Vol 2 Chapter 4 (1/2)
”Mitsuki!”
I rushed into Mitsuki's rooed into their uniforathered next to the
”Shh!”
Iris brought her finger to her lip and shushedsomewhere on her portable terminal
”—Please respond ASAP! Command center! shi+nomiya-sensei! Please respond!”
Despite Mitsuki's desperate cries, no one answered Mitsuki finally gave up, disconnected the call and turned around to face us
”Everyone—Just as you can see, this is an eency Central command is demolished and we cannot expect backup support Hence, our counterht?”
”Of course! Mitsuki-san, issue orders now”
Lisa replied to Mitsuki while the others nodded with tense expressions to concur
As officialtiny communicators on their heads
”Well then, Ariella-san, please head to the girls dor the scene After confired color, gather the Dragon Subjugation Squad As for ordinary students, have theround shelter If anyone is discovered with a dragon ed color, please send her to the shelter to be isolated then call me”
”Got it, I' off immediately”
Ariellaherself in wind, she flew off in the night sky
”Firill-san and Ren-san, stay on standby in the air above Hekatonkheir to await my instructions to attack”
”Understood”
”Mm”
Firill and Ren manifested their fictional armaments and flew out of the
”Nii-san and Iris-san, please coround”
”Understood”
”Yes, got it!”
Iris and I nodded but the unmentioned Tia and Lisa spoke up
”Yuu Are you leaving?”
”Hold on, Mitsuki-san! Did you forget me?”
Tia gazed at me with an uneasy expression while Lisa questioned Mitsuki
”Lisa-san, you are responsible for guarding Tia-san Attacking Hekatonkheir requires Nii-san's power no matter what, but we cannot send Tia-san to the frontline Consequently, I hope you can stay by her side, Lisa-san, having gained Tia-san's trust”
”B-But”
”Although it should be Basilisk that has its eyes set on Tia-san, we cannot co Tia-san too As a precaution, we need so on you, Lisa-san”
Mitsuki bowed her head to request the hesitating Lisa Seeing her like that, Lisa sighed
”Fine, I understand I accept the ether”
Lisa bent down in front of Tia and said to her gently
”B-But Yuu”
”Don't worry about him No matter how you look, he doesn't see ahim off is part of a woman's fortitude, you know?”
”A woman's fortitude?”
Not quite understanding what the words meant, Tia titled her head in puzzlement
”Perhaps you can call it the qualities of a virtuous wife You have no cause for worry, because you will not be alone”
Lisa held her hand and Tia's face relaxed slightly She was probably scared of being left alone like the time she lost her parents That hy she refused to leaveBut now, apart from me, there was someone else who could accompany her
”Lisa will stay with Tia together?”
”Yes, ill stay together”
Seeing Lisa nod in agreeaze to me
”Got it, Tia is a virtuous wife, so Tia ait for husband to come home Yuu You must return no matter what, okay?”
Tia spoke to me with serious eyes
”Yeah, I'll definitely return”
I rubbed Tia's head and agreed to her demand
”—Then let us depart, Nii-san and Iris-san”
Mitsuki hurried us
Thus, to handle a dragon's surprise attack, an internal defense battle took place on the island, the first crisis of this sort since Midgard's inception
Part 2
We ran along the road leading from the dorm to the school campus
Mitsuki's dorm was located on the southwest side of the island while Hekatonkheir was on the east Even though Hekatonkheir was still quite far away, it was iure After all, its size was too extraordinary, allowing it to reach the school ca over and extending its hand
”It hasn'tthe clock tower What's with it?”
Iris ran while voicing her doubts
Indeed, after doing that, Hekatonkheir had stood in the sa
Neither walking nor destroying
”Pondering a dragon's actions is futile, because we do not even understand why they areabout all over the world Hence, there is no way for us to understand its reason for not ”
Mitsuki answered bitterly
She was probably recalling about three years ago Back then, ondering: why here? Why was Hekatonkheir advancing towards our town?
”But since it stopped, that's a good thing for us We'll find a way to take care of it now You brought o, right?”
