“This match will be like all the others. I shall lay out the accords of the true duel. One side is knocked down and doesn’t get up. One side willingly admits their defeat with their own words. These two outcomes shall decide the match! In regard to any matters outside these conditions, I, Meeka the Whispered, on my honor, will judge with impartiality. Do you both consent to these rules?!”

“Ah-hya-hya-hya-hyah! But of course! I, Zeljirga, shall fight fair and square!”

“I—I, I am! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! The strongest!”

“Mestelexil, I shall consider that your consent! At the sound of the band’s gun, begin!”

Meeka turned her back to the arena and retreated to her judge’s chair at the top of the stone steps.

Everything would start with the shot from the band—but right before that moment that all the onlookers would concentrate on…

“Ha-ha—”

…Mestelexil made an unexpected move. He whirled around and fired into the air.

He appeared to move faster than the ringing of the match’s starting signal.

“What in the—?”

Kaete looked at what Mestelexil had just fired at—a balloon. The balloon, descended down to an abnormally low altitude, was right around Kaete’s head.

The gunshot from the band rang. The match had begun. Zeljirga sprang into action.

Crap. Mestelexil…

The shot through the balloon ignited and then exploded.

…will respond to any danger to Grams before anything else!

White smoke poured from inside the balloon over the audience seats. Combined with the smoke screen from the fireworks Zeljirga had scattered at the start of the match, the audiences’ sights were completely blocked out.

“Whoa!”

“What’s going on?!”

“Was that an explosion?!”

Kaete’s sense of danger had been correct after all. Zeljirga had gotten the first move.

“…Dammit! Grams! You all right?!”

Mestelexil’s attack prior to the start of the fight fortunately hadn’t been seen as breaking the rules.

He had been manipulated into using what was supposed to be an instantaneously lethal opening move to instead shoot down the balloon.

“Nothing but cheap tricks! Mestelexil! Forget about it and shoot ’er dead!”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Gunshots, like a metallic scream, reverberated. The smoke screen, which blocked visible light, was also meaningless when up against Mestelexil’s array of sensors. The bullet holes from his Gatling gun bore through the uninhabited ruins of the old town, and they began to partially collapse in.

However, Zeljirga’s form wasn’t inside the smoke—in her place, the puppet she controlled came flying out alone.

It rushed with speed wholly inconceivable from any ordinary marionette. Mestelexil blocked it with an arm.

Even after being blocked, the puppet wasn’t repelled, continuing to rotate and spit out sparks with a high-pitched noise. It had speed and power that far exceeded any bullet.

“…Morf!”

Fooling the eyes of the audience with the balloon uproar and the smoke screen, Zeljirga hid herself in one of the abandoned ruins adjoining the plaza. Everything as of that moment had gone exactly as planned.

The residents in the vicinity of the old town plaza had been evicted in order to use the place as an arena for the Sixways Exhibition. Just as Psianop and Toroa had done in the first match, it was possible to dash inside said evicted buildings during the match—however, this was simply an exception to the rule that exploited a hole in the definition of the arena.

Using a mirror trick, she kept her eyes on Mestelexil.

…Let’s start with the opening move.

From her faraway position, Zeljirga was controlling the golem puppet, which was continuing to fly with abnormal power output, using the threads on her fingertips. The Morf puppet recited Word Arts.

“—Saknamop lastarmokg. (—Bore closing twilight)

“Amteneaor sharbardhor nes tort sind get zept merticst—” (Fill the vessel with corundom thorns, separate root, stem, and leaf from the horizontal plane knot, worldly affairs are gold—)

Coming up at the end of the incantation, Mestelexil reconstructed his right arm into a shotgun. The puppet radiated a bright heat ray, melting through part of the golem’s right arm and chest as it passed by Mestelexil. Mestelexil’s breast plating melted under the high heat, and for a moment, he lost sight of the speedily flying puppet. A heat-induced sensory error.

The puppet’s true identity was Reshipt Modified-II. A golem meant for suicide attacks, wholly specialized at its charging drill offensive and nothing else.

