Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 22 - Chapter 6

Bitter Enemies in the Same Boat

Wednesday, November 24th

According to the reports, the trailer carrying the disassembled weapons was passing through the region where Koutarou, Yurika, and Theia currently were. It was on its way to a larger city where Elfaria’s faction had a military base, which was believed to be the target of the imperial surprise attack.

“Why don’t they just directly bomb it from the air?”

“It’s too urban. A bomber attack or a battleship bombardment would mean high civilian casualties if they didn’t announce it beforehand.”

“And if they did that, the people at the base would have time to prepare... On the other hand, if they attack unannounced, there’s no way the public is going to condone it.”

“That’s right. Moreover, intentionally bombing an urban area knowing there will be civilian casualties is a war crime. It’s a violation of the Galactic Treaty’s code of conduct.”

“So they’d lose all credibility in claiming they were in the right.”

“If things were a little further along and the military had a stranglehold on the media, they might bomb a city without any hesitation, but that’s not realistic right now.”

“I see. So that’s why they’re using the new mobile weapons.”

Koutarou, Theia, and Yurika were currently travelling with the local squad that would be attacking the DKI trailer. Since their route was the same for a good part of the way, they’d decided to move as one unit for additional security until it was time to part ways.

“But that means that you were doing some sketchy stuff in the past.”

“Like what?”

“You tried to blow up Corona House with Blue Knight when we just met, remember?”

“You also shot Maki-chan with a laser cannon, Theia-chan!”

“Sh-Shut up! That was just youthful indiscretion!”

The three friends were riding in a transport truck that would take them all the way to the base in the heart of Pardomshiha territory. More specifically, it was a Forthorthian truck. Rather than having tires like the trucks on Earth did, it hovered just above the ground. Thanks to that, there was practically no road noise to stymie the conversation going on within.

“You’d better thank Ruth-san for stopping you.”

“I already have! Now let’s stop talking about when I was stupid!”

“Ahahaha! By the way... how long is it going to take us to reach the others?”

“Hmm? Well, we’ll need to cover twice the distance we did in the forest, but at this rate, it shouldn’t take more than two hours or so.”

The commute to the base was about two hundred kilometers, or, as Theia had said, twice the trek they’d made on foot to get through the forest. If the truck they were aboard moved at full speed the entire time, they would arrive within the hour. However, in order to avoid drawing too much attention to themselves, they were travelling at the same speed any commercial vehicle would. If they kept that up, they’d make it to their destination in about two hours.

“It took us four and a half days to get through the forest and this is only going to take two hours...? Aaaugh, how depressing.”

“That’s just how it is. Empress Alaia’s journey would have been over in an instant with modern transportation.”

“War has changed...”

Planet Alaia was still technically under development, and it was relatively unpopulated because of it. There were vast expanses of desolate wilderness between towns and cities with only a barebones road to connect them. Taking the ride in a truck rather than walking it on foot, however, felt like a luxury. It only made Yurika appreciate more how miserable the first leg of their journey had been. It really was depressing.

About an hour into their trip, the truck the three friends were riding in pulled over. They’d come to a fork in the road, which was where Koutarou, Theia, and Yurika would be parting ways with the faction squad.

“Return home safely, all of you...”

Theia stepped outside the truck to see the soldiers off. The truth was that she wanted to go with them, but the circumstances held her back. If she could, she would do all the fighting herself. But the truth pained her—no war had ever been won by a single person.

“Say, Koutarou... Did Empress Alaia worry at times like these too?”

Theia wondered how the legendary Silver Princess had overcome her own anxieties. Fortunately, she knew just who to turn to.

“You already know the answer to that, don’t you?”

“I want to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth since you were actually there.”

“In battle... Soldiers die. The people suffer. If Maxfern had wanted to establish a good government, Empress Alaia’s cause may have been nothing more than self-righteousness. And, thinking that, she once considered not taking up arms against him.”

Koutarou could clearly remember the night of the harvest festival two thousand years ago. Alaia was willing to give up her revenge against Maxfern for the sake of the citizens. To her, Maxfern was clearly an enemy. He’d killed her parents and was trying to take over the country. But even then, Alaia believed that it might be best for the citizens not to incite further fighting.

“But in the end, she decided to fight. She came to realize that the people would never be happy under Maxfern’s heartless rule.”

Ultimately, Alaia decided to go to war. It was a heartbreaking decision to make for the peace-loving princess, but she knew what had to be done. Maxfern had no interest in the people or their wellbeing. He had no interest in the betterment of society. If unchecked, he would be the ruin of Forthorthe and all happiness that lived within it. He had to be defeated at all costs, and that was how Alaia eventually came to terms with asking her beloved citizens to go to war. They were fighting the good fight, and in the end, it would bring them the peace they sought.

“And it’s thanks to her that we have Forthorthe today. The long, storied tale of this nation truly began the day Alaia decided it was worth protecting. The day she decided to fight.”

“Yes... You’re right.”

Koutarou was right; Theia had already known that. But hearing it from Koutarou, it lit her resolve anew. Considering the dirty tricks he was pulling now, it was hard to imagine that Vandarion would make a fair and just ruler. He had to be stopped now.

“I wish you all the best of luck in battle, men...”

Even so, Theia was still anxious. Yet she thought that was only right. The day she stopped caring for the wellbeing of her own men would be the day she set foot down the road to tyranny. So from here on out, she would hold those complex emotions dear, believing they would help lead her to a better future.

Koutarou and the girls took a temporary break to allow a scout to check out the road ahead. Since they were now a good distance away from their closest allies, they needed to stay on their guard. They took their time, and even waited a few minutes after the other squad departed to make sure nothing was wrong before setting out again.

Since they were already in Pardomshiha territory, the chances of any sort of ambush were relatively remote. It was also highly unlikely that the enemy even knew Theia was here. Nevertheless, they were taking the utmost precaution and travelling along as swiftly and quietly as they could. The silence, however, was suddenly broken by the soldier driving the truck.

“Your Highness! The scout has detected a flying object approaching at high speeds! It’s coming from 11:30!”

His voice was stiff and tense. As an escort to the sole princess of the Mastir family, he took his job with grave seriousness.

“What kind of object?! An enemy?!”

“I don’t know! There’s no mistaking that it’s a flying object, but the sensors can’t tell what it is! It could just be a big bird, or maybe a small stealth craft... But whatever it is, it’s not normal!”

The scout up ahead had relayed a warning to the driver. The sensors in the small vehicle the scout was driving had detected the flying object, but it was too small and fast to get a detailed read on. The best the scout could tell, the object was bigger than a meter in size, but less than two.

“Koutarou!”

“Based on this feeling... It’s gotta be human! I sense an aura!”

Though they were still some distance away, Koutarou could detect faint human will and emotion coming from the target in question thanks to the psychic powers he’d gotten from Sanae.

“Is it an enemy?!”

“I can’t tell. There’s precaution and haste... but no clear hostility. It might be a scout from their side.”

Though he had a read on their aura, Koutarou couldn’t yet tell if the approaching target was friend or foe. If they’d come with the intent to attack, he should have been able to sense their aggression... but there was nothing of the sort. That being the case, it seemed much more likely the target was a scout or other noncombat unit.

“No... They’re definitely an enemy.”

However, Koutarou’s theory was swiftly shot down by Yurika, who now wore a serious expression that made her look like a completely different person.

“Darkness Rainbow is coming!”

Yurika had an advantage Koutarou didn’t—she could sense mana from the approaching target. And since Koutarou had said it was human, that told Yurika it had to be one of the Darkness Rainbow girls. That meant they were in for a fight, and Yurika’s face said everything. Those resolute eyes and that stern voice... This was the magical girl of love and courage.

“Please stop the truck!”

“What are you going to do?!”

“I’ll intercept her! Based on the situation, they already know our position!”

Yurika believed that the enemy had already discovered them. She didn’t know if Darkness Rainbow had discovered their location with simple information gathering or divination magic, but surely they were here for a reason. It was hard to imagine that the dark magical girls were just flying all over trying to find bargaining chips for Vandarion.

“Okay, stop the truck!”

“As you wish, my princess!”

“I’m going!”

As soon as the truck stopped, Yurika immediately jumped out. She was so quick to act that it was hard to believe this was really the same clumsy Yurika who frequently fell out of bed.

“Yurika, wait! Don’t go alone!”

Koutarou jumped out of the truck right after her and gave chase.

Jeez, Yurika is always like this when it comes to magic!

While Yurika was operating at full capacity as a magical girl, she was currently failing at being part of a team. That drove Koutarou to draw both swords hanging at his waist and go after her. He wasn’t going to let her fight alone.

“Blast Fireball! Modifier: High Concentration!”

By the time Koutarou caught up, Yurika was already in the middle of an incantation. She’d chosen an explosive fire spell and compressed it to its limits to make it highly destructive. With its current heat and blast radius, there was no need to score a direct hit. That made it a great option against a target moving at high speeds.

“How does it look?!”

The last to arrive on the scene was Theia, who had been delayed with readying her equipment. She’d swapped out the gear on her Combat Dress with a setup that closely resembled Assault Red.

“We should be able to see her very soon. She’ll come up from over that hill just ahead.”

Koutarou held his two swords at the ready, Theia steadied a large canon, and Yurika held her incantation. All three of them were ready to intercept their enemy the moment she arrived.

“Here she comes!”

Just as Koutarou raised his voice, someone appeared over the trees about 200 meters in front of them. And just as Yurika had predicted, it was a dark magical girl.

“Rainbow! I finally found you!”

“Crimson-san?!”

It was Dark Crimson, easily identifiable by her carmine outfit and flaming red hair. She was the red magic specialist of Darkness Rainbow, and easily the most powerful of its members.

“Her, huh?! No wonder she went for a frontal charge!”

“Of course the dangerous one had to show up!”

Since Crimson specialized in pure attack power, allowing her to get the first hit in would mean taking serious damage. That’s why Koutarou and the others decided to attack right away. They were hoping to defeat her before she could get a single incantation off. However, Crimson took them all by surprise.

“Wait, hold your fire! I have no intention of fighting you! I came to tell you something!”

Indeed, the dark magical girl who claimed to be a fighter above all else was claiming she’d come in peace. To prove it, she even threw down her staff. She then defenselessly approached with her hands in the air.

“What do you think, Yurika?”

“It doesn’t look like she’s trying to use any spells or magic items...”

“She still isn’t registering any hostility, either. I don’t know what her real intentions are, but she’s at least serious about not fighting us.”

Once Koutarou confirmed that Crimson’s aura didn’t betray any aggression, he returned his two swords to their sheaths. Theia followed his lead and lowered her cannon. Yurika continued to hold up her staff with an incantation at the ready, but eventually realized Crimson meant them no harm and dismissed her spell.

“You sure are untrusting, Rainbow!”

“I just can’t imagine why you’d be here if it’s not for a fight.”

“I’m flattered!”

With a wry smile, Crimson landed in front of Koutarou and the girls. It was painfully clear she was sincere at this point. She still had her hands in the air and her staff was lying dozens of meters behind her.

“But that’s just how important this is!”

Crimson began her explanation as soon as she touched down. It seemed time was of the essence. It was rare to see a carefree spirit like Crimson in a hurry.

