Battle in Orbit
Wednesday, August 24th
For Ralgwin and Grevanas to contact the group via normal transmission meant that they had to be somewhere within range, and so Ruth and Clan immediately began working together to track down the source of their signal.
“We’ve traced it to one of six possible points of origin, but I’m afraid that’s all we can tell you without knowing what kind of communication system they’re using,” Ruth reported, sharing her findings just seconds after the transmission ended.
There were nearly twenty signal sources within range, and the girls had narrowed it down to six. Without knowing how the signal in question was transmitted, however, they couldn’t narrow it down any further. Laser-based, magical, and spiritual energy comms all worked differently. They might be able to find out more by investigating the six locations, but there was no time for that.
“For them to let us narrow down their location so easily... Could this be another trap?” Clan mused. She was concerned about what their findings might mean.
“The goal of their last attack might have been to make us second guess ourselves,” Kiriha replied. The same thought had crossed her mind.
There was a possibility this was a trap, but there was also a possibility that the enemy was hiding in one of those six locations. So should Koutarou and the girls attack, or should they stay on their guard? After what had just happened, they were racking their brains—which might have been exactly what the enemy wanted. With magic at his disposal now, Ralgwin could play such mind games with Koutarou and the girls.
We’re usually the ones taking advantage of such tactics to pressure our opponent, but now our enemy is capable of doing the same. We need to be careful...
Despite knowing the enemy wanted her to fear them, Kiriha was wary of traps. As a clever tactician herself, she knew all too well the dangers of proceeding recklessly.
“We also can’t spend too long deciding our next move, or they might simply make their exit while we’re doing nothing,” Harumi warned everyone, pointing out a critical aspect of the situation they’d all missed. A bolt of tension shot through the bridge.
“That might be exactly what they’re after!” Koutarou started to panic.
Ralgwin’s goal was to return to Forthorthe, but if he warped in Earth’s orbit, the Forthorthian fleet could simply follow him. In fact, Clan’s Hazy Moon had sensors to detect the space-time distortions around the planet. If he tried to flee without any countermeasures, he would give himself away immediately. That was why he needed to attack and stall the Forthorthians. He was lying in wait for exactly that... but if Koutarou and the girls never came after him, he could just drift away for a couple of days under the radar, then warp once he was out of detection range. That way, the Forthorthian fleet would have no idea where he went, leaving them in a quandary. Koutarou and the girls needed to find Ralgwin before that happened.
“Curse you, Ralgwin...” Nefilforan said in a stern voice with an equally stern expression. It was a stark change from how she’d looked at the beach a few short days ago.
Nobody was interested in letting Ralgwin get away without a fight, but the prospect of a trap limited how they could move, like a sticky, entangling web. Even though they had the upper hand in terms of technology, Ralgwin had a leg up on them when it came to strategy.
“We have to go after him, Koutarou!” Sanae volunteered, to everyone’s surprise. Since they couldn’t reach a conclusion rationally, she was relying on her sixth sense.
“I think so too,” agreed Sanae-nee. Unlike Sanae, however, she had a logical reason for choosing this plan. “He has the old magician and him... All three of them are wicked men! If we let them get ahead now, it’ll all be over for us!”
Ralgwin was already clever on his own, and now he had Grevanas and the Gray Knight at his side. Sanae-nee had her suspicions about Grevanas, but she knew firsthand that the Gray Knight would strike when and where it hurt most. If they let him go now, they would pay for it dearly in the future. They had to take the initiative while they still could.
“But how?!” Koutarou asked. “We don’t know where they are!”
“We and the haniwas can handle this! It’ll be fastest to search out that gray spinning thing he uses!” Sanae declared.
Three Sanaes, two haniwas, and one Koutarou—between the six of them, they might be able to find the whirlpool of chaos. It was a big gamble, and a potentially fatal one at that. It wasn’t Sanae’s first choice of plan by any means, but the situation demanded it. The only question that remained was how to split up and spread out. Given the wide area they needed to search, they’d need multiple crafts for the job.
“I’ll take this one, I guess?” Sanae-chan said.
She was looking up at a spaceship which, although relatively small, was several times her size. It was the Hazy Moon’s smaller all-purpose ship, the Cradle. Sanae-chan would be using it for the search.
“Please take good care of it,” said Clan.
“That’s the plan,” Sanae replied. “But I can’t promise for the enemy.”
“That’s true. Please take good care of yourself, Sanae.”
“I will!”
Sanae-chan would be taking the Cradle because it was the easiest to handle. It had an excellent onboard AI that was already familiar with Sanae, allowing her to pilot it with simple voice commands.
“Ho! Sanae-san, over here! Ho!”
“Come ride with us, ho!”
“A-All right! Coming!”
The haniwas were beckoning Sanae-san toward a different ship, Ohime. It was a high speed, heavy combat model made specifically for Karama and Korama. It could be used both inside and outside of the atmosphere, and it came armed with a database containing the vast amounts of combat data accumulated by the haniwas over their years of service to the Kurano family. Sanae-san would be boarding it alongside the haniwas. They would focus on piloting while she focused on searching. Ohime also had a spiritual energy amplifier, allowing her to maintain her connection to Sanae-chan.
“And you’ll be taking that?” Koutarou asked Sanae-nee.
“Yeah,” she replied. “This is what I came in, so I know how to control it. It also has a device to amplify spiritual energy.”
The third Sanae would be riding in a pale purple ship only a few meters long—even smaller than a standard fighter. This was the craft that Sanae-nee had crossed dimensions in, so she already knew how to pilot it. The Clan from her world had designed it, so it had a lot of convenient functions built in. Under the circumstances, it was the best choice for Sanae-nee.
“What about you, Koutarou?” she asked.
“I’m taking this,” he replied.
“A giant robot?!”
“I don’t think it’s that giant.”
“Yeah. Kinda disappointing.”
“Heh. Elexis would cry if he could hear you now.”
With a chuckle, Koutarou parted ways with Sanae-nee and approached the not-so-giant robot in question. Ruth was standing in front of it, tapping away on a control panel. She was giving the robot one last inspection before deployment.
“I never thought I’d be using this...” Koutarou sighed.
“I never did either,” Ruth agreed.
She stopped her work and looked up with Koutarou at the robot—Warlord III. This was the humanoid mobile weapon Elexis had once used with great efficiency against Koutarou. After buying out DKI, however, Koutarou had taken possession of the machine and it was now sitting in the Hazy Moon’s hangar.
“I’m glad that we prepared it just in case. I’ve adjusted the system so that it works just like your maneuver suit,” explained Ruth.
“For a just-in-case unit, I’m impressed you went to the trouble of swapping out the equipment and painting it,” Koutarou replied.
Its current design was wildly different from the Warlord III that Koutarou remembered. First and foremost, it was now the same bright blue as Koutarou’s signature mail. Elexis had used different colors depending on the situation. For a military weapon, adapting to the surroundings was critical camouflage—and Koutarou had never seen Warlord such an eye-catching shade.
Not only that, but the silhouette of the robot was now different too. Elexis had made the machine quite angular to suit his own tastes, but it now sported sleeker traditional armor. Similarly, its arsenal had been swapped out too. Elexis had used all manner of tricky weapons to try to get the better of Koutarou, from a massive axe, to a shotgun, to a net gun. Those had all been replaced in favor of a large knight’s sword and matching shield. Warlord also now had a weapon carrier on its back styled something like a cape.
In essence, the craft had been redesigned to resemble Theia’s old Blue Knight spaceship. Her and Ruth’s personal preferences had also played a part in the remodel, and the two of them had transformed Warlord III into their ideal weapon for Koutarou.
“W-We just couldn’t let you ride in anything so, um, incomplete... I-I know! This is so anyone can see that you’re on our side!”
“Are you sure this wasn’t just because a certain princess and her retainer liked it?”
“O-Of course! When our soldiers see you in this, morale will skyrocket!”
“Well, I appreciate it.”
With a small smile, Koutarou stepped into the cockpit. In addition to its other upgrades, Warlord III was also now outfitted with spiritual energy technology and magical parts that would be critical in chasing down Ralgwin. Regardless of why the machine had been redesigned, it should prove most useful in the battle to come.
One of Warlord III’s most unique features was its Round Table System, a firing control system that allowed it to coordinate with nearby allies to ensure that their attacks landed at the same time. Based on the RTS, Ruth had also created a similar system for defending and other actions. The Round Table System wasn’t that sophisticated on its own, so it was easier to operate, but for this fight, it was being used to share radar and spiritual energy sensor data with the haniwas. Once they’d processed it, they would relay their results to each ship via the Round Table System to help determine the group’s next course of action.
“Let’s try over here next,” Koutarou suggested.
“I feel like we’re getting closer,” Sanae-chan muttered, her expression grave.
Koutarou and the rest of the search team were currently scouring space around Earth for Ralgwin. There typically wasn’t any spiritual energy in space, although a certain amount of it radiated from the planet. It wasn’t much, and it spread out evenly—both important features. There was no white noise to hide amongst, and any disturbance in the smooth aura of the planet was cause for investigation. Koutarou and the Sanaes were systematically checking each and every one with their psychic powers. It was slow going.
“There’s no rush, Sanae,” Koutarou assured her. “We’ll find them eventually.”
“Missions like this afford you a window into your own weaknesses. Don’t let your youthful energy get the better of you,” said Theia over the transceiver.
This prompted Koutarou to look up a little, for overhead was the red fighter Theia was piloting. Since Warlord III wasn’t built for long-range flight, she was towing Koutarou along for the search. Of course, she was also there as backup in the event anything happened.
“Kiriha’s probably on the money,” Theia continued. “I’ll bet they’re trying to make their way around Earth and escape.”
Koutarou and the girls were conducting their search based on Kiriha’s advice. Going location by location had its disadvantages, but it was all they could do under the circumstances. Space was simply far too vast to search thoroughly without any kind of a lead. So, to narrow things down, Kiriha had made a few predictions.
Trying to disguise two transport ships with Forthorthian technology would take too much time and cost too much. It was hard to imagine that Ralgwin had had the resources for it while isolated on Earth. That meant he was more likely to choose magical means, which meant that Grevanas couldn’t be far. Not even a grand wizard like him could cast such a disguise across such a massive distance for an extended period of time. He’d likely cast a spell on the transport ships before sending them out.
Following that, Ralgwin’s forces had used stealth devices to conceal themselves (and the whirlpool of chaos to hide any traces of spiritual energy). The hitch was that they couldn’t use propulsion while in hiding. As there were no other battleships using propulsion around Earth, the energy they gave off would immediately be detected.
This also factored into their decision to use the planet as a shield. If Koutarou and the girls had fallen for their earlier trap and destroyed the transport ships, then that would’ve been that. But, in the present scenario where they’d avoided it, there were two potential outcomes. Either Koutarou and the girls would quickly find Ralgwin and attack to stall him, or they would take long enough that Ralgwin could quietly drift away from them. Ralgwin would have loved to flee the scene immediately, but without propulsion, he’d instead have to orbit the planet. Once he reached the other side of Earth, he could finally break free and escape, for even with Forthorthe’s advanced technology, it was impossible to detect a ship through a planet.
