> Divulge The Magic Vulnerability Volume 1 Chapter 5">Volume 1 Chapter 5 (2/2)

It was time for a new stage in his life. It was time for the Temple Moving Ceremony.

”Ladies and gentlemen.”

The tone of his voice was not affected by the impending death. He already knew the best way for his words to reach people's hearts, so there was no need to switch modes.

”Is this a day of sadness? Is it a day for anger? Is it a day wrapped in frustration? Is it a day filled with fear? …No, today is a joyous day. For our Sky City Celedileka is gaining one more way to destroy a great evil.”

He could not say so out loud, but what he said here did not really matter.

As long as his words created a solemn atmosphere and used up a fair amount of time, anything was fine.

They had taken the proper steps, so righteousness was on their side. If anyone did protest, he had a powerful s.h.i.+eld of counterarguments he could use.

Not that anyone was going to criticize them.

The people only wanted an excuse to enjoy this cruel show guilt free.

”The death of a brutal criminal will bring greater stability to the world. The one and only public service they can provide is to prove through their death that the laws of heaven are alive and well. So let us witness that benevolent coincidences can indeed happen. Let us witness that those blessed by the element of light are rewarded and those led astray by the element of darkness are punished. Let us witness that we live in a wonderful world where no one's efforts are denied! This Temple Moving Ceremony is a necessary act that shall provide us with eternal light, establish a solid foundation of peace, and promise all of you even greater happiness and prosperity!!”

So the High Priest himself did not notice the hidden meaning in the script he was reading off. He only felt like he was reading an endless loop of meaningless terminology.

But when the crowd erupted into applause, he could tell something in his words must have appealed to them.

This was all it took for someone to die.

And the right atmosphere was all it took to draw out an emotional response.

Ayato did not have a projectile weapon like a sorcery gun. Henrietta in the other tower also specialized in close-quarters combat. To support Teleria and Mamilis, they would have to cross the plaza and reach the third tower.

There was no time to spare.

He stripped off his blue blazer, wrapped it around the thick cable car wire, and hung down from it. He took a running start and jumped out into empty air.

Fortunately, this tower was the tallest, so the wire connected to Teleria and Mamilis's tower was angled down.

He was too far away to make out what was said, but he could hear the beautiful Demon Lord saying something with her lips twisted in a smile.

Then she aimed her anti-dragon rifle away from the girls and toward him.

He accessed every firework he could and launched them between himself and Nirvelphany with enough intensity to possibly catch himself in the blast. White smoke and loud booms stole away his and her senses.

With an even greater roar, his skin felt a ma.s.sive heat source pa.s.s by right next to him as he slid down. But the sweat on his back was icy. With an attack that powerful, it would have vaporized half his body if it so much as grazed him.

Nevertheless, he could not turn back now.

He overcame that deadly journey, pa.s.sed above the plaza full of people, and arrived at the tower where the two girls waited.

Once his feet landed, he let go of one side of his dirty blazer and swung it around to put it on. And once he readied his Linkage Plug sword again, a heavy metallic sound rang from the top of the tower.

The thick barrel of Nirvelphany's giant anti-dragon rifle crossed and collided with Ayato's trigger-equipped sword. But she had the greater reach. It was like a sword versus a spear. If she pulled the trigger, his upper body would be vaporized, but he could not yet reach her skin with his sword. Not to mention that it was a tool for Sorcery Hacking, so it was not meant to be used that way.

”Quite the show you're putting on here! Only a 'coincidental failure' will be considered a benevolent coincidence, so should the backstage magician really be standing out in the open like this!?”

”None of your business, troublemaker. If you want to enjoy the magic show, you don't climb onto the stage and try to figure out the trick! You sit down with the audience!!”

She did not hesitate to move her trigger finger.

The only reason he was not annihilated then and there was Teleria aiming her two suppressor-equipped handguns at his feet while she lay on the tower rooftop.

”I won't let that happen…no matter what!!”

She must have had used Secondary Cold. The roof below his feet instantly froze, his shoes lost their grip, and he tumbled backwards, allowing the destructive beam to pa.s.s by directly above him.

The torrent of light continued on to stab into another tower partway up. It was the one he had come from. That one attack broke it apart and it fell toward the crowded plaza along with the loosened wires and upside-down spider cable car.

(Dammit, Nirvelphany, this is insane! If there's bloodshed in the middle of the ceremony, they'll call off the public execution. And then you'll lose any chance to sabotage the guillotine and save that old man!!)

”Did you forget?” That calamity condensed into human form gave a thin smile. ”This is the king's castle. Their defenses will never be so weak.”

That was when time stopped.

No, it was just that the rubble was pinned in midair instead of pouring down onto the plaza. A blob of something like dark mud had done it. His sorcery knowledge told him what this distinctive stench was. That extremely sticky dark gray liquid was…

(Asphalt!? Did they use Quaternary Road!?)

Something large pa.s.sed by overhead.

Several bat-like wings had been combined to create a broad isosceles triangle silhouette that was curved in places. Those artificial wings were about 30 esoule[5] wide as they circled calmly through the sky.

”Those are apparently called Armored Dragons. With the Free Audience Restriction down, they apparently wanted to beef up security with a more traditional fighting force.”

His eyes met someone else's. Knights were hanging upside down from the underside of the thing like bats. Instead of using air currents, it was probably gravity that was being manipulated there.

