Strike the Blood - Volume 22 - Chapter 5.2

2

Thin air swayed like a ripple. A woman in a gaudy outfit appeared from it. The place to which Ladli Ren had teleported using a sorcerous device was inside the bridge of a hospital ship moored at New Itogami Island.

“Lady Ladli, are you all right?”

The head of MAR’s security division—a man known as the Colonel—addressed her with an expression of relief.

Ladli glared back at him.

“I am hardly all right. The Necropolis was savaged and heavily damaged.”

“R-right.”

“Negotiations have failed, so we are forced to subdue them with might. Send orders to all units garrisoned on New Itogami Island—we are shifting to Plan C. Also, release the Gaminodons, please.”

“The…Gaminogigants? But that’s—”

A rare look of hesitation came over the Colonel. The expression was a product of mistrust and disgust for the Gaminogigants. Internally, he strongly resisted using weapons that would indiscriminately slaughter civilians.

For her part, Ladli smiled, seeming downright delighted.

“Oh, I don’t mind. As long as we get control of Keystone Gate, everything works out. Even if Itogami Island is ruined as a city, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

The Colonel nodded without a word and issued a curt command to his communications officer.

Fifteen minutes later, MAR’s remaining forces launched an all-out attack on Itogami Island.

The crimson robot tank equipped with a flight unit descended from the night sky with a roar.

The tank’s expected landing point was the roof of Keystone Gate. Yuuma and Asagi sat on the back of the tank while Shizuri and Yaze clung to its left and right legs respectively. The tank was clearly over its carrying capacity, but Lydianne somehow succeeded in landing it. Yaze and the others got off, standing on the roof with weary faces.

New figures appeared on the roof as if awaiting their return. They were a little witch wearing an ornate dress, a blue-haired homunculus wearing a maid outfit, and a tall, slender, chestnut-haired Attack Mage.

“—You kids have really done it this time.”

Natsuki spoke, glaring at Asagi as the latter dismounted the tank.

Asagi looked back at her diminutive homeroom teacher with a bit of surprise on her face.

“Natsuki? How’d you get out of the detention area? It had a force fi… taaah?!”

“Don’t address your teacher by her given name.”

Asagi reeled back from the shockwave smacking her on the forehead as Natsuki spat the words out with pronounced disdain.

“Er…that’s the part you’re complaining about…?”

Yaze sighed with exasperation. Asagi, clutching her forehead with both hands, was crouched over with tears in her eyes.

During the time Natsuki had been shut in the detention center, her pupils had engaged in negotiations with MAR, caused them to fire Beast Vassal Warheads, and brought down the Necropolis in Itogami Island airspace. He wasn’t exactly surprised she was cross with them.

By rights, Natsuki wanted to say a lot more than that, but the lack of time made her hold her tongue. A legion of emotions thus filled the shockwave with which she’d delivered that smack to the forehead.

“Where’s Yukina?! Weren’t Yukina and Kojou Akatsuki with you?!”

Sayaka looked at everyone getting off the tank as she spoke in an earnest tone.

Shizuri calmly pointed to the magic symbols hovering in the night sky.

“Those two went to Nod aboard the Necropolis.”

“Hah?! Nod?! Wh-what’s the meaning of this?! Why did only he and Yukina…?!”

“Wait a…h-hard…to…breathe!”

Shizuri yelped fervently as Sayaka wrung her by the collar with incredible force. Yaze and Astarte swiftly intervened to make Sayaka stop.

Yuuma watched this with a strained smile but soon turned to face Natsuki with a sober look.

“—So, Teach. What’s the situation?”

“The MAR attack units garrisoned on New Itogami Island have begun invading Itogami Island proper.”

Natsuki shifted her eyes toward Itogami Island’s northern reaches. New Itogami Island, which floated all around Itogami Island itself, had been pockmarked by MAR bases during the back-and-forth of the Electoral War. The closest part of New Itogami Island was only ten kilometers away. Keeping them from landing forces was an exceptionally difficult job.

“With all other options exhausted, they have no way to turn things around except by conquering the island through force. They’re probably attacking with a do-or-die mentality.”

Natsuki’s calm explanation created a grim atmosphere on the rooftop.

Itogami Island was fundamentally a city of scientific study. It had not been constructed with urban warfare in mind. The Island Guard was armed only with the objective of maintaining public order in a Demon Sanctuary. This left it with a devastating lack of combat strength with which to resist an all-out military invasion. By rights, since Itogami Island had no dedicated military forces, its defense fell under the government of Japan’s jurisdiction.

Yet this very same government of Japan had attempted to sink the island, so relations between the two had significantly deteriorated. On top of that, the greatest combat strength Itogami Island had—in other words, the Fourth Primogenitor—was absent. This was the worst scenario any of them could think of.

“So in reality, is this winnable?”

Shizuri’s question got right to the point.

“MAR’s main force went into Nod, so the remaining forces should be logistics units primarily. Even the Island Guard’s combat strength should give them a pretty hard time.”