Thus Koutarou and the girls were making their way around themselves in pursuit. With a few reservations, Koutarou believed that Kiriha was most likely right.
“Huh? Something’s wrong!” the usually reserved Sanae cried out.
“What is it?” Koutarou called, alarmed.
“It suddenly feels like there’s a mist all around us! Can you feel it, Sanae-chan?!”
“Yeah! It’s all vague and stuff!”
Though they described it differently, both Sanaes felt the same thing. They’d been sensing a particular shade of spiritual energy out in space, and that color was now blurring like water was causing it to run and bleed.
“It’s the Gray Knight!” Sanae-nee shouted. “He’s using the spinning thing to make everything fuzzy!”
The blurring of boundaries was intrinsic to the nature of the whirlpool of chaos. In much the same way the resurrection process had warped Grevanas’s personality, the whirlpool warped spiritual energy.
“If that’s the gate, then we can fight back! Sakuraba-senpai!” Koutarou called out.
“Yes!” Harumi’s voice came not from the transceiver, but through Koutarou’s silver sword. “Shine, Signaltin! Show Satomi-kun the way!”
At Harumi’s command, the giant sword in Warlord III’s hand began glowing. Signaltin was currently stored inside of it. This allowed Koutarou to wield Signaltin’s power even while piloting the robot. It also helped Harumi from a magical perspective, as it made it easier for her to visualize her spells.
“How’s this?!” Koutarou shouted.
His armor channeled commands to Warlord III, which raised its sword exactly as Koutarou had gestured. The sword then began glowing brighter, a reflection of Harumi’s own will. There was no sound in space, but Koutarou and the Sanaes could feel the faint spiritual aura around them vibrating with the incredible power Koutarou was emitting. When he swung his sword down, there was a bright flash. Signaltin’s brilliant energy clashed with the dark traces of the whirlpool, each annihilating each other. The light shot forward through space like a thunderbolt for hundreds of meters.
When it dissipated, all three Sanaes shouted out in unison, “Found them!”
They could sense Ralgwin and his forces a few kilometers ahead. Despite the obstructions in the way, there were no other living beings in space, so it was impossible to fool the psychic powers of the three Sanaes and the haniwas. They relayed their discovery to the others via the crests on their foreheads.
“Good job, Sanae!” Theia was the first to take action. She turned her laser cannon in the direction of the presences that had been discovered.
“Don’t fire yet!” Koutarou ordered.
“I know, so get to it already!”
“Sakuraba-sen—”
“Take this!”
The instant Harumi cast a spell on Theia’s laser cannon via Signaltin, the princess fired. They might not have connected if the crests on their foreheads hadn’t conveyed their intentions to one another. Nevertheless, Theia’s laser canon instantly found its target.
“Tch, so you found us!” The group could hear Ralgwin clicking his tongue over their transceivers.
Then, a space battleship appeared from nowhere. Theia had fired a low-powered shot that barely did any damage. It was simply a means to deliver Harumi’s dispelling magic several kilometers away. That was what had revealed Ralgwin’s ship.
“Koutarou, the old wizard’s not here!” Sanae-nee hurriedly reported. Now that the glamor spell had been lifted, she could clearly sense the presences of the people inside... and Grevanas wasn’t among them.
“He’s not?!”
Ralgwin had a battleship and a destroyer, but the battleship was the only craft in sight. The destroyer was nowhere to be found.
“Hahahaha, you’re too late!” Ralgwin laughed scornfully.
“It seems you don’t understand how to use magic...” a dry voice cut in.
It was Grevanas, who was aboard the destroyer. Said destroyer opened fire, hitting Autumn Water directly in the side with its beam cannons. The enemy destroyer was actually some distance back, hiding in the shadow of the two dummy transport ships. The plan had always been to lure Koutarou and his allies who could detect it away from the ship.
“Master, Autumn Water has been hit! Its warp drive is inoperable, but it can still maneuver normally without trouble!”
Autumn Water’s crew had been caught completely off guard by the sudden assault. They’d scrambled to activate their barrier, but they were unable to divert the beam at such a bad angle. It resulted in a serious blow to their engine compartment.
“Were there any casualties?!” Koutarou asked.
“Don’t worry! Everyone was able to evacuate!” Clan reported.
Fortunately, the ship’s warp drive was the only fatality. The civilians had already been evacuated, and there was no damage to the normal engines. For the time being, they’d avoided the worst possible outcome.
“So the two transporters were there to hide the destroyer...” Koutarou muttered.
“Indeed,” Ralgwin replied. “Humans are so quick to stop paying attention to their surroundings when something catches their attention. You could call it a mental blind spot—the perfect hiding place.”
By disguising the two transporters as a battleship and destroyer, Ralgwin’s forces had taken the heat off of their real destroyer. Koutarou and the girls had had every reason to believe Ralgwin was attempting to flee, so they’d unwittingly been chasing only his battleship all this time.
“You’ll need more than that to defeat us, Ralgwin.”
“I can imagine. I’d need a plan to overcome this difference in firepower.”
“So you’ve already got one in place, do you?”
“Most battles are decided before forces ever sortie.”
Koutarou and the others had finally managed to find Ralgwin and bring him out of hiding, yet everything up until this point told them that the fight ahead wouldn’t be an easy one. They outnumbered Ralgwin’s forces two to one, but there was no guarantee of victory.
The moment Autumn Water was hit, Nefilforan began her counterattack. She ordered the struck ship to fall back as she ordered Hidden Leaves and the other battleships to return fire.
“All ships, initiate automatic laser bombardment! Don’t use any other weapons! Avoid manual targeting too! Don’t put one scratch on those transport ships!”
With Grevanas’s destroyer hiding behind the transport ships, beam cannons and missiles were out of the question. The only safe means of attack was laser cannons, which were capable of making pinpoint attacks. The drawback was that they could only hit targets within line of sight. But more importantly, to lasers’ credit, Nefilforan could immediately cease fire if the transport ships got in the way—something untrue of beam fire and missiles.
“Ah, so they can hit anything they see. I’ve heard of these light-based weapons before... How incredible to see them in action.”
Nefilforan was threading laser strikes through the two transport ships to hit the destroyer, although her bombardment wasn’t doing much damage. The destroyer wasn’t easy prey. It was only exposing enough of itself to attack, and it strategically had its exposed parts shielded by a distortion field—one that was particularly sturdy since it only needed to cover a small area. Not even battleship-caliber laser cannons could easily penetrate it.
“Such things didn’t exist in our time. Absolutely fascinating... Now, let’s try returning fire.”
Grevanas trembled with excitement over the new technology at his fingertips and tried firing back with the same weapons. There was no need for that, but he wanted to see what it could do for himself.
“I see. So this light-based weapon is incredibly easy to use but consumes a great deal of energy. It can’t be used in quick succession, so planning your attacks against your energy stores is key... And the Blue Knight kept several such fantastic weapons in secret. Our ignorance cost us dearly. It’s no wonder we couldn’t defeat him.”
Grevanas repeatedly fired the laser cannons as he let modern science soak into his brain. Slowly but surely, he was overcoming a former weakness.
Ever since she’d spotted the destroyer alone, Kiriha had been racking her brain. Yet, think as she might, she kept hitting a wall. Grevanas was a mystery to her. She knew he was a powerful foe, but there were too many unknowns... and leaving those unaddressed would surely spell defeat.
Does Grevanas think he can beat us with one destroyer and his magic? Or does he mean to hold out until Ralgwin appears with reinforcements? Just what is he planning...?
“Maki, what kind of magician is Grevanas?” she asked, turning to the magical girl for help.
“Grevanas is a pure magician. But his magic isn’t his most frightening weapon—it’s his rich experience and knowledge.”
Grevanas was a grand wizard from the days of old, but his mind was his most dangerous asset. He knew exactly how to use his magic to maximum effect against his enemies. That was how he’d been able to get the better of even Alunaya, despite their vast difference in outright power. Grevanas believed that, with all the strategy magic afforded, there was no need to fight head-on. In that sense, he was the polar opposite of Dark Crimson.
“So his strength lies in his intelligence...” Kiriha said thoughtfully.
“Yes,” Maki agreed. “He’s similar to Nana-san in that regard.”
In terms of sheer mana, Nana didn’t stand out among the archwizards of Rainbow Heart. It was her inborn talent and keen ability to use her resources wisely that made her so formidable. While Grevanas wasn’t cut from the same prodigious cloth Nana was, he had more than enough experience to make up for it. Maki knew how both fought, and she believed that he was every bit as dangerous as Nana had been in her prime.
Shizuka, standing next to Maki, was lightly stretching as she stared at Grevanas’s destroyer. “And now he’s a monster with a monstrous amount of mana,” she sighed.
Based on her experience, pure magicians were hard to deal with. She never knew what they might do or how to engage them in battle. Shizuka had fought Dark Orange in the past, and it had taught her to be careful. She didn’t like fighting spellcasters.
“Indeed, he’s an exceedingly dangerous opponent who will be especially difficult to fight.” Maki nodded with a solemn expression.
When he’d fought Koutarou two thousand years ago, Grevanas was venerable—well past his prime both physically and magically. But his age was no longer an issue as a lich. He was now blessed with mana, knowledge, experience, and physical abilities more than worthy of his reputation as a grand wizard. There was no magician his equal in all of Folsaria.
“Even so, showing his face in front of me was a big mistake! I shall crush him to pieces!”
“I know you’re angry about Darzakah, Uncle, but you need to stay calm.”
“I know. That’s why I’m still waiting here patiently.”
In terms of mana, Alunaya was second to none, yet that hadn’t stopped the evil wizard from subduing the Fire Dragon Emperor in the past. So now that Grevanas’s mana stores had exploded, even Alunaya would have to be careful. While he was enraged over what had happened to his friend, he still understood the threat at large.
“In other words, we’re basically up against an evil Rainbow Nana...” Kiriha mused darkly.
“You overestimate me,” Nana argued. “I wasn’t that powerful when I was an archwizard.”
“Factoring in your knowledge of modern science, I don’t think the comparison is inapt.”
Kiriha started contemplating how she would handle the situation against Nana in her prime, and with that mental exercise, she began to see a way over the hurdle that had been stumping her. As for the specifics, she’d have to come up with them on the fly. She could tell now that this battle would be a fierce one.
Meanwhile, Koutarou and the search team were struggling with a dilemma of their own: should they stay and fight Ralgwin’s battleship, or should they retreat to regroup with the fleet?
“I personally would prefer to engage...” Theia shared, skillfully piloting her fighter to dodge missiles as she spoke. The enemy wasn’t giving them time to deliberate. Given the storm of fire they were taking, she realized that Ralgwin seriously meant to finish them off. “But it would be best to retreat. They want to take us out here and now, and we have no reason to play along.”
If Ralgwin disappeared again, Koutarou and the search team would have to spread out to find him. From there, he could easily pick them off one by one. Theia was desperate for a fight, but she believed it was best to hold out in order to secure their odds of victory.