Their magic had pinned the collapsing tower in place.

”And of course, they will have more than one barrier. I'm sure they will see me as an enemy, but what about you? We live in a cruel enough world for an enemy of an enemy to not be considered a friend, don't we?”

The deafening sound of wings pursued him.

The ”bats” hanging from the underside dropped down one after another.

They were smaller than the Armored Dragon overhead, but the people in the distinctive dark gray protector armor of the knights were wearing personal flight devices as they approached his level. Some used rotating wing crafts with large propellers on the top and back of the exposed c.o.c.kpits. Some wore large triangular winged gliders on their backs. Either way, the aerial knights used countless gears and gemboards carrying mist mana to shatter the chains of gravity and attack both sides of the fight atop the tower.

The first wave alone was more than twenty strong.

”Ah ha ha!!”

Nirvelphany laughed while resting her anti-dragon rifle on her shoulder and making a seemingly suicidal move. Of all things, she jumped out onto the floating archipelago of rubble forcibly pinned in the air by the hardened asphalt. Despite her high heels, she moved as lightly as if she were skipping.

Her intent was clear.

(Is she putting some distance between us to take us all out with that ridiculous sniper rifle!?)

Ayato had no other choice.

Moving directly to Nirvelphany's floating island would have been too dangerous and he had no projectiles, so he called to the two girls on the same tower.

”Miss Teleria, Miss Mamilis! Drive the knights away from here!!”

”Kh!! Okay, I guess!!”

”Understood, Coach.”

They aimed their two water element handguns and one fire element full-auto shotgun at the flight devices attempting to surround them from all directions. With gunshots and muzzle flashes resembling red and blue fireworks, the true sorcery battle finally began.

Teleria first fired at their feet to create several thick ice walls as cover. Meanwhile, Mamilis's barrage of explosive flames shot down the knights soaring through the sky.

Since the knights had used the forbidden asphalt, they probably specialized in the earth element. Ayato could think of some magic from the Quaternary line that would be useful here, but that was when a sorcery gun gave a roar from one of the rotating wing crafts using its two propellers to fly. A black liquid was scattered overhead.

It happened just as the Dark Elf hiding her long ears with jeweled earrings had sent out fire magic in a fan shape.

The danger signal in his mind pa.s.sed the limit.

”Wait, Miss Mamilis!! That's rock water!!”

Mamilis lived in a modern sorcery society where the mana spread thinly throughout the atmosphere was condensed into an energy source, so that word may not have meant much to her.

That was a toxic liquid hidden below the ground.

No living creature could drink it, but it burned with incredible intensity if it came in contact with fire. A heretical scientist theorized that sinister toxic sludge had once been the corpses of animals.

It was also known as petroleum.

As soon as Mamilis's Primary Blaze fire magic touched it, the falling ceiling of black liquid blossomed red. The sunny starry sky was filled with flames.

”Kyaaah!?”

”Get down!!”

Mamilis screamed and Teleria's dual handguns gave a roar. She had been in the middle of creating shelter out of thick ice walls, so she added more ice on top of that to quickly construct a dome-shaped shelter for them.

Then the falling ceiling reached them.

The sound that erupted all around them was much like animal meat being stir fried in a metal pot coated in oil. That was the sound of the flames and ice struggling for supremacy, but even if it had been triggered by mana, the flames themselves were only an oil fire with no willpower residing in it. Teleria's handguns used properly formed magic, so if she focused on extinguis.h.i.+ng the sea of flames, she would not have difficulty doing so.

However, focusing on one task meant neglecting all the others.

(Dammit.)

While they dealt with this, Nirvelphany was enjoying a midair stroll on the other side of the thick ice barrier. She jumped between pieces of tower rubble pinned in place by the torrent of asphalt and twirled around to look back.

And while aiming her ridiculously-powerful anti-dragon rifle, of course.

”Dammit!!!!!!! Keep your heads down, Miss Teleria, Miss Mamilis!!”

Forturiana's High Priest was giving his lengthy sermon in the plaza down on the ground.

This was the Temple Moving Ceremony.

To prevent worldly thoughts from intruding on the holy ceremony, the entire area's silence was preserved by the slipper-sized bell cricket sitting on his shoulder. That might not sound like much, but in a world where the range of a gunshot's noise was directly linked to the magic's range, that Bell Ringing prototype made from platinum and gems - meaning it was covered in gemboards - was the core of a barrier far more valuable than the nets used in the trenches.

Thomas Robergin, the old man with his arms and head bound in the mechanical guillotine, thought to himself while listening to the richly-adorned High Priest's words.

…Had he been wrong?

Had he been wrong to find that small shrine made of old stone? Had he been wrong to touch its door? Had he been wrong to contact that which slumbered within? Had he been wrong to remove everything binding her?

He thought about it.

He thought about it, but he still forced out his voice.

”I wasn't…”

It did not matter how he looked at it.

It did not matter how many times he came across the exact same situation again.

”I wasn't wrong.”

Demon Lord Nirvelphany.

There was no special connection between them. Some connection with a distant ancestor was irrelevant. It really had been pure coincidence. It had been random chance. And that was all it had taken to place this great burden on his shoulders.

But even if it had been random chance.

No, because it had been.

He had known he had to act when he happened across that scene. He believed the ”great power” you needed to protect a peaceful and healthy life was to create a society where anyone who encountered that situation would reach out a helping hand without even considering whether they had some special right or qualification.