“Your allies are about to fall into a terrible trap! You should call them back right now!”

“What?!”

Koutarou’s eyes shot open wide in surprise. Those words were completely unexpected from an enemy, especially one who so loved any excuse for a fight.

“What do you mean?!” Yurika shouted in a stern voice.

Like Koutarou, she was skeptical of Crimson’s warning.

“The Imperial Army isn’t carrying mobile weapons, but a virus! Vandarion is hoping your allies will blow it up!”

That was the real reason Crimson was here. She’d been searching all over for Koutarou and company not to fight them, but to warn them of Vandarion’s plan.

“They leaked false information to try and get you to attack! And if you do, you’ll spread the virus and kill every human on this planet!”

Vandarion’s plan was very systematic. When Alaia was first developed, it was home to multiple anti-government resistance forces. They had bases set up all over the planet. Though they’d fallen out of use over the years as development on Alaia continued, they were still discovered from time to time as were weapons that had been left behind. The Imperial Army had just so happened to discover a bioweapon in one of them, and that set Vandarion’s gears turning. Or, at least, that was the story.

In reality, the virus was something Vandarion had come up with himself. He then turned it over to local troops and ordered them to dispose of it at an appropriate facility—like an abandoned rebel base. It would be a top secret operation, so the crew transporting it would be taking an undisclosed path at an undisclosed time. Capitalizing on that secrecy, Vandarion had then spread the rumor that new mobile weapons from DKI would be transported along said route at the same time the bioweapon convoy would be moving. He even imported new mobile weapons to Alaia to give the rumors credibility. Thanks to multiple levels of subterfuge, it was a difficult trap to see through.

Getting ambushed by mobile weapons was a blow Vandarion knew Elfaria’s faction would want to avoid, and the disassembled weapons in a single trailer made for an easy target. But if they continued with their preemptive strike, Elfaria’s faction would blow the virus sky high, unwittingly spreading it to neighboring regions and beyond. It would be an epidemic of deadly proportions.

“And you know what Vandarion’s going to do! He’ll twist the truth so the public thinks you did it on purpose! He’s got press onsite to make sure that happens! His goal is to make Elfaria’s faction look bad!”

Vandarion had set this all up so that the media would catch a glimpse of it and he could feed the public just enough misinformation to make it look like Elfaria really had spread the virus on purpose. His goal was to paint them as ruthless terrorists rather than a righteous cause. And all it would take was one serious tragedy with a high body count... Then it would be all over for Elfaria. Who would want a murderer for an empress, after all?

Vandarion’s plan was contingent on Elfaria’s faction making a move. He was constantly trying to plot one step ahead of her, and this sinister strategy would eliminate a lot of her future options by pulling the rug of public support out from under her. But since he had nothing to lose even if she didn’t take the bait, there was no reason not to set the trap and see if she’d fall for it.

“...I understand what you’re saying, but we can’t just accept it at face value.”

Yurika felt like everything Crimson was saying made sense. She couldn’t deny the possibility that it was true. But even then, she couldn’t bring herself to believe it without any proof. After all, Crimson was still an enemy too.

“We know that! That’s why I came myself!”

Crimson understood Yurika’s wariness. If their positions were reversed, she would undoubtedly feel the same way. So in order to convince her, she made an earnest plea.

“Put yourself in my shoes! If I lost all my enemies to fight, what would I do?!”

Darkness Rainbow had sent Crimson because they believed she would be the most convincing under the circumstances. She lived for a good fight. Combat was everything to her and strength was the only thing she treasured. She was strangely straightforward in that sense, and just about the last person in the universe who would try and take out her enemies with some kind of scheme.

She really means that... She’s not lying...

While he wasn’t on Sanae’s level, Koutarou could use his psychic powers to read people’s emotions. And right now, Crimson’s aura told him she wasn’t lying. She hadn’t cast a single spell since landing either, so she couldn’t be tricking him that way. But even without such reassurances, Koutarou genuinely believed that she was telling the truth.

“I believe you... But tell me one thing: why is Elexis trying to stop Vandarion’s plot?”

Though Koutarou trusted Crimson, that question still gave him great pause. He couldn’t understand what Elexis was doing, and he was ultimately the one that had sent Crimson here. That didn’t add up, however, since Elexis was supposed to be on Vandarion’s side now.

“Neither Elexis nor any of us would call ourselves good people! But there are still lines not even we would cross!”

The same as Crimson didn’t want to lose opponents worth fighting, Elexis had his own reasons for not wanting to cause a massive tragedy.

Elexis wanted to overthrow Elfaria because, according to him, she wasn’t an ideal leader. Elexis’s real ambition was the betterment of Forthorthian society, and he’d already worked hard to that end. Allying with Vandarion was also a means to that end in his book, not the actual goal itself. Once he’d gotten what he needed to out of Vandarion, he intended to overthrow him too and revolutionize Forthorthe.

And because Elexis believed in Forthorthe’s future, he had absolutely no interest in unnecessary civilian casualties. The people of Forthorthe were ultimately part of his goal, and he first and foremost thought like a businessman. It would be foolish to kill off potential customers.

Elexis believed that changing the world would take sacrifice, and he wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice people if it were truly necessary. But nothing about Vandarion’s plan was necessary. While it would be effective, it was far too short-sighted and the cost was far too high. Elexis detested such reckless uses of power. He could forgive it if it served a greater purpose, but this was strictly malicious.

“Now that you mention it, he is oddly self-righteous...”

Hearing what Crimson said, Koutarou was reminded of his last fight with Elexis. He’d done what he could to reduce needless bloodshed in battle, and even kept his promise to replace Koutarou’s ruined clothes. So while Koutarou believed Elexis was evil, he was at least bound by some moral code of his own design. And thinking about it that way, it made perfect sense that Elexis might go behind Vandarion’s back to warn Koutarou and the others of something so sinister.

“Besides, if Vandarion is victorious this early, that would be troublesome for us too. Because Elexis still hasn’t fully installed himself in a seat of power yet, our plan to return home as his glorious allies would be ruined.”

Elexis was only working with Vandarion to increase his own influence. But if Vandarion managed to take a decisive victory now without Elexis’s help, his political maneuvering would all be for naught. And if Elexis wasn’t able to claw his way to the top, there wouldn’t be much he could do to help bring the Folsarians home to Forthorthe. In short, Elexis and Darkness Rainbow were on the verge of losing everything they’d worked so hard for. That was why they’d come to Koutarou and company for help.

“What do you think, Koutarou?”

“...Let’s take her word for it.”

“Are you sure?”

“I think we can stand to have a little faith in that resolute side she’s shown us from time to time.”

Ultimately, Koutarou decided to believe Crimson. Considering their previous histories, the chances of this being a trap on Elexis and Darkness Rainbow’s part was low. Alternatively, the risk of ignoring their warning was too high. In the end, they could afford to believe her, but they couldn’t afford not to. That was Koutarou’s conclusion on the matter.

“If you believe in her, I will too.”

“I’m not satisfied, but I’ll also follow your lead.”

Theia and Yurika were behind Koutarou. Even if his decision was emotionally hard to accept, it was logically sound.

“That helps! Without your cooperation, we would have had no way of stopping Elfaria’s faction!”

Crimson seemed relieved upon hearing Koutarou and the others would work with her. She’d known she wouldn’t be able to stop the faction squad on her own. They’d never listen to her. No, if anyone could convince them to back down, it would have to be someone in a position of authority they trusted. In other words, it would have to be Koutarou or Theia.

In order to stop what appeared to be a surprise attack by the Imperial Army, Elfaria’s faction was launching a surprise attack of their own. In order to stay stealthy, they were operating under complete radio silence. Because of that, there was a chance that a call from Koutarou and the others might not even reach them. Theia could undoubtedly get through to them with a royal broadcast, but they couldn’t risk using a signal like that. It would likely give away her location to the enemy.

That meant the safest option to get in touch with the faction squad was physically going after them. But with no time to spare, Koutarou, Theia, and Yurika couldn’t stick with the truck they’d been travelling in so far. It would be much faster just to fly. Koutarou had his armor, Theia had her Combat Dress, and Yurika had her staff-cum-broomstick. And since trying to hide their location from Darkness Rainbow was no longer an issue, Yurika could use her magic freely to speed and warp them along as needed. Thanks to that, it seemed they would make it in time.

“If for some reason it’s too late by the time we get there... It’ll be a huge gamble, but I’m thinking of broadcasting a ceasefire over the entire region.”

“If it comes to that, I’ll protect you. Don’t worry.”

“That’s my line. Don’t harsh my style.”

“As you wish, my princess.”

Theia and Koutarou were joking around as usual, but contrary to their lighthearted banter, they both looked quite stern. It seemed they were just going through the motions to keep each other calm.

“What’s their relationship again? They sure don’t look like just master and servant.”

Crimson watched the princess and her knight with a puzzled expression. She had a vague idea of the social structure of Forthorthe, but nothing about Theia and Koutarou struck her as being determined by class. Curious, Crimson decided to ask Yurika about it.

“They started off on bad terms... A lot of stuff happened though and they started to get along. And eventually Satomi-san became her vassal.”

Knowing that Crimson was still an enemy, Yurika carefully chose her words as she explained Koutarou and Theia’s relationship to her.

“So they’re still dragging along some of that baggage from when they were adversaries?”

“I think so.”

“...Is Maki like that too?”

“Ah...”

That was where Yurika realized what Crimson was really after.

Crimson-san is worried about Maki-chan...

Crimson was interested in Koutarou’s relationship with Theia because she was wondering if it reflected his relationship with Maki. Had she truly been released from the shackles of Darkness Rainbow, or were they still holding her down? Even though Crimson was now technically Maki’s enemy, she still cared for her.

“Um, Maki-chan’s fine. There’s no one among us that would hold her past against her. I mean, we were practically all enemies to start with.”

“I see...”

Crimson flashed a small, charming smile. It was enough to make Yurika momentarily forget she was dealing with an evil magical girl.

“But I’m sure it still bothers Maki.”

“Yeah. Maki-chan sometimes seems to worry that no one else is worried about it.”

“How silly.”

“Maki-chan’s just that serious.”

“If only that man would forcibly make Maki his woman, everything would be much simpler.”

“That wouldn’t be a real solution.”

“If you can say that, then for now and for now alone, I’ll accept that Maki’s found a real group of friends to be with.”

“Crimson-san, you...”

It was extremely rare for Dark Crimson, the powerhouse of Darkness Rainbow, to smile warmly like a normal teenage girl. Seeing it the first time for herself, Yurika could tell just how much Maki meant to Crimson. Yet at the same time, it made her a little sad that Crimson had chosen battle over her only friend.

“We’re almost there.”

As Yurika was looking at her, Crimson’s expression suddenly returned to normal.

“Huh?”

“Look. The cavalry’s here.”

Crimson pointed behind them. When the surprised Yurika turned to see what she meant, she spotted five girls in colorful outfits and a slightly older man in a suit flying towards them at high speeds. She knew exactly who it was.

“Satomi-san! It’s Darkness Rainbow!”

“I know. But I don’t sense any hostility.”

“The way they’re flying doesn’t make it look like they’re preparing to attack, either. At least for now.”