”Yes, that anti-dragon weapon you used in the past, Nii-san Please lend me that power”
Mitsuki nodded to confirm my question
Three years ago, I obtained power at a great price, destroying Hekatonkheir teon co this crisis should be quite probable
”It's just that Midgard will suffer severe dae if we shoot froht end up flattening half the island”
”I knohich is why I intend to push Hekatonkheir into the sea first”
Mitsuki's plan was very appropriate but there was a problem
”Is it even possible to push that thing?”
Ithe eastern sky
The reat Besides, the fact that such a gigantic body could walk on two legs was in itself quite abnor to the data I saw at NIFL, Hekatonkheir was quite light in weight relative to its physique But even so, humans still could not compare to it Furthermore, Hekatonkheir's characteristic was the power of i would immediately recover
In fact, three years ago, Mitsuki still failed to stop Hekatonkheir no matter how hard she tried
”Worry not, because unlike three years ago, we have reliable comrades now”
Mitsuki replied confidently then looked at Iris
”Eh? M-Me?”
”Yes, right now, Firill-san and Ren-san are on standby in the air Ariella-san will also bring the Dragon Subjugation Squad over soon Since we have so many people, ill surely succeed”
Mitsuki declared firmly and Iris nodded with a blush
”Y-Yes That's right, I will do my best!”
Mitsuki was running ahead of us When she reached the fork in the road leading to the girls dormitories, she stopped
This location happened to be the spot where Hekatonkheir could be viewed across the school campus
”If we attack from this direction, we should be able to push Hekatonkheir towards the eastern shore Iris-san, are you ready?”
”Yes—Caduceus!”
Iris iant on the other side
”Nii-san, please remain on standby until you are ready Firill-san, Ren-san, can you hear me?”
Mituski pressed the switch on the s to the pair that was supposed to be in the air
'I hear you'
'Mm'
”You two coordinate with us and si down! Nine!”
Mitsuki started to count dohilein her left hand the fictional armament of a bow—Brionac Then she nocked an arrow of dark ht hand
”Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one—!”
At zero, the girls all attacked at the same time
”Second Arrow—Night Blaze!”
”O holy silver, explode!”
'Flare Burst Quintet'
'Mm!'
Stacked together, the four girls' attacks caused a giant explosion in front of Hekatonkheir A ht briefly, illuhtly as day
Several seconds later, the blast pressure reached us To avoid getting bloay by the hot wind, I stoodthe outcome of the attack
After the bright light subsided, what appeared was Hekatonkheir with large holes gouged out of various parts of its body The entire right arone from the shoulder down Compared to Leviathan froile, however—
”Eh?”
Iris exclaimed in surprise It was only natural for her to be taken aback if it was her first ti it
As though rewinding time, Hekatonkheir's wounds healed up within the blink of an eye Rather than regenerate, it would be better to call it restored That was how outrageous a power it was
Recovering its original appearance inhad happened, towering under the starry sky, it had not been pushed back by a single step
”Its body is ined All impacts were absorbed Next time, suppress your firepower to a lower level”
Mitsuki called to everyone with a solemn look but Iris made a troubled expression
”Mitsuki-chan, since attacks ork, why not attack even harder to destroy it in one fell swoop?”
”Be that as it may, the result is the same NIFL used thermobaric and nuclear attacks in the past and succeeded in destroying its entire body all at once But before long, Hekatonkheir revived again The only exception was that tio Only Nii-san's trump card has the potential”
Mitsuki spoke calain
Thus, the attacks resu for the tie
However, attacks that were too strong would repeat the same mistake as earlier, while attacks that were too ould be unable to antic body
The only saving grace was that Hekatonkheir did not move at all
It ns to strike back no matter how many attacks it suffered Perhaps because it was ier Still, I felt that soht
The fact that Hekatonkheir had attacked the clock toithout hesitation, paralyzing Midgard's functionality in a precise and effective h it knew that the clock toas the central core
Although Mitsuki believed that pondering a dragon's actions was futile, supposing Hekatonkheir was thinking Then there oal had already been achieved or there was no reason to take action
I felt inexplicably unsettled in my chest, unable to cal
And fro this sense of deja vu
An easily penetrated body, instantaneous recovery That scene was overlapping with previous io, it was a recent memory—
”Now everyone, transmute maximum volume of air! We will use wind to push Hekatonkheir to that side!”