He did not know what had happened in the distant past.

He did not care what his own position was in relation to that.

He could make that important decision without gathering all sorts of information using a Media Summoner or the mist mana strung out like a spider web. He did not know what that girl had done in the past. Perhaps she really had committed atrocities. But if her punishment and imprisonment would never end, if the humans had entirely forgotten about her, and no one involved still carried their hatred, then was there any reason to keep her imprisoned as a formality? None of it made sense.

If she did still have crimes to pay for, then the gears of atonement had to be properly in place before that could begin. If the gears had fallen into disrepair during the intervening time and the humans covering the surface had entirely forgotten their direct hatred of Nirvelphany, then she had nothing to atone for to the humans who lived in the present era. What could she do about those past crimes other than depart on a journey around the world to bow before the graves of the people she had troubled in the past?

Atonement was not an excuse to a.s.sault a complete stranger.

Wasn't it meant to be a ritual through which the guilty party could get a fresh start on life?

If there was such a thing as benevolent coincidence, then that had to be the blessing it had provided. That would give real meaning to this old man running across the sealed Demon Lord.

So Thomas Robergin would not lose his way.

He would never regret his actions.

”I wasn't wrong!!”

And during a slight pause in the performative speech, the High Priest approached that old man who was actually slightly younger than him.

He moved his face close to the man bound to the mechanical guillotine and whispered too quietly for anyone else to hear.

”(I have the right to decide what is right and wrong. Because we stole that right from you people who call yourselves Heroes. Once this ceremony is complete, we will have the official protection of the state and can do whatever we want. Not long now until we can kill anyone we like.)”

Nirvelphany did not hesitate to pull the trigger and her right shoulder was sharply struck by the intense recoil produced by providing an element to the originally directionless mana. Deafening noise and blinding light filled the world. That ultrlong-range rifle could hit a fleeing target at 2000 esoule[6] or a stationary target at 10,000 esoule[7]. If she could find a stable position and let it roar, no one standing on the same stage could escape it.

However…

”I see.”

She grinned upon seeing it pierce the empty s.p.a.ce three grids to left of where she aimed, which was about 4 esoule[8] to the side.

The long barrel had been pushed slightly to the side.

She saw gorgeous armor made from old-fas.h.i.+oned dark gray protectors and a tight miniskirt which had been chosen because their design was popular with the people rather than for any benefit in combat. She saw a beautiful face and long blonde hair braided in something like a ponytail. She saw a Striker wielding a bolt-action carbine with an axe-like bayonet.

Most likely, a normal person could not have used that footing pinned in midair.

To skip from piece to piece required the superhuman physical ability to accurately jump between those variously-sized footholds with no concern for the 150 esoule[9] height and the blowing wind.

But the Demon Lord with the slit skirt was not the only one who met those conditions.

”I am Striker Henrietta Split Destrius. I protect the peace and public order of Sky City Celedileka with the trust and authority granted me by the king. Even if my personal and family pride have been trampled by the flow of time, I will always come running when the king or the people are endangered.”

That beautiful armored woman pressed her axe against the anti-dragon rifle's barrel while speaking from extreme close range.

”Buff again. Primary Ex Ma.s.sive.”

She ignored the scope as a gunshot burst out.

Nirvelphany saw Henrietta explosively swell out. No, the braided Striker's movements had so far left the norm that it merely looked that way. They were engaging in close-quarters combat on this small and unstable footing. Their sorcery guns were large, heavyweight items, but Henrietta's bolt-action carbine was a close-quarters weapon designed for this sort of thing, while Nirvelphany's anti-dragon rifle was an ultrlong-range weapon designed for sniping.

Their battle was like two tornados clas.h.i.+ng head on, but compatibility was still an issue. Nirvelphany had made a point of keeping her distance to avoid a direct fight with Ayato's group, so she was not about to welcome some close-quarters combat with a specialist like Henrietta.

In truth, the Demon Lord abandoned the possibility of striking Henrietta's jaw with her weapon's thick stock.

She instead spun the gun around to aim the enormous muzzle at her opponent and pulled the trigger.

Of course, Henrietta excelled at fighting at this close range. No matter how destructive the weapon, it could not hit her if she deflected the barrel to the side. As if to show how pointless and wasteful this was, a giant empty cartridge was ejected while its purple light faded like a withering flower.

But Nirvelphany fired again.

She fired and fired and fired and fired.

”I see. You dangerous individuals do know how to think in crafty ways!!”

By the time Henrietta realized what her opponent was up to, the close-range light, noise, and shockwave had robbed her of her senses and pummeled her body. Even if a direct hit was not possible, the secondary effects of the gunshot and muzzle flash were enough to beat down a human. Her breadth of possibility may have been weak so soon after awakening, but the anti-dragon rifle named Critical Disaster was an unruly enough weapon for the Demon Lord Nirvelphany to seek out painkillers.

Once the Striker's movements were dulled, the anti-dragon rifle's stock rose up along a crescent moon arc to land a clean hit on her slender jaw. With a dull sound, she hopped up even more intensely than from an uppercut.

”Gah!?”

They were on the small rubble pinned in the air by asphalt.

While it was something like a floating island, it was also much like the stepping stones decorating a pond.

It went without saying what happened once your feet left the ground.

”It is time you learned what it feels like to be a flightless bird, human.”

The Demon Lord twisted her lips into a crescent moon sneer.

