Chapter 13
THE NIGHT PASSED after their lengthy strategy discussion. Aaron and Emella’s detached force left early the next morning on their way to the small village that housed the so-called control room. Kagura’s Byakko shikigami, Growlta, was to accompany them. This would allow Kagura to use her independently developed communication magic to exchange information with them.
Growlta had been working with another distant party, but Kagura had called it back in advance of this final battle to work as a glorified cell phone. First Company had her shikigami Henryu with them for the same reason.
“I still can’t believe the master of Écarlate Carillon turned out to be a former player. Makes sense, though,” Kagura murmured profoundly as she looked Cyril up and down. It was rather common knowledge in this world that former players were strong fighters. There were naturally some exceptions, but if someone was strong enough to stand out, chances were good that they were a former player.
Cyril gazed back at her. “I was just as surprised to learn that the Isuzu Alliance, a nature protection group of all things, stood up to fight Chimera Clausen—and even more astounded to learn that the founder was Wise Man Kagura!” Cyril had once seen her while working as a mercenary with Wise Man Flonne. The man smiled happily; the former players he’d met so far turned out to be such important people.
Cyril had realized at a glance that Uzume was really Kagura. She was famous, and she couldn’t change her appearance, so it was unsurprising that people would recognize her. The fact that she’d appeared with Mira—ostensibly Danblf’s pupil—only solidified that theory.
The infiltration team chatted as they fought monsters in a mountain range far from the city. They had come here for a team outing to get a better grasp of each other’s abilities before they worked together.
“Keep your eyes on the battle, now!” Mira shouted at the two as they chatted. She rode on the back of her Pegasus and sicced it on the enemy, summoning countless Dark Knights and Holy Knights to assist her, and obliterating targets to show off the power of summoning.
“Yeah, yeah, we’re watching.” Kagura waved her off. She knew just how strong Mira was as a fellow Wise Man, and they had already built up their coordination in battle together. As such, the real purpose of this little jaunt was to show Cyril their stuff and size him up in kind.
Unlike Kagura, however, Cyril was actually paying attention throughout the demonstration. He praised Mira for the cooperation between her Dark Knights and Holy Knights. Her mood was greatly improved by his words. She called out, “And this one’s a new technique!”
She then partial-summoned a tower shield to block the charge of a monster that resembled a boar wearing rock armor, before using the same technique to slice it to bits with six black swords that appeared from thin air. Cyril was instantly awed by their power and potential to ambush foes.
“Yep, you used that one in your mock battle with Scorpion,” said Kagura. “So you can do both at the same time? Very impressive.”
Partial summoning was a new technique made possible by the removal of Ark Earth Online’s video game limitations. Kagura acknowledged its power, but she knew her friend well, so she wasn’t especially surprised. Of course Mira could do that.
That said, this only made Mira more eager to show off to her. So she wrapped up her performance and grumbled, “I’ve got a dragon emperor I’ve been holding off on using since it stands out so much. If I had to, I could blow the whole mountain away.”
While Mira came back in a huff, Kagura took a talisman from her pocket and stepped forward. “Okay, guess it’s my turn.”
Three monsters approached up ahead. They were smaller than the rock boars Mira had trounced, but these lizard-like monsters had tough skin as well. They also moved at twice the speed of the boars.
The lizards approached in the blink of an eye. Kagura murmured something and threw her talisman. By using Soul Dispatch, a special ability of mediums, she could make her talisman fly freely through the air toward the monsters. Just before striking them, the talisman burst, and the ground all around the explosion immediately caved in. The three monsters fell dozens of meters down into the resulting crater. The speed and scale of it were unthinkable for such a quick cast, providing a good example of a Wise Man’s true power.
However, a Wise Man would not stop there. It was natural for these heroes to have counters upon counters.
