"Icicle Destruction", also known simply as "Pillar Knock", was held in an outdoor arena that was 12 meters long and 24 meters wide. The field was divided into two halves, each with 12 ice pillars that were 1 meter wide and 2 meters tall, with the victor destroying all the pillars in the opposite field first.
Thanks to this, "Icicle Destruction" required preparation on a massive scale.
Requiring hundreds of huge ice pillars that needed to be kept frozen during the height of summer, it greatly limited the number of arenas, even with the military's complete support.
Owing to the limits on ice production, the Nine Schools Competition could only afford to prepare two arenas for both the Men's Team and Women's Team for a total of 4 arenas. Each of the two sites had 12 matches in the first round and six matches in the second round for a total of 18 matches, which was the maximum limit for one day.
"Nevertheless, this is a contest that severely depletes Magic Power. If they held every match in one day, many of the players wouldn't make it. For the single elimination contest on the second day, there's an extremely short interval between each match. Thus, there is some truth in the saying that 'Icicle Destruction is won by those with the greatest stamina'."
Tatsuya was lecturing on the details while the one listening and nodding was Shizuku.
Miyuki was also present, but if his sister was the only one here, then Tatsuya wouldn't have to explain at this particular time.
The three of them weren't in the audience stands, but the auxiliary working area.
Their goal was to watch Kanon's match from close proximity to get a first hand experience of what the contest was like.
Kanon was busy discussing the final details with Isori, so this wasn't a good time to interrupt them.
Everyone went to watch the Men's "Crowd Ball" contest.
Sayaka came to cheer on Kirihara, Erika chose to accompany her and roped Mizuki into the mix, then Mizuki invited Mikihiko to come along, finally culminating with Mikihiko grabbing Leo. And that's how it was.
After hearing Miyuki's report, Tatsuya maintained a "what a duplicitous bunch" feeling. As for who among them was duplicitous, some things are better left unsaid.
Kanon finally stepped onto the stage.
There were two platforms that stood four meters high at the two ends of the arena.
The players had to use magic to defend the icicles in their own half of the court while simultaneously destroying their opponent's icicles.
After entering the arena, all restrictions on magic safety were removed, so this was publicly acknowledged to be the most intense of all the magic contests.
"Shiba-kun."
After seeing Kanon off to the platform, Isori turned to wave at Tatsuya.
"Let's go too."
Isori invited Miyuki and Shizuku, who brought Tatsuya with them.
Behind the platforms where the players stood, there was a special observation deck for support personnel.
Here, there were several devices responsible for monitoring the players' physical condition as well as a large window for viewing the competition.
"How's Chiyoda-senpai's status?"
Tatsuya felt that it was impolite to remain silent, so he supplied an icebreaker question.
"She's very motivated, to the point that I'm a little concerned that she's too fired up and will lose steam in tomorrow's matches."
With a smile on his face, Isori answered Tatsuya's customary question.
There was no trace of unease on his face.
"I heard that senpai won the first round with the fastest time ever recorded."
"Well, that is Kanon's personality...... I earnestly hope that she would be a little more prudent, so those watching over her could relax somewhat."
Tatsuya was quite interested in Isori's wry smile and response.
Tatsuya was accompanying Mayumi all through the morning, so of course he missed the first round in the morning.
He only knew that Kanon claimed the first round using the least amount of time possible.
That being said, while the match time was very short, quite a few of her own icicles had fallen
"It's starting."
Shizuku's soft voice prompted Tatsuya to direct his gaze back towards the arena.
With the shrill sound of the starting whistle, the earth groaned.
"Mine Genesis."
This was no Mine Field, this was Mine Genesis.
The scene before Tatsuya's eyes forced him to speak its name.
Versatility and speed were the crowning advantages of Modern Magic. Nonetheless, Magicians are also human, so there are fields where they specialize at or are not adept at.
Since magic talent is inherited, blood relations within a family naturally share similar aptitudes towards magic fields.
The Yotsuba Family, with each family member excelling in a unique area, was a notable exception.
Within influential families, besides everyone's individual names, family members that share a notable skill usually share a second name as well — almost like a special title.
Some of the more famous ones include the Juumonji Family's "Phalanx".
The Ichijou Family's "Rupture".
The Saegusa Family did not have a system that they did not excel at, so they were ironically referred to as "Omnipotent".