However, her sadism was not fulfilled. The fall never came. Thick and invisible panels shot out like a horizontal extension of the small footholds and caught Henrietta's back. Those panels were a floor of ice. Needless to say, they came from the twin handguns of the Mermaid on the tower rooftop 30 esoule[10] away.

”Tch. A descendant of Nereid of Water, one of the four lords? I see your bloodline continues to be a jack of all trades.”

Nirvelphany attempted to fire a finis.h.i.+ng blow at Henrietta while the Striker lay collapsed on the ice, but her thoughts were cut off by a loud grinding sound. Henrietta had vanished from the ice. Since the surface of the ice had been torn through, she must have used that slight opening to rotate around, hop up, and escape.

”Buff yet again! Primary Ex Ma.s.sive!!”

Nirvelphany heard that voice from directly behind her.

She went for a counter blow. She adjusted her grip on the giant anti-dragon rifle and spun around like a tornado to slam the thick stock into her opponent's cheekbone.

But she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

It looked like the soles of two shoes pressed together. And she had forgotten something: Sorcery Hackers could hack any machine that operated using the power of mist mana. There was no distinction between public and private there. And the knights she herself had invited to stir things up had been soaring through the sky using various flight devices, hadn't they?

Simply put, two hacking blades had pierced the armor and device of a knight using a rotating wing craft.

Ayato was using both hands to dangle down from the bottom of that flight device with a propeller on the top and back of the exposed c.o.c.kpit, and the bottoms of his feet slammed full speed into Nirvelphany's face.

You may have forgotten, but the armor used by the knights was a collection of protectors made from oxidized manconducting silver and large monster tendons and leather, so it was designed to provide magical defense and increase physical abilities. Since it ran on sorcery, it could be hacked and hijacked with a sufficiently high level.

Specifically, the rotating wing craft was Level 7 and the knight's armor was Level 14.

Ayato had reached above 20, so they were the perfect target for him.

This might not have worked on someone as skilled in martial arts as Henrietta, but things changed when someone was stuck in an open-air c.o.c.kpit and reliant on their flight device. He only had to stab his blade into the armor of the person seated in that c.o.c.kpit.

Ayato did not have the physical ability needed to hop around on the footholds pinned in midair like stepping stones, but once he had the power to fly, he could shatter Nirvelphany's dominance. He had the ability to hit her with a surprise attack.

”Opliment from his lovely partner and then an ice platform spread out in midair thanks to the shots from two handguns. Just like when she had saved Henrietta, the makes.h.i.+ft footing caught Ayato.

Meanwhile, Demon Lord Nirvelphany was leaning back from the force of a human's full body weight to her face, but she did not fall. With her spine still lithely bent, she held her giant anti-dragon rifle at the hip and aimed for the ice foothold below Ayato rather than the boy himself.

But she had forgotten something.

Why had she forgotten about Ayato before? Hadn't she been faced with the more direct threat of Henrietta Split Destrius directly behind her?

A collapsible stock dropped straight down like a guillotine.

She had just barely avoided falling by bending back, but when this blunt weapon dropped on her face, she was finally slammed back-first into their narrow footing.

”Ohhh!!”

But the roaring Demon Lord still used one hand to aim Critical Disaster skyward while lying on her back. The weapon was longer than the average person was tall and she stuck it right in front of Henrietta's face and fired despite the imagined sensation of the old wound on her shoulder splitting open and blood and pus bursting out.

The beautiful Striker's only response to the fearsome beam was to swing her head to the side.

”I have seen that already.”

Before the Demon Lord could get up, Henrietta stepped on the wrist of the right hand holding the anti-dragon rifle and raised her bolt-action rifle with axe-like bayonet in preparation to swing it down.

”Enough of this.”

Nirvelphany was smiling.

Ayato moved next to Henrietta after getting up using his short sword like a staff.

”Is it over?”

”Hmph. So even a dangerous individual feels a desire to settle things himself? But only those of us given authority by the king are permitted to use this kind of firepower in the sky city.”

”Is it really over!? This was really the extent of her obsession!?”

Henrietta thought this was checkmate, so she looked puzzled.

Just then, they all heard a deep rumbling from the heavens.

The ancient Demon Lord spoke from the narrow foothold.

”I was waiting atop that tower because I had a plan for faking a blizzard. However, that would not deceive the foolish ma.s.ses unless I did something about that s.h.i.+eld first. It could still be interpreted as abnormal weather, but it would seem unnatural.”

”You can't mean that.” Henrietta was dumbfounded. ”You couldn't! You couldn't possibly!! Maybe you are the ancient Demon Lord, but you would need some kind of largescale sorcery temple to break through the s.h.i.+eld protecting the entire sky city!!”

”Sorcery…temple? Quite the oxymoron there. And I do not need any fancy preparations. I am the Demon Lord at the top, so I am even more powerful than that dragon attacking the fire castle town. I possessed everything from the beginning.”

They heard a quiet clattering as something danced in the collapsed Demon Lord's hand. They were small dice made of crystal. Dice had originally been fortunetelling tools just like tarot cards and three of them were moving on their own here.

They were a Linkage Monitor.

It was obvious what this meant.

”Sorcery…Hacking?”

”Oh? Had you not heard that drugged-up Dagregor Bull Gerlos had gone missing? Isn't he a colleague of that young lady there? He told me everything I wanted to know. Including how his special technique works.”