Obsidian Eyes had hidden this golem inside the balloon that had caused the earlier explosion. The doll that Zeljirga had initially brought in with her, similarly, was the necessary opening move to launch a surprise attack through its substitution.

Miluzi the Coffin Edict’s trump card. Compared with Mestelexil, its capabilities are almost laughably inferior.

Nevertheless, just as it had been with Reshipt and Nemerhelga…there was one sole part of its functionality that could stand shoulder to shoulder with Mestelexil’s abilities. Reshipt Modified-II was a model even further specialized in one particular function.

Zeljirga needed to constantly keep directing and controlling Reshipt Modified-II’s high-speed movements through her tarantula threads. Reshipt Modified-II wasn’t equipped with any directional capabilities of its own.

“Hrnk, phew… This…is seriously…hard…work!”

She wrapped the end of the threads—which were violently struggling under the tremendously high speeds—around the nails on the floor, dispersing her strength and using her fingers, and sometimes her feet and teeth, to handle the complicated and simultaneous controls. Every time she tried to pull a thread, her fingers would bear the load of its tremendous velocity, and blood seeped from Zeljirga’s fingertips. The bones in them would creak, and she bent them until they were just about to break.

Reshipt Modified-II went halfway around the arena, at high enough speeds to look like little more than a glint of light, and went behind Mestelexil.

Conversely, Mestelexil stood in the middle of the arena and didn’t move.

“O-oh, it’s you, Morf! What is it?”

However, he generated a countless number of gun barrels all over his body.

…Uh-oh.

She immediately let go of the threads around her fingers. Mestelexil’s precision deflection shooting landed three hits on Reshipt Modified-II as it flew at high speed. The only reason it wasn’t hit any further was because Zeljirga had released some portion of the threads, erratically altering its flight path.

With its trajectory thrown off by the shots, Reshipt Modified-II crashed down into the rubble and stopped.

I can’t believe it was able to immediately respond to such speeds…and shoot it down, too!

Reshipt Modified-II’s main body was protected in the front by sloped armor, so the crash didn’t cause a fatal malfunction. However, there was a slight distortion in its machinery. She could tell that through her threads.

“Hey, Mestelexil! That scrap heap’s just buying time! Find Zeljirga and kill her!”

Kiyazuna issued her orders with a loud shout.

Zeljirga didn’t let the chance slip by and pulled on the threads connecting to Reshipt Modified-II.

“G-g-got it! Mama—”

Charge again.

The golem furiously flew out from the mountain of debris. Its propulsion was still working.

It wasn’t aiming for Mestelexil. Without any directional control, Reshipt Modified-II pierced through to the second floor of the ruined residence. Raining down a shower of debris, it interfered with Mestelexil’s next move.

Only five left. No, six… I didn’t expect to have so many tarantula-silk control lines severed just to suppress his opening moves. I can probably only set up for one more attack. Dear me, honestly…

She heard a soft thud.

A pain in her upper left arm.

“……!”

It’d been pierced with an arrow.

When had he gotten in so close? She hadn’t sensed him at all.

Behind Zeljirga…a large number of machines, resembling bird skeletons, silently hovered in the air.

“Golems…!”

Autonomously driven, airborne, and tasked with searching for the enemy, even when Mestelexil wasn’t moving. Mestelexil was producing this swarm of golems right at the same time he was countering back against Reshipt.

The information had been obtained from the battle with the Particle Storm, and she would’ve known about this aspect of his unlimited capabilities.

A golem who could make golems.

“Ah-hyah-hyah-hayh… What does knowing about something like this even do for me?”

The golem swarm fired their arrows all at once. Zeljirga’s threads had caught up a majority of the golems right before they fired, mixing them into the debris to avoid the attack and live through the lethal storm.

She was skewered. Her left knee. Waist. Stomach. The tip of her left foot.

A fatal wound and a wound to both arms, which she used for her clown craft, were the only things she needed to avoid.