Under Mitsuki's co winds
Hekatonkheir's upper body shook slightly The wind's wake caused the surrounding trees to rustle Carrying leaves, the raging winds blew all over the place
However, the wind produced by the four girls did not see where it was
”Hht be necessary”
Mituski ure out why the situation felt so familiar
What surfaced inat us fro storm—
”Right, this is very similar to that time”
”Huh?”
Reacting to what I blurted out, Iris looked at me
”This is very sion A body composed from a fictional ar cut up That scene overlaps inexplicably ith how Hekatonkheir restores itself”
Hearing me say that, a troubled expression surfaced on Iris' face
”Mononobe, are you saying that Hekatonkheir is someone's fictional armament?”
”Well”
Now that she pointed it out, I realized how absurd estion was
Then Mitsuki interrupted
”Iantic fictional arreatest darkcapacity to date, she cannot achieve the amount necessary to form Hekatonkheir at all”
”You're right I knew my idea was too absurd”
However, ht of Hekatonkheir as a fictional armament
Appearing in Midgard without anyone noticing Attacking as though it knew that the clock toas Midgard's central core
No matter which one, if one were to assume that Hekatonkheir was fictional armament created by so its surface and liround and destroy buildings with its arhtless dark antic body could walk on two legs
No—Hold on, following that assumption, it meant that the culprit was a human a D?
At this time, I could only think of one person, and that person's aim was to—
”!?”
Realizing the eneoal in alarm, I looked back in the dorm's direction
The explosion occurred within my view after that
Part 3
I dashed as fast as I could, round with full force
Even forgetting to breathe, I raced along the road back to the dor into the starry sky, entered s to move furiously
After I started sprinting, I immediately heard Mitsuki call out to stop me, but I had no time to attend to her
By merely the difference of a second, it could mean the boundary of life and death for someone
Honed on the battlefield, my instincts told me that hat the current situation was like
I also understood clearly the risks involved in desertingcare of Hekatonkheir Also, there was no concrete proof that the giant was a fictional armament
But I followednoas not Hekatonkheir Tia and Lisa could very well be the ones facing the greatest crisis
I could now see Mitsuki's dor fro
Hence, I circled around to the back of the dorm In the instant just as I turned the corner, I felt a blast of hot wind
”Kuh”
Sensing danger, I halted and swiftly checked out s
The thick black s out from Mitsuki's roo walls were scorched black
The spacious lawn in the backyard had tongues of flarass had been burnt away co the soil beneath
Over there were three girls
One was Lisa with Gungnir in hand Her clothing was burnt and blackened while there was even bleeding on her forehead To protect Tia behind her, Lisa see wind swirling in the surroundings
Tia was hugging her own treainst Lisa
Even confronted with the tip of Gungnir, the girl was still s
Tied up, her long black hair aying in the hot wind The lenses of her glasses reflected blazing flames
I recognized her
Tachikawa Honoka
She was the girl who had transferred into Midgard together with Tia I had talked to her a nuo, we had just corresponded through email
Why was Honoka here?
The question occupiedthe situation and reached the conclusion
—No need to think of a reason She is the enemy
Enemy Honoka? No, wait a sec, it was too early to decide that Because she already counted as a friend to inally wanted to help as much as I could
Honoka glanced aton the corners of her lips
”Fufu, because it took so I can't be bothered to hold back anymore”
Her tone of voice made her sound like a different person I saw Honoka clap her hands at Lisa
Instantly, a foreboding feeling rushed along my spine
—Act quickly! Otherwise, Lisa will be killed!
My instincts shouted, dispelling my hesitation
Anti-personnel weapon—AT Nergal!
I used transmutation to create an anti-personnel projectile-based electroshock gun then pulled the trigger at Honoka
A s Only shortly did I realize that the fired bullet had vaporized At the saht hand
”Gah!?”
I frantically released Nergal and jumped backwards
Nergal becaunpowder inside exploded
—What? What did she do?
Aware of slight burns on azed at Honoka at the same time
”I can't believe you fired a gun so suddenly How mean But that was the correct decision Had your reaction been slightly slower, her pretty face would have been wrecked”
Honoka chuckled as though she found it arily:
”Don't you get too arrogant Likewise, I have not gone all out yet But I have resolved myself now—Pierce, flare!!”