The Chiba Family was known as "Magic Swordsman" — this title referred more to their skills and techniques than any unique talent the family possessed, but was still used to refer to this family as a whole.
The Chiyoda Family was known as "Mine Genesis".
The Magicians of the Chiyoda Family specialized in using Long Range Solid Matter Oscillation Systematic Magic, particularly when it comes to using Earthshaker magic.
Dirt, rock, sand, cement, all materials were irrelevant.
A powerful oscillation could be applied as long as the solid matter was recognized as the "Earth's surface". This was the true face of the Chiyoda Family's specialty "Mine Creation", with the Chiyoda Family's title derived from "Mine Creator" = "Mine Genesis".
The opposing field suffered vertical vibrations that ran perpendicular to the epicenter, with two icicles collapsing each time.
Her opponent tried to counter with Move-Type Magic "Compulsory Arrest" in an effort to stifle any motion on part of the object, but "Mine Genesis" continued switching targets at a speed that her opponent was unable to match, so by the time five of her twelve pillars had collapsed, her opponent abandoned all pretense of defense and concentrated solely on the attack.
"Huh?"
"What?"
"?"
Tatsuya and the others all expressed their astonishment in different ways, whereas Isori smiled wryly from the side.
As he watched the pillars on his side collapse without any resistance, he shook his head helplessly.
"Should I commend Kanon for going all out or criticize her for being overly reckless...... Her methodology revolves around going for the jugular before she gets KO'ed."
"No, well...... I hardly feel that this is the wrong tactic."
Her opponent had switched from defense to offense, and her resistance was suitably lowered.
By the time the number of pillars left on her side dipped to six, Kanon had already collapsed every pillar in her opponent's territory.
"Victory!"
Kanon smiled widely as she flashed a victory signal while descending from the platform.
The target of her smile was, of course, Isori.
Isori's face plainly said "what am I going to do with you", but he was wearing the same smile.
"How should I describe this......"
"Match made in heaven?"
Miyuki was reluctant to voice her opinion, but Shizuku had no such compunctions.
"You two should say that they understand one another perfectly."
Hearing the two of them, Tatsuya smiled wryly for a completely different reason.
Still, Tatsuya also acknowledged that they were a "match made in heaven".
The two of them had a lot of synergy.
The player and the auxiliary, even though they didn't step onto the stage together, the two of them were in the fight as one.
Yet — Tatsuya thought.
If they were a pair with so much synergy, would Isori be able to fulfill his duties to the utmost when paired with other players?
There were 40 players and only 8 technicians.
On average, each technician was responsible for five players.
Tatsuya was in charge of the 1st Year Women's Team, but that was still six people, seven if you counted the the impromptu addition in the morning.
Once they forged an intense emotional bond with one individual player, could they put forth their all with the other players?
Tatsuya was also facing that quandary.
Would he really go all in for Shizuku or Honoka the same way he would for Miyuki?
"......Shiba-kun, what's up?"
"No, it's nothing."
It's not like he could actually ask Isori something like "Do you work so hard for every player?".
Tatsuya replied back in a completely inane and normal manner to muddle through Isori's question.
After securing advancement to the third round, Kanon and company — with Tatsuya, Miyuki and Shizuku in tow — returned to the pavilion in high spirits, only to frown at the dour atmosphere suffusing the camp.
"......What happened?"
Isori asked Suzune, who was probably the only one who maintained her usual attitude.
Suzune turned around to reveal an even more blank emotion than normal.
"The Men's 'Crowd ball' event didn't perform as expected — we're recalculating the odds right now."
The standings in the Nine Schools Competition were determined by the aggregate score from each event.
First Place received 50 points, Second Place received 30 points, and Third Place received 20 points.
Fourth Place finishes in "Speed Shooting", "Battle Board", and "Mirage Bat" netted 10 points. "Crowd Ball" and "Icicle Destruction" only awarded points to the top three, so the three teams that are eliminated in the third round each receive 5 points.
For "Monolith Code", First Place would receive 100 points, Second Place receives 60 points, and Third Place only gets 40 points, which makes it the single largest event in terms of points.
Half the points from the Newcomers Division would be added into the total.
This was the score breakdown for the Nine Schools Competition.
Anyone not in the top four or six would receive no points, so even if First Place was out of the question, taking Second through Fourth place was still valuable in scoring points to contest the overall victor. According to this breakdown, advancing as many players in as many contests as possible to the single elimination or duel phases was one of the keys to victory.
