Vol 1 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Chapter 4: The decisive battle, the three Twintails

Another un in the hall of the Ultima Guil

”The nuht troops and seventy-three of the Ultiroids, in a little more than twenty days”

”Hm~mph”

”So these are the Twintails!!”

The Ultiht without a drop in the pace But the two of theet used to battle, with the help of Aika’s breakthrough thanks to shi+ndou Erina’s words They stood together undaunted and forced them all back

”On the other hand, we have been able to obtain no Ele to this world Even e seize Elemera, the Twintails recover all of it”

”If that is how things are, why don’t we just capture all the owners of the Elemera and then make an immediate, temporary retreat?”

One of the Ele ”That just looks like we're frightened of the Twintails and want to run away!”

”But we cannot stand by and do nothing forever”

”The two of theether are formidable One need hardly mention the red warrior, and the blue warrior may be inferior in Elemera, but her attacks don’t have a moment of hesitation in them Perhaps she devotes herself to destruction in her day-to-day life as well”

Twenty days since the start of the invasion

More andto break

Drag Guildy folded his arround his teeth That was all it took for every soldier in the roo a blade to his neck, like he was being scolded implicitly for his own uselessness

“The power of the Twintails is true If we continue to try half-ready soldiers on the down our own th From noill permit none but heroes in this holy war Are there none of you whose desire is the stronger to hear that?”

“Yes! Me, then!”

A young voice answered Drag Guildy

No ahtforward, and pure voice But though it was too frank, that was the thing that er The man was just like iron that had been heated until it was on the verge of

“Oh, the prodigy, the one they call a gift from the Nurse Element, Swan Guildy no one here can have any objection to you!”

Starting with the ones who had been in a cold sweat, reement

“Ha ha ha, but I don’t think we’re at the point where we suddenly send in a man like you, are we?”

“But we have just been saying that sending some half-baked commander would be pointless”

The strained at Guildy nodded also

“Very well But before that a test To see whether you are worthy to fight the Twintails, that is”

His eyes opened with a snap

A gust of wind blew through the hall ― in that instant when no one could feel otherwise, he drew out his own virile sword and stopped it a few millimetres from Swan Guildy’s eyeball

Swan Guildy did not even move

“Heh Your courage is considerable But let’s test you just a littleit in”

An Ultiroid entered the roo Guildy’s side A PC and

“The computer from my room why is it here!?”

Swan Guildy had not shrunk before Drag Guildy’s sword though it possessed the swiftness of God, but he was now plainly frightened

“Silence! This is still part of the test”

“I, it can’t be that bloodstained test, They See Your Eroge a, aaah!”

Teeth chattering, unable to keep the Guildy moved the mouse in silence The cursor stopped on top of a desktop icon, shaped like a twintailed girl Swan Guildy’s panic doubled And those around him also knehat was about to happen

Click

The noise of theswitched on to an electric chair

After the studio logo filled with primary colours, the title screen appeared

An erotic ga nurse unifor Guildy clicked on “Load Game”

“This is a gao, isn’t it And it’s already coreedy fellow!”

The PC screen was projected onto the rooe monitor for all to see, as if to deal the final blow, and Swan Guildy burst out in a squeak

“Ha ha ha, and this saved data there’s nothing but flesh-tone in the thumbnails, is there!”

“Spare me! Please, spare me!!”

“Ho But there is just one thu cheeks this one’s suspicious”

Loaded

Two people talking alone, in as probably the protagonist’s room

But, the girl’s cheeks were even blushi+ng red, but still it was a nored without a single strange thing happening

“So your childhood friend cae, youthat so special would start to happen between the two of you But the whole thing ended uneventfully and the date card for the next day showed up on the screen So disappointing―”

“Yeah, yeah”

“I’ve had that happen”

The unconsciously sympathetic faces of the spectators

“Gwaaaaahh―”

Finally, Swan Guildy lost consciousness and slid to the floor

“Carry him away!”

The Ultiroid lent hied him out

“Hah, pathetic To be done in by such a sle battle with the Twintails like this is hilarious”

But despite his words you could see the affection for his subordinates lurking in his eyes

“I will go”

He spoke those quiet words and the hall broke into a roar

“Drag Guildy-sama himself!?”

“Our coreat leader for you to take the field personally!”

“Enough talk!”

Sending hisGuildy strode fro up from the floor like fire The transcendent aura of intimidation made it hard anymore to call him a monster A divine beast ― that was the more suitable word

“Our co soldier”

“Of course In the enerations of Ultima Guil history, he is the only one to have ever h the Transparent Amazone, one of what they call the Five Great Tests”

“What! That terrifying trial where your mail order purchases are shi+pped to you in transparent packages for a whole year! He is a living legend I would have died on the first day of that nightmare”

“If it be he, then surely”

As they looked up at thebetween pictures of the Twintails, the monsters trusted him with their one thin ray of hope

“Why, why didn’t I realize it! If this transient life where loneliness will kill you is ended by the angel that lives in that body―”

“Grand Blazer―――!!”