Lisa shot a wide laser beam from the tip of her spear towards Honoka This attack, capable of penetrating a giant block of diaainst a hu, even to the point of beconizable
However, that powerful attack did not touch Honoka The laser's trajectory wasoff somewhere else
I felt the surrounding air te the i this heat to create a lens of air, bending the laser
”What”
Lisa exclaimed in surprise while Honoka stared at her coldly
”You are truly a nuisance”
Boo, an explosion suddenly happened next to Lisa
”Kyah!?”
Lisa was bloay by the blast, s into the dorm's wall Thanks to her shi+eld of wind, she could avoid a direct iainst the wall, she slowly collapsed The fictional armament in her hand also vanished
”Lisa!”
Tia screah I wanted to rush over immediately to help, I could not move
Honoka was looking at me My instincts told me that the instant my focus was distracted, it would become a lethal mistake
”Noe can finally talk in peace Yuu-san”
Honoka called my name sarcastically
Parched from the hot air, I wetted the interior of my mouth with saliva and asked in a stiff tone of voice:
”Honoka Why are you doing this? Is Tia your target?”
”Yes, indeed I will be taking Tia to Basilisk”
Hearing her reply, I gritted my teeth
”In other words, Honoka, you are a member of the Sons of Muspell?”
”Oh~ It see fro In that case, I don't need to introduce ht?”
Honoka asked in a testing ured out who she was
Since Honoka was a D and belonged to the Sons of Muspell, there was only one personall the criteria
”Are you Kili Surtr Muspelheim?”
Although her appearance was coirl in the photo sent by Major Loki, I could not think of anyone elsethe criteria
”Bingo But that was just a randomly chosen name, so it's perfectly fine for you to call me Honoka too, okay?”
”ForgiveI won't call you with a friend's name”
”Really? What a shame I really like this name of Honoka”
Honoka—No, Kili slasses she earing
Fallen on the ground, the glasses gradually twisted in shape and melted Those lenses were probably purely coslasses off, she still looked completely different from the Kili in the photo
”Who could have expected you to infiltrate us as a transfer student, how on earth did you do it? NIFL should have acquired your biouised yourself, your identity would have been exposed in an exaht?”
Hearingit ludicrous:
”Ha, so like an examination can be easily handled Whether blood or DNA, just use dark matter to create counterfeits”
”What How could such complicated transmutations be possible—”
”It is possible Just as Tia's horns are also my present to her”
Kili explained simply and easily, which meant that—
”Tia did not make herself look like that?”
I felt eer rush out from the depths of my heart
”Of course, how could Tia possibly have accoiven the specs of the human brain, it is impossible to fully handle the enic transmutation”
”Haha You al you're not human”
I ridiculed her sarcastically but Kili nodded her head seriously
”Indeed, because I auise Just by using biogenic transe my appearance and face any time I want To find Tia who had been taken away by NIFL, I believed the simplest and fastest as to turn ard”
”A dragon huh?”
I gritted my teeth Because of that sentence, I understood that she was the culprit who had twisted Tia's mindset
Kili had probably been active while changing her appearance constantly No wonder NIFL was unable to get a grasp on her information Whether the appearance captured in that photo in her profile or her face as Tachikawa Honoka, all were surely fake disguises
”Jeez, could you notyou Had I wanted to kill you, I would've done so long ago I just want to take Tia away”
Saying that, Kili turned her gaze to Tia However, Tia did not notice and kept trying to call Lisa
”However I never expected her to change so much in merely two days Until recently, she was still my very obedient student”
”So you're the one who taught Tia”
ITia with her hoood teacher But I was totally iven to Tia was the on
”Yes, that's right I found Tia in Midgard as expected Since that child did not recognize her disguised teacher, I greedily thought I'd investigate the internal secrets of Midgard But I rong I shouldn't have spent extra time on that”
I recalled how Honoka was staring at the schoolto memorize information about the enemy camp
Speaking of which, Tia had said so her true identity, Tia perhaps instinctively feared her
”Also, I almost killed a classmate So many setbacks”
Kili turned her gaze back to ed and spoke
”Almost killed, you say Don't tell me that the transmutation accident you mentioned at the infirmary was”
”Yes, someone bad-mouthed Tia and I accidentally lost my temper Tia's value far surpasses that of ordinary Ds She is excellent talent who irl really did not know her place”
Kili spoke with a cold expresion
”—In other words, your regrets back then were all lies Sooing to let Tia becoon!”