“The question is if we can safely make it back to the fleet under fire from the rear,” Koutarou muttered. He’d had the same thought Theia had.
If they challenged Ralgwin to a fight here and now, they wouldn’t win. Their only option for the time being was to retreat—a dangerous prospect with no rearguard. They’d be shooting behind them with small crafts while it was open season for Ralgwin in his battleship. A reckless retreat like that would mean heavy losses. The difference in firepower alone was enough to send chills down Koutarou’s spine.
“We’ll just have to hide!” Sanae-chan offered.
“I agree with Sanae-chan for once,” Sanae-san concurred.
Her idea was to have Harumi cast magic on them via Signaltin, and use Ohime’s stealth mode to conceal their spiritual presences. She felt that was the safest way to escape Ralgwin—a surprisingly level-headed plan for Sanae.
“What do you think?” Koutarou asked Sanae-nee.
“That would work until he shows up.”
The third Sanae was still on guard for the Gray Knight. While they could hide with magic and spiritual energy, they wouldn’t be able to escape his powers of chaos. She’d been victim to it once before, and the experience had left her wary.
“So there’s no way to hide for sure— Whoa, that was a close one!” yelped Theia.
“They’re just going to wear us down at this rate,” sighed Koutarou. “We need to do something bold.”
“W-We should have brought Kiriha with us!”
Missiles, lasers, and beams were flying all around the search team. The skill of each pilot had kept them safe so far, but they had no opportunity to counterattack. And if they turned to retreat, the danger would only increase—tenfold if the Gray Knight showed up. Still, they couldn’t just sit here forever. They’d be forced to make a decision in spite of the risks.
Kiriha was officially aboard Nefilforan’s Hidden Leaves as a strategist. Nefilforan was still captain, but as she had no experience with magic or spiritual energy technology, she was largely deferring to Kiriha. It wasn’t a bad arrangement for Nefilforan, however. Though she was a princess, she’d climbed the military ranks in earnest. She had far more experience leading forces on the ground than fleets in space. That was why when Grevanas began his attack, she didn’t hesitate to put Kiriha in charge of the battle so she could focus on commanding her own ship.
“Hmm... If memory serves, this worked against you before,” Grevanas muttered.
His first play was exceedingly simple—he advanced his destroyer. In space warfare, lasers were the first weapons to be deployed. Since they were light-based, they were exceptionally accurate even at long distances in the vacuum of space. They couldn’t be fired rapidly, however, and they were considerably less powerful than other alternatives. Moreover, they were easily blocked with distortion fields. Because of that, Grevanas wanted to get closer to deploy beam cannons and missiles. In other words, he was approaching with the specific intent to use heavier firepower.
Normally, that was no easy feat in space combat. The basic principle of space-based warfare was to keep in the enemy’s blind spot without letting them get too close. There was no way Nefilforan and Kiriha would simply let Grevanas move into an optimal position against them. He only had one destroyer, so he would be easy to keep at bay. In terms of range, their battleship outperformed him. Yet nevertheless, Grevanas was boldly advancing toward them from the front... and Kiriha was unable to order an attack.
“I thought you’d do that,” Kiriha said with a stiff expression. She’d anticipated Grevanas’s move, but she was still unhappy about it.
“It’s only obvious, isn’t it? I’m not bound to the same principles you are,” he replied.
Grevanas was advancing with the two transport ships as a shield. That was why Kiriha couldn’t attack. It’d be unthinkable. Though war seemed home to every horror imaginable, there were still universal rules of engagement in place to prevent the worst of tragedies. They differed slightly between Earth and Forthorthe, but using civilians as a shield was forbidden by both sides.
“You’re inhuman!” Nefilforan spat as she glared at the destroyer, though very little of it was even visible behind the two transport ships. A proud daughter of the Glendad family and its military prestige, Nefilforan was appalled by Grevanas’s flagrant disrespect for the rules of combat.
“Quite right you are. A most fitting description. I am indeed no longer human... Hmm, I suppose Maxfern-sama would laugh here. Wahahahahaha!”
When he was still alive, Grevanas likely wouldn’t have chosen such a cruel way to protect himself. He was loyal to his close friend, Maxfern, but not heartless. Yet this Grevanas was different. His soul had been warped in the resurrection ritual to the point of madness.
“Nefilforan-dono, have all ships spread out horizontally. We’ll never line up a shot clustered together like this,” Kiriha instructed.
“All ships, deploy horizontally! Keep wide intervals between you!” Nefilforan so ordered. She then added a command of her own. “Moreover, all ships are free to deploy fighters at their own discretion! Pin that destroyer down!”
When comparing a destroyer to a battleship, its only advantage was its mobility. Deploying fighters against it would thus be the best way to counter that advantage. Following Nefilforan’s orders, every ship alongside Autumn Water began deploying smaller crafts. The fighter squadron then approached the destroyer and two transports, surrounding them in a spherical formation.
“This three-dimensional battlefield is interesting, but rather annoying. Still, I suppose I can’t be twiddling my thumbs...” Grevanas mused.
Then, something odd happened to his destroyer—it suddenly took on the appearance of a transport ship. It then moved into line with the other two transport ships and began swapping positions with them. The confusion was a pressing problem for the fighter squadron, for the last thing they wanted to do was attack the two hostage ships.
“Cease fire!” Kiriha immediately ordered. “An image analysis will be sent to all ships! Do not attack again until you’ve received it!”
“Kiriha-sama, I’m transmitting the data now!” Ruth reported.
Fortunately, the two of them were quickly able to come up with a countermeasure against Grevanas’s nefarious plan. By reviewing video footage, they tracked the destroyer by following its movement. A marker was then relayed to the fighters to identify the fake transport ship.
“My word... A memory more advanced than a human’s, an accurate review of that information, and the ability to share it instantly. What incredible depth and breadth, not to mention speed! How wonderful!”
With the three ships constantly swapping positions, missile fire and beam attacks were out of the question, but the fighter squadron began hammering away at Grevanas’s disguised destroyer with lasers. It was shielding itself with its distortion field, but that wouldn’t hold up forever. Still, Grevanas’s confidence didn’t waver... and the reason for that soon became clear.
“This is transport ship Sea Scale to the Forthorthian Imperial Army! Please cease your assault immediately! You’re shooting us!”
The fighters were supposed to be shooting Grevanas’s destroyer, yet the captain of one of the transport ships was now begging them to stop.
Koutarou and the search party chose to retreat and regroup with the rest of the ships, but Ralgwin wasn’t about to let them get away. He unleashed a full assault, firing his weapons and deploying his fighters to give chase. He had Koutarou and the girls pinned in place, unable to flee.
“Hahahaha, this is what happens once the playing field has been leveled! You never had greater skill—only greater technology!” Ralgwin cackled.
“I never thought ignoring the rules would make such a difference!” Koutarou scoffed.
Elexis, too, had had tools of science, spiritual energy, and magic at his disposal. Still, he abided by the rules of war. His goal had been to end the imperial regime and allow the return of Folsaria, not to hurt the people. In his words, even evil had its own way of blossoming.
Ralgwin, however, was different. He would do whatever it took to destroy the royal families of Forthorthe. He didn’t care about how the flowers grew, so to speak—and this was the man Koutarou and the girls were up against now. He was more powerful and dangerous than any foe they’d ever faced before.
I can’t beat a guy like this while holding back!
Koutarou steeled his resolve and issued a new order to Warlord III, “Activate the Round Table System! Deploy all Motor Knights!”
This was the trump card Theia and Ruth had prepared for Warlord III. It was equipped with an armament carrier that resembled a cloak, which contained six robots known as Motor Knights. Just like the Warlord itself, they were DKI products. They stood about two meters tall and were humanoid in shape, but they’d likewise been remodeled to Theia and Ruth’s tastes.
The Motor Knights launched one after another at Koutarou’s order. They’d been retrofitted for operation in space and modified for combat; their arms and legs had been replaced with weapons and a large propulsion unit. This made them a little larger than the original units but dramatically increased their mobility and firepower. With the Round Table System, they’d serve as Warlord III’s limbs in battle. Koutarou would have preferred to keep this ace up his sleeve a little while longer, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Fully automated weapons were ideal for facilitating a retreat.
“So you’ve got a new toy, do you? You really think that will save you?!”
“I can only hope... Now go, Motor Knights!”
Elexis had used the Motor Knights like a disciplined army of identical soldiers, but Theia and Ruth had given them each individual roles. There was one for close combat, one for reconnaissance, and so on. They were like a special set of accessories for Warlord III, not unlike Koutarou’s GoL.
“Protect Sanae and the others!” he ordered. “You can attack as you please! Just don’t aim for the cockpit!”
“As you wish, my lord,” the AI responded.
When Koutarou gave the word, the Round Table System initiated. With the close-combat Motor Knight and the high-defense Motor Knight in front, the robots thus began a coordinated assault.
“They’re fast!” Ralgwin exclaimed.
“According to our resident genius scientist, a robot’s ultimate weakness is the human controlling it,” Koutarou explained.
Large crafts like space battleships were one thing, but smaller robots suffered for having human pilots—Koutarou was constantly reminded of this by said resident genius scientist. Humans were at risk of losing consciousness if the acceleration of a vehicle exceeded ten times the gravity of Earth. In order to avoid that, robots had to keep their acceleration below that point or use distortion technology to counter it. The former had the drawback of reducing mobility and the latter increasing the size of the robot. The ideal solution was simply to remove the human pilot, but that left a robot incapable of executing overly complex orders (not so different from how even the most advanced missiles weren’t perfectly self-sufficient). Warlord III, however, had a special system to make up for it—the RTS. It was originally designed to overcome defenses via focused attacks, but it could similarly hone robotic mobility and combat potential.
“Ralgwin-sama, the enemy is too fast for us to land an attack!” an enemy soldier reported.
“They’re also too small! We don’t have any weapons suitable for them!” another shouted.
With the six Motor Knights deployed, the attacks from Ralgwin’s ship became disorderly. The Knights were a fraction of the size of any fighter and flew at several times the speed. An anti-personnel laser would have been the best choice of weapon against them, but neither battleships nor fighters were outfitted with such small guns. All they had were anti-ship and anti-fighter cannons, which, in this situation, was the equivalent of trying to clean one’s ears with a spoon.
“We’re falling back!” Koutarou shouted.
“See? Our remodel came in handy after all,” Theia remarked.
“I am deeply impressed by Your Highness’s ever-discerning eye.”
“Rightfully so!”
Seeing Ralgwin and his forces thrown for a loop, Koutarou immediately initiated a retreat. While the Motor Knights seemed unbeatable at first, they had a very decisive weakness. In exchange for their high mobility and firepower, they could only operate for a short amount of time before running out of energy. That was a hurdle not even a genius scientist could overcome; it was simply a natural tradeoff. It also meant that if Koutarou and the search team were going to retreat, they needed to act swiftly.
“I’ll throw this in for good measure!” Koutarou shouted as they pulled away.