A flash of the flame blade, and I returned Rabbit Guild to dust

In battle constantly for almost a er lend an ear to the words of my enemies even at their moment of death

If I don’t fight with that kind of hard-boiled setting in my head, the battle with the perverts will eat away at my mind

And in accordance withheroic so that the world’s pet treatment will not escalate anymove

I still have no idea whether that will bear fruit or not, but thequieter, and explanations of self-defense goods and strategies for dealing with an encounter with the Ultiun to run on TV

“But, et any better, do they?”

Grinding ht be a heartless word to use here, but that was how the fight was going

Frankly, they’re weak

As long as they don’t come at me from a blind spot like Fox Guildy and his doll fantasies, there hasn’t been a single close battle In the end society has taken absolutely no substantial dae since the start of the war The whole world is still at ease

On a Sunday, early afternoon

I’e that makes it hard to tell exactly where I am

In hero stories, the ene actor lives, but these guys are all over They appear and disappear like ghosts Many of them do arrive in japan, maybe because ere there, but they can show up anywhere in the world

That used to be est worry And a major part of what made it possible to cope with it was the teleporter installation that Twoearle had built in the underground base, and the portable transfer pens that she had given to both of us

When we caught a signal froh it was a big help that none of the class

Today they were in the e, so there weren’t even any rubberneckers Life was easy

Why did they appear in this deserted place?

“His range couldn’t have gone as far as wild bunnies, could he?”

Elemera Orb, Rabbit, recovered As I took a breath of air, ato come in late as backup

“Are you all right? Is it over already?”

“Affir back now”

I relaxed coe stretch

I happened to glance up at the sky and I saw so beside the sun

“――――――!!”

A shi+ver went down round

And then the surface of the earth exploded Whatever it was had fallen with immense force

“Ngh hat is that!?”

I stared at the silhouette appearing from the cloud of dust

“My apologies I didn’t expect that to be a surprise attack I thought you would be able to handle such a thing easily”

The voice was close to a whisper, but it was filled with overwhel What bleay the dust and appeared before me was an Elemerian with an unbelievable sense of presence

“Uh”

I sed hard You can see with a look no, with him, even if you don’t look you can feel it

This one’s different

“My na Guildy! And in love for twintails, I flatter myself that if you lined up all the cosether, not a ht!!”

“shi+t, even though this guy is serious, he talks the exact same way as all the rest of them!!”

The enoron itself, and the fighting spirit he was gathering felt oppressive, even o to feel like all the fighting so far had been thrown out and restarted from scratch

“That fool Though I told hio!!”

Drag Guildy was looking at the space where Rabbit Guildy had disappeared with sorrow in his eyes

“My subordinates haveyou But there is no replacement for my precious brothers So I will strike out at their foes! By relieving you of your Elemera!!”

“What do you mean foes, you just come and attack us!”

I drew the Blazer Blade again, and stood ready

My twintails swayed in the air currents from the flame

“All right! I’!”

“Wha!?”

With speed I couldn’t even iine from that tremendous frame, he closed the three-meter distance between us to zero in a flash

“Hm!”

The great sword swinging down A squeal of

I had barelyenough to make it numb The attack had overcoht

It was the first ti the Tailgear

“Ngh, gaah!!”

“Not a single scratch in the blade, though you blocked with all your ine a human made it!! It reminds me of the only rival I’ve ever considered worthy!!”

“You bastard!”

I swung the sword in a backhand slash as I was fixingGuildy made a leisurely block with the flat of his blade

“E with irl?”

(This guy is in another league!!)

“In that case, I’ll speed up a little!!”

“Uwaah!!”

I thought for a second I was being cut by dozens of swords at once

I hit his sword away, forgetting to breathe, at the mercy of his speed

(! This, this swordsmanshi+p!!)

Following the line his sas tracing in the air, I noticed so in the trails

“Ohh! You can see it from just these few , can you!!”

After an exchange of blows that lasted so Guildy leaped backward to put distance between us in a way that didn’t well suit his huge body

“Drag Guildy That sword of yours is”

“Yes, I wield”

“Red! Are you okay!?”

I said I’d be fine by nal from Twoearle it seems like she came in a hurry

As TailBlue― as Aika swooped down fro behind her―

““The Twintail Sword!!””

―Drag Guildy and I shouted those shocking words at the same tih she were about to screw up the landing

“I see We have a Souji-type today seeerous”

“Yeah, he’s a hard one!”