”But what did you hack!?”

”I am Nirvelphany. I was feared in ancient times as the Zodiac Bright Eater. …But why was that?”

She grinned and gave the answer.

”I have regained access to the true source of my power waiting up in satellite orbit: a sorcery cannon ma.s.sive enough to obscure the heavens.”

There was movement overhead.

Something was wrong with the sunny and starry sky.

No, the red aurora rushed in from all directions while its brightness grew.

That light was known as the Demon Lord's Bite.

They were just a step away from the heavens. Celedileka had transformed the scenery so the blue planet was directly below and the twinkling stars were directly above. Yet that starry sky was now being devoured by an unbelievably ma.s.sive silhouette.

As Ayato looked up, that red something burst and an enormous object emerged.

The scale made it hard to tell, but that ridiculous collection of firepower had to be more than ten times the size of the sky city.

”My attack doesn't have to reach it. It can even be deflected by the Guardian Umbrella atmospheric s.h.i.+eld. But by firing up into the heavens, I directed its attention this way.”

The Demon Lord sneered.

She had chosen brute force from the very beginning. She was simply going to blast through the Guardian Umbrella protecting the city and allow the ma.s.sive cold wave of their extreme alt.i.tude to freeze the entire sky city.

”And by hacking the antenna embedded in my own body, I have regained the connection that was severed by that eternal seal. I will admit it was pure luck that it had not shorted out. I am…no, the safety for the entire Demon Lord system including the sorcery cannon is equivalent to Level 9999. In other words, this contains enough power that such a powerful restraint was necessary.”

”It has been abandoned in orbit for the entire time my physical body was sealed. And it has been storing up power for a single attack all the while. Now, can this human fortress really defend against that?”

She had never expected an answer.

A fearsome red beam of heat immediately dropped from the heavens.

That facility had not originally been designed to attack the surface.

Since magic's effective range was equal to the noise of the gunshot, a method of propagating magic through the silent vacuum of s.p.a.ce could possibly extend their reach beyond the planet. It was meant to determine what happened if a vacuum was filled with a mixture of ga.s.ses to create an artificial atmosphere that would act in place of water or air.

But there had been an unexpected side effect.

That side effect was something like a distortion in the entire universe where so many stars could be seen. That great cry of the world itself never should have reached anyone, but it was concentrated and propagated to a single point where it manifested as a fearsome attack.

”Sorcery Cannon Zodiac Bright Eater - Hit.”

The red hot explosion spread out over a ma.s.sive area while scorching even the upper atmosphere.

The invisible Guardian Umbrella atmospheric barrier was broken through, the air particles were pushed out of the way, and a sinister red aurora was scattered everywhere just before red light flew every which way like the frame of an umbrella.

Ayato could not even hear the scream of the woman right next to him.

It was unfortunate that the Free Audience Restriction had been brought down for the state event.

The atmospheric barrier managed to negate the blast, but that must not have mattered to the Demon Lord.

It was like an invisible blow.

As soon as the Guardian Umbrella shattered, a shockwave crushed the entire city like a giant hand or falling ceiling.

Ayato and the others had nowhere to run. Everyone there was struck and pa.s.sed out.

That included the knights flying around with their flight devices.

It also included the Sorcery Hacker and Striker looking down at the ancient Demon Lord.

The Dark Elf had been aiming her gun at the tower from a short distance away, but she too lost consciousness, which exposed the long ears she had been hiding.

Even the blonde girl who was always working with the boy pa.s.sed out.

…The only exception was Nirvelphany who had clenched her teeth and braced for impact while lying on that suspended footing with her sorcery gun in her arms.

”Phew.”

Everything was colored white.

The air rapidly cooled and a blizzard covered the entire area.

The sigh leaving the beautiful Demon Lord's bewitching lips was heavy. It was like she had been hit with a powerful body blow. Her vision was poor within the pure white wall of the blizzard. She could vaguely see some bluish-white will-o'-the-wisps through the thick white, so those were probably the corona discharges that were a side effect of the orbital sorcery cannon.

She could not see the sky through the thick white, but she could sense the connection had been severed. No maintenance had been performed for so long and she had pushed the output past its limits. The orbital sorcery cannon would be breaking apart and burning up in the atmosphere as if fell past the sky city. That was the source of her power as the Demon Lord from before the humans had ”invented” guns, but she had destroyed it for this one chance.

She felt something odd inside her body. The biological antenna's wiring had been damaged by the diagonal slash to her torso, so the connection may have finally burned out.

That was fine with her. She had no reason to regret her actions here.

As long as she could save that old man and repay him for what he had done.

She was more interested in the scene directly below than the phenomenon on a mythological scale occurring in the heavens above. Past the blizzard that looked like thick cotton candy, that old man would be strapped to the execution device in front of a crowd.

All the preparations were in place.

With a temperature of 20 Embers below freezing[11], an evenly spread blizzard would have taken the old man's life before it froze the guillotine device. That was why she needed to deliver the finis.h.i.+ng blow herself. If she scattered just a bit of artificial coolant from directly above, dull human senses would never notice the difference. She would use a pinpoint attack to freeze only the manconducting silver. That would be enough to force the government to declare the public execution a failure due to a benevolent coincidence, as much as they would hate to do so. The Demon Lord was not human, so her attack would be treated as a natural disaster.

Nirvelphany stuck her fingers into the slit of the long tight skirt of her red leather outfit.