Despite falling from such a great height, the monsters seemed undamaged. They quickly righted themselves and began running toward Kagura again. Kagura tossed two more talismans their way. These two were swallowed up by the collapsed earth, heralding yet another abnormal change. From the silt-and-crag earth erupted greenery that blanketed the entire collapsed area in the blink of an eye.
“Wow. It’s incredible to see how different the Wise Men are from your average mage.” Cyril watched with a mixture of excitement and admiration.
Kagura was at the apex of her magical discipline, and her medium magic was truly magnitudes beyond any other. Empty land had been replaced by a sea of trees.
Among the Celestial Arts was the forest-generating [Celestial Arts: Wood—Giant Forest]. This was a popular representative of the field-controlling spells that often gave mediums the upper hand. This spell was often used for support, such as aiding in a team’s escape. It could be used to create obstacles and fend off long-ranged attacks, and create an opportunity for more mobile allies. But there were other hidden uses as well.
“Now, I just gotta set fire to it,” Kagura said. “But if I do that to such a big forest we’ll stand out, right?”
…Her plan was to literally create a forest fire.
Trees made by mediums burned especially well when lit by that same medium’s fire—even better than natural trees, in fact. What would happen if Wise Man Kagura set fire to this localized sea of trees in this deep, wide crater? One didn’t have to see it to believe that it would be devastating.
“Well, that would be too easy. I think I can stop here.”
Knowing that their mission was in a few days, they didn’t want to draw any extra attention to themselves. Kagura held her fire. Instead, the forest began to writhe, collapsing in on itself to engulf the three lost and confused monsters. Minutes later, only the monster’s corpses remained. The land had returned to its usual craggy self.
Kagura’s skills hadn’t lapsed in the slightest. Mira sniffed. “Not bad, I suppose.”
Cyril, who would have to show his skills next, grinned wryly and muttered, “No pressure, huh?” He then whipped out his sword gracefully, lowered his stance, and faced forward.
Soon, a mob of monkey-like rock monsters appeared, hopping and leaping over the rocky mountains with ease. They were armored apes, among the strongest of the monsters that appeared in this area. They were all more than two meters tall, with the most dignified ones towering a whopping four meters.
As soon as the armored ape horde noticed the group, they displayed their hostility with a roar. It was not intended to intimidate or warn—they attacked without waiting for a reaction. The apes easily hopped about the mountain, unhindered by the poor footing. They closed in at lightning speed.
Just then, Cyril’s figure seemed to flicker—and an armored ape shrieked in pain. A great gash had been carved into its chest, and fresh blood poured out. Cyril stood beside it with blood dripping from his blade.
He was quite fast. Mira and Kagura watched, impressed. But the armored ape seemed unbothered by the gash in its chest; in its rage, it roared and swung an arm at Cyril. Yet he was already gone, and its arm hit nothing but air.
Before long, the monsters began to scream one after another. All of them suddenly had major wounds—yet none were fatal. Every one of the injured armored apes glared odiously at their assailant.
He stood in the midst of the enemy, gathering all of their malice in one spot. Yet, unexpectedly, he shook the blood off of his blade and sheathed it. The wounded armored apes were all still alive and ready to fight, but Cyril turned and walked toward Mira and Kagura as if the battle were over.
The largest armored ape tried to attack his undefended back. Suddenly, as if on cue, blood spurted from every armored ape at once, and they all died on the spot.
“How was that? I’m confident I at least won’t hold you back,” Cyril said hopefully, a humble smile on his face.
“More than enough, I’d say,” Mira replied.
“Yep, no complaints here. You’ll be a boon to us,” Kagura agreed.
Warriors’ manifestations, the result of honing and giving form to their fighting spirit, could be chained into Crafts. Crafts were as diverse as the people who wielded them, making it difficult to judge them by any set standard. Nevertheless, it was clear to anyone with eyes that Cyril’s sword strikes were the image of perfection. Mira and Kagura offered their genuine admiration and praise for his sharp swordsmanship.