“We’ll help too, ho!”
“Activating spiritual energy stealth device, ho!”
Since Ralgwin now had magic and spiritual energy technology, there was a chance he might use them to give chase. With that in mind, Koutarou and the girls used both Signaltin’s magic and Ohime’s spiritual energy powers to cloak themselves as they fled. Ralgwin looked on in frustration as they disappeared.
“I can’t believe we couldn’t finish them off...” he sighed bitterly.
“They have the same technology at their disposal. Stalemates are inevitable from time to time,” offered the Gray Knight as he appeared by Ralgwin’s side.
Unlike Ralgwin, he remained perfectly calm. There were a great many ways to exploit an enemy’s weakness with science, magic, and spiritual energy tech all available—and that went for both sides. The Gray Knight was familiar with the power of all three, so he understood that well.
“Now’s not the time to be so carefree, Gray!” Ralgwin roared.
“I know. I’ll be on my way,” the Gray Knight replied.
Their goal here was to kill Koutarou while Grevanas distracted the fleet. That would be a big step toward Ralgwin’s anti-Forthorthian agenda. However, letting him get away put Grevanas in serious danger. Not only would it increase the numbers against him, but his methods in this battle were particularly susceptible to the Sanaes’ spirit sight.
The Gray Knight knew this and planned to stall, if not outright kill, Koutarou and the search party. He would’ve preferred not to deploy so early, but he couldn’t afford to lose Grevanas at this stage.
Even though the fleet attacked Grevanas, one of the transport captains was begging them to cease their fire. Kiriha had to wonder if they’d somehow managed to hit the wrong ship.
“Battleship Thunderbolt’s combat capabilities have dropped by 30 percent! Whirlwind requires another fifteen seconds to reboot their space distortion field!”
“Autumn Water will only be a liability like this! We’ll move forward and act as a shield!”
“Fires have been extinguished in the struck block of the Hazy Moon now! But we can’t go on like this, Kii!”
After analyzing recorded footage, Ruth and Clan believed they’d identified Grevanas’s disguised destroyer. It was almost impossible to think they were both wrong... Yet when they attacked, they were met with screams begging for mercy. Despite their target lock, they’d hit a different ship.
This doesn’t make sense. We must be missing something fundamental... We shouldn’t have sent Sanae and the others out so far.
Even Kiriha was puzzled by this turn of events. She was no longer able to distinguish between the three ships, meaning they could only take fire without returning it. There was an illusion concealing the destroyer’s attacks, making it impossible to tell where the fire was coming from. Kiriha refused to attack knowing there was a chance of striking the wrong ship. This left the fleet stuck on the defensive, but there was no way a single destroyer could take down multiple battleships easily. Nevertheless, it was toying with them.
The situation isn’t good. They totally have the upper hand...
Although he hadn’t yet heard from Kiriha and the others, Koutarou could feel something was amiss. It was like Signaltin’s power was buzzing. If Signaltin was normally like a clear river flowing silent and strong, it was now like muddy rapids raging and roiling.
It meant that the girls were shaken. Their life force inside the sword was a reflection of their mental states, and given what Koutarou was feeling, he feared even a victory that should ordinarily be within reach might elude them. It had nothing to do with Signaltin. Koutarou was simply worried that the girls wouldn’t be able to bring their full power to bear like this. Which was why he decided to do something he normally wouldn’t.
“Hey, everyone. You need to calm down.”
He called out to the girls through Signaltin, which was connected to the crests on their foreheads via mana. By activating that power, he was able to speak to them without using words.
“How are we supposed to calm down when things keep changing one after another?!” Shizuka replied in a fluster, also speaking through her mind.
When she did, the image of Grevanas’s destroyer overlaid atop a transport ship flickered through Koutarou’s mind. That gave him a glimpse of just how shaken Shizuka was. The other girls too. It wouldn’t be easy to overcome.
“Whatever the case, if there is a future you wish to reach, you need to get a hold of yourself.”
A second image flickered in Koutarou’s mind. One of the future he himself wished to reach. In that instant, the disturbed flow of power quieted down. While the girls’ perceptions of it differed, he’d shown them each a vision of a beautiful future. It was enough of a shock to completely empty their minds of all other thoughts, even in the heat of battle. It only lasted for a moment, but that was enough. When their gears started turning again, the girls had recovered from their agitated haze and Signaltin’s flow of power was restored.
“We have to win now that you’ve shown us that, Satomi Koutarou!”
“I sure hope so. I’m counting on you over there, Kiriha-san.”
“You can count on us! We’re fighting for something important!”
Kiriha’s mind had been squealing like a rusty sawmill, and it was now churning like a well-oiled machine. Having hostages used against her had paralyzed her thought processes, but she was now seeing aspects of the situation she hadn’t before. Her head was back in the game.
“Of course... I hadn’t considered that.” She swiftly arrived at a possibility that had previously slipped her mind concerning the type of magic Grevanas was using, and she turned to Nana for more information. “Nana, Grevanas was an expert in necromancy and mind manipulation, wasn’t he?”
“Yes... Aha, mind manipulation!” Nana immediately realized the meaning of her question.
Kiriha nodded. “Most likely. Grevanas must be controlling the people on the transport ships to his will, so the captain was forced to relay that message. Our attacks were actually hitting the destroyer after all.”
It was all a trap. They’d previously thought that the transport ships were being controlled remotely, but in truth, the people aboard them were under a spell. The pleading transmission was just part of a ruse to throw off the fleet. Kiriha and the others were terrified of a situation that wasn’t unfolding—all part of the wicked wizard’s scheme.
Koutarou had been worried about Kiriha and the others, but he no longer had the luxury to worry about anyone but himself... for a new enemy had appeared.
“How are they coming straight for us like this?” he asked in disbelief.
“I have no idea,” Theia replied. “It’s like they can see us.”
Koutarou and the search party had left the Motor Knights to stall Ralgwin while they retreated, cloaking themselves with magic and spiritual energy. All had gone smoothly until a gray-painted humanoid mobile weapon accompanied by several fighters had shown up. They’d sortied from Ralgwin’s ship and were closing in on Koutarou and the girls at a frightening pace.
“He’s coming...” Sanae-nee muttered. “It’s him.”
“You mean that Gray Knight?” Koutarou asked.
“Yeah. Magic and spiritual energy hardly ever work on him.”
She knew who the pilot of that gray mobile weapon was. It was the knight in gray armor that she’d fought in her own world. Neither magic nor psychic powers had had much effect against him, and if the same was true of this gray mobile weapon... it had to be him.
“At this rate, they’ll catch up before we can reach the others,” Koutarou fretted.
“I believe we’ll just make it in time,” Theia assured him.
“The Motor Knights are almost out of energy.”
The Motor Knights were small, mobile, and loaded with enough firepower to threaten larger ships. But in exchange, their operating time was very short. They’d soon be dead in the water, so to speak, which would mean Ralgwin’s ship would again turn its full attention on Koutarou and the girls. It seemed, then, that recalling them before that happened and preparing for a fight was the wisest move.
“Hmm, then I suppose we have no choice,” said Theia with a grin as she turned her fighter around. She wasn’t very fond of running in the first place, so she was happy to get back into the fray.
“Karama, Korama, you can cut the stealth device. Conserve your energy for battle,” Koutarou ordered.
“Got it, ho! Stopping stealth device!”
“Opening the gunport for the spiritual energy cannon! Sanae-san, we’re counting on you, ho!”
“O-Okay!”
Following Theia’s lead, Koutarou and the rest of the search party turned around and released their cloaking. With the enemy nearly upon them, keeping it up would only be a waste of energy. Once it got closer, the gray mobile weapon stopped its approach and opened up a line of communication.
“So you feel like fighting now. Not a bad decision,” came a man’s voice in a disinterested tone.
He sounded vaguely familiar to Koutarou, but he couldn’t place it and he had no time to dwell on it. The enemy was right in front of him. Letting his guard down for even a moment could be fatal, so he shrugged off his doubts and replied, “We’ve got our reasons... Are you the Gray Knight that Sanae was talking about?”
Before Koutarou was the same five-meter humanoid mobile weapon that the Imperial Army used. It had no identifying marks, however, and was painted completely gray... yet it had a strange presence to it. Koutarou had an ominous feeling and couldn’t tear his eyes away from it.
“That’s right. It’s a strange flow of events... but this might just be inevitable in the quest for equilibrium,” said the Gray Knight.
“What are you talking about?” asked Koutarou.
“It’s just nonsense without much meaning. All you need to know is that I’m here to stop you.”
The Gray Knight was surrounded by fighters from Ralgwin’s ship. Normally their numbers would be nothing to fear, but the Gray Knight himself wasn’t to be underestimated.
“So you’re just buying time?” Koutarou asked.
“You could say that. Once Ralgwin catches up, things will be a lot simpler.”
“Then I’ll join you in the nonsense. We need time for the Motor Knights to return as well.”
“...The sword of kingship you wield attracts the whirlpool of chaos I use, each annihilating the other. Order and chaos, light and darkness. It’s only inevitable that you and I should fight.”
“This sword and the whirlpool, huh?”
Now that he was closer, Koutarou could sense the power of the whirlpool of chaos from within the gray mobile weapon. It was the same feeling that had nagged at him in his fight against Vandarion. During that battle, he’d seen for himself the power of his sword and power of the whirlpool clashing. It wasn’t hard for him to imagine that they were fated opposites.
Still, he’s strangely calm for someone so near the whirlpool...
Everyone Koutarou had fought who used that power was overcome with violent emotions. That intense negativity was what drew out the power of the whirlpool, yet the Gray Knight seemed completely indifferent. His voice was perfectly calm. He was unlike any of the crazed foes Koutarou had had to subdue before.
But his train of thought was interrupted by the whirring of the Motor Knights as they approached. Their arrival signaled the start of the fight. The clock was now counting down. Ralgwin had inevitably given chase when the Motor Knights fell back. Koutarou and the girls would need to defeat the Gray Knight before he arrived.
“That’s enough chitchat,” announced Koutarou. “Here I come, Gray Knight!”
He drew Warlord III’s sword. A white light poured from it—a white light that slowly took on a multicolored glow.
The rainbow contract is complete, yet the sword is still in Signaltin’s form? Why? Though somewhat taken aback, the Gray Knight drew his own mobile weapon’s blade. But if it isn’t in its complete state, this is an opportunity for me. This fight is mine, Blue Knight...
As the Gray Knight glared at Warlord III, the longsword in his mobile weapon’s hands became shrouded in gray energy, like storm clouds had gathered around it. Its very outline began to blur.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way!” he cried. “I shall claim this victory for my own reasons!”
Thus Koutarou and the Gray Knight squared off, their swords at the ready. But, true to form, Theia was the first to make a move.
“Who cares about your reasons?!”
As the Motor Knights returned, she took aim at the Gray Knight. As quick to action as always, she readily squeezed the trigger and fired her laser cannon. It didn’t pack a great deal of power in a single shot, but rather rapidly fired a spray of smaller lasers. It was a form of laser machine gun. Theia fired in a wide spread, making it impossible for the Gray Knight to dodge every laser.