"Not performed as expected means......"
"The players were eliminated during the first, second, and third rounds."
Isori asked with trepidation while the voice that answered him was quite indifferent by comparison.
"While we held onto next year's right to compete, this result was thoroughly unexpected."
The voice was largely indifferent likely because the person being questioned was struck heavily by the news.
Compared to the other events, the Men's "Crowd Ball" lineup was certainly lacking in firepower.
Regardless of the fact they didn't possess an ace like the Women's "Speed Shooting", "Crowd Ball", and "Battle Board" or the upcoming Men's "Icicle Destruction" who was "assured of victory", they still should possess enough talent to compete for First Place.
"The Newcomers Division is a little harder to estimate, but based on our current lead, if the Women's "Battle Board", Men's "Icicle Destruction" as well as "Mirage Bat" and "Monolith Code" all seize First Place, we're still in the clear."
A 2nd Year student from the tactical advisory team made the report.
Tatsuya, who was just listening as a bystander, felt that this threshold was a little high.
Including both the Men's and Women's contests, they wanted to claim First Place in four of the six remaining events in the Official Division.
Katsuto and Mari could be relied on to win the gold in their respective events, but based on these calculations, if any accident were to occur, they ran the risk of morale reaching a breaking point.
Still — this wasn't something that Tatsuya had to concern himself with.
He was probably overstepping his boundaries by worrying about these things.
Compared to the points, Tatsuya personally was more mindful about something else.
Kirihara was participating in the Men's "Crowd Ball" event.
Certainly, Kirihara had a reckless side to him, but he also possessed a strong sense of duty.
He wouldn't be depressed because of this turnout, would he......?
After the day's events had drawn to a close, Tatsuya found Kirihara near the hotel's rest area close to dusk.
Outwardly, he looked perfectly normal.
Sayaka was sitting next to Kirihara.
Kirihara was working hard to keep up a cheerful appearance, but Tatsuya could tell at a glance that he was forcing a smile.
"Kirihara-senpai, thanks for your hard work."
"Ho, so it's Shiba."
Of course, Tatsuya could have chosen to pass by the rest area without saying a word, but he didn't do so.
"I was taken out early in the second round, and quite badly at that."
He was definitely putting on a strong front, but he recovered faster than Tatsuya suspected.
Maybe athletes were more accustomed to victory and defeat and were more resilient when it came to dealing with the bitterness of defeat.
Tatsuya always lost when he was trading blows with his master so he didn't have any real "competitive" experience, and could only rely on logic to explain this.
Tatsuya was unable to judge whether this was an appropriate moment to offer words of comfort, so he elected to speak the truth.
"Senpai was unlucky to draw Third High's ace that was favored to win the event in the second round and only lost by a grand total of eight points after losing three out of five matches. This favored player was exhausted from the long struggle with senpai and was promptly eliminated in the third round, so this was a Pyrrhic victory for him as well."
"......Man, you're one blunt guy."
Tatsuya never bothered to sugarcoat the defeat and delivered a cold analysis that didn't smack of comfort, but Kirihara wasn't angry.
"You never thought that I would be depressed?"
Kirihara's tone and expression were more teasing than anything else.
"I did, but I couldn't think of any consolation."
The scene was dead silent for a few seconds.
Kirihara suddenly burst into laughter.
And he was laughing to the point that he was bent over the sofa.
Enough to thoroughly discomfit Sayaka by his side.
Tatsuya continued to watch him without any expression.
"Shiba...... You really are an interesting guy. Usually, now would be the time to wear a totally~ awkward expression and quickly pass me pretending not to see me, not the time to actually sit down and talk."
That choice — intentionally overlooking him — was also on the table, but Tatsuya believed that wordlessly passing by wasn't cordial enough. However, this time it looked like Tatsuya was being a "busybody".
Tatsuya realized that he shouldn't even be taking how cordial he was into consideration since that didn't jibe with his personality, but......
"Still, I feel a lot better thanks to you. Since you said it was a 'Pyrrhic victory', then that must be how it was. This shows that I've still got a lot of potential."
......Looks like that wasn't the case.
Whether Kirihara truly believed that was immaterial.
Likewise, whether this was truly the result Tatsuya was aiming for was also immaterial.
Despite the outcome falling into considerable doubt, the basic personnel duties did not change very much.