“It’s great to hear that from you two. An honest-to-goodness confidence boost.” The powerful people around Cyril had shown him the limits of his long-honed sword skills. But he was truly happy that the strongest people he’d ever met would compliment him like this.
Once the two Wise Men confirmed that Cyril was strong enough to join them, the group spent the rest of the day training to make better use of their new Alabaster Oni-Slayer weapons.
***
Around noon the next day, just as the trio had begun making their last preparations for the battle, Scorpion and the others contacted them through Tweetsuke. They reported that they’d found a Melville Commerce storehouse full of weapons made from black mist ore. On top of that, they’d organized a raid to recover the evidence.
According to Scorpion, Ebatess Commerce had helped them bring the Trinity Church’s international legal affairs official to their side. Said official was essentially an international investigator under the banner of the church, tasked by the Holy Kingdom Alisfarius to uphold its religious commandments throughout the continent.
The current plan was for Scorpion and Snake to take this official to the Melville Commerce facility for the raid right when Isuzu’s attack began. This way, Melville Commerce would be unable to react quickly to the attack, since they would be too busy dealing with the exposure of the black mist ore weapons they were holding for Chimera.
It would be no exaggeration to say that Melville’s fate was sealed.
“Be ready to move at a moment’s notice, even before the planned time. Also, let us know if they make any unusual moves,” Kagura ordered. She ended the call. “It seems that corporation helping us is in for one heck of a lucky day.”
It wasn’t certain yet, so they couldn’t let their guard down. But Kagura sounded confident; after all, she trusted Scorpion and Snake completely.
***
That night, Aaron’s detached force contacted Mira’s group as well. Unfortunately, their report was not as favorable.
Aaron’s group had gone in advance to take a look around the village where the control room was allegedly concealed. As far as they could tell, the village containing the control room truly had the appearance of a small village. The villagers that supposedly protected the area acted like real villagers, hospitality and all. They even sold their crops for a more than fair price. But when they looked upon the villagers as a garrison protecting a fortress, the detached force felt a wary suspicion in their gazes.
Flicker added that she’d felt an abnormal density of spirit presences, which seemed to be even thicker underground. She was certain that there was something down there.
Despite the group’s best efforts, searching the village did not go as well as they’d hoped due to the enemy’s natural suspicion of outsiders. This was thus all the information they could offer.
“We looked around the village and its surroundings, but we didn’t see that Skyfolk guy. Either he’s hiding or he’s not there yet,” Aaron reported. This was an additional complication. If they couldn’t find the Skyfolk man, they would have no idea where or when the battle would begin. It wasn’t even clear whether he’d come or not. Aaron believed that he’d be unreliable as a distraction for Isuzu’s operation.
As a result, it was decided that Aaron’s group would stay ready for the battle to begin at any given time—or worse, for the Skyfolk man to not show up at all.
***
The next call came from the leaders of the Isuzu Alliance First Company and control center attack force, Diamond and Mizar. Spirits helped them travel at high speed, but due to the sheer scale of the operation—involving hundreds of people—it would still take another half a day until their group arrived on the scene.
However, even in the worst case, the operation should be able to proceed according to plan as long as they arrived within the day. Kagura provided an amended strategy based on where the First Company would meet with Aaron’s group, the location of the entrance leading to headquarters, the wild card that was the Skyfolk man, and the actual situation and geography of the village based on Aaron’s direct observations.
Once she’d heard everyone’s reports, Kagura produced a green ribbon and gazed at it. It was the gift she’d hoped to present the wind spirit Lecia with for helping her when she was lost in this new world. “Soon, my friend. Soon…” Kagura grasped the ribbon in prayer, shook her head to ward off the tears welling in her eyes, and looked up at the night sky. The distant stars were ephemeral and beautiful—but nowhere near as beautiful as when she’d once looked upon them with Lecia.
Kagura slowly closed her eyes…
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