Log Horizon - Volume 8 - Chapter 4.6

6 
A flock of wyverns were attacking the towns on the plain. 
It was probably one of the residents’ and administrators’ nightmares. 
As a rule, if an attack on a town or other residential center was predicted, considered in terms of damage to living spaces and production bases, the best plan was to get as far away from the town as possible and counterattack from a remote location. 
Even if they managed to drive them off and there was no direct damage to humans, if the town and its surroundings took damage, it was very likely that the indirect damage would harm their ability to live normally. In the world of Theldesia, with its medieval methods of food production, damage to the production bases could prove to be fatal. Therefore, town walls were a medieval wisdom, intended to protect living spaces from external enemies. 
However, there were situations when this wasn’t possible. 
They might be midclass monsters, but Wyverns were a serpentine type of flying dragon with tiny arms. Although they didn’t breathe flames, strike with their front claws, or boast magic attacks, they specialized in aerial mobility, and in this they were the equal of more legitimate dragons. 
Their levels depended on the area in which they lived and were distributed over a fairly wide range—their lowest levels were 40, though some individuals approached level 90. The wyverns that lived around the Redstone Mountains should have been comparatively easy to deal with. 
“Checking individual levels: Forty-two, forty-six, forty-three…fifty!” 
Minori made her report, a telescope held to one eye. 
With levels like those, it would be possible for even Touya and the others to bring them down with relative ease. That was why they’d come to the Redstone Mountains from Akiba in the first place. 
However, that was true only if they were going up against a few at most. Alternatively, if they holed up in a shallow cavern and took the attacking wyverns down in an orderly fashion, Touya thought they might be able to defeat ten or so. 
They didn’t have the sort of force that could stand against the several dozen wyverns that wheeled freely in the sky. 
“Minori, big sis Serara! Let’s get out of the town first!” 
“Right!” 
Besides, the town’s location was a very bad one. 
The surrounding terrain was open country with sweeping views, and the town of Saphir, which they needed to protect, was right in the middle of it. Wyverns were characterized by their high-speed flight, and for a fight with monsters like that, it was very nearly the worst possible battlefield. 
Although this wasn’t like being attacked by a horde of demihumans, the way they had been in Choushi, it was just as hard to deal with, or possibly even harder. Defending against groups of demihumans was difficult because of their numbers. When they infiltrated, demihuman armies used repeated wave-type invasion units that outnumbered the defending forces. 
On the other hand, the wyverns’ numbers weren’t that great, but they had despair-inducing aerial mobility. Defending forces that weren’t able to mount long-range attacks would be no use as a wall, and if the defending unit fell apart and the town’s residents fled, they would be pursued, and the result was sure to be a tragedy. 
Wyverns excelled at flight, and they probably thought that bringing their steel tails down on the backs of fleeing People of the Earth to eat their soft meat was an appealing form of recreation. 
Under the circumstances, it would be hard to have a projecting mobile defense: The enemy’s mobility was greater. Of course, their group was currently short on fighting power in all senses of the word, not just mobility. Even if their group had been level 90, they couldn’t protect the town completely with a single party of five. 
Even if they were on the distant horizon, a flock of flying dragons had appeared like a black mist and was making for the town. The uproar that erupted in Saphir was no small thing, but it didn’t reach panic levels. 
People of the Earth with frightened faces seemed to be fleeing into the town’s sturdiest buildings. Touya’s group of three Adventurers ran between houses whose windows were being slammed shut. 
When the outskirts of town came into view, they learned why the People of the Earth were evacuating more calmly than they’d expected. 
Although there was no telling where they’d assembled from, they came across a group of more than ten Odysseia Knights heading into battle. The Knights wore matching mantles, and one after another, their expressions fevered, they broke into a run on the road that ran beside the river. They were bound for the cultivated fields that lay farther out, and they clearly meant to intercept the approaching beasts. 
“Move!” 
With one brusque word, another group of Odysseia Knights ran past Touya and the others. There were six members in the group; two of the rear guards were carrying the Moving Temple. Together, they sprinted toward the battlefield, eyes bloodshot, swords drawn. 
“Touya, don’t go out in front.” 
“I know.” 
“Even if we joined that fight, we wouldn’t be any help. Let’s handle the defense here.” 
“Right.” 
Following Minori’s instructions, they made for a reservoir one street over from the avenue. It would be a good location both for keeping an eye on their surroundings and for meeting up with the others. 
“Minori, what about Isuzu?” 
“I just contacted Rundelhaus. They’re both getting their equipment together and are on their way here.” 
“O-okay.” 
“It looks like there’s still time. Don’t panic.” 
As Touya spoke to his companions, he was watching the combat in the distance. 
The figures looked no bigger than miniature dolls, but it was a strange battle to begin with. 
The Odysseia Knights fought by charging, swinging their swords as if they’d gone mad, clinging to the wyverns and summoning enormous pillars of lightning. Naturally, they got wounded, and the animals were growing progressively bloodier. 
Viewed one way, they were a brigade of ten-odd knights making desperate charges, fighting valiantly to defend the town without a thought for their own safety. 
However, Touya felt a horror that made the hair on his arms prickle up at the sight of the figures sprinting through puddles of blood without even being ordered to charge. 
“Touya. Touya…” 
Minori’s voice was trembling. 
His twin was observing the battlefield with a telescope Naotsugu had given them. Straining his eyes in the direction the cylinder was focused, Touya realized what she was looking at. 
The Odysseia Knights’ levels were nearly 90. 
That was almost double the wyverns’ levels. However, the wyverns’ numbers were several times greater than the Knights’. Their Guardians and Samurai kept using Anchor Howl to draw the wyverns to them without a thought for the surrounding balance. If they hadn’t done this, the dragons might have headed for the town. 