Because of their history together, Koutarou, Yurika, and Theia instinctively went on the defensive.

“You don’t have to worry. They’re here to help,” reassured Crimson.

“Logically, I know that. But...”

Koutarou knew Crimson was telling the truth, but he still had to be prepared. If there was even the slightest chance this could turn out to be a trap, Theia’s life was in danger.

“We have no intention of fighting you right now, Koutarou-kun!”

Once he was close enough to sense the tense atmosphere around Koutarou and the others, Elexis put his hands in the air. The powersuit he was wearing came equipped with a variety of weapons, but none of them were locked and loaded. Elexis was doing the best he could to prove he meant no harm.

“He’s right. Without you, we won’t stand a chance of convincing Elfaria’s faction to call off their attack.”

Beside Elexis was Maya, who was practically rolling her eyes. It was quite clear she was dissatisfied with the current situation. If there had been any alternative whatsoever, she never would have agreed to team up with Koutarou and company.

“I know! That’s part of what’s so hard to believe!”

Koutarou finally removed his hands from his swords. Theia and Yurika followed his lead and lowered their weapons. They were still on guard, but they knew now wasn’t the time to be fighting.

“What a strange development...” Koutarou mumbled between sighs.

“I feel the same way. I didn’t expect Vandarion to go this far,” Elexis agreed with a nod.

He and his companions were rather stumped by this turn of events as well. His goal was to work with the army to end imperial rule in Forthorthe and use the influence he gathered in the process to establish a new political system and realize his ideal world. But if Vandarion forged ahead as things were, he would have an iron grip on the reigns of the nation and never let Elexis have his chance in the spotlight. Forthorthe would go from being an empire to a dictatorship, and that certainly wasn’t what Elexis wanted either.

“Isn’t this your fault for poking Max— I mean, Vandarion?”

“Poking? What do you mean?”

“You know, poking the bear. By artfully weaseling your way into things, you put some real pressure on him.”

“I see... You mean to say he feels threatened and is trying to bring a swift end to things. Well, that’s certainly within the realm of possibility.”

Elexis saw the truth in Koutarou’s words and nodded safely. Maya felt the same way, but her reaction was the opposite.

“El, you’re too exacting. You should be at least a little bit more adult.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll be more mindful. You do mean in setting the mood, no?”

“My god, men are just...”

Maya and Elexis’ back and forth was almost like Koutarou’s with the girls. If it was an act, it was an impressive one. At least for now, Koutarou was starting to trust them.

“But Koutarou-kun, when it comes to putting pressure on Vandarion, you and I are equally to blame.”

“That might be true...”

Koutarou couldn’t argue. He and the other girls had rather one-sidedly dispatched the soldiers that had been sent to attack them. Of course they’d be perceived as a threat after a stunt like that. Between them and Elexis, Vandarion was feeling pressured from both sides. That was why he was lashing out.

“But now you understand, don’t you, Koutarou-kun?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Why I believe Empress Elfaria’s rule is insufficient.”

Elfaria couldn’t prevent the military from becoming arrogant. In fact, when she tried to reign them in, they’d only grown nastier. And now as a result, they were about to take out the entire population of Alaia with a bioweapon. The royal families of Forthorthe had protected the country for millennia, but Elexis believed it was time for their reign to come to an end. In order to make things right, the entire government would have to be rebuilt from the ground up

“I do understand, Elexis... But I don’t agree.”

Koutarou could see where Elexis was coming from. He might even have some valid points, but that didn’t mean his answer was the only one. Elexis saw the two-thousand-year tenure of the royal families as a sign it had long outlived its usefulness, whereas Koutarou saw it as a sign that it was meant to last. He thought there was no way it would have been around for this long if it wasn’t working. He saw the merits of reform, but abolishing imperial rule altogether was taking it too far.

“That’s enough for now, Koutarou-kun.”

Changing someone’s opinion was hard. The first step was getting them to listen. As a businessman, Elexis understood that quite well. But the process took time, and that was the one thing he was short on right now.

“Hey, young master, sorry for interrupting your conversation... but shouldn’t we, like, start preparing or something?”

That was when Dark Orange flew up between Koutarou and Elexis. Like Elexis, she was worried about the time. But in typical Dark Orange fashion, her over-the-top cuteness made it hard to tell.

“You’re quite right. Let’s go.”

“They call you ‘young master’?”

“She insisted and refuses to relent no matter how many times I ask.”

“Though I hate to admit it, I have a similar problem...”

“Hahaha.”

Elexis let out a bold laugh as he signaled to Darkness Rainbow with his hand. They readied their staves, but not to attack. They were casting spells on themselves.

“What are you planning on doing?” Koutarou asked.

“It would be rather problematic if our identities were exposed during this operation, so we’ll be going in disguised.”

There, Elexis donned the helmet to his powersuit, which worked in a similar fashion to Koutarou’s armor. Putting the helmet on activated its combat mode and sent power to all its battle systems and related gear.

“You’re disguising yourselves?”

“Yes. Today, we are...”

Before Elexis could finish his sentence, a white cloud of smoke encircled Darkness Rainbow.

“Proud members of the Satomi band of knights!”

By the time the smoke cleared, Darkness Rainbow looked completely different. They’d taken the appearance of Kiriha and the other girls who weren’t around. They’d also transformed Elexis’s powersuit to look like standard imperial armor. This was their way of saying they wouldn’t be acting as Darkness Rainbow and the CEO of DKI today. No, they were here as members of Elfaria’s faction.

Koutarou, Yurika, and Theia—plus the eight fake Satomi knights—managed to catch up to the faction squad just before the scheduled strike. They were hiding in the woods waiting for the trailer in question to pass by, so they weren’t easy to spot. But a cleverly camouflaged communications antenna was standing right where they’d agreed to stake out the road, so there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that it was the squad.

“Phew... Looks like we made it. My forecasts kept showing me the trailer getting attacked, so I was starting to get nervous.”

Green, disguised as Clan, let out a sigh of relief when they spotted the antenna. With her divination magic, she’d already seen several ways this could go down. Not all of them were good, which had put her a bit more on edge than most of her companions.

“Princess, shouldn’t you make contact?”

“I was just thinking of doing that.”

Urged on by Dark Orange disguised as Sanae, Theia used a comms device in her Combat Dress to radio the faction strike force. After their fight in Folsaria, Orange and Theia were on bad terms. Having a common goal, however, eased the hostility between them. They both knew this wasn’t the time for personal business.

“This is Princess Theiamillis! Do you read me?”

“Your Highness?! What are you doing here?!”

The startled voice of the strike force commander came over the line in response to Theia’s call. She was using a laser communicator, which worked like a landline telephone with light instead of an actual cable line. It was a relatively simple form of communication that required direct contact between the communicating parties, so it wasn’t good for long distances and it didn’t work outside of line of sight. It also wasn’t capable of sending video or any other visual data. To the credit of its direct nature, however, there was very little risk of it being intercepted or jammed. As long as Theia could see the squad’s antenna, she would be able to communicate with them safely.

“Don’t worry about me! More importantly, call off your attack this instant! Vandarion set us up! The trailer isn’t carrying mobile weapons—it’s carrying a bioweapon!”

“What?!”

Theia was quick and concise with her orders, telling the commander just what he needed to know to get a grasp of the situation. Thankfully, he was well suited to his post and quick on the uptake.

“Listen up, men! Change of plans! Hold your fire! Don’t shoot! I repeat: do not shoot no matter what! That’s an order!”

Not even putting Theia on hold, the commander quickly gave out orders to his subordinates. Though disrespectful, Theia approved of his decision circumstances considered.

“Did we make it...?”

“Rest easy, Your Highness. We’re still five minutes before the scheduled strike, so there’s no need to worry.”

“That’s good... Very good...”

Theia let out a big sigh, exhaling the tension that had been building up inside. Knowing the population of an entire planet was at stake had put a great burden on her, and the relief upon feeling that burden lifted was immense. However, they weren’t out of the woods just yet. The faction squad still needed to retreat without letting the Imperial Army spot them. Having recollected herself, Theia called out to the commander again.

“With that out of the way, we’ll head over there―”

Theia was planning on covering the squad while they retreated, but in the middle of explaining her plan, Green suddenly raised her voice.

“Wait a moment! Something’s not right!”

Yellow—disguised as Harumi—let out a surprised squeal at the unexpected outburst.

“Eek! Er... What is it?”

“The future where the trailer is attacked hasn’t disappeared from the forecast!”

Green’s divination magic allowed her to see all possible futures. The more likely a certain future was, the more clearly it appeared in her mind. Conversely, unlikely futures appeared hazy and thin. And when a future was no longer a possibility at all, it would disappear from her sight altogether. That’s what should have happened the moment Theia gave the order to call off the strike, yet Green could still see the trailer exploding with alarming clarity.

“Perhaps the trailer driver gets in an accident. Or perhaps they end up charging Elfaria’s faction and forcing their hand. Something along those lines.”

Blue, disguised as Ruth, offered a theory as to why. Blue rarely spoke up, but when she did, it was only after she’d given it thorough thought. Her surmises seemed to be quite plausible given the situation, but Green shook her head.

“Even after the princess gave the order to call off the strike, the probability hardly dropped at all! That can’t be it! There has to be something else going on!”

If the trailer exploded because of an accident, Green should be able to see evidence of the accident. Moreover, it would be such an unlikely event that the future containing it should be quite hazy. The fact that the explosion still appeared so clearly in her forecast told her that it was no accident.

If the explosion’s not an accident, then that means this is all by design. But since the princess herself has called off the strike, that means Elfaria’s faction isn’t responsible. In other words... Ah, of course!

It was Purple who stumbled across the answer first. Just like Kiriha, who she was currently disguised as, she was quick-witted and calm.

“They’re doing exactly what we’re doing! Vandarion has troops disguised as Elfaria supporters lying in wait to take out the trailer!”

Vandarion wanted a failsafe for his plan. The troops transporting the virus would take the utmost care in handling it. They kept it in a sturdy trailer, and the specially-made container for the virus was rather sturdy itself. There was a chance, however slight, that it might not spread as intended even if it did get blown up. And there were too many other variables. What if the trailer broke down? What if Elfaria’s people didn’t use a strong enough explosive and only managed to blow up the trailer and not the bioweapon inside? In order to eliminate such uncertainties, Vandarion had soldiers disguise themselves as Elfaria supporters and had them lie in wait to make sure all went according to plan.

“I see! Green, where are Vandarion’s men?!”

In the heat of the moment, Theia was quick on her feet. She instantly increased the output on her Combat Dress when she realized the situation.

“They’re probably by the woods over there... Ten o’clock from the communications antenna!”

“Let’s go, Koutarou, Yurika!”

“Right behind you!”

“C-Coming!”

“And just in case, set your gear for space use! We’re dealing with a virus here!”

Their only lead was Green’s future forecast. It was vague, but it was all they had to go on. They’d have to trust her. If Vandarion really had men waiting to blow up the trailer even if the faction squad didn’t, it would be a catastrophe. Koutarou and the others were praying Green’s forecast was wrong, but at the same time, they were hoping she knew exactly what she was talking about. The most frightening scenario would be if Vandarion really did have men nearby, but Green couldn’t locate them. With those complex emotions swirling in their hearts, Koutarou and the others flew through the sky at full speed in the direction Green had pointed them.