The ones responsible for odd jobs and errands might claim otherwise, but since Tatsuya was a member of the technician team, the brass from First High wasn't foolish enough to have him work on menial tasks and run the risk of endangering his original duties.
After preparing for the Newcomers Division two days from now, double checking the physical and mental conditions of the players under his care and running a final compatibility test for CADs, today's work schedule came to a close.
Tatsuya received a long package in the mail from the hotel counter and returned to his own room.
It wasn't dinner time yet.
There was still ample time left, so Tatsuya opted to test the item in the package.
He took a glance at the clock to verify when the dining hall opened.
There was still a significant interval until he had to meet up with Miyuki.
Tatsuya unpacked the parcel and gazed at the contents within.
This was something he called Four Leaves Technology's CAD Development 3rd Division in the early hours of the morning for.
The components were all universal, the shape exceedingly simple, and was assembled to the point that an automatic construction device could do the rest by reading the manual. Even so, the fact that this could be assembled and shipped all within half a day was quite impressive.
(I hope Ushiyama-san isn't pushing himself again......)
Should he be saying pushing himself, or pushing his subordinates?
Tatsuya took great pains to carefully remind them that this item was "partially out of curiosity".
Regardless, Tatsuya couldn't "really" turn back the clock, so fussing over these details was useless at this point.
After he opened the package and took a look inside, he found a combination seal around a long, thin container. This case was usually intended to transport CADs with the dimensions of a shotgun.
Tatsuya punched in the usual code.
There was a "sword" inside the box.
The item Tatsuya removed from the box had the outward appearance of a long sword with an upgraded hand guard.
The entire length measured 70 cm, and 50 cm without the hand guard — that was how it was shaped.
There was no blade.
This did not refer to the lack of an edge, but the fact that this tool was never forged to be a "sword".
The literal meaning of the words seemed paradoxical, but a better description would be "a metallic bokken forged to look like a long sword".
Or maybe it was "flat rod with an added hand guard".
This item was plainly not any ordinary rod.
After thumbing the activation button and upping the psion intake, a familiar feeling passed across Tatsuya's hand.
This item was in the same vein as Erika's police baton in that it was a weapon that concealed a CAD.
The utility was even more restricted than a Specialized CAD and could only provide one Activation Sequence. Erika's CAD was a Specialized model that retained the ability to switch abilities. In comparison, this was a Specialized CAD that possessed only one function, making it a prototype for "Weaponized Integrated CADs".
Tatsuya measured the distance to the wall to gauge whether he should take a test swing when someone knocked on the door. The perfect timing caused Tatsuya to chuckle wryly as he placed the prototype on the table.
There was some time until the arranged meeting time, but given that the presence on the other side of the door did nothing to conceal themselves, he knew that friends had come calling.
And this prototype suited that friend very well.
Rather than testing this himself, it would be far more interesting to have that guy handle it — Tatsuya thought as he opened the door.
"Onii-sama, is this a good time?"
The leader and the one who spoke up first was his little sister.
Tatsuya pushed the door open and beckoned everyone inside. Erika, who was following Miyuki, came close enough that the two of them were almost touching.
Next, Honoka, Shizuku, Mizuki, and Leo came in, with Mikihiko bringing up the rear.
Rather than saying ladies first, it would be more appropriate to say this was how the pecking order went.
Still, while this was a double room for the sake of storing equipment, it was still a squeeze with so many people piling in at once.
Just the chairs and bed weren't enough, someone even had to sit on the table — which was neatly ordered and not the least bit sloppy, so Tatsuya had no complaints.
Erika was the one sitting on the table, so of course she was the one who noticed the "sword" on the table, and it naturally aroused her interest.
"Tatsuya-kun, is that...... a blade replica? Except it looks more like a sword."
"Negative."
"Then an iron whip?"
"Also negative...... I don't think the samurai of this country would use weapons like iron whips."
"Who uses the term samurai in this day and age...... Then what is it? ......Ah, is it a Houki?"
Erika flipped it over and examined both sides and asked again upon noticing the trigger on the handle.
"Correct, to be precise, this is a Weaponized Integrated CAD, commonly known as weaponized calculation devices. The CAD is specifically attuned to use one type of magic only that can also double as a close combat weapon that uses aforementioned magic."
"Wow......"