The attack wasn’t going to end here. The fact that the scouting golems had found where she was hiding meant…

Here it comes!

Using her uninjured right leg, she immediately jumped out of a window. An explosion.

Zeljirga tumbled out into the arena, as if swept away by the shock wave and air blast, which felt strong enough to shatter her bones.

The ruins that she had been hiding in moments prior had lost over half of its total cubic volume.

“SMAW rocket launcher.”

As Mestelexil muttered, he folded up the cannon barrel that had spread out from his waist, which had been opened up by his reconstruction.

Her wounds were deep. She had to handle the next attacks.

How? Where?

Mestelexil’s singular eye aimed at Zeljirga. On his back was some box-shaped equipment.

“Ah…hyah, well now…it’s good to see you aga—”

An invisible yet colossal something slammed Zeljirga’s body.

It was as if the very air itself had crushed her. It had surpassed the range of what her senses could tolerate, making her unable to perceive it as sound, either.

—A directional acoustic weapon.

“LRAD 2000X.”

Zeljirga lost consciousness.

“Hmph. We won, then.”

Sitting next to Kaete, Kiyazuna instead seemed displeased as she spoke.

At times like this, she felt absolute indignation at the fact that her son had been injured, however slightly—something her pupil Kaete could understand.

Since he, too, felt the same sort of anger.

“…The incident with the balloon was clearly an intentional accident. I was thorough in ensuring there were no traps in the arena, but…the sky was a blind spot even to me. I should have expected it.”

While he had correctly sensed some danger, he hadn’t been able to properly guard against it.

Mestelexil had won as if it was a matter of course, but Kaete himself truly felt like he had lost.

“Bah, who cares? It wasn’t much of a problem anyway.”

“Mestelexil has a semiautomatic counterattack logic incorporated into his construction. That’s why they didn’t fill it with explosives, but a smoke screen heavier than air. It’s just a golem puppet, but I can’t believe that some connection of Enu’s was able to make something so well-built.”

“Nah. That thing’s one of Miluzi’s golems.”

“…It’s what?”

Surprisingly, Kiyazuna was gazing down at the battlefield, still propping up her cheek on one hand. Or rather, she was staying on guard.

Miluzi the Coffin Edict. The person who developed this world’s steam engines. A self-proclaimed demon king recognized in the later days of the True Demon King’s age, and whose whereabouts were unknown. In particular, he was said to rival even Kiyazuna the Axle when it came to the level of completion he had in his golems.

“The individual quirks of the creator show up in how a golem’s made. That puppet there was definitely made by Miluzi, but…Miluzi’d make something like that? Strange.”

“Huh? I have absolutely no idea what that’s supposed to mean…!”

“The design philosophy behind it ain’t his style. It’s almost as if some other person was forcing him to—”

Kiyazuna’s words stopped there.

There was a strange phenomenon in the area. Zeljirga was standing up.

“Hey. Grams.”

“Nah-uh, no way…it’s impossible. Physically impossible.”

There existed examples of warriors who had lost consciousness without falling down and still continued to stand. However, after getting directly hit by an acoustic weapon and fainting, getting back up from the ground should have been impossible.

“Proceed,” the adjudicator Meeka tersely declared.

Ahhh, this is funny, so funny. The ground’s wobbling back and… No, that’s not it.

Aware of the fact that she had stood up on her own feet, Zeljirga strove to maintain her consciousness.

If she didn’t stand up, there was a chance she may never wake up.

She had fallen into a dreamless darkness up until just a moment ago.

I’m the one who’s wobbling, and I…I’m fighting.

She moved her fingers. One, two, three. Using the movements that had become customary from her training with threads, she regained the sense that she was herself.

“Huh? We’re still, fighting? Okay, then i-if I…defeat her, one more time, I win!”

The adjudicator Meeka appeared to be explaining to Mestelexil why the match was restarting.

She was grateful. Right now, a few brief seconds were more valuable to her than tens of years.

Pathetic, Zeljirga the Abyss Web. Mestelexil being an invincible and immortal golem, all of it… You knew all that a long time ago.