“The same old attack...” he muttered.
“What?!” Theia exclaimed.
For with a single swing of the Gray Knight’s sword, the laser spray disappeared as though it had never existed. Lasers traveled at the speed of light, however, so a fraction of them still made contact. It just wasn’t enough to break through his mobile weapon’s distortion field.
“I’ll take it!” Koutarou shouted.
Not a second later, a beam from somewhere struck the Gray Knight’s back. He’d just deployed his barrier to block Theia’s laser barrage, so a simultaneous beam impact was enough to temporarily overwhelm it. The beam burned into the plating on the back of the gray mobile weapon.
“What a clever application of the RTS...” the Gray Knight remarked.
“I’ve heard all about how strong you are from Sanae. I’ll use any means we have,” Koutarou replied.
The beam had come from the sniper Motor Knight. While it wasn’t a decisive hit, Koutarou had still successfully been able to deal some damage to the Gray Knight using the Round Table System. Sanae-nee was shocked.
Kiriha’s amazing! As long as we know what we’re doing, we can actually hurt him with something other than Signaltin!
In the world she came from, most attacks had proven ineffective against the Gray Knight. Her Clan and Ruth being absorbed by the whirlpool in the early stages of their fight against him had set them back considerably, but their greatest hurdle was their sheer lack of information. But thanks to the intel Sanae-nee had brought with her to this world, Koutarou and the girls here were prepared for the Gray Knight now. Sanae-nee was overcome with relief to see it.
“It’s certainly hard to use the whirlpool’s power when taken by surprise like that...”
“Consider yourself outsmarted, Gray Knight.”
The modified Warlord III and RTS had been prepared as countermeasures against the Gray Knight after a long strategic conference between Kiriha and Maki. Thanks to their previous encounters, they understood that the whirlpool of chaos was activated by emotions. They believed, then, that it would be hard to use if its wielder was caught off guard. That was how they’d come to devise synchronized attacks with the RTS, including hitting the Gray Knight from multiple sides at once.
“Indeed,” he muttered. “It’s clever enough that I think I’ll use it for myself.”
“What?!”
The gray power shrouding his sword rapidly began to swell. The billowing gray cloud split into six clumps that drifted around his mobile weapon.
“Blech! What’s that disgusting stuff?!” Sanae-chan’s expression twisted when she saw them.
The gray clumps had no static form. They were simple, amorphous blobs that changed shape like amoebas as they moved. The part that truly grossed Sanae-chan out, however, was the emotion festering within them. They were entirely revolting to her.
“No need to be so disgusted,” said the Gray Knight. “This is my attempt at replicating RTS and the Motor Knights.”
“I suppose that makes them Chaos Knights, huh?” asked Koutarou.
“Chaos normally has no shape, so forgive their creepy appearance.”
The Chaos Knights oozed around the Gray Knight. It was impossible to tell by looking at them if they were trying to protect him or looking for openings to attack. Either way, they were exceedingly dangerous. The first to realize this was Sanae-nee.
“Koutarou, attack! Don’t let those things do anything!” she screamed.
She’d fought something similar before, and she could see how much energy they contained via her spirit sight. If Koutarou and the girls wanted to win, they needed to act—and fast. That was why she’d called for an immediate attack.
What...? While the other two Sanaes were occupied with the Chaos Knights, Sanae-san was carefully observing the Gray Knight himself. That’s why she noticed something unseen to everyone else. Did he just react to the name Koutarou for a second?
She wasn’t entirely sure about it herself. He could have simply been reacting to something else. It had only been for the briefest of moments, so it also might have been a mere trick of the eye. But to Sanae-san, it looked like the Gray Knight had turned his attention to Sanae-nee when she’d called out for Koutarou.
“Emergency alert! Spiritual energy levels increasing! An attack is coming, ho!”
“We can’t stay still, ho! Sanae-san, take evasive action, ho!”
“R-Right!”
However, she didn’t have time to think about it any further. The Gray Knight’s four fighters and six Chaos Knights began their assault.
“Theia and I will press the offensive! I want the rest of you to stay back and attack!” Koutarou ordered.
“I’m coming up front too! It’s dangerous with just the two of you!” Sanae-chan argued.
“We can’t afford to dilute our firepower! I want all three Sanaes attacking together! We’re counting on you!” Koutarou rebutted.
“O-Okay, got it!”
“Then let’s move out, Theia!”
“Understood!”
Koutarou and Theia advanced to keep the enemy at bay while the three Sanaes held their position to offer supporting fire from the rear line. Koutarou would have preferred a more defensive formation, but with Ralgwin’s battleship en route, they needed to get rid of the Gray Knight. It was also impossible to tell how the Chaos Knights might come into play, so he intended to leave holding the front line to Theia and himself.
Advanced magicians could see magical energy, meaning that the wavelength unique to mana was perceivable by human retinas. Once it passed through the lens of the eye, it behaved like light. It was thus possible to see mana from afar using a simple telescope.
“I can’t believe modern science loses out to analog tech,” Clan complained. “A digital telescope is completely useless here.”
“Hahaha, I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out a way to see mana digitally someday,” Shizuka assured her.
“This large analog telescope means you’ve already begun researching how, doesn’t it?” asked Maki.
“That’s true,” Clan admitted. “I can’t stand losing.”
Shizuka and Maki had just entered the Hazy Moon’s observation deck and immediately swarmed a series of telescopes as large as heavy artillery. Clan had already turned them on, and like cannons, they tracked their targets automatically. Said targets were the three transport ships—one of which was actually Grevanas’s destroyer.
“So, can you see any difference between the ships?” Clan asked.
“Um... can you zoom in some more?” Maki asked in turn.
She watched through the telescope as the three ships periodically swapped places. The Forthorthian fleet was taking fire all the while, resulting in flashes of light here and there near the Hazy Moon. Since the missiles and lasers were only visible after leaving the vicinity of the ship that had fired them, it was impossible to tell where they were actually coming from. Figuring that out was Maki and Shizuka’s job, but the image in the telescope was too small for them to discern any details, so Clan did as Maki asked and increased the magnification.
“Stop there! I can see it! Um, there are differences between spells, but...”
Once the picture was blown up, Maki could make out the three ships. In the fashion of beholding an object from a long distance through a traditional telescope, however, the image was dark. Maki couldn’t make out any details clearly, and neither could Shizuka.
“Clan-san, can’t you make it a little brighter?” Shizuka asked.
“Sadly, no. I could enhance it digitally, but then we’d lose the traces of mana. Their unique light doesn’t register on the digital feed,” Clan lamented, shaking her head.
That was why they hadn’t used a digital telescope in the first place. No camera could capture the specific light of magical energy. By the time the image was digitized, all traces of the mana were gone. The same was true of attempting to modify the image digitally.
“Then let’s try this,” suggested Maki. “Owl Vision!”
“Oh, of course! We could just improve our eyesight!” cheered Shizuka.
Maki solved the problem with magical means, casting a spell that granted them night vision as keen as an owl’s—an excellent solution. With that, the girls could see the ships as clear as day.
“Aika-san, that one looks a little different from the other two.”
“Which one?”
Shizuka’s senses were already exceptionally sharp thanks to Alunaya. Maki was sharp herself, but not on Shizuka’s level. She hadn’t yet seen what Shizuka had already noticed.
“Say, Clan-san, is there a way to show others what I’m looking at?” Shizuka asked.
“If you’re fine with an unscientific method,” Clan said with a frown.
She then focused her energy and touched her forehead. When she did, a glowing orange sword crest appeared. The next moment a black sword crest appeared on Shizuka’s forehead, and an indigo one on Maki’s. With the link established, they could all see what Shizuka was seeing.
“Nice thinking, Clan-san! Now, Aika-san, take a look at this!”
“Oh, there’s only one big ball of mana!”
Maki could see three balls of mana, one for each transport ship. Shizuka, meanwhile, saw one large ball with two clusters of smaller balls. Maki had mistaken those clusters for bigger amalgamations of magical energy.
“What do you make of this, Aika-san?”
“Normally I would think the big one is Grevanas, while the smaller ones are the people being controlled.”
As a lich, Grevanas had vast stores of mana. There was also his illusion cloaking the destroyer, but the mana was overlapped by Grevanas’s own. That made it difficult to see, much like how a dim light would virtually disappear inside a brighter one.
Then there was the indigo magic controlling the crew of the transport ships. It was the same type of magic that Grevanas had once used to control Alunaya. Humans had no draconic resistance to magic, however, and Grevanas’s spell this time wasn’t permanent. It didn’t use anywhere near as much mana, even with two entire crews in his thrall. Logically, the large ball of mana had to be the destroyer with Grevanas aboard. That was the natural assumption.
“But we’ve been fooled by jumping to conclusions once before, so I’d like to know more first,” cautioned Shizuka. “Can we reach that far with magic?”
“It should be possible with ritual magic. Yurika’s here too, so we can probably do it.”
“Let’s give it a try! Clan-san, can you share what we just learned with Kiriha-san and Ruth-san? And Yurika-chan too.”
“Science loses again... Jeez, I’m not a magician, you know?”
Clan used the crest on her forehead to call out to Kiriha and Ruth. Rather than explaining the situation, it was faster to show them what Shizuka had seen directly.
The Gray Knight had his gray mobile weapon, four fighters, and six gray blobs under his control. Meanwhile, Koutarou had Warlord III, Theia’s fighter, the three Sanaes’ ships, and six Motor Knights at his command. Each side had eleven fighters apiece, so they were evenly matched in terms of numbers. That meant that the gray blobs, largely an unknown, would play a great role in determining the outcome of this fight.
“Damn amoebas! How are they even moving around?!” Theia grumbled as she caught one in her sights and pulled the trigger.
She was using her beam cannon, which was stronger but slower than a laser. In spite of that, however, it should have been impossible to avoid at close range.
“And how are they dodging?! It doesn’t make any sense!”
But just before the beam found its target, the gray blob wriggled out of the way by transforming its body. It moved like it had known where the beam would strike from the start. Theia could hardly believe it.
“Theia, that disgusting thing is reading your aura!” Sanae-nee called out. She knew exactly what was happening.
“Those things can read auras?!”
“Your attacks are too accurate, so they’re easy to dodge if the enemy is reading you!”
“Tch! Then I’ll just have to spread out!”
Theia was a natural when it came to battle. She could hit almost anything she aimed for, but as long as the enemy knew where she was aiming, they could avoid her shots. In order to circumvent this, Theia deliberately added a calculation error in her targeting system. That would make it much harder to predict where her attacks would actually land, and subsequently make them much harder to dodge.
“Hey, Sanae-chan,” Sanae-san called out to her other self. “Those gray blobs are kind of weird.”
“Of course they are. They’re creepy,” Sanae-chan replied.
“That’s not what I mean... It’s like the nature of the beam changed after being fired.”
“No way! That’s like cheating!”