“El, we should go too!”

“I agree! In situations like this, the more hands and eyes, the better!”

Elexis, Maya, and the six leaders of Darkness Rainbow chased after Koutarou and the others. They had their own reasons for wanting to stop Vandarion’s recklessness.

Elfaria’s faction had come up with a detailed strategy for the preemptive strike on the trailer. Soldiers were spread out in groups across advantageous terrain, and according to the topographical map, there shouldn’t be any where Green was leading them. That meant if they found any of Elfaria’s troops there, they were really Vandarion’s imposters and subject to immediate elimination.

“Theia, I found them!”

“Are you certain?!”

“Probably! I’ll send you the data right now!”

Koutarou could sense human auras up ahead with his psychic powers. Since humans were highly intelligent creatures, their auras were distinctly different from that of other animals. Needless to say, they stood out in the woods. Koutarou used his armor’s sensors to get a rough scan of the area, and sent the data to Theia’s Combat Dress.

“So these are the coordinates? Hmm... You’re right! I got a hit too! There’s no mistaking it!”

Based on the data Koutarou forwarded her, Theia used the sensors on her Combat Dress to scan the area too. As Theia’s Combat Dress was designed for combat use, it had more advanced sensors that yielded more data than the ones in Koutarou’s armor. And with it, she could clearly detect a small group of people up ahead.

“Satomi-san! The trailer is coming!”

Just as Koutarou and the others discovered Vandarion’s ambush, a large trailer came over the hill down the road. It was still a good distance away, but it meant the clock was really ticking now. It would be in range soon enough, and they’d have to do something to stop Vandarion’s men before then.

“Theia, have the faction troops stop the trailer! I’ll take care of the ambush!”

Koutarou made a swift call and left contacting the strike force to Theia while he forged onward.

“I’m counting on you! I’ll catch up as soon as I can!”

Theia would be delayed relaying the new plan back to the squad commander. She was concerned about Koutarou charging ahead already, but he wasn’t alone. It looked like he had his own squad right behind him.

“We’ll back you up, Koutarou-kun!”

“Listen up, ladies! Remember not to go all out and expose yourselves! I’m talking to you, Crimson!”

“I get it, Maya!”

Elexis, Maya, and the six leaders of Darkness Rainbow were the ones following after Koutarou. With the eight of them at his side, Theia had nothing to worry about. She knew firsthand just how strong they were.

“Satomi-san, Theia-chan, I’m going to head for the trailer. We wouldn’t want something unexpected to happen.”

The strike force would be en route to the trailer any second now, but this was an elaborate trap of Vandarion’s design. There was no telling what might happen. Though they didn’t like sending her off on her own, Theia and Koutarou agreed that the flexible and versatile Yurika was the best equipped to handle such an uncertain situation.

“We’re counting on you!”

“Right!”

Yurika turned and darted off, cutting a low arc through the sky. After seeing her off, Koutarou put his hands on the two swords hanging at his waist. That was just about when Elexis caught up to him.

“I’ll be your backup, Koutarou-kun.”

Elexis had a cheerful smile as he readied the rifle he was carrying. He was planning on supporting Koutarou at range.

“I guess I owe you my thanks.”

“I might not look it, but I’m a decent shot. You can count on me.”

“I am this time, Elexis.”

“You won’t regret it... this time.”

Once they were both ready, they moved forward and quickly caught a glimpse of what appeared to be faction soldiers in the woods. They were of course imposters. Vandarion’s men who had either stolen or were imitating the crests and insignias of the local branch.

“I know exactly how you fight, so feel free to be as wild as you always are!”

“You leave the wild part to me! Just don’t be too precise—that’s a bad habit of yours!”

Koutarou was fighting the fake allies in front of him with the fake allies at his side. It was a strange battle where nothing was quite as it seemed. There was only one thing that comforted Koutarou, and that was knowing Elexis and Darkness Rainbow were on his side for once. He knew it would only be temporary, but he was honestly grateful for it right now.

There was little to no difference between the Imperial Army and Elfaria’s faction in terms of their looks. They were all imperial soldiers originally, so they used the same uniforms and equipment. The only way to tell them apart was by the crests and insignias identifying each unit. Thanks to that, it was relatively easy to pretend to be someone else. All one had to do was switch out their crests and insignias. So while Vandarion’s men below certainly looked like faction troops, there was one dead giveaway—the mobile weapons protecting them.

“They have mobile weapons! Elexis, do you know anything about them?!”

Approaching from the air when the troops had tree cover to shield them would just make Koutarou an easy target, so he decided to land and charge at the imperial unit consisting of several dozen soldiers on foot. When he got closer, however, he spotted the mobile weapons defensively positioned around the troops. It was Koutarou’s first time seeing ones like this, so he turned to Elexis for any advice or knowledge he might have.

“Of course I do. DKI made those, you know.”

Elexis sniped the Imperial Army’s communications antenna as he casually answered Koutarou. Both came as a surprise.

“You made them?!”

“Who else? That’s a model we debuted last month.”

Koutarou should have seen it coming. Right on the side of the mobile weapons was the DKI logo. They were Dragon Knight Industries’ latest product.

“Do they have some kind of weak point?!”

Koutarou was confident that he could win against normal mobile weapons, but hearing these were from DKI made him nervous. Elexis’s mobile weapons had put him through hell before.

“None whatsoever. They were made using combat data we collected while fighting you, after all. The components are largely the same, but they’ll be a new beast to fight.”

The new DKI mobile weapons weren’t all that different compared to the design of the previous model the Imperial Army had been using. They were still something between a fighter and a tank. But while they looked largely the same outwardly, they were very different on the inside.

Elexis had crafted the AI and combat systems for this model with data he’d collected fighting against Koutarou and his allies. Though they weren’t equipped with any magical enhancements or spiritual energy upgrades, their performance had been significantly enhanced. They were a cut above the last mobile weapons Koutarou had fought.

“They’re not as strong as the combined force of Warlord II and the Motor Knights, but you’ll end up eating dirt if you treat them like your average mobile weapon.”

“You make it sound easy...”

“Oh, I forgot! They do have one weakness, Koutarou-kun!”

“What?! Tell me—now!”

“The running cost of lone units is abysmal. It’s much more effective to deploy them in groups like this.”

“That’s not a weakness!”

When the communications antenna was destroyed, one of the mobile weapons picked up on Koutarou and the others approaching. And one was all it took. Without missing a beat, it and all the others began moving simultaneously. There were only eight in total, but since they attacked in unison, they made for a fearsome foe. Worse yet, they had data on Koutarou specifically. He knew they’d immediately go on the offensive.

“Detecting high energy signatures! Coordinated laser cannon attack incoming!”

The AI in Koutarou’s armor began blaring a warning. The instant the mobile weapons saw Koutarou, they recognized him as a threat and began preparing a synchronous attack. In order to take out the fast-moving Koutarou in a single strike, they’d need simultaneous hits with their fastest weapon—their laser cannons. It was an attack Elexis had perfected with Warlord II and his Motor Knights.

“You’re always making such troublesome stuff!”

“Ahaha! Quite the masterpiece if I say so myself!”

“Shut up! It’s not funny right now!”

“I know, I know. Orange, Green, if you will...”

“Leave it to me, young master!”

“I can’t believe you don’t have an emergency override...”

At Elexis’s behest, Orange and Green began their incantations.

“Twinkling Starburst!”

The spell that Orange cast created a glittering cloud that changed the density of the air and diffused light within it. It was a flashy spell that Orange loved to use, but it was quite effective at weakening lasers.

“Perfect Illusion! Modifier: Effective Area, Large!”

Still grumping, Green activated an illusion spell that covered a wide area. Her specialty school of green magic included illusions, and with her prowess, she could create illusions powerful enough to fool even machines. And that’s what she used now to make it look like Koutarou and everyone else had suddenly shifted to the side.

“Alert: Laser cannon attack commencing!”

Not a second after Koutarou’s armor warned him of the incoming attack, the eight mobile weapons fired their lasers together. The combined beams hit their target—Koutarou—at the speed of light. The mobile weapons had identified him as the greatest threat, so they were intent on taking him out first.

“The distortion field has been hit. Energy loss moderate.”

Fortunately, Koutarou himself didn’t take any damage. Orange’s spell had greatly reduced the potency of the lasers, and Green’s spell had messed with their aim. All eight shots at full power would’ve taken Koutarou out instantly, but all he took was one glancing, weakened blow.

“That was close...”

Still, Koutarou was none too pleased to find out he was up against enemies that could take him out instantly, so he increased his speed even more. He needed to close the distance as quickly as possible and cut off their synchronous attacks.

“I’m coming with you, Koutarou!”

Crimson followed after him, smiling with Shizuka’s face. Since their ways of fighting and auras were somewhat similar, Koutarou didn’t find it the slightest bit uncanny. In fact, it was something of a nice reminder he had other companions waiting for him, even if they were far away.

“Let’s go, Crimson!”

“I’m only protecting you because Maki’s a friend!”

It wouldn’t be until much later that Koutarou realized that, in the moment, Crimson had called Maki “a friend.” He wasn’t quite sure if she meant his or hers—or perhaps maybe even both. He was sorry he hadn’t thought to ask her to clarify.

As Koutarou and “the Satomi knights” began their skirmish with Vandarion’s soldiers, Yurika was closing in on the trailer. It would be up to her and the faction squad to keep it from proceeding any further.

“I had no idea it was this big...”

Yurika was somewhat puzzled upon seeing the trailer. It was far larger than she’d first imagined when she heard the word “trailer.” That was by and large because of her bias as an Earthling. The military trailer she was looking at was perhaps more accurately described as a moving cargo container. It almost looked like a train car as its tireless frame glided down the road like rails. Compared to the standard Earth trailer Yurika had been thinking of, this was easily three times as long and wide.

Thinking about it rationally, however, those dimensions made perfect sense. Even disassembled, it supposedly carrying large mobile weapons. The trailer would have to be at least big enough to hold them. Moreover, large cargo trailers like this were common all over Alaia. The planet was still technically under development, so they were useful for all kinds of things.

“Stopping it won’t be easy. And if we use too much firepower, we might trigger the virus weapon...”

As large as the trailer was, weaker attacks wouldn’t do much to slow it down. But using too much force could potentially release the virus weapon within even without an explosion. That’s why, before she attacked, there was something she had to do.

I remember Satomi-san said that nothing good will come from putting off what must be done!

Yurika quickly decided on a plan of action and used her bracelet to contact the squad commander.

“How may I be of assistance, Yurika-dono?”

Yurika was considered part of the Satomi band of knights under Theia’s direct command. Because of that, the commander addressed her as formally as he would any knight.

“I’m going to inspect the trailer to determine exactly where the virus weapon is! So for now, please refrain from using any serious attacks!”

Presently, they didn’t know where the virus weapon was being kept—or even how many of them there were. Before attacking to stop the trailer, Yurika would need to get inside to confirm those details.

“Allow me to send you backup! It’s dangerous to go alone!”

“Thank you! We have to stop this no matter what!”