Her standing up just now wasn’t due to Zeljirga’s own strength, either—there was someone who was moving her body and had made her stand up in her stead.

The two had made a promise to do just so in case of an emergency.

Zeljirga was one of Linaris’s corpses.

Thank you very much. My lady.

Zeljirga had volunteered to be a hero candidate in the Sixways Exhibition. That was easily done. Most who willingly undertook these sort of missions would find themselves on the borderline between life and death. For her…for someone from the old Obsidian Eyes, this was simply a part of everyday life.

It must have been a heartbreaking feeling for Linaris. That was all the more reason for Zeljirga to laugh.

“…Hya, ah-hya…”

“Zeljirga. M-Meeka…told me something g-good!”

Mestelexil’s singular eye rolled around his head with excitement.

“She said, it’s okay, for you to surrender! If you do…I won’t, have to kill you, will I?! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Since, you are, my friend!”

“Ahhh, yes…that’s right… Silly me. I forgot.”

Having watched so many children delight at her craft, Zeljirga understood. Mestelexil was an invincible weapon. Nevertheless, at the same time, he was a young child.

Except in this world, there were children who could kill even those they once saw as friends.

Zeljirga was just such a creature. Mestelexil was likely the same.

Creatures of battle, who definitely couldn’t live in a world of peace.

The minute nicks gouged into Mestelexil’s armor had long been repaired.

The smoke screen was gone, and there was nowhere to hide. Zeljirga was covered in wounds from head to toe, and she was facing Mestelexil head-on. The gap in their strength was so vast that she knew the moment Mestelexil shifted his gun barrel the slightest millimeter, that alone would blast her from this world into the next.

We don’t need to win.

Obsidian Eyes’ duty was not combat. It was fair for her to say that the moment she got into a battle with Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge, that alone meant defeat.

“Zeljirga the Abyss Web, do you wish to surrender?”

But there’s also no need to lose, then, is there?

Zeljirga shook her head in reply to Meeka the Whispered’s question.

“Ah-hyah-hyah… Before I end up losing here, there’s only one thing I want to do. Since you’re a friend of mine, Mestelexil…”

Gasping for breath in her current state, Zeljirga produced her final weapon.

“…this is for you.”

“Candy—”

It was just a piece of candy.

At that moment, Mestelexil turned around in the direction of Kiyazuna. In that instant that he took his focus off Zeljirga, she released the final two threads she had kept gripped tight in her hand.

“Again… Attack again!”

From the sidelines as the pair faced off, Reshipt Modified-II, all its moorings released, flew ferociously into the air. It rammed itself straight into Mestelexil’s chest like a warhead and begin digging into him.

“Resipkt io halese. Win halt elk, nertak mamert—” (From Reshipt to Halesept’s eyes. Gear in the soil, flower petals as golden film—)

Rotate. Bore. Incant.

“Wh-what?”

“—Saknamop lastarmokg.” (—Bore closing twilight.)

Reshipt Modified-II fired a heat ray from completely point-blank range. Heat arts radiated from its built-in magical tool at its maximum energized state. Together with a temperature hot enough to melt its own body down, Reshipt Modified-II penetrated even further and tried to pierce all the way—to Mestelexil’s life core, the homunculus.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! That, tickles!”

Then it was smashed into smithereens.

Mestelexil hadn’t even needed to rebuild his weaponry. With his individual power output, which surpassed any and all other golems, he had simply crushed Reshipt Modified-II, which had been digging into his plating, with his fist.

Neither defenses that could withstand gunfire nor the offensive power to pierce through armor were a match for Mestelexil’s capabilities.

However.

“My lady…”

Zeljirga the Abyss Web couldn’t have possibly overlooked that ever-so-brief moment when the golem was destroyed.

A fine thread, impossible to catch without straining the eyes long and hard, was stretching into the crack in Mestelexil’s head section.

Reshipt Modified-II was the guide for Zeljirga’s thread.