While Theia was trying to hit the gray blobs, Sanae-san and Sanae-chan were observing their special properties from the rear line. The beams they fired consisted of heavy particles—typical of Forthorthian weaponry—but just before they hit, they turned into spiritual energy beams. The Sanaes also saw laser attacks transformed into electric spells, frequently leaving their barriers useless against incoming attacks.
“I can’t believe those things are using science, magic, and spiritual energy... Just what are they?”
“Why can’t they be less vague?! Jeez!”
Particle-heavy spiritual energy beams, laser-like lightning spells... Either they were transforming as they traveled or they were being altered as they were fired. Regardless, the actual attacks differed from what they appeared to be, making them ambiguous in a way that was difficult to defend against. It all worked in the gray blobs’ favor.
“So this is the power of chaos...” Koutarou muttered.
Vague forms and vague attacks. It exerted its influence from moment to moment by shifting unpredictably. As strange as it was, it was like a completely calculated chaos. It was clearly different from the wild power wielded by those who’d been consumed by the whirlpool previously. It all made sense in a curious way.
“That’s right. This is the power diametrically opposed to the order you control,” said the Gray Knight. “It’s mixed. Uncertain. That makes it difficult to control, but its strength is truly overwhelming.”
Everyone Koutarou had fought so far under the whirlpool’s influence had simply let its power run rampant. Even their control of it had been vague. The Gray Knight, however, was different. It felt like he was controlling the chaos and using its vague nature as a weapon.
“Diametrically opposed...?”
Koutarou looked at Warlord III’s sword, inside which lay Signaltin. Koutarou didn’t control its power himself. Rather, he accessed it through the sword. That thought drew his eyes to his enemy’s blade.
“So that sword is the key to your powers too, is it?”
“You’re quick on the uptake, I see, Blue Knight. That’s what makes me different from everyone you’ve fought before!”
The gray mobile weapon brandished its weapon. Koutarou winced.
Just like I figured, he’s hard to read!
The Gray Knight charged, his sword raised aloft and wavering like a heat haze. This was the raw power of chaos, and it made it incredibly difficult for Koutarou to gauge the blade’s range.
“Okay, space distortion field output to maximum! Now, Sakuraba-senpai!”
“Yes! Protect Satomi-kun, Signaltin!”
In his uncertainty, Koutarou had chosen to play defensively. He held out the shield in Warlord III’s left hand, doubly protected by his barrier and Signaltin’s magic. Altogether, he was sure he could block the Gray Knight’s attack and retaliate.
“Not a bad idea!” the Gray Knight cried. “But it’s pointless! There’s no saving you from this!”
Once the Gray Knight reached Warlord III, he brought his sword down viciously. There was no special technique involved. He was throwing pure, unadulterated brute strength at Koutarou.
“Tch!”
As expected, Koutarou was able to block the blow... but he wasn’t prepared for the force behind it. The Gray Knight had poured everything into his strike—his mobile weapon’s maximum output, his magic, his spiritual energy, and the power of chaos.
Koutarou was defending himself with nearly as many means, but not at full power. He’d held back some in hopes of making a counterattack. The Gray Knight thus drove him back, denying him his opportunity to strike. Koutarou had hoped to use his shield to help gauge the blurred distance between them, but it ultimately proved fruitless.
“Do you see, Blue Knight?!”
“It’s not like you actually broke through my defenses!”
“I wouldn’t be so sure!”
From there, the Gray Knight attacked in an unexpected way. With his sword still pushing down on Koutarou’s shield, he continued to accelerate forward. The head of his humanoid mobile weapon crashed violently into Warlord III’s. Although they were in space, the sound of the collision echoed through both machines. Moreover, the reverberation made it sound like a large gong had been struck.
“Talk about reckless!”
“I’m not done yet, Blue Knight!”
Since he’d been unprepared for it, Koutarou was more surprised than anything by the unusual attack. The Gray Knight didn’t miss his opportunity to strike again. The collision had pushed the two knights apart somewhat, so he unloaded his machine cannons directly at Koutarou. The rapid-fire bullets scraped the surface of Koutarou’s shield, which he’d raised in response.
“You can’t pro— Wait!” the Gray Knight cried.
“My turn!” Koutarou rallied.
He then switched his boosters to full throttle. He hadn’t lifted his shield to protect himself. He wasn’t concerned about the machine cannon fire. No, he was going for a body slam with his shield. He continued to deflect bullets as he sailed through space, directly into the gray mobile weapon. The Gray Knight, taken by surprise, could do nothing to defend himself.
“Looks like the recklessness is mutual, Blue Knight. To think you’d use your shield to attack while ignoring your own safety...”
Blocking the hail of bullets had merely been a fortunate coincidence. Koutarou’s shield was in the line of fire by sheer happenstance. If the Gray Knight had chosen a different means of attack, Koutarou would have ended up taking serious damage.
“A shield bash is a legitimate attack. If you call yourself a knight, you should know at least that much,” he fussed.
In fact, it was one of the techniques Koutarou had learned from Theia while preparing for the school plays. Traditional Forthorthian tactics incorporated several such shield maneuvers for knights.
“I may be a knight, but you and I have walked different paths,” replied the Gray Knight.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Most modern knights relied on guns. Soldiers that preferred close combat like Koutarou and Nefilforan were in the overwhelming minority. Koutarou found that a little disheartening, but everything changed with the times.
“However, I’m still playing the part of the Blue Knight.”
“Then that’s how you’ll make your curtain call.”
Once they were far enough apart again, both knights readied their swords again. Koutarou used a traditional Forthorthian stance. The Gray Knight’s was rougher, eschewing proper swordsmanship. Their ways of fighting were completely different, but they were still evenly matched somehow. Because of that, nobody could tell how this match would end.
Meanwhile, the Forthorthian fleet had identified Grevanas’s destroyer, but they refrained from attacking just yet. They’d been deceived once already, so Kiriha had decided that it would be better to dispel Gervanas’s illusion first.
“Maki, do you think it would be better to dispel the illusion with ritual magic at this range, or to cast dispel magic on a round of ammunition and fire it?” she asked.
“The latter would be ideal, but I imagine it would be tricky under the circumstances. I think ritual magic would be more reliable.”
The problem was the distance between the fleet and Grevanas’s ship. Magic typically operated on a line of sight basis. The magicians could use the telescopes from before to take aim, but that would be an unrealistically unwieldy process while holding a staff in one hand and tracing a sigil with the other. It would have been one thing on Earth, but across the vast distances of space, accuracy was paramount. They’d need their target to be plainly visible.
There were two ways of getting around this. The first was to use ritual magic to enhance the spellcasting process, and the second was to enchant a weapon capable of being fired across the distance in question. The former required time and materials, but it had virtually no range limitations. In Folsaria, there were records of ritual magic being used to defeat an enemy on another continent.
The latter could score a direct hit, like a magical form of a missile. It was the technique they’d used to uncover Ralgwin’s battleship, but unlike then, there was a chance such an attack might be blocked now. Previously, Ralgwin had been in hiding—meaning he wasn’t using any special means to defend himself. That was why Theia had been so quick to snipe him. But Grevanas had a barrier and point defense against lasers. In addition, he could use magic for extra protection. Any sort of indirect attack was likely to fail against him. That was why Maki believed ritual magic would be the safer option, but someone else vehemently objected...
“No way! Absolutely not!”
That was Yurika. She’d already come to the room where the ritual was to take place, but was desperately pleading with Kiriha to abandon the plan.
“Give it up, Yurika,” interjected Maki. “You know this is our best bet.”
The two magical girls would be handling the ritual together. Harumi used a different style of magic, but more importantly, she’d gone to help Koutarou, so she wasn’t present.
“Nobody told me that we would charge right in!” Yurika objected.
Her pleas were interrupted by Nefilforan’s voice coming over the loudspeaker. “I repeat! To all members of the Hidden Leaves crew, the ship will now charge the enemy! All hands prepare for hand-to-hand combat!”
Yurika and Maki were currently aboard Hidden Leaves in a large room near the bow of the ship. Nefilforan’s ship had a special weapon that other royal-class battleships didn’t—a ram. It protruded from the bow of the ship like a spear to pierce enemy ships.
Spaceships in the past had been too heavy to endure ramming attacks, but the development of distortion fields changed that. A ram bolstered by a solid barrier was an attack of peerless strength, capable of piercing all defenses. The inside of the ram was also hollow in order to house soldiers and weapons that could then board an enemy ship through the breach. It was an extraordinarily convenient tactic. A great number of soldiers had already gathered to board the ram, and they were waiting in the very room where Yurika and Maki were arguing.
“Don’t be selfish, Yurika! You’re just going to make this harder for Satomi-kun!” Maki pleaded with her.
“This isn’t any better than the Yurika-on-a-stick plan!”
Yurika was referencing an idea Sanae had once come up with—strapping her to the end of a metal rod to function as a magic wand for the new Blue Knight. It was a simple and effective plan, but one that would put all the burden on poor Yurika.
“If you do this, Yurika-sama, I will assist in creating a fake debt for you,” offered Ruth.
“Bwuh?!” Yurika’s expression changed when she heard this.
Just the other day, she’d finished paying off her debts to Folsaria. She was now receiving her full pay as an archwizard. In simple terms, she was rolling in it, but this brought her no joy. Quite the opposite. She was terrified of Koutarou finding out and chasing her out of room 106 now that she was no longer destitute. Ruth was suggesting that the royal families of Forthorthe could conjure some new debt on paper so that Yurika could go about her life like nothing was any different—and that was an offer she couldn’t refuse.
“I-I’ll do it...”
Tearfully, Yurika finally caved. She would rather owe Forthorthe money than risk being discovered by Koutarou, so she agreed to perform the ritual with Maki.
“Kiriha-sama, we’re ready to go!”
“Well done! Nefilforan-dono, please begin the operation!”
Kiriha’s eyes gleamed when she heard Ruth’s report. Convincing the cowardly Yurika to participate had been a tall hurdle, but now that they were past it, they could proceed with the attack. It was finally time to fight back. Aside from the cautious Kiriha, the girls were in high spirits.
“Good! Hidden Leaves, full speed ahead! Our target is the transport ship marked as Grevanas’s destroyer!” Nefilforan gave the order in an accustomed fashion.
Hidden Leaves immediately accelerated, cutting through space. The fleet’s other ships did the same ahead of it, with Hazy Moon in the lead. Kiriha’s plan was to shield Hidden Leaves with the other ships until it could ram.
“Oho, it looks like you’re planning something,” scoffed Grevanas. “I suppose you wouldn’t simply sit there, would you?”
“We’re taking you down this time, grand wizard!”
Kiriha glared at the hologram displaying the progress of the battle as she visualized victory. She was confident. Nevertheless, the enemy was constantly picking holes in her plans and craftily using magic to attack. They needed to proceed with caution
“Vice Captain. Kiriha-san. I leave things in your hands,” said Nefilforan.
“Good luck, commander.”
“I pray for your fortune, Nefilforan-dono.”
“Thank you both!”