The reason why Erika made this sound wasn't because the Weaponized Integrated CAD was incredibly rare, but because this was the first time she saw one in the form of a "sword". Erika wasn't the only one gazing at the sword in her hand, both Honoka and Shizuku were looking on with deep interest.
Miyuki's face revealed an "Ah, so that's what it was" expression, clearly because she remembered the conversation from last night.
Neither Mizuki nor Mikihiko expressed any interest, probably because they preferred familiar objects rather than foreign materials.
Tatsuya glanced at the other person standing to the side and smiled mischievously as he plucked the prototype from Erika's hands.
"Leo."
And tossed it towards Leo, who was standing off to one side with his face averted.
"Whoa! Tatsuya, isn't that kind of dangerous?"
In reality, Leo was burning to give it a go, but he feigned disinterest due to his ongoing cold war against his nemesis (?) Erika, so while he was outwardly frantic, he eagerly grabbed hold of the sword hilt.
Tatsuya completely ignored his protest and sent a challenging smirk his way.
"Want to give it a try?"
"Eh, me?"
Leo's mouth split into a wide grin.
To the side, Erika wore a "This guy is easy to read......" expression, to which Tatsuya spared only a single glance before directing his attention back to Leo.
"This weaponized calculation device was created by merging a striking weapon with the Fortifying Magic that Watanabe-senpai used during the 'Battle Board' event, with the blade also serving as a slashing weapon after being reforged, so I think this suits you very well."
"So Tatsuya made this?"
"Yes."
"Hold on."
Mikihiko inserted himself into Leo and Tatsuya's conversation.
Initially, he wore an apathetic expression, but he was paying attention to the entire conversation.
"Watanabe-senpai's event was yesterday, so you made this in one day? This doesn't look like a ready-made product."
"The components themselves are all commonplace. The outer frame is also a generic alloy, so there are no special materials involved."
"But this still isn't something you can manually forge, right? You shouldn't have that much spare time......"
"Why of course, I only came up with the design, then had a familiar factory construct this using automatic assembly devices."
Miyuki overheard the entire conversation and when she heard the term "familiar factory", she almost burst into laughter. Thankfully, she regularly prepared several masks for occasions like these, so she didn't draw any attention to herself or her brother.
"So Leo...... Want to give it a try?"
Tatsuya's words were like the sweet whispers of the demon Mephistopheles.
Even while knowing something was afoot, the lure was irresistible.
"......OK, I'll be your guinea pig."
"He fell for it."
Shizuku's soft whisper succinctly reflected everyone's inner thoughts.
Next, Tatsuya pulled out a HMD with light refracting mirrors and a speaker attached.
"This is the instruction manual."
Seeing the HMD in front of him, Leo seemed to not comprehend Tatsuya's words as a question mark sprouted on his head.
"Take a look, the user's manual for the weaponized calculation device is recorded within."
"Ah? Oh......"
This object that Tatsuya handed him (more like tossed to him) appeared to have images and sound files stored on it, which included the Weaponized Integrated CAD instruction manuals. Leo let out an "I get it now" expression and accepted the HMD from Tatsuya's hands.
"This counts as a virtual terminal device, right?"
Honoka, who asked the question, wasn't the only one wondering about this.
Virtual information terminal devices posed considerable harm to immature Magicians.
With this in mind, First High forbade students from using virtual terminal devices.
Tatsuya himself insisted on using a material terminal device, but asked his friend to use a virtual terminal device. Even if the device was restricted to visual and hearing, everyone held the same misgivings.
"It's nothing that outrageous, but they do share some similarities."
"......Is this OK?"
"Huh? Oh...... You're referring to the harm caused by the virtual terminal device?"
"Uh...... Yeah."
"There's no need to worry on that account. The risks from virtual terminal devices arise from the user's inexperience. If used strictly for testing realistic conditions, then it's actually quite a valuable tool."
"I don't follow......"
Honoka's tone towards Tatsuya was very polite, but there were traces of Miyuki's influence mixed in.
"Magic is a skill that uses perception to temporarily alter reality. Virtual terminal devices create illusions that people mistake for reality."
Tatsuya's explanations were always attentive and exhaustive, which possibly was a reflex on his part.
"The two of them share the distinction that they project an unnatural phenomenon into reality. On the other hand, by experiencing the phenomenon through the virtual terminal device, there's no need to expend energy to rewrite reality, nor is there a risk for spell failure. Herein also lies the risk for virtual terminal devices."
Tatsuya temporarily stopped at this point.