She pulled out a small leather bag with insulation on the inside.

”Now, this has taken far too long, but it is time for the finis.h.i.+ng touch.”

There were shouts and screams.

The crowd did not start trampling each other, but ironically, that may have been due to the extreme blizzard covering everything. With that thick white wall obscuring their vision, they could not accurately perceive the threat. And the cold sapped their strength, leaving them too weak to run around wildly.

In the plaza for the Temple Moving Ceremony, an old man was looking all around with a giant ma.s.s of platinum and gems on his shoulder. That was the Bell Ringing prototype, a Level 799 bell cricket that operated by absorbing the mana of the four castle towns to run the gemboards that were so numerous they even had to be placed on the exterior.

He was Forturiana High Priest Belbath Ruin Cranky.

The plaza around him was 20 Embers below freezing[12]. He could not see anything clearly past a mere 2 esoule[13]. He had a bad feeling about this. Based on past records, a blizzard or magnetic storm powerful enough to break through the Guardian Umbrella atmospheric s.h.i.+eld would probably mean a failed execution. He had his reasons for needing this public execution to succeed. And this was nothing as simple as the lack of the promised entertainment triggering a riot that tore him to pieces.

”Where did she go? The knights must have noticed what was going on up there, but have they still not captured her!?”

The masked Executioner spoke to the High Priest in a m.u.f.fled voice.

”Your Holiness, please end your speech soon. Let's get that guy's head off before anything else can happen. We can't allow the ceremony to fail, right?”

”No one is even listening anymore.”

”Then end that long sermon already. If no one is listening, what does it matter?”

”If that senile old man's head is removed, then Nirvelphany really will vanis.h.!.+ We can't throw out the bait meant to lure her out, you utter buffoon!!”

Ayato shook his woozy head and worked hard to keep himself breathing.

He saw white. The blizzard blotted out even the light of the sun.

The girls were all collapsed. The knights ruling the sky with their flight devices may have crashed after the shockwave and blizzard hit them. Only the devil in red leather was standing tall and preparing something with her back turned to him. She was no longer even looking at her enemy. She unilaterally declared the battle over and instead focused on the person she had to rescue.

She wanted to save the old man who had saved her.

That was the Demon Lord's one and only goal here.

She wanted to repay the person who had healed her wound and provided forgiveness. This was not the performative charity that slimy n.o.bles and business owners would do in front of the silver salt cameras. She was not like those people who disinfected their hand with alcohol the instant the handshakes were complete and no one was watching. Nirvelphany wanted to repay a selfless act with a selfless act of her own. That was all.

That was fine. She could do that if she wanted.

But Ayato clenched his teeth while collapsed behind her. She had taken several lives to accomplish that. And she had shoved the blame for those crimes on him. Before she could talk about the righteousness of her actions, he would make sure she paid for that.

His trembling fingertips once more touched the Linkage Plug sword used for Sorcery Hacking.

He grabbed it.

And he stood up!!!!!!

”Nirrvelllphanyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

”Wh!?”

Before the Demon Lord could turn around and ready her anti-dragon rifle, Ayato ran forward with all his might, wrapped his arms around her slender waist, and tackled her hard. The two of them slid too far and plunged straight off of the narrow footing.

Teleria remained unconscious after the hit from the shockwave caused by the clash between the orbital weapon and the atmospheric s.h.i.+eld, so he could not hope for any more ice footholds from that blonde girl.

They were thrown out into empty air.

And they fell together.

”Kh, ohhhhh!?”

Nirvelphany gave a roar while he clung to her and her back seemed to burst open. Instead of the artificial Expansion Armor, a real demon wing spread wide. It was the left wing. It was like a giant cape, yet it clearly moved like a living thing. But she could not keep her balance with just the one wing. Her body sc.r.a.ped along the wall of the closest tower as she tried to slow herself down however she could.

She could not allow this to end here.

She was so close. If the coolant inside her leather bag was added to the blizzard, she could freeze just the guillotine to prevent it from moving and save that old man before he was killed!!

”Why must you interfere, human!? This is my only chance! There really is no other opportunity!! The schedule does not give me time to bathe in the moonlight and expand my breadth of possibility! If you wish to take my head, then you can have it afterwards, but only after I rescue that old man!! Why won't you wait!?”

”To h.e.l.l with that. Don't act like righteousness belongs to you and you alone.”

”What is wrong with my actions here? Someone is about be beheaded for nothing more than freeing me!! I am not interested in revealing that old priest's lies, but it is those cowardly fools in power who created this situation!! That old man is no great evil and this Temple Moving Ceremony is not holy! What is wrong with trying to save my savior from an undeserved public execution!?”

”Enough false equivalencies, Demon Lord!! Saving that man and using that anti-dragon rifle to shoot unconscious criminals are not the same thing!! You can't excuse any and all actions by saying you did it out of a desire to save an innocent old man! There's no special rule that that lets you escape consequences for your crimes by claiming it was for a good cause!! Listen, Nirvelphany, you know what happens if you do that and you stick to that path to the very end!?”

Ayato desperately clung to her skinny waist and shouted at the top of his lungs.

He made a definite statement here.

”You'll make it so people died because of what that old man did!! You'll justify their phony excuse for the public execution!! That old man will have to carry the weight of the murders you committed!!!!!!”

Her breath caught.

Nirvelphany's breath caught in her throat.