Just looking at Drag Guildy had thrown her off-balance

So you can feel it on your skin too His fearful power

By the hat’s a soujitype?

“TailRed You terrifying young girl My slashes with the swiftness of a God you are the first one whose eyes ever saw through this speed!!”

“Don’t look down on me Of course I’ll see it when you trace the shape of my heart out, notwintails in my heart!!”

“You ! In that case, I’ll let you get a good, rich taste of it! Of this excellent blade I’ve honed to the end of all extremes!!”

There was enough power in the foot he sla into dust

The slash that he fired out of that acceleration had the speed of God in it, just as he had boasted

Forgetting ht, I brandished my sword

“Gu, uu!!”

Like the tracks of the glittering stars that forht sky

With spectacular bea Guildy’s sword created the matchless constellation of The Twintails on earth

“Uoooooh!”

I soed to deal with the blade that filled my field of vision and put distance between us a second time

“Hah, hahah”

The giant twisted hisup from underfoot

“Uwa――――hhahhahhahhahha!!”

Drag Guildy raised the great sword onto his shoulder with its line of warped, crooked blades like the fangs of a dinosaur, and let out a hearty laugh

“Spectacular!”

For that solid body covered in strong

“Spectacular twintails! It’s a pity we had to meet as enemies, really!”

“”

That’s my line

A guy like that who could talk about twintails with a laugh like that froreat would that be?

“In that tiny body you have the talent to catch every swing of my blade Your swordplay is like a dance and h the air together with it! It’s been a very long ti Guildy has fallen in love on the battlefield!!”

More than the fact that I was fighting on the sa he was thinking and thinking and thinking about This huge bastard who looked like a soldier with an a military record

“Uumm, for some reason, the h they are loyal to the foundations, every time I fix my eyes on them they seem corade twintails are”

“What inspection standard is that!”

I wonder whether his aesthetic sense has been cultivated by his long history of battle The deep scars carved wherever I look on his body speak more eloquently than a thousand words of the nuh alive

“Do they bother you, these scars”

“W, ould they”

“Heh With that rough language, you try to stretch toward adulthood Dear little soldier”

They say when you’re in love even pock and everything with a kind smile like this, it starts to feel like contempt

“But look Drag Guildy can boast that there are no scars on his back!”

“Hmm, so you mean you’ve never turned your back on an enemy”

You see that a lot

“That is true also, of course but for the sake of the subliirl I’ll uarding it!!”

“What have you been fighting for all this time!!”

“You should understand it already I’ to meet the one ill spend the rest of irl! And to hold her Elemera in my hands!!”

“shi+t, what a guy”

But the giant roaring haughtily with his feet planted wide apart did not have a single speck of hesitation in his clear eyes

Though I understand it clearly now Yeah, these guys are a different species

Our definitions of love are totally different

To spend your whole life with sohty words can be disposed of by a one-sided conquest, by stealing Eleence and be able to speak, but they’re different from humanity

When ere crossing swords I was more than half in doubt, but now I believe it

I can’t i other than

“Blue I know it The secret of his strength”

“Eh, uh, sorry, what?”

Even Aika see Guildy and his overwhelth She sort of looked half asleep, but I think it was ination

“Drag Guildy, you”

The strongest Eleear The Ele for that, but in the end they had each shi+fted to their own personal Element

He alone was different

“You’re an Elemerian with the real, authentic Twintail Element, aren’t you!”

“Aye Our Twintail Ele with each other”

“Resonating! Ridiculous, us two!!”

“So in other words, “birds of a feather?” Give me a break”

I could hear an uneasy voice from behind me It had a lot of worry, but I couldn’t hear any surprise

“Hmm-m”

The instant he looked at Blue, Drag Guildy twisted his mouth into a broad smile

“Froht in so, but Now that I see you up close like this I aested this to you, did she not?”

“Eh!? What are you talking about!?”

“From your reaction it seee us back then that girl earing the saar breasts that don’t suit twintails, so even looking I can hardly iine the two of you are related”

“The same suit!?”

Twoearle had created the Tailgear to strike at the foes of her world, to oppose the Ultima Guil, she had said Aika also stood frozen to the spot without replying, although so the same confusion

“But it’s a good joke This world has a warrior in the same suit And so it will come to the same end”

Drag Guildy quieted his thirst for blood and folded his aran to speak

“What!?”

“I’m certain that that other twintail warrior they called her TailBlue too, didn’t they? And she also boasted terrifying strength She stood in the way of our invasion, and reigned over the world as its protector and Guardian”

“Wait! So you’re saying that you fought with TailBlue before you destroyed that earlier world!?”