Under ordinary circumstances, Yurika would have refused the help. Fighting alone put risk on the fewest number of people possible, after all. But this was different. If they didn’t find the virus weapon, everyone would be at risk. Yurika deciding not to search for it alone was the smart call.

“All right, I’m going! Once I’m on board, I’ll secure the area. After I do, please follow in behind me.”

“Roger that! Best of luck to you!”

“Thank you!”

After a short briefing, Yurika took the lead and flew off towards the trailer on her broom. The soldiers saw her off, and a conversation quickly struck up about her.

“That’s an awfully cute knight... And boy is she brave.”

“And humble to boot. She was polite and even thanked us at the end.”

“That’s what you’d expect from Princess Theiamillis’s personal band of knights, I guess?”

“Hey, we’re Princess Theiamillis and Empress Elfaria’s personal military! We can’t get shown up here!”

Yurika looked especially small as she flew off into the distance, but she was shining with seven colors of love and courage. Guided by the light of her radiant rainbow, the soldiers boldly advanced.

Since they were pretending to be a part of the Satomi knights, Elexis and Darkness Rainbow had to fight by their rules. In short, they were to keep casualties to a bare minimum—that was the policy the royal families had upheld since Alaia’s time, and it was a policy that the Satomi knights honored. While Koutarou initially worried that was something the evil CEO of a mega-corporation and seven evil magical girls might struggle with, his worry turned out to be unfounded.

“Why don’t you guys work for Rainbow Heart again?!”

Koutarou was honestly shocked to see how artfully Crimson incapacitated the Imperial Army soldiers without killing them. In response, she grinned wide while punching out her next target.

“Just mowing down the enemy isn’t enough if you wanna overthrow a government or two. Have you ever heard of an evil organization that only kills?”

Darkness Rainbow primarily used their magical talents to pull strings from the shadows. Really, it was something of a rarity that they came right out and used force. That said, Crimson was insanely strong and bad at holding back. Her allies put a good deal of time and energy into making weapons that would specifically keep her from killing her enemies, and she was using one such weapon right now. It was a gauntlet designed to knock out anyone she punched with it.

“You’re suggesting that while you guys are the bad guys per se, Yurika and Rainbow Heart are actually the more violent ones, aren’t you?”

“Well, keeping us under control is their job, so that’s only natural. Ironic, isn’t it?”

“If you guys would just knock it off, Yurika and the rest of Rainbow Heart wouldn’t have to use violence either.”

“Sadly, I want the opposite! Like this!”

After taking down the soldiers in front of her, Crimson clenched her staff in both hands and launched a brightly burning fireball. Her target was the group of mobile weapons bombarding them from the rear. And while she’d agreed to keep bloodshed to a minimum, she was allowed to go all out against the machines.

“Well, whatever your reasons, you’re a big help right now!”

“That’s ironic too!”

There, Koutarou took off as if chasing after Crimson’s fireball. In his case, GoL was blocking the infantryman from getting closer to him, so he was free to focus on the mobile weapons. He went in swinging, attacking one whose barrier was about to collapse after getting nailed with Crimson’s fireball.

“What?!”

However, Signaltin was suddenly blocked by a glowing, cylindrical light the mobile weapon held up to shield itself. Completely caught off guard, Koutarou took a second too long to notice the mobile weapon charging its close-range beam canon.

“Guh!”

Koutarou twisted his body back on reflex. Thanks to Sanae’s spiritual circuitry, Koutarou’s reflexes were supernaturally fast and he was narrowly able to avoid a direct hit. But even a grazing shot from a beam cannon at point blank was enough to drain GoL’s barrier of most of its energy. The mobile weapon then didn’t waste any time thrusting the strange glowing light out at Koutarou, who was now wary of incoming attacks and dodged it readily.

“That was close! Elexis, what is this thing?!”

“It was specifically designed to block that sword of yours. It’s a distortion field made thin and narrow to make it more concentrated. You could think of it as a cutting-edge parrying dagger, good for both offense and defense.”

Energy became stronger the more concentrated it was. So by making a very small barrier, Elexis had come up with a clever way to block Signaltin, although he didn’t know its name. That was the idea behind the glowing rod the mobile weapon was using.

It was a weapon that would be impossible for a normal human to wield. The glowing rod, or dagger as Elexis had called it, had an extremely short reach, making it hard to block anything with. Moreover, because of its small size and lightweight, it would be hard to get enough force behind a single swing to make it lethal. Neither of these drawbacks were a problem for the superhuman mobile weapons, however. They could calculate exactly where to intercept enemy attacks and they always hit hard.

“I call it the Field Knife. It’s a superb creation, if you ask me. It caught you by surprise, didn’t it?”

“It sure did! I wish you’d told me about it sooner!”

While Koutarou and Elexis were exchanging banter, they were both hard at work. Koutarou dodged attack after attack while unleashing lightning from his sword. Meanwhile, Elexis was sniping at the mobile weapons to keep them from closing in on Koutarou. They fought like veteran men of valor.

El seems to be having fun...

Their teamwork deserved special praise. They worked in perfect concert like battle brothers who’d been doing this for years, and their back and forth only strengthened that impression. In reality they were just looking out for each other’s openings and keeping them covered, but Maya could swear Elexis was having fun. And that put in her a bad mood. Elexis was showing Koutarou a side of himself he’d never shown her.

“Sorry, sorry. It won’t work against your other sword, so I thought you’d be fine.”

“You still should’ve told me!”

Koutarou had one sword in each hand. In his right was Alaia’s Signaltin and in his left was Theia’s Saguratin. Having learned his lesson, he swung his left this time to attack the mobile weapon.

“And sooner!”

Saguratin’s physical blade was stopped by the Field Knife, but not its ethereal blade. The spiritual energy the sword projected passed right through its barrier and cut into the mobile weapon, damaging it badly. There was one small explosion after another on the inside, and eventually the entire machine powered down. Observing this, Elexis nodded.

“I suspected as much would happen with these specs...”

Magic could be stopped by scientific means to some extent, but it was powerless against spiritual energy. Spiritual energy would take either spiritual energy or magic to block, but producing machines that used those was difficult. Moreover, Elexis wanted to keep the new technologies he’d discovered a secret he could use against Vandarion later. But without them, this outcome was inevitable. Koutarou would always get the better of purely mundane armaments. And while Elexis was happy Koutarou was able to deal with the threat in front of him, he was also sad to see his creations so easily defeated. He was conflicted.

“El, if you space out like that, your little boyfriend is gonna run off without you.”

“Oh no! You’re right!”

Elexis had stopped to ponder the situation, and Maya admonished him for letting his mind wander from the battle at hand. Elexis quickly got back to supporting Koutarou, who was already going for the next mobile weapon. It would be dangerous to let him take it on alone.

Ugh, men really are...!

Maya had been as sarcastic as she could be, but Elexis ran off without even noticing. She felt like she was spinning her wheels, which only worsened her mood.

“Stop playing around and get to work!”

“Don’t worry! I’m here now!”

The battle in the woods was progressing in the Satomi knights’ favor. The cooperation between Koutarou and Elexis and the members of Darkness Rainbow was exceptional, and they were working steadily to take out the enemy forces. All seemed well until an unexpected piece of bad news arrived.

“Koutarou, this is bad! Yurika is in over her head!”

“What?!”

Theia, who was late arriving after staying behind to organize the other troops, came bearing a grim report of the situation over at the trailer. According to her, Yurika was in danger.

“Tell me what’s going on, Theia!”

“There were apparently enemies lying in wait over there too—big ones!”

The faction squad and Yurika had found themselves struggling with an unexpected ambush. The soldiers had notified the rest of the squad that had stayed behind with their commander in the woods, who had then relayed the situation to Theia.

“Can you finish up here, Elexis?”

“If you have to leave so soon, then get going!”

“Grab on, Koutarou!”

Koutarou and Theia made a quick decision. He grabbed hold of her Combat Dress and she set her thrusters to full power. They sputtered flame and carried Theia and Koutarou off in no time flat. They sailed through the air like a missile on a course for Yurika.

The ambush waiting for Yurika at the trailer was a load of defensive weaponry. While the trailer had been disguised as a civilian vehicle, it was really a military craft loaded with heavy machine guns, small missiles, and other nasty surprises. Yurika had been far enough away when they opened fire that she was able to avoid getting hit, but she wouldn’t be so lucky if she pressed onward. Not even Yurika was foolish enough to continue such a dangerous charge.

“Multiple Energy Bolts! Targeting Option: Auto Homing!”

Using Theia’s normal behavior as a guideline, Yurika cast an attack spell to destroy the weapons before she could get shot. She let loose a storm of energy bolts that sought out the armaments like magical missiles. However, the spell dispersed before it ever reached the trailer.

“A barrier?!”

Indeed, the trailer was equipped with a barrier.

“It’s impossible for me to break through that! What should I do?!”

Yurika’s magic could easily break through a military-grade barrier for personal use. Barriers designed to protect vehicles, however, were equipped with generators in a completely different league. Breaking through it on her own would be next to impossible. The faction troops she was with had anti-vehicle weapons, so they might be able to get by with those. But if they turned out to be too strong, they would just blow up the trailer and the virus weapon inside. Torn over what to do, Yurika took her distance from the trailer. If she recklessly charged in, she’d be nothing but a target.

“In that case... I’ll have to make a daring move!”

Yurika stopped to think for a moment, but she hadn’t forgotten that she needed to be swift in her judgements. Quickly deciding on a course of action, Yurika contacted the commander once more.

“Sorry, but where is the barrier generation device on that trailer?!”

“It’s the dome on the rear of the unit!”

“Got it!”

“What are you planning to do?!”

“I have an idea! Please proceed as planned!”

Yurika turned her broom around and headed back towards the trailer while incanting a spell.

“Recall Precast Teleport!”

High-ranking magicians like Yurika could cast certain spells ahead of time and keep them in an idle state until needed. The spell Yurika had incanted was one such example—a teleportation spell. Since teleporting even short distances was taxing, teleportation spells were some of the most commonly precast spells in the magician world.

Blue mana coalesced on the tip of Yurika’s broom before wreathing her entire body.

“Gooooo!”

The incredible amount of mana gathering around her warped space itself. Yurika disappeared into the light as if in a fog... and suddenly appeared atop the back end of the trailer. She’d successfully teleported through its barrier.

“If I can just destroy this...!”

The instant she landed, her broomstick turned back into her staff. Holding it in both hands, she pointed its tip at the dome-shaped device in front of her—the barrier generator.

“Terrible Thunder Lance! Modifier: Empower!”

Standing on top of the trailer, Yurika was so close that neither the machine guns nor missile launchers could fire right away. Certain safety measures would have to be disengaged, and the weapons would have to be operated manually. But in the time that would take, Yurika could cast at least one spell. She chose potent red magic that created a powerful electric bolt.

“Here goes nothing!”

The bolt exploded with a loud boom that rattled the very air as it easily pierced the trailer’s armor, shorting all of the circuits within. The generator seized up, completely fried, and the barrier around the trailer disappeared. Though there had definitely been an explosion, there was no sign of the fiery, widespread destruction one would have expected from an attack like that. Yurika had carefully chosen a directional spell to precisely attack exactly what she was aiming for.