With that, Nefilforan left the bridge. Kiriha would be taking command of the fleet, while Nana would be the acting captain of Hidden Leaves. Nefilforan herself would be leading the boarding party following the ramming. The right person for the right job, so to speak.
“We’re closing in!” Nana called.
“All right, Thunderbolt and Whirlwind, advance! Launch all onboard crafts to counter any resistance!”
As the distance between them shrunk dramatically, both sides scrambled. At such short ranges, missiles and beams would hit fast. It was also easy to deploy fighters. They’d been relying on lasers and long-range missiles thus far, but from here on, it would be an all-out battle.
“So they’re sending out smaller ships, are they? How many of those do we have on board?” Grevanas asked the captain on the bridge of the destroyer. Wise though he was, he’d yet to fully grasp modern technology.
“As this is a destroyer, we only have three,” the captain replied, choosing his words carefully. Though they were allies, he feared Grevanas—both his appearance and his way of fighting. The old wizard was doing the unpredictable at every turn, so the captain felt like he was trapped in a waking nightmare.
“Three, hmm? I can deploy them in the final confrontation,” Grevanas mused. “Have them readied.”
“Sir!”
“We’re closing in on our time limit, so I must use what I can.”
In reality, Grevanas was on thin ice. His opponents had him vastly outgunned, and he’d only been making up for that thus far with magic and dirty tricks. He was confident that his illusion hadn’t been seen through yet, but that didn’t mean he’d be able to defeat the Forthorthian fleet. However, with the enemy approaching, time was of the essence. He needed to find a way to clinch this battle.
At the same time, Kiriha and the others were preparing something of their own.
“Maki, how does it look over there?” she asked.
“The incantation should only take another fifteen seconds. Yurika is working really hard.”
“All right! Then we’re fifteen seconds away from launching our attack!”
“Initiating countdown!” Ruth called out. “Twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight...”
Grevanas continued to attack. The fleet’s two battleships were doing what they could to protect Hidden Leaves by blocking fire from the front, but they weren’t returning fire. They believed they knew which ship was the destroyer at this point, but they couldn’t afford to be wrong. They only needed to hold out for a few more seconds before they knew for certain. Once Yurika and Maki’s spell activated, all would be revealed.
“Three! Two! One! Engage!”
“Ritual Dispel!”
Once Ruth finished the countdown, Yurika and Maki activated their spell. Hidden Leaves’ ram was wrapped in a yellow glow that shot out from its tip like an arrow of light, piercing space and encompassing the three transport ships. In the blink of an eye, Grevanas’s illusion was gone.
“Hold your fire! Just as we suspected, there’s another layer to this trap!” Kiriha called.
She’d anticipated this much. The transport ship they had pegged for the destroyer turned out to be a transport ship after all. In reality, the ship next to it was actually the destroyer. Without the ritual spell to shatter the illusion, they would have sunk an innocent craft.
“To think you would use ritual magic here... It appears my arrogance has gotten the better of me,” Grevanas remarked.
“Begin the next phase of the attack!” Kiriha ordered.
With the illusion protecting Grevanas’s ship dispelled, it was finally vulnerable. Now was their chance to attack. Hidden Leaves and the two battleships opened fire with all available weapons.
“Not so fast!” Grevanas shouted.
With his mind control over the transport crews still functional, he ordered them to use their ships as shields to defend him. Meanwhile, the destroyer continued its assault... just as Kiriha had predicted.
“Kii, you really are a genius,” Clan muttered, watching in awe as the fire from Hidden Leaves and the two Forthorthian battleships disappeared. It had all been an illusion conjured by Harumi.
“There’s no doubt about it now,” said Kiriha. “That ship is the destroyer.”
“You forced my hand just to confirm that?!” Grevanas shouted.
From nothing, missiles courtesy of Hazy Moon appeared beside the destroyer—except these were the real thing. And now that Grevanas had moved the two transport ships forward to shield him, his flanks were wide open. With his barrier intact, he’d be able to withstand a missile strike. Too bad that wasn’t all that was in store for him.
“All crew prepare for ramming! Brace for impact!”
After skillfully navigating between the transport ships, Hidden Leaves charged the destroyer.
“What?!”
“Goodbye, Grevanas!”
After firing its weapons and using its barrier to block Clan’s missiles, the destroyer was spent. Without any energy to defend itself, there was no resistance it could offer against Nefilforan’s ram.
Though the battle of wits between Kiriha and Grevanas had now reached its conclusion, the skirmish between Koutarou and the Gray Knight showed no sign of ending. They were evenly matched, going tit for tat with each other.
“So Grevanas lost...” the Gray Knight mused.
“And now that they’re free, our fleet’s on the way here,” Koutarou interjected.
“Ralgwin’s battleship will arrive first. Grevanas bought more than enough time to ensure that. You lose, Blue Knight.”
As things stood, their battle would nevertheless be forced to an end soon enough. The Forthorthian fleet was on its way, but Ralgwin would arrive on scene first. He’d then use his superior firepower to destroy Koutarou and the rest of the search party.
“I’ll finish you before then,” Koutarou threatened.
“So you say, but your Motor Knights are nearing their limit, and you’ve only been able to keep up because of them. Once they fall, so will you.”
The Motor Knights were fast, strong, and mobile thanks to the Round Table System. The hitch was that they burned through their energy stores quickly—a natural tradeoff. In realistic terms, greater power meant higher energy consumption. In fact, the energy gauges the RTS was displaying for the Motor Knights were already reading zero. They’d run out of energy already, or they had so little left that the system couldn’t detect it. They were as good as out of commission, and like the Gray Knight said, they were all that had been keeping Koutarou afloat. Defeat seemed inevitable.
“Hahaha, that means this is the end for you, Blue Knight!” Ralgwin hadn’t arrived yet, but his voice reached them over the transceiver. He was convinced of his victory. His plan to divide Koutarou and his friends had paid off.
“Don’t count me out yet!” Koutarou roared.
Waiting for the end would only make things worse, so Koutarou attacked the Gray Knight with Warlord III while he ordered the Motor Knights to attack through the RTS. Only three of the six actually responded; the other three were already spent.
“Damn it! We’ve been played!” Theia hissed.
“But that’s not reason enough to give up!” Sanae-nee rallied. “We have to keep fighting!”
The girls understood the grim situation they were facing. With three Motor Knights down, they would have to make up the difference themselves... even if they wouldn’t last long. They’d effectively been backed into a corner.
“Give up already,” called the Gray Knight. “Or at least that’s what I’d like to say, but you’d never surrender.”
“That’s right! I’m the Blue Knight, after all!”
Koutarou swung his sword, clashing with the Gray Knight’s. The two knights were still matched in terms of skill, but the difference in their allies was starting to show. The Chaos Knights, the gray blobs, were steadily picking off the Motor Knights. By the time the Gray Knight and Koutarou had crossed swords three times, the remaining Motor Knights had all ceased functioning.
“Koutarou!” Sanae-nee cried.
“I’ll come save you as soon as I can!” Theia shouted.
The girls were currently tangling with the Gray Knight’s fighters, which had been enhanced with magic and spiritual energy tech. Theia and Sanae-san could outperform them, but the other two Sanaes were struggling in slower spaceships. They couldn’t afford to spare Koutarou any aid at the moment. Worse yet, after polishing off the Motor Knights, the six gray blobs divided. Three moved for Koutarou and three moved for the girls. They meant to finish things here and now while they were still divided.
“This is as far as you go, Blue Knight. You and your friends put up a good fight.”
“Ugh...”
Even though Koutarou himself sensed defeat was near, he refused to surrender. Continuing to fight was an act of chivalry, and the best he could do to allow the girls to escape. Little did he realize they were fighting for the exact same reason.
“Now let’s end this...”
The Gray Knight raised his sword high. Koutarou did the same, but the Chaos Knights surrounded him. The Gray Knight wasn’t kidding—he meant to end this.
“Don’t worry,” said Theia. “We won’t be long.”
The Gray Knight attacked with the blobby Chaos Knights. Koutarou charged with his sword and shield to stop him. Theia and the others fired guided missiles as cover fire, but each one was shot down by the Chaos Knights. As they’d feared, not having the Motor Knights put them at a huge disadvantage.
“It’s not happening on my watch, Gray Knight!”
“But it’s already happening! You’re—”
And as Koutarou and the Gray Knight clashed swords again, something strange happened... Suddenly, the Gray Knight’s mobile weapon and the four fighters under his command ceased moving. They’d been completely shut down.
“I’ve lost control?! The cameras have stopped working too! Even the backup’s offline! What’s going on?!” With all systems down, the Gray Knight panicked. His voice echoed inside of his mobile weapon.
His emergency communications came alive, however, and Ralgwin’s voice reported to him, “It’s a computer virus! It’s spreading rapidly over the comms network!”
“What are you doing?! Fix it already!”
“We’ve been had! I forgot that Princess Clariossa specialized in this kind of attack!”
“Don’t be—”
The Gray Knight had lost all ability to fight because of the unexpected virus. Ralgwin could instinctively tell it was Clan’s doing. He’d seen records of her breaking into networks during the civil war, though he’d never expected her to be able to pull something like this off without any advanced preparations.
“Good work, Clan! I’ll do anything you ask just today!”
Of course, Koutarou wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip by him. He swiftly moved to sever the gray mobile weapon’s arms and disable the fighters. That left the six Chaos Knights, but without the Gray Knight to command them, they only attacked sporadically with no sign of coordination. It didn’t take long for Koutarou and the girls to fell them.
“I’ve got a lot of questions for you!”
The Gray Knight’s mobile weapon was dead in the water. Koutarou intended to capture him and take him back for interrogation. Whether they were from a parallel world or not, he wouldn’t stand for Clan and Maki being sucked into the whirlpool of chaos.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to pass!” the Gray Knight shouted.
“This is bad, Koutarou!” Sanae-nee warned. “Hurry up and beat him! He’s going to get away!”
“What?!”
“You’re too late!”
Ultimately, Koutarou failed to capture the Gray Knight. Before he could move in, a dark fog spread out over the gray mobile weapon. And by the time it disappeared, both the Gray Knight and his mobile weapon were gone.
Later, Koutarou and the girls learned that Clan hadn’t infiltrated the enemy’s network on her own power alone. After Hidden Leaves rammed Grevanas’s ship and destroyed it, Clan accessed the transport ships’ computers and fortuitously found the security codes necessary to infiltrate the enemy network. She wouldn’t have been able to pull off such a stunt otherwise. Rather than an act of carelessness on Ralgwin’s part, it felt instead like someone had helped them out.
“Does that mean we have an ally behind enemy lines?” Koutarou asked hesitantly.
“It’s too soon to tell,” replied Clan, “but at the very least, someone must not have wanted us to lose.”
Clan didn’t know who was responsible for helping them out. At best, she imagined that it was someone with a mutual interest. Ruth, however, had something more specific in mind.
“It’s probably somebody very cautious,” she said.
“Cautious how?” Koutarou asked.
“Clan-sama didn’t find the access codes on the destroyer, but rather on the transport ships.”