“…I, Zeljirga the Abyss Web, to live up to your faith in me, have successfully pulled off my performance.”

Like a spider’s web after the rain, there was a trick to make water droplets blanket a thread.

It may have been nothing but an inconsequential bit of street magic, useless in battle.

A single meager drop of the blood-borne pathogen afflicted the homunculus life core.

“……”

“Mestelexil. This gambit…”

The perfectly ordinary piece of candy fell to the ground.

That day she first met Mestelexil, Zeljirga had shown him a piece of candy right before shooting at Kiyazuna. The reason he had suddenly turned back to Kiyazuna was because that threat had been instilled in him subconsciously.

“…wouldn’t have been possible if you weren’t my friend.”

The strongest weapon in the land lost power right on the spot, collapsed, and didn’t get up.

“What…What happened?”

Despite watching the whole battle right from the sidelines, Kaete the Round Table couldn’t comprehend the conclusion.

Mestelexil was an immortal construct. If the golem died, the homunculus would regenerate the golem, and if the homunculus died, the golem would regenerate the homunculus. On top of it, annihilating both at the same time was impossible.

In the unlikely scenario where defeating Mestelexil was possible, it still shouldn’t have looked anything like what had played out before them.

“Hey! Mestelexil! Get up—what’s wrong with you?! You’re gonna lose!”

Kiyazuna stood up, her vigor suggesting she might barge into the arena at any moment. Kaete had to stop her from rampaging out of control, but he had an even more terrifying premonition.

A surprise attack from above… Was something that mundane really the truth behind this terrible foreboding? An attack using a balloon would have been utterly impossible to pull off in the castle garden theater, the original venue. Why did one of Miluzi’s golems show up here out of the blue? The balloon isn’t the only problem… My attempt to change the arena… Mestelexil’s participation in the Sixways Exhibition in the first place… If there was someone…pulling the strings to make all that happen…

“Mestelexil! C’mon!”

“…! Grams, get back!”

Kaete immediately pulled Kiyazuna’s hand. Suddenly getting up, Mestelexil rushed toward Kaete and Kiyazuna’s spectator seats. Leveling and demolishing the seats, the golem continued on unfazed through the old town.

Meeka the Whispered shouted:

“Fourth Minister Kaete! Apprehend Mestelexil this instant! Sponsors must have control over their hero candidates! I rule that he has fled from the match!”

“How dare you order me…!”

Kaete had to instantly quell his rage.

Kiyazuna was already running off without a word. His only option was to follow after her.

No one outside Kaete’s camp could have understood just how abnormal the situation was, whether he tried to explain it or not. There shouldn’t have been anyone out there in the world who had more control over Mestelexil than Kiyazuna the Axle.

“This ain’t his own will,” Kiyazuna muttered as they ran. “He can become independent someday and turn against me, I don’t care, but this is something else entirely!”

“Then is there some sort of technology that could steal control from you…?! He may be a golem, but he’s still just a machine!”

“No. Unauthorized hacking, credential spoofing—all that only works for machines from the Beyond. Golems are Word Arts creatures. Controlling authority? That couldn’t—”

Right as they approached an old town back alley, Kiyazuna suddenly stopped.

He was the only example in the land of a construct being controlled under two different wills. Therefore, if he did have a vulnerability that couldn’t exist in other golems…

“…It could. Of course. The shared curse…! Mestel and Exil’s lives are both equally valuable, but Exil has more authority, since it holds the knowledge from the Beyond! If they had to make judgments with the same authority, it’d disrupt the order of command! You understand this reasoning here, Kaete?!”

“Roughly, sure! But are you saying they killed the homunculus side, then?!”

“That stupid puppet was aiming for Mestelexil’s head section right from the damn start! If you’re talking about a living, breathing creature, than there’s one thing that’ll force ’emselves into an ultimate position of authority!”

“…Vampires…! So Zeljirga really is linked up with Obsidian Eyes?!”

It was a difficult conclusion to accept. Kaete had painstakingly confirmed for himself that it wasn’t possible.