“Wha?!”

But luck was also on her side. After overloading the barrier generator, the electrical surge of her attack spread out through the trailer’s other systems, destroying them as it went. When all was said and done, the trailer completely lost power. Its buoyancy system abruptly cut off, it crashed some dozen centimeters into the ground below.

“Kyaaaaah!”

The sudden impact forced Yurika to grab the barrier generator she’d just destroyed and hold on for dear life. After skidding down the road for a while, the trailer finally came to a halt.

“...D-Did it stop?”

Yurika opened one of her tightly closed eyes and took a quick look around. The trailer had indeed stopped in the middle of the road, and there was smoke was rising from various parts of its frame. But all in all, it hadn’t seemed to have sustained any compromising damage. That was a testament to how sturdily it was built. It was meant to last, even with its power cut.

“That’s right! I have to hurry!”

Yurika didn’t know the real reason the trailer had come to a stop. She didn’t know if some integral component had been destroyed or if some sort of safety had been tripped with the power surge. She didn’t know if it was offline for good or if it would be back up and running before long. Whatever the case, she had a lot to get done—and fast.

“Commander-san, please come right away! It’s safe now!”

“Well done, Yurika-dono! We’ll be there post haste!”

Yurika contacted her allies with her bracelet and cast a few more spells to destroy the remaining machine guns and missile launchers. Once that was taken care of, she swiftly headed towards the trailer’s rear hatch where she met up with the approaching strike force.

“Just give me a moment, Miss Knight! I’ll get it open right away!”

One of the military engineers approached the hatch, ready to cut off the lock and bust the trailer open. His blowtorch spewed extremely high temperature plasma, which sheared off the lock in seconds flat right before everyone’s eyes. They’d have the trailer open in no time... Or, at least that was what everyone was thinking when the hatch door suddenly flew open with enough force to send the engineer flying backward.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

He crashed right into Yurika, knocking her flat on her butt. The engineer’s eyes were spinning, but fortunately, neither he nor Yurika nor were seriously injured. Once she confirmed that much, Yurika looked up to figure out what had happened.

“What...?”

That was when she laid eyes on a giant pair of legs. She then looked up even more and saw a stocky robot in thick armor sitting on top of them.

Unlike poison, a virus would self-replicate once it infected someone. That’s why a large amount of it wasn’t strictly necessary in a bioweapon. Vandarion was able to cram all of the virus he had into a single container, leaving him to fill the rest of the trailer with whatever he so desired. He’d chosen a large mech just in case the trailer happened to be attacked before it reached its destination or ran into other trouble.

“This is... the first giant!”

Yurika had seen this mech before. Not in person, but in recorded footage. It was the large mobile weapon that Elexis had used when he first appeared as Ruth’s fiancé.

Elexis had now been through multiple iterations of his personal mech, and the Warlord series held many secrets he’d yet to supply to the Imperial Army. The original model, however, was now in production and widely available for sale. Like the mobile weapons that Koutarou and the others were fighting in the woods, it wasn’t equipped with spiritual energy technology or magic, but it did pack one hell of a punch. It was considerably more powerful than the Imperial Army’s standard units, making it a very dangerous machine.

“Commander-san, fall back right away!”

“We won’t abandon you, Yurika-dono!”

“This isn’t an opponent that will go so easy on you!”

Yurika’s intuition told her that if she was just up against the mech and the mech alone, she should be able to handle it herself. If there were two, she could still win with the soldiers’ backup. Three would be an all hands on deck situation, and four would have them at a disadvantage... But in grand total, there were six of them. Yurika had only seen the one, but the other five were now emerging.

“Retreat right now! And call for Theia-chan and Satomi-san! We need their help!”

Yurika quickly began incanting a defensive spell. If they went head to head with the mechs, she and the soldiers would be summarily wiped out. All Yurika could do for now was cover the soldiers while they retreated and wait for Koutarou and Theia.

Once they were up in the air, Theia and Koutarou could see Yurika struggling from a distance. She was over a kilometer away, but their AIs enhanced their visuals to show them exactly what was going on. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

Yurika was covered in scratches and dirt, doing her best to hold her ground. She was using defensive spells and illusions to stave off the attacks of six mechs all on her own. But in spite of the grim situation, there was an uncharacteristically resolute gleam in her eye.

“Yurika is really in trouble! Theia!”

“I know! Cover your ears!”

“Just don’t hit the trailer!”

“Who do you think you’re talking to?!”

Theia repeatedly fired the large anti-material cannons on her shoulders. The shells flew faster than the eye could see and assaulted the mech about to attack Yurika. They didn’t explode on impact, but instead hammered through the mech’s barrier and crushed its right arm.

“Theia, can you follow after me?!”

Once Theia attacked, the mechs—or more accurately, their pilots—turned their attention her way. Koutarou could see their hostility being redirected in the form of what looked like laser sights. Avoiding those was the key to avoiding their attacks. The only hitch was that Theia couldn’t see them. Koutarou’s workaround would be having her follow directly after him while he weaved in between them.

“Like I said, who do you think you’re talking to?!”

Theia easily kept up with Koutarou and his aerial acrobatics, both of them dodging the enemy fire like it was some sort of dance. The only threat Koutarou couldn’t avoid with his spirit sight happened to be guided missiles, but Theia readily shot them down from a distance as they went.

“...To my beloved princess.”

Those words unwittingly slipped Koutarou’s lips in the heat of the moment. He was so in awe of Theia’s splendid maneuvering that he couldn’t help admiring her. Her athletic ability, kinetic vision, and reflexes were all beyond compare. Being able to handle herself like that and shoot at the same time... Theia was truly peerless.

“This isn’t all I’ve got!”

“Hey, don’t get too full of yourself! That’s dangerous!”

Eventually, Theia and Koutarou’s movements started to fall out of synch. Theia had intentionally created a lag in their timing to afford her opportunities to attack and support Yurika, but it also afforded the enemy a chance to attack her. Koutarou was worried.

“You only think it’s dangerous because you’re just looking at the spiritual energy! Regardless of their intentions, they can’t hit what’s physically impossible to hit!”

In the end, it seemed Theia was right this time. Her confidence came from the fact that her battle sensors had already analyzed the mechs’ attack patterns, and she now had her own way of avoiding incoming shots while counterattacking. Koutarou was worried for nothing.

“...As you wish, my princess.”

Koutarou gave up on trying to object and instead focused on avoiding attacks as a reference for Theia. Satisfied with his decision, the edges of Theia’s lips lifted up into a smile.

“Heh, that’s more like it, my knight.”

Now that Theia was counterattacking, the mechs were firing more strategically and less frequently. That gave Theia and Koutarou an opportunity to speed closer when they weren’t trying to dodge.

“Are you okay, Yurika?!”

Before long, Koutarou touched down and slid along the ground for a good way before using his boosters to stop himself right in front of Yurika so he could defend her.

“You did good, Yurika!”

Theia’s voice then came over Yurika’s bracelet. She would be staying in the air to make full use of the mobility of her Combat Dress.

“S-Satomi-san! Theia-chan!”

Theia’s sharpshooting had made Yurika’s life on the front line much easier. After she nailed one of the mechs, they’d prioritized her as a target. That meant they eased up on Yurika, which kept her alive until Theia and Koutarou joined up with her.

“I’m okay somehow! But I’m so glad you came! I was almost at my limit...”

Yurika was cut up, burned, and scratched all over. She’d expended a good deal of her mana on the teleportation spell, and even more protecting the soldiers as she retreated. She was now so worn out and battered that she was getting dizzy.

“Everything’s okay now. Just leave the rest to me and Theia... That’s what I want to tell you, but there’s something I need you to handle first.”

“The virus weapon?”

“You got it! Sneak in the trailer and figure out where it is while we deal with the mechs!”

Thanks to Yurika acting as a rearguard, the faction soldiers had been able to escape. With no one to protect, Koutarou and Theia should be able to handle the six mechs on their own. And while they were fighting, Yurika would move on to the main objective—finding the virus weapon. She was exhausted enough that she wouldn’t be much more use in combat, so that was the most effective way to split the team.

“Okay! Then please give me a hand!”

Yurika gave a resolute nod and shakily lifted her staff once more. She’d have to wait for Theia and Koutarou to make her an opening to get past the mechs.

“Here I come!”

The first to move, as expected, was Theia. She fired several smoke grenades at the mechs’ feet. The high-temperature smoke they released would blind both them and their heat sensors temporarily. It would be the perfect opportunity.

“Here we go, Yurika!”

“Right!”

Koutarou seized the moment and started running. His armor initiated a jamming sequence to keep the mechs from detecting his approach.

One in the center, three to the right, and two to the left... That means our best choice is to go to the left of the middle one.

Since the mechs were human-operated mobile weapons, Koutarou could see the auras of their pilots through the smoke. The mechs’ engine noise and heavy footsteps also gave away their general locations.

“This should be enough of a handicap!”

Koutarou ran between two of the mechs, slashing at their legs as he went. Since the mechs themselves had no aura, he was mostly guessing as to where exactly they were standing. He wasn’t able to do too much damage that way, but he did manage to cripple them some.

“No, this is what you call a handicap!”

Audio data on the giants taken by Koutarou’s armor was shared immediately with Theia’s Combat Dress. Its firing control system analyzed that data to create holographic models and project them directly into Theia’s vision. Now she could see the giants even through the smoke. She unloaded cannon shell after cannon shell, intentionally missing the pilots. Instead, her cannon storm smashed shoulders and arms left and right.

“All right, we’re through!”

“We did it!”

While the mechs were being stalled by Theia’s bombardment, Koutarou and Yurika safely made it past them. They fortunately hadn’t been attacked along the way, and their defensive spell/barrier combo had protected them from the heat of the smoke.

“Go, Yurika! I’ve got your back! Just run!”

After they were behind the mechs, Koutarou stopped while Yurika continued running. They now had different roles to play.

“Right!”

Yurika continued forward at full speed as she was told. Her job was getting in the trailer and finding the virus weapon while Koutarou and Theia continued to stall the mechs. Each one of them would have to play their part for the plan to succeed.

“It’s our turn now, Theia.”

“No, it’s my turn. You’re only helping.”

“Man, you really are angry.”

“Of course I am! What princess wouldn’t be to find out her people are being threatened with a bioweapon?!”

“I know what you mean. I’m not gonna let Vandarion get away with this.”

Yurika didn’t look back once. It never even crossed her mind that she might get attacked from behind. After all, she had Forthorthe’s strongest princess and a legendary knight covering her.

When the smoke cleared, what greeted the mech pilots was a golden flag projected aloft in the sky. Its lasers cut the pattern of a gorgeous flower in full bloom. Any Forthorthian citizen who saw it knew what it signified.

“That’s Princess Theiamillis’s crest...”

“So the rumors of her on the front lines were true...”

The royal families had protected Forthorthe without fail for the past two thousand years. It was no small matter to be confronted with a royal’s flag on the battlefield. It sent a message: surrender or lose. It was the exact same thing the eyes of the petite girl standing beneath the flag were saying.

“C-Calm down, men! Even if the royal families are undefeated, Empress Elfaria has committed crimes that should strip her of her royal rights and title! This princess is illegitimate!”