”You can't do that.”

That boy was also a criminal who carried his own crime.

And as someone who had continued forward instead of letting it stop him, he spoke to this newcomer on that path.

”If you really want to save that old man, then you can't do that!! You don't have to sit there and let yourself be arrested by the people who invent their own definitions of good and evil and manipulate the majority into oppressing the minority, but you can't look away from the truth of the crimes you chose to commit!! So I'll say it. I'm a Sorcery Hacker, but I'll shamelessly ignore my own crimes to say this here: You can't deny the truth of what you yourself did every step of the way!!!!!!”

That may have been the difference between Ayato and Nirvelphany.

They had both once been the strongest in a certain field, but their paths had never crossed. The boy had turned his back on his perfect record and stooped to the thankless work of a Sorcery Hacker in order to never look away from the truth of what he had done.

”So carry it, Nirvelphany. Those were the results of the actions you proudly chose to do! So don't shove the blame onto others! Carry it on your own shoulders as you move ever forward, Demon Lord!!”

”You…”

”And as luck would have it, there's a perfect stage for that right below here.”

He further moved the arms wrapped around her waist. He more or less climbed up her to put himself at her eye level and grabbed her slender shoulders instead.

The Sorcery Hacker made no attempt to escape as he shouted directly at her.

”Go reclaim the crimes you shoved onto that innocent old man's shoulders, Nirvelphany!!!!!!”

A moment later, he pulled his head as far back as he could and then swung it down like a blunt weapon to crack their foreheads together.

And everything came together.

Ayato really did nearly pa.s.s out as he clung to Nirvelphany's waist and she soared like a glider to fall toward the depths below.

The Temple Moving Ceremony's plaza was there. They fell right onto the stage where the public execution was to be held.

Ayato and Nirvelphany arrived on the stage to join the old man bound to the mechanical guillotine, the High Priest drowning in his wicked drive for popularity, and the Executioner.

”Say it, Nirvelphany.”

It was covered by the thick blizzard, but this cruel stage was still surrounded by a large crowd. Worse, the old man she had been so desperate to save was right there. The message Ayato was demanding of her may have been too cruel in those circ.u.mstances.

”Throwing stones at an innocent old man is wrong. If people have complaints, they should bring them to you, right? Then say it!! What did you do in this city!? Don't shove the blame onto that old man!! Reclaim it for yourself!!!!!!”

Her mouth flapped wordlessly as she crouched down and she did not move for a bit.

She may have been more afraid of that one old man than she was of the crowd numbering in the tens of thousands or the silver salt cameras of the newspaper companies that would record this moment for eternity.

But she understood the truth.

Even she had to understand that she could not leave things as they were.

”I…”

The Demon Lord remained crouching as her lips trembled.

”I was trying to save the man who saved me.”

The clear liquid dripping down her cheeks was not the clear specks of the blizzard melting on her face.

”So I hired a human trafficking group to abduct Urban Design Manager Jorbe Alphoverin. When the human traffickers screwed up, I was afraid they would give me away, so I silenced them. I destroyed the cores of the fire and wind castle towns to break through the Free Audience Restriction barrier supported by the cores' ma.s.sive energy. And I took revenge on White Hat Hacker Dagregor Bull Gerlos who interfered when I should have been one step away from saving him.”

She still could not stand up.

”It was me. I did it all.”

In fact, she seemed to be breaking down crying.

”This old man had nothing to do with any of it. Those are my crimes. I did it all myself. So please…I beg of you!! Please stop blaming him!! Please, I will atone for what I did! Blaming anyone else for this would be unjust!! So pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!!!!”

Her shout echoed out.

It was selfish, it did not get through to the crowd that had no idea what she was talking about, and it did nothing to reduce the severity of what she had done. But how much had it eaten away at her, how much of her pride and dignity had she needed to throw out, and how much of the energy she had stored up did she need to use up to get out that desperate cry?

Ayato understood.

Even if no one else in the world did, a fellow criminal like him understood.

The thick whiteness cleared up.

Sky City Celedileka's Guardian Umbrella atmospheric s.h.i.+eld must have rebooted in safe mode. The thick blizzard was cut off and the sun and the stars were visible overhead once more. Everyone was watching the small, curled-up Demon Lord: the crowds surrounding them in all directions, the Armored Dragon made of bat wings that had fallen surprisingly close by, the old man bound to the mechanical guillotine, the masked Executioner, and the Forturiana High Priest.

And someone spoke.

”Feh heh.”

It was the High Priest.

Once it was his time to s.h.i.+ne once more, he lightly clapped his hands twice to gather everyone's attention.

”No matter how much malicious obstruction the element of darkness throws at us, the benevolent coincidences of the gathered element of light will never be shaken!! Heaven itself has mandated this Temple Moving Ceremony in order to protect everyone in Celedileka, so nothing can stop it. The execution of Thomas Robergin will be swiftly completed! The death of those who would bring chaos to the world shall preserve the world's beauty!!”

”Kh.”

Nirvelphany's shoulders trembled while she was curled up with her forehead frozen to the floor.

It had not reached them.

The cries of a criminal had not reached those who held a unilateral monopoly on righteousness.

”Everything is in place. See here what happens to the villains who would disturb the peace with their selfish actions!! We will punish this great evil and prove our power to serve the king! Eternal glory to the Forturiana Church!!”

The old man's speech reached an emotional climax.