Because he felt that he was being overly loquacious.
However, his friends that were arrayed in front of him wore equal parts understanding and incomprehension on their faces, so he felt that his explanation wasn't detailed enough and plodded on.
"Virtual terminal devices would cause a Magician to hallucinate and believe that they can effortlessly alter reality with no consequence. People incapable of using magic wouldn't run into this problem in the first place. Skilled Magicians would be able to differentiate what they are capable of, but immature Magicians may confuse the difference between what they experienced in the virtual world with what they can actually accomplish and overestimate their abilities.
Once immature Magicians have become accustomed to altering reality without the concepts of hard work or failure, they become unable to reflect upon why they cannot use magic to successfully rewrite reality and lose the ability to think critically and the drive to do so. Hence the popular belief that immature Magicians still studying magic experience harm from using virtual terminal devices."
Tatsuya paused again to survey his friends' faces.
Additional explanations were probably unnecessary, but he'd still conclude as a precaution.
"In other words, the problem lies in whether the user believes he or she has accomplished something they were previously unable to. Utilizing virtual terminal devices to test the waters isn't a problem in and of itself. That type of virtual experience actually benefits the planning phases for constructing Magic Sequences. At the end of the day, it remains extremely challenging to pick out only the benefits, so I feel that a global ban on virtual terminal devices made perfect sense."
"Is that so...... I actually learned a lot from that."
Tatsuya felt that Honoka's nodding was overly zealous and also believed he said too much.
Even if she heavily relied on him, he had no way of responding......
Those were Tatsuya's heartfelt words.
The test for the prototype calculation device was set after dinner, using one of the outdoor combat training facilities on the outskirts of the Nine Schools Competition area.
Tatsuya didn't make the arrangements; Erika was the one who called on her connections.
Since arriving here, Erika seemed to be frivolously throwing around her family's influence in a self-destructive manner.
Did something happen that caused her mental landscape to change?
Speaking of which, Tatsuya recalled that something similar happened during the banquet.
Nevertheless, Tatsuya was powerless to act regardless of how worried he was.
His own emotions were only façades anyways.
It was probably better to look the other way and let an engineer's curiosity take first priority. This was probably a more honest method to go about it.
Tatsuya convinced himself this way and once again warned himself against butting into other people's business.
"Leo, do you understand the mechanics?"
Next, he had to focus all his concentration on this test.
Even if this was something done during his leisurely time — even if this was an overly simplified way of applying modern magic — this still broke new ground for testing magic and calculation devices.
If an accident occurred due to his complacency, the one who would bear the brunt of it would be Leo and not Tatsuya.
"Uh, I think so...... But, am I really going to do that?"
"That" likely referred to the demonstrated motions he saw within the HMD.
Likely was the wrong word to use, since that was the only possibility at this point.
"We're undergoing this test to find out."
"You're right."
This training facility was 30 minutes away from the hotel by foot.
This would pose no problems during the day, but it was night time now.
Likewise, city districts would be fine, but they were located in a military training facility in the mountains.
Miyuki and Erika stubbornly refused to cooperate, but were finally persuaded to remain at the hotel.
Despite this, Tatsuya still remained uneasy, so he called on Honoka to watch Miyuki and Mizuki to keep an eye on Erika.
Now, only Tatsuya and Leo were present.
"Let's begin."
"Got it."
Initially, they weren't going to use the slashing (more like striking) dummy.
Right now, they needed to verify the movements of the Weaponized Integrated CAD without performing any physical actions.
"Starting now."
Leo thumbed the activation button on the bottom of the hilt.
With a "clang" sound, a feathery touch crossed his fingers.
He wrapped his index finger around the trigger near the top of the handguard and started supplying psions.
Contrary to his physical impression, Leo's supply of psions wasn't explosive, but possessed an inexhaustible durability. Correction, maybe that would be the most suitable description for his youthful and energetic side.
If a CAD was not calibrated for individual use, there would be practically no assistance in constructing Magic Sequences, so there was a small delay as the Activation Sequence was translated into the Magic Sequence.
Approximately 0.6 seconds.
Even so, this was still much swifter than during practical skills class.
This might be caused by his personal expertise in this field of magic, or the outstanding performance from the CAD and Activation Sequence.
Regardless of which one it was or both at the same time, this detail remained unimportant. What was important right now was to observe the activated magic in action and not the time necessary to activate aforementioned magic.