The mech squad captain tried to rally his men over their comms line, but it was all too clear he didn’t even believe the words coming out of his own mouth. His voice was trembling, especially when he insulted Elfaria. He was just repeating the lies he’d been fed.

“Besides, the battle has already begun! It’s too late to beg for forgiveness now!”

But in spite of what he believed, the squad captain pointed his large beam shotgun at Theia. It wasn’t an act of courage. No, it was nearly the opposite. He’d already fired on the princess and now felt cornered. Surrender wasn’t an option.

“You heard the captain! After him, before we’re all killed!”

“Raaaaah!”

The five subordinates followed after their advancing captain. They all knew that the girl before them wasn’t just a beauty; she was a born beast. If they stood still, she would devour them.

“Even raising my flag only bought a few seconds, huh...?”

Theia readied her weapons with a fearless smile. Even against six mechs, her confidence remained unwavering—quite the opposite of the mech pilots going up against a single girl.

“Yurika made it inside the trailer. That’s enough, right?”

The knight guarding the princess readied a sword in each hand. He was wearing a powered suit of armor, but it was no match for the giant mechs. Under ordinary circumstances, the mech pilots would have no reason to be afraid. But for some reason the look in the princess’s eyes and the color of knight’s armor made them nervous... And it soon turned out they were right to be worried.

“Go, Koutarou!”

“As you wish, my princess!”

The knight charged forward while the princess backed him up. The missiles she fired kicked up a cloud of dust the knight dove right into. The pilots lost sight of him for a moment before he emerged on the other side, his sparkling swords swinging. In retaliation, the captain leading the mech charge readied his beam shotgun. He was planning on shooting the knight point blank as soon as the barrier repelled his sword.

“I-Impossible!”

The captain never got his chance, however. Contrary to all expectation, the knight’s sword easily cut through the mech’s barrier. There was no way he should have enough output from a personal generator for that to be possible... But while the captain was still reeling, the knight swung his other sword and cut a wide gash in the mech’s thick armor.

“Uwaaaaaaaah! Don’t come any closer!”

Thrown into a panic by the knight’s attacks, the captain began firing his beam shotgun with reckless abandon. Fire though he might, however, the knight dodged each and every one of the scattered beams with ease.

“I can’t hit him! I just can’t hit him!”

Shotgun beams scattered, making them ideal for trying to hit moving targets. But that wasn’t helping the captain at all right now. That was in part due to the knight reading ahead and dodging the captain’s attacks preemptively, but it was also because he was at such close range now that the beams didn’t have much of a chance to scatter.

“C-Captain?!”

“Don’t just stand there and watch! You fire too!”

“Understood!”

Seeing the captain struggling to hit the knight, the other mechs fired as one. The knight was too close to the captain, however, and they were only able to land a few safe shots. The scattered beams didn’t pack the same punch concentrated rifle beams did, and the knight’s barrier managed to block them all.

“They seem to be panicking.”

“There’s six of them, though. If they just worked together, they’d have this in the bag.”

Of course, the knight didn’t just sit there and take the mechs’ attacks. In the brief stops between his dodges, he’d regroup with the princess and target the mechs’ weak spot: their legs. After too many blows, they were all moving much slower than before.

“It’s not like there are six of Elexises piloting them. Besides, this is their first time seeing us in action.”

“So they’re dealing with unfamiliar enemies and unable to make full use of their equipment, huh?”

While things were becoming one-sided, that wasn’t because the mechs were weak. It also wasn’t because the princess and the knight had an unfair advantage of some kind. The fundamental problem was that the pilots were floundering with weapons they hadn’t mastered against enemies they didn’t know. Moreover, the tremendous pressure they felt going up against royalty was eating away at their nerves.

“Hey, Theia! I said don’t get reckless!”

“It’s okay. This way...”

The princess who’d been supporting the knight from the rear was suddenly front and center. She pointed the large piledriver attached to her left arm at the mech standing before her.

“This way, they’ll panic even more!”

The hammer head sent flying by a loud explosion easily blew the mech’s head clean off. The pilot inside could now look up through his makeshift sunroof and see the princess with his own two eyes.

That’s Her Highness! That is without a doubt Princess Theiamillis!

The sight of Princess Theiamillis bathed in sunlight as her piledriver blew steam was truly awe-inspiring, if not outright divine. But it only lasted for a moment. She soon activated her boosters and vanished as quickly as she’d come, leaving the mech pilot wallowing in a confused sense of wonder and defeat. They didn’t stand a chance against her.

“U-Uwaaaaaaaaaah!”

Eventually the hopelessness and regret he was feeling spread through the entire squad. Once despair stuck its claws in their hearts, their performance dropped significantly. After that, the knight and princess took a decisive upper hand in the battle. While the princess had been reckless, the end result was quite safe. The pilots were simply overwhelmed into submission.

Yurika successfully snuck in the rear of the trailer just as Koutarou and Theia were beginning their fight with the mechs outside. Once she was inside, she got a new sense of appreciation for just how big it was. It was easily three times the size of a standard trailer on Earth.

“All right, the virus containment vessel... virus containment vessel...”

Yurika began exploring the trailer and quickly stumbled upon six metal fixtures where she figured that the mechs had been secured. She was fairly certain the virus wouldn’t be kept anywhere near them to avoid any potential accidents while they were boarding or disembarking the trailer.

“This probably isn’t it either... It should be something more sturdy. Besides, this doesn’t have any ‘Danger!’ stickers on it or anything.”

Yurika eyed a stack of large boxes as she moved deeper into the trailer, but none of them were particularly remarkable. Not even Yurika was silly enough to think a deadly virus would just be lying around in a cardboard or plastic shipping box. She peeked inside just in case, but it was just food and ammunition. In other words, normal supplies.

“W-Wait, th-this is...”

However, as she was rummaging through the supplies, her eyes fell on a strange white box that had been mostly concealed by the others. Its appearance was completely unique; nothing else in the trailer looked anything like it. It was made entirely out of metal and there was a distinct mechanical sound coming from it. Moreover, it was decorated with several bilious red and yellow marks.

“This is it! This has to be it!”

The markings on the box were familiar to Yurika. They were written in Forthorthian, but she’d seen the same kind of symbols on boxes in Theia’s Blue Knight. They were exactly the kind of “Danger!” signifiers she was looking for.

“I should check it to be sure, but before that... just in case...”

Yurika set the box down and touched the tip of her staff to the lid. She didn’t know the state of what was inside, so she was going to use magic to find out.

“Clairvoyance!”

Yurika incanted a spell that allowed her to see through things, giving her a clear view of the contents of the box.

“Could this black stuff be the virus weapon?!”

Nestled inside the box was a small, metallic pedestal. Affixed to that was a clear, cylindrical case. The pedestal looked sturdy enough that shaking the box wouldn’t loose the cylindrical case atop of it. In fact, the whole affair seemed to be safe and sound in place even after the commotion with the trailer’s emergency stop earlier. The only thing moving inside was the dark, thick liquid swirling in the cylindrical case every time one of the giant mechs took a step outside.

“It looks so muddled and yucky... but I should be able to open the box. I don’t have any time to waste, so I have to be bold!”

After looking inside the box and confirming that it was safe to open, Yurika grabbed the handle on the side and pulled it down. The whole side of the box with the handle appeared to be an access panel, and its hinges creaked a little when it opened. A hissing puff of cold air came spewing out. It seemed the mechanical sounds coming from the box were the motor and compressor keeping its contents cold. It was essentially a small refrigerator.

“There’s no mistaking it... This is it...”

Yurika felt something very ominous when she saw the black liquid within the case with her own eyes rather than through magic. Her gut told her that this was definitely the virus weapon she was looking at.

“Th-That’s right, I have to tell― Wait, huh?”

Just when Yurika was about to activate her bracelet and let everyone know she’d located the virus, she noticed something strange attached to the cylindrical case containing it. It was a metallic box with a small screen that displayed characters that changed regularly.

“What is this...?”

Perplexed, Yurika held her bracelet closer to the case and activated the translation assistant rather than the comms line. A weak laser fired out from the bracelet, scanning the characters on the screen and displaying them as characters she could understand.

“It says 59, 58, 57, 56... What are these numbers?”

Unsure what they meant, Yurika tilted her head in confusion. Thinking about it, however, the very shape of the box in front of her called something to mind. It looked an awful lot like something she sometimes saw in the anime and manga she so loved.

“N-No, this isn’t... Is it?!”

Yurika’s gut told her she was on the money, which was terrible news. It was bad enough that she bypassed activating the safety and encryption measures on her bracelet, and instead broadcast over all channels immediately.

“I found the virus weapon! But it’s attached to a bomb! It’s going to blow in less than a minute!”

The displayed numbers were a countdown.

The small box was a bomb.

The virus weapon packed into the trailer had been set to explode on its own when the time came.

Vandarion had put a great deal of care and thought into his bioweapon scheme. If the virus didn’t blow and spread at the right time or place, he knew it would come back to bite him.

The first variable in the equation was whether or not Elfaria’s faction would come to destroy the trailer. That was easy enough to plan for by planting the fake squad to do the job if they never showed up.

But that alone wasn’t enough to satisfy Vandarion. He was also worried that Elfaria might somehow find out the trailer contained a bioweapon. If she did, she would undoubtedly send troops to contain it. They might even be able to defeat Vandarion’s planted squad. Or maybe it wouldn’t be that complicated at all. Perhaps the planted squad would simply be discovered and blow the whole plan. Either way, Vandarion needed some kind of insurance he would get his explosion regardless of what went wrong. And his chosen policy? A strategic bomb.

The bomb he had built was of a very elaborate design and carried two charges. The first was a small explosion intended to spread the virus. The second was a much larger explosion to destroy the virus weapon in the event it was compromised. It wouldn’t necessarily destroy all of the virus itself, but the case and all evidence it was being transported by Vandarion’s men would be history.

The current countdown was ticking down to the first explosion. It would be enough to make it look like Elfaria’s faction had attacked and destroyed the trailer. Anyone who was close enough to see that wasn’t really what had happened would soon be killed by the virus the explosion released. Elfaria’s faction was so small that there was no way they had the manpower or resources to quarantine the area before it spread, allowing Vandarion’s forces to cover up the evidence at their leisure.

Hearing Yurika’s alarming report, Theia quickly fired off a flare and shouted into her comms device.

“To everyone hearing this message: regardless of your affiliation, withdraw immediately! Get as far away from the trailer on the hill as you can! If possible, head upwind!”

Theia’s warning blared across all frequencies and the flare she sent into the sky sent the same message for kilometers. With the bioweapon about to blow, there wasn’t a second left to spare for fighting. The faction squad dutifully obeyed Theia and began an immediate retreat. But as expected, the Imperial Army troops didn’t budge.

“A virus weapon?!”

“And a time bomb?!”

“Wh-What do we do, captain?!”

They’d heard both Yurika and Theia’s emergency broadcasts, but they couldn’t believe their ears. They’d been stationed in the forest upon being told that Elfaria’s faction would be transporting a trailer of mobile weapons through the area. They hadn’t heard a word about any kind of weaponized virus. If Yurika and Theia were telling the truth, they knew they needed to evacuate immediately. But if this was a ruse to confuse them and they fell for it, they would be in serious trouble with their superiors. Essentially, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“Driver, do you read me?!”