Natsuki voiced her cold analysis of the facts. That’s right, said Sayaka, totally agreeing, having visited one such MAR base just a few days earlier.

It was generally held that, in war, it was easier to defend than to attack. If the forces on both sides were equally balanced, the Island Guard should have had an overwhelming home field advantage.

On top of that, being a Demon Sanctuary, Itogami Island had over twenty thousand registered demons, plus numerous Attack Mages, Natsuki and Sayaka included. Even without Kojou present, one could fairly say the balance of power was in their favor.

“But,” continued Natsuki, “MAR has to understand all of this.”

“Certainly…barring simple desperation, invading despite all that must mean they have some sort of trump card in their hand.”

Shizuri’s brow creased as she sank into thought.

Yaze, lazily leaning against the tank with eyes closed, seemed immersed in sound as he shook his head.

“Looks like that trump card’s bein’ played already.”

“What?”

Natsuki and all others turned their eyes in the direction Yaze pointed.

It was the sea coast of Island North. Rising like the tide from the sea side of the breakwater, a flurry of giant figures emerged from inside the sea. The figures exceeded ten meters in length with room to spare. They were humanoid monsters with enormous heads, as if sperm whales were able to walk upright.

The monsters’ whole bodies were covered in hardened, armor-like hides with countless tentacles protruding from their backs. The heads had sets of gleaming, crimson eyes. Shizuri and the others recognized them.

“Those are…Unknowns! Unknowns walking on two legs…!”

“Such a…monstrous visage…!”

Shizuri and Lydianne shouted simultaneously. These six-eyed giants were likely the final version of Nine-Four—the Unknowns that had appeared on Itogami Island once before.

MAR had apparently developed Gaminodons into these humanoid demon beasts, keeping them in reserve as their trump card for invading Itogami Island.

“Guess they had one more nutty rabbit to pull out of the hat…”

A pained expression came over Yaze as his gaze roamed the seacoast.

MAR hadn’t sent a mere handful of demon beasts into combat. Demon beasts were rushing Island North and East’s coastlines one after another. The demon beasts that had landed already exceeded a dozen. Island Guard positions on the coast were trampled and uprooted, defeated in the blink of an eye. At that rate, the conquest of Itogami Island was only a matter of time.

“Asagi Aiba, how many of those can you crush with your Cleansing?”

Natsuki inquired in a tiny voice. Asagi grimaced and reluctantly shook her head. The Cleansing was no simple attack spell—it was a forbidden, high-level spell that rewrote the physical laws of the world. Certain destruction of the humanoid demon beasts was within its capabilities no matter how powerful their magic resistance—but only if she could activate The Cleansing in the first place.

The Cleansing was so overpowered that activating it meant magical calculations so vast, they chewed up Itogami Island’s entire information network. They didn’t have the luxury of such an operation. Most of the main computer’s computational capacity was being used to neutralize the Beast Vassal Warheads.

“If Mogwai’s corporeal form wasn’t eating resources, I could take out several, but under these circumstances, maybe two? It’s not like I can make leading citizens to safety a lower priority, either…”

“If that is how it is, it is my turn, yes? May I take it that all I need do is cut those oversized things down?”

While Asagi murmured with regret, Shizuri replied, brimming in confidence for some reason. She was ready to leap into combat that very moment when Yaze pulled her back in a hurry.

“No, you need to stay put, Cas. You flung around all that crazy demonic energy in the Necropolis, but your body’s in tatters, right?”

“W-who is this Cas?! And this damage handicap only makes it fair for them!”

“—Yuuma Tokoyogi. Take this preening paladin and the Lion King Agency ponytail girl and support the Island Guard in East. Astarte and I will handle North.”

Natsuki calmly issued orders with a resigned expression.

“Roger that, Teach.”

“P…preening paladin…?!”

Yuuma nodded with a strained smile as Shizuri’s shoulders shook from anger.

Only high-level Attack Mages could go up against Unknown-class living weapons. Since they couldn’t depend on Asagi’s Cleansing, the only option was to duke it out with everything they had.

“And I shall defendeth Lady Empress and Keystone Gate?”

Lydianne spoke with a delighted tone. Natsuki brusquely nodded.

“That’s how it is. Also, Yaze, you understand what your job is, don’t you?”

“My job…er, ahhh…so that’s it…”

Yaze seemed to feel a heavy weight upon him as he looked toward the sky. In terms of pure combat capabilities, Natsuki and the others had Yaze beaten, but he had alternate ways of fighting. That’s what Natsuki was conveying to him.

“Hurry. We won’t last long with just the people on hand.”

Natsuki left those words behind before vanishing from sight. She’d teleported to the field of battle. Next, Lydianne’s tank lifted off, and Yuuma and the others vanished, too. Yaze was the only one left on the roof.

“Guess I gotta… Time for me to do my job.”

Shaking his head as if resigning himself, Yaze took his smartphone out of his pants pocket. He called a hotline reserved for the exclusive use of president of the Yaze Consortium.