"Oh?"
Leo gasped, not because the magic was activating, but because the effects of inertia far exceeded his expectations.
"Haha, it's actually floating, how incredible!"
Leo revealed a childlike smile and swung the "sword" that had less than one half of the blade still attached.
The other half of the blade floating in midair mimicked his motion and swung in a similar arc.
"Three, two, one......"
"Whoa......."
Leo stopped upon hearing Tatsuya counting down.
"Zero."
With the end of the countdown, the blade swiftly reconnected with the "broken" blade and reformed into a complete "sword".
"Tatsuya, that was a complete success."
Leo was wearing a thoroughly delighted expression as he raised a thumb, whereas Tatsuya mirrored his gesture.
"Still, I'm impressed that you could come up with something like this. Detaching the blade from the hilt, then using Fortifying Magic to solidify its position and 'shoot' out the blade. I still can't believe I just did that. Now I know Fortifying Magic can also operate by separating objects."
"That is because the core concept behind Fortifying Magic is stabilizing relative positions, and if you ignore all the stereotypes, you find that objects don't have to be physically connected to one another. In addition, the operational form of this CAD is more like 'extension' rather than being 'shot out'.
The blade will only elongate in a linear fashion, since the middle segment is empty space."
"I never thought about that, I'll just treat this like a really~ long sword."
Just as Leo said, this weaponized calculation device wasn't like other long range system weapons that required additional energy to control, but was simply matching the motion of the blade while flying at a set distance until the magic lost effect.
"Speaking of which, why did the blade come back? I didn't activate any other magic."
"Oh, that's simple. That's an electric current reaction-type recall alloy, so it only separates the moment an electric current is applied to break the connection."
Leo nodded to signify his understanding, since this was a popular design in the modern era.
"So if a large force is applied during the state where magic isn't supplied, this could easily be broken."
"That's not a problem, we just have to store it in a scabbard when not in use, right?"
"That's true, shall we perform live tests on dummies? Or test the fluctuations during separation?"
"Tatsuya, while this thing is separated, is the length adjustable?"
"That's not impossible, but exceedingly difficult. Currently, the Activation Sequence tied to the activation button on the hilt is set as a constant, but that can be easily changed to a variable. The challenge lies in that whenever the length needs to be adjusted, a new magic needs to overwrite the previous one."
"Is that the case?"
"If the return speed could be increased, then there's no need to concern ourselves with the changing distances in between. After all, a real sword can't elongate itself halfway through the slashing motion."
"Yet Erika seems to be able to accomplish that feat. What do you plan to do?"
"Well...... Let's do a dummy test first."
"Got it."
Tatsuya manipulated a control mechanism that was slightly larger than a notepad and called up three man-sized straw dolls from the ground.
"......Oldschool."
"......I wonder whose hobby this is?'
Even though regenerating products had become mainstream in modern society, the oddly outdated design still prompted the two of them to exchange a helpless glance.
"Regardless...... In terms of sheer specs, they'll do as slashing targets."
"Straw dolls don't have any "specs"...... But there's no other choice."
Leo slapped his face lightly with his empty left hand to focus himself, then fell into a stance against the straw dolls.
He thumbed the power switch.
The blade flew into the sky.
Leo swung the weapon with all his strength.
Ahead of his right arm, the detached blade built up rotational momentum to a respectable speed before smashing into the straw doll.
"Lot of strain on the arm."
Leo looked like his hand had gone numb, but he lightly swung the restored medium length, sword-like weaponized calculation device as he voiced his thoughts.
"That's because while the flying part is physically small and despite the fact that speed can supplement strength somewhat, inertia still remains an issue, so you need extra arm strength to compensate."
"No wonder. So in actual combat, I would need to apply more strength into each of my swings."
Leo acknowledged Tatsuya's explanations with a nod of his head and aimed at the next target.
As he watched Leo fall into another combat stance, Tatsuya thought:
(Indeed, even after applying an actual blade, a slight increase in weight would be perfect for combat conditions. Still, this level of power would be appropriate for competition venues.)
The thought circulating in Tatsuya's mind was the restriction on direct contact during "Monolith Code". This weaponized calculation device had a flying blade, so it bypassed this restriction.
(......Not that there's any connection here.)
While he claimed this was strictly a toy, he was still actively considering practical applications. Tatsuya could only secretly laugh at himself.
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