The only imperial soldier who remained calm was the mech squad captain. He quickly opened his comms line and radioed the trailer driver.

“L-Loud and clear!”

“Confirm what they’re saying with the cameras in the cargo compartment! Can you see what they’re talking about?!”

“Hang on a sec... Y-Yeah, I can! A refrigerated container with warning markings over it! It’s open and there’s a girl standing over it!”

The driver relayed the camera feed to the mech pilots’ cockpits. In it, they could see a horrified Yurika staring into an open container.

“Damn it!”

The squad captain pulled his emergency lever to blow open his cockpit hatch. He quickly jumped out of his unit and made a run for the trailer, his weapon drawn.

“Captain, where are you going?!”

“You guys fall back! I’m going to see it for myself!”

The captain was acting out of a sense of duty. He knew Yurika and Theia were most likely telling the truth, but he just couldn’t withdraw without any proof. He needed to confirm for himself that there was a virus and a bomb.

“Understood, captain!”

“Send out the retreat signal! Use all frequency bands to keep civilians and allies from approaching!”

The mech squad pulled away from the trailer and began retreating in an orderly fashion. The heavily damaged units were left behind, and their pilots were picked up by their squadmates.

“Theia, we’re going too!”

“Yurika, wait there! We’re en route!”

With the Imperial Army retreating, Koutarou and Theia could move freely. They turned their backs on the mechs and made a beeline for the trailer. When they reached the hatch, Yurika appeared from inside. She was carrying the containment vessel, but her legs were wobbling underneath her from its weight.

“Miss, give that over here!”

“Th-Thank you very much!”

Seeing Yurika struggle, the squad captain took the containment vessel from her. But once he got a good look at it, his countenance turned grim.

They weren’t joking... This is a bioweapon with a live bomb. Damn it, this means we were just pawns!

While there was no telling if the virus was real or not, the very fact that it was in the trailer lent credibility to Yurika and Theia’s claims. Realizing that, the captain lost all his will to fight. It was completely drained from him when he realized he was nothing more than a sacrificial pawn. In its place, anger at the military top brass flared up

“How does it look?!”

“Your Highness, there’s only thirty seconds left on the countdown!”

The captain obediently reported to Theia like he was a faction soldier. His anger at the military had inspired a change of heart.

“Can’t you defuse it?!”

“There’s no time for that! If we’d found it five minutes earlier...”

The actual charge attached to the containment vessel wasn’t anything special. With enough time, the captain could certainly defuse it—but thirty seconds wasn’t anywhere close to enough time. Defusing it was out of the question.

“Can’t we just separate the bomb and toss it?”

“If we try to force it off, the whole thing will explode! We’ll only hasten its detonation!”

“Which means we only have one option...”

After hearing the discussion between Theia and the captain, Koutarou opened the front of his armor and quickly stepped out of it.

“What are you going to do, Koutarou?!”

“Let’s gather all fuel we can find to make the explosion bigger. We’ll burn the virus up when it blows.”

“I see... That’s one heck of a gamble, but it may be all we can do now.”

Koutarou’s idea was simply to incinerate the virus. If they just waited for the bomb to go off, it would spell disaster. They didn’t have time to defuse the bomb or eject it into space. That left them with only one option: maximize the explosion in hopes of burning up the virus. If they sacrificed the generator from Koutarou’s armor and all the ammunition they had on hand, they should be able to significantly increase the temperature of the explosion when it went off. But even then, there was no guarantee the virus would be completely incinerated. The risks were dangerously high.

“Then let’s―”

“W-Wait! I can do something!”

However, as they were about to put the plan in motion, Yurika stopped them. The exhaustion seemed to have left her, and she stood tall as a magical girl.

“Can you, Yurika?!”

“There’s no guarantee it’ll work, but I think it’d be better than just making the explosion bigger!”

“Then we’ll leave it to you! Show us what you can do, Yurika!”

Seeing the resolve in Yurika’s eyes, Theia didn’t hesitate to defer to her. She knew Rainbow Yurika was someone she could trust with her life.

“Right!”

Yurika nodded firmly and held her staff in both hands. There was barely any time left. She had to start right away.

“Everyone, just in case, please get around me and put up your barriers. Even if this fails, that might be enough.”

Only ten seconds remained. Time was up. This was do or die. They wouldn’t get another chance. This would be their first and final move. Yet Yurika wasn’t shrinking back. She stepped right up to the plate, her eyes and voice full of determination.

“Perfect Force Field! Modifier: Maximize!”

For some reason, Yurika was incanting a defensive spell. Strangely, she poured all of her remaining mana into it. And even stranger still, she cast it on the containment vessel resting on the floor.

“You’re planning to contain the explosion with that spell?! But even then―”

“No! The real battle starts here!”

Yurika interrupted Theia and brandished her staff. She apparently wasn’t done with her spell.

“Field: Close!”

The force field Yurika cast was a globe that stretched over ten meters in diameter with the containment vessel at its center. But with her follow-up incantation, that globe began shrinking. Ten meters became eight and then six... From there, it contracted rapidly.

“Yurika, it’s exploding!”

“Gooooo!”

The bomb attached to the containment vessel detonated as Yurika’s defensive spell reached a concise diameter of two meters. The explosion going off inside it made it shine like a small sun. But Yurika still didn’t lose her nerve. She continued to shrink her field smaller and smaller.

“I see, Yurika! That’s what you were thinking!”

There, Theia finally realized what Yurika was up to. To start, she’d created a spherical globe that contained a finite amount of air. She then compressed that air as much as she could, shrinking the globe down to what was now smaller than a single meter in diameter. The explosion occurring inside had nowhere to go, and its drastically reduced size proportionately increased its pressure and temperature. Perhaps inspired by her earlier nightmare, Yurika was generating heat the intensity of which she’d never experienced until going through reentry.

“H-Hrrrrrgh! Ngggh! Aaaaaaaaah!”

Of course, that put a great deal of strain on Yurika’s force field and ultimately Yurika herself. It got bad enough that globe began wavering like it was about to disappear at any minute.

“Signaltin, lend Yurika your power!”

That was where Koutarou jumped in to give Yurika a hand. He tapped into Signaltin’s vast mana and channeled it directly into Yurika. The moment the white light touched Yurika, it turned yellow and the force field grew stronger.

“Now how about this?!”

With Koutarou’s help and Signaltin’s mana, Yurika mustered the last of her strength to compress the field even further. The globe was now just a few centimeters in diameter. And contained within it was the compressed fury of an explosion meant to ruin Alaia. The pressure and temperature were so intense that they momentarily exceeded what one could expect in atmospheric reentry. There was no conceivable way the virus had survived that hellscape.

By the time it was all over, Yurika had lost consciousness though she was still gripping her staff. She’d given it her all until the bitter end, and maybe even then some. The staff still clutched in her hands was perhaps the greatest testament ever to her worth as a magical girl of love and courage.

“You did good, Yurika...”

Koutarou picked up Yurika and slung her over his back. When he did, he could finally feel her muscles relax. Even though she was passed out, she now looked strikingly like she did when she was just lazing about.

“It looks like the virus was completely incinerated... Well done, Yurika.”

In the direction Yurika’s staff was pointing lay nothing but ash and the remnants of the melted containment vessel. Anything inside had been burned to a crisp. That much was clear to anyone.

“Make sure you thank her properly when she wakes up.”

“I know that. Don’t just assume I’m as uncouth as you.”

The lighthearted banter between Theia and Koutarou was a welcome change of pace after the harrowing situation they’d just escaped. Even the mech captain couldn’t help thinking so. He casually listened to them as he lay sprawled out and exhausted some distance away. It was just the four of them for a few moments before a fifth party arrived on the scene.

“Phew... Looks like everything turned out okay in the end.”

“That you, Elexis?”

When Koutarou looked up, he saw Elexis, Maya, and six dark magical girls. With Elexis in the lead, they landed one after another just outside the trailer. They all looked spent, but not hurt.

“Indeed. And I must say, Koutarou-kun, I believe we have a mutual problem.”

“I know. Whether to settle things between us or not, right?”

With Vandarion’s virus weapon behind them, things would go back to normal between Elexis and Koutarou. That meant they’d return to being enemies, which would in turn mean a fight.

“Honestly, fighting here wouldn’t be any good. There are too many eyes on us,” Elexis said with a casual shrug.

The mech captain was within earshot, and Vandarion undoubtedly had press somewhere nearby to record the event. Moreover, the army likely had satellites trained on them. If Elexis wanted to fight Koutarou now, it could spell the end of his alliance with Vandarion after what he’d just done. Koutarou had a sword that could dispel magic, meaning he could expose Elexis’s disguise at any time.

“And we’re outnumbered,” said Koutarou with a shrug of his own.

The way Koutarou saw it, they were at a clear disadvantage. With Yurika unconscious, it would be two against eight. There was no way Theia and Koutarou could hack that. They’d surely take a few of Elexis’s team down with them, but they were already exhausted.

“So as a compromise... why don’t we just get along for today? To avoid ruining each others’ futures.”

In the end, Elexis suggested they extend their temporary truce. Both sides had good reason not to fight right now. If they stubbornly insisted on it anyway, it would cost them all dearly. It would be pointless.

“What shall we do, Theia?”

“Hmm...”

Theia’s brow furrowed intensely upon hearing Elexis’s proposal. She didn’t like backing down from a fight. Moreover, she believed it was her duty as a royal to always charge ahead.

“Princess, you better hurry up and decide to play nice with us already. Crim-chan is just itching for a fight.”

“How rude. I can think about the future too.”

However, Orange and Crimson’s exchange calmed Theia down. Fighting was easy, but when she thought about the future—not just her future, but the future of her nation and its people—fighting here was foolish. Even the legendary Princess Alaia had once cast aside her pride for her country. There was no reason Theia shouldn’t too.

“Fine. We accept your terms.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

Maya flashed a meaningful smile when Theia acquiesced. In truth, she also wanted to fight. But she’d backed down for the sake of her own people. She wanted to secure a future where the Folsarians could return to Forthorthe. And in that sense, her position wasn’t all that different from Theia’s. Her smile, really, was a sign of sympathy.

“But tomorrow, we’ll go back to being enemies. And we’ll be sure to defeat you!”

“That’s just the way we want it. But for the record, we’ll be the victors.”

Theia and Maya stared each other down dauntlessly. They were on the same page even now. Seeing it, Elexis couldn’t help chuckling before leaning over and whispering to Koutarou...

“It looks like we’re both having a hard time courtesy of the fairer sex.”

“Looks like it.”

Elexis was without a doubt an enemy. He and Koutarou never saw eye to eye on anything and they’d both put each other through the wringer. Yet right now, after the danger they’d overcome, they could share a laugh together. They were equally willing to put aside their differences for the time being.

“Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t catch that, you insubordinate fool!”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean, El?!”

Alas, both Theia and Maya had incredibly keen hearing. But when they grew infuriated the same way, Koutarou and Elexis exchanged a knowing look before sighing and slumping their shoulders in unison.