“...Meaning that the betrayal would be harder to detect since the transport ships were being treated as disposable?”
“I think so. It was a very shrewd maneuver. At the same time, whoever did it must be a rather high-ranking member of the enemy organization. They were able to plant the code when the transport ships were seized.”
“A high-ranking official would be cagey. There aren’t that many of them...”
The security codes must have come from someone in charge of the transport ships or someone close to them. Nobody else would have been able to plant them. That significantly narrowed down the list of potential candidates. Moreover, it was someone who’d planted the codes on the transport ships to keep Ralgwin from finding out.
“Now that parties pertaining to magic and spiritual energy are involved in their cause, perhaps the remnants of Vandarion’s faction aren’t all on the same page anymore,” hypothesized Clan.
“You mean there’s some kind of power struggle?” asked Koutarou.
“Indeed. I find it hard to believe that Grevanas, Ralgwin, and the Gray Knight are really all playing nice with each other.”
“Yeah, you might be onto something.”
Koutarou nodded and then wordlessly began patting Clan’s head. She stared up at his face for a moment, then closed her eyes. He continued to stroke her head for a time, neither of them saying anything all the while.
“So, what happened after that?” Koutarou finally asked.
Clan still had her eyes and mouth closed, so Kiriha answered for her. “That part doesn’t bode well for us. The enemy clearly made for Forthorthe, but we’ve lost track of them. Not giving chase immediately has diminished our chances of finding them.”
Right before the destroyer was rammed, Grevanas had disappeared. The Gray Knight, too, had vanished. They’d presumably regrouped aboard Ralgwin’s battleship, which had initiated a warp. It would have been easy enough to pursue him in a faster ship, but only the Hazy Moon and Hidden Leaves fit the bill, both of which were damaged from battle. So although Koutarou and the girls had claimed victory today, Ralgwin had still succeeded in escaping.
“By the way, Koutarou,” piped up Theia, “I received an answer from my mother regarding you-know-what.”
“Let’s have it.”
After letting Ralgwin get away, Koutarou had sent a formal petition to Forthorthe for assistance. Because of the long distances involved in intergalactic warping, the margin of error determined exactly how long it would take for an object to arrive at its destination. This was a dangerous game to play with people aboard, as coming out next to a sun or inside a populated area would be disastrous. Clan’s Hazy Moon and Nefilforan’s Hidden Leaves had been too badly damaged to risk the journey immediately. Ralgwin had counted on that, but that didn’t mean Theia would let him go unchecked.
It had still been possible to send a small, inanimate object with relative safety. Even if it didn’t come out in the desired location, she could simply resend it as many times as it took to get it right. She simply needed to keep it from populated areas, which was easy enough with some navigational directives, so the journey was a rather swift one—both there and back. Theia had already received word back from her mother the same way.
“Ohohohoho!” The transmission began with Elfaria laughing, and the video feed showed her holding a folding fan over her mouth. “So you have a request of your beautiful mother-in-law, do you, Layous-sama?”
Koutarou looked at her with a frown. “I still haven’t married Theia yet! And now’s not the time for games!”
“I can just picture your angry face now. But like it or not, Layous-sama, there’s a certain protocol that must be followed under the circumstances.” Elfaria flicked her fan toward the screen, looking like she was having the time of her life.
Reluctantly, Koutarou replied, “Please lend us your aid, Your Majesty.”
“What have I told you to call me?”
“Please lend us your aid...mom.”
“That’s better! I shall assist you in any way I can.”
“Hey, if you understand how urgent this is, cut the antics already!”
“Ohohohoho!” Elfaria giggled again.
Her cheerful laugh echoed in room 106, where Theia sat in the corner filming Koutarou. Elfaria had instructed her to do so.
“Pardon, Theiamillis-san,” Harumi called out to her. “This is a recording, isn’t it?”
In response, Theia fixed the camera to a tripod and turned to Harumi. “Yes. It’s a few days old by now.”
“But it’s like they’re actually talking... What exactly is going on between the two of them?”
It looked like Koutarou and Elfaria were talking in real time, but that wasn’t the case. Elfaria was ten million light years away, so Koutarou was watching a video she’d recorded in advance. She’d simply anticipated everything he would say, which wasn’t something just anyone could do. Harumi sensed a deep bond between them.
“I’ve wondered about her relationship with Koutarou myself.”
Harumi wasn’t the only one curious about the connection between Elfaria and Koutarou. Theia felt the same way. They would just brush her off if she asked, but it was nevertheless clear that there was something special between them.
“Still... Satomi-kun just said something incredible, didn’t he?” Harumi’s biggest concern wasn’t Koutarou’s relationship with Elfaria, but rather what he’d just said to her.
“So he did. Like it was nothing too...”
“I’m pretty sure she asked you to film because she suspected something like this might happen,” Clan interjected.
She’d heard it too, and so had all the other girls in room 106. That included Nana and even Nalfa and Kotori. In fact, Theia was using Nalfa’s camera.
“Maybe... But he most certainly said he hadn’t married you yet, Theiamillis-san.”
Koutarou was caught up in his banter with Elfaria’s transmission and hadn’t fully realized the words that had left his mouth. He also failed to realize that the girls were all staring at him, their eyes glittering with expectation.
Once the transmission ended, a commotion erupted in room 106—as well as one all the way across the universe in Forthorthe for the exact same reason. The cause was a message from Elfaria.
“All riiight! It’s finally time to fight!” roared a girl wearing a red and black outfit. This was Dark Crimson, the evil magical girl who’d once been Koutarou and the girls’ mortal enemy.
“You look awfully happy, Crimson,” a shorter girl in a green and black outfit remarked bluntly. This was Dark Green, who didn’t care for what Elfaria had to say, but she was pleased to see her best friend so excited.
“I’ve been waiting for this! And we get to fight a legendary grand wizard, no less!”
Indeed, Elfaria had contacted them about a new job. The remnants of Vandarion’s faction had acquired magic and spiritual energy on Earth and were headed to Forthorthe. Elfaria wanted the former members of Darkness Rainbow to engage them and, if possible, take them out. Crimson had had it with desk work, so she was raring to go at the prospect of a real mission.
“I don’t like this. Liches are disgusting and stinky. The cute factor is a big, fat zero.”
“That’s true. I’d prefer to avoid fighting if possible.”
Dark Orange and Dark Yellow were both against it. The cute-obsessed Orange didn’t want to get anywhere near Grevanas, who naturally repulsed her. Just the idea of this mission bummed her out. On the other hand, Yellow was conservative by nature and specialized in defensive magic. She simply didn’t want to fight if they could help it.
“Where did your guts as leaders of Darkness Rainbow go?!” Crimson bellowed.
“Darkness Rainbow is a thing of the past now.”
“We’re court magicians now.”
Dark Purple and Dark Blue, the remaining two members, were neutral about the idea. Dark Purple was mature and composed, and Dark Blue always did things at her own pace. They had trouble seeing the merits of the mission.
“Man, I miss the old days. There was always a fight to be had back then...”
Dark Crimson’s shoulders slumped when she realized the majority of her teammates weren’t feeling it. Their days of raising hell in Folsaria were over. Instead, they now served as magicians in service to the royal families of Forthorthe.
“You should be grateful,” said Purple calmly. “You’d be even more bored in prison.”
“That’s true, but still...” Crimson reluctantly agreed.
After the civil war, the girls of Darkness Rainbow had accepted a deal Elfaria brought them. Though they should have been punished severely for their role in the coup, instead, the empress had offered them amnesty in exchange for their service as imperial court magicians. Their crimes were expunged and they were allowed to start life over as Forthorthian citizens. The offer meant a lot to them, as one of their original goals as Darkness Rainbow was to return to their ancestral homeland of Forthorthe. Of course, Elfaria was happy to have them aboard. With the risk of magic being leaked, she wanted Forthorthe to be prepared with a cohort of its own court magicians.
“It’s fine, Crimson. If Orange and the others don’t want to go, you can just defeat them all yourself. Having more enemies just makes you happier, doesn’t it?”
“Now you’re talking, Green! I’m going to go kick some butt!”
“Oh dear,” sighed Purple. “With Maya and Elexis gone, there’s no one left to rein Crimson in...”
Since their interests aligned, Darkness Rainbow had taken the empress’s offer and become Forthorthian court magicians. Though their enthusiasm for the job varied, there was no doubting their ability. They would wield their incredible power to fight against Ralgwin’s forces. They were one of the greatest secret weapons Elfaria had prepared.
Ralgwin had finally uncovered the mysteries of the Blue Knight’s power. He’d even taken those powers for himself, and he was now making his way back to Forthorthe with them in hand.
Immediately following their escape, the Gray Knight visited Ralgwin’s private quarters and made a strange proposal. Ralgwin was unsure what to make of it. He didn’t see a reason to say no, but he also didn’t see the merit in the Gray Knight’s plan. He felt the need to inquire further about his intentions.
“Are you serious?” he asked. “Why do you want to return to Earth now? The girl in question has already appeared, hasn’t she?”
The Gray Knight had proposed that he himself return to Earth alone—Ralgwin just couldn’t understand why. The Gray Knight said that would eventually make for Forthorthe, and that he’d been operating in the shadows on Earth because he was waiting for a certain girl from his world to arrive. But now that Ralgwin and the others were safely en route to Forthorthe, the Gray Knight wanted to return to Earth.
“Something unexpected has come up,” he explained.
“What do you mean?” Ralgwin asked.
“Regarding the sword of kingship, Signaltin. The rainbow has been completed, yet it isn’t displaying its true strength.”
The Gray Knight was concerned about Koutarou’s sword. He’d seen it shine with the rainbow, yet for some reason, it still looked like Signaltin. With all nine colors, it should have taken the form of the true sword of kingship. He found the fact that it hadn’t rather peculiar.
“And you mean to find out the cause, Gray?”
“That’s right. It might prove to be a thorn in my side later otherwise.”
“So be it, then. I won’t stop you.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“Need a ride?”
“No. I’ll take care of it myself.”
With that, the Gray Knight turned his back to Ralgwin as if to say he was done talking. He then made for the exit.
“To think Signaltin is incomplete as it is... I suppose my uncle just never had a chance against the Blue Knight,” said Ralgwin, although the Gray Knight didn’t react. “But I don’t get it. Why doesn’t he try to take the world for himself with all that power?”
Those words, however, stopped the Gray Knight in his tracks.
“I suppose I at least have to acknowledge his chivalry,” Ralgwin continued.
“...He’s just stubborn and cowardly.” The Gray Knight rarely showed any emotion, but just this once, there was clear anger in his voice. Ralgwin didn’t understand what it was directed at.
“That’s convincing coming from you, Gray Knight,” he said.
“That was the whole problem.”
“You know yourself best, I’m sure. After all, you’re the Blue Knight on a different path.”
“...I’ve cast aside that name. As you can see, I’m the Gray Knight now...”
With those final words, the Gray Knight departed Ralgwin’s room. In order to fulfill the dark purpose buried in his heart, he wore blue armor that had turned completely gray.
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