Drag Guildy nodded He hardly see at random

“Why did Twoearle keep quiet about that”

“No, I understand She couldn’t win against the Ultiear She already kno this ill end If she told us, how could we keep fighting?”

Aika was hardly shaken at all As though she had been resigned to this from the start

“I knew she was hiding so That was the reason I asked to be TailBlue, too I thought for sure if you were alone, Souji, you would absolutely be tricked”

“Aika”

I thought they were getting along like sisters, that they were just joking with each other But Aika, you

“She was strong As strong as the two of you But that hat killed her world in the end”

Drag Guildy waved an exaggerated arh in the air, and

“The beautiful fighter that drove away the invaders Before she knew it, she was being raised up and praised by the world as a Goddess There was no one as not charmed by her twintails! We never even dreaan to support our cherished Twintail Eleined!!”

“Ngh”

Was this the unease that I’ve been feeling all this time?

The work of the Twintails has been spreading twintails through the whole world, and the nu twintails in admiration of us has increased drairls of the world copy the hair and clothing of an idol with centripetal power

I was celebrating twintails’ escape from the minority But that―

“―You seeht, you too will become the saviour of the world, and then, in the end, its destroyer!!”

“Could it be that all the enemies so far eak because you!”

“Heh I don’t take any pleasure in throwing away the lives of my comrades for a trick They’re ed to win, that would have been best of all”

That wasn’t what happened We continued winning every battle we fought

So then

“In the end, with their lives, ht the label ‘the invincible Guardian’ for you And I do not deny that I allowed it to happen We soldiers have merely been entrusted with our orders If we see a more efficient hat can we do but take it?”

That’s right, this guy come to think of it, wasn’t he the one who appeared in the proclaoal with that first broadcast to the world wasn’t fear They were telling the world about the existence of TailRed Absolutely, to plant in the e of the heroine they had been waiting for!

A soldier fighting with the strongest Element, the Twintail Element on the contrary, that was exactly what they wanted to see!

“Souji Twoearle’s been taking us for a ride Even if she isn’t an acco to make other worlds meet the same fate as hers out of despair She knew perfectly well if we fought the sa would happen”

Aika’s voice was filled with despair No anger, not even sadness Hollow resignation

“Why Why did you decide to explain this all to us?”

“TailRed, your Twintail Ele I knee crossed our swords That this little girl loves twintails from the bottom of her heart”

I,

I―

“I would have preferred to fight without these tricks, if I could This is the least I can do, an offering for the dead So that you’ll understand it all after the world is destroyed, so that you won’t be lost in the dark”

―I finally feel like the mist has cleared

“Thank you, Drag Guildy”

“What!?”

“I don’t need an offering, I’le worry now”

There was no reason to be uneasy, I’lad

“What are you talking about? You know that even fighting any more is pointless!?”

“It’s fine, it’s not pointless They’re just planning to steal it all at once The twintails that are starting to bloom in the world they’re not just for show, they’re not just for now, they’re real”

I was so scared

That twintails had originally just been a minority That they’d be picked up for a temporary boom and just as easily vanish That they’d be trampled underfoot

But if these guys are doing it as a strategy, if this is what they wanted, then even the girls who are just starting to wear twintails now The people who have just begun to fall in love with twintails Doesn’t thatin their hearts?

“If I just beat you here, today, then twintails will spread all over the world, there’s no downside! This is the greatest day of my life!”

“Wha, what”

Drag Guildy stepped backwards, shocked

Aika’s shoulders shook, and finally―

“Pff ahahahahahaha!!”

She raised her voice and laughed

“Yo― you are the real thing! You’re not just a twintails idiot, you’re a real idiot!”

That’s what it looks like

Because I’m an idiot, there is no liear can create liy in my heart

I feel poelling up inside me

“TailRed young girl, and your ultimate twintails Now I admire you from the very bottom of my heart Your steadfast will shakes still less with the end of all things before your very eyes Your true beauty is so brilliant that I can hardly look straight at you anymore!”

I thrust the tip of the Blazer Blade at Drag Guildy and spoke, my chest puffed out with pride

“The end of the world or whatever it is, we already havefor the thing I love!!”

“So you will hold to your convictions to the bitter end!!”

“Yes My twintails will be this world’s―”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! That is enough, Drag Guildy!”

“Who the hell are yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooou!!”

It was reatness, or it was more like they threw a bomb at it I screamed as hard as I could

An unfitting laugh echoed through the mountain forest, many miles from human civilization

Drag Guildy’s voice raised in anger

“Who are you? Give your name!!”

Where he was looking―

On a conspicuous large tree, halfway up a sturdy wide branch, stood a lone girl

“I am the one who has crossed between the worlds to take her revenge, Kamen Twintail!!”

““Bhhhhhh””