However, if they summoned an unlimited number of enemies, even if their levels were higher than the monsters’, it would be hard for them to stand against them. As a matter of fact, they were falling. 
Then they turned into light and scattered… 
…And resurrected at Boreas’ Moving Temple, which wasn’t far away. 

Over and over, Touya clenched the sweaty hand that was resting on the hilt of his katana involuntarily. The quiver in Minori’s voice was only natural. 
They recognized that iridescent light. They’d grown used to the light that shone when monsters were defeated, and while they didn’t want to remember it, Touya, Minori, and the others had gone through losing Rundelhaus and regaining him at the temple. 
What they were seeing now was the same thing, or at least something very similar. 
But this felt more like a nightmare. 
The resurrected Odysseia Knights got up as though nothing had happened, joyfully retrieved their swords, and returned to the battlefield. Touya even thought he heard crazed laughter as the knights abruptly turned back to the fighting, although it couldn’t have been real. 
Being resurrected by the temple wasn’t an easy thing. 
According to Shiroe’s explanation, the action cost you a commensurate amount of experience points. Right after you resurrected, you didn’t even have enough HP. That was true of the Assassin who’d just resurrected and set off running. With his Health still low, he dashed over, leapt at a wyvern as it skimmed close to the ground, and clung to it. He struck at its wings with his great sword, and they fell in a tailspin. 
Didn’t they value their own lives at all? 
The words “brave charge” rose in his mind, but Touya couldn’t think of it as anything but an unfunny joke. 
“…Yeah.” 
Touya tried to encourage Minori, whose voice was shaking, but the reply seemed to stick in his throat, and his voice wouldn’t come out normally. 
Sharp lightning seared their retinas. 
It was Lightning Nebula, a wide-range Sorcerer attack spell. The swirling electricity inflicted lightning damage over an area with a ten-meter radius. It was a powerful offensive spell, one Rundelhaus had learned only recently. 
They’d tested it out several times and had learned that it made it hard for the vanguard to hold on to its aggro, so Touya’s party had decided not to use the spell in actual combat until they’d practiced with it a bit more and had worked it into their team plays. 
Out on the battlefield, that spell burst open, pulling in a few wyverns and nearly the same number of Knights. With a sound that didn’t match the gruesome sight, iridescent bubbles popped. 
After the space of a breath or two, the Moving Temple shone with the same light and resurrected the knights. 
The magical coffin vibrated with a low-frequency sound. To Touya, it almost seemed cursed. 
“They come up with some pretty interesting stuff, don’t they?” 
“Huh…?” 
“That’s a resurrection device, isn’t it? A guide beacon that marks a place of rebirth, just like the temples. I don’t have any memories of it, but it seems like a very useful item… I wonder if someone invented it.” 
“Big sis Roe2.” 
Touya looked up at the woman standing next to him. 
Roe2’s white coat-mantle fluttered, and her expression was relaxed and confident. It made her seem reliable, but right now, it also looked vaguely alien. 
“You look pale, young Touya.” 
“That thing’s bad! A thing like that—it’s weird!” 
Touya shook his fist. 
He was trying to get this uneasy feeling across to Roe2. 
“No, it’s not weird. It’s aligned with the laws of this world. If it weren’t, it wouldn’t work. Since it exists, there must be some sort of structure and principles behind it. You’re free to deny it, but that won’t make it go away, you know.” 
“That’s not what I meant…” 
Apparently Touya’s words hadn’t reached her. 
Or, no, they probably had gotten through; the conversation was meshing, after all. However, that meant only that his meaning had gotten through to her; it wasn’t that she shared Touya’s impatience and fear. 
“Besides, from what I’ve seen, they seem proactive about providing Empathiom.” 
“Huh?” 
“If they’re obliging enough to die that much, the collection efficiency rate will be high. I’d imagine it’s really helping the Genius-collectors out. Or, no… Did they arrange this in the first place? That would call for surveillance in and of itself.” 
“What are you talking about?! They’re dying! We’ve got to do something!” 
Touya was flustered, but someone restrained his hand. 
When he turned to look, Minori was standing behind him. She was biting her lip and watching him—no, watching Roe2. 
Minori’s eyes were blazing, and Touya knew she was thinking about something in earnest. To her, thinking and making resolutions were indivisible from each other. Touya’s twin wasn’t yet specialized on that point. At the sight of her expression, his head cooled down all at once. 
When Minori’s eyes looked like that, she was strong. It was weird for Touya to say this, but she had become so fierce, straightforward, and tough that it was hard to believe she was his twin. 
Still, on the flip side, she was also very fragile, so Touya held her hand tightly. 
“I understand that that’s a point of contention, but Touya, Minori… It looks to me as though it’s what they want.” 
Roe2 went on in a singsong voice, her cool eyes still turned on the battlefield. 
“They want to die. They want that temporary, kaleidoscopic flashback, like an anesthetic. As the toll, they donate Empathiom.” 
“Roe2…” 
“Not that I know much about it. I don’t understand why you’re building such an inefficient society in the first place. Still, come to think of it, the knowable world has always been far smaller than the unknowable world. Since the understandable territory is as tiny as the tip of a needle, there’s nothing odd about not understanding.” 
With the distant fight as the background, Minori’s palm, damp with sweat, conveyed to Touya how unsettled she was. At some point, she’d stepped forward, as if to shield Serara behind her. Minori met Roe2’s gaze, and after significant hesitation, she asked a question, quite plainly. 
“Who are you, Roe2? Where did you come from, and where are you going?” 
During the moment of anxious silence that followed, Roe2’s eyes went round. 
Then she swept her coat out lightly, throwing her shoulders back as if this were a first meeting, and faced Touya and the others squarely.