”Fufu, you're really stubborn about Tia, aren't you? The blonde girl was also desperately trying to protect her It feels like she has too s for her?”
Saying that, Kili's dark gaze turned towards Lisa
”Stop!”
I frantically called out Kili immediately narrowed her eyes in joy
”Just kidding If I attacked her noouldn't Tia next to her get caught in the crossfire? You're so a to you is never a bore”
—Liar This girl acted according to whim She really would have done it
My back was drenched fro fear—fear that Lisa would die
Three years ago, the price I paid for poas that my emotion of fear had becoh to summon that minor sense of fear
The murderous intent I had sensed at the beach last time probably ca us from somewhere
”Phew”
To cal had becoular just now
I never knew that a friend coer would make me lose composure to such an extent
Perhaps I had not lost e part ofeaten away, it shookI was Mononobe Yuu, hence I could not feel any value in myself
Precisely because of that Now that I had obtained things of value, that hy I felt fear
”—Kili, make one false move and I'll kill you”
To protect precious people, I quietly declared
I did not even knowTo perfor dark matter was a necessary step, but Kili was able to cause explosions without any preparatory motion
No wonder Major Loki said she was stronger than me The opponent was undoubtedly more powerful than me, but if I intended to kill her, it would be a separate matter—
”Fufu How scary But by this point, I can't back down either”
Despite facing my murderous intent head on, Kili still smiled confidently
”What's theTia become Basilisk's mate?”
”Rather than ht person for the right job That's the only use for Ds”
”I can't believe you said use?”
She was virtually treating Tia as an object It itated in tone
”Because Tia has talent, I originally looked forward to her other potential But judging from the current situation, that potential is tiny beyondher into another Basilisk would be the best use of resources”
Resources I realized that Kili on
Hu to reach Kili
Although I did not knohy she wanted to increase the nuons, I believed with certainty that she and I were irreconcilable enemies
To protect Tia frorasp, if I must do that no matter what—
”Enough, I get it I will stop you Even if it means I must kill you”
—Fictional arfried
Holding the ornaun foret for slaughter I awakened the being slu myself into a monster
Redundant thoughts vanished My mind became clear My sharpened senses transmitted information to my brain that I previously did not feel
A feeling of ohtened my emotions
”I really had no intention of fighting you Very well, try killing me If you kill me, I'll stop”
Kili grinned and responded like that
Instantly, I felt the surrounding air temperature rise all at once
”!?”
Just as I juht, an explosion happened Accompanied with flames, the shockwave struck round, rolling on scorched bushes
Very likely, she had used transmutation to create some kind of flammable material
The information sent by Major Loki said that Kili used fla from the current situation, this info was correct
However, using transeneration of darkYet I did not see her doing so It puzzled reatly
”To think you just declared so forcefully, yet now you're in such an aard state”
Sensing her pursuit, I airound and fired
”Nitro Bullet!”
I created a large volu noncoen would bloay the ele, but—
Whoosh, a violent sense of heat and pain attackedseared, I frantically escaped
Since it was eency evasion, I had accidentally stepped into the doind part of burning bushes Enveloped in rising black smoke, I covered my nostrils and etting consuh contact with smoke, I used my body as a shi+eld
—No, what Kili created was not flammable matter
I understood that
Considering I was getting scorched without an explosion, the attack's ible heat itself
She wasdark h-level technique, this type of skill was not beyond coenic transmutation
That explosion was quite probably the result of the produced heat causing oxygen to react
Even after solving one reatest problem still remained
Since Kili's dark matter could not be seen, it was impossible to predict where attacks would coured out, even approaching Kili was impossible
I rackedthat time, Kili did not attack for some reason
”Aren't you going to kill me? Come, do it now”
Despite taunting me, she did not attack further
—What's with her?
Inside smoke, due to the interference of particles, dark er a, it would be enough to attack However, I still had yet to see her dark matter even once
No, wait If it was purely invisible—
A possibility surfaced in my mind
—Worth a shot!
While rushi+ng out of the sfried and poured it into the bullet, firing it
”Smoke Bullet!”