And once he was done, he placed a hand on Ayato's shoulder and whispered to the boy.

”(Well done. You are the MVP who prevented Demon Lord Nirvelphany's escape…no, her return. All of the suspicion placed on you will of course be removed. This was nearly a disaster for the both of us, but now we can take our time and celebrate here in this city. I will use all of my authority to ensure it.)”

His voice was sticky.

It was the kind of voice that inspired an instant dislike of the person producing it.

”(The world needs no Hero or Demon Lord. It only needs the Light of Forturiana. Any who would intrude on that can be sent back to the darkness from whence they came using this execution stage that I can use at my discretion. You are a clever boy. I am glad you could work out what was really going on here as a fellow human.)”

Ayato Criminaltrophy grinned.

And his next action was an extremely simple one.

He stabbed his Sorcery Hacking sword into the machine's rail as if to stop the guillotine blade.

”Wh?”

The initial m.u.f.fled syllable of confusion came from the masked Executioner. He pulled the lever, but the guillotine did not fall. Nirvelphany's interference had ended in failure, so why? He clearly could not figure it out.

But the changes did not stop there.

”Gwah!?”

The thick metal lever sprang in the opposite direction he had expected and smashed into his jaw.

”Your Holiness, I know your aesthetic senses are hopelessly lacking, but don't interrupt a once-in-lifetime confession. Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

Finally, the machine moved on its own to release the innocent old man's arms and head. He had no idea what was going on as he stretched his arms while still down in a crawling position. Even Nirvelphany's eyes widened in surprise.

Ayato was Sorcery Hacking in front of a crowd. The guillotine was sure to be scanned and retaken before long. So once the old man was free, he released the resonance that decided its provisional level. In other words, he needed to preserve the rest of his resonance.

This was not over and he was looking ahead to something more.

”Listen, Nirvelphany. I had just the one issue with you: shoving the blame for your crimes onto me. I couldn't let you do that, so I pursued you to make sure you paid for it. …And now you've dealt with all those excess hurdles. So a question: If not for that pain-in-the-a.s.s detour, whose side do you think I would have taken?”

”You mean…?”

She might be the true Demon Lord, but after her power gradually leaked from her wound while she was sealed, she could not draw on even 1% of her original strength. It must have been terrifying to challenge this sky city full of humans with no one at all to rely on. If her ident.i.ty was revealed, she would have been attacked by all those people and been helpless to stop them from doing what they would with her. Simply imagining it had to have made her bristle with fear. But she had still gathered strength in her trembling legs and faced ever forward to save the man who had saved her. That courage was praiseworthy.

What reason did he have not to take her side?

What reason did he have to join those throwing stones at her after she had shown him all that?

”So there's just one thing we've wanted to say from the beginning.”

He grinned and spoke as a Sorcery Hacker who had abandoned a top-ranked position that had only let him obey the morality as spelled out in the job request.

”If you had time for all that nonsense, you should have explained what happened and asked for some help. If you had, we would've had this done ages ago!!!!!!”

The Demon Lord had gone on a rampage to repay a debt. The Hero who had forgiven her was also here.

But this was not their story.

This was the story of Ayato Criminaltrophy, a Sorcery Hacker who stood on an axis different from good and evil.

On paper, he is enrolled in the Academy Towers that belong to the Selected Kingdoms Combined Royal Family.

He has a history as a Forward. He was known for using a large revolver-style sorcery gun, giving him the name Hexajinx, and that name still holds some effect.

More current reports have him working as a Sorcery Hacker.

He knows his acts are criminal.

It is unknown why he does what he does or where his funding comes from, but there have been multiple reports of his presence during coups or other major incidents in the city-states making up the Selected Kingdoms. There has been no sign of him engaging in robbery or looting during those incidents, so we can guess at some kind of stable source of funding. He appears to act based on an agreement made with some third party, but even when his actions seem to be following a single scenario, he will sometimes overturn everything and take the opposite stance partway through.

It is unknown if he is frequently breaking with the wishes of his funding source, or if he has been given an extremely high level of freedom in his actions.

He is nothing but a threat for those who rule the regional territories he arrives in, but be careful because he has a tendency of behaving like a gentleman thief and his history as a whole suggests that works to his advantage.

According to people who know him well, he apparently tends to place a lot of weight on the truth as he sees it from his point of view. We can guess he has an excellent sense of balance there that allows him to not blindly accept government propaganda while also not rus.h.i.+ng toward the conspiracy theories that are so often fueled by victim complexes.

Whenever he is sighted, history tends to be set in motion. As if the stagnant waters are being stirred up.

It is unknown if someone is doing it intentionally or if it goes beyond even that.

(Thoughts)

The above is the independently researched report put together by the Academy Towers Student Council Executive Committee, but it was decided to leave it stored in a Student Council safe instead of submitting it to the teachers.

He is not the type to be shaken by having his ident.i.ty revealed or having official wanted posters distributed. If this report would only drive him to change his name and even his appearance using sorcery plastic surgery, then he will be easier to track if we leave him be.

Approximately 36 meters. Approximately 432 meters. Approximately 24 meters. Approximately 240 meters. Approximately 36 meters. Approximately 2400 meters. Approximately 12 kilometers. Approximately 4.8 meters. Approximately 180 meters. Approximately 36 meters. Approximately -22 degrees Celsius. Approximately -22 degrees Celsius. Approximately 2.4 meters.

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