Did Enu the Distant Mirror know what was going on? Exactly how far had the roots of this conspiracy spread?

“What other explanation is there?! Those bastards… I’ll flatten ’em all! This is war!”

“I told you, just calm down! You might not know this, Grams, but there’s more to turning someone into a corpse than just wounding them! You need to administer a considerable amount of the parent unit’s bodily fluids to do it! Isn’t it unnatural that the wounds from this fight would’ve been enough to infect him?! So just one drop or some fine particles wouldn— Gaugh!”

Kaete was suddenly grabbed by the nape of his neck and dragged down to the ground.

He could tell that something had flown right over him, a hairbreadth above his nose. A chakram.

“We gotta do this fast! They’re already here to finish the job!”

Kiyazuna was staring up at the roof of a building at the end of the street. There, set on all fours, was a bizarre-looking minia. Kaete jolted up like a spring and immediately drew his sword.

“Grams!”

A lycan, emerging like a shadow, stopped Kaete’s sword with his large claws.

Up until that second, he hadn’t noticed him drawing near—the footsteps had been inconceivably silent despite his massive frame.

“Grrrrr.”

When the lycan gave a low growl, Kaete’s sword was twisted under the enemy’s grip, which was beginning to shove Kaete along with it. Kaete immediately took his hand off his sword and prioritized covering his ears more than defending himself.

The lycan swung his claws up into the air, and the sniper from afar readied two new chakrams.

“Good job coverin’ those ears, Kaete!”

There was an explosion of bright light. The violently loud roar shook all the lycan’s five senses, and thanks to the light, nearly as bright as the sun itself, the faraway sniper lost sight of their target, too.

The hexagonal and cylindrical weapon Kiyazuna the Axle threw was an M84 stun grenade.

“Great, now we gotta scram!”

“I can’t hear a single thing you’re saying!”

As the concussive sound and bright light subsided, the two figures disappeared.

The old town plaza began to fill with nervous and confused whispers.

Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge had suddenly lost control after losing the match, then disappeared somewhere. A sight yet to be seen in any of the other five matches.

However, amid all the hubbub, there was a single young girl heaving a relieved sigh.

Her face was covered in a black veil, concealing her eye-catching beauty.

…Thank goodness. I’m so glad. Truly…truly so happy.

There was someone who had been manipulating Zeljirga’s physical body while she was unconscious, as well as Mestelexil’s, who’d been newly brought under her command. The vampire parent unit, Linaris, had needed to be there in attendance.

Without making a single conspicuous movement, Linaris had simply used her thoughts to command her corpses from her seat in the audience.

I was able to spare Zeljirga’s life. It all went…exactly according to my calculations.

From the very start, Obsidian Eyes had intended on making the arena change from the garden theater to the old town plaza.

By using all the obstacles available in the ruined buildings and audience seating, they were able to limit the weapons Mestelexil could utilize and cause a distraction from above with their balloon trap. Furthermore, with the last-minute venue change, they hadn’t given any time to the other factions besides Kaete’s camp to set up some large scheme for the match, either.

Kaete the Round Table was an arrogant man filled with self-confidence. Even though they were the very citizens he was supposed to govern, he didn’t hesitate to refer to those he deemed lacking in ability as ignorant rabble. However, on the other hand, he was extremely sharp-witted when it came to the movements of those he acknowledged as superbly capable—he had a psychological tendency to be deeply suspicious of everything and everyone.

Zeljirga’s thread attacks, no matter what sort of strategy she tried to employ, would be incapable of defeating Mestelexil. In which case, Kaete the Round Table would believe there was some sort of scheme beyond them.

In order to lend support to those suspicions, Enu started his surveying operation. Kaete would then suspect his enemy was setting up some sort of trap in the castle garden theater. Since Zeljirga alone had no means of victory, Kaete would assume a scheme involving the arena would be the only way to defeat Mestelexil and then investigate into the truth behind said scheme.

However, there wasn’t anything to find in the castle garden theater. Enu had simply been surveying the area, and nothing more.

They’d been setting up something, but there wasn’t actually anything at all.

There was only one method left for Kaete to escape from his misgivings:

Fundamentally changing the location of the duel itself.

Then a request to change venues was put forth, just as Linaris had anticipated, and the match occurred under terms that gave Obsidian Eyes a one-sided advantage.

Obsidian Eyes’ intelligence gathering had begun long before the beginning of the Sixways Exhibition. The battle with the Particle Storm, which had called all the shura to one location, was something that Linaris had plotted herself, mobilizing Atrazek the Particle Storm to do so.

The plan was to observe the monsters that had been drawn together and ascertain which would be the most useful pawn among them.

The answer was Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge.

With this, we don’t even need to fight in this Sixways Exhibition anymore.

Linaris the Obsidian’s supernatural ability of forced control through airborne infection was without equal, but it wasn’t totally invincible.

Most of the important figures like those in Twenty-Nine Officials and the Queen had been inoculated with the antiserum. It was also powerless against constructs that didn’t have any blood. While it was a power that could limitlessly manipulate soldiers and the public, what about when it was against the sort of eminently powerful people nominated as hero candidates? Fragile Linaris herself had to infect them directly, or she needed to stand up against them with someone mightier.

The Sixways Exhibition imposed the restraints of a royal tournament on these powerful individuals, and it was an event that made it possible to fight under fixed match conditions.

With this, we’ve gained it for ourselves…the military strength to bring down the mightiest players directly.

Mestelexil was now a part of Obsidian Eyes.

A golem, a homunculus, and a corpse.

A factory producing weapons from the Beyond, and an immortal soldier who could not be destroyed.

“And with everything staying secret.”

The young woman sneaked a finger up to her lips as she disappeared into the middle of the crowd.

A half day had passed since the conclusion of the sixth match. Evening had come.

Kaete and Kiyazuna still remained unable to make it out of the old town.

“…Bad news. They got this exit under watch, too.”

Pulling back the reconnaissance golem, Kiyazuna clicked her tongue in frustration.

The covert lycan soldier, and the sniper on all fours. These were the two they needed to be wary of the most. They were both unbelievably skilled, and it would be difficult to break through using just the improvised golems Kiyazuna had created.

“This has to be Obsidian Eyes after all; there’s no other explanation. How long have they had their sights on Mestelexil? What’s their goal…? Systematically hijacking the entire Sixways Exhibition?!” asked Kaete.

“Geez, you didn’t prepare for this and make some sorta underground shortcut or anything?”

“Even if I had, that’d be the very first place that’d get pinned down in this situation! Our information’s been leaked here!”

“Fine then, you tellin’ me to stay here in this boring hellhole until I turn into a dried fish?!”

“…That’s all we can do.”

Although not the main two they were faced with, a presence that appeared to be hostile was patrolling the alleys and sewers. All the paths they could use as their escape route had been seized and rendered unusable.

Conversely, the two of them, lying in hiding, were still alive. These movements meant…

“The way they’re acting, it seems less like they’re trying to find us and more like they’re trying to stop us from escaping, don’t they…? If they’re cutting off our contact with anyone outside and waiting until we grow impatient and show ourselves, then why? For example, they might be wary of the possibility that we’re waiting in ambush with weapons from the Beyond instead. As long as they don’t have a full understanding of the capabilities of the Beyond, they might be taking strict care not to move unless it’s in response to the movement on our side.”

“Hmph… Basically, they’re a buncha scaredy bastards, eh? Then what’re we supposed to do?”

“If we don’t ever return home, either my soldiers or Yuca’s public safety force will eventually come looking for me. If we can meet up with those squads and escape, the enemy won’t be able to readily ambush us.”

The match had been ruled in favor of Zeljirga. However, Kaete hadn’t given up on victory yet.

Even if he was knocked out of the Sixways Exhibition, if he could take back Mestelexil, then there were plenty of routes to victory. He’d wage war against Rosclay and Haade, then overthrow everything, along with the results of the Sixways Exhibition. Regardless of Mestelexil’s victory or defeat, nothing about his plan had changed.

“At any rate, keep making golems, Grams. Doesn’t matter how makeshift they are—we need to gather as much fighting power as we can for our next encounter, or it’ll be impossible to fight our way through.”

“Feh, Aureatia’s damn soil’s the problem…! If I could just get back to my lab, I could get all kindsa rare materials ready.”

“…! Wait.”

Kaete stopped moving, hearing a voice echo in the streets outside.

The voice was searching for Kaete’s location; that was without question… However—

“Former Fourth Minister Kaete the Round Table is hiding out in the vicinity of this street! His crimes include grievous rule-breaking actions in the Sixways Exhibition and the recent bombing at the castle garden theater! The individual who committed the bombing on Kaete’s orders has already appeared before the assembly—”

“Tha—”

It was an Aureatia soldier calling out with a shout. It was an announcement of his status as a wanted criminal.

“That can’t be…! Impossible! Curses, what is this…?!”

“Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee! This happened because you’re always up to no good.”

“Still, this is some sort of mistake! What’re they talking about?!”

Former Fourth Minister.

If he ended up losing the faction he was meant to lead, why, even if he regained control of Mestelexil, it wouldn’t mean a damn thing.

“Guess I gotta use this after all.”

Kiyazuna produced an instrument of some kind.

It was equipped with a display, and when it connected to a simple battery, two faint points of light appeared on it.

“Dammit, dammit… Grams…what is that, then?”

“If we’re dealing with a vampire, we only got two options, right? Kill the parent dead, or kill Exil dead and make him regenerate from scratch.”

“…So if he’s forced to regenerate, it’ll mean returning to the state he was in before the infection, then?”

“More accurately, it’ll erase the overriding authority on Mestel. Normally, if Exil was hit by some poison or illness, Mestel’s made to immediately cure ’im with Life Arts on the spot—the reason he’s not is ’cause the orders from an overruling authority are inhibiting that function.”

“You can’t remotely order him to self-destruct? Any construct needs some sorta function like that.”

“Huh? The hell I need some way to blow up my own children. Dumbass.”

“That’s not… Forget it. Let’s stick to the topic. The only method’s to kill him on the inside, then… How’re we going to destroy Mestelexil’s armor and kill Exil? That’s a tall order, no matter who you task with the job.”

“Even more than that, stupid. The amniotic fluid preserving Exil’s been affected by the vampire pathogen, too. Just kill Exil, and he’ll get infected right after he’s done regenerating, then that’ll be that. Gotta be an attack that sends all the amniotic fluid flying, too, or it’s still impossible.”

Mestelexil’s mechanical perfection was now baring its fangs at them.

The peerlessly elite Obsidian Eyes had them surrounded, and all Aureatia was now their enemy.

“…Impossible or not, I at least know where Mestelexil is. In case my boy ever got lost, see… We’ll be able to track him down.”

“Track him… So that display’s a tracking signal…!”

“Obviously, using GNSS is still too much for this world—gotta blast a bunch of man-made satellites out past the stars first. With a LORAN system, it’ll only show coordinates, so its accuracy ain’t reliable at all. Just shows a broad estimate of his distance and direction.”

“Hold up, we’re talking about tracking Mestelexil, so where does beyond the stars come in to play? Are you sure that thing’ll work?”

“Heh, when have I ever been wrong, eh? We doing this or not?!”

For some reason, Kiyazuna seemed livelier than she had been moments earlier.

—For the entirety of Kiyazuna the Axle’s lifetime, she’d had nothing but enemies around her.

A born villain. Kaete was surely the same.

“…We are.”

Villains never gave up, even when all the conclusions had been made.

“Right. I’m not letting this end here. We’re getting Mestelexil back. Whether it’s this Sixways Exhibition…or this factional war for powers, I’ll overturn the results of it all…! Kaete the Round Table…isn’t just going to lie down and die!”

Match six. Winner, Zeljirga